Just when I think we’ve plumbed the depths of Bobby Petrino’s character, he up and says something about signing Devonte Fields that literally makes my skin crawl:
“I think we have a really good understanding of what went wrong, what happened,” Petrino said. “Talking to the attorneys and really knowing that we felt comfortable that, No. 1, there’s absolutely no gun there, and it’s a misdemeanor charge.”
Well, that’s a relief. Petrino has standards.
At least you can say Fields is only getting a second chance. At Alabama, Nick Saban is giving Jonathan Taylor a third one.
“The guy was charged. There’s no question about that,” Saban said. “He was accused. I can’t discuss the circumstances of all that. I’ve said this before: When people are young and they make a mistake — and that is not a mistake that we condone in any way, shape or form, that it’s any disrespect to any person, let alone a female — that there isn’t some occasion to not condemn them for life, but to give them another chance. And it’s up to them to prove that they deserve that chance.”
“Disrespect” – in that Taylor allegedly struck his girlfriend with a closed fist and choked her, that’s one helluva euphemism. The thing with that approach is why stop at three? If Taylor screws up again and disrespects somebody else, why condemn him for life at that point, either?
Nick feels your pain, peeps. To an extent, anyway.
Saban said he understands the “sensitivity” about taking Taylor, who has unspecified behavioral stipulations imposed by Alabama. Taylor’s high school and junior college coaches spoke highly of him, Saban said.
Notice who Saban conveniently doesn’t mention? That’s because you never want to ask a witness a question to which you don’t want to hear the answer.
What I love with both of these situations is the coaches piously insist they can’t discuss the surrounding circumstances. That makes the tap dancing so much easier. Ugh.
Get The Picture 
“unspecified behavioral stipulations”. Oh is that juicy.
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Oh, and Bobby Petrino said ‘he spent the entire season vetting’ DeVonte Fields. That puts my mind at ease.
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Although I don’t agree with all of his methods, I respected Little Nicky as a football coach. This episode has put him below the Chiz and the Gus Bus in the second chance department. He’s closing in on Corch with his dealings with Aaron Hernandez and Chris Rainey. The Bammer Nation should be up in arms about this.
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This isn’t Taylor’s second chance. It is his third chance.
The are some coaches (Saban, Petrino, the guy with a bus named after him) who would sign Hitler if he still had a great 40 time, saying that they carefully veted him and concluded that once he is not around Goering any more he will be different.
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Good point, Gaskill
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It is ok because everyone did their due diligence.
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Did the kid Louisville pulled the offer from after being committed for 8 months land anywhere?
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Good question, I don’t know. Seems like Ga Southern, from whom we stole a RB from at the last moment, should have had room for another runner. Colorado State only signed 13, why not them? Has to be dozens of good opportunities for a guy that held a UL offer until the last moment.
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“We recruited this young man out of high school,” Saban said. “We felt that what we knew about him, what his high school coaches said about him, from what people at the school he was at said about him and where he came from in junior college that he was the kind of guy that deserved a second chance.”
The “school he was it” line seems to suggest that some people on Georgia’s staff felt Taylor deserved a second chance.
“Taylor’s junior college coach had nothing but positive things to say about Taylor’s performance on and off the field since meeting him and also pointed out that Mark Richt continued to vouch for him even after removing him from the Georgia program and the University.”
And that blurb suggests that the support runs all the way to the top.
I don’t know what to think on this one.
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As I understand it, nobody at Alabama talked to Richt or anyone on Georgia’s coaching staff about Taylor.
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Strange, it isn’t like he doesn’t have the phone number. Before I made a call like that, I would want all the input I could get from those who knew this young man and had heard all the stories/evidence.
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Not if you already knew what the other guy would say. And didn’t want to hear that.
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My guess is that Saban talked to a former Def staff member from UGA that Saban has a previous relationship with … probably resides in a state to the North
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He didn’t need to talk to Grantham about Taylor, because Grantham was chasing Taylor, too. 😉
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Perhaps, but that smacks of him being desperate which couldn’t really be the case at Bama. If there were a position he needs to fix ASAP it is the DBs, the ones who coaches directly. It is just hard for me to see a guy who, seemingly, sits at the pinnacle of his profession take this kind of risk or leaves himself open for critics to take shots. The risk/reward in this seems to be lopsided, the wrong way. It isn’t like Saban will ever get a Mr. Congeniality, or Humanitarian of the Year award; he may be one of the best HCs in America but compassion isn’t one of the assets he is known for. DL talent has never been in short supply since he arrived on the Tusky scene.
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What risk is he taking? If Taylor regresses, he’ll be shown the door. Saban could care less about the criticism.
The only risk I can see is a potential Title IX claim, and that’s on the school, not Nick Saban.
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Not necessarily .. if Taylor blows up and hits another student. Saban may find himself in court.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12139436/oregon-ducks-head-coach-dana-altman-sued-student-alleged-sexual-assault
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I’m sure Nick Saban is deeply, deeply worried about having to defend himself in an Alabama court.
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Would be a distraction, since he is already defending his daughter in court for hitting another girl. 🙂
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Blurbs above suggest Richt’s comments were to the JC coach, not Saban. I know, hearsay inadmissable in court. Or maybe the JC guy embellished. I just never got the same vibe from Richt over Taylor that I did over, say, Crowell. Not that either dismissal came with a lot of data points on that front.
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I want to have some iota of respect for UofL fans, but if you go over to Card Chronicle there isn’t a single mention of Matt Colburn (that I can find) and Petrino getting banned from a high school… but they did use the Devonte Fields thing (http://www.cardchronicle.com/2015/2/2/7964307/on-second-chances-louisville-and-devonte-fields) to literally compare their school to the Statue of Liberty and say things like:
“Tom Jurich and Coach Petrino have stepped out on the feeblest of limbs for a young man named Devonte Fields. I stand with them, and agree with their decision to allow Cardinal Football another chance to save a person’s life.”
Louisville may be worse than Auburn, and their fans may be more delusional. I’m quickly growing absolutely disgusted with their program in ways that i didn’t think possible.
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It seems very clear to me that there are certain schools represented by coaches and administrators, and supported by the vast majority of their fanbases, that really only care about the bottom line of winning football and/or basketball games. Any regard to ethical or moral questions are, at most, superficial and such questions can ALWAYS be explained away or justified (in this case by talk of second chances and opportunities for redemption, etc.) The local sports media is frequently complicit in looking the other way or accepting the justification in such cases, and in the extreme cases when it becomes a national story…the fanbase just doesn’t seem to give a shit if it might help the team to win. Auburn, Louisville, and Alabama are three such schools.
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You forgot about the great coach at FSU.
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To be fair, we don’t read anything negative about Richt in the ABH. 🙂
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Wouldn’t it be something if Taylor grabbed Saban by the neck like a chicken? Or maybe just a verbal assault? Don’t these kids still go before a judge for assault? Why don’t we hear of punishment there to enforce assault laws? What was Taylor’s outcome in court?
I’m going to have an illegal cookie and wait for a reply.
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