Breaking News: Tarheel Football

Nice to know that you think that coaches should know where their "big time" players are 24/7/365.

Good luck with that if you ever become a parent.

Like I said, if these had been obvious gifts, I would be right there with you, but as these guys already showed that they were willing to lie about this stuff, it makes it pretty damn hard to figure it out. I'm sure that following these guys around all summer would have made it really easy to recruit their buddies back home.

At some point you have to trust the players and expect them to make the right choice. And as tough as it is to go with Herbstreit's and Luch's word over yours, I think they might know a little more about this. It was a really tough call though, I promise.

 

Takes away from the whole student-athlete responsibility. They knew they were breaking the rules and now players who did things the right way will pay for their mistakes. I see UNC losing scholly's and a two year bowl ban, at least.

 

It's pretty obvious that you're just looking for a reason to give Butch a pass on this, which is fine. He's a good coach, and I'm sure the lure of year in and year out contending for mid level bowl bids is strong enough to overcome any sense of reasonableness that you might otherwise display. But to a normal person, not blinded by the prospect of an annual trip to Shreveport or Nashville in December, someone suddenly showing up with diamond watches, earrings and lovely tans from trips to Miami and the Bahamas is reason to be highly suspicious, especially if those guys just happen to be first round NFL prospects.

As the head coach of a major university's football program, you have an obligation to your players individually, your team collectively, and your university more generally to know what's going on with your program. If you "don't know" that three of your top prospects are accepting multiple improper gifts (none of which were so minor as to not be noticeable), then at best your not being diligent enough in your supervision of the players you have decided will represent you and your school. At worst, you actually do know and are turning a blind eye towards it. It might not be fair, but that's part of the job. If he's not doing that, then he should be gone.

I'm guessing that when you combine this with Blake and whatever might drop in the academic investigation this whole conversation becomes moot anyway. There's no way Carolina can let him survive this and expect anyone to take their integrity seriously.

 

Ouch

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=5681159

 

Good post.

 

Butch didn't know but Spurrier did, thats good.

 

Don't forget that the NCAA is still investigating and we have only learned bits and pieces as this thing has gone along (and the CBS Sports guy who detailed the whole Blake/Wichard issue has claimed they aren't done yet so we will see....). I still think there will be recruiting issues to eventually come out. There was a statement Corey Miller made on Facebook about UNC-CH offering to pay him during his recruiting. Here is the statement: "and since we on this lets talk about how ya under tha table DL coach wanted to pay me to come to school.....???? No answer??? and how he showed me to diff chicks he put on my homie??? OOhhh UNC is so much better! U a lame yung gunna". That DL coach would, of course, be John 'Black Santa' Blake.

Then there was another statement made by Marvin Austin on signing day (where UNC-CH went from not in it to getting him in less than three weeks and he was the first big recruit bought, oops...won, by Blake) that was pretty bad. Here's the quote from USA Today:

"When Austin weighed his college options — he also considered Florida State, Tennessee and Maryland — proximity to home, academics, social and assistant coach John Blake, who was hired away from Nebraska in December.

Austin instantly connected with Blake "spiritually."

"He quoted Bible verses, spoke about how to invest money and knew I'd learn a lot about life and football. We have a father-son relationship," Austin said."

Hmmmm! Wonder where Austin got money to invest? I wonder....

Keep in mind Blake was the head recruiter and we know he was exchanging money with an agent. Anyone really think he wasn't also exchanging money for recruits. And if so, the entire tenure of Butch is dirty. Regardless of how much Butch knew (and come on, he knew or he is a freaking idiot), Butch is in charge and should take the fall. Captain on a sinking ship principle!

 

UNC is the modern day Blue Chips.

 

The NCAA should title their final report as "UNC-CH: They sold their soul for the Tire Bowl"

 

I don't expect the NCAA to declare loss of institutional control but maybe come down with something along the lines of what they did to Southern Cal. Loss of many scholarships and a post season ban. Now, that would probably hurt Chapel Hill more than it is going to hurt USC, but time will tell. JMHO.