Rich Rodriguez (official thread)

[jwinslow]

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

The rest of the country - they aren't even talking about it. I'm not just talking about Ann Arbor, I mean everyone.

The three major outsider forums I visit on occasion... sure seems different than your claim

Tiger Forums - Rich Rod destroyed WVU records before he left? ( 1 2 3)
Hornfans - Much hilarity ensuing in Morgantown
WeAreSC - Suspicions surround Rich Rodrigues departure from UWV

Michigan just the other day picked up a linebacker out of Youngstown, so this "fence around Ohio" must have some holes near Toledo.

Fence smack works better when the kid has an osu offer.

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

Keep in mind - there are only two places where the [censored]storm is raging full throttle. Columbus and Morgantown. You guys have really worked yourself up over this and convinced yourself that RR is a scumbag of galactic proportions. The rest of the country - they aren't even talking about it.

nice try HTM, but taint so... i just read no fewer than six articles posted today (mostly this afternoon) on internet news mags (SI, CBS, Sporting News, others) that are talking about this issue. i've posted a few of them here on BP.

take the ear plugs out...

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

... Michigan just the other day picked up a linebacker out of Youngstown, so this "fence around Ohio" must have some holes near Toledo.

again, nice try...

[Buckeyefrankmp]

Keep in mind - there are only two places where the [censored]storm is raging full throttle. Columbus and Morgantown.

I was listening to WXYT (97.1 The Ticket) and the sports guys were not happy with RR.

[Oh8ch]

No way to tell what happened with the paperwork... I'm sure RR didn't want anything unessential left behind for lawyers to comb through, but if required records or those necessary for the proper functioning of the team were destroyed, that's a problem. My guess is that WVU is exaggerating the situation, but there is no way to be sure.

As a manager you are paid to do a job and keeping records is commonly part of that job. Conditioning records are not mandated by law or something the U as a whole cares about. But if you are creating being paid to do a job and as part of that job you create those records it is a stretch to call them personal data.

On the one hand this is "he said, she said" stuff and the devil is in the details.

On the other hand, this is dirt about the UM football program. Common standards for journalist integrity on the part of posters on this board do not apply.

[sandgk]

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

Keep in mind - there are only two places where the [censored]storm is raging full throttle. Columbus and Morgantown.

Do a Google News search on Rich Rodriguez - see if all those 160+ articles are coming from those two towns - taint so - thus your's is a claim that does not stand up to scutiny.

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

You guys have really worked yourself up over this and convinced yourself that RR is a scumbag of galactic proportions.

No, galactic proportions and Head Coach only work with Weis and Mangino -
I'm not even going to (re)touch the litany of all that Dick Wadriguez could have done, should have done nor what he did do instead.

Originally Posted by HailToMichigan

So the idea that the UM AD is going to "wake up" and suddenly start seeing what you see.....unlikely. It is not of such astronomical proportions that it will hurt Michigan in recruiting - surely, if Oklahoma can still recruit after the Rhett Bomar thing, and FSU can still recruit after everything that's happened to them, Michigan can still recruit too, so don't get your hopes up.

FSU, Rhett Bomar? Consigning your alma mater to the gutter so quickly?

Besides, isn't your AD all at sea half the time?

[Oh8ch]

No way to tell what happened with the paperwork... I'm sure RR didn't want anything unessential left behind for lawyers to comb through, but if required records or those necessary for the proper functioning of the team were destroyed, that's a problem. My guess is that WVU is exaggerating the situation, but there is no way to be sure.

As a manager you are paid to do a job and keeping records is commonly part of that job. Conditioning records are not mandated by law or something the U as a whole cares about. But if you are creating being paid to do a job and as part of that job you create those records it is a stretch to call them personal data.

On the one hand this is "he said, she said" stuff and the devil is in the details.

On the other hand, this is dirt about the UM football program. Common standards for journalist integrity on the part of posters on this board do not apply.

[HailToMichigan]

OCBucksFan -

You're asking why I continue to stand up for Rodriguez when it seems clear to all in scarlet and gray that he's lower than a snake.

First, see above, it's part of my point.

Next, I wouldn't be here - a Michigan fan on an Ohio State site - if I didn't enjoy the arguments. Rep dings be damned. If I get a red mark or two for being a homer, so what? I like the arguments. I hope it spices things up for you guys too. It's more fun than reading 200 posts from fellow Michigan fans that those dingbats in Columbus are out to get us. (Almost unanimously, Michigan fans are thrilled to have hired Rodriguez and don't have the slightest concern in the world that Buckeye fans don't like him.)

Do you not think that RR deserves even the slightest benefit of the doubt from Michigan fans? Nobody is perfect. Of course we know that RR has some sketchy recruits on his record. Of course we think he'd have done better by waiting four hours to call Terrelle Pryor. Of course we wish he'd just pay or settle the $4M, and that the school would step up to help. (Though I imagine the school's hands became tied a bit when WVU filed the lawsuit.) The ideal coach is a flame-wielding seraphim with access to Jim Tressel's playbook, but that doesn't exist. And yes, even Tressel has a blotch or two on his record. If you're willing to overlook the giant [censored]stain that is Maurice Clarett and all the accusations and allegations that swirled around him, surely I'm allowed to overlook Pac-Man Jones and Noel Devine - both of whom, it has not escaped my notice, along with Chris Henry, managed to stay out of trouble while at WVU. ("But Pat Lazear!" I've addressed that too. At WVU, you take what you can get. RR is not the entire athletic dept. and I have my doubts he'll be allowed to recruit felons to the school, and he really won't need to, so I'm not concerned. I'll be disappointed if he does, but I don't think he will.)

Anyway, I do think Michigan fans owe RR the benefit

We are not supporting RR for no other reason than "doing well in the Big East." He's been successful at every stop with far fewer resources than he'll have at Michigan. He brings with him a terrific-looking cadre of assistants.

This may well be a lose-only position, at least on a Buckeye site. I don't care. There will never be some tell-all exonerating event that will make you guys go, "wow, we were so wrong about this guy!" The likely scenario as I see it will be that this shredding stuff goes away quietly, because there's very little to it IMO, and many of you guys will continue to believe the worst. When I post things about, say, RR visiting players at their homes and taking an interest in their lives, all I get in reply is, "Do you really think that would change my opinion?" Would anything? I don't get an answer to that question. I could post the story on ESPN where RR pretty much denies everything, but would anyone here believe it? So I don't harbor any illusions that you guys will jump to my side and "see the light" as it were, but I don't care. I believe what I believe about the guy, and I don't believe anything even approaching the worst, and I'm not gonna change what I say and shut up or suck up just to curry favor.

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by sandgk

...galactic portions and Head Coach only work with Weis and Mangino - ...

fify...

[Tlangs]

see if all those 160+ articles are coming from those two towns - taint so - thus your's is a claim that does not stand up to scutiny.

I must have missed where everyone decided to try and insert "taint" into every post.

It is rather amusing and I think I will try in the future....carry on with the Dick Rod bashing.

[OCBucksFan]

H2M, I haven't really made too much of an opinion, I think his questionable recruiting of Pryor makes me raise an eyebrow, I think the whole destruction of files can't be true, because if it is, well all of the jokes about West Virginia will be amplified. As for the 4 Million, I just think if he shuts up and pays, this all goes away, but him fighting that makes me seriously question his integrity.

Like I have said a few times in this thread, this is just a bad breakup. This is akin to having your girl leave you and not wanting to return your CD collection, but by him fighting it, the name calling and both sides dragging each other through the mud makes the rest of the country really question what the hell is going on with this guy.

It's like a bad couple:
Her: I am leaving you.
Him: Can I have my CD's back?
Her: No, you said I could keep those...
Him: No, I said you could keep those at your house so I could listen to them when I came over.
Her: Well you said you would get me new boots, and I never got those, so no, you can't have your CD's back.
Him: Wait, did you destroy all the pictures of us?
Her: No, I destroyed all of my pictures, your must have misplaced yours.
Him: You're a bitch, I still want my CD's back.
Her: Well your friends are all jerks and call me names.

I figure you have to like debating, this forum does have some reasonable people, but there's so much smoke here I have to wonder how big the fire actually is. Like I said, good luck, I have yet to see a coaching hire go this crazy in such a short time.

[shetuck]

Originally Posted by Tlangs

I must have missed where everyone decided to try and insert "taint" into every post....

only everybody in Columbus and WVa. the rest of the country doesn't give a crap...

[Tlangs]

bastage

[AKAKBUCK]

Originally Posted by OCBucksFan

I figure you have to like debating, this forum does have some reasonable people, but there's so much smoke here I have to wonder how big the fire actually is. Like I said, good luck, I have yet to see a coaching hire go this crazy in such a short time.

Well... there was that whole "Roll Tide Roll" incident.

[HailToMichigan]

Originally Posted by sandgk

Do a Google News search on Rich Rodriguez - see if all those 160+ articles are coming from those two towns - taint so - thus your's is a claim that does not stand up to scutiny.

Clarification: I don't mean news outlets. They're just reporting. Opinion columnists - you know, the Dennis Dodds of the world - they have deadlines too. I mean message boards, blogs, etc. - the "voice of the fans" so to speak. They simply do not care.

Quotes from the USC link. Very helpful in proving my point.

I guess WVU has yet to hear of the COMPUTER!! No electronic records whatsoever??? I find that very suspicious.

This seems like a total non-story. There is no way that important player files that the school might require would only be in a single hard copy kept in the Head Coach's office. That's just ludicrous. As someone in that article pointed out, the only files that should have been in there that didn't exist elsewhere would be documents that belonged to the Head Coach and no one else.

Not quite as bad as Crooked Stick Rick trying to "remove all the players" when he left Colorado for Washington.

It sound like sour grapes on the part of WVU and possibly related to the lawsuit they filed against Rodriguez.

After I graduated from college, a D-II school, my track coach left for a major D-I school, in part because the Athletic Dept was incompetent. Even though he had won the school's first and only T&F National Championship while he was there, the Athletic Dept made up all kinds of [censored] about him after he left, even stooping so low as to accuse him of stealing hurdles from the track. He had gone to a school which at the time had one of the biggest track budgets out there and they accused him of stealing hurdles!

From Texas, where they are more critical than at USC (unsurprising) but still the comments are not

txMaize...I concur with you. I was thinking the same thing as I was reading the article. I find it hard to believe that the school has no electronic document of the sort of information identified in the article. It seems like what they are saying is that RichRod had all the information in a file cabinet in his office or only on his computer hard drive that is not associated with the atheletic department server. This is just odd to me

I'm sorry, but this one is on WVU. I work for a very large computer company. I left in the mid 90s to do the whole start up thing, and then came back 3 years later. When I left they tried very hard to keep me, but once they knew for sure I was leaving, I was escorted out the door that day. I had an excellent rating, etc... That was not the issue. Once an employee is leaving a company, it is up to that company to protect it's intellectual capital. I worked with a lot of confidential information on pre-announced products and there was no way in hell my company was going to let me walk out without assuring that information stayed. In this case, the compliance office should be with RR to protect their information. To do otherwise is just bad business. Keys, badges, etc... get confiscated that day. I don't know what he did, but he should have never had the ability to do it in the first place.

Three pages at LSU. Two at Texas. One at USC. All about the shredding thing, nothing even mentioning Pryor or any of the other stuff. Nary a whisper at TexAgs.com. RCMB said nothing until the shredding - and even there, he has defenders:

thus far i've seen about 2/3 of the original article rebutted by direct quotes from WVU divisions. the original article claimed nothing remained and he had the only copies of everything. then members of the WVU staff are interviewed and they go "ummmm we have a copy of it too" and the story changes to the remaining 1/3, which is that his own personal stuff he created is missing. and i have yet to hear a reason of why he was supposed to leave that stuff.

So my point remains. Only in Buckeye country do they care this much about Rich Rodriguez, and only in Buckeye country is he so reviled. (And West Virginia, but you get my drift.)

[HailToMichigan]

Originally Posted by OCBucksFan

Like I said, good luck, I have yet to see a coaching hire go this crazy in such a short time.

You must have slept through every coaching change at Alabama