Sports360AZRich Rodriguez will be introduced Tuesday as the new head football coach of the Arizona Wildcats in a noon press conference. A strange hire on many levels, but a hire that gives the UofA a high profile head coach who won at West Virigina, but was a failure in a short run at Michigan.
With the Pac-12 flush with cash because of their new television agreement, a school like Arizona could afford to go out and make a big splash which is what Rich Rod is.
There will be those who will say he ran the Michigan program into the ground and that he has never been a West Coast guy. He took the Mountaineers to two BCS bowl berths, and that alone will get UofA fans excited about their new leader.
What I have heard and read about his time at Michigan sounds like a guy trying to replace a legend in Bo Schembechler. It would be the equivalent of trying to replace Lute Olson in Tucson, which wasn’t an easy transition at all.
Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne, who graduated from ASU, used social media to announce the hire, very smart, very cutting edge. He posted a picture of Rich Rodriguez on his Twitter account. Now that UofA has made their hire, what will ASU do? They can’t stand pat with a lame duck coach, but Dennis Erickson’s contract ends in 2013, so in the next few weeks they either must get rid of him or extend his contract.
We will be down in Tucson for the Rich Rodrigez press conference at noon and have more on XTRASPORTS910 and Pros2Preps.com
