Rodriguez makes BP look like Mother Theresa

[farmdude]

From the WV Gazette

Football player files missing
Fingers point to Rodriguez
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia officials are wondering if assistant coaches aren’t all that Rich Rodriguez took with him to Michigan. They believe he may also have destroyed all or most of the paperwork files relating to every player on the current Mountaineer roster and virtually all of the activities conducted by the program over the past seven years.

Soon after returning to work after the Fiesta Bowl a little more than a week ago, the staff at the Puskar Center found that most of the files — including all of the player files — that had been stored in Rodriguez’s private office were missing. In addition, all of the players’ strength and conditioning files in the weight room were gone.

“It’s unbelievable. Everything is gone, like it never existed,’’ said a source within the athletic department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Good, bad or indifferent, we don’t have a record of anything that has happened.’’

According to the source, the files in Rodriguez’s office that are now missing included everything from records regarding summer camps — financial and otherwise — to data on boosters, recruiting and most everything related to activities within the program during Rodriguez’s seven years at WVU.

Most disturbing, though, is the absence of all of the players’ personal files, which included, among other things, contact information, scholarship money awarded, class attendance records and records on personal conduct and community service, be it positive or negative.

“If a player spoke to a school or did public service, we don’t have a record of it,’’ said the source. “If he broke a rule or missed class, we don’t have a record of that, either. We don’t have anything. All the good things these kids have done over the years, there’s nothing — not a picture of somebody speaking to a class, nothing. Why would somebody do that?’’

West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong did not return a message seeking comment Monday night. Neither could Rodriguez be reached for comment.

The files went missing sometime between when Rodriguez resigned on Dec. 16 and the time the team and staff returned from the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3. It could have happened as early as the first days following Rodriguez’s resignation because his old office was largely ignored by the support staff and the coaching staff between the time he left and Dec. 26, when the team and support staff all went to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl.

According to multiple sources, several people in the Puskar Center reported seeing Rodriguez and at least one member of his inner circle, video coordinator Dusty Rutledge, in Rodriguez’s private office shredding paperwork on Dec. 18. That’s the day he returned to clean out his office after being introduced as the Michigan coach at a press conference in Ann Arbor the day before. At the time, those who say they witnessed it either did not know what was being destroyed or paid it little attention to it until the files were discovered missing more than two weeks later.

While the files in Rodriguez’s office held a wide range of information, those that were discovered missing from the weight room office were more specific. Those included every aspect of strength and conditioning progress made by players under former strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Barwis, who along with most of his immediate staff followed Rodriguez to Michigan after the Fiesta Bowl. Those files included the progression made by each player in every specific area, from bench-press totals to 40-yard dash times. The files even included pictures of the players at different points in their careers.

While a source within the athletic department said the department itself wasn’t launching any type of investigation into the missing files — “Our plate is pretty full right now with trying to put together a staff and everything else,’’ the source said, “and we don’t have time to deal with [stuff] like this right now.’’ — it has apparently drawn the interest of the university’s legal counsel.

WVU lawyers are in the process of trying to recover $4 million from Rodriguez as a condition of breaking his contract with six years remaining to become the coach at Michigan. While Rodriguez has maintained that West Virginia breached the contract by not fulfilling all of its terms — an argument the university denies — the school filed suit in Monongalia County Circuit Court last month detailing what it claims are breaches by Rodriguez above and beyond simply breaking the contract. Those include calling recruits to tell them of his decision to switch schools before he told his own team. It certainly would not help Rodriguez’s case if the school can prove that he also destroyed what WVU officials consider state files on his way out.

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.

Apparently he was callling select recruits prior to the announcement at UM and telling them to follow him. Scum

[Empire Lindy]

WOW.

Now THAT'S playing dirty right there.

[AMasters]

I'm willing to bet he was hiding some activity the NCAA would be interested in as well.

Well, if you're Michigan, you make a mental note to change the locks quick if the NFL comes calling for him. Geez.

[Die Hard Cards]

This is what coaching is coming to these days.

[bling49]

That's not just dirty it also sounds illegal at some level.

Destroying or taking records he's not entitled to.

He's also probably not entitled to destroy records of current players or returning players just because he's leaving I would say it's the football programs property and WVU's property not Rodriguez property.

He did that just to hurt the WVU program.

[Die Hard Cards]

Originally Posted by bling49

He did that just to hurt the WVU program.

Yeah, or....

Originally Posted by AMasters

I'm willing to bet he was hiding some activity the NCAA would be interested in as well.

Either way he is an asshole.

[bling49]

Who would do something illegal, document it on paper then file it away at the school in your office?

When you are saying he is "hiding something" and he has now stolen it or destroyed it could you give an example?

I mean I think every DI school could be guilty of something if you dug around.

An athlete getting a free t-shirt or a free meal.

ANYTHING that they recieve that isnt offered to a regular student, that isnt directly coming from the football program or allotted by their scholarship is illegal.

The NCAA is a big contradiction anyway.

They pick and choose what they will allow and what they wont.

Muhamad Lagase recieved just a few thousand dollars like maybe 2 or 4 G's from his professional contract and he was ruled inelligible while other players who did the EXACT same thing and recieved more money than Lagase were ruled elegible.

NCAA Football players who play "PROFESSIONAL" baseball, they sign a contract with a MLB team and play for a farm team are allowed to remain elegible because it is a different sport while Jeremy Bloom the former Colorado skiier was ruled inelligible for accepting money to pay for his own ski coach to compete as an amature in a sport different than football, skiing.

So I'm sure WVU has done something illegal but what exactly could Rodriguez had stolen or destroyed that he kept filed away that would have documented it and exposed him?

Seems like not documenting it and filing it away in the first place would have been the better idea.

and I'd hardly say that makes Bobby Petrino comparable to mother Teresa, maybe a someone still a little shady

Originally Posted by farmdude

Apparently he was callling select recruits prior to the announcement at UM and telling them to follow him. Scum

Anthony Allen decides to transfer then challenges Louisville on their decision to not allow him to transfer to Arkansas....hmmmmmmmmmmm do you think Petrino's phone records would show a lot of activity in the 502 before and after he quit the Falcons?

[Die Hard Cards]

I'm talking about more on the lines of not giving them an opportunity to dig something up on him to pay him back for his departure and other things.

[Empire Lindy]

I'm guessing grade issues would be the first item to consider as being "on record". A player who has a bunch of progress reports showing failing scores suddenly ends every semester on the Academic Honor Roll.

Next I'd wonder if there were records that could prove the coaches were working with players during NCAA unapproved times. If there were notes about practice performance when the team wasn't supposed to be practicing, there could be sanction issues to consider.

I'm sure there are many more and surely more severe possibilities. Those are just the first two that popped into my head.

[bling49]

Very plausible EL, I could see that.

If that in fact was true those infractions dont follow a coach to his new school so this would have only helped WVU in that case.

So Rich Rod is in fact Mother Teresa like trying to protect the innocent