Jethro's UM Football Thread

[Zip Goshboots]

It's all beginning to happen so fast!!

The D.J. Woods family continues to stay in touch (as does the RM family ... oh well...).

D.J.is being recruited as a outside/slot combo guy by new-U-M.

D.J. is definitely making his official visit to U-M this weekend.

He was at Cincy last week - met Lovie Smith whose kid is going to walk on there ... Lovie stressed academics to them, and a degree, which can only help Michigan's cause!

D.J. needs to hear a little more from new-U-M on where he'll be used, and that the ball will be in the air.

TJB IMO: things look pretty good ... will D.J. be #19? Possible.

Thanks again to Tahoe, and Scout

[Zip Goshboots]

Quick hitter on the inhome visit to Pryor:

One More Thing* -- don't expect R-Rod to be by himself on his Jersey travels today ... Hopson too.

Terrelle Pryor was visited by all U-M offensive assistants yesterday ... smart, made an impact.

Now they are breaking up, and going to position-groups more.

Smith - the new QBs.
Frey - the OL commits.
etc.

Will some of the key guys get double-teamed or more going forward ... you bet - it's not that there are a lotta guys to go see.

++++++++++

If I recall the rules correctly.

Asst coach-or-coaches can make up to 6 inschools or inhomes. Doesn't matter how many at each visit.

Head Coach - one shot.

Frey visited Kurt Wermers in Indiana yesterday, great time was had by all. UM is bringing in a real good OL class. It may lack depth, but at least Wermers and Oneill are giving many grown men "College Football Boners"

[xanadu]

If the filegate is true, it does make rr sound pretty crazy. Even more crazy would be the fact that wvu has not introduced computers into the athletic department. Who the hell uses paper files exclusively in this day and age. Maybe I should go over there to get a gig as an IT consultant. I could make up some great excel charts to show weight room progress.

[thetwins81]

NEWS ON TPRYOR will be visiting this weekend. Not sure if this is a good thing and it looks like LSU is now in the mix those scummy basterds. I sure hope we can secure a commitment this weekend that would be tits.

[thetwins81]

oh and I also know that Mcguffie will be in town as well so that may help

[Jethro34]

Two things:

1 - If Pryor is in town this weekend I'll be looking for him at the UM-Iowa game and give him a shout out.

2 - If all the filegate stuff was true, why is the story coming out now? Seriously, if a coach was leaving wouldn't they want him to get all his stuff out quickly and with people watching, especially knowing how they would pursue the buyout? So under those circumstances, how could he have done it, and if it really happened, how could they just now be finding out?

[Glenn]

smear campaign

[Jethro34]

I thought that was in the Champagne Room? Something about 2 chicks and a cup?

Everyone realizes that all this is coming from West Virginia, right? The state most often referenced when making incest jokes? Home of fewer teeth per capita than the Hockey Hall of Fame?

[Zip Goshboots]

Official Recruiting Visit Lineup:

The January Official VIsit List- for now

Weekend of Jan. 18th

-- *NEW* -- Terrelle Pryor ... visited OSU in Nov., possibly PSU Jan. 18, possibly Fla.
-- J.T. Floyd. (Tenn the 25th)
-- Mike Martin. (also... visiting ND the 25th now)
-- D.J. Woods.
-- Boubacar Cissoko.
-- Vaughn Carraway? ... we'll see if U-M brings him in
-- DROPPED (U-M didn't schedule him) Adrian Bushell.


Weekend of Jan. 25th
-- Nick Perry. USC, U-M, Miami on consecutive weekends
-- Jaron Brown. Clem and SCAR, his big leaders, on 2 weekends prior.
-- WR/S T.J. Lawrence (6-2, 190, 4.5) from Lakeland, Fla., Kathleen. He's visited VA and Fla. (Jan. 11), and will visit SCAR (Jan. 18) and U-M (Jan. 25)
-- Slot WR Terrance Robinson (5-9, 175) from Klein Oak (Houston), Tex. Visiting BC Jan. 18 and also considering Wake.

Others possibly visiting in January:
-- Keanon Cooper. Visited Minn, visiting Wis. Will U-M still be set up?
-- A.J. Price. Will also visit PSU in Jan., visited Vir. in Dec. ... **still hasn't heard from new-U-M, visit getting doubtful?
-- see the "new recruits"

[Zip Goshboots]

File Gate:

Here's a great post from Scout. Read it.

Three questions I have:

1)Wouldn't anything important regarding student athletes records be kept in something called a "registrar's office" or a "student records office"?
2)Were said files (that no one has proven are missing in the first place) part of any investigation?
3)If they were RR's files, then he can do whatever he wants with them, right?

From Scout:

First of all, let me say I hate it when "gate" is attached to scandals. Doesn't make sense. But I just did it, so I guess I hate myself now. Damn.

Anyway, some of this story simply doesn't make sense. Here are my problems with this story.

Motive:
Simply put, I can't figure out what RR would have to gain by shredding/destroying files on current and former players. Usually in crimes of this nature, the way to find "who dunnit" is to find the person with the most to gain. The WVU unnamed sources say all the files of class attendance, community service, scholarship money, weight room performance, etc. are all missing. What exactly does RR have to gain by destroying this information? How would it benefit him?

If the allegation was that RR took files on recruits or possible transfers then I could see where he would have an incentive to take the files. But that's not the allegation. If someone can explain to me what RR would gain by destroying photos of former players doing charity work (one of the allegations) then I'm all ears.

Frankly, there's a strong dis-incentive for RR to do anything illegal or even questionable. He's in a lawsuit over his buyout which he knew was an issue on the date of the alleged events. No person in his right mind would want to compromise his position in a lawsuit of that nature by acting inappropriately, especially when part of his argument in the buyout lawsuit was that WVU didn't keep its word to him.

Unnamed sources:
I am always skeptical when I read accusations from "unnamed sources", particularly when there is prior animosity between the accuser and the accused. In my position as a prosecutor, we don't deal in accusations by "unnamed sources" for very good reasons. The main reason being they are completely unreliable. You don't know the information the "unnamed source" is relying on; you don't know what motives the "unnamed source" has in making his/her accusation; you can't test the credibility of the "unnamed source".

This also leads to the question of why an "unnamed source" would be the person giving this information to the press. If these allegations were true (or at least had some basis in truth) then why wouldn't WVU tell the press? Why wouldn't a member of the Athletic Department, which RR had major conflicts with, not come forward to report this openly?

I can not think of a reason that such allegations, if true, would not be reported by WVU. Because if it's true, then WVU is in the right and should make all of RR's transgressions public knowledge. They would have nothing to lose by doing so.

I can, however, think of reasons why WVU would let "unnamed sources" report this rather than disclosing it publicly through the university. The first reason would be that there is no evidence that RR actually did anything. The second reason would be as an intimidation tactic to RR in the pending lawsuit. If RR agreed to pay the $4 million that WVU is demanding then you can bet these "unnamed sources" would go away or suddenly be discredited.

Facts:
Ah, yes. The facts. The bane of liars throughout time. Here's the facts that I see in this story. RR returned to WVU the day after being introduced as UM's next coach. He then went to his office and began systematically shredding documents that he's been compiling for the last six or seven years on all players that have come through the program. Remember, according to the unnamed sources, all the files are gone. Even the strength and conditioning files. And he was viewed doing this by members of the WVU athletic department (or school employees of some sort; who knows since they're unnamed sources). And while this was happening, nobody suspected a thing a just let him go about his merry shredding business.

First of all, who here believes that no WVU employee would have found it strange or suspicious that he was shredding all those files? Please keep in mind that the sheer volume of files involved would mean this required a great deal of time to shred/destroy. We're talking about the files of all players from the time RR was hired at WVU and those files supposedly included all discipline, awards, scholarships, community service and S&C records for each player and apparently included things such as photos of accomplishments. It wouldn't be a stretch to think these files also contained players' medical histories. And RR was supposedly allowed to shred this huge number of documents without anyone ever saying, "hey, whatcha doin' coach?"

Second, at the time this alleged destruction of files took place, RR had not yet finalized his staff. He was still pursuing Stewart and Barwis and others. Only Magee and Gibson were locks to come. So what we're supposed to believe is RR destroyed the files created by all these men over the course of several years without their knowledge and then said, "Hey, wanna come to Ann Arbor with me?" and most of them agreed to let it slide and follow him. We're supposed to believe that RR would jeopardize the hiring of his assistants (including Barwis) and thereby jeopardize his chances of success just so he could destroy the files of people who were no longer in the program. To believe the scenario of RR secretly destroying files, you also have to believe that Barwis and other assistants didn't care that all their work was destroyed and even decided they still wanted to go with RR to coach at UM. So basically, all of his assistants would have to be complicit in the destruction and just say, "No big deal, RR. Let's go to UM!" (and keep in mind that destroying all those S&C files would be a huge blow to a program which needs to keep detailed records to see the effects of different techniques over time, which Barwis probably might be a little upset by).

Additionally, to believe that RR destroyed all these files is to believe he stabbed the men on his staff in the back but they have not come forward to say anything about it. This would be a huge betrayal by RR to men like Stewart who followed RR for so long. A slap in the face of epic proportions. Yet the coaches who stayed behind have not said word one about these missing files.

It also seems curious that the files apparently weren't missed until the last couple of days. They weren't missed during all of the bowl preparation time. The coaches didn't need to check the academic records of players' files to make sure they were eligible to play. They didn't need to check the S&C records or medical records of any players to make sure they were fit to play after injury. They didn't care about tracking S&C during this period (maybe their players didn't work out before the bowl game). None of the players received any kind of academic awards or conference awards to put in their files. The files were completely forgotten and unnecessary until the last couple of days when suddenly everyone noticed they were missing. Sure.


I know this is more than anyone wanted to hear (or read) from me, but I just had to do it. Sorry, this stuff just doesn't make sense. Of course, that doesn't mean it never happened. Anything's possible. But this is way off the charts in terms of credibility and believability in my book.