BLACK AND BLUE: Rodriguez defends himself against West Virginia's 'smear' tactics
Two days after his integrity was questioned in a West Virginia newspaper, Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez fought back.
In a teleconference Thursday, Rodriguez said he is being unfairly attacked in "a smear campaign" coming from his home state and former employer, West Virginia.
"I almost hesitate to do this (teleconference). There's so many inaccuracies, so many falsehoods and innuendos, at some point, you get tired of getting beat up. It's crazy," he said of the newspaper reports that began with Tuesday's Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette story about missing West Virginia football files.
"You read the thing about erasing all the academic files, and then the next day, you read, 'Oh, no, we have the academic files.' So the corrections are on Page Six, and the lead story is on Page One. I'm thinking, OK, so you just let it pass because, eventually, people will realize there's a different agenda why they're doing this. But I just want everybody to move forward."
He wants to focus on his Michigan agenda but said Thursday that he can't because of a pending lawsuit by WVU. The litigation also prevented him from speaking about specific situations in the printed accusations.
West Virginia filed a lawsuit Dec. 27, suing him for payment of the $4-million buyout that was part of his contract with the university. After the venue was changed to U.S. federal court Wednesday, Rodriguez's lawyers were given more time to respond and are expected to do so next Wednesday.
"I know there's a lawsuit out there that West Virginia sued me, and I have to respond to that," he said. "And my attorneys, frankly, have said let it go (by not making public comments). But as a coach and as a person, you can question their intelligence and say, 'Well, that's not a very good play call' or question their methods or why they run the spread offense or have this scheme. But when you question an individual's integrity and character, when I think it's completely unfounded, then ...
"People say, 'Well, you shouldn't have left West Virginia in the manner you did,' and I can understand that. I never once said I would never leave West Virginia. It was always my intent to stay there, and if anybody doesn't believe that, look at the way we were building our program.
"Just look at my house. I'm in the process of remodeling my house in West Virginia. Would a person do that if he was thinking he's going to leave schools?"
Rodriguez knows what has been written about him in recent days.
The initial Gazette story cited an unnamed West Virginia source who implied that Rodriguez took the lone copies of files pertaining to numerous facets of the Mountaineers' football program. Rodriguez said Thursday that all of the players' contact information was held by secretaries, no photos were thrown away and "the things that were thrown away were completely useless to everybody."
He said he shredded his personal notes on game plans from the past 10-15 years. The date of the file disposal, Dec. 18, was one day after his introductory news conference at U-M.
News stories have emerged from West Virginia the past few weeks, all of which paint Rodriguez in an undesirable light: reports that he did not resign face-to-face with the athletic director to the "missing" documents to a Thursday report in the Charleston Daily Mail that he called U-M recruits with his West Virginia cell phone before he returned it.
"I did not call a single ... I don't recall exactly the particular time or how I made the call, but I never called a single Michigan recruit before I resigned as a coach at West Virginia," Rodriguez said.
While he said he believed he resigned the moment he told his team Dec. 16, his official resignation was not filed with the university until Dec. 19. He did not clarify when he made the calls in question, though the Daily Mail said the calls to U-M recruits came the night of Dec. 16, hours after the team meeting. The story said he didn't use a West Virginia cell phone to call heralded quarterback recruit Terrelle Pryor, who said that day that Rodriguez called to inform him about his move to U-M.
Also Thursday, Rodriguez mentioned that West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who had criticized Rodriguez publicly, called the coach on Christmas to apologize. Rodriguez also said he has not spoken to West Virginia's new coach, Bill Stewart, his former assistant.
Rodriguez, who said U-M athletic director Bill Martin supported him, was asked whether he wishes he had done things differently in leaving West Virginia.
"I think there were going to be hard feelings, irregardless how I left," he said.
See more
at www.freep.com
| 
