It's official: the Arizona Wildcats have a new head coach for next season. Reports from earlier today indicating that former Michigan Wolverines head coach Rich Rodriguez will become Arizona's new head coach have been confirmed by Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne.
Rodriguez has experience in head coaching positions over the past 10 years, first with the West Virginia Mountaineers and then the Wolverines with mixed resuls. From 2001 to 2007, Rodriguez led the Mountaineers to no worse than a second-place finish in the Big East conference during each of the six seasons following his inaugural year as Mountaineers coach.
He became the Wolverines head coach in 2008 but failed to produce the same results that he had in West Virginia. Rodriguez's Wolverines never finished better than seventh in the Big Ten Conference during his three-year tenure, and he was let go after the end of the 2010 college football season. He has since been working with CBS.
Rodriguez now brings his coaching style and personality out west to Tucson, where he will help the Wildcats rebuild after the firing of former head coach Mike Stoops.
For more information on the Wildcats and new head coach Rich Rod, check out Arizona Desert Swarm and their take on the hiring.