Kirk Herbstreit Picks Rich Rodriguez as Top Hire Over Bill Belichick and Others

West Virginia had the best hire this offseason, according to ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

Jul 9, 2025; Frisco, TX, USA; West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez speaks with the media during 2025 Big 12 Football Media Days at The Star. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

When Neal Brown was relieved of his duties as the head coach of West Virginia football, no one thought that Rich Rodriguez would end up being the guy that athletic director Wren Baker would ultimately land on.

Yes, there's a section of the fan base that has been pounding the table for Rich Rod's return for years, but it never lined up to make sense. When Dana Holgorsen departed for Houston, Rodriguez was coming off a year where he was fired at Arizona and took a year off from coaching. If you go back to when Holgorsen was hired, Rodriguez had just been fired by Michigan and went into an analyst role with CBS Sports. The timing just never lined up. Until this offseason.

Rodriguez found success again, leading Jacksonville State to a Conference USA championship and a nine-win season, the very year the WVU job popped open. Still, a reunion felt unlikely in the first 24-48 hours of Brown's firing. But it happened.

During this morning's episode of the annual "Herbie Awards" on ESPN, Kirk Herbstreit named Rich Rodriguez as the best head coach hire, picking him over Bill Belichick (North Carolina) and Barry Odom (Purdue).

Coach got a Herbie 🏆@RealCoachRod @KirkHerbstreit pic.twitter.com/bCXjYD7qGv

— West Virginia Football (@WVUfootball) August 23, 2025

“We know what Rich Rod’s going to do," Herbstreit said. "And how about him with his press conferences? We’ve got a character back in the limelight, which I just love to see. He’s just very direct. He’s like, ‘They got everything here. We got an ice cream place back here. We got sprinkles. We got it all. These guys got more than they need.’ He’s going to be a lot of fun. And, boy, they got a huge game in Week 3. They need to beat Ohio early, but (in) Week 3, the Backyard Brawl against Pitt, at home, I can only imagine what that scene will be like. It would have been easy to pick Bill Belichick, obviously, but I think just throwing some attention to what they did in West Virginia is very, very deserving.”

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