Don’t Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out

An Open Letter to Coach Rodriguez:

Fuck you.

Yeah, that’s right. You brought WVU to the brink. You had Mountaineer fans everywhere proud to be Mountaineer fans again. You brought us two or three of the greatest athletes ever to take the gridiron for WVU in Patrick White, Steve Slaton, and Noel Devine. You made an unorthodox offense regularly referred to by ESPN as “unstoppable.” And, it almost was. We were sixty minutes from playing for the national championship, however mythical such a designation may be.

But, my beloved Mountaineers won’t play for a national title this year. And it’s your fault.
All. Your. Fault.

And I’m not saying this out of bitterness. Let’s face facts: why did WVU lose to South Florida earlier this year? Or last year? Why did WVU lose to Louisville last year? Why, indeed?

Because you lose focus. You lost focus on the important things going into the game against Pitt? Your game plan was uninspired. So you started Devine over Slaton, so what? That move had been crying out to be made for months. Slaton has been taking it easy, waiting for the NFL draft almost all season long. But, did you ever going to a more downfield passing game once Jarrett Brown entered the game? No. Did you consider insisting that Jarrett run? No. You sat there, wondering what happened to your tickets to New Orleans.
Sure, Pat was gone. But, Jarrett’s won for us before. Hell, he nearly pulled it out against the Bulls earlier this year, and performed very well last season against Rutgers. Was he ready to play Pitt? It didn’t appear that he was. Worse, it didn’t appear you were prepared to go to him.

But, let’s get beyond the Xs and Os. Let’s talk motivation. How motivated were the Mountaineers? So motivated that they didn’t do anything for most of two quarters. They read the papers, and believed everything they read: “favored by 28 points,” “the only question is how long will White need to play,” “Backyard Maul.” And then Wannstedt, who, let’s face it, is a marginal coach at best, got his guys ready to play. He used every headline that was printed relating to the game as motivation.

Sure, it’s easier to get motivated when no expects you to arrive on the field. But, when you’ve got a national title chance on the line, shouldn’t that be motivation? Clearly, it wasn’t. For them or for you. You didn’t coach them. And they didn’t play.

I wandered around the net earlier, and found this gem about what the greatest coach in West Virginia history did in preparing to play the 1982 Oklahoma Sooners. And I couldn’t help wondering if your knowing that there was no way you could coach your team up to play the 2007 Oklahoma Sooners was motivation enough for you to run to Ann Arbor. You couldn’t get them ready for a shit team like Pitt, so how could you be expected to stand up to the Sooners. That’s what I see.

I don’t care about the truth today.

Today, I have only two words for you.
And they aren’t good luck.

Indeed, I’ll repeat:

Fuck. You.