Rich Rodriguez (official thread of last laughs)

[HailToMichigan]

Here is the AP release dealing with these so called smoking gun emails:

LINK

SI Link



Now why wasn't the athletic dept copied on these emails demanding a cultural change in he athletic department? So it appears that Pastilong's response that you are ridiculing isn't that far fetched. While we are at it Brown also accused Pastilong of running Ass't AD Mitt Babcock out of town, but Babcock refuted that notion when he responded that the Missouri position was a promotion for him and that he and Pastilong parted on good terms.

I know you think RR is a shithead, but there's no way I'm gonna believe that he stewed in his own juices for months on wanting a culture change then blammo! emailed the president of the university to dime out his boss.

I'd hazard a guess that, being that the FOIA requires some heavy specifics when you request info, the only thing we've seen are the emails sent to the president because that's what was specifically requested.

I think it's pretty hard to dispute that the relationship between RR and the athletic department was deteriorating. Assign blame for the broken relationship in whatever way makes you happiest, but undeniably, it was bad. As suggested before, why would WVU handle their ex-coaches' buyouts so differently if there wasn't some kind of difference in the relationship?

 

[LightningRod]

It's also difficult to understand why the athletic department is excluded from the distribution list of a series of emails demanding a culture of change in that very department.

 

[HailToMichigan]

It's also difficult to understand why the athletic department is excluded from the distribution list of a series of emails demanding a culture of change in that very department.

Rephrasing the above: You honestly think that RR made his feelings known only to the school prez? First, this had probably been going on since well before August 1. RR's camp didn't suddenly pull this culture change shocker out of thin air and take it straight to the president of the university. Second, RR was likely talking to the AD rather than emailing him. (RR's stated he doesn't like to use email as confirmed during the shredding "issue" - he didn't have any stored up and very few people get email from him.)

It's not difficult to understand. Rodriguez talks to the AD, doesn't get satisfaction, agent emails school president. Accepting the premise that these were the only conversations about RR's wishes regarding the department is weak.

 

[LightningRod]

What is weak is trying to make excuses for RR from reading a series of email exchanges between RR's agent and the University Pres that dealt with the need for cultural change in he athletic dept and that excluded the athletic dept from the distribution list.

 

[HailToMichigan]

What is weak is trying to make excuses for RR from reading a series of email exchanges between RR's agent and the University Pres that dealt with the need for cultural change in he athletic dept and that excluded the athletic dept from the distribution list.

So you really think the athletic department was kept 100%, totally, completely, out of the loop?

 

[Steve19]

What is weak is trying to make excuses for RR from reading a series of email exchanges between RR's agent and the University Pres that dealt with the need for cultural change in he athletic dept and that excluded the athletic dept from the distribution list.

Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner folks!

HTM, with all due respect, I have to agree with LR. What in the heck are you arguing about and why? You don't know anything about what happened at West Virginia.

I think most folks here don't care if things were souring for six months,

• He left his job at West Virginia in an entirely unprofessional way.
• He has a reputation as a self-interested person who doesn't mind shaving the edge off rules to get his way.
• If he had beaten Pitt, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
• Regardless of what anyone says, there's a lot more to West Virginia's reaction than that of the psycho ex-lover.

Nothing HTM or anyone else says in defense of RR is going to change how I feel about him, and I think that is how most folks here feel. If something different comes out of the legal route, then I am open to have my opinion changed by those results.

In the meantime, I believe he's told you who he is and this is what you hear:

You've got a prize coach, who was so hard done by he just had to leave his dream job. He's gonna roll down here and just light up the Buckeyes, just you wait and see. He is perfect, just like Charlie, and every bit the offensive genius. Tressel and his staff will never know what hit them. Florida won a national championship based on just a little bit of understanding of his offensive mastery. Now that he's at TSUN, the sky's the limit.

We hear something different. Very different. We're quite happy to let time tell us who hears best.

 

[Bleed S & G]

So you really think the athletic department was kept 100%, totally, completely, out of the loop?

How would you know if they were or were not?

Deeper.. and deeper..

 

[HailToMichigan]

OK, yeah, I was not a fly on the wall last summer to hear about RR's feelings about the WVU athletic department. So what? Let me lay out for you exactly where you guys are taking these assumptions, and repeat a couple things that were ignored.

You're attacking RR for sending emails to the school president without cc'ing the athletic department. (His agent actually, but whatever - you already know I don't make a distinction.)

This would keep the athletic dept out of the loop and paint a picture of Rodriguez as someone who goes over his bosses' heads and whines about changes that he never mentioned otherwise.

In order to paint this picture, you have to make the following assumptions.

- That these emails are absolutely the only ones ever sent on the subject. Neither Brown nor Rodriguez never separately emailed anyone in the athletic department.
- That the rift began precisely on August 1. There was no correspondence regarding "culture change" or any other changes to be made prior to that.
- That neither Rich Rodriguez nor anyone associated with him (agent, financial advisor, etc.) ever actually spoke directly with someone - anyone at all - in the athletic department. Not once did Rodriguez walk into his boss's office for a conversation about it.

I realize what you think of Rodriguez as an individual, and that it's natural to apply that opinion to each and every action he took to come up with the explanation that casts him in the worst possible light. One of two things are possible here: Either the athletic department was kept in the dark by Rodriguez, and Rodriguez never spoke to his bosses about the issue (and therefore not cc'ing them on the emails is symptomatic of that) or the athletic department was not kept in the dark (and therefore there is nothing in the emails that Ed Pastilong did not already know about.) To make an issue of this is to assume the former.

How would I know if the AD was kept out of the loop? I don't. But one assumption or the other has to be made. You guys assume Rodriguez didn't communicate this stuff to his bosses at all. I assume the opposite.

 

[Steve19]

OK, yeah, I was not a fly on the wall last summer to hear about RR's feelings about the WVU athletic department. So what? Let me lay out for you exactly where you guys are taking these assumptions, and repeat a couple things that were ignored.

You're attacking RR for sending emails to the school president without cc'ing the athletic department. (His agent actually, but whatever - you already know I don't make a distinction.)

This would keep the athletic dept out of the loop and paint a picture of Rodriguez as someone who goes over his bosses' heads and whines about changes that he never mentioned otherwise.

In order to paint this picture, you have to make the following assumptions.

- That these emails are absolutely the only ones ever sent on the subject. Neither Brown nor Rodriguez never separately emailed anyone in the athletic department.
- That the rift began precisely on August 1. There was no correspondence regarding "culture change" or any other changes to be made prior to that.
- That neither Rich Rodriguez nor anyone associated with him (agent, financial advisor, etc.) ever actually spoke directly with someone - anyone at all - in the athletic department. Not once did Rodriguez walk into his boss's office for a conversation about it.

I realize what you think of Rodriguez as an individual, and that it's natural to apply that opinion to each and every action he took to come up with the explanation that casts him in the worst possible light. One of two things are possible here: Either the athletic department was kept in the dark by Rodriguez, and Rodriguez never spoke to his bosses about the issue (and therefore not cc'ing them on the emails is symptomatic of that) or the athletic department was not kept in the dark (and therefore there is nothing in the emails that Ed Pastilong did not already know about.) To make an issue of this is to assume the first.

Sorry, I don't mean disrespect, really, but to be very honest, who cares?

 

[sandgk]

WVU continues efforts to move the suit against erstwhile head coach US District Court back to Monongalia County.

CLARKSBURG - Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez can't claim Michigan citizenship to escape Monongalia County jurisdiction over a $4 million lawsuit against him, attorneys for the university argue in federal court.

In a Jan. 18 motion for remand from U. S. District Court in Clarksburg to the county courthouse in Morgantown, Charleston attorney Jeffrey Wakefield of Charleston disputed Rodriguez's claim that he became a Michigan man before Dec. 27 when the university sued him.

"Rodriguez was personally served with the summons and complaint at his West Virginia residence on December 29," wrote Wakefield.

"Upon information and belief," he wrote, "Rodriguez's wife and children continue to reside in the West Virginia residence and his children continue to attend school in West Virginia."

Reliance, in part, on interesting precedent ...

From Wakefield's point of view, District Judge John Bailey doesn't even need to consider evidence of citizenship.

Wakefield argues that the university is an arm of the state and not a citizen of the state, as Rodriguez alleged in removing the suit to federal court.

In support of his position Wakefield relies on an unlikely source -- Charleston attorney Sean McGinley, who represents Rodriguez.

According to Wakefield, McGinley once represented Attorney General Darrell McGraw and "successfully took the position that the action was not removable for diversity as neither the State nor its alter ago is a citizen for purposes of diversity jurisdiction."

 

[HailToMichigan]

Sorry, I don't mean disrespect, really, but to be very honest, who cares?

I dunno, but there's 85 pages' worth of give-a-shit above this one

Anyway I try to usually just respond to stuff said that I consider wrong. Hopefully the only fights I start are the one-sided ones with dead horses.

 

[buck e]

After reading the article, I see a head coach who was looking at other opportunities and began laying the groundwork to try to avoid paying his buyout.

 

[LightningRod]

So you really think the athletic department was kept 100%, totally, completely, out of the loop?

At this point in time I don't know what the athletic department was privy to in relation to the accusations levied against it that it somehow stonewalled needed cultural changes. All I know so far is that RR's agent excluded the athletic dept from the distribution list while sending emails to the University's president. What I did take exception with is your link to a Detroit newspaper page that reported the email exchange while leaving out the fact that the athletic department was not copied on these emails. Why would a Detroit newspaper omit this fact? Is the paper actively taking sides and pushing an agenda? I'll wait for discovery to start defending one side or the other.

 

[HailToMichigan]

After reading the article, I see a head coach who was looking at other opportunities and began laying the groundwork to try to avoid paying his buyout.

That's because you see a head coach you already hate. You couldn't be more transparent about that if you tried.

. Why would a Detroit newspaper omit this fact? Is the paper actively taking sides and pushing an agenda?

How fun! A conspiracy theory. Better break out the tin foil - the media's covering things up!

Here: this is the same story that was at the Detroit News link when I posted it. Should put the conspiracy theory to rest.
Charleston Daily Mail

Two other things.

One, mostly unrelated, posted here 'cause I found it funny. Poking through the Charleston papers, I found this little tidbit:
The Charleston Gazette - WVU
Quote:

Gov. Joe Manchin responded to a story detailing e-mails between Rich Rodriguez's agent and West Virginia University athletic officials by saying he did not interfere with Mountaineer athletics, and would propose sweeping changes in collegiate sports at an upcoming national governors meeting.

"I didn't interfere in Mountaineer athletics. To show how sincere I am, I'm going to propose that all of us governors interfere in all athletics!"

Two, from the very paper LR accuses of having an agenda to protect Rodriguez. Same link as I posted earlier - the story's been updated. Consider this a pile of fresh steak thrown at you wolves, compliments of me. During all the bilateral flapping about who didn't copy who on an email, you guys missed something far more sinister. With the radars tuned to the hate-RR frequency, I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet. (Probably because nobody has clicked on my link after the AP ones popped up.) As likely as not it's business as semi-usual in coaching contracts, but have at it anyway:

In the hectic last months of his employment at West Virginia University, Rich Rodriguez, the University of Michigan's new football coach, complained about $200,000 missing from a booster fund he started, conspired to evade the state's open-records act,

Specifically....

Brown complains to Walker that the athletic department released the financial terms of Rodriguez's new contract.
"You, Rich and I agreed in Rich's office we did not want any of the terms released and that it would take months for someone to get a copy of the contract through the FOI act. I am very disappointed that the AD violated an understanding we had."

"I" being Mike Brown, "you" being the school prez' chief of staff, and "Rich" being Mike Brown's pet name for "Dick Wadriquez."

My take? Shady, but in this instance it takes two to tango and both the school and coach would be at fault here for making an agreement like that. I don't know how the terms eventually did get out, and I don't care nearly as much about WVU's way of doing business as Michigan's. And I do believe that Michigan seems not to have made that mistake, unless it went down exactly as it did in Morgantown.

 

[BayBuck]

That's because you see a head coach you already hate. You couldn't be more transparent about that if you tried.

And you see one that you as a fan are predetermined to love. See why this conversation isn't getting anywhere?