Bob Huggins finally showed he had something in common with Rich Rodriguez Thursday — he fell flat on his face. Of course, Rodriguez has a healthy lead in that category, 474-1 by my calculation. Rodriguez scored again this week when he indirectly insulted former Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards by issuing the No. 1 jersey to a freshman defensive back. That’s a no-no.

Huggins, as we now know, is fine and for all the whacks to the head absorbed by Rodriguez, there remains a possibility he’ll be fine no matter if he wins or loses his lawsuit with WVU.

If Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez loses his $4 million court fight with his former employer, West Virginia University, his accountant has a firm idea of who should pay the money: Michigan.

The school should, “as an inducement to netting (Rodriguez) as a coach, make him whole on the transaction,” including any taxes involved, his CPA, David A. Hammack, of Maumee, Ohio, said in a memo.

“This would mean not only fronting the $4 million payment to WVU, but also grossing it up for Rich, since the $4 million would be part of his first-year compensation,” Hammack wrote to Rodriguez’s financial adviser, Mike Wilcox, on Dec. 13.

U-M doesn’t deny that could happen and perhaps this better explains Rodriguez’s passion to wage what seems like a losing battle. He’s playing with Big House money.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. The one-liner that normally goes here was to be delivered by Chuck Storm, but he couldn’t make it.

jmbwvu said:

So an obvious supporter of RR overheard the “conversation” that took place at Garrison’s place. I wonder if a die hard WVU fan heard the same conversation if the words would come out the same? Good luck using that in court.

Of all the zany items obtained from Ed Pastiling’s deposition, this is atop the list. Rodriguez’s loyal video coordinator, Dusty Rutledge, he of “They fired Dusty!” fame from the Larry Aschebrook affidavit, is the key witness to Team Rodriguez’s assertion WVU made and broke verbal promises. Trouble is, if WVU did indeed fire Dusty — and in essence, WVU did — isn’t then he a clearly disgruntled former employee with an agenda testifying for … wait for it … a clearly disgruntled former employee with an agenda?  

oklahoma mountaineer said:

I’m not a lawyer, but I’d think these depositions would be the place where the “smoking gun” would come into play if RRod’s attorneys had evidence that puts blame at the feet of the University for breach of contract.

Do I think Gov Manchin has an inordinate amount of influence on the athletic dept? Yes.

Do I think that it’s interesting the the President and his right hand are present at the extension of the football coach’s contract and the AD is not? Yes.

Do I think that it gripes Pastalong !#@##@! that he seems to have a lot of help (and I think he truly needs help — to his retirement party!)? Yes!!

All those questions are valid in the context of the questioning? Does this aid RRod’s case — absolutely not….

RRod, cut the check and stop killing the next chapter of your career.

Which raises the question: Is it a Dusty gun and not a smoking gun? But yes, this was and is the place to lay out certain scenarios — and that happened in some regard; I think this was just a conduit for future testimonies — and if nothing else, it introduced some things oklahoma mountaineer mentioned. What, though, does it mean for the next step? I have no idea.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

Still can’t get over the “are you hung over” question at the beginning. They should begin all of these depositions with questions based on the depondent’s rumored personal habits or supposed personal defects. They might go like this:

for Garrison: “Are you a hot-head with anger management issues? Will your testimony be politically motivated?”

for Rich: “Are you a mumbler? An illiterate? A philanderer? An abuser of anecdotes from animated films?”

for Mike Brown: “Are you a bombshell exaggerator? Are you leaking your testimony to Chuck Finder as you speak?”

for Calvin Magee: “Are you a sad pawn in this game? Will Rich listen to your testimony and then ignore it and run Pat White up the middle instead?”

for Mike Casazza: “Aren’t you delighted you get to cover this? Isn’t this easy to write about? Don’t you find yourself anxiously awaiting the next development? Didn’t you nearly snap the umpteenth time you heard that Lion King analogy?”

thacker said:

I don’t think HBO could ask for better scripts for a comedy than this mess and all of its sub-plots, “An American University”. Except it is not fiction, it is not a script. It is pathetically real. I find no humor, whatsoever, in these events. This is the time where I hit the beach, jab the Jose Cuervo IV into my jugular, regain perspective and call it a day.

Well, I will say this: It’s terribly disappointing to see what once was deteriorate into what it is today. That’s something that, no matter how much fun we try to have with this, we shouldn’t really forget. To the point, though, I remember discussing here a while back how this was a landmark conflict in the battle between coaches and administrators. It was about principle, the validity of contracts, the value of character, so on and so forth. It’s satire now. In the end, we may see it again as a landmark decision, one way or the other, but only after we wipe away layers of mud and slime. The ideal outcome, though, is that it prevents similar situations in the future.

Karl said:

I’m already curious/dreading to see what way the national media outlets will find to spin this stuff to make us look bad. I can see the Ivan Maisel headline now: “Was WVU AD hung over at deposition?”

…followed by a 2,500 word ode to the woes of the Big East.

OB1 said:

Why is it that when I read Robon’s statements/questions all I can see is Lionel Hutz and his smoking monkey that comes free with the initial consultation.

Better question: Why didn’t I think of that? Can we call him Lionel Hutz now? (By the way, I did some homework — beyond the link I’m about to pass along — and Robon is an accomplished lawyer. Won several million dollars for his plaintiffs and is something of a hero to the little guy who was done wrong by the big guy. He’s no joke, even if he does seem a little out of his element with sports trivia. He also enjoys pilates and gardening as hobbies. You’ll love his motto: “If it can’t be done, give us a try.” It’s starting to make sense now.

thacker said:

I place a lot of value in Stewart’s opinion. I respect his values greatly. He is on the ground there and I am not. But I cannot overlook several facts.

Garrison knew the problems surrounding his appointment and the controversy. Garrison and Company knew the implications behind the Bresch request and it was still handled in the way it was. When that blew up, Garrison let others take the hit. Garrison has, apparently on several occasions, left out subordinates within important decisions that directly impacted those individuals’ areas of responsibility. Garrison and Company continue to attempt to spin events for their own personal gain.

Sorry, Bill .. but it looks to me as though Garrison has a history of “leaving his wingman” more often than not.

The university is academia and not athletics nor more than it is any other department. There are ninety-seven others on the ground, too, who have unequivocably stated their opinion … the members of the Faculty Senate. They have voted for Garrison’s resignation, 77-19.

I place more weight in their views on the university as a whole.

You, sir, are not alone. I still won’t opine about this — it’s just not my place — but will instead yield the floor for a moment. It is an interesting debate and Bill Stewart involved himself with a public letter of support.

Homer said:

How does Bill Stewart know the first thing about what makes a good college president? He has spent most of his life surrounded by people who think a 2.0 in high school gym teaching is a solid achievement.

Shannon said:

I’ve never heard of a college football coach making this kind of a statement. What benefit does it serve that Bill Stewart supports Mike Garrison? None. I wonder if someone put Stewart up to this, because it just doesn’t seem within the logic for a coach to comment on. When I worked in North Carolina in higher education policy, I wouldn’t expect Roy Williams to comment on the issues involving Christian fraternities and campus recognition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, nor would I expect Bobby Lutz to make comments about speech code violations at UNC-Charlotte.

I like Stewart, but this is an area he really shouldn’t get himself involved in right now.

Karl said:

“Without the support of these two fine individuals, Mountaineer football would not have reached the pinnacle of success that it is enjoying today.”

OK, I’ll give him Pastilong, but Garrison? The guy just started a year ago. I’d say Mountaineer football was doing fine before he arrived. And you could make the argument that with the way he handled the RR mess, he set the program back through all of the negative publicity.

Moving on, WVU quarterback recruit Tajh Boyd is having a nice camp season and dealing well with concerns about his height.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

Pat White is 6-foot-1. I like Boyd’s size just fine.

Case: Closed. 

jontex said:

This, frankly, is portraying Garrison to be an ego driven manipulator more than a presidential administrator.

I am happy for Huggs. But Garrison is only painting himself into a corner.

People like Rod never seem to understand how it is they paint themselves into a corner. And now Garrison is acting more and more like that kind.

We can only imagine what might happen with Rod and Garrison in the same room. . .well maybe it doesn’t require too much imagination.

Ah, this. This was the news that started the week and, geez, it seems like it was a long time ago. Garrison touched only briefly upon this this week — he had, um, other things going on — and it remains to be seen how or even if it’ll be used by Team Rodriguez. The hunch is Robon has already shown Pastilong was kept out of the loop and needs to introduce no more evidence in support of that.

Mack said:

Is this the most randomly good athletic department in the country? I mean, we’re in middle of nowhere, USA… we have less money than many others… lots of in-fighting… and no one claims that we have geniuses at the helm… How can one explain our athletics success?

A happy thought, a good point and a great debate to send you on your way. Enjoy the weekend!