Former NC State/WVU Player Sean Berton Weighs In On Rich Rodriguez

Sean Berton, who transfered to NC State after Rich Rodriquez was hired at WV, gave his take on Rodriguez in a message board post on Scout.com

Hey all… This is your pal Sean Berton… just dropping in to wish you all good luck in the Fiesta Bowl…This will be the first game that I will be rooting for you guys again since that evil, knieving J-off Rich Rodriguez took over. Yes the argument can be made that he left this program better off than it was and in alot of areas thats certainly true. But now you all know what I knew from the very first meeting I had with the guy… And thats that hes an egomaniacal, selfish D-head thats looking out for one person and one person only’s interests’. He will cheat, lie, steal…anything he has to do to get what Rich Rodriguez wants…Everyone around him is merely a pawn and a means to a happy end for himself. Maybe for some fans, class and character don’t hold much water and a win is a win and thats all that matters. I’ve never lived my life that way and have been taught that treating the people around you with the dignity, respect and honesty they deserve comes before the bottom line. As a player, I made a choice that had nothing to do with the University. I loved playing for WVU’s football team under Don Nehlen and I loved going to school there and still enjoy many great friendships with people I met there inside and outside of the program. I refused to play under a guy who so blatantly lacked a code of ethics and any type of moral integrity. I would never want my son to play/work for a person like that even if it did mean winning a championship. I would have loved to finish a WVU Mountaineer. Now that you guys have flushed this piece of human garbage from your program, you will have a great chance to win and do it the right way. I wish you guys the best of luck in your bowl game and in your coaching search. All the Best… Go EERS!!!

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30 Responses to Former NC State/WVU Player Sean Berton Weighs In On Rich Rodriguez

  1. WTNY 01/01/2008 at 10:40 PM #

    He replies to many questions later in the thread:

    hey guys… It is good to be embraced again by the good folk of West By God Virginia… I tried to explain my side of the story and shed light onto who WVU was getting into bed with shortly after I left…but too many people were in “you’re either with us or against us” mode…Like I said before, I’m a Pittsburgh kid (don’t hold that against me either) and loved WVU and would have loved to stay at WVU. To answer a few questions/comments. Yes the WVU/Rutgers catch was awesome. It was special bc it helped give Don N. his 200th win. Definitely the catch of my career. I used to have a picture of it bc it was on the cover of bgnews I think at one point, but I lost it. Secondly, my playing career is over. You won’t find me on NFL.com anymore. I blew my knee out while I was playin with the Giants and never played again after that play. Ironically, it was Gary Stills, a former teammate of mine who landed on top of me which blew my PCL out. Thirdly, the Pitt game. obviously D-head played scared…played not to lose. I thought that the Pitt game reminded me of the first half of the Marshall game…His playcalling was terrible and he tends to go into games determined that he assessed an opponents weakness correctly and then if his attack is stifled he just keeps doing it and refuses to adapt his playcalling. Its frustrating to watch. He’s just so stubborn and refuses to admit he might be wrong about something. Like in Marshall, how many times in the 1st half did he throw that stupid jailbreak screen that got shoved right back up his ass. Finally he just let Devine pound the rock and they blew it open. His arrogance is his downfall. Fourth…Doc Holliday…Great guy…Great Coach…IMO…your hire has got to be somebody who can carry this momentum. Doc will be able to parlay your recent success into big time recruits better than anybody. His sideline coaching ability is a question mark bc of his lack of HC experience, but if he gets the budget to surround himself with quality coordinators and assistants, he’ll be fine. Yes, Don N recommended I go to NC St. bc he trusted Doc to take care of me and make sure I didn’t get lost in the shuffle. I had to sit out my jr year bc of the transfer so it was crucial that I become the anointed starter again immediately when my eligibility was reinstated. Doc was awesome. He’s def. a loyal Mountaineer. He told me he cried when he and his family had to leave West Virginia. Lastly…Yes D-heads face was priceless when I shoved my already signed transfer slip up his ass after he suggested he would keep me there. But to be honest, I thanked him for taking the time to meet with me as well as Herb Hand and wished him well as I left. Only to find out from my good friends and teammates that both Hand and D-head threw a grenade on me in the first team meeting and position meeting. Calling me selfish and everything under the sun for leaving bc “I wanted more catches and glory for myself etc”…Yes I wanted to play pro ball and wanted to be involved in an offense…But I left bc of what a vile person he was and how undisguised that was for me to figure it all out without ever attending one meeting or one practice. Think about leaving your job tomorrow and having the new boss that you’ve never even worked for disparage your character to all your friends and coworkers only to benefit himself in installing fear to quall disobedience…

  2. dbo2874 01/01/2008 at 11:02 PM #

    well at least Sean doesnt hold any hard feelings or anything…

  3. tvopack 01/02/2008 at 12:02 AM #

    anyone watched HA vs. GA game?

  4. spanky 01/02/2008 at 12:04 AM #

    yes… not much of a game… Brennan has been sacked what 7 times now?
    Not to mention HA’s defense hasn’t really come close to stopping UGA.

  5. TTandB74 01/02/2008 at 2:29 AM #

    UGA v. Hawaii: Looks like a bunch of pretty boys waltzed into SEC country without taking their roids!

  6. Mike 01/02/2008 at 8:56 AM #

    Dont know Sean personally, but very interesting comments. I read in the Noise and Disturber this AM that Rodriguez is “surprised” that WVU is filing a lawsuit. Reading his comments, I was thinking what a bozo – if a buyout was in his contract, why is he surprised? Did he think he was special and above a contractual obligation? I had no reason to like or dislike RR before but now I know who not to root for in the future. Wish Doc well at WVU.

  7. Noah 01/02/2008 at 9:01 AM #

    Hawaii is the biggest fraud in the history of football. I’d sooner believe that I have thousands of dollars awaiting me in Algerian bank if I just pay the $1000 transaction fee like it says in my email than I would believe that Hawaii is capable of beating a D1 football team.

    They shouldn’t have gone to any bowl. And any GM who wants to draft Fraud Fraudulent as their QB deserves the inevitable firing that will follow.

  8. BoKnowsNCS71 01/02/2008 at 9:24 AM #

    /\ “They shouldn’t have gone to any bowl.”

    Actually Noah — there were a couple of early bowl games with some exciing 6-6 and 7-5 teams playing where they would have fit right in.

  9. RAWFS 01/02/2008 at 9:25 AM #

    Dang, Noah, don’t hold back.

    UGA was ranked #4 at the end of the year. Lots of teams would have lost 41-10 to them.

  10. EverettBeez 01/02/2008 at 9:32 AM #

    So how do you keep Hawaii out of a BCS bowl game? Add SOS to the computer models? Hawaii certainly was exposed last night. Folks around here will be happy though.

    Where did Rich come from when he went to WVU, and how did Berton know what a jerk he was before he met him? I can’t see that kind of attitude lasting long at Michigan.

  11. McPete 01/02/2008 at 10:45 AM #

    what makes the Hawaii beatdown worse is that some people on sports radio and around the watercooler tried to argue that they deserved a spot in the title game. Granted, crazy people said it, but i did hear some of that when the bcs bowls were first announced.

    too bad we couldn’t have gotten georgia v. usc in the rose bowl instead. and oklahoma v. VT in the orange/fiesta.

  12. old13 01/02/2008 at 10:55 AM #

    Rodriguez was a Clemson assistant when he got the WVU job. Between him (i.e., his reputation when he left Clemson) and the WVU (aka Arkansas) over-the-top “fans,” I’ve developed a strong dislike for WVU sports. Not sure a new coach there will change it either.

  13. Noah 01/02/2008 at 11:00 AM #

    “So how do you keep Hawaii out of a BCS bowl game?”

    Don’t invite them. Don’t be a f-ing idiot and rank them in your top-25. Don’t be a f-ing idiot and put their sorry asses on television. Tell them to eat pineapple and shut the f up.

  14. Noah 01/02/2008 at 11:04 AM #

    Sean Burton was a FB at WVU and basically had to transfer when Rodriguez got the job. RR told him flat out that his offense had no place for him.

    Or at least, that was the story Burton told everyone when he showed up in Raleigh.

    WVU fans are another group that needs to take a heaping helping teaspoon of Shut the F Up. They can go sit in “Shut the F Up” corner with Hawaii. If RR is so awful…if he’s such a liar and such a “me-first” kind of guy and he’s arrogant and he threw the Pitt game and he caused global warming and so on and so on and so on….why the hell do you care that he left?

    Sour-grape-eating-mother-f-ers….

  15. CarnifeX 01/02/2008 at 11:25 AM #

    *hands Noah a much needed beer*

  16. beowolf 01/02/2008 at 11:37 AM #

    Berton was one of my favorite Pack players in the Amato era.

  17. EverettBeez 01/02/2008 at 11:38 AM #

    long holiday with family Noah?

    Well not ranking them would be a start – but it’d be hard to keep some folks from doing that. could you keep your job as a sports writer in Hawaii if you didn’t rank the home islands school?

    As to tv, if Hawaii isn’t on, what do we watch after 11 on saturday nights? What about west coast folks? Is there a college team in Samoa?

    Of Course, the BCS folks will get right on this, and tweek the system in some way that does nothing to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, whatever that “thing” now is remembered as. Hurmph.

    Speaking of what the talking heads were predicting – UVa had a hell of a game, and its too bad they couldn’t pull it out against the Red Raiders – if only because the espn guys were all predicting slaughter.

    Has this been a lame bowl season or what?

  18. McPete 01/02/2008 at 12:49 PM #

    And the real loser in the Gator bowl was…the Gator Bowl. How many people showed up for that? 20K? By far the worst attendance of all the new years day bowls i watched. and what a crappy matchup anyway. you’ve got florida/michigan on one channel, an outdoor hockey game on another. and then the gator, with a quarter full stadium of zima drinking sweater-vesters.

  19. EverettBeez 01/02/2008 at 1:00 PM #

    ouch McPete.
    but I guess the truth hurts.
    I’ll have to take my UVa grad colleague a 6-pack of Zimi for 12th Night.

  20. Noah 01/02/2008 at 1:53 PM #

    I’m actually in a really good mood. I rarely post when I’m mad about something.

    I just have ZERO respect for Hawaii. They didn’t play anyone. Not a single game against ANYONE. Their conference sucked. Their non-conf. games sucked. Their opponent’s non-conference games sucked.

    Bah.

  21. EverettBeez 01/02/2008 at 2:54 PM #

    True that Noah.

  22. BJD95 01/02/2008 at 3:02 PM #

    I never bet on sports, but I was REALLY tempted to bet a large sum on the Bulldogs. I had seen Hawaii play a few times this year…and they just weren’t good. I mean, not good at all. Boise State was actually a good team (not great, but good). They had at least a handful of NFL-caliber players on their roster, and they were willing to challenge themselves without worries about being exposed. Plus, a matchup with an SEC (elite speed) team is about the worst matchup imaginable for a “little guy.”

    I read a pre-season article where June Jones was “refusing to apologize for his schedule” and made a big deal about the inability to get home-and-home series scheduled. What a f-ing joke. Have Pat Hill’s “anybody, anywhere” philosophy, THEN go undefeated and we can talk. Of course, Jones just wanted an excuse to duck competition, so his junk system wouldn’t be exposed. They still almost lost to Washington, Louisiana Tech, and San Jose State.

    The Rainbows (they can change their name officially if they want, I still say Rainbows) gamed the system and got their big payoff. Remember that the formula was tweaked a few years ago to de-emphasize SOS and give more weight to inertia-based human polling. Quite frankly, we’re lucky they didn’t end up in the title game. For the record, Sagarin had them at 16. In my ideal playoff, they would have faced a road date with the top seed in Round One.

  23. GAWolf 01/02/2008 at 5:00 PM #

    I’m a Berton fan, too. He never candy coated anything. We can see that hasn’t changed much…

  24. Primewolf 01/02/2008 at 8:01 PM #

    If RR called out Berton after he told the coach he was leaving, then Berton should have spoken up in front of the players and said that Rodiquez told him there was no place for him. What does he have to lose at that point.

    Sean, better to get it off your chest right then vs letting it simmer for all those years.

  25. EverettBeez 01/03/2008 at 9:10 AM #

    ^ I was under the impression Berton was called out in front of the players after he left, hence no challenge. Which time line is correct fellas?

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