Rich Rodriguez Tells Pat McAfee Denial of $50k for Staff was Catalyst for WVU Exit

Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez — newly hired as the offensive coordinator at Louisiana-Monroe by head coach Terry Bowden — appeared on former WVU punter Pat McAfee’s sports talk show on Wednesday and the subject of his departure from the Mountaineers came up.

Rodriguez said that before he left West Virginia for Michigan in December of 2007, he went to the school asking for $50,000 for his assistant coaches pool and was denied, with the school telling him “take it, or leave it” in regard to the offer he was given.

Rodriguez became vilified in the West Virginia community for his departure, with a Public Policy Polling survey five years later finding that 47 percent of West Virginians held an unfavorable opinion of Rodriguez.

A clip of the conversation is posted below:

"I wanted $50,000 more for the assistant coaches pool…

I was told take it or leave it Coach, we've done all we can for you & that's it. That was it, that was the extent of the conversation"@RealCoachRod chats about leaving #WVU #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/alruvIl4lZ

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 13, 2021

McAfee’s full show from Wednesday can be watched on YouTube.