Here's another good read for the WVU fans...

GMan · January 18, 2008

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/stewart_mandel/01/18/wvu.rodriguez/index.html

Time to move on

WVU's juvenile behavior toward Rodriguez must stop

On behalf of any sane, reasonable people out there who may be reading this story, I'd like to make a simple request to West Virginia University and its followers.

Let it go, already.

Your coach, Rich Rodriguez, left for Michigan -- a month ago. Obviously it was disappointing, perhaps even painful, coming as abruptly as it did. I'd imagine it's not too different from a guy dumping his girlfriend out of the blue for a hotter, sexier catch.

But c'mon, West Virginia. This is getting absurd. You would think you would have moved on by now, what with that Fiesta Bowl trashing of Oklahoma. You even found yourself a new man, Bill Stewart, who, while seemingly unqualified to run even a Division II program, you apparently really like.

So why all this continued venom toward Rodriguez?

It started the night he flew to Ann Arbor (with hecklers showing up at the airport), and it's only gotten worse since. Almost every day, we're treated to a new story about some supposed atrocity committed either by bitter fans (who have reportedly harassed family members of Rodriguez and his assistants -- including children -- still living in Morgantown) or by Rodriguez himself (who reportedly shredded some documents while cleaning out his office, originally reported to be players' entire personnel files but now believed to be ... umm, notes.)

The school slapped the guy with a $4 million lawsuit and made sure ESPN knew about it before he did. Now officials are rifling through his cell phone records, trying to figure out whether he called a few Michigan recruits on his West Virginia-issued phone before leaving town. (I'm sure he'd be happy to reimburse you if it caused him to go over his minutes that month.) You're doing your best to convince the college football world what a bad, bad man your once-beloved coach really is.

"It's something new every day, and it's totally ridiculous," Rodriguez told the Toledo Blade.

Don't you see what you've become, West Virginia?

You're the psychotic ex-girlfriend.

It's my experience that attempting to reason with such parties is almost always a fruitless endeavor. But for the sake of the involved parties' sanity, I might as well try.

Here are the realities of the situation:

â€¢ Rodriguez is the coach at Michigan. He's not coming back.

â€¢ Much of your animosity toward Rodriguez took root with the Mountaineers' inexplicable, national title-crushing loss to Pittsburgh on Dec. 1. Once he took the Michigan job, angry revisionists began deluding themselves into believing (or at least pretending to believe) Rodriguez was never that good to begin with -- never mind that he's the single biggest reason the Mountaineers were playing in a game of such magnitude to begin with. In the waning moments of the Fiesta Bowl, one section even began a mocking "Thank You, Michigan" chant.

Are you people nuts? Never in the 106-year history of the West Virginia program have the Mountaineers enjoyed such sustained success (three straight 11-win seasons) and accompanying national prominence as they did under Rodriguez. Rodriguez's revered predecessor, Don Nehlen, enjoyed just two such seasons (1988 and '93) over a 21-year run.

â€¢ As hard as this may seem to believe, Rodriguez is not the first successful coach to profess his undying love and loyalty to a school ("I plan on being here a long time," he said upon rejecting an offer from Alabama in December 2006.) only to leave for a more attractive suitor. It happens multiple times every year. Unlike some other famous defectors (ahem, Nick Saban), Rodriguez never lied about the courtship (ahem, Bobby Petrino). In fact, he never said anything at all.

His lone error in judgment was informing coveted recruit Terrelle Pryor of his decision before he told his own team. It's probably safe to surmise he's not the first coach to do such a thing -- in this case, however, Pryor happened to make it public. Yet somehow Rodriguez has managed to become the most vilified coach ever to leave a school. Even Saban is sitting somewhere right now saying, "Now that guy's got it rough."

â€¢ As tough as this may be for you to swallow, Michigan is a better job than West Virginia. Period. Richer tradition, bigger stadium, better resources, more prestigious conference, wider recruiting appeal ... I'll refrain from piling on. It should hardly come as a shock to you that Rodriguez would leave West Virginia for Michigan -- the stunner would have been if he'd turned down the Wolverines.

â€¢ As one West Virginia native relayed to me this week, "the point of the venom is that he's a native [and] alumnus ... in WV that sort of commitment still means something." Understandable. This whole thing certainly would not have become such a powder keg if Rodriguez wasn't one of the state's own.

Last I checked, however, a person is not bound to his state of origin for life in this country, particularly when it comes to career advancement. I'm sure there are no shortage of successful doctors, lawyers, etc., from West Virginia who left their home state to achieve their goals elsewhere. Hopefully their families' mailboxes weren't uprooted.

We know you're a proud state, West Virginia. We understand why you'd take Rodriguez's departure personally -- particularly with it coming on the heels of similarly renowned basketball coach John Beilein also bolting for Michigan.

But have you ever stopped to consider that your anger is being directed at the wrong party?

The tone for much of the Rodriguez backlash was set by West Virginia governor Joe Manchin, who, on the day the coach departed, lamented how, "... over the last two years, I have seen Rich become a victim of a college coaching system driven by high-priced agents that has turned [Rodriguez's] dreams into just another back-room business deal."

It was a highly naÃ¯ve, if well-intentioned message, and it was the first in a lengthy series of bizarre events that suggest West Virginia athletics don't exactly operate in the 21st century.

College sports is big business these days -- in the case of WVU's athletic department, a $47 million business -- yet as Arizona Diamondbacks executive and wealthy WVU booster Ken Hendrick (a contributor to a fund to retain Rodriguez during his Alabama courtship) told the Huntsville Times, "They still run the place like it was a business the size of a dry cleaning store."

Hendrick was one of several prominent boosters who came out in defense of Rodriguez following his departure, citing long-rumored behind-the-scenes tension between the coach and longtime athletic director Ed Pastilong. By all indications, Rodriguez's frustrations weren't directed at his own salary (which, thanks to the donors, the school upped to $1.8 million last year) but at the school continually nickel-and-diming his program in other areas.

He wanted some extra bonus money for his assistants. He wanted extra graduate assistants and a new recruiting coordinator. But Pastilong apparently balked, much to the dismay of the boosters.

"I've never seen anything mishandled as much as this was," Bob Reynolds, a booster and former Fidelity Investments CEO, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "... When somebody's producing, you ask, 'What can I do for you to make your life better?' Not 'What can I do to make your life more miserable?' "

Said Kendrick: "We have a poorly run athletic department and an incompetent AD."

Reasonable minds might read these statements and, also taking into account Beilein's recent exit, begin questioning whether the real source of West Virginia's plight isn't Rodriguez, but Pastilong. A remarkably similar situation just occurred at Hawaii, where home-grown coach June Jones bolted for SMU (not even an obvious step up). People there were disappointed but generally accepting of Jones' decision; they did, however, immediately oust AD Herman Frazier for failing to retain Jones.

Yet Pastilong has remained largely immune from criticism, perhaps in large part because one of his former Mountaineers teammates happens to be the governor himself, Manchin, a highly popular figure who not so subtly inserted himself into the heart of West Virginia's subsequent coaching search. He personally contacted childhood pal Nick Saban to gauge his interest, met with or spoke to candidates Doc Holliday, Butch Jones and Terry Bowden and consulted with Florida State coach and longtime friend Bobby Bowden about his son's candidacy, as well as Jimbo Fisher's.

The whole thing was a circus, culminating in an impromptu decision made either during or immediately following the Fiesta Bowl to promote interim coach Stewart, who never interviewed for the job beforehand and whose primary attribute, as spelled out by university president Mike Garrison, was that he "truly values the opportunity to work as the head football coach at West Virginia University."

He might as well have added: "Unlike that heinous traitor Rodriguez."

Stewart's hiring was announced Jan. 3. Yet here we are two weeks later, West Virginia, and you're still churning out daily Rodriguez headlines. The most recent "scandal" -- the one about the coach shredding documents, which the school now admits it's not even sure are actually missing -- was so blatantly planted by someone with an ax to grind (or a $4 million lawsuit at stake) it seemed almost juvenile.

As the coach said this week, "They just want to smear Rich Rodriguez."

The "they" is you, West Virginia. You're better than this.

I think you and I both know -- it's time to move on.

January 18, 2008

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You're the psychotic ex-girlfriend.

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that is the funniest thing ive read all day. i love it.

bhs15 · January 18, 2008

another article to read for ALL fans....

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/annarbor...&thispage=1

January 18, 2008

Yeah GMAN its nice how you post one man's opinion but not the other point of view. There are articles out there blasting Rodriguez. He is the one who backed out of his contract, pay the damn money and it will be over with.

January 18, 2008

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another article to read for ALL fans....

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/annarbor...&thispage=1

[/ QUOTE ]

Let's imagine you had a football coach you loved at Michigan, who told you, "This is my school,'' who said he was going to be "here a long time,'' and a year later, behind your back, when he was thought to be recruiting for Michigan, he's caught interviewing for another job.

Then the coach informed Bill Martin he was quitting by sending a graduate assistant to tell Martin, and called Michigan's top recruit - and incidentally the best player in the nation - to tell him he was leaving, before he told his own Michigan players, and invited the kid to ditch Michigan and come to New Job U.

He gets it.

hokie07 · January 18, 2008

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Yeah GMAN its nice how you post one man's opinion but not the other point of view. There are articles out there blasting Rodriguez. He is the one who backed out of his contract, pay the damn money and it will be over with.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe we have heard the other side of the story and the other point of view on Rodriguez ever since the day he left for Michigan...

January 18, 2008

You should post an article then.

bluefieldRocks · January 18, 2008

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Here's another good read for the WVU fans...

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I'm going to be honest GMan, that read wasnt good. That read sucked!

hokie07 · January 18, 2008

If I wrote an article on this whole situation then it would look very similar to what Stewart Mandel wrote for Sports Illustrated, and would have gone on to include all of these points...