Arizona Fears Rich Rodriguez Leaving For Florida

The rumor mill has been swirling about replacement candidates for Will Muschamp as Florida's head coach, and one of the most popular has been Arizona head man Rich Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has quickly built a winner out the Wildcats, sporting a 21-11 overall record during the two and a half years he's been in Tuscon, including a 5-1 mark and a top 15 national ranking so far this year.

There are no reports that RichRod will definitely leave for Gainesville, but there are reports that it's definitely a fear among those at Arizona. According to the Sporting News' Matt Hayes, "Rodriguez still talks about his days at Michigan, and how he would have gotten things turned around had he been given more time. What better way to prove that than doing it at Florida?"

Rodriguez runs a up-tempo spread offense similar to the one former Gators head coach Urban Meyer ran during his tenure, which some believe better utilizes the incredible high school athletes that come out of the state of Florida and would help recruiting.

However, one of RichRod's biggest regrets about the Michigan job was that he was "baking the cake and not eating it". And for as much as he's done at Arizona, they still haven't won a Pac-12 South championship. He might also want to stay away from another high-pressure job, since he struggled with that while in Ann Arbor.

Rodriguez did sign an extension in May that would keep him as Arizona's head coach through 2018, but these rumors do scare the Wildcats.

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