West Virginia addresses letter from Bob Huggins alleging he never resigned

Just when you thought the Bob Huggins fiasco in Morgantown was gone, it opened right back up. On Saturday, Huggins claimed to have never resigned from the West Virginia job or retired from coaching. He has threatened to sue the University through letters sent to his lawyer.

West Virginia responded to the letters sent via Huggins’ lawyer James Gianola, with Daniel Burbank of WCHS8 in Charleston-Huntington acquiring them. The University claims to have a phone call with one of Huggins’ lawyer, referred to as Mr. Fitzsimmons, about compensation owed to the former head coach.

They claim had Huggins not resigned from the program, he would not be owed that money. Basically, it sounds like West Virginia is confused as to who will be representing Huggins throughout this process.

“Yesterday (Friday, July 9), Mr. Fitzsimmons called me to discuss the benefits to be provided under Mr. Huggins’ contract, as a result of his resignation and retirement,” the email read. “We specifically discussed the payment of his deferred compensation and annual leave buyout, both of which would not be currently owed to Mr. Huggins if he had not resigned. It appears to us that you may not be aware that Mr. Fitzsimmons, as Mr. Huggins’ other lawyer, has been proceeding under that very same understanding as the University, and the reality as it exists, that Mr. Huggins has in fact resigned and is retired.”

In the second half of the email, West Virginia asks Bob Huggins to figure out exactly who is representing him on the matter. The University side believes there have been contradictory proceedings from their side of it, asking for one lawyer to be in communication with them.

“In light of all of this, we need confirmation, substantiated in reliable writing, as to who is representing Mr. Huggins and what his current legal position is with respect to the University. If Mr. Huggins somehow now maintaining that he did not resign after discussions with his attorney on June 16-17, then we would ask that whoever is taking that position on his behalf to do their due diligence before asserting a position that is clearly contrary to the documented evidence.”

Huggins resigned and then retired from coaching after a tough offseason, with two incidents causing the situation. First, Huggins used a homophobic slur on a Cincinnati radio show and was then arrested and charged with a DUI just weeks later.