http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/SPORTS06/80115046/0/SPORTS12
Rich Rodriguez reportedly destroyed files on WVU players
January 15, 2008
By MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
Editor's note: Story updated at 2:15 p.m.
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez remains public enemy No. 1 in West Virginia.
If today's reports from West Virginia newspapers are true, with the first one emerging from the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette, the hatred is about to reach a new level.
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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> The initial Gazette report, which cited an unnamed source, said that Rodriguez “destroyed all or most of the paperwork filed relating to every player on the Mountaineer roster and virtually all of the activities conducted by the programs over the past seven years.”
Rodriguez and Michigan officials were unavailable for comment this morning.
Rodriguez, who was hired by Michigan to replace Lloyd Carr on Dec. 17, removed all files pertaining to the players, the Gazette reported, including academic records and community service events, disciplinary results and all of the strength and conditioning data.
Their summer camp records and financial accounting are gone, as well as the players’ contact information.
“We are investigating that files are missing from the Puskar Center,” West Virginia spokesman Mike Fragale said Tuesday. “We will not have additional comment until the investigation is completed.”
The discovery occurred in the past 10 days since the West Virginia football staff returned from the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl.
The Gazette’s source alleges the incident occurred sometime between Rodriguez’s resignation on Dec. 19 and the team’s return from Arizona on Jan. 3.
Rodriguez had spent most of that time in West Virginia, he told the Detroit media.
The paper quotes multiple sources who work in the Puskar Center, the West Virginia football building, saying they saw Rodriguez and his video coordinator shredding paperwork on Dec. 18, the day after Rodriguez’s introductory news conference in Ann Arbor.
An athletic department source is quoted by the paper saying the department isn’t planning its own investigation. But this may affect Rodriguez’s chance of avoiding his buyout and will likely attract the attention of the university’s attorneys.
West Virginia sued Rodriguez for the $4 million buyout he owed the school for breaking his contract six years before it was to expire.
Should theft or destruction of state property be proven, it likely would damage his contention that the university did not live up to its promises, thus invalidating the agreement.
Rodriguez, who also brought six assistant coaches and five support staff members from West Virginia, is scheduled to be on the road recruiting for Michigan the next three weeks. National Signing Day is Feb. 6.
West Virginia’s sports information director Mike Montoro had no comment and Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown, said Tuesday morning he had not seen the report.
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Rich Rodriguez reportedly destroyed files on WVU players
January 15, 2008
By MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
Editor's note: Story updated at 2:15 p.m.
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez remains public enemy No. 1 in West Virginia.
If today's reports from West Virginia newspapers are true, with the first one emerging from the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette, the hatred is about to reach a new level.
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Rodriguez and Michigan officials were unavailable for comment this morning.
Rodriguez, who was hired by Michigan to replace Lloyd Carr on Dec. 17, removed all files pertaining to the players, the Gazette reported, including academic records and community service events, disciplinary results and all of the strength and conditioning data.
Their summer camp records and financial accounting are gone, as well as the players’ contact information.
“We are investigating that files are missing from the Puskar Center,” West Virginia spokesman Mike Fragale said Tuesday. “We will not have additional comment until the investigation is completed.”
The discovery occurred in the past 10 days since the West Virginia football staff returned from the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl.
The Gazette’s source alleges the incident occurred sometime between Rodriguez’s resignation on Dec. 19 and the team’s return from Arizona on Jan. 3.
Rodriguez had spent most of that time in West Virginia, he told the Detroit media.
The paper quotes multiple sources who work in the Puskar Center, the West Virginia football building, saying they saw Rodriguez and his video coordinator shredding paperwork on Dec. 18, the day after Rodriguez’s introductory news conference in Ann Arbor.
An athletic department source is quoted by the paper saying the department isn’t planning its own investigation. But this may affect Rodriguez’s chance of avoiding his buyout and will likely attract the attention of the university’s attorneys.
West Virginia sued Rodriguez for the $4 million buyout he owed the school for breaking his contract six years before it was to expire.
Should theft or destruction of state property be proven, it likely would damage his contention that the university did not live up to its promises, thus invalidating the agreement.
Rodriguez, who also brought six assistant coaches and five support staff members from West Virginia, is scheduled to be on the road recruiting for Michigan the next three weeks. National Signing Day is Feb. 6.
West Virginia’s sports information director Mike Montoro had no comment and Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown, said Tuesday morning he had not seen the report.
<!--endclickprintinclude-->West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong is out of town, attending the Big East meetings. <!-- story chat --> <!-- enable comment on for this story --> .
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