WVU investigating missing football documents

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West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez, new head coach of Michigan Wolverines

West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez speaks to the media during a morning press conference at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday morning, Dec. 15, 2007 in Morganton, W.Va. (AP Photo/The Dominion Post, Jason DeProspero)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jan 15, 2008 at 7:46 PM EST

Story Updated: Jan 15, 2008 at 9:39 PM EST

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.

Citing anonymous sources, The Charleston Gazette reported Tuesday 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 Tuesday 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.

Brown said the university also should have any records involving the finances of the summer camps it ran.

He declined to answer questions about whether Rodriguez removed or destroyed documents.

"There's a process that's now in place that has to be followed" because of the litigation, Brown said. "There is an appropriate time we can make comments and statements in regard to the allegations in the lawsuit and the allegations and statements that have been made by individuals in West Virginia."

Those individuals, he noted, include both Gov. Joe Manchin and WVU president Mike Garrison.

After Rodriguez resigned, Manchin blamed "high-priced agents" for the departure of a West Virginia native who had said his lifelong goal was to coach at his alma mater.

Since his departure, relatives of Rodriguez say they've been harassed and threatened. His mother, Arleen, said the coach's home was also vandalized, and dozens of groups devoted to her son's downfall have appeared on the Facebook social networking site.

Feeding fan fury is that after seven seasons in Morgantown, Rodriguez raided the Mountaineers' program, taking assistant coaches and perhaps recruits with him, as well as the six-member strength and conditioning staff.

Several wealthy football boosters claim there was behind-the-scenes tension between Rodriguez and the WVU administration, but the coach has yet to publicly discuss the matter.

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