Mountaineer Nation is spiraling down the rabbit hole

This is about a rabbit.

The rabbit Glenn Close put in that pot 21 years ago, scaring the bejesus out of the Gallagher family. If you haven't seen Fatal Attraction, don't freak, you can quickly catch up to this column. Check your digital tier. It's bound to be there somewhere.

You would think Gov. Manchin would have more important things to worry about. (Getty Images)

Glenn's feeling then is the same as the one now in Morgantown, W.V. -- if I can't have you then nobody can. That's the essential theme of the West Virginia University vs. Rich Rodriguez animosity-turned-lawsuit that just won't go away.

"It's a little bit like you're in the jilted lover syndrome," said Ken Kendrick, West Virginia class of 1965. "It's like neither side can let go."

Kendrick is more than a random grad. He is one of the more influential West Virginia boosters, as well as being managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Kendrick who helped keep the program together last year by acting as an intermediary when Rodriguez was speaking to Alabama. It was Kendrick who ripped his school for hiring an inexperienced assistant in the emotional aftermath of the Fiesta Bowl.

It was his right. He also happened to be right.

"He is so overmatched it's not even funny," Kendrick said of Bill Stewart earlier this month.

Kendrick helped save Rodriguez once for West Virginia. He couldn't do it twice, which leads us back to that rabbit. The school and the coach (or his representatives) have been putting Thumper in each other's pot ever since Rodriguez left for Michigan. Relationships have been severed. The media has been co-opted as a tool for each side leaking information. Really, paper shredding? It's Rich Rod, not Enrod.

West Virginia governor Joe Manchin has run unchecked into dangerous territory, presuming himself wise enough to direct a coaching search while his state is in the bottom 10 nationally of those living below the poverty line.

Accusations, cell phone records, Shred-gate. Houston Nutt is beginning to think it's ridiculous. The latest report alleges racial discrimination against the school regarding former West Virginia assistant Calvin Magee. According to Magee's agent Mike Brown, the coach asked an unnamed West Virginia administrator last month about his chances of taking over for Rodriguez.

"(The administrator) said, 'Calvin, you'll never get it,' and pointed to his skin," Brown told CBSSports.com.

Magee, who is now at Michigan, is an African-American.

"It's definitely going to impact their program in recruiting when it comes to African-Americans," said Brown, who is also Rodriguez's agent.