West Virginia Football is going through game week for #25 Virginia under the cloud of one of its assistant coaches landing in jail on a felony charge after a disturbing incident over the weekend.
Noel Devine, 38, the assistant running backs coach and offensive analyst on the staff of head coach Rich Rodriguez, was arrested early Sunday, hours after WVU beat UT-Martin 52-7 in Morgantown.
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Devine is in his second year as a member of the coaching staff, after a stellar career at West Virginia that included two 1,000-yard seasons as a tailback.
Per published reports, Devine, angry at not being able to make contact with his girlfriend for several hours Saturday night, tracked her cell phone location to a local sports bar, assaulted her, and later tracked her location again to the J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital on the WVU campus, where she had gone to seek treatment from the assault.
The victim told police that Devine, after tracking the woman to the sports bar, and forcing her to leave, pushed her into his vehicle, got on top of her, slapped her and began to strangle her, before a friend and others from the sports bar intervened.
She later went to the hospital with a severe headache and vomiting, and hospital staff alerted police after Devine tracked her location there and attempted to enter the facility.
He was arrested at a nearby gas station.
Rodriguez, in a statement, said he had placed Devine on indefinite leave, and that “any future decision on his status will be determined after more information becomes available.”
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Chris Graham
