Only 39 want him to stay. Read more here.

I don’t think he’ll be able to ignore a vote like that. WOW. I wonder how will this effect the Athletic Dept? It shouldn’t at all but he’s been so invovled. That is.. if he actually steps down.

Rich Fraud

Rich Rod’s deposition was finally released yesterday. His April 21st, 7.5 hour testimony on the events leading up to him abandoning his state and team, are documented in the following links. It’s so damn long it had to be broken up into 3 parts. It will take a while to read through these.

It sounds like more “he said, He Said” bickering between the 4 main players in this saga: Garrison, Pastilong, Rod, and Manchin. More to come.

Part 1 of the RR deposition

Part 2 of the RR deposition

Part 3 of the RR deposition

(Source: Charleston Daily Mail)

WARNING: Not OFFICE Safe, Loud, annoying hockey mom white trash screaming with extreme language and friggin’ hilarious.

Because of all of the Penguins talk going on up here in Pittsburgh I thought I’d throw in a little Hockey Freak Out.

Lionel Hutz: Rich Rods New Lawyer?

I was foaming at the mouth yesterday when I saw that they had released Pastilongs deposition from the Rich Rod case. I couldn’t wait to read Eddies testimony and maybe find out what really happened.

When I opened the PDF transcript of the questioning, I saw that it was about 200 pages long. I knew immediately my attention span was going to fail me on this one. I made it about 10 pages into it and just didn’t have the time to read the whole thing. What I did get from those 10 pages is that Mr. Robon (one of RR’s lawyers) was way out of his league when dealing with our AD. In the first few pages you could tell Eddie was going to school him big time.

So after realizing there was no way in hell I was going to read all of the deposition I decided to wait for a paid reporter to do my work for me. Ahhh… bloggin’ at it’s greatest…

You have to read this article by Mike Casazza over at the Daily Mail. He made it through the whole document and does a great job of explaining what took place during the questioning.

In one exchange about the validity of a liquidated damages clause, Robon asked Pastilong if his contract has a buyout. Pastilong said it does not and Robon wondered, “If you left the university, wouldn’t it be difficult to replace you, a person of your stature, running the place for 33 years, putting it on the map?”

Pastilong fired back: “Well, I would think that as in this particular contract, where I would give sufficient notice, in this particular case, two years, so that the president and those people in position to reappoint another athletic director, if they had sufficient time, I think that they would certainly do that quite adequately.”

Translation: Touche.

later:

They would later discuss the items Rodriguez requested be addressed, among them a team Web site that would generate income for assistant coaches. Pastilong said he resisted the idea after researching a Virginia Tech model. He also noted a scandal involving a similar Web site that happened at Texas A&M and was, as Pastilong said, “destructive to their athletic department, and to their head coach.”

“You mean Bobby Knight?” Robon said.

No, that’d be Dennis Franchione, who coached the Aggies for five years before he resigned at the end of the past season.

and then:

Later, Robon tried again to diminish the athletic department by asking, “Do people blame Mike Parsons for Bobby Huggins leaving?”

This drew a pair of stunned objections from WVU’s attorneys, Tom Flaherty and Jeff Wakefield. Reminded Huggins was still the coach, Robon shifted his angle.

“Attempts to leave?” he asked.

Pastilong diplomatically dismissed that idea, as well.

Awesome good work Eddie! I can’t wait to read more (or let Mike read more for me) about this case. I have a feeling it will give us all a lot to laugh about in the coming months and hopefully more stuff like this quote in reference to a line of questioning about former President Hardesty and current President Garrison:

“So we got two presidents in a row that are lawyers. Okay,” Robon said. “I think I want to move down here. I might get a job.”

“I,” Flaherty said, “wouldn’t count on that.”

Keepin' it Clean

I can’t imagine signing a contract that had this clause in it:

The contract also stipulates Huggins can be fired for substance abuse or habitual intoxication affecting his job performance. A West Virginia spokesman said that is a standard clause in employment contracts.

I don’t care what that spokesperson says we all know what this is about.

But then again, maybe I would:

Huggins will earn about $1.5 million this year, including a base salary of $250,000 and $1.25 million in supplemental compensation. His salary will increase a minimum of $100,000 per year, and he will receive an annual retention bonus of $100,000 starting next May 1, plus incentives.

Incentives include $10,000 for a first-round appearance in the NCAA tournament and $50,000 if the Mountaineers reach the championship game. Huggins would earn $20,000 if the Mountaineers win or tie for the Big East regular season championship, while a conference tournament title would also give him $20,000.

DAMN! Bonus Heaven!!!!! If Bling Bling $$ isn’t enough of a reason to “keep it clean” so to say, then he’s got some real problems.

So Huggins once again, congrats on this awesome deal and THIS ONES FOR YOU!

The WVU Coliseum is getting a scoreboard and lighting upgrade for the 2008 - 2009 season! FINALLY.

See ya old 'timer'

Manchin and Garrison Best Buds...

This guy has got to go. Any time you represent an organization or a school and you continually screw up and make that organization or school look bad you have to step down. If you truly want to do the right thing you quit, you move on, you do the only thing that will clear the name of said organization and QUIT. Cut your loses and move on. What is so hard to understand about that?

In a bold move yesterday, the Faculty Senate at WVU voted 77-19 in a nonbinding resolution to ask the President to respectfully resign.

Of course being as clueless as ever, Mr. Garrison says he has no intention to quit. Sigh.

This is just another issue that has really started to divide the faculty, student body, alumni, and the good ol’ political boys:

“Alumni are enraged. Donors are closing their checkbooks. Students are threatening to disrupt commencement exercises,” said Boyd Edwards, a physics professor. “For Mr. Garrison to remain [president] under these crippling circumstances would show he cares more for himself than WVU.”

Here is the problem with Mike Garrison and why he’s being “stubborn” about this issue…:

Garrison has the support of the board and Gov. Joe Manchin, who appointed most of its members.

and

Garrison and Bresch (Manchins Daughter) are longtime friends, and Garrison once worked as a Mylan lobbyist. And Mylan’s chairman, Milan “Mike” Puskar, has given tens of millions to the university, which named its football stadium for him.

Gov. Manchin seems to be always sticking his nose in the University’s business and needs to stay out of it. Also, WVU needs a president that is an academic leader and not a political thug who is creating an environment that doesn’t resemble a university:

He said people at the university feel intimidated because “it has become clear at WVU that decisions are being made about personnel matters, academic matters based on political reasons.”

Pharmaceutical science professor Robert Griffith compared Mr. Garrison, whom the board of governors hired for his political connections, to the legendary boss of New York City’s Tammany Hall. “Somewhere, Boss Tweed is looking up with a smile on his face. Patronage is alive and well at West Virginia University,” Mr. Griffith told senate members.

So how does this all related back to WVU Atheltics you might ask? Well actually it gets really muddy when you bring in the Athletic side of the arguement. Both Huggins and Stewart seem to support Mr. Garrison. I guess I would too if Garrison got me a 20+ Million Dollar contract. But all of this reeks to me. Read this

The WVU athletic staff had no knowledge of the “lifetime” contract talks until WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong finally was informed about it 24 hours before the dog-and-pony show to announce it.

That’s wrong and sad — but it seems kind of typical of the way things are done these days on the WVU campus. As for the political spinning, when did the capital move from Charleston to Morgantown?

Also, didn’t it seem that Garrison and Manchin hired Coach Stew and not Ed Pastilong? It seems they forced the the AD’s hand on the subject, I think Eddie wanted to do a little more interviewing and searching for the position? Everyone said it was an emotional hire, but the question is now, who’s emotion was it? The Governor and WVU Presidents????

Who knows what goes on behind these closed door meetings but I know that if I was the AD I would want the damn Governor to stay out of my office and stay in Charleston. The capital isn’t in Morgantown but it sure seems like it is as of late.. or should I say, since Garrison has been President.

Do us all a favor Mr. Garrison and QUIT! This whole thing STINKS and is embarrassing for the University. If you quit, it all ends. Do the right thing for WVU and not your EGO.

Sources:

• Associate Press
  
• Post Gazette
• Charelston Daily Mail

Forever Huggins!

Bob Huggins wants to end his career and retire at his Alma Mater WVU.

Huggins just signed an 11- year extension and will be pulling in major buckets…. 1.5 Million a year! And he even signed it with that dreaded $4 million buyout.

“It’s a great day for myself and for my family. To be able to represent this great state is an honor,” Huggins said. “It’s great to be able to work in a place where you enjoy the people that you work with and you trust the people that you work with.”

This is fantastic news and I want to say congrats to all of those involved in this deal! Maybe this will destract the media from the “Masters-Degree-Gate” story that is stealing the WVU headlines lately.

Huggs seems very happy about it and can now get to the job at hand.. a National Championship.

“I’m excited that we’re able to go full steam into the future,” Huggins said. “We want to win a national championship. We want to go to the Final Four.”

I have a feeling we’ll all be buying tickets to the Final Four very very soon! LET’S GOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!

This is the funniest freak out by a manager I think I’ve ever seen. I especially like his fake slide to the base before he rips it out of the ground.