The RichRod Saga

It was December 5, 2015, and by that date our staff at GamecockCentral.com had spent well over 50 days covering a coaching search that would eventually lead to Will Muschamp's hire.

The process began with the revelation that October that Steve Spurrier was unexpectedly stepping down in the middle of the season. The days - long ones - between then and our December 6 report that Muschamp would be the Gamecocks' next coach were spent with hours spent on phone calls, text messages that surely numbered into the thousands, and countless emails in search of any morsel of information that could give us reportable insight into the search's direction.

It was a whirlwind that included the administration's pursuit of then-Houston Coach Tom Herman, a play for Alabama assistant Kirby Smart, an interview for the up-and-coming Lincoln Riley, and chasing several other names that ranged from fringe candidates to real possibilities like Muschamp.

On that day in early December, my colleague, Wes Mitchell, and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel as the process appeared to wind down. After all the movement, by that point it had become clear that athletics director Ray Tanner had zeroed in on Muschamp.

The former Florida head coach and then-Auburn defensive coordinator had already interviewed by that point with Tanner and Deputy Athletics Director Charles Waddell, and what we were hearing in the aftermath prompted us to confidently report on December 4 that Muschamp was "most likely", the "front runner", and that it was "difficult to see this going in another direction." That was despite the fact that earlier in the day, it had been reported that three more additional coaches were all also linked to the opening through interviews. This, in particular, was a source of consternation for many in the South Carolina fan base, who were weary of a search that had gone on for a while.

Still, Wes and I felt good about our published reports relative to where things were at to that point. Most of our work at that point was now centered on readying our story about Muschamp being a done deal, strategizing about how to cover the recruiting angle, and running down names of potential assistant coaches.

That is, until my phone chimed with a text message, and a day unfolded that gave the appearance that everything was unraveling.

During the transition from Shawn Elliott's interim regime until this point, many of the football staff members were keeping up closely with the proceedings, also wondering who the program's next head coach would be. After all, the new head man would enter and put his own stamp on the program. Moves would be made, jobs were at stake. On December 5, I heard from one of those staffers via text, who relayed what he had just heard from someone still inside Williams-Brice Stadium that afternoon.

"They just cleared the stadium," the message read. "Someone's coming in with Ray."

And then, the kicker.

"It's got to be Muschamp."

It all made sense. The process was widely known to be at its stage by this time, and this was perhaps either part of a final interview process or simply a tour of the facilities for Muschamp before the official announcement was made in short order. So as is typical for these types of things, my next call was to Wes. We talked through it for a couple minutes, then made the decision: we would hop in our cars and meet at the stadium as soon as possible. In a coaching search, where any small nugget is gold, placing the leading candidate on campus would be a nice scoop.

Wes arrived before me. We didn't see Tanner or Muschamp, or any evidence of what we were looking for right away. We did notice a potential mark, however: an unsuspecting event staffer working security at one of the gates of the stadium. We approached, just a couple guys strolling around outside who happened to bump into him. One of us asked if he happened to know if something was going on at the stadium today.

"He was like, 'yeah, somebody was here, you just missed him'," Wes recalled recently.

The staffer explained that some dark-colored SUVs had departed in the minutes before our arrival. When I asked, playing as dumb as possible, if one person was possibly Will Muschamp, the staffer said he did not know who it was.

"He was probably thinking, 'I'm not going to lose my job,'" Wes said.

Another security member who appeared to be in some type of supervisory role then arrived on a golf cart and immediately seemed suspicious of us. We sensed it was time to bail, said our goodbyes to our unwitting helper, and went on our way. All told, we probably spend an hour chasing down a lead that did not pan out - a regularity in a coaching search. But still, it only gave further credence to the text I'd received earlier: someone was at the stadium visiting with Ray Tanner.

There was just one problem, though. We later found out the person visiting Columbia at that time was not Will Muschamp. It was Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who will serve as Ole Miss' offensive coordinator in 2019, had a very successful stint at West Virginia from 2001-2007. He famously got cold feet on taking taking the Alabama job in 2006, which prompted the Crimson Tide to double back and make a renewed push for a guy named Nick Saban. His tenure at Michigan did not go well, and after a year off he was back as a head coach at Arizona beginning in 2012.

In Tucson, Rodriguez had been largely successful: back-to-back 8-5 seasons, then a 10-win campaign that saw the Wildcats capture a divisional title. In 2015, the team had slipped to a 7-6 record.

The spread attack guru's name surfacing for the South Carolina job was not a shock in and of itself. Rodriguez was one of the three previously mentioned coaches linked to an interview opportunity with Ray Tanner on December 4, along with Willie Taggart and Greg Schiano. It was known to this point that, behind the scenes, Rodriguez had pursued the job in Columbia. And, he'd been assured an interview by the Gamecocks' athletics director.

But to hear that Rodriguez was visiting Columbia this late? When everything pointed to the fact that the job was almost certainly Muschamp's? By this time, Gamecock fans had seemed to divide into a few different camps: those who wanted Muschamp for his defensive and recruiting pedigree after watching both slip the past few years, those that wanted someone else, and even those who just seemed to want somebody after a long search with multiple twists.

That same day, FootballScoop stoked the Rodriguez to South Carolina talk by publishing a report. It stated that the open job appeared down to Muschamp or Rodriguez, with the website opining that the "reading the tea leaves" seemed to read in favor of Rodriguez. It went as far as to speculate that the news could leak out the following day (December 6), after Rodriguez had a chance to speak to his Arizona players about the move he was set to make.

The discussion forums on GamecockCentral.com were beginning to heat up, for sure, as our staff made numerous calls. Even with the knowledge that Rodriguez was in town earlier in the day and the new reports, we still heard the same from our sources: it was going to be Muschamp.

Then came the tweets.

Rodriguez himself was first, just before 11 p.m., saying he was "happy and honored to be an Arizona Wildcat!" Out of context, perhaps it did not mean much. Then respected college football reporter Bruce Feldman was next at 11:15, citing a source that informed him Rodriguez had turned down an offer to be the Gamecocks' next coach after mulling it over on the flight home from Columbia.

It got worse for Gamecock fans, those watching Clemson defeat North Carolina in the 2015 ACC title game, when news of Rodriguez spurning USC scrolled across ESPN's "BottomLine" ticker. The aforementioned FootballScoop published their own report, and Greg Byrne, then the athletics director at Arizona, sent out a tweet of his own.

The Insiders Forum was now fully aflame, with fans wondering if our reporting was inaccurate and why this search had taken a turn to where Rich Rodriguez was turning down the job. More calls from our staff were made. What we heard from sources - and what we passed along to our subscribers - was consistent: the job was Muschamp's, and Rodriguez never had an offer from South Carolina.

The following morning, we - and several others - reported that Muschamp to Columbia was a done deal.Speaking to Arizona media prior to his team banquet back in Tucsonon that day, less than 24 hours after this soap opera unfolded, Rodriguez seemed to backtrack a bit when asked about staying in his current position.

Said Rodriguez: "In the end, it wasn't enough to make on a move on either part, probably. You know what I'm saying? On both ends."

Why, exactly, Rodriguez leaked out that he was offered and turned down the job is not something we have been able to ascertain in the years since.It's well-known in media circles that Rodriguez has friends in the national media. Perhaps he wanted to save face? Maybe there was a miscommunication? Make himself look better? We may never know for sure.

Will Muschamp was announced via press release as the Gamecocks' new coach on December 6 and the university conducted a press conference on December 7. Athletics director Ray Tanner was asked about Byrne and Rodriguez's assertions about the job being offered, which he called "inaccurate." Everyone we spoke with familiar with the search agreed, folks that had never given us inaccurate characterizations along the way.

While there may always be some mystery surrounding the final days of the search and why certain things unfolded how they did, one thing's for sure: it was one of the wildest couple days on the beat we have encountered.