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Post by cviller on Feb 7, 2008 17:12:45 GMT -5
U-M selling 'snake oil'? Recruit's switch angers Purdue
The Detroit News
Purdue football coach Joe Tiller, angered that one of the recruits who had given him a verbal commitment reneged and signed with Michigan, said he's concerned about the loss of integrity among Big Ten coaches.
Tiller, entering his final season with the Boilermakers, clearly was pointing the finger at new Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. Roy Roundtree, a highly-ranked receiver and kick returner, was one of 23 high school seniors who signed with Michigan on Wednesday, the first day of the national signing period.
Roundtree, of Trotwood, Ohio, had committed to Purdue last May. Tiller and his staff had recruited him for two years.
"There has been an unspoken rule that if a guy commits and you've been recruiting him hard, you always call them up and say, 'Are you sure about this?' If he says, 'Yes,' you back off," Tiller told the Indianapolis Star in a story published Thursday.
Roundtree visited Michigan last weekend, and the Wolverines made an offer shortly after. Roundtree, one of three student-athletes from Trotwood-Madison High, near Dayton, to commit to Michigan, made his change of heart in dramatic fashion.
He took the placard before him during a signing-day news conference, crossed out "Purdue" and then wrote in "Michigan."
"I stayed up until 3'oclock in the morning talking it over," Roundtree told the Dayton Daily News of his change of mind.
Michael Shaw, a running back and teammate of Roundtree's, had committed to Penn State. Shaw's change of heart led him to Michigan, as well.
"Words can't describe how I feel about Coach Rod and the staff," Shaw said. "Even though they got a late jump on me, they recruited me hard, and when they came in, they made sure they showed me I was wanted and I was important. They're down-to-earth, and it just made me feel like that was the place for me."
Tiller was especially upset that Purdue lost one of its top prospects to a Big Ten rival.
"If we had an early signing date, you wouldn't have another outfit with a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil get a guy at the last minute, but that's what happened," Tiller said.
Football does not allow high school players to sign a letter-of-intent before their senior season. Tiller is among coaches campaigning for an early signing day, the Star reported. Rodriguez said during a news conference Wednesday that he also favors an early signing period.
Notable: Trotwood-Madison quarterback Domonick Britt reneged on a commitment to Cincinnati but signed with Jackson State. He told the Dayton Daily News that Michigan did not offer but was interested in case Terrelle Pryor, the standout recruit from Jeannette, Pa., went elsewhere. "I didn't want to wait to be somebody's second choice," Britt said.
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Post by cviller on Nov 10, 2007 9:17:44 GMT -5
The last time we played OK we beat them, and we can do it again! We'll rub their face in
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Post by cviller on Jan 10, 2008 8:17:59 GMT -5
By Mike Casazza Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN -- Receiver Darius Reynaud will skip his final season of eligibility and enter the NFL draft.
"He's going to go into the draft," his mother, Katrina, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Wednesday night.
Reynaud could not be reached Wednesday and did not return messages left at his home in Luling, La., earlier in the week. WVU Coach Bill Stewart was also unavailable for comment.
Reynaud's decision can't be a surprise, though. He'll graduate in May and subsequently earn back the year of eligibility he lost in 2004-05 when he sat out as an academic prop, but he submitted papers to the NFL's draft advisory committee last year. He returned to school, but the goal remained in play throughout this season.
Reynaud has been engaged for more than a year to his longtime girlfriend and they have a two-year-old daughter. He submitted his paperwork to be evaluated by the advisory committee again last month.
"I have to feed my daughter," he said last month. "Every time I step on the field, that's my motivation."
His last trip onto a college football field was vintage Reynaud. He scored on a 30-yard reverse and caught five passes for 42 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown was his 12th receiving score of the season and tied Chris Henry's single-season school record.
Afterward, he was admittedly torn between staying and going.
"It's going to be a last-minute decision," he said. "I have a tough choice to make and I'll sit down with my parents and talk about all this. It'll be really hard to leave knowing we have lot of guys coming back on offense and that we have a chance to be really good again next year."
Defensive end Johnny Dingle previously announced he'd go pro and forego the year of eligibility he'd earn back by graduating early. Junior running back Steve Slaton has also submitted paperwork to the advisory committee, but has yet to make a decision
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Post by cviller on Nov 25, 2007 9:42:53 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Sept 6, 2007 9:54:29 GMT -5
Stefano, Associate Sports Editor
Putting your money where your mouth is has become a possibility with TicketRESERVE.com.
Most people in Morgantown are of the opinion that the No. 3 West Virginia University Mountaineers will be playing in New Orleans for a national championship on Jan. 7, 2008. Fans feeling extra strong about that sentiment might want to make a trip to the World Wide Web.
“If you’re one of the fans that has to be there, this is the way to do it,” company spokesman Michael Hopkins said.
Through TicketRESERVE, fans from all across the country can buy and sell insurance that ensures a face value ticket to one of the Bowl Championship Series games or the BCS National Championship.
The site is similar to others like StubHub.com, but is the only one sanctioned by the BCS and receives its tickets from the BCS.
It also has markets for the NCAA basketball tournament, the NBA Playoffs and the Super Bowl, among other things. However, most markets only open just before the season starts.
The insurance, or, as the site calls it, FanFORWARD, is team-specific. For example, someone can buy insurance for the Mountaineers to make it to the 2008 Orange Bowl. If WVU goes to the game, the holder of the insurance has the right – and obligation – to purchase a face value ticket to the game. If WVU does not go to the Orange Bowl, the holder is out the price of the insurance and cannot purchase the ticket.
The price of the FanFORWARDs change with regards to team and game combinations. As of Wednesday afternoon, to buy a FanFORWARD for No. 1 Southern California in the national championship would cost $156. To buy a FanFORWARD for Akron University in the same game would cost only $15. Of course, USC has a much better chance of being in the game, so the price is higher.
Another aspect of the site is the ability to sell FanFORWARDs. As the season goes on and the bowl picture becomes clearer, the demand for certain teams may rise. As such, a FanFORWARD may be worth much more – or less – than the original price it was purchased at.
While the site can be seen as something of a gamble, it does provide an affordable alternative to gaining tickets to some of the biggest games in the country. In secondary markets, ticket prices for BCS Bowl games can rise to the thousands.
TicketRESERVE wants to give regular fans a chance to purchase more reasonably priced face value tickets.
“It’s for the little guy who maybe had never thought that they’d get to go to a Super Bowl, or a Final Four, or a BCS National Championship, and all of a sudden they’re in a seat and they didn’t wind up having to pay their life savings ... We provide that clear line of sight, even before the season’s started,” Jerry Lindman, TicketRESERVE’s senior director of marketing, said.
Mountaineer fans who plan ahead and don’t intend to drain their life savings may find it as a good path for tickets as well.
“It is an intriguing possibility, and in a year like this, I’d be more inclined to do it, where I think we’re going to a BCS Bowl,” WVU graduate student Aaron Hawley said.
Hopkins said that TicketRESERVE markets to the fan and those who are there to see the team, not to be seen at the game.
“This is for the guy who gets dressed in his Mountaineer outfit ever year and wants to be there when his team plays for the national championship, or the Orange Bowl, or whatever.”
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Post by cviller on Nov 29, 2007 17:43:14 GMT -5
I was at that 1970 game at Pitt. I was sick for days! It better not happen Saturday!
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Post by cviller on Jan 25, 2008 11:34:40 GMT -5
Rodriguez claims Garrison didn't follow through on pledge
By Mike Casazza Daily Mail sportswriter
MORGANTOWN-Former WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez contends that WVU President Mike Garrison promised to reduce or eliminate the $4 million buyout in his contract.
Rodriguez, now the coach at Michigan, made his claim in a revised letter of resignation to WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong.
WVU has gone to court in an attempt to force Rodriguez to pay the $4 million.
"On my resignation letter dated Dec. 18, I did not list some of the reasons for my resignation," Rodriguez wrote. "Not until I read the lawsuit against me by the WVU Board of Governors did I realize that I needed to put in writing my reasons that I felt that WVU has material and substantial breaches in our agreement."
Rodriguez signed his contract Aug. 24. Garrison took office on Sept 1.
"Mike Garrison stated that he did not believe in buyouts and that if I wanted to leave 'the buyout would be reduced to $2 million or eliminated altogether,'" Rodriguez wrote.
"He knew I did not want to sign it (the contract) with the large buyout but assured me that as soon as he took office he would address it.
"I told him the $4 million buyout was unfair and Garrison agreed but said the Board of Governors would not change at the time due to publicity concerns."
Rodriguez also contended that WVU officials misled him when they told him that key donors who made the contract possible had insisted on the $4 million buyout clause.
Rodriguez said he later found out that the donors never made such a demand.
"I told Garrison that I knew everyone was under pressure to get me to sign the contract (I was getting calls by Board Members, the President and the Governor.) I told him I was not comfortable signing it with the buyout clause and other issues but Garrison said it would be a personal favor to him and several board members and said I needed to do it to help Garrison's start as the new president," Rodriguez wrote.
He said he discussed a number of issues with Garrison concerning operation of the football program, and received a promise that Garrison would resolve them favorably upon taking office in September.
He wanted players to be able to sell their textbooks at the end of the semester; greater control over funds given to the football program, such as the 1100 Club; more money for assistant coaches; and removal of a $5 admission charge at Mountaineer games for high school coaches.
Also, Rodriguez wrote, "I was promised by several board members that my request for a football Web site that I wanted would happen once the new president took office. It was clearly stated that I wanted this by November to help assistant salaries and that I wanted to be pro-active rather that reactive in December or January. They said if the money did not come from the Web site it would come from other sources."
Rodriguez also complained in the letter to Pastilong about what the coach perceived as lack of progress on a multi-million dollar locker room improvement project at the Puskar Center.
"During the fall, you came to my office in the middle of the season and said that project was off because of a lack of funds. No alternative plan or resolution was presented - just the fact it would not be built as promised unless 'all the checks were in.""
Rodriguez wrote that he met with Garrison, Pastilong, and Garrison's chief of staff Craig Walker about his concerns prior to resigning.
"I spoke of the verbal agreements made in August 2007 and the handshake that was intended to get me to sign the contract. Each of you stated that everthing has been done already and gave me a "No-No-No-No" response (not a maybe or we'll discuss) to the issues.
"My last meeting with Mike Garrison on Saturday night, Dec. 15, was even more direct and he reiterated that he had done 'all he could' at this point."
"It is very unfortunate that the university and governor have escalated this situation through the media with the filing of a lawsuit rather than having better efforts at resolution," Rodriguez wrote.
"This action by the West Virginia officials has caused threats to be made to my family and damage and destruction of some of my family's property.
"The University apparently wants more details as to its breaches and bad faith, so I felt I had to respond."
Neither Garrison nor Pastilong could be reached for comment today.
But attorneys for WVU told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that no such verbal agreement was made by Garrison and that the written contract stands.
"Whatever discussion may have occurred would be independent of this contract," said university attorney Jeff Wakefield. "This contract speaks for itself. It's very clear. Unambiguous.
"To the extent of Mr. Rodriguez and [his attorneys] to suggest that there was some agreement on the buyout clause independent of this agreement, that was never made."
Contact sportswriter Mike Casazza at mi...@dailymail.com or 319-1142.
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Post by cviller on Jan 25, 2008 10:38:26 GMT -5
Letter from Rodriquez to WVU's athletic director
The following is the complete text of a letter from former West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez to WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong dated Jan. 10, 2008:
The following is the complete text of a letter from former West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez to WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong dated Jan. 10, 2008:
Mr. Ed Pastilong
Athletic Director
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 0877
Morgantown, WV 26502
Mr. Pastilong:
On my resignation letter dated December 18, 2007, I did not list some of the reasons for my resignation. It was not until I read that lawsuit against me by the West Virginia University Board of Governors did I realize that I needed to put in writing my reasons that I felt that West Virginia University has material and substantial breaches in our Agreement.
On Page 6 of the lawsuit (Article 17) it mentions that the University and I mutually understood and agreed on all the terms, conditions and understandings either oral and or written. It also mentioned that any further modification or amendment was effective only if made in writing and signed by both parties. This is not true - several issues were promised and discussed and were oral agreements that I thought would be upheld. Verbal promises and statements made by Mike Garrison, Craig Walker and several Board of Governor members were a factor in my agreeing to sign the second amendment. They include:
a) Mike Garrison stated that he did not believe in buyouts and that if I wanted to leave that "the buyout would be reduced to 2 million or eliminated altogether". He knew I did not want to sign it with the large buyout but assured me that as soon as he took office he would address it. I told him the four million buyout was unfair and Garrison agreed but said the Board of Governors would not change it at the time due to publicity concerns (the University leaked the term sheet information to the press in violation of the Agreement. I was also misled when I was told when I originally agreed to sign the term sheet in December that the boosters who paid my salary "insisted" that I have the four million dollar buyout clause. I have found out that this was not true.)
b) I told Garrison that I knew everyone was under pressure to get me to sign the contract (I was getting calls by Board Members, the President and the Governor.) I told him I was not comfortable signing it with the buyout clause and other issues but Garrison said it would be a personal favor for him and several Board Members and said I needed to do it to help Garrison's start as the new President.
c) I raised specific issues regarding football operations and was verbally promised by Garrison and Board Members that these would be taken care of as soon as Garrison took office in September. These included:
1. Student-Athlete textbooks
2. Control over funds given to the football program (specifically 1100 club funds which were misappropriated several times.)
3. Assistant coaches salaries and the urgency to get this done by November.
4. A $5.00 fee paid by high school coaches for each home game (other schools do not charge high school coaches).
5. How we could utilize strength graduate assistant coaches for our development program like other institutions. Both Craig Walker and Mike Garrison said the "operational issues" described above were "philosophical and no-brainers."
d. I was promised by several Board Members that my request for a football website that I wanted would happen once the new President took office. It was clearly stated I wanted this by November to help assistant salaries and that I wanted to be pro-active rather than reactive in December or January. They said if the money did not come from the website it would come from other sources.
e. The second contract amendment includes language for starting the Puskar Center Locker Room. During the fall, you came to my office in the middle of the season and said that project was off because of a lack of funds. No alternative plan or resolution was presented - just the fact it would not be built as promised unless "all the checks were in." Later, Larry Ashebrook personally solicited pledges for the funds you said we needed on his own accord.
f. As a means to create future revenue, I was promised that a request for proposal regarding our TV/Radio/Marketing would be out by October and it was yet to be submitted - to my knowledge.
g. Prior to my resignation, I met with Craig Walker, Mike Garrison and you on these issues. I spoke of the verbal agreements made in August 2007 and the handshake that was intended to get me to sign the contract. Each of you stated that everything has been done already and gave me a "No-No-No-No" response (not a maybe or we'll discuss) to the issues. My last meeting with Mike Garrison on Saturday night, December 15th was even more direct and he reiterated that he had done "all he could" at this point. There was an obvious lack of communication and discontent between the Athletic Department and President's Office last year. I was promised this would all change and the "environment" would be "much better" according to President Garrison. Unfortunately, the working environment became much worse.
It is very unfortunate that the University and Governor have escalated this situation through the media with the filing of a lawsuit rather than having better efforts at a resolution. This action by the West Virginia officials has caused threats to be made to my family and damage and destruction of some of my family's property. The University apparently wants more details as to its breaches and bad faith, so I felt I had to respond. Many of these situations were in the presence of others who can verify the truthfulness of these statements and events.
Sincerely,
Rich Rodriguez
cc: Mike Garrison
Craig Walker
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Post by cviller on Dec 31, 2007 19:00:29 GMT -5
West Virginia’s coaching search isn’t taking tomorrow’s holiday off, but it may well take a few extra days to finish.
Sources said Mountaineers’ administrators this past weekend were looking into procuring, if they hadn’t already hired, the services of an unspecified consulting firm to help them complete their search for Rich Rodriguez’s replacement.
Such a firm contacts prospective candidates, gauges their interest in vacancies, then assists in arranging interviews between the parties, conducting background checks and potentially hiring a new coach.
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Post by cviller on Jan 11, 2008 13:34:11 GMT -5
By Jack Bogaczyk Daily Mail Sports Editor
THE subject for kicking around today is football coaching hires, and not those Bill Stewart is impressively rounding up as West Virginia sideline sidekicks.
It's about Stewart and his fellow head coaches named this winter.
A recurring premise across the Mountain State questions WVU's ability to sustain the success of three straight 11-win seasons and top-10 poll finishes.
There's more than an undercurrent in these parts that the Mountaineers could have done better than the veteran Stewart, who was picked immediately after an emotion-filled Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma that he guided as an interim caretaker.
Gee, you'd have thought WVU hired Martha Stewart and the doyen showed up for the introductory press conference with a dirty doily.
More than a few WVU partisans seem to feel they should have been able to hire someone more like Don Shula, or perhaps bring a Bear or Woody or Bo or Knute back from his dirt nap to succeed Rich Rodriguez.
Well, that's not real. Look at the list of 2007-08 coaching hires (accompanying this column). It just doesn't happen - or at least very often.
There is no one West Virginia could have hired who wouldn't have created some of the same misgivings as there are about Stewart.
(As an aside to major WVU contributor Ken Kendrick, who referenced an "overmatched" Stewart derisively as a house painter: It seems to me that Michelangelo painted ceilings, and he seemed to do OK. So, Ken, please go back to printing some money and running the Diamondbacks.)
Let's use East Carolina's Skip Holtz as an example. He's a fine, fine coach, working just below the Bowl Championship Series level, and he was one of the next good names on the WVU list who would have gotten an interview.
However, Holtz lost badly (48-7) at Mountaineer Field this season, so he'd have been torpedoed for that, not to mention the fact that some wouldn't like that he's Lou's son (as if he had any control over that, and like that isn't even a bigger plus in his regard).
Above that, you're just not going to be able to hire a successful BCS coach from a building program these days. It doesn't happen - or it rarely does.
Rodriguez jumped to Michigan - a great program and a job upgrade, sure (and I still think that was more about Rodriguez's being stung by the home-state reaction to the loss to Pitt, and the fact he backed himself into a corner with WVU administrators and couldn't get out).
There's another recent example, when Dennis Franchione leaped from Alabama to Texas A&M - but there was a caveat - the Crimson Tide was on NCAA probation.
As one Division I athletic director told me recently: "The reality is that when you lose a Rich Rodriguez, you are probably going to lose the press conference for your replacement unless you can hire (Nick) Saban or Bobby Petrino."
Ohio State's last hire was a successful Division I-AA head coach (Jim Tressel). He's done darn well. LSU hired Les Miles from Oklahoma State, where he was an OK 28-21 in four years. Now, he's got the national title team.
Oklahoma's last hire was a career-long assistant (Bob Stoops). Florida won a national title last year. Urban Meyer was a rookie head coach at Bowling Green, before Utah and the Gators the same season Rodriguez started at WVU. Notre Dame and USC have former NFL coaches.
Get the picture?
I could go on, but WVU fans were in a dream world if they expected better than what they got - and that's no shot at Stewart. The Mountaineers don't play in the football century- and tradition-aged Southeastern or Big Ten conferences. Big East football isn't even two decades old.
Look at the last 10 hires before Stewart by Big East programs (when they were conference members): Brian Kelly, Steve Kragthorpe, Dave Wannstedt, Greg Robinson, Greg Schiano, Rodriguez, Larry Coker, Bobby Wallace, Tom O'Brien, Walt Harris.
It's a list (when hired) of sub-BCS head coaches, NFL refugees, quality coordinators. There are more than a few good coaches on that list, but none proven at the top level of college football when they got those jobs.
Among the 10, there were seven seasons of major college head coaching experience combined, at Central Michigan (Kelly) and Tulsa (Kragthorpe).
Seven years ago, Rodriguez, Meyer, Miles, Tressel, Schiano, Mark Richt, Ralph Friedgen and even Jim Grobe were where Stewart is now - unproven head coaching faces in big places.
Since College Football Hall of Famer Don Nehlen retired from the WVU sideline following the 2000 season, there have been 120 coaching changes in major college football (there have been about 815, seriously, since Joe Paterno took over at Penn State in 1966). Most have followed the same "new name" scheme.
Most schools can't - or won't - empty their wallets for a new coach like SMU just did for Hawaii's June Jones at $2 million annually. Rodriguez was hired by WVU for $402,000 annually. Tressel got $700,000 (plus a $100,000 signing bonus) to debut at Ohio State the same year.
They had to prove themselves on the big stage. So does Stewart - and that's fine with him and WVU.
Stewart's $800,000 start to a five-year $4.5 million contract puts him among the bottom six among 66 BCS programs in head coach's pay. He will be the lowest-paid coach in the Big East.
However, the nine-man assistant coaching staff figures to gain a few hundred thousand from its $1.235 million of Rodriguez's final season. That bottom line may be more important for the Mountaineers.
And if Stewart wins, he will be enriched by deeper incentives than Rodriguez enjoyed. If he doesn't, West Virginia will be looking for its third new coach of the 21st century.
Were the four so-called "early" candidates at WVU - Doc Holliday, Terry Bowden (nine years removed from the sideline), Butch Jones and Jimbo Fisher - that much different than Stewart?
The answer is no. The Mountaineers weren't going to get what they couldn't get. So, don't call the hiring of Bill Stewart cheap, or off-the-wall, or uninspired, or uninspiring.
Call it typical. In major college football these days, that's what it was
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Post by cviller on Jan 2, 2008 18:19:50 GMT -5
MOUNTAINEERS
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Post by cviller on Jan 2, 2008 17:43:48 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Jan 2, 2008 17:34:03 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Dec 29, 2007 21:01:38 GMT -5
Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
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Post by cviller on Dec 28, 2007 9:08:31 GMT -5
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