By Ira Kaufman

For the Mirror

The press conference for Rich Rodriguez’s return to West Virginia last month was epic.

I have always loved West Virginia and found the people to be so nice and friendly.

The state is beautiful with mountains and valleys. Morgantown is such a fun town, and the bars in the city are legendary.

The people of West Virginia are proud of their state and want anyone who comes to West Virginia to love it.

I was last there for Penn State’s visit to start this season.

Rodriguez grew up in West Virginia, his entire extended family lived in West Virginia. His wife is from West Virginia, and her entire family lives in the state.

Rich Rod played football for WVU, and then became the head coach at WVU in 2001.

In a few years, he did the unthinkable by building WVU into a national power.

In 2007, WVU was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. Only a win over Pitt stood between WVU and a spot in the national championship game against undefeated Ohio State.

Pitt was a 24-point underdog but upset WVU (13-9) in a game that was not even close. LSU ended up playing Ohio State and winning the national championship.

West Virginians were devastated with the loss, but the future looked so bright as WVU was primed for decades of success with a great young coach and tons of excitement for the program.

Rich Rod was the king, and West Virginia was his kingdom.

But like LeBron James leaving Cleveland for Miami, Rich Rod turned his back on his home state.

Alabama offered Rich Rod the chance to be is head coach; he turned it down but took the Michigan head coaching job.

Alabama had to settle for their second choice, a guy named Nick Saban.

Suddenly, Rich Rod became public enemy No. 1 in West Virginia. How could Mr. West Virginia leave his state, his team, his school — for Michigan? For years he didn’t even come back to the state because of the hate.

Unfortunately, the next 17 years were not kind to Rich Rod. He was a poor fit at Michigan, because he ran a spread offense and the team was built for power running –and mostly because he was not a Michigan man.

He was fired after three years and then became the head coach of Arizona, where he had limited success and was fired after six years.

He then became an assistant at Ole Miss for a year, Hawaii for one year, and even Louisiana-Monroe.

Finally, a coach who was the hottest coach in the land and who turned down Alabama, got a head coaching job at lowly Jacksonville State.

He did a great job at Jacksonville State for three years, and it looked like Rich Rod would finish his career there.

But 17 years cures a lot of hate and pain.

Since Rich Rod left, WVU has been irrelevant with Bill Stewart, Dana Holgorsen and Neal Brown all being fired after disappointing tenures.

WVU wanted to return to the glory days and wanted a WVU man and a coach who could build a top program.

WVU wanted Rich Rod, and Rich Rod wanted to come home to WVU. It made me think of John Denver’s all-time classic, “Almost Heaven.”

Rich Rod left WVU 17 years ago a crass, cocky and full of himself young man, but he’s returned humbled and thankful.

Time and time again during the conference he said, “I should have never left.”

He talked for a long time about his roots in the state and his love of the state and his love of the school.

He still has the fire of the old Rich Rod. When someone in the audience started causing trouble, he said, “If there are any other Pitt fans in the building, leave now or else!”

Pat McAfee, a former WVU punter for Rich Rod, is also all in. He was at the pep rally/press conference doing his daily ESPN and promising millions in NIL money.

I love the Shakespearean stories of Bill Belichick and Rich Rod.

Belichick was 5 years old when his father was an assistant at North Carolina, and he still has many of his father’s sweatshirts from 67 years ago.

And then the former young king, Rich Rod, a man who spurned his kingdom and was cursed from every corner of the state for years, is welcomed back like Caesar to return WVU to greatness.

Ira Kaufman, an Altoona native and traveling sports fan, hosts IRA on Sports on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m. It is also available on Soundcloud & iTUNES, search Ira On Sports. His column appears occasionally in Voice of the Fan.