Somewhere along the line, and almost certainly early on in the reading, I reached a point in the Ed Pastilong transcript where I realized Rich Rodriguez was in pretty deep. Perhaps it was when attorney Marv Robon asked Pastilong at the start of the session if he had a hangover.

If Rodriguez was following a dog soldier into battle, that dog had three legs, a bad case of mange and a name like Kip or Peyton. Sooner or later, it seemed, Rodriguez was going to have to end this endeavor and ask for a settlement. There were just too many follies committed on his behalf to envision any other outcome.

Then, deep in the deposition, came the Hail, Mary. Mary, thy name is Dusty Rutledge.

Rutledge was Rodriguez’s video coordinator at WVU and he followed Rodriguez to the University of Michigan. Seems as if following the leader wasn’t anything new, either. Robon asked Pastilong if Rutledge was at WVU President Mike Garrison’s house Dec. 15, 2007, the night Rodriguez alleges Garrison told the coach WVU would not be fulfilling previous promises. Pastilong was not there, but said he heard Rutledge was.

Robon continued:

Q     Did you know that he overheard the conversation between President Garrison and Coach Rodriguez on (December) 15th, 2007? 

[WVU attorney] MR. FLAHERTY:  Object to the form of the question.

A     No.

So Rutledge was there and apparently overheard the conversation, though one wonders how admissible the idea of Rutledge with his ear to a glass and a glass to the wall will be in court. Then again, he was the video coordinator, so perhaps he put managed a covert recording of the conversation. Who knows?

But if that’s it and if that doesn’t work, even Phil Brady would suggest Rodriguez punt unless there was some sort of way to, say, fake one’s own death. But that’s not a possibility. Right?

Q     Well, let me ask this question:  If Rich Rodriguez would fall over dead tomorrow from a heart attack, hit by a car, do you think it would be fair for West Virginia University to enforce the $4 million penalty on him?