ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan's coaching search may have lasted longer than it wanted and the school might not have landed its top choice, yet college football's winningest program is thrilled to have West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez.

And the feeling is mutual.

Rodriguez, who flirted with the Alabama job a year ago, said it took a job of Michigan's stature for him to leave his home state and alma mater.

"It was a very difficult decision to leave a place where I grew up," Rodriguez said during his introductory news conference Monday morning. "It was going to take a very special opportunity and a very special place and I think that's what this is."

The 44-year-old Rodriguez represents the first head coach to come outside the "Michigan family" as athletic director Bill Martin put it, since Bo Schembechler in 1969.

Before hiring Rodriguez, the Wolverines apparently went 0-for-2 in their first coaching search since hiring Schembechler away from Miami of Ohio, with LSU's Les Miles and Rutgers' Greg Schiano turning down reported opportunities to replace the retiring Lloyd Carr. Rodriguez, though, seems to be much more than a consolation prize.

He built West Virginia into a Big East power, winning the conference championship this year for the fourth time in five seasons and going 60-26 overall.

-- AP