Alabama hired Rich Rod. He accepted. The next morning he had a change of heart. Alabama hired Saban.

Its a famous story. Via ESPN ...

West Virginia, meanwhile, was in the midst of three consecutive 11-win seasons under Rodriguez, who felt like he had the talent coming back in Morgantown to compete for a national championship in 2007.

"I left New York and went back to West Virginia and we were getting ready to play in the Gator Bowl, so I had a press conference in Jacksonville for the bowl game, and that day was when a couple of the boosters put together a proposal," Rodriguez recounted. "I told them I couldn't believe they got everything together so quickly because it was millions of dollars of stuff for the program. I was humbled by it and told Alabama I was staying."

Later that day, Moore did what every athletic director dreads and publicly announced that Rodriguez had indeed rejected Alabama's offer and was staying put at West Virginia.

He almost got that title in '07 that he thought he had a shot at.

Making Rodriguez's exit even worse was the 13-9 upset loss to bitter rival Pittsburgh in the 2007 regular-season finale, a loss that cost the Mountaineers a shot at the national championship. West Virginia was ranked No. 2 in the BCS standings going into that game and a 28-point favorite.

Michigan got him after the 2007 season and his career went sideways

This post was edited on 11/29/21 at 12:35 pm