Good morning!

Not sure if this article came through already or on one of Peter's RAIN posts,
but just saw this in the paper.  My apologies if its already been posted.

Laura Edgar
University Archives
University of Notre Dame

**************************************************

Football player files missing
Fingers point to Rodriguez
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer

MORGANTOWN ­ 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.

“It’s unbelievable. Everything is gone, like it never existed,’’ said a source
within the athletic department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Good,
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.

“If a player spoke to a school or did public service, we don’t have a record of
it,’’ said the source. “If 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?’’

West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong did not return a message seeking
comment Monday night. Neither could Rodriguez be reached for comment.

The files went missing sometime between when Rodriguez resigned on Dec. 16 and
the time the team and staff returned from the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3. It could
have happened as early as the first days following Rodriguez’s resignation
because his old office was largely ignored by the support staff and the
coaching staff between the time he left and Dec. 26, when the team and support
staff all went to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl.

According to multiple sources, several people in the Puskar Center reported
seeing Rodriguez and at least one member of his inner circle, video coordinator
Dusty Rutledge, in Rodriguez’s private office shredding paperwork on Dec. 18.
That’s the day he returned to clean out his office after being introduced as
the Michigan coach at a press conference in Ann Arbor the day before. At the
time, those who say they witnessed it either did not know what was being
destroyed or paid it little attention to it until the files were discovered
missing more than two weeks later.

While the files in Rodriguez’s office held a wide range of information, those
that were discovered missing from the weight room office were more specific.
Those included every aspect of strength and conditioning progress made by
players under former strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Barwis, who
along with most of his immediate staff followed Rodriguez to Michigan after the
Fiesta Bowl. Those files included the progression made by each player in every
specific area, from bench-press totals to 40-yard dash times. The files even
included pictures of the players at different points in their careers.

While a source within the athletic department said the department itself wasn’t
launching any type of investigation into the missing files ­ “Our plate is
pretty full right now with trying to put together a staff and everything
else,’’ the source said, “and we don’t have time to deal with [stuff] like this
right now.’’ ­ it has apparently drawn the interest of the university’s legal
counsel.

WVU lawyers are in the process of trying to recover $4 million from Rodriguez as
a condition of breaking his contract with six years remaining to become the
coach at Michigan. While Rodriguez has maintained that West Virginia breached
the contract by not fulfilling all of its terms ­ an argument the university
denies ­ the school filed suit in Monongalia County Circuit Court last month
detailing what it claims are breaches by Rodriguez above and beyond simply
breaking the contract. Those include calling recruits to tell them of his
decision to switch schools before he told his own team. It certainly would not
help Rodriguez’s case if the school can prove that he also destroyed what WVU
officials consider state files on his way out.

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