Exactly how many thugs did Rich Rodriguez recruit during his seven years at West Virginia University?
Do the players think that new coach Bill Stewart is a pushover because he doesn’t scream and curse like Rodriguez? Is that why they think they can get away with the boneheaded and/or criminal behavior we’ve set out below?
Or were they simply thugs all along, and it was only a matter of time until their true nature found an opportunity to exploit?
Stewart must feel like a new judge taking over a caseload of criminals from a retired judge who just couldn’t be bothered to sentence any of them.
Since Stewart has taken over following WVU’s Fiesta Bowl rout of Oklahoma, he has:
- Kicked RB Eddie Collington, DL James Ingram and LB John Holmes off the team for possession and intent to distribute drugs. Smart.
- Kicked S Charles Pugh off the team for—get this—allegedly picking up a set of car keys from a table in the student union then using the panic button to find the car in the adjacent parking garage. Then, he and a woman entered the car, stole a credit card, and racked up nearly $2,000 in purchases.
- Kicked TE Evan Rodriguez off the team for assaulting a female student. Nice.
- B/R Ticket Guide
- According to West Virginia media, applied team discipline to RB Noel Devine and WR Jock Sanders after charges were filed against the pair following a fight with students.
Last August, CB Ellis Lankster and LB J.T. Thomas were arrested for stealing a laptop form a student’s house and trying to fence it. Again, smart. They were suspended for several games.
Earlier last summer, S Quinton Andrews and okay-now-he’s-coming-back-for-real RB Jason Gwaltney spent the night in the Morgantown pokey after a dustup with cops.
All of this has landed WVU at the No. 2 spot on the vaunted Every Day Should Be Saturday’s Fulmer Cup, which awards points to college football student athletes based on arrests, convictions and so forth. (Barely behind Mizzou.)
What are we to make of all this?
Andrews has been a known problem for most of his time at WVU.
Lankster came from a JuCo. We’d hate to over-generalize, but if we did, we’d note that players with Division I talent who opt for the JuCo route do so because they don’t have the academic credentials to go straight into Division I. Now, if we over-generalized even further, we’d note that dumb athletes also often are violent. It’s why Bob Huggins got his bad-JuCo rep at Cincinnati.
Pugh’s mom said in the West Virginia media that her boy Charles didn’t act alone, implying that a woman with Pugh urged her son to become a criminal. As my friend Ann likes to say, “P***y make you crazy!”
Charles, however, died the way he lived: His uni number was 15, which made sense. He was forever drawing 15-yard personal foul penalties for late hits out of bounds and other unsportsmanlike behavior.
Devine had a crazy troubled childhood: six kids by nine different women, both parents dead, etc. However, nothing in his past indicated violence.
And let us not forget the all-time braindead Mountaineers brought to Morgantown by Rodriguez: Pacman Jones, recently reinstated to the NFL after a one-year suspension, and Chris Henry, who just today was suspended by the NFL indefinitely for being arrested about six times in eight states.
It should be clear by now that Rodriguez cared much more about 40-yard-dash times than character. And because of that, he left Stewart a mess to clean up.
Rodriguez: The gift that keeps on giving.
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5 months ago
Gotta be honest. I hate Michigan, so I hope Dick Rod fails. Im also very, very sick of reading anything about the guy. Ive had enough about people from WVU complaining about him, just as Im sick of him complaining about WVU. Cant wait for the season to start, so people can follow their current programs and stop bickering.
5 months ago
People hate to read facts Frank. I agree with Raj, even I am disgusted at anything posted that mention Fraud and WVU in the same sentence. Let the arrogant Michigan fanbase find out his true colors. Great offensive innovator, not a good in-game play-caller , but above all a slimy, backstabbing human being!
from 5 months ago
Facts? You think that perhaps he had to recruit for what was left over because WVU wasn't exactly a drawing point? Notice that he hasn't been going after "thugs" thusfar at Michigan and, shocker!, he's grabbing higher quality talent as well. Simple difference here.
And will you WVU fans ever let it go? How have your tear ducts not swollen shut?
from 5 months ago
Ryan,
Yeah and Ann Arbour is some magical place with palm trees and umbrella drinks. Also you can't quite establish whether his recruits will be thugs or not. Let's see if you higher quality talent will keep you out of the big ten basement.
5 months ago
You could probably say the same thing for most college football team. Interesting that the coach didn't kick Noel Devine of the team. Hmmm, I wonder why.
5 months ago
He probably didn't kick Devine off the team because being accused of being in a fight isn't quite as bad as dealing drugs or stealing credit cards. And because Devine has no history (that we're aware of) of getting into trouble.
5 months ago
I'm new to the bleacher report, but is this the caliber of material that earns one the title of "senior writer?" That speaks volumes on this dude's readership.
4 months ago
All these guys getting kicked off these teams should be picked up by Ohio State. They can't win a national championship game but stealing one might be possible!
4 months ago
I'm a Mountaineer fan and just want to say this article is ridiculous. The Headline and the slant of the article are just annoying and show immaturity. All programs have problem players, even Notre Dame. Yes, some coaches put less emphasis on character than others. I can't paint RR in that light given the team's history. His program looked just like every other major program in the country team to me. I remember when our beloved Don Nehlen had one alcoholic tight end after another alcoholic WR on his teams and personally played intramural basketball against members of the 1985 football team who were the most bullying, fouling, offensive players ever. The refs were terrified of them. When I would go to Towers (football dorm) I always wondered if someone would try to pick a fight with me from the team, because they were always trash talking and wanting to fight. HELLO, THESE GUYS ARE FOOTBALL PLAYERS!!!!!! Typically an agressive macho bunch, if you ever partied with them or hung out with them or played other sports, you would not be surprised by any of this. Such is life. I still am and always will be a huge football and Mountaineer fan. An old friend of mine on the Michigan State football scout team was dangled by his feet from a high rise dorm window by his starting counterparts. He was routinely brutalized and it was a sort of tough love. Though he never played a down, he has a Rose Bowl ring for his efforts. Football players misbehaving. UNHEARD OF.
4 months ago
I'm a Mountaineer fan and just want to say this article is ridiculous. The Headline and the slant of the article are just annoying and show immaturity. All programs have problem players, even Notre Dame. Yes, some coaches put less emphasis on character than others. I can't paint RR in that light given the team's history. His program looked just like every other major program in the country team to me. I remember when our beloved Don Nehlen had one alcoholic tight end after another alcoholic WR on his teams and personally played intramural basketball against members of the 1985 football team who were the most bullying, fouling, offensive players ever. The refs were terrified of them. When I would go to Towers (football dorm) I always wondered if someone would try to pick a fight with me from the team, because they were always trash talking and wanting to fight. HELLO, THESE GUYS ARE FOOTBALL PLAYERS!!!!!! Typically an agressive macho bunch, if you ever partied with them or hung out with them or played other sports, you would not be surprised by any of this. Such is life. I still am and always will be a huge football and Mountaineer fan. An old friend of mine on the Michigan State football scout team was dangled by his feet from a high rise dorm window by his starting counterparts. He was routinely brutalized and it was a sort of tough love. Though he never played a down, he has a Rose Bowl ring for his efforts. Football players misbehaving. UNHEARD OF.
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