Tuesday, January 29, 2008

West Virginia Still Hates Michigan

While Michigan fans appear to have already moved on, that's not the case in West Virginia. The Wheeling Nailers, the "AA" affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, announced that Saturday will be "Shred Rich Rodriguez Night" when the dreaded Charlotte Checkers roll into WesBanco Arena.

They drop the puck at 7:35 p.m.

Anyone whose name is Rich Rodriguez gets in free. Fans bringing in articles about Rodriguez to get shredded will get in for a discounted rate. Any fan caught wearing University of Michigan apparel will be charged double in order to help Rodriguez pay his $4 million buyout to West Virginia.

"Everybody is so upset," Nailers co-president Rob Brooks said. "We wanted to let [fans] release some frustration, and we'll release some frustration of our own."

The Nailers are not alone in trying to capitalize on the Rich Rod mess. A resolution introduced by West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan to honor the Mountaineer football team passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

While Mollohan has virtually reassured re-election for life in his home state, don't lawmakers have more important matters to deal with? John Bresnahan of the Politico says this was a waste of time:

"The assertion in the resolution that the WVU had to 'overcome adversity' to win the Fiesta Bowl doesn't really make it for me.

"As one Crypt colleague pointed out, if there was one team that really overcame some adversity this year, it was the Virginia Tech Hokies, whose campus saw the horrific murder of 32 students and teachers in April 2007. Virginia Tech came back and almost won the national championship this season. West Virginia, meanwhile, choked horribly in a Dec. 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers. which cost the Mountaineers a chance to play for a national championship. Not good."

Finally, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports ranks the 18 coaching hires. No. 1 is Michigan's hiring of Rich Rodriguez. No. 18? West Virginia's hiring of Bill Stewart.

Writes Dodd: "Stewart seems to be a nice guy but we know absolutely nothing about him as a head coach despite the Fiesta Bowl. Let's judge him in five years and see if he can deliver four Big East titles and two BCS bowl teams — like Rodriguez did."

Thanks to the Midwest Correspondent.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thing about Dodd is that he's a total ass clown. There is no question that RR is a better hire than whoever I saw crying in that BCS bowl, but I used to read Dodd's stuff until I realized I was dumber when i went to bed than when i woke up in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Let's also see if Stewart can choke in the big games, just like RichFraud did against Pitt, and USF repeatedly. The spread is now everywhere, and credit certainly goes to him for developing it a while back. It's his playcalling that stinks.

Just wait till UM fans get sick of seeing two plays called over and over again: bubble screens and zone QB reads. Last December, Pitt didn't need to drop a single defender further than 7 yards off the LOS. They've got an egomaniac on their hands, who thinks he can run "his" offense however he wants and it'll work no matter what D opposes it.

RR needs to thank his lucky stars for Pat White.

Three N Out said...

If one ever wanted a textbook way to humiliate themselves as a school and a state... West Virginia is doing it in incredible fashion.

I know the whole "psycho ex-girlfriend" thing is a bit cliche... but let him go, man... let him go.

Anonymous said...

knute bryant,

couldnt have put it better. I have never heard mess like this in college in my entire life. what a bunch of losers.

Anonymous said...

So a minor league Hockey team in the Northern Panhandle decides to run a silly promo and that gives you cause to demonize the people of an entire state?

Odd that you bust your proverbial load over such small things or the fact that WVU was looking into the whereabouts of some missing files (they didn't outright claim rod had stolen them, but he had been seen shredding files in his office), but say nothing of racism/harassment that have been proven to be unfounded.

You make an entry that slams WV, yet ignore that both families (Rod's and Gibson's) are still living in the Morgantown area, and make no mention of the emails that are released that make Rod's agent out to be a money hungry jackal who constantly harassed the AD.

Who's biased? The ESPN polls seem to think that WVU is handling itself best in this whole matter, and thus far has the credibility.

I'm curious to see how many of Rod's backers in the Michigan camp will be singing his praises after he has a similar season to his 2001WVU one, next year.

WVU might not be on top, but at least we won't have to worry about our guy jumping ship or sticking it to local real estate agents behind his wife's back.

Three N Out said...

I'm not saying RR is completely in the right here. He probably does owe money.

But WVU is acting worse than Alabama did with Fran.

Obviously the media skews how bad it is... but some of that stuff is mental.

I'm also going to put good money on that ESPN poll having a slightly higher percentage of voting out of WV than any other state. Call me crazy.

Anonymous said...

ever coach shreds files. you want to know why? b/c their the coaches files he made. he has every right to shred them.