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.

I probably don’t have to remind you how much everyone loves Notre Dame.

Though, Rudy is one of my favorite movies, it doesn’t take much press before I’m tired of hearing about the Irish. Hell, they have their own television station. At the end of the 2007 season, when Notre Dame was struggling to do anything, ESPN and Fox Sports were still tooting the Notre Dame horn, taking up for the coach and saying it was simply a down year in a “storied history.” I can’t image what it would be like if Notre Dame was any good (but I doubt we’ll have to worry about that for awhile.

This rant was initiated when I came to work today and flipped over my daily Fox Sports calendar for my morning nugget of sports trivia. When I noticed the tell-tale signs of a football trivia day, I began longing the days of football seasons passed, and doing the mental-math to figure out the number of days before the Mountaineers kick-off. Here’s what I read:

At the end of the 2006 regular season, Notre Dame senior Brady Quinn ranked ninth in career passing touchdowns (93) and 10th in career passing yards (11,614) for all-time NCAA division 1-A football records.

So?

Since when in this country is 9th and 10th good enough to mention…much less be calendar bound? Since there are about seven sports that are represented in this calendar, that leaves only 52 football tips. My non-scientific recollection says that half of the tips have been NFL and half college. That means only 26 questions ALL YEAR cover college football (America’s Pass-Time). Tweny-six questions and we have to hear about an over-hyped quarterback, on a declining football program.

Next thing you know I’ll be reading trivia questions about Tim Tebow’s junior high school passing records.

Just a quick rundown of how our “former” boys in Gold and Blue fared in the 2008 NFL Draft.

Steve Slaton went first out of the 3 Mountaineers that got the call over the weekend. He went in the 3rd Round and was the 89th pick. He’ll be playing for the Houston Texans.

Owen Schmitt went next in the 5th round, 163rd Pick by the Seattle Seahawks. It was reported they wanted him and looks like they got him. I can’t wait to see Schmitt on the field this fall. I’m actually shocked  and  awed by this late pick. It seems everyone thought he would go earlier than 5th round.

Ryan Mundy got picked up by his home town team the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 6th Round, 194th pick. He’s staying close to home close to his Alma Mater. I’m sure we’ll see him down in Motown on Saturdays this fall.

Reynauld, Dingle, Magro, Wicks and Dykes didn’t get the call, but I’m sure they will fit into a program somewhere out there they will just have to work a little harder to make the cut at training camp.

WVMountaineerSports.com would like to congratulate all of the players that were picked and wish them the best in there professional careers.

*The Big East had 19 drafted players in all and 2 players, Pitts Jeff Otah and USF’s Mike Jenkins, went in the 1st Round.

So we have quite a few players with a realistic chance to go to the big show this weekend in the NFL Draft. Actually we have 8 that have entered the draft… Saturday might actually be interesting for a WVU fan because usually it’s an eight hour waste of time. I can’t believe people actually sit around and party watching this thing? It’s so friggin’ boring. But to each it’s own I guess and since I’m more into College ball maybe I just don’t understand. I do however always want to see WVU Alums go far no matter what their career is, and this could be a great year for WVU players in the NFL.

Here is my quick rundown of the our top prospects:

1) Steve Slaton

Slaton is by far one of the most popular players to come out of WVU in years. One would think his chances are very good to get into the NFL, but he did have one more year of eligibility in the NCAA and maybe should have taken it. I think we all know the reason he is giving this a shot is because this past year wasn’t his best and with Noel itching to get the ball, things weren’t looking great next year in Morgantown for Steve. I think he made the right choice and I believe he will be drafted, he’s just too much of a talent to let fade on a practice team somewhere, it would be a shame. He’ll probably go mid-round. Hopefully he’ll get the chance to prove himself in the pros like he did against VT 3 or so years ago!

2) Owen Schmitt

What can you say about Owen that hasn’t already been said. He has the heart and passion we all wish we could tap into in our every day lives and I’m sure the scouts out there have taken notice. He’s the 2nd ranked FullBack prospect in the draft and should be able to get picked up pretty quick. I think he’ll be the first to go. The Seahawks seem interested:

“We’re not that kind of team,” Seahawks president Tim Ruskell said. “We definitely go off the film and we definitely go on what is inside the kid … the makeup of the kid. You won’t find a chart in our room where the linebacker has to be 6-feet tall.”

If this is true, Owen would fit perfect into the Seahawks lineup. I personally would like to see him go to Pittsburgh so I could watch him play and it would give me a reason to like the Steelers. We’ll see what happens this weekend.

3) Darius Reynauld

Here is the scouting report for Reynauld:

Could have gone back to school in ‘08 year but decided to go pro…Struggled with academics early in his career..His statistics can be misleading because he was not showcased much in the Mountaineers spread offense…Is built more like a running back than a wideout..He is potentially a solid #3 / #4 option and return specialist.

I have heard people up here in Pittsburgh talking about Reynauld going to the Steelers to help out an aging Ward and a weak at beast passing game. He is much like Ward in style and size so that might be a good pick up for the Steelers (I think they need a deep threat though).

I think Darius does have a good chance to get picked up in the middle rounds, we’ll see.

Johnny Dingle, Ryan Mundy, Eric Wicks, Marc Magro, and Keilen Dykes round out the other WVU players entering the draft. I don’t have much hope for them but you never know what a NFL team is looking at and looking for.

GOOD LUCK GUYS and Let’s GOOOOOO Mountaineers!!!

EXTRA POLL!

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