WVU President Gordon Gee Delivers Honest Response When Asked About Rich Rodriguez

With fans anxious for the search for their new football coach to end, and most assuming the conclusion will mean the return of Rich Rodriguez, WVU president Gordon Gee spoke candidly about the situation on Tuesday night at the Sports Business Journal Awards.

“I think he would be well received by a large set of our population. He left in a very unruling matter. If he were to come back it would have to be as a prodigal son. Can he come back? I don’t know. I’ve come back twice,” said Gee when asked the possibility of Rodriguez returning to West Virginia.

West Virginia president Gordon Gee on possibility of Rich Rodriguez returning to WVU: "I think he would be well received by a large set of our population. He left in a very unruling matter. If he were to come back it would have to be as a prodigial son. Can he come back? I don't…

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 11, 2024

Gee also said he hasn’t talked with WVU director of athletics Wren Baker in two days, but will by the end of the night.

Gee’s comments came hours after fans tuned into the Pat McAfee Show with the expectation he would announce the hire live on the air.

Instead, McAfee simply hosted a typical version of show full of mostly NFL talk after another week’s worth of games, granted he did wear West Virginia gear throughout, and only addressed the rumors at the end of the program.

“West Virginia is a massive part of this whole discussion about college ball going forward,” said McAfee.

But after hyping up WVU, he then popped the balloon of the fans hoping for McAfee to announce the return of his old coach Rich Rodriguez, at least for now.

“I think whoever Wren Baker hires is gonna be great for West Virginia. I do not know who is getting hired at West Virginia,” added McAfee to end the speculation that he’s harboring the news until WVU gives him the green light to reveal it all.

McAfee also made it clear the announcement is not scheduled to happen live on his show, although he would obviously be open to doing that.

This comes now with the search going on for well over a week. McAfee also talked about Rodriguez being involved early on in the search.

“Rich Rod is a part of the WVU conversation,” proclaimed McAfee during as segment of his show.

McAfee then proceeded to detail what life could be like for West Virginia fans with Rodriguez back as their head coach, further exposing his pick among the candidates.

So far this week in the midst of more rumors and reports, the only thing we know for sure is Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki has taken his name out of the running after many in the media, including WV Sports Now, reported that he was a leading finalist for the job.

For a related story, Anthony Becht received an interview for the WVU head coach position.