Rich Rodriguez Leads Jacksonville State to Win Thanks to Monster Second Half

Rich Rodriguez and his Jacksonville State Gamecocks ran all over Kennesaw State on Friday night. Jacksonville State stormed back after a first half deficit to win the game 63-24 thanks to 42 second half points.

In a throwback of sorts to Rodriguez’s days running the spread offense at West Virginia, Jacksonville State ran for 384 yards as a team and scored a school record eight touchdowns on the ground.

That Mike Franklin Touchdown‼️?

?CBS Sports Network#HardEdge | #EarnSuccess pic.twitter.com/4HxVU93YCK

— Jax State Football (@JaxStateFB) October 5, 2024

After a shaky start to the season, Jacksonville State is now 2-3 overall on the season, but 1-0 in Conference USA play.

Rodriguez and his team won’t be able to enjoy the win for too long. They have a short week coming up with a game on Wednesday against New Mexico. On the bright side, they will be back on national television. Kickoff is set for 6:30 pm ET and the game will air on ESPN2.

In 2023, Rodriguez led the Gamecocks to a New Orleans Bowl victory. The bowl win was the first in school history and completed a nine-win season, granted the program needed a loophole in the rules to take place in order to be eligible to play in a bowl game.

When Rodriguez was hired to guide Jacksonville State into this new FBS era in 2021, it was his first time being a head coach since his departure from Arizona in 2017. After the Wildcats, Rodriguez spent a season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ole Miss and then held the same role at Louisiana-Monroe the following season.

Rodriguez, a West Virginia native, currently holds a 184-128-2 overall coaching record. He obviously experience most of his success while leading the Mountaineers from 2001-2007. At WVU, Rodriguez won four Big East titles, was named conference Coach of the Year twice. He added a third Coach of the Year honor in the Pac-12 in 2014 with Arizona.

In November 2022, WVSN’s Mike Asti asked WVU legend Rasheed Marshall if he would ever want Rich Rodriguez to return as head coach of the Mountaineers during an episode of their past “All Three Phases” podcast.