Watch Rich Rodriguez be Maximus from Gladiator (Video)
By John Buhler
Arizona Wildcats head football coach Rich Rodriguez loves to make preseason hype videos, so here he is a Maximus from Gladiator.
Since leaving Ann Arbor for Tuscon back in 2012, Arizona Wildcats head football coach Rich Rodriguez has done a lot of winning on the gridiron, as well as produce some ridiculous preseason hype videos for Wildcat football.
In four years on the job in Tuscon, Rodriguez has led the Wildcats to four straight bowl games with a combined 33-20 (17-18) record and one AP Top 25 finish. From 2013’s Western inspired cinematic masterpiece to a 2014 rendition of Speed that has to have Keanu Reeves in his boots (whoa!), here is Rodriguez doing his best impersonation of Gladiator’s Maximus.
The theme of the hype video is obvious, “Are you not entertained?”, echoing the popular line from Russell Crowe’s character Maximus in the Academy Awards’ Best Picture of 2000.
The nearly four-minute long video features popular Wildcats decked out in gladiator garb and Arizona making highlight plays from last year’s campaign. Then around the three-minute mark, the masked gladiator ascends to the top of hill only to rip off his mask and it is none other than Rodriguez!
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He screams “Are you not entertained?”, which is then followed by a quick slideshow of some of the top players on the 2016 Wildcats wearing their best gladiator attire. Arizona has a tough first game of the season when they take on a strong independent team in the BYU Cougars at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on September 3rd.