Hopefully Bobby Petrino is paying attention —- burning bridges is one thing, but setting the entire athletic department on fire is another, entirely. From the Charleston Gazette’s Dave Hickman.
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.
œIt™s unbelievable. Everything is gone, like it never existed,™™ said a source within the athletic department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. œGood, 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.
œIf a player spoke to a school or did public service, we don™t have a record of it,™™ said the source. œIf 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?™™
Computers haven’t made their way out to West Virginia yet?
Hopefully this is nothing but an oversight by Rich R, IF he took these papers and had them distroyed, then the NCAA should immediatly get involved. ALSO the U of Michigan should retract his contract until this is resolved by the WVA Athletic Department and it’s Dean. I truly feel sorry for the new coach at WVA, and he should really request a formal MAJOR investigation into everything
that Rich did PRIOR to bolting from U of WVA. Any recruit shold really be aware of this and take it for what it is. THEFT! I only hope that this works out well on both sides, but it sure looks very
nasty at this point in time. Good Luck WVU