It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if an NFL owner, playing off the success of ex-Pac-12 coaches Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly, pursued Rich Rodriguez.
Would he bite?
“I never thought about it until the last few years,” Rodriguez told me last week. “I’ve watched Chip Kelly and some of the college guys go to the pros; I think the lines are blurred a little bit more. NFL teams do more of what colleges do now. I think more guys are going up and down, between the NFL and colleges, than ever before.”
On Friday, Kelly was given control of the Philadelphia personnel decisions. I suspect RichRod would demand as much before leaving a college job.
“I can’t imagine not having a say on who you sign, leaving that decision to a general manager or the organization,” he said. “I can’t imagine not having control of who your assistant coaches are. I wouldn’t like a job if I couldn’t pick my staff.”
RichRod has a vacation home about 50 miles from Atlanta and has often spent time at Hilton Head, South Carolina, which is also relatively close to Atlanta.
And the Falcons have a head coaching vacancy.
But Atlanta owner Arthur Blank is a noted control freak, with a veteran GM, Thomas Dimitroff, and a long-time president in Rich McKay. The Falcons are an organization that has been old-school in its approach to offense and defense.
Maybe next year. If Arizona continues to climb the college football ladder, it wouldn’t take much to imagine an NFL owner taking a serious look at RichRod.
