CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez and
Cincinnati's Brian Kelly toiled for years as football coaches at
little known schools.
They each developed their version of the no-huddle, spread
offense without national scrutiny at places such as Division II
school's Glenville State and Grand Valley State.
On Saturday, Rodriguez and Kelly's offenses will be front and
center as No. 5 West Virginia (8-1, 3-1) plays at No. 21 Cincinnati
(8-2, 3-2) in a Big East matchup that could have BCS ramifications.
"It taught us how to do our own laundry," Kelly said. "We had
to do things on our own. ... We definitely have our hands in a lot
of things and I think that goes back to our backgrounds and being
in Division II football. You had to do all those things.
"I think it's served me well and I think it's served Rich very
well."
It's uncommon for a top-level college coach to start in such a
low division. Only four other coaches of Top 25 teams got their
first college head coaching jobs below the Bowl Subdivision,
formerly Division I-A.
Oregon's Mike Bellotti started at Chico State, Ohio State's Jim
Tressel was the longtime coach at Youngstown State, Virginia Tech's
Frank Beamer began his head coaching career at Murray State, and
Texas' Mack Brown started at Appalachian State.
Nine of the 25 coaches are in their first stints as a college
head coach. Arizona State's Dennis Erickson, USC's Pete Carroll and
Hawaii's June Jones also were NFL head coaches.
Kelly, the son of an alderman in Chelsea, Mass., was working on
political campaigns, including Sen. Gary Hart's 1984 presidential
bid, before joining the staff at Division II Grand Valley State in
1987. He eventually became head coach in 1991, a job he would hold
for 13 seasons.
Kelly won back-to-back Division II national titles in 2002-03 at
Grand Valley. He also spent three seasons as head coach at Central
Michigan before moving on to Cincinnati last December.
Rodriguez was a defensive back at West Virginia in the early
1980s and became the nation's youngest college head coach at age 24
when he was hired at NAIA Salem College in 1988. But Salem dropped
football the following summer after it formed a partnership with
Japan's Teikyo University.
He was hired in 1990 at Glenville State, where the team had only
about 30 players. They got dressed in the locker room and were
driven several miles to a makeshift practice facility.
"They say necessity is the mother of invention," Rodriguez
said last month after his 100th career coaching win. "Not only was
it a smaller place, but they were so hungry to just get a first
down. They would be happy with anything you did."
After assistant coaching stints at Tulane and Clemson under
Tommy Bowden, Rodriguez took over at West Virginia in 2001.
Opponents are still trying to figure out Rodriguez's offenses,
which annually rank among the top five in the nation in rushing.
"What you are seeing now as opposed to when we were running the
spread 10-15 years ago, you are seeing more of a variety of how
they are defending it. So offensively you've got to have an
answer," Rodriguez said. "The versions and parts of the spread
will always be here.
"But those defensive guys are smart, too. So it's ever evolving
like it always has been."
Approaching the end of his first season in the Big East, Kelly's
expectations have been met.
"I came in knowing full well that top to bottom you had the
most balanced BCS league in the country, and to win a championship
you have to go through West Virginia," Kelly said.<