MORGANTOWN — Some of the media members in front of whom Rhett Rodriguez sat recently during his first news conference as West Virginia University’s quarterbacks coach likely had to pinch themselves to make sure the moment was real.
The son of Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez spent many days running around the facility — which looked a lot different then — with his sister Raquel (now WVU’s assistant athletic director for football management and strategy) during their father’s first stint as the WVU leader from 2001-07.
Rhett Rodriguez was just 3 years old when his family moved back to West Virginia from Clemson, where his father had served as offensive coordinator, and he was only 9 during the still-controversial exit for Michigan.
When it comes to the games, Rhett’s memories are a little fuzzy. But the players, he remembers well. He still has a picture of himself sitting on the lap of Rasheed Marshall, his father’s first successful quarterback in Morgantown. Now, Marshall is a co-worker, as WVU’s director of player relations.
Rhett also vividly remembers Noel Devine, a key running back, along with Steve Slaton, on his dad’s final squad of his first stint, which was a whisker away from playing for a national title. Devine is now an offensive analyst and assistant running backs coach for the Mountaineers.
But perhaps the player Rhett remembers best from those days is Pat White, the quarterback who led WVU to wins in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia in 2006 and the Gator Bowl against Georgia Tech in 2007. Just weeks after the Rodriguezes’ move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, White also led WVU to a Fiesta Bowl victory against Oklahoma in 2008.
In a strange twist of fate, Rhett is now the quarterbacks coach, along with White, one of WVU’s all-time greats, serving as the assistant quarterbacks coach under that little 9-year-old he watched jump on a plane with his father nearly 20 years ago.
“We really have four quarterback coaches — me, Pat White, my dad and [senior offensive assistant] Travis Trickett,†Rhett said.
“We have four guys with eyes on the quarterback. It’s awesome to sit in meeting rooms with Pat and hear him drop some wisdom here and there. He’s got some great things to say.
“Between Rasheed Marshall, Pat White and Noel Devine, how awesome is it that I get to be around those guys every day?â€
Though those memories are special for Rhett, he really learned the game after leaving Morgantown, most of it at Arizona. Rhett was 14 when his father took over the Wildcats in 2012, and that’s when he really gained a working knowledge of Rich’s successful offense.
By the time he reached Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson, he was trying to provide coach Jeff Scurran with suggestions.
“I knew [the Arizona] playbook before I knew my own high school playbook,†Rodriguez said. “I probably drove him crazy with all the things, asking if we could do this or do that.â€
Scurran told Rhett that he would eventually get that opportunity, and his experiences pointed him in that direction.
After high school, Rhett, a first-team all-state selection in Arizona, joined his father. Rich was let go from Arizona following that 2017 season, but Rhett stayed and appeared in 11 games from 2017 through 2020, while his dad served as the offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and an analyst at Hawaii.
In 2021, the Rodriguez duo joined forces again when Rich became the offensive coordinator under Terry Bowden at Louisiana-Monroe and Rhett transferred to join him. In one season at ULM, Rhett threw for 799 yards and four touchdowns before a serious lung injury ended his playing career.
With a bachelor’s degree in business administration and master’s degrees in entrepreneurship and psychology, Rhett initially took a step away from football, working for Northern Trust, a banking and financial services company, in Tempe, Arizona.
“I knew [coaching] was probably going to happen, but I wanted to put that education to use,†Rhett said. “Football has been my life and my family’s life. I wanted to experience my education.â€
Rhett worked a hybrid position at Northern Trust, with part of his time spent in the office and the rest virtual. That allowed him to work from anywhere, and he kept his nose in football, spending some time at Jacksonville State, where his dad had landed his first head-coaching role since Arizona.
After two years at Northern Trust, Rhett decided it was time to fully scratch his coaching itch, and he joined the staff at Jacksonville State as an offensive analyst in 2024.
When Rich came back to WVU in the offseason, Rhett was on the plane with him, and he was soon named the quarterbacks coach back at his old stomping grounds.
“We loved Jacksonville State,†he said. “We could have been happy there for the rest of my dad’s career. But when this opportunity came up, it was something we were all excited about.
“This is our home. Both my mom and my dad’s families live here. I’ve seen some cousins I haven’t seen in a few years. We’ll have some Rodriguez family reunions, and it’s been really special.â€
Though Rhett’s on-field coaching experience may be somewhat limited, he probably knows the offense better than anybody not named Rich Rodriguez. He’s watched it from afar, played in it and coached in it, and he knows what his father is thinking at almost any moment.
“It’s been cool to see, all the places we’ve been over the years, how certain aspects of the offense have stayed the same and certain aspects have changed,†Rhett said. “I’ve had a front-row seat to the whole thing, and I’ve been one of the few people seeing that through the years.
“I’ve been around our football program at all the places he’s been. Sometimes, I know what he’s looking for, and I’m able to read between the lines of the message he’s trying to share. We’re able to be that second layer of communication.â€
One of the newest aspects of Rhett’s position is recruiting, but he quickly found his experience in the financial world beneficial.
“I spent a lot of time cold-calling financial advisers, trying to get them to use our products and services,†he said. “If I can convince a guy who’s been a financial adviser for 20-some years to use our product, it’s easy to convince a high school guy or a transfer to come to West Virginia football when we have a great pitch to sell. I think that helped transfer over.â€
Rhett has also used his financial background to advise both players and coaches about the ever-changing NIL landscape.
Coaching just seems natural for Rhett, and he’s quickly passing on the “hard-edge†philosophy to his quarterbacks.
“It’s being mentally and physically tough at all times,†he said of his interpretation of his dad’s constant theme. “You’re going to get knocked down. It’s how you get back up. I think, especially the way we play, it’s chaotic and there are a lot of moving parts. As a quarterback, you need to be that calm in the storm.â€
That’s also been the younger Rodriguez’s role on the staff. While Rich is known for dramatic tirades, Rhett has a calmer demeanor. That’s why he’ll be the coach quarterbacks hear in their helmet speakers with the play this fall instead of his father.
Rhett Rodriguez has come full-circle, and he’s back to where his football memories began. Now, he’s focused on helping his father rewrite the script at WVU.
