In late September, a week or so before quarterback Khalil Tate was discovered sitting on the UAโs bench, Rich Rodriguez and his wife Rita drove to Culinary Dropout, Tucsonโs new โitโ restaurant, for a rare night out during the football season.
It was a summit of Tucson power brokers. The Rodriguezes were seated with congresswoman Martha McSally, UA president Robert C. Robbins, UA athletic director Dave Heeke and financier Humberto Lopez, who was one of RichRodโs few connections to the Tucson business community.
The ambitious and engaging Robbins, who stood on the turf at Arizona Stadium and helped to lead cheers during the season opener against NAU, talked about a plan in which he would build an alumni center and hotel on property adjacent to the schoolโs sand volleyball facility, one of the four gateways to campus.
The message was not a subtle one: Robbins expected excellence in football and on every corner of the campus. He was building, not treading water the way in which Arizonaโs football program had evolved.
A few weeks later, the chummy relationships changed.
The UA Office of Institutional Equity began an investigation of Rodriguezโs behavior and the work environment in the football program. Thereโs more: the parent of a former UA player told me Friday that his son participated in a campus investigation with the Office of Institutional Equity last February. The player was asked about Rodriguezโs treatment of players.
At that time, Heeke was still the athletic director at Central Michigan and Robbins was CEO of the Texas Medical Center.
The February investigation was triggered by comments the former player made during an exit interview with former UA athletic director Greg Byrne, who, before he left for Alabama, did not extend Rodriguezโs contract for what is often an automatic roll-over through five years.
In effect, the clock on RichRod was ticking when Heeke and Robbins assumed their positions at the school.
When Rodriguez was fired Tuesday evening, the school announced it would pay him $6.28 million to go away rather than fire him for cause and let the attorneys slug it out.
This strategy seems baffling.
โIf you used that same money to hire a law firm to defend a โfor causeโ termination, it would be worth it from the standpoint of institutional integrity โ even if the UA lost,โ said Bob Bockrath, former athletic director at Alabama, Cal and Texas Tech, and the No. 2 man in the Arizona athletic department from 1981-91.
โThe same old problem comes up โ there is so much money in intercollegiate athletics that so-called senior administrators, presidents and ADs, never have to make a hard decision. Just pay off and move to the next chapter.
โWhat is wrong here? Who wrote an employment contract that didnโt include provisions for standards of moral conduct that would not allow conduct like his to warrant termination โfor causeโ?โ
For better or worse, it has become common to throw money at problems and move on.
Arizona State fired football coach Todd Graham for, it appears, the high crime of being โaverage.โ Graham was paid about $12 million to go away.
RichRod, who lost 19 of his last 31 games at Arizona, wasnโt even average.
One prominent UA booster said the payoff to RichRod has given him pause to reconsider his financial support of the athletic department.
โIโd offer a million for him to go away and let RichRod fight it,โ he told me. โNow Iโm wondering how they are using my donations. Right now, I am at a total stop until I get some answers. Iโm sick of the glad-handing bull. We need a new culture, thatโs for sure. This secrecy bull โฆ the basketball and track stuff, I feel like Iโm part of some third-world university program now.โ
Robbins and Heeke have a lot of rebuilding to do to restore faith in the UA athletic program, probably more so than any time in school history.
In the Byrne years, 2010-16, Arizonaโs two most high-profile football boosters, Jim Click and Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno, removed themselves from involvement. Both had been visible game to game on the sideline during the Mike Stoops years.
Neither made a move to support RichRod, nor did he engage them.
In addition to hiring a suitable football coach, one of Heekeโs top challenges will be to cultivate Click and Moreno, and other donors of note who have stepped back.
Heeke hired the search firm DHR International to help him vet potential head coaches. Thatโs another expenditure that doesnโt seem necessary. Previous UA athletic directors, from Cedric Dempsey and Jim Livengood to Byrne, did the great majority of their staff acquisitions through good, old intuition, research and footwork.
Has the business of college football changed that much? DHR said that paying six-figures for its services is necessary. Without a search firm, DHR says โitโs like building a stadium without an architect.โ
To the contrary, many of the top names in Pac-12 football didnโt require much of a search at all.
UCLA discovered Terry Donahue on its staff. Oregonโs Mike Bellotti and Chip Kelly were hired from within the UO program. Utahโs Kyle Whittingham spent 11 years on the Utes staff.
Unfortunately, Arizona doesnโt have an assistant coach who seems capable of taking charge. RichRodโs staff is mostly stocked with those from lesser programs. He did not surround himself with the type of assistants, from Rich Ellerson and Duane Akina to Sonny Dykes, who once defined Arizonaโs top seasons.
You donโt necessarily have to hire a name. Arizona discovered Jim Young on the staff at Michigan and Larry Smith at small-time Tulane. Washington Stateโs two-time Rose Bowl coach Mike Price came from little olโ Weber State.
The leagueโs top coach, Stanfordโs David Shaw, was part of Jim Harbaughโs staff. Both of those men were hired away from the University of San Diego Toreros.
Unlike the trend of college football, it doesnโt always have to be a money-grab. A coveted seat at a hot spot like Culinary Dropout doesnโt always lead to success.
