December 10 Notebook
December 10, 2006 12:22 AM | General
December 10, 2006
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| Rich Rodriguez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University and Rich Rodriguez agreeing on new terms to a contract Friday afternoon is significant on many levels. The school locks up one of college football’s most coveted coaches to a long-term deal, and Rodriguez gets the commitment he has been seeking to give his program the extra push it needs to reach elite status.
Alabama’s 48-hour, high-drama courtship of Rodriguez mobilized an entire state from the highest levels all the way down to the 11,000 registered users frequently hitting their refresh buttons on Vernon Bailey’s West Virginia Sports.com message board.
What it showed college football fans all over the country is that a united West Virginia University is capable of keeping one of its own from being lured away by a school with the greatest of tradition.
From a historical perspective, Don Nehlen staying at West Virginia for 21 years and Rich Rodriguez remaining at his alma mater for a seventh season has completely undone the negative perception Jim Carlen and Bobby Bowden created by leaving immediately after bowl triumphs.
Wrote ESPN’s Ivan Maisel: “Rodriguez's decision to remain bolstered the self-worth of an entire state accustomed to losing its best and brightest.”
Rodriguez’s victory over Georgia in last year's Sugar Bowl and Nehlen’s trip to the national title game in 1989 are the football program’s two watershed events on the playing field. Coach Rod’s decision to stay at West Virginia – and the school’s willingness to keep him – is the program’s biggest moment off it.
It can be debated which of these events hold greater significance.
Irish writer Frank O’Connor tells in one of his books how, as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside and when they came to an orchard wall that looked too high or seemed too difficult to climb, they simply removed their caps and tossed them over the wall to the other side. Then they had no choice but to follow them.
The cap has been tossed … and we must now follow it to the wonders of the other side.
Briefly:
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| Larry Coker |
Boston College has been a consistent bowl qualifier and is located in one of the nation’s biggest media markets. Coach Tom O’Brien stabilized a BC football program that had once endured an embarrassing gambling scandal.
Both schools were considered very attractive additions to the ACC.
If you recall, Miami was so appealing that as a last resort the Big East offered the Hurricanes $9 million a year just to stay in the league.
Do you think Miami would like to have that money now?
As it stands today, Boston College is interviewing candidates to take the job O’Brien left under the cover of night for N.C. State, and Randy Shannon is Miami’s latest coach after the Hurricanes whiffed on their attempt to persuade Greg Schiano to leave Rutgers.
I recall once reading an article about the Miami program and its president Donna Shalala talking about her dream of having the Hurricanes playing before sold-out crowds at the Orange Bowl as a new member of the best football conference in the country. Well, 23,308 showed up to watch Miami upset nationally ranked Boston College on Nov. 23. That victory made the Hurricanes bowl eligible, but it couldn’t keep their coach that won nearly 80 percent of his games from getting fired.
How is that for irony?
He gives schools a “Touchdown” if it has at least a 50 percent overall graduation rate success, at least 50 percent black graduation rate and racial gaps of less than 15 percent.
A “First Down” goes to schools with an overall African-American graduation rate of 50 percent but racial gaps of more than 15 percent. A “Bowl Disqualification” goes to schools with less than 50 percent graduation rate.
West Virginia was one of 22 programs reaching the highest level with 63 percent of its African-American football players earning their diplomas. The top three schools were Navy, Boston College and Notre Dame.
Among prominent programs with “Bowl Disqualifications” were Ohio State, USC, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Louisville, Florida State, Georgia and Texas.
Four of the five bowl-bound Big East programs (West Virginia, South Florida, Cincinnati and Rutgers) were at the highest level.
According to Jackson, the worst offender is top-ranked Ohio State. It graduated only 32 percent of its black football players. Its racial gap is the worst of all 64 bowl teams: 53 percentage points behind the 85 percent for white players.
The NCAA graduation report covers athletes who enter school in the academic years 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, and 1999-2000, with six years to graduate.
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| Alex Ruoff |
But how can you not like what you’ve seen so far?
I know college basketball is a take-it-one-game-at-a-time proposition, yet there is a strong possibility that the Mountaineers will be 10-1 when nationally ranked Connecticut arrives at the WVU Coliseum on Dec. 30.
I remember something Alex Ruoff told me before the start of the season. He said the strengths of last year’s team will be the weaknesses of this year’s team. He also said the weaknesses of last year’s team will be the strength’s of this year’s team.
Of course, he was referring to the great mental toughness, attitude and togetherness last year’s team displayed along with an uncanny basketball IQ that helped it overcome its athletic deficiencies.
Are you prepared for what lies ahead with this basketball team when it does acquire those other important characteristics – whenever that may be?
