It appears Rich Rodriguez was just as disappointed as the Rebel players down in Oxford on Sunday when Ole Miss made its decision to dismiss Matt Luke.

Any hope of the team’s offensive coordinator returning to the program appear slim as Rodriguez spoke publicly for the first time since Luke’s dismissal and his comments suggest his time in Oxford has come to an end.

The assistant coach was in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday evening for the 24th annual C Spire Conerly Trophy presentation at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and shared his thoughts following Luke’s dismissal.

“You are just kind of helpless, you just sit back there. Obviously, as coaches at some point, or you know, maybe the next few weeks we go after they hire coach whoever is going to be you know we’ve got to find jobs and look out for our future,” Rodriguez said. “I think first and foremost, we are going to make sure our current players and recruits knew what’s was going on as much as we could tell them and then from there we’ll take it from there and see what happens next.”

One question many Ole Miss fans had following Luke’s firing revolved around the program’s two coordinators. Would either Rodriguez of defensive coordinator Mike MacIntyre be promoted to head coach? The early speculation suggests neither assistant, both of which have successful track records as head coaches, are even being considered for the job.

Rodriguez even hinted at the fact he would be willing to interview for the job.

“I want to be a head coach against sure and I’ve only been at Ole Miss for 11 months but I loved my time there. I was excited about our future — all around the program but particularly offensively with all the young true freshmen we were playing,” Rodriquez said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen but I certainly appreciated the opportunity.”

In the clips below, much of Rodriguez’s comments are in the past tense, take that for what it’s worth.

You can view Rodriquez’s comments below courtesy of Mackenzie Salmon of the Clarion-Ledger: