The drama around the Fiesta Bowl match-up between the Sooners and the Mountaineers took a drastic turn on Sunday when Michigan announced that they would be hiring West Virginia head football coach Rich Rodriguez.
Obviously this is a huge game advantage for the Sooners but as I said in the previous post it does take a lot of the luster from the game and will have an adverse effect on OU win or lose. But enough about us! After losing their basketball and football coaches to Michigan in the same year we want to know how WVU fans feel about their school being the Wolverines farm club for coaches so we went straight to our source, Charley from WBGV.
Charley: Obviously, it's a huge distraction. But beyond a distraction, it's makes us a lesser team. When you lose your head coach (and possibly our offensive coordinator), the product on the field isn't going to be the same. Hopefully, the players take that as a challenge and rally around the loss of Rodriguez. Unfortunately, I think there's a bigger chance that the opposite happens. The sooner we can hire a new coach and restore faith in the program, the better off we'll be.
CC Machine: Who is going to coach the Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl?
Charley: As far as who coaches WVU, it looks like it'll be longtime assistant and Associate Head Coach Bill Stewart. Stewart is the best man for the interim job and can keep some sanity around the program. He's certainly not the guy long term. In fact, with Magee leaving, there is no legitimate candidate on the staff. That might not be a bad thing. A good effort in this last game might encourage other teams to give these coaches a parachute.
CC Machine: How much confidence do you have, now, that West Virginia can win the Fiesta Bowl.
Charley: It's certainly going to be an uphill road against Oklahoma. Sure, we lost Rodriguez, but maybe we'll be less hesitant to show some ingenuity in the play-calling. Just air it out. Similar to the tricks that Boise State rolled out last year. Hell, what can we lose? Either way, I just hope that our future head coach is in the stands that night.
Scrolling through the comments section on WBGV the fans have quickly turned on the coach who has build their program to the national power that it is today. Here are some of my favorite comments posted.
Michigan will fire him........WE SHOULD HAVE FOR NON PRODUCTION!!!!!!!!
I hate to say it..........but I will be cheering for OSU......gag me.............
THANKS FOR DOING US THE FAVOR RICH!!! - ihatebuckeyes
We are gonna be just fine, we now have the number 1 head coaching job in america, and will get the best names in here to interview. Its not often that coach will look at a program, and see fans that religiously are pissed their coach is leaving, at most jobs, the sentiment is the other way around. This is an amazing spot for anyone. Too bad rich couldnt see that. - zub
He's going to be a total disaster there for years. They don't have any of the personnel to run his office (other than the complete dearth of wide receivers after Manningham is gone. At least there is that). And I will be happy to see him choke. Here's to upgrading in Football just like in Basketball. GO EERS! - ryan
We refuse to speak his name. We now refer to him as Dirty Sanchez. It's the only name that's fitting. - Buzzardbilly
It's not the couches that are on fire in Morgantown!
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