Let the latest innuendo roll as many seem suspicious of the 112 calls placed by Rich Rodriguez to Peterstown in his final two months on campus. A lot of the phones calls are to faraway cities — Phoenix, Boston, Toledo, to name a few — but it’s easy to make logical connections to Rodriguez.

Peterstown is puzzling, though. I’ve gotten a bunch of calls and e-mails wondering about the identity or the person/people. I do not have the number. Every number was blacked out except for the calls made to and received from the state of Michigan. Why? I have no clue.

Anyhow, I remembered this morning that Rich Rodriguez asked former WVU defensive back Steve Newberry to be an honorary captain for the Mississippi State game this season and that Newberry, who was Rodriguez’s teammate for two years in the early 1980s, is from and still lives in Peterstown. So I called Newberry and asked the obvious.

Newberry had heard of this as well and said he last spoke to Rodriguez when he was invited to be the honorary captain prior to the Mississippi State game. That required two total phone calls and both predate the relevant phone records.

“I’m like tons of other West Virginia fans. I wasn’t too happy with the way things went with him leaving, either. I hated to see him go and I hate seeing the way it has turned into such a mess. I am real tickled about the present coaching staff and real excited about Coach Stewart getting the job.” 

A number of the 112 calls — which could have been made to 112 different numbers, for all we know — were made just before and after Rodriguez was hired at Michigan. It reasoned that old friends and teammates might chat about that, but Newberry said he was never contacted by and never expected to hear from Rodriguez.

“He probably wouldn’t want to hear my thoughts and opinions at that time.”

So the intrigue lives on, though Peterstown is a small town and something will surely surface soon. And if you think this is me inviting some insight, you’re absolutely right.