2018 College Football Thread
 

I guess its time for a new one.


Lets start with coaching hot seat talk.




Any chance Urban Meyer goes down for this:
https://twitter.com/Brett_McMurphy/s...61186976141312

Unconfirmed twitter reports that something may happen. In this day and age, Title IX is not something to mess with. Even brought down some pretty big names in the softball world at Auburn (which also played a part in Jay Jacobs resignation).

Given the cover up allegations at Florida, and the current climate regarding domestic abuse, I think this has the potential to explode spectacularly...

Ohio State also has the men wrestling team sex abuse scandal right now, too.

He's been put on administrative leave pending an investigation. Smells like a potential Pitino separation coming soon...

It's funny how hating on Urban Meyer is one of the few things that brings UF and FSU fans together.

Let that be a lesson to college coaches everywhere, don't get caught covering up for your WR coach. Maybe a co-ordinator, but a WR coach just isn't worth the trouble.

Based on the texts he's gone. Or at least he's going to have to come out and call the significant others of a number of his fellow/former coaches flat out liars.

Burn down B1G athletics.

I have this OSU fan friend from my high school days in Ohio who mocks UM and Jim Harbaugh like it is his job. Guess who had to step away from social media today as soon as the news struck?

It's such a cynical world.

Figured Urban's tenure would flame out spectacularly. Here we are, probably a little earlier than I expected.

Schadenfreude.

I'm a Big Ten fan, but the Big Ten has covered itself in shame over the past decade. The whole prioritizing winning over basic human decency has to end.

1. Penn State - allowed a pedophile to go unchecked for 15 years in the football program
2. Michigan State - allowed a molester to run free in the athletics department over a 20 year period
3. Michigan State - tried to cover up sexual assaults perpetrated by members of both the football and basketball teams
4. Ohio State - allowed a molester to violate up to 2,500 student athletes over a period of years
5. Ohio State - allowed a chronic wife beater to remain as an assistant coach on the football team
6. Minnesota - multiple football players accused of sexual assault

This is shameful. I love college sports, but the win at all costs mentality has to stop. Coaches, administrators, and players need to be held accountable.

Um...Dafuq?


James O'Keefe on Twitter: "We are hours from publishing undercover video exposing now-embattled Buckeye coach Urban Meyer's long history of abuse. Here's a sneak peek.… https://t.co/nI01WHfuOQ"




Looks like today will be a popcorn day

Well, that escalated quickly.

Although, it sounds like this was something already in the hopper, and now that McMurphy beat them to the punch (no pun intended), they are having to move their story up., This is yet another one of those "we have explosive information but we're going to hold it until it will gather us the most clicks"-type of stories that I just don't understand. I mean, I get it from a marketing/financial aspect, but journalism shouldn't totally be about withholding information about things like abuse because you want to time it around the beginning of college football season to maximize your financial gain.

What's your favorite sports rivalry? Mine is Ed Orgeron vs. the closed captioning on YouTube. pic.twitter.com/bEkGcI8yfm

— Intern Pete (@peter_roulier) August 2, 2018

As an Arkansas fan, it puts the Petrino adultery and giving a job to his mistress in perspective.

Say what you will about Petrino but that guy could coach college ball and he made due with bottom of SEC talent. Most fun I had with Razorback football during the Petrino years.


.

Stay tuned. Its about to get fun again.

I sure hope so.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this O'Keefe stuff seems really minor to me. Over promising in recruiting? Using recruit dreams as motivation in practice?

Yeah that was a big 'Who cares?' to me as well.


Maybe some of the injury ignoring raises a flag. But not necessarily grossly so.

It's James O'Keefe, so it can be dismissed out of hand.

Art Briles is now coaching in Italy. Kinda like 'Playing for Pizza' but with coaching.

UW just had their best incoming freshmen , ILB Brandon Kahlo, ask for his release.

This one is a weird situation. His aunt and uncle died unexpectedly earlier this summer and his parents are getting a divorce, so it sounds like the kid is really not in a great mindset right now.

There's also talk that Kaho doesn't actually want out from his LOI, but it's his dad pushing him. The same dad that really wanted him to go to Alabama. A dad that may be looking at some financial difficulties with a divorce coming.

Also, with guys like Marquis Spiker, Tuli Letuligasenoa, Colson Yankoff, Jacob Sirmon and Julius Irvin in this recruiting class it's not clear-cut that Ale Kaho was the best of the bunch.

Yeah there is a lot of talk about this on the BYU message board, with many hoping it brings him back to BYU where he originally committed. How about just let the kid get his thoughts together? It has been a rough summer, wishing him the best.

So Meyer has admitted he knew about the 2015 incident, which contradicts what he said at Big 10 media days. I don't see how he keeps his job know unless it comes out he did elevate the complaint up the food chain, which he also insinuates in his written statement.

I am no lawyer, but here is what I am seeing. Urban admits to knowing but says he reported it. That is going to take this out of a "fire for cause" situation. Lying to a reporter is not a fire for cause (ie. fire without pay) situation. If OSU can't fire him without having to pay him $39 million, they are not going to fire him. My guess is the will bring him back and weather the pr storm. The team will have a good year and all will be water under the bridge in a few years.

I am seeing the same angle. The wild card here is the other issues OSU is dealing with now though. It will be quite a storm to weather if they do. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Sports fans, and die hard college football fans especially, really are a repugnant group.

404 - StoryLine

This is what happens when you lose to Iowa 55-24.

(1) Big time college sports are dirty.

(2) If your team wins a lot, it is almost certainly very dirty.

(3) If your team loses a lot, it is probably still very dirty.

(4) Maybe not the service academies?

(5) Otherwise, just be at peace with it and hope your guys aren't the ones who get caught. Or decide not to care.

Yup. Just came out and said they will complete the investigation in "14 days". Maybe that's long enough for this to die down? Maybe Urbs will want to "retire for health reasons" by the end of it.

Kinda figure out they are taking the 14 days to investigate not only this but to see if there are any other publicly exposable skeletons in the closet that could make this worse. If not, he comes back. If so, they hang him out to dry.

Interviews with former players at UF that were filmed without the players' knowledge.

Some of those interviews looked sketchy, but some look like they were in front of a microphone of some sort.

Iowa State coach Matt Campbell is the front runner for tOSU.

Im torn. Campbell is a fantastic coach. I hate to see him at Iowa State. And it would be a bummer if he went to tOSU.

I think that type of stuff goes on at most universities. Shoot, watch Last Chance U on netflix. That coach at the Kansas CC verbally abuses his players all day long.

That video is from James O'Keefe, so odds are high there is some very heavy selective editing involved.

For those of you who could not make it...

Opening remarks pic.twitter.com/LcRxFUCMsO

— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) August 6, 2018

Now you know why Trump was elected

Washington grants Ale Kaho his release. We'll see what the Kaho family means when they say he wanted to be "closer to his family". Will he enroll at BYU? Or does his dad have a new job lined up in Alabama or Oregon?

Both schools have reached out, along with USC, FSU and others. I would love to get him at BYU, which would put him close to his family, but not holding my breath. Could hinge on how the BYU O looks this year after the complete dumpster fire we saw last year.

People are thinking Bama...haha

Saw that too, which kind of brings the close to home narrative into question. I have also heard Stanford, which actually might be the best fit overall if he qualifies.

Stanford admissions is over and they don't take transfers

Is that a football thing? Cause they do accept transfer athletes

Or did you simply mean that they don't take them outside the normal admission window?

I believe it's a football thing for undergrads. Shaw likes talking about it. You can be a grad transfer

Interesting, did not know Football did not take undergrads.

All moot, as he is signing with Alabama as expected. Because Tuscaloosa is so much closer to home in Reno than Seattle...

So which enterprising reporter will be checking in to see where his dad ends up and in what new job?

I was just coming back to post that, so apparently those issues requiring him to be closer to home weren't that serious. It would definitely be interesting to know the back story to this, but in the end not knowing the details I wish him the best.

BTW, I don't think Saban would have handled this as well as CP did if the transfer was reversed, given the fact that he has flipped over these types of things when they don't benefit his program.

I would guess Petersen determined that this situation wasn't one where it was worth making a stand. Given the general public opinion regarding student athletes I don't think the coach of a major football program denying a release for a kid who just unexpectedly lost an aunt & uncle and who's parents are going through a divorce would have played well. At all. Petersen would have been savaged in the media and in general public opinion. Those of us that follow recruiting and know a bit more about what's going on would have been drowned out.

Now, if this kid didn't have that backstory to lean on, I'm not so sure Petersen would have been so ready to let him go. I guess we'll see if this kind of poaching becomes more common whether he changes his approach.

Distance from Reno to Seattle: 704 miles

Distance from Reno to Tuscaloosa: 2,239 miles

True but I think he is a bit more player friendly and measured than Saban. Peterson is one of my favorite coaches out there. Genuine guy who knows how to build a program. No disrespect to Saban, who is a helluva coach, but as a coach I would rather have my kid play for CP any day.

Apparently this speaks to how bad Washington's geography program is :D

Or they're factoring in I-5 traffic.

Didn't get as much publicity, nationally, but the same situation played out in SC a few months back.


Josh Belk (DT) enrolled at Clemson in January. He checked in at 387lbs after playing in the low 300s in high school. He (got) worked to get his weight down to the 310s by the start of spring practice. But was told he was looking at a redshirt because Clemson was so deep at DL and he was out of shape. He was told during recruiting (by his own admission) that he would be given a chance to beat out a senior for PT and if not would redshirt.


Random family member was suddenly sick. He dropped out of Clemson, after a letter was released by "his" lawyer, and subsequently enrolled in South Carolina to be closer to home. To be fair it is much closer. Clemson was 120 miles away and SC is ~70 miles away. lol.


He weighed in at summer report last week at...368.


Now they are petitioning the NCAA to not sit a year as a transfer.

Agreed on all counts. I can't believe how lucky Washington got that Petersen was ready to move on from Boise when the job opened. I grew up in the Don James era and put him on a very high pedestal, but I think Petersen is in every respect an even better coach and person.

I'm really hoping CrescentMoonie will come back to tell us how much the Big Ten sucks this year.

Yeah. Seems shady as hell.

What he has done for the program is nothing short of amazing. I don't follow the recruiting the way Dawgfan does, but as a fellow UW alum I'm sure I take as much pleasure in watching these guys on gameday as anyone.

I know it's a fantasy, but it would be nice if a coach in this situation refused to let the player join his program because it was all predicated on dishonesty.

God I sure hope so.

The best was when Logan destroyed him when he posted in the ESPN+ thread after like 6 months away.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...6&postcount=35

Came back to post a couple token things in the NHL thread, but hasn't been around since June. Maybe he's just waiting for September?

Sadly there are very, very few programs that would take that stance. Its all about winning and Jimmies and Joes rule the day there.

Of course. It would just be nice if all the values talk from big programs was backed up with a little action. Saban could lose this guy and still win the next four championships.

Heh. I saw that. The timing of the disappearance was strictly coincidental!

Expectations are pretty high here in Wisconsin for 2018. It’ll be interesting to see if Alex Hornibrook will take the next step. He has talent at WR and of course the bread and butter of the rushing game should be there like always. I like the potential of the offensive unit.

Defensive line could be a weak spot with a few injuries claiming any depth.

Biggest hurdles to an undefeated regular season:
9/22 @Iowa
11/10 @ Penn St.

No Ohio State or Michigan State on the regular season schedule. They do play Michigan on the road also.

Anything less than winning the West should be a big disappointment.

What's been fun is not only are they putting up the results on the field, but the way he runs the program and the values he emphasizes make it really easy to root for them. I appreciated certain aspects of Sarkisian, and there's no doubt he did some heavy lifting to get the program back on its feet and set the stage for a guy like Petersen to be interested in the job, but Sark also had has definite downsides in the way he ran the program and the values he projected.

Hope springs eternal for this Rutgers fan, yet I’ve never been less interested in sports in general.

Show some respect Butter, he started a new job!

:cool:

This is disgusting and I hope anyone complicit in this goes to prison.

Maryland Terrapins football culture toxic coach DJ Durkin

Holy shit. There is something wrong with the culture of the Big Ten. Durkin and Court should be fired and put on trial.

It’s the culture of big money athletics.

Or a culture where too many people get dere widdle feewings hurt at the slightest hint of challenge.

If those guys missed clear signs of present danger on the heat related issue, fine, that's actionable.

But when things are coming from players (and perhaps former employees) so easily upset cause they get barked at? Sounds like a lot of what's described in the article is pretty well deserved, that there was a lot of (alleged) athletes in the program that needed to be gone.

The pussification of America continues, nothing new here.

If they really waited an hour before calling 911, you have to think there will be criminal charges. When it comes to heat stroke, minutes count and you'd have to think he'd have a better chance of surviving with proper medical attention right away.

You also have to wonder why a school with an athletic department budget of $100 million wouldn't have someone on their training staff who could spot the signs of heat stroke.

There should be no difference between acceptable behavior in the classroom and the athletic complex. You don't have to be abusive to motivate and discipline.

The real pussies are the one's who only talk shit and assault people when they know the other person can't fight back. I guarantee you none of the people involved in this would dare say or do the things to those football players once they don't have a scholarship to hold over their head. Reason of course being they would get their shit pushed in.

It's like pointing at a caged lion and calling him a pussy for not fighting back.

Newsflash: they don't have any reason to "fight back", their job is to do their job. Or quit stealing money from the athletic department (I actually thought that was a specific line that really ought to be used a LOT more often at most programs frankly ... I've sure as hell seen a lot of them at the programs I know best, I can't imagine its different too many places).

Reading the article, what constitutes a problem for some of these characters is laughable. They aren't any more spoiled brats in the country that some of these so-called athletes, the only thing missing from some of them is a shitzu to put in their purse. They're why I really hope a draft is never necessary, cause if things get to that point, the country is fucked.

Who am I kidding? We're already fucked if this is even a discussion.

It's not a job. If the NCAA would like to change their rules and make it a job, by all means you may have a point. But a player can't say "I quit" and drive up to Rutgers and start "working" for them next week.

You and 99% of the country wouldn't make it 5 minutes into their workout without crumbling into the fetal position. Nor would you and others say any of these things within half a mile of these players.

Like I said, the real pussies are the one's who choose targets who can't fight back.

So, Urban Meyer has been ordered to stay away from any contact with players/coaches, we're halfway through the 14 day timetable the university announced for their investigation... and they haven't met with Zach or Courtney Smith yet and the AD is on vacation?

I think Meyer couldn't care less if his assistants (or players) is committing DV unless it goes public, but if the university knew about Smith's 2009 DV arrest while at Florida when he was brought in, and Meyer passed the info up the chain in 2015 as he said, it sounds like the AD should be the fall guy here, not Meyer (or at the least go down with him.)

But it certainly seems like there's an internal power struggle going on with the BoT, so who knows which side they'll come down on. Even though nothing other than PR is holding them to it, giving themselves this 14 day timetable just seems dumber & dumber.

Why does the investigation need to talk to Smith? Whether or not Zach abused her is irrelevant to the the Meyer case. If Meyer hard reasonable belief that he did, his contract require him to report it. Not to counsel, not to reprimand, but report. If he reported it he is covered, if he didn't he should swing. That simple.

Btw anyone else following the John Emery tweet saga?
If the NCAA wasn't a paper toothless tiger that would be a bigger story.

I thought that tweet was fake. I saw something about it, but it clearly came from a fake Brett McMurphy account.

Yeah, the tweet was a hoax from a fake account.

I laughed a number of times.

https://www.everydayshouldbesaturday...mascot-is-good

The companion logos might be almost as bad as the costume.
Not nearly as comical ... but nearly as awful.

Anonymous coaches list who they think run the cleanest programs

Good to hear that perception appears to mirror reality with regard to Chris Petersen.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...erch/37502621/


Bison have possibly the easiest schedule they have had in years. With up to 10 games at home if they host during the playoffs and can keep it clean, healthy and win during the season.

Urban Meyer got a vote.

Not sure I take this one seriously.

But good press is good press.

https://watchstadium.com/news/zach-s...se-08-17-2018/

Speaking of good press....

Wow, I'm really glad I'm not that guy.

Should be finding out the fate of Urban meyer within the next couple hours.

He has been in meeting with the trustees for a couple hours. My guess? Suspension.

My guess... 2 week suspension, coming back in time for the TCU game.

This is kinda bizarre...

Trustee @ClarkKelloggCBS just came out to get a book he wants to read. He said it's a "Good robust discussion and progress is being made." Kellogg said Urban Meyer has not been in the room with trustees during discussions.

— Lucas Sullivan (@DispatchSully) August 22, 2018

Why even say something like that?

I can't be reading that correctly.

He left a "good robust discussion" ... in order to get a book to read?

Da hell?

The book was "How to punish Western Kentucky for transgressions at Ohio State"

Clark isn't a trustee in the way some of the richer, more powerful folks are trustees. If he wants to sit in the back and read, I'm sure that's fine with the people making the decisions.

Fair point.

CliffsNotes version (from what I've been told): Ohio State's BoT wants to reinstate Urban Meyer immediately. University president Michael Drake is balking at that; wants Meyer to serve a suspension. Meyer refuses to serve suspension since he thinks he did nothing wrong. #Buckeyes

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) August 22, 2018

so, he's refusing to accept a banning?

So I guess this could come down to who has the actual authority, the BoT or the Univ. prez

I mean, one or the other has to have final say so on a matter of this sort I'd think. Or it could be one of those deals where the prez can suspend but then the board can overturn?

From the same guy

Important to keep in mind Drake works for the BoT ... and not the other way around.

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) August 22, 2018

It's not really Drake's decision. That was just falsely reported for the last 3 weeks. He works for the board. It's really their decision. So, if it comes down to Drake v the BoT, the board will win. https://t.co/20CM95wfvA

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) August 22, 2018

Because you don't want the board and the university prez at odds publicly; it doesn't look good. They're trying to get on the same page, but Drake is being stubborn about it from what I've been told. https://t.co/RmbpclOkKQ

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) August 22, 2018

ALSO, he just tweeted this

You don't get it. Meyer is not saying "You can't fire me." They can absolutely fire him right now. He's saying "I will not accept a suspension" (my words via sources). Either fire me, or reinstate me immediately. Big difference from what you portrayed. https://t.co/NIWjRdSody

— Dave Biddle (@davebiddle) August 22, 2018