Rodriguez introduced as the coach at Arizona

The University of Arizona introduced Rich Rodriguez as the next head football coach on Tuesday afternoon at McKale Center.

He becomes the 30th head coach at the university, succeeding Tim Kish, who took over on an interim basis for Mike Stoops.

Rodriguez was at Michigan before being fired in 2010. For the past year he has been working for CBS Sports doing analyst work.

Before that Rodriguez had success as the coach at West Virginia, where he took the team to several bowl games, two of them BCS bowl games and won Big East titles four times.

Athletic Director Greg Byrne announced the hire via a photo on Twitter late Tuesday night from the Rodriguez’s home in Michigan.

Rodriguez brings a spread offense which means he will be looking for a mobile quarterback as senior Nick Foles is in his last year. The answer might already be on the roster in red-shirt senior Matt Scott, transfer Tom Savage or in a recruit Rodriguez might go after.

He said in his press conference that he doesn’t believe in a huddle in between plays, but feels that his type of offense is a little misunderstood.

“I like using the best talent that I have on my team,” he said.

By the end of December, Rodriguez would like to have his staff in place so they can hit the recruiting trail hard. 

Recruiting is always a big point of emphasis with a new staff and with Rodriguez being an east coast guy, he said he might either keep some from the current staff or look for coaches who know a bit about the Pac 12 recruiting area.

Rodriguez though said he isn’t simply going to recruit Arizona, California and Texas, he hopes to make Arizona a known name across the nation.

Tuesday, the new head coach promised the couple hundred fans that turned out for the press confernce that he was going to beat Arizona State every year along with taking the Wildcats to the Rose Bowl. 

Athletic Director Greg Byrne and Rodriguez eluded to the past success of the football team along with the current success of other sports within the athletic department.

“The coaching staff is going to give it their all every game and so are the players,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said all the right things, but people down in Tucson will have to wait until next season to see those words in action.