Rich Rodriguez knows the importance of surrounding yourself with a strong coaching staff.

The head coach has a five-year contract with the Mountaineers that will pay an average of $3.75 million over the course of the contract. The amount starts at $3.5 million and includes incentives that could potentially significantly increase the deal depending on its success over the term.

Rodriguez admitted he would have signed a lifetime contract if given the opportunity, but there is a strong commitment to getting the Mountaineers’ football program back to where it was in the past.

But getting there takes more than just one person. That means you can expect an investment in his coaching staff to help the veteran head coach in today’s changing climate.

And the Mountaineers have invested at least $5,000,000 each year in on-site coaching staff and at least $2,500,000 in staff support.

With all the responsibilities that a head coach has to bear today, it is more important than ever to have a coaching staff that can take on relief tasks in many areas. This requires trust and maturity from the head coach, which Rodriguez has been able to acquire throughout his coaching career.

“I’m going to put together a great staff, and fortunately we have the resources to put together a great staff that can take some of that burden off of me in all of those aspects,” Rodriguez said.

One of the biggest priorities first is figuring out who the defensive coordinator will be. Rodriguez admittedly has a few in mind, and while he didn’t specify the candidates, he said they aren’t the same type of defense. These days, every coordinator runs a little bit of everything, and so his plan, once he’s settled on who’s running the defense, is to build the rest of the coaching staff from there.

“I’m going to pick the D coordinator first and have a really, really good one because I have enough resources to hire a really, really good one,” Rodriguez said.

When it comes to picking a prospect, Rodriguez admitted that there is no particular formula he sticks to, as he has followed different schemes throughout his career, but there are some non-negotiables when it comes to this side of the ball goes.

“Plus, I want us to be really, really aggressive and I want to force the problem on the other team,” he said.

Things will be easier on the offensive side as Rodriguez still plans to make plays, but there too he needs to rally a strong team around him. The West Virginia native knows all too well the importance of the program to the state’s people and wants his employees to do the same.

“There are a lot of people who wanted this job because it’s a great job and I’ve been in this situation before,” Rodriguez said.