Not even heckler could spoil mood as West Virginia welcomes home Rich Rodriguez

You never know what's going to happen when thousands of Mountaineers get together. Even a press conference can have some excitement and that's what happened Friday as West Virginia welcomed back Rich Rodriguez as head football coach. And not even an angry heckler could spoil the mood.

In what was part press conference and part pep rally inside the WVU Coliseum, Rodriguez wasn't as much introduced as he was embraced by the university and fans that he spurned after the 2007 season when he left his alma mater to take the job at Michigan following a terrific run in Morgantown. However, one attendee had not buried the hatchet.

As Rodriguez took to the podium, a man came down one of the aisles and began to shout something at Rodriguez that was hard to make out on video. However, some on social media who were in attendance, including WVU alum and ESPN personality Pat McAfee, said that the heckler was shouting something to the effect of "Go back to Michigan".

Quickly, the crowd began to drown out the heckler with a chorus of boos and the arena security team removed him from the scene. And in what was the highlight of the day, Rodriguez delivered the best line he could have.

"OK. Any other Pitt fans can leave the building," he said.

That ad-lib moment brought the house to its feet and further cemented the love between the returning hero and the WVU fan base on a day that was all about optimism and looking forward rather than focusing on the past.

"This is really surreal," Rodriguez then said. "It's great to be home. Should've never left."

That was the perfect acknowledgment of the past by a head coach who knows he broke many hearts in Appalachia when he jumped toward what he thought would be greener pastures over a decade and a half ago. There was no way that Rodriguez could just gloss over his somewhat controversial decision to leave West Virginia all those years ago but he also had to show that he's a changed coach, one who is more humble and more grounded than he was when he was arguably the hottest coaching commodity in the sport after guiding the Mountaineers to a 60-26 record from 2001-07.

"There's only one school in the country that I could coach at," Rodriguez said, "that I know the town, I know what it's like to be a student there. I know what it's like to be an athlete there. I know what it's like to live in that state. I know what it's like to work there. And that's West Virginia University."

Rodriguez then went on to explain that he's grown as a coach and as a person and that he continues to strive to be better every day.

"When that Pitt fan yahooed up right there," he said, "In my younger days, I'd want to jump off this podium and talk to him in person. You know, I'd have seen if he had a real hard edge you know what I'm talking about? If he had a fake hard edge or a real hard edge. My older, mature self would say, 'Gosh, I'm blessed to have all you folks here so I'll let you take care of that.'"

Ultimately, Rodriguez showed that he is still the passionate, energetic alum who won the hearts of WVU fans in the early 2000s while also mending fences with the school he clearly loves and the fan base he walked away from 17 years ago.

It was the perfect way for everyone in West Virginia to turn the page and move forward as a united front in an event that had a little bit of everything. But what else would you expect from West Virginia or Rich Rodriguez?