Jacksonville State football, Rich Rodriguez agree to extend contract through 2030
Rich Rodriguez will be staying with the Gamecocks for a little longer.
On Friday, Jacksonville State football officials announced they have come to an agreement on an extension with Rodriguez to stay as head coach through the 2030 season. It is unknown if Rodriguez earned a pay bump from the $1 million he was making under his previous contract.
"We couldn't be more excited that Coach Rodriguez is committed to Jacksonville State and continuing to lead our football program into this new era," Jacksonville State Athletics Director Greg Seitz said. "The growth of our program since the day he took over has been incredible, with a conference title in year one, the first bowl win by a transition team in history in year two and the opening of the Loring and Debbie White Football Complex this fall, it has never been a more exciting time to be a Gamecock. We can't wait to see the heights that Coach takes this program to in the next eight years."
Rodriguez was already signed through the end of 2028 as per a contract he signed in March of 2023. That contract was going to pay Rodriguez $800,000 a year with a slew of potential bonuses. He earned a $100,000 bonus for still being employed on March 30, 2023 and another $100,000 bonus was due on October 31 for supporting university fundraising efforts. The total compensation ranked Rodriguez as the 81st highest paid head coach in the nation.
Rodriguez wasn't quoted in the release from Jax State, but he has repeated many times throughout the past season that he believes Jacksonville to be a "special place" and that he is committed to building the program. It does help that his daughter Raquel and son Rhett are now on staff.
"This is a great place. When I came here, I knew a little bit about it. The football is important, there's great people, it's a great town, we got a great house. I got my daughter whose the best content creator, graphic person in the country," Rodriguez said after the final home game in November 2023.
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Rodriguez took over the Gamecock program ahead of the 2022 season, when he signed a deal to make $500,000 a year. He led them to a 9-2 record and an unofficial ASUN title in the final FCS season for the program. In the first season as an FBS program, the Gamecocks went 9-4 and won the first bowl game in program history.
Rodriguez has been a head coach at West Virginia, Michigan and Arizona. He holds a career record of 181-125-2 across 25 years of head coaching jobs starting in 1988 at Salem, an NAIA program in his native West Virginia.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Jacksonville State football, Rich Rodriguez agree to contract extension
