“It’s really kind of ironic that the New Orleans Saints overcame the hurricane a few years back,” Rodriguez said, referring to Hurricane Katrina, which damaged large sections of the Gulf Coast in 2005. “I used to live and coach in New Orleans for a couple years, and I know how devastated that city is and how they overcome and rebuild the stadium and rebuild the program.
“And we’ve had a few hurricanes of our own. We had a big hurricane in August, and it kind of hit us like a ton of bricks. But you had 120 young men and a bunch of people on the staff that said this is not going to tear our program apart.
“In fact, it will do just the opposite: Bring us together. This senior class and the underclassmen that are leaders took charge of this football team and said nothing is going to tear this team apart, and nothing did.
“We didn’t end the season the way we wanted, and we didn’t win as many games as everybody would have liked. But don’t tell me this team is a failure. It’s a disappointment because we thought we could have won more and should have won more. But these guys are champions. I am proud of everyone.”
