By: DAVE POE (NewsAndSentinel.com) —
July is the slowest month of the year for those of us who write sports for a living.

That gives us plenty of time to think about what might happen in the upcoming sports year.

Sometimes, we get a little carried away dreaming up the wildest, craziest sports scenarios imaginable.

I’ll let you decide if that’s the case with my latest one.

I’ve mentioned it to a couple people and the reaction I’ve received has been so strong, I thought I would share it with you.

First, it’s pretty obvious to me this is going to be Rich Rodriguez’s last season as the head football coach at the University of Michigan.

He’s not going to win. He’s going to end the season with another lopsided loss to Ohio State, this time in the Big House, where there is no sin like losing to the hated Buckeyes.

Rodriguez’s short tenure at Michigan has been a disaster.

The players don’t seem to like his style. The alumni hasn’t warmed up to him. The administrators who hired him -and who could fire him -were unhappy they were going to have to be deposed in his legal dispute with West Virginia University.

Although most coaches get at least three years to prove themselves, I’m convinced Rodriguez is only going to get two.

That means he once again will be looking for another coaching job (then again, he always seems to be looking for another coaching job, even when he has a good one.)

So what job might be available at the end of the 2009 season?

All indications are this could be Mark Snyder’s last year at Marshall University.

Thundering Herd officials have been patient with Snyder, but a fifth losing season would make it unlikely he would get a sixth year.

That would put Marshall in the position of looking for a head football coach and it would take whoever is running Marshall’s athletic department about two seconds to figure out the best available coach is Rich Rodriguez.

Never going to happen, you say? Rodriguez never would lower himself and go to a program like Marshall, which has virtually no chance of ever winning a national championship.

But that’s exactly what others who have fallen from grace at major programs have done.

In fact, we have one of the ultimate examples coaching just 45 minutes from Parkersburg.

When Frank Solich lost his job at Nebraska, he eventually became the head coach at Ohio University.

It’s happened before, so it certainly could happen again.

Rodriguez recently said he loves the state of West Virginia.

But if he’s going to come back to his native state and coach a major college football program, there are only two options.

Actually, there is only one for Rodriguez burned forever the bridge to Morgantown.

If the above scenario would happen, could you imagine the next West Virginia-Marshall game?

Talk about putting some passion back in a rivalry that needs it.