Nick Saban tells Pat McAfee Rich Rodriguez is "right guy" for WVU football job

It was a party in Morgantown on Friday (not that every Friday in Morgantown isn't a party) as West Virginia welcomed home native son Rich Rodriguez to lead the Mountaineer football program. Part of the festivities included a live broadcast of ESPN's hit program The Pat McAfee Show as the former WVU punter was on hand to stir things up like only he can.

One of the guests that McAfee had on his show was college football legend Nick Saban. And McAfee asked the man considered to be the greatest college head coach of all time why he wanted to be part of the West Virginia head coaching search.

"Well, you know, West Virginia University has always been really important to me," Saban said "and I grew up there being a big Mountaineer fan. The biggest thing that would happen to me in a year would be when my dad would take me to one Mountaineer game every fall and that never leaves you...so my heart's always been with West Virginia. I coached there for a couple of years and I love the people in the state. We had a lot of friends and relationships in the state and I'm happy that Rich is back and I think he'll do a great job there, him being a West Virginia person."

Mcafee then asked Saban to expound on the process of helping WVU AD Wren Baker make this hire. Saban laid out what his role was in bringing Rodriguez home.

"You know, I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for Rich," Saban said. "And you know, he came to visit us a couple of times at Alabama while I was coaching there. He was very helpful and beneficial to our staff. He was a great mind, he was an innovator in the game...I think this guy is great.

"I just talked to Wren a couple of times about who is the best fit. Who is the best fit for West Virginia? It's not just about coaching knowledge or what your record was in some other part of the country but how do you fit? How do you believe? How are you going to relate to the people? How are you going to be able to recruit the kind of players that you need to compete against the competition and dominate the competition? And I think Rich is the right guy to do that."

The interview wrapped up with Saban extending his best wishes to McAfee and Rodriguez.

"I'm glad you're there with Rich Rod," Saban said to McAfee. "Tell him I said 'Hello' and congratulate him. And congratulate all those folks there for that press conference. They did a good thing here and they're going to be successful because of it and we're going to be behind them all the way."

Certainly, having Saban's stamp of approval had to mean the world to Rodriguez. After all, when a seven-time National Champion is in your corner, it validates who you are as a coach.

While Saban will always be most closely associated with Alabama, it is clear that his West Virginia ties run deep as well. The man from Monongah has not forgotten where he grew up and it is clear that he wants to see WVU thrive and that's exactly what he thinks will happen with Rodriguez back at the helm of the Mountaineers.