West Virginia senator holds grudge against Rodriguez
Jake Stump
Charleston (W.Va.) Daily Mail
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller called football coach Rich Rodriguez "amoral" for the way he left West Virginia last month.
"Don't get me started on that," Rockefeller said at a meeting Thursday with the Daily Mail editorial board. "I'm furious at Rich Rodriguez.
"You don't do that. You don't desert your team and then go off and don't even coach them in a bowl."
Consider Rockefeller another Mountaineer fan still fuming over the abrupt departure of Rodriguez, who announced Dec. 16 he was leaving Morgantown to become the coach at Michigan.
The senator said he doesn't know Rodriguez personally and hasn't spoken to him about his departure.
But Rockefeller had strong words to say about it.
"I just think it's amoral -- not immoral -- but amoral behavior when you dump your team and take off," Rockefeller said. "You just don't do that in America. And you don't do it to kids."
A huge sports fan, Rockefeller noted that in the end, things turned out OK for the Mountaineers with their 48-28 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma and the hiring of new coach Bill Stewart.
He even said WVU would have beaten Ohio State if the teams had squared off for the national championship. LSU defeated Ohio State for the title.
"The effect, interestingly, and the nature of the bowl game was quite the opposite," Rockefeller said about the events leading up to the Fiesta Bowl. "Everyone bonded. It was unbelievable. Pat White said, barely audibly, 'We want him (Bill Stewart) to be our coach.' Joe Manchin says he (Stewart) is very good, but I don't know him."
In fact, when Rockefeller caught up with Manchin at a mining symposium Thursday morning, the first thing the two men talked about was Rodriguez, the senator said.
Rockefeller also criticized Rodriguez for the way he flirted with a head coaching job at Alabama in 2006. That helped sweeten the pot for him at WVU.
"I didn't like the Alabama thing because he was using us on that and it was obvious," Rockefeller said. "But we weren't in a position where we could do much about it so we accommodated and I don't know what he got out of that.
"I think (WVU President) Mike Garrison was great when he said, 'We're tired of that stuff. You go right ahead to Michigan.'
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Rockefeller added, "I don't know if he's such a great coach. Michigan may find out some things they don't want to find out. He always ran (Steve) Slaton right into their defensive line. He'd run it eight times in a row and get a yard or so on most of the runs before breaking out. But it didn't work with Pittsburgh."
The senator believes Rodriguez should pay the $4 million WVU is seeking from the coach. The university contends in a lawsuit that's how much Rodriguez owes for leaving his contract six years early.
"I was very happy when I heard about that suit, I really was," Rockefeller said.
Rockefeller has followed WVU football for years, including his days as West Virginia governor from 1977 to 1985.
On Thursday, he recounted a story, as told in Don Nehlen's autobiography, "Tales from the West Virginia Sideline," of an unorthodox means to raise quick cash for the WVU football program, using the power of the governor's office to twist some high-profile arms.
The team was in dire need of facilities, and Nehlen coincidentally threatened to go to Michigan if the state couldn't accommodate his requests.
According to an interview with journalist Chris Yandek in 2006, Nehlen said, "Governor Rockefeller was there and he told me we were going to have to put trailers in the end zone because we didn't have the money for locker rooms and coaches' offices.
"I said, 'Hey. I am going back to Michigan, man. The image West Virginia has, that's all I need, is to bring kids in and put them in trailers to talk to them.'
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The governor then devised a way to fund Nehlen's requests while keeping him at WVU. Rockefeller said he invited the 12 richest West Virginians he knew to the governor's mansion.
According to Nehlen, Rockefeller told the 12 invitees, "I didn't bring you here to feed you. I brought you here to raise some money for Coach."
Rockefeller recalled having state police troopers posted at the doors, looking imposing, to discourage anyone who might want to leave. He also said the rich guys wound up getting competitive about who could pony up the most money.
Nehlen said he walked out of there with about $1.2 million and enough to build new offices, a weight room and locker room.
"I didn't know that secret was revealed," Rockefeller said, jokingly. "We had so much fun doing that. I really should've gone to the federal penitentiary."
This article appeared in the Detroit News on Saturday, January 12, 2008.