HERO Sports is counting down the 100 days until the kickoff of the 2018 college football season on Saturday, Aug. 25, with daily trivia. Each day, from May 17 through Aug. 24, we'll publish one college football trivia question.
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One week after Alabama's loss to Auburn in the 2006 Iron Bowl resulted in a 6-6 regular-season record, the Crimson Tide fired head coach Mike Shula, who went 26-23 in four years. Before Nick Saban was hired, Alabama targeted another FBS head coach as Shula's replacement.
Who rejected Alabama's offer in 2006 before they hired Nick Saban as head coach?
Hint: He is no longer an active FBS head coach.
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Answer
Rich Rodriguez
Then-West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez was offered the Alabama job before the Mountaineers' regular-season finale vs. Rutgers. Reports said he accepted the offer a couple weeks later but has always denied that.
"Well, I never visited the campus, but I would say it was close," Rodriguez said in 2013. "We met in New York. I wouldn't talk to them until after the regular season was over. So the regular season was over the following week or the week after, I don't remember. We met up there.
"[Then-Alabama athletic director] Mal [Moore] was terrific. You could see the passion he had. And it's Alabama, so we talked a bit. And they offered the job."
Rodriguez passed and returned to West Virginia for another year before taking the Michigan job. Nick Saban accepted Alabama's offer a few weeks later.
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