Mandel: 'WV acting like a psychotic ex-girlfriend'

In reply to:

---

---

 

Has RR paid his severance 4 mil? if he had done as ,apparently, his contract said maybe there would be less bitching. If he hasn't paid, if it was truly in the contract, then they have a right to ***** till they are paid.

 

Didn't read the article but does this make Rich Rod the Movie Star who dumps his 1st wife as soon as his 1st movie comes out.

 

What was the question about the buyout? From what I remember RR tried to make some lame excuse of no support because to ticky tack little things the athletic department hadn't done yet so he could get the buyout reduced. There is a buyout and Michigan and RR don't want to pay the full amount. I really think WVU has a valid point that the buyout should be paid.

 

Mandel is right. Coaches come and go all the time. If anything, they should thanking RR for all the success he brought them.

 

He who dances with Wolverines must pay fiddler.

 

RR is trying to say that WVU is the one in breach of the contract. There's another article out there that just roasts RR just as bad. I'll see if I can find it. Apparently he was recruiting for UM while still at WVU or something along those lines.

 

It sounds like WV has several reasons to be angry, and to take legal action against this guy and the contract funds. We will see if they win in court.
Why did RR shred all the player files, for example?

 

WVU claims those little items were either taken care of or were being taken care of and that RR is full of crap.

Someone reposted a full article on another board, here are some exerpts. Still trying to get a link.

---

 

I just don't see how the buyout will be reduced based on what jt posted. The sideline passes and $5 fee for high school coaches to me don't invalidate the buyout in his contract. RR and Michigan are just being cheap skates plain and simple.

 

WVU officials blamed for coach leaving

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The wealthy donors primarily responsible for keeping Rich Rodriguez as head football coach at West Virginia University 53 weeks ago are angry and frustrated over his departure this week for the University of Michigan.

Their ire isn't directed at Mr. Rodriguez.

It's aimed at WVU administrators.

"I tell you what, I've never seen anything mishandled as much as this was," Bob Reynolds, former chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments, said yesterday. "Here's a university that made a $200,000 decision -- it probably could've cost less than that [to keep Mr. Rodriguez] -- and it's going to cost them millions" in booster support, potential bowl money and revenue from football success.

"I've had calls from at least six major contributors to the program, and they're all done [donating] because they know the Mickey Mouse things that have gone on there," Mr. Reynolds continued. "I've been in business 36 years, and it's the worst business decision I've ever seen. I've been the COO of a 45,000-person company. 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?' They have no idea how big this is. It's frightening."

Mr. Reynolds declined to discuss it, but one source said he informed university officials yesterday that he planned to withdraw $12 million in donations he pledged to the school.

Earl G. "Ken" Kendrick Jr., a part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and benefactor to the WVU College of Business and Economics and other colleges in his home state, said: "I'm severely disappointed in leadership. I'm discouraged by the decision-making and lack of judgment. And the lack of respect for key employees -- because this isn't just about Rich, he's just the most high-profile one. It's a sad story. It's compelling to me as somebody who's given emotional and financial support to the university. And it makes it questionable to me as I go forward."

Mr. Rodriguez, both at the top of his program's prestige and other colleges' candidate lists, made what he considered relatively simple requests. However, his employers considered them "gun-to-the-head" demands because he already had the Michigan offer, said one source close to the administration.

All agree that the details separating the two sides had nothing to do with Mr. Rodriguez getting richer.

In separate meetings with Athletic Director Ed Pastilong, Chief of Staff Craig Walker and, finally, late Saturday night with newly installed President Mike Garrison, he asked the university to do the following:

• Allow at least an additional $100,000 in bonus money for his assistants.

• Allow scholarship players to retain possession of textbooks at the end of each term, which meant they could have sold them, as apparently happens at other programs.

• Waive a $5 ticket fee for each high-school football coach attending Mountaineer home games, a fee that generates an estimated $5,000 for the university each season.

• Hire seven graduate assistants and a new recruiting coordinator, to ease the duties performed by secondary coach Tony Gibson.

"You could do them in 15 minutes," Mr. Reynolds said of the wish list.

Those supporters, who pledged millions last December for the six-year, $1.9 million-per-year contract that helped to keep Mr. Rodriguez from accepting the University of Alabama coaching position, offered to absorb the additional costs. Their offer was denied.

"It is frustrating to me that when push came to shove, we weren't included in a possible solution," said Wheeling, W.Va., lawyer Dean Hartley, who last year donated toward VIP seating added to Mountaineer Field. "We were not asked to do anything that would bridge the divide that had developed obviously between the administration and Rich. Over the weekend, I've just been bitter over the way it was handled, especially knowing that it wasn't about Rich getting a raise."

"[Mr. Rodriguez] was flabbergasted, because this did not have to happen," said Mr. Reynolds, a Boston-area resident who also donated toward the new academic center that was part of Mr. Rodriguez's deal last December. "It just became political, and he didn't think he was supported. And I don't blame him."

Some of the items discussed were part of the contract extension signed Aug. 24, more than eight months after the details were first hammered out last December. Mr. Rodriguez's representatives maintain that university administrators agreed to other requests that haven't been met, though they decline to publicly specify them. In short, it means Mr. Rodriguez might contest the $4 million he owes WVU to buy out his contract, by claiming the university acted in bad faith or fraudulently.

The search for a new coach to replace Mr. Rodriguez, a Grant Town, W.Va., native who went 60-26 and to five bowls in seven seasons, began yesterday.

The only known candidate to step forward is former Auburn coach and current ABC/ESPN announcer Terry Bowden, son of former Mountaineer coach Bobby Bowden. Sources said Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster and former Mountaineers assistant head coach Rick Trickett of Florida State may soon come to Morgantown to interview for the vacancy.

Other possible candidates mentioned include Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley; Huntington, W.Va., native Jim Grobe of Wake Forest; Central Michigan coach and former Mountaineers assistant Butch Jones; Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster and former Mountaineers assistant head coach Rick Trickett of Florida State and Florida State offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher.

The West Virginia boosters have become close to Mr. Rodriguez and acknowledged that he grew depressed -- one described it as despairing -- over the 13-9 loss to Pitt that cost the Mountaineers a chance to play in the national championship game.

Mr. Hartley said he found it "amazing" that in the last year, WVU lost its basketball coach, John Beilein, to Michigan; the head of the Mountaineer Athletic Club, Whit Babcock, who was instrumental in last December's rally that kept Mr. Rodriguez, to Missouri and the swimming coach, Sergio Lopez, after winning the Big East title, to a Jacksonville, Fla., high school swimming program.

The women's soccer coach, Nikki Izzo-Brown, remains at the university although she has interviewed elsewhere. One college where she reportedly interviewed? The same place where Mr. Beilein and Mr. Rodriguez work.

"Maybe we should be a farm system," Mr. Hartley added, "until our coaches get good enough that they can coach at Michigan."

 

This is definitely not a cut and dry issue. There is plenty of blame to go around.

 

Because he looks like a jackass who used some minor issues that were being taken care of to jump ship from his alma mater, then shredded a bunch of documents on his way out, trying to screw the program over.

How much of that is true or not remains to be seen, but that's why he's taking so much heat.

 

In reply to:

---

---

 

it's funny cuz it's true