Let’s rewind to 2007. All Rich Rodriguez had to do in West Virginia’s finale against Pitt to make the BCS championship game was to beat their rivals as a 4 TD favorite. In the most famous faceplant in Mountaineer history, John Denver’s favorite team was punked, 13-9. Resulting dominos meant that LSU, amazingly, backed into the championship game with TWO losses (albeit both in overtime to Kentucky and Arkansas). Thus, Les Miles could not timely return to his alma mater to take the open Michigan job because of the time frame to prepare for the national championship game.
Fate strikes for Rodriguez. The native son leaves his wildly successful gig in Morgantown and bolts his native state for supposedly greener pastures in Ann Arbor. OOPS! His 3-year tenure included 3-9 and 5-7 records. None of the games against Ohio State are competitive. 0-3 versus Michigan State. After getting pink slipped, Rodriguez wandered the next 14 years in relative football wilderness, including head coaching stints at Arizona and Jacksonville State.
In 2025, the prodigal son returned to West Virginia and, despite a decimated team, engineers an upset of Pitt in the heated Backyard Brawl. Rodriguez’ cautionary tale resonates in Madison, Wisconsin. The tale of Luke Fickell in 2025 offers several parallels. The Columbus, Ohio native was a star defensive lineman for Ohio State and was wildly successful as Cincinnati’s head coach, as evidenced by the Bearcats being the only Group of 5 team to make the 4-team playoff. After 2022, Fickell could not resist the lures of returning to the Big 10 and a big payday as the Badger coach.
His tenure was immediately problematic. Fickell’s attempts to change the Badger’s “Ground and Pound” offense were dismal failures in 2023 and 2024 due in part to QB injuries and questionable staff hires. Rock bottom occurred last weekend when Maryland rolled to a 27-10 laugher in Madison. Chants of “Fire Fickell” filled Camp Randall. Maryland was the sole Big 10 game that one could see the Badgers handily winning. Wisconsin has the most difficult Big 10 schedule and looks to be underdogs in each of the season’s remaining 8 games. Our sense is that Fickell would have been fired over the weekend except for a daunting $25 million buyout. Not every school is Texas A&M!
In matters other than the pocketbook, Fickell, like RichRod, should have stayed put. The Odyssey predicts that FIckell will eventually resurface at Cincinnat1. Scott Satterfield will not be there long-term. The greedy missteps by RichRod and Fickell should be taken to heart by all coaches who think that the grass is always greener elsewhere.