Congratulations to Rich Rodriguez for getting a new HC position at Arizona!
3 And Out outlined a lot of ways that Rodriguez could have taken several simple steps to minimize his pain at Michigan, but that he was simply too green behind the ears to know. He was an insider at WVU and Tulane, and therefore didn't know how to handle himself as an outside coming into a big-time program.
If RR has learned anything from his time at Michigan, what will he do? I'm curious what you all think. From what I gathered from Bacon's book and my own observation:
- Get a solid defensive coordinator, and then immediately follow that up with Barwis and the rest of his ideal staff.
- Begin recruiting his QB of the future immediately.
- Make sure there are no traditions that he could possibly be trampling.
- Clean out all of the old guard in the Athletic Department that he can, from the compliance officers to the PR folks. No leaks. No drama. No one who compares him to Stoops. His people, everywhere.
- Ingratiate himself with boosters and local fans. Never visiting M Club meetings until the year he was fired was a serious tactical error; even the people that liked him didn't have access to him.
- Build a political base of support with the President, Regents, etc. Golf rounds with AZ bigwigs should be as important as visiting recruits' homes. He needs to generate goodwill and survivability from Day 1.
- Never, ever speak off the cuff in front of the press. Give Belichik-style deadpan answers and never touch any question dealing with off-field questions.
What do ya'll think? Anything further he should do to set himself up to have a long and succesful run at Arizona?
