MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As West Virginia's new wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett was telling the story Thursday about his first extended encounter with Rich Rodriguez when the two were together at Ole Miss, I couldn't help but think about the story of Beatle John Lennon once taking a helicopter ride with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
 
The Beatles had somehow gotten hooked on the Transcendental Meditation movement in the mid-1960s and became enamored with the Maharishi, who invited them to Rishikesh, India, for a spiritual retreat in the spring of 1968.
 
At some point during their stay, the guru needed to go to New Delhi and a helicopter was summoned for the trip. Before leaving, the Maharishi offered to give one person in the large group a quick ride prior to his departure.
 
Before anyone else could respond, Lennon jumped up and took the remaining seat in the helicopter. After they returned, Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney asked Lennon why he was so keen on taking a ride with the guru.
 
"I thought he might slip me the answer," Lennon replied.
 
Six years ago, soon after Matt Luke had hired Rodriguez to be Ole Miss' offensive coordinator, Garrett was also seeking answers.
 
He was a young coach eager to learn and having an opportunity to pick Rich Rodriguez's brain was simply too good to turn down.
 
Also lurking in the back of Garrett's mind was his spot on the Ole Miss staff because new coordinators usually prefer to bring in their own graduate assistants.
 
"I know when he came in, my goal was to show him I was the hardest worker in the building," he recalled.
 
His opportunity to prove his worth came shortly after Rodriguez' hiring. The new coach was asked to go visit a prospect in another part of the state and a mixup with the school's private plane meant he was going to have to drive to see him.
 
 "He was in south Mississippi, and they were supposed to fly him somewhere else," Garrett said. "The plane got scheduled to take the head coach somewhere, so (Rodriguez) had to get flown back to Oxford, and he didn't have any of his clothes. 
 
"I ended up actually having to drive him about six hours," Garrett said. "I didn't really have to, but they said, 'Oh, Rich Rod needs a ride in the morning. He's going to Hattiesburg.' At the time I just jumped at it. I knew that would get me some one-on-one time with him."
 
Garrett said they have yet to reminisce about their long drive together, but it was his goal to get as much one-on-one time with Rodriguez as possible.
 
"I think that was important for me early," he admitted. "He knew four people in the building, and I was one of them."
 
Garrett, from Hendersonville, North Carolina, about a three-hour drive from the southern border of West Virginia, played one year of college football at Emory & Henry College before deciding he'd rather coach instead.
 
A personal connection led to him to Ole Miss where he got hooked up with the football staff, and he remained there when Luke took over in 2017.
 
Two years later, is when he met Rodriguez.
 
"When he was coming in, I was like, 'Oh, shoot, Rich Rod is coming, and this is awesome!' So, you are fired up to learn a new offensive system from a guy who is kind of a football nerd," Garrett said. "It was really exciting because I know he's done some different stuff than what I was used to. Then, we got out to that first workout, and I think it took me like five minutes to realize why he's so successful."
 
When Rodriguez needed something to be done, Garrett made sure he was always around to do it.
 
"It is a unique position being the offensive coordinator's graduate assistant because you need to be tied to his hip," he explained. "When he comes into the building, you need to be in there before to prepare things for him and you need to be there after to finish. It was a lot of long hours, but I loved every minute of it because I was learning something new and also getting to work with him. It's paid off for me."
 
Some coaches are needy while others not so much. Garrett said Rodriguez falls into the self-sufficient category.
 
"I probably thought he was going to be more needy, but he's not a super, super needy guy," he admitted. "I think the biggest thing is we type everything out and we print a million copies of everything. I got really, really good on Excel, and I had to get good with Visio, too.
 
"Coach Rod is hard, he's tough and he's demanding, but he's not a silver-spooner, and that was good," he said.
 
Garrett believes his willingness to work hard made an impression on Rodriguez.
 
"I hope so. He kept me around," he said. "I don't try to be here the earliest or the latest but be the guy who gets the most done. I took this from him. When you are working, you are working for a purpose. There is a lot of work to be done, and if you can go to sleep at night knowing you did that work and did everything you can to help West Virginia win, that's something we try and do every day."
 
Garrett admits he is indebted to Rodriguez for giving him opportunities at Ole Miss and later Louisiana-Monroe when he was Terry Bowden's offensive coordinator in 2021. Those two jobs led to a full-time assistant position on Rodriguez's staff at Jacksonville State in 2022.
 
He is continuing in the same role for Rodriguez here at WVU.
 
"He came in, I was the quarterbacks GA at the time, and he could have gotten rid of me, but he gave me an opportunity and let me work with him, and it's been great being with him ever since," he said.
 
"Coach Rod is not hands-off anything," Garrett continued. "This is his program; he treats it like that, and he's going to coach every detail. He's made me a much, much better coach because of that. He coaches the coaches just as hard as he coaches the players where we don't let anything slip. You have to have a sharp eye out there and see things fast, get them corrected fast before moving on to the next play."
 
Since being with Rodriguez, Garrett has learned that every day has a purpose, and no day is ever wasted.
 
"A lot of times as coaches, we should be leaving the field as exhausted as the players and with coach Rod, you get that every single day," he said. "To me, that's the most impressive thing about him. I saw that right away at Ole Miss, where he never has a day of, 'Well, let's just get through this.'"
 
Asked the quality he looks for first in the wide receivers he's recruiting to West Virginia, Garrett's answer was telling.
 
"Toughness, first and foremost," he said. "We are going to play with a hard-edge. I'm sure you guys have heard that a million times in here."
 
Garrett probably first heard that phrase during their six-hour car drive together through Mississippi when they were first getting to know each other.
 
Who knows? Perhaps Rich Rod even slipped him the answer!
 
The Mountaineers are hitting the pause button for on-field activities next week for spring break and will resume spring work the following week.