MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia is investigating the disappearance of records associated with the school’s football program, a topic the agent for former coach Rich Rodriguez says will be addressed in court documents when the time is right.
- Clif Reeder
Citing anonymous sources, The Charleston Gazette reported yesterday that files kept in Rodriguez’s private office disappeared between Dec. 16 and Jan. 3, along with strength and conditioning records from the weight room.
Assistant athletic director Mike Fragale told The Associated Press some files are missing but that he does not know what was in them. The athletic department won’t have any further comment until its investigation is finished, he said.
The newspaper report claimed the missing documents included players’ personal contact information, scholarship payments and class attendance records, as well as strength and conditioning records and photographs that tracked players’ physical progress.
WVU is suing Rodriguez, who accepted the head coaching job at Michigan last month, to collect on a $4 million buyout clause in his contract. A response is due in about a week, and agent Mike Brown told The Associated Press late yesterday that’s when his client will respond to most of the accusations in the newspaper report.
The report has “a lot of misinformation and untruthful statements,” Brown said.
Brown denied Rodriguez kept a personal file on each player and that a strength coordinator took photos of them. Every time players were tested, he added, “those records were given to the head coach and every assistant coach.”
That means current head coach Bill Stewart should have copies.
“Regarding the class attendance records, I sure hope that West Virginia’s compliance and academic office keeps those records, because if they don’t, they have serious institutional control problems,” he said.