Published: May 13, 2008 11:06 pm         

R-Rod says WVU board, Manchin pressured him

MORGANTOWN — Ex-football coach Rich Rodriguez says Gov. Joe Manchin and three members of the West Virginia University Board of Governors pressured him to sign a new contract before the start of the 2007 season, even though it had a $4 million damages clause he didn’t want.

In a deposition released Tuesday, Rodriguez says board members Steve Farmer, Drew Payne and Perry Petroplus also assured him all outstanding demands Rodriguez had for the football program would be met when Mike Garrison became WVU president.

Rodriguez said he believed them partly because they were clearly in influential positions: He claims Farmer told him months before the official appointment that Garrison — then a 38-year-old lawyer with thin academic credentials — would get the presidency.

“So when it occurred, it added credence to my belief that, hey, these guys know what’s going on,” Rodriguez testified April 21 at the proceeding in Michigan.

“Everybody said trust me. When they get into office, it will be so much better for you,” Rodriguez said. “... You have nothing to worry about.”

The board members also allegedly told Rodriguez a signed contract would help Garrison’s administration get off to a good start.

Those conversations occurred in August 2007, as Rodriguez’s relationship with athletic director Ed Pastilong disintegrated to the point that the two men barely spoke, Rodriguez testified.

Nor did then-President David Hardesty or his general counsel, Tom Dorer, return phone calls from the coach’s agent for “three or four months,” Rodriguez said.

The deposition was taken for WVU’s lawsuit seeking to recover the $4 million buyout Rodriguez first agreed to in a December 2006 term sheet, then accepted again by signing an amended contract Aug. 24, 2007.

Rodriguez, who quit in December after seven seasons for a job at Michigan, contends he was misled into signing. The case will be heard in Monongalia County Circuit Court in Morgantown, but no trial date has been set.

WVU claims Rodriguez had a sports agent, lawyer and financial adviser throughout his dealings and knew what he was signing. Rodriguez, however, contends he expected Garrison to keep a promise that the buyout would be reduced or eliminated — a promise Garrison denies making.

Among those yet to give depositions are Garrison and his chief of staff, Craig Walker.

Rodriguez said the board members told him last summer that the governor wanted the contract signed before football season, so he met with Garrison and Walker Aug. 24.

“And that’s the time when (Garrison) said he didn’t believe in buyouts, and that he would reduce it anyway, once he took office,” Rodriguez testified.

At the meeting, Walker said the governor wanted the contract signed, Rodriguez said.

“And obviously, Joe has a lot of influence and a lot of power,” he testified. “I told Craig to go back and tell Joe, Don’t you have enough issues to worry about running the state of West Virginia? Stay out of football. You know, we’ve got it under control here.”

Manchin, he said, called the next day warning of negative publicity if the coach started the season without a signed contract.

Rodriguez said Manchin told him, “So I think you should get it signed.”

“I said, Joe, we’ve got it taken care of.”

Rodriguez first agreed to a damages clause in 2002, at the suggestion of his own agent, Rick Davis. The payment was mutual; WVU would pay $2 million if it fired him, and he would pay WVU the same if he left before his contract expired.

Under questioning, Rodriguez first said the $2 million buyout was reasonable. He then said it wasn’t fair that he should have to pay WVU the same amount it would pay him.

In 2006, Rodriguez hired agent Mike Brown, and that December, when Alabama made him an offer, Rodriguez reopened his contract. But a meeting with Pastilong “was discouraging because there wasn’t an effort, I felt, to keep me,” he said.

Two prominent boosters — Bridgeport construction company owner David Alvarez and Ken Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks — stepped in and asked him to make a list of his demands.

The list included a multimillion-dollar locker room renovation project and a demand for his own Web site, which Pastilong said in his deposition that he opposed.

Rodriguez also wanted salary increases for his assistant coaches and more graduate assistants and elimination of a $5 fee for high school coaches who attend games.

He signed a term sheet Dec. 8, 2006, that essentially doubled his compensation package and doubled the damages clause from $2 million to $4 million. But Rodriguez testified that he doesn’t remember agreeing to the $4 million.

“You didn’t want to sign it?” asked WVU attorney Thomas Flaherty.

“Correct,” Rodriguez replied, then conceded he did anyway.

Rodriguez said he considered the $4 million “excessive” and “unfair,” but acquiesced when he learned Kendrick had insisted on the amount. Kendrick had pledged $2.5 million to the WVU Foundation Inc., contingent on Rodriguez remaining coach.

Flaherty told Rodriguez that Kendrick withdrew the pledge after Rodriguez resigned.

Rodriguez also acknowledged he has agreed to a $4 million damages clause at Michigan, even though it initially suggested $2 million.

Rodriguez said he was called by Arkansas about the Razorbacks’ vacant coaching job after WVU lost to Pitt in the 2007 regular-season finale, but he wasn’t interested. He later mentioned that call to Garrison at a Fiesta Bowl function, saying “we need to sit down and talk about the issues.”

Garrison agreed, “but we never did, other than that Saturday night before I made the decision,” Rodriguez said.

After he got Michigan’s offer Dec. 14, Rodriguez met with Pastilong and Walker. Though he’d been hopeful of an agreement, he said that changed during a private 10 p.m. meeting at Garrison’s house Dec. 15.

Rodriguez said he implored Garrison to keep his promises.

“And up until that time it always had been positive, that we will work on it. We’ll try. Give us time. We’ll get it done,” he said. “And that night I asked specifically, Tell me yes or no. And it was no to everything.”

“It was a completely different mentality and mind-set than I had seen since President Garrison had taken office. And it shocked me.”