Jacksonville State’s Rich Rodriguez Accuses Opponent of Spying

Rich Rodriguez knows college football competition at its highest level.

The former head coach at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona compiled a 118–83 record in 16 seasons at those FBS schools. Now guiding the FCS program at Jacksonville State in Alabama, Rodriguez appears to be just as competitive as ever.

To wit, Rodriguez accused his team’s Week Zero opponent, Stephen F. Austin, of spying on his program. He told reporters Tuesday that he believes SFA had operatives at JSU’s spring game.

“Pretty good sources that they had a couple staff members at our spring game,” Rodriguez said, per ABC 33/40 News in Alabama. “That’s not really supposed to happen. But we’re making plans accordingly, you know, so if they’re over there thinking they have our plays or what have you, signals or something like that, we’ve changed things since the spring.”

Furthermore, Rodriguez said he had to dispatch an assistant to get rid of an interloper at a Gamecocks’ practice earlier this week.

“Then we caught somebody trying to film something the other day,” Rodriguez said, per ABC 33/40. “First, my daughter caught him. … Then we caught him again, saw him peering through there with his camera. I sent the biggest guy in the program, ‘Cru,’ he’s one of our assistant strength coaches. He’s about like 6’7”, 350, probably benches like a thousand pounds or something. Sent him up the bleachers to run him out, and that guy disappeared pretty quick.”

Rodriguez seems to still have a sharp competitive edge—and perhaps a little bit of paranoia. Those traits could serve the Gamecocks well this fall and into the 2023 season, when they move up to the FBS as a member of Conference USA.

Jacksonville State opens the 2022 season against Stephen F. Austin on Saturday at 3:30 ET in Montgomery, Alabama. The game will be televised on ESPN.

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