West Virginia: A State of Confusion

The names have been flying fast and furious out of Alabama, which is looking for a replacement for the fired Mike Shula, but it appears you can scratch Rich Rodriguez off the list. A series of events Friday culminated with the West Virginia coach going on a statewide radio network and denying that he was headed to Alabama. It started with Pat Forde of ESPN.com saying that he thought Alabama would offer its job to Rodriguez this weekend. Somehow all this got twisted around and became "Rodriguez and Alabama had reached a deal." Far from it. Friday night, Rodriguez called "MetroNews Statewide Sportsline" and went off, saying his wife was in tears over the reports. "I plan on being at West Virginia the rest of my career," Rodriguez said. The coach was then asked pointblank if offered the Alabama job, would he accept? "I'm going to repeat myself as clear as I can — I'm planning on being the coach at West Virginia for the rest of my career, if they'll have me. That's what I'm planning on doing. I don't plan on calling and talking to anybody this week, I don't plan on talking to anybody next week. I don't plan on doing anything but what I can for West Virginia football. That's the end of the story. That's it." You can listen to the five-minute interview with Rodriguez by clicking here. At the time of this posting, the story and audio link were located in the right-hand column titled "Rodriguez Vehemently Denies Alabama Connection." (Our apology for this, but the site does not offer direct linking.)