First off let me say that this column by John Adams on UT’s latest signee is total bullcheet. This kid looks to have turned his life around completely – his victim recommended that Tennessee accept him – and it looks like the staff and school did a very careful job of evaluation before offering. But Junior shouldn’t extend a chance because there’s too much history at UT? Give me a break.
That being said, stuff like that comes with the Laner’s territory, Vol fans, so you better get used to it. Some people aren’t going to see much of a step from Bryce Brown to this and aren’t going to give a coach who refers to his school’s program as his “franchise” much slack at all.
And this isn’t going to do Junior any favors, either.
… Reports out of Mississippi claim that Ole Miss football could lose as many as three scholarships when the NCAA releases its new APR report. The problems, according to the report in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, stem from the last season under former coach Ed Orgeron. Last season, the first under new coach Houston Nutt, the football program scored 939, 14 points above the minimum required score of 925.
Ole Miss will have until the 2010-11 season to cut the three football scholarships.
Pass the Red Bull, please.
Get The Picture 
Have they signed Dexter Moody yet? That has to be an inevitability.
I really do feel badly for Ufk fans. This is going to be such a tire fire for the next couple of years, and that job is going to be seen as a dead end by the time Laney gets done sullying it.
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Last I heard on the Moody front sounded like he wanted UT more than UT wanted him.
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His victim was his cousin.
Turning your life around and getting a second chance is one thing. Becoming a home for wayward boys is another.
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Paul, how many SEC programs have taken on kids with questionable pasts? I’m certainly not a Kiffin cheerleader, but saying he can’t do this because of the mistakes Fulmer made seems unfair to me, unless he wasn’t careful assessing this kid’s chances to succeed.
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Sooooooo, how would you feel about this kid coming to UGA?
No thanks.
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I think it would depend strongly on what Richt had to say about him.
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It’s nice that the kid convicted gang-raping his cousin 4 or 5 years ago says he is turning his life around. But that doesn’t mean he merits receiving a scholarship. Playing college football is a privlege, not a right. And while he has the right to go live his life now that the legal system is through with him, it doesn’t mean he deserves the privlege of playing college football. And as Adams’ column points out, Kiffin didn’t sign him as a goodwill gesture, he signed him to help win football games.
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Even Adams said the kid deserves a second chance – just not with Tennessee.
As for your last point, duh. But I’m not gonna fault Kiffin for giving a kid an opportunity because he thinks it gives him a better chance to win, unless he’s cut corners in doing so.
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I agree he deserves a second chance in life, but I still don’t think he deserves the privilege of receiving a scholarship to play college football, particularly given the facts of the crime. According to the KNS, the victim was duct taped over 70% of her body and a “foreign object” was used during the rape. The police investigation stated he expressed little remorse at the time for his behavior, which confirms he was one little cold-blooded s.o.b. My problem with him is that even if he has changed, how did he ever have the mindset to do such a thing to another person? I don’t care how much he is now a “witness for Christ” as he has said, no normal person does that, even as a 13 year old.
I know you aren’t excusing what he did, but do you believe there is any crime a recruit could commit that would disqualify him from receiving a scholarship as long as he (eventually) expressed remorse?
As for my last point, I just don’t want to hear UT fans or coaches talk about how this is part of helping him turn around his life. I think we both agree, this is about winning games, period.
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The mitigating factor for me is the passage of time. Had this happened in the very recent past, a la Jamar Hornsby, I wouldn’t be understanding about it at all.
You sit there and say that no matter what, no normal person behaves in that depraved a manner at any age, and I understand your point. But if his character is that fatally flawed, wouldn’t something else have happened in the past five years? Instead, as far as I can tell from reading the stories about him today, he’s turned his life around. I think that’s more than merely expressing remorse.
And if you’ll allow me to get on my high horse for just a second here, there’s something going on in this debate that’s emblematic of something that drives me up the wall about American society. That’s the lip service we pay to the concept of rehabilitation of criminals. We say it’s important, but when the rubber meets the road with somebody who’s paid their debt to society, we tend to act in a completely different way.
You talk about receiving a scholarship to play football being a privilege, and that’s fine. But there are lots of other things in life that are privileges too, some mundane, some not. Are you saying that anyone with a violent criminal record should be denied any privileges? Why? For how long? You would argue no doubt that he’s receiving this opportunity only because he has special skills that are useful to a college football team and I wouldn’t argue with that, but, again, it’s not like people don’t receive those sorts of opportunities every day, because of wealth, power, contacts or special skills. Sure, sometimes it grates to see it happen, but it happens nevertheless.
I can’t draw as bright a line here as you because I don’t see a hard and fast rule applied consistently.
Your last point is entirely valid. I don’t want to hear Junior blather that he’s running a support program. He’s not doing this out of some sense of nobility, but out of ruthless self-interest. But if the kid’s learned enough about himself to take advantage of the opportunity, the privilege, and continue to improve himself as a person, I can’t say that’s wrong.
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Global War on Lane (GWOL):
Rumor is that the Senator has been momentarily stunned, perhaps tazed, by an agent acting on behalf of Lane, perhaps Layla, Coach O or the reporter from the Dalton weekly reader, on the highly unlikely grounds that the Senator is keeping his powder dry and not going after Lane for the signing of a recruit with a checkerboard-square pattern past.
The background chatter and noise in the system is the wailing and gnashing of teeth of readers of correspondent Senator bitching about what some of us deem to be the missing of a clear chance to pile on Lane while leaving the recruit out of it.
The Senator, a true diplomat, determines that he can’t do one without the other, levitates himself and refuses to be drawn into the crossfire by his readers who, in fact, are firing away anyhow.
Recovery is expected soon. Absent PTSD symptoms the Senator will likely be back in action against Lane as early as tomorrow on a entirely separate issue which, of course, will be provided by Lane either later today or first thing tomorrow.
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How would I feel if the kid were coming to Georgia?
I would feel nothing because it would never happen.
If Jamar Cheney and Moody could not meet the standards, then he would not even get a text message.
I understand the Senator’s attitude, and agree with the sentiments, but if I understand the current thinking in Athens it would be better if the kid got a second chance in Knoxville.
I would argue this may be short-sighted, and even unfair on an individual basis, but dat’s de way it is.
Judging from the news about suspensions we have enough trouble with our “Stepford” children without adding proven problems to the mix.
On a personal note, I think John Adams is still reeling from the beating Vicki Fulmer gave him in the press box at Neigh Land field.
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But in a larger sense, the Senator’s observation that Adams’ column is bull cheet is spot on.
Kids make mistakes and they deserve second chances. That Hood’s mistake was so egregious makes his reconstruction even more important.
Frankly, I think it took guts to put this young man on scholarship, and from the sound of it, he will be a good influence on the team.
God knows I don’t want to say this, but Kiffin probably should be applauded whether things work out or not.
If Hood survived the scrutiny of Dickie Sompayrac, he will likely survive Knoxvegas.
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