BlueGoldSports.com dropped a bomb this morning. Jeremy Simon, the founder of the that site, wrote that sources have indicated that Rich Rodriguez is a strong contender to take over at Virginia Tech when Frank Beamer retires.
Here's the big quote from the article…
"Multiple sources have indicated to me that Whit Babcock has already approached current Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez about replacing Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. While I was not told directly the two had met there was a strong indication that there had been a personal meeting in the not-so-distant past."
In case you weren't aware, Whit Babcock and Rich Rod worked together at West Virginia. Babcock was the Executive Director of Development while Rodriguez served as head football coach, and they had a close working relationship. Here's another interesting article from 2008 that suggest that West Virginia's unwillingness to give Babcock a larger role in football operations was one of the reasons Rodriguez ultimately departed.
According to WVU insiders, Babcock and Rodriguez have a "close relationship." The dream scenario for many West Virginia fans was for Babcock to return as athletics director, and in turn he would bring back Rodriguez as head coach.
As far as the Rodriguez to Virginia Tech rumors, if you are a reader of our TSL Pass Subscriber board, you know that we've been referring to him as a candidate for Tech whenever Frank Beamer decides to retire. We've heard that there is mutual interest on both sides, and that would make sense considering the fact that Babcock and Rodriguez seem to work so well together. It's doubtful that there has been an in-person meeting between the two, but if they are as close as many WVU insiders contend, it would certainly not be surprising if they had discussed the situation in passing.
We understand that feelings are mixed amongst the Tech fanbase about potentially hiring a West Virginia graduate and a former WVU head coach, and we're interested in seeing exactly where the fanbase as a whole stands on Rich Rod. Thus, we decided to use this topic as this week's Poll of the Week.