Rich Rodriguez broke his silence on the controversy that has followed since he left West Virginia for Michigan, saying during a hastily scheduled conference call that he had been the target of a "smear campaign." "There seems to be a campaign to try to smear me," Rodriguez said Thursday. "I haven't said anything until recently, when I felt I needed to defend all the false accusations." "It has just gotten ridiculous over the last couple of days." An investigation into missing files from Rodriguez's former office revealed the academic records of West Virginia football players are secure after a newspaper report raised questions about missing paperwork.