Morgantown, West Virginia – Rich Rodriguez, who is the new Associate head coach/offensive coordinator for the University of Louisiana-Monroe, was 60-26 during his time at West Virginia University and nearly led the Mountaineers to a national championship in his final season in 2007.

Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan following the 2007 season and today on The Pat McAfee Show, he finally revealed what led him to leaving Morgantown.

Rodriguez said that it came down to $50,000.

“We were doing pretty good.  I wasn’t asking for anything for myself.  I wanted $50,000 more for my assistant coaches pool.  I was losing all kinds of great assistants every year.  All I wanted was $50,000 for the whole staff and I was told, ‘Take it or leave it, Coach. We’ve done everything we can for you.’  That was the extent of the conversation.”

McAfee, who played for Rodriguez at WVU, was shocked, saying, “We had plaques on the walls.  We were on primetime television.  We were winning a lot.  I saw a lot of buildings going up, a lot of classrooms being redone.  I saw attendance go up.  So I would assume that if you went to the Administration and asked to continue to build the program and pay an extra $50,000, you would expect a simply ‘yes’, but apparently that didn’t happen.  We didn’t know any of that.”

Rodriguez said that his new employer, Michigan, asked him to move on and not answer questions about West Virginia University, which led to a lot of misunderstanding among West Virginia fans.

If this is true, it’s a monumental failure by the West Virginia administration to retain a head coach that took the program to incredible heights.  Check out the video below: