The Curse Of Dick Tomey Part 3: Rich Rodriguez

“Rich had two or three key coaches on his staff who just didn’t recruit,” Gimino said. “At Arizona, that just won’t work. I think he started to figure that out at the end, but by then it was probably too late.”

When Rich Rodriguez was announced as the new Arizona football coach on November 21, 2011 there was a lot to like.

Sure, his previous stop at Michigan didn’t play out the way he envisioned, but this was also a man who turned West Virginia into a top 10 program by the time he accepted the job with the Maize and Blue.

Some believe Rodriguez struggled at Michigan because he wasn’t a “Michigan guy.” Turns out, he wasn’t an “Arizona guy” either.

When reached for comment about Rodriguez, the man who hired Rodriguez, ex-UA Athletic Director Greg Byrne had this to say, “There were a couple things that I saw in Rich that immediately made me think he could succeed in Arizona. First, Urban Meyer told me he was one of the three best offensive minds he’s ever been around. Then I saw that he was incredibly passionate and was able to recruit in an area, West Virginia, without a deep high school talent reservoir to pull from.”

Things started out well. Rodriguez guided Arizona to records of 8-5, 8-5 and an entertaining 10-4 in his first three seasons.

Over the course of years one and two, the combination of Rodriguez’ strategic ability and Stoops’ players propelled the team to solid seasons. Arizona won the Pac-12 South in Rodriguez’ third season, a riveting campaign that featured a series of late-game heroics and Fiesta Bowl heartbreak.

Arizona was 10-4, but much of it appeared to be a facade.

The band had gotten back together. Rodriguez brought many of his former West Virginia coaches to the desert. But what started as an impressive reunion ended in a crescendo of sour notes. Rodriguez and the coaching staff had connections on the east coast. Not so much in the territories where Arizona needed to be successful. The inability to break through in California, Texas and the familiar refrain of their own backyard proved detrimental to any long-term growth potential.

“The thing with Rich is you always felt he was looking at greener pastures and you always wondered if he wanted to do what it took to build Arizona the right way from a recruiting standpoint,” Gimino said.

Indeed, Arizona’s Pac-12 recruiting class ranks of 9, 10 and 10 in the three years after the Fiesta Bowl run pointed to a much deeper problem.

A lack of sound recruiting strategy.

When asked about the woeful class rankings, Rodriguez would inevitably dismiss such concerns by proclaiming he wasn’t worried about star rankings for his recruits. He was far more interested in bringing in OKGs, or Our Kind of Guys, a mantra that became a point of some mockery as the program descended.

“Rich had two or three key coaches on his staff who just didn’t recruit,” Gimino said. “At Arizona, that just won’t work. I think he started to figure that out at the end, but by then it was probably too late.”

Three seasons of 7-6, 3-9 and 7-6 ended with Rodriguez being dismissed by new Athletic Director Dave Heeke on Jan 2, 2018.

Rodriguez was the subject of an internal investigation into harassment against a staff member. That investigation suggested there was not enough evidence to warrant dismissal. Arizona dismissed him anyway.

A series of lawsuits against Rodriguez and the UA related to the issue were thrown out in October of 2021.

Remember the phrase Mackovickian? That belief things could not possibly get worse. Be careful what you wish for.