Pete Rodriguez (American football)

Pete Rodriguez (July 25, 1940 – November 30, 2014) was an American football coach of Mexican-American descent. He served as the head football coach at Western Illinois University from 1979 to 1982, compiling a record of 14–28.

College coaching career

Rodriguez broke into coaching as a graduate assistant at Arizona (1968–1969). and later served as defensive coordinator at Western Illinois (1970–1973), Florida State (1974–1975), Iowa State (1976–1978) and Northern Iowa (1986). He served as head coach at Western Illinois from 1979 to 1982.

Professional coaching career

USFL

Rodriguez served as defensive line coach for the Michigan Panthers of the United States Football League (USFL) from 1983 to 1984. He was part of the USFL's first championship team, helping the Panthers to the title in 1983. He spent the season as defensive line coach with the Denver Gold.

CFL

Rodriguez was the defensive coordinator for the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League in .

NFL

Rodriguez entered the National Football League as the Los Angeles Raiders special teams coach (1988–89). He served in a similar capacity with the Phoenix Cardinals (1990–93), Washington Redskins (1994–97), Seattle Seahawks (1998–2003) and, most recently, the Jacksonville Jaguars (2004–2006).

UFL

Rodriguez served as the special teams coach for the New York Sentinels of the United Football League in 2009.

Involvement with USC

In July, 2010 the Los Angeles Times reported that he was the coach hired by Pete Carroll as a special consultant for USC's kickers during the 2008 football season. The use of additional coach was one of the items that the NCAA found to be a Major Violation and subjected USC to the "Loss of institutional control" finding. Carroll had defended the hiring as being done with the knowledge of the USC compliance staff however the compliance staff reported that this was not the case.

Personal

One of Rodriguez's daughters, Regina M. Rodriguez, serves as a United States district judge for the District of Colorado.

Death

Rodriguez died in San Diego, on November 30, 2014, from a complication following an undisclosed surgery, after being in a coma for months.

Head coaching record

References