Manchin, WVU brass deny ‘smear campaign’
By
Dave Hickman
Staff writer
MORGANTOWN — No one at West Virginia University is conducting a smear campaign against former football coach Rich Rodriguez, but his own actions have served that purpose fairly well. That’s according to Gov. Joe Manchin, who numbers among his friends parties on both sides of the dispute.
“As far as everyone I know — and that includes the president and the athletic director and most of the staff — there is no smear campaign,’’ Manchin told the Gazette. “The facts are simply what they are.’’
In breaking his own self-imposed silence on the matter of his move from West Virginia to Michigan, Rodriguez Thursday evening told Michigan reporters that accusations that he destroyed documents were merely the latest move in “a smear campaign’’ conducted by WVU officials and others in the state.
West Virginia deputy athletic director Mike Parsons called those accusations “ludicrous” and “absurd.”
“We’ve not done anything to try and smear Rich Rodriguez,’’ Parsons said.
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In making his case that there is a smear campaign, Rodriguez said one example was reports regarding academic files.
“You read the thing about erasing all the academic files, and then the next day, you read, ‘Oh, no, we have the academic files.’ So the corrections are on Page 6, and the lead story is on Page 1,’’ Rodriguez said. “I’m thinking, OK, so you just let it pass because, eventually, people will realize there’s a different agenda why they’re doing this. But I just want everybody to move forward.’’
The story of the missing files, first reported in the Gazette Tuesday, never mentioned anything about erasing academic records. It merely said that among the wide range of information in the missing files were notes regarding missed classes by players.
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Rodriguez also disputed that he called Michigan recruits while still the coach at West Virginia, which apparently is something else he considers part of a smear campaign.
“I did not call a single ... I don’t recall exactly the particular time or how I made the call, but I never called a single Michigan recruit before I resigned as a coach at West Virginia,’’ Rodriguez said.
But while he may not have called Michigan recruits — players who had either committed to or were considering UM — he did call uncommitted recruits who had been considering West Virginia. Included among those was the nation’s top-rated quarterback, Terrelle Pryor of Jeannette, Pa., who within minutes of talking to Rodriguez (and before Rodriguez had resigned or told his team of his intent) was quoted by a recruiting Web site as saying Michigan had just been added to his list of prospective schools.
If he wears a sweatervest, I'm gonna go apeshit.
