Rich Rodriguez and Terrelle Pryor show the importance of athletic recruiting

For those that have been following all of the college football coaching changes throughout the country, one of the biggest moves was Rich Rodriguez making the switch from West Virginia to Michigan. While at West Virginia, Rodriguez ran an offense that showcased the skills of quarterback Pat White. White’s ability to run and make plays is what has led the team to many successful years.

While with the Mountaineers, Rodriguez helped the school recruit the #1 player in the country as rated by Rivals.com, Terrelle Pryor. Even though Pryor has not made his college decision, he would be a perfect fit at quarterback for Rodriguez’s offense. Before it had become official that Rodriguez was going to Ann Arbor to be the next coach at Michigan, he called and told Pryor the news. Afterwards, Pryor was interviewed by Rivals.com and basically broke the story himself when he told a recruiting expert to put the Wolverines into his top five and to take away West Virginia.

Here is what Pryor told Mike Farrell of Rivals.com before everything broke. “Add Michigan to my list. Rich Rod is headed to Michigan. I just spoke to him earlier this morning and he told me he’s gone. We talked at 10 a.m. this morning and I told him Michigan just got on my list.”

The move by Rodriguez may seem strange to many that he would call a recruit before his decision was officially announced but shows how important the recruiting process is in college football (As well as basketball, baseball, and any other sport). In order for Rodriguez’s system to succeed, he needs a quarterback with the ability to run the spread option. Michigan may currently have a former five star recruit in Ryan Mallett but he is not the type of player that dominates in his system.

While Mallett will wait until he talks to Coach Rodriguez before considering transferring, that is something that definitely will be on his mind. Mallett is a big quarterback with a great arm but he is no where near the athlete that Pat White is. The athleticism and quickness that White has is needed unless Rodriguez plans to change his system.

That just once again shows how vital recruiting is to college football. Instead of looking at the Michigan roster and worrying about the current players, Rodriguez called the top prospect in the nation and reiterated to him how much he wants to coach him. While there are rumors that Ohio State was the favorite to land Pryor, this coaching change could be enough to help him play for the Wolverines.