WVU Football: A Tangled Web

It makes for great theater. 

With its daily twists and turns, the Rich Rodriguez story may end up as next fall's hot TV-miniseries, or in the "tell-all" section of your local Barnes and Noble.

Let's see.  We have a team that gagged on chicken soup against a four-touchdown underdog in Pitt on December 1st.

Then, the sports world saw a distraught Rich Rodriguez struggle for answers in the post game press conference.  And everyone felt bad for the guy—except of course, the fans from Pitt, LSU and Ohio State.

But fast forward almost two months, and the spider web which has been spun is so intricate and so fascinating that you wonder who's playing the spider, and who will end up as the unfortunate fly. 

But know one thing: Not many people are feeling bad for Rich Rodriguez these days.

And, while many West Virginia fans would like to move on, there are others, like myself, who can't seem to get enough of the back-biting, the innuendo, and the "he-said, she-said" twists and turns which make this such an intriguing story. 

Just think of the story line.  Rodriguez bolts on his team, calls recruits to follow him to a new school—then, he decides to tell his players, and has his assistant deliver a one-sentence resignation letter.  The school sues him, wanting the $4 million it believes it is owed.  And as the bridges that he has burned are glowing fiery red in his rear-view mirror (no, those are not couches), the fun is just about to start for Rodriguez, Ed Pastilong, Mike Garrison, and what seems to be a cast of thousands.

Between shredders, an unsavory agent, the 'race' card, and boosters who believe they have the right to tell the administration how to run their athletic program, the Rodriguez camp is taking—at the least—a huge public relations hit, with the distinct prospect of being $4 million poorer in the bank account.  Might want to place a call to Ken Kendrick on that one.

The WVU administration has to defend its position: that it did not coerce Rodriguez into sign a deal with an unstated implication that the buyout would be reduced or eliminated altogether. That will be resolved in court, if the case truly gets that far.

In the meantime, the state of West Virginia has bid a not-so-fond farewell to one of its native sons.  The WVU fans remain bitter to be betrayed by one of its own.  The administration of Michigan, while saying all the right things, can't help but wonder what they have gotten themselves into.  Is this the guy they signed up to lead them to win the Big Ten, and take out the hated Tressel and THE Ohio State University?  Rodriguez's Michigan contract includes a $4 million buyout.   A tasty bit of irony, wouldn't you say?

Bill Stewart and the rest of his newly-named staff are left to pick up the pieces of the scrambled landscape that is the WVU football program. Forget about this year's recruiting class.  It will be mediocre at best.  But in Stewart, Mountaineers fans see the antithesis of Coach Rod.  They see a man who cares about the University and the state of West Virginia; who says that this will be his last head coaching job; who says that his handshake is his contract.

The Rich Rodriguez story is far from over.  It's a classic fall-from-grace tale of a man who built a program into a national power, only to see it unravel starting on a cold December night in Morgantown, in a loss to the team's most hated rival.

I can't wait for the next chapter.