I guess they’re assuming TCU won’t get in the way again.
Daily Archives: July 27, 2023
“This is getting hella ghetto.”
Honk if you know some coach at Tennessee was cheatin’.
Fired coach Jeremy Pruitt’s recruiting scheme at Tennessee had grown too big to stay secret by the time a whistleblower reported malfeasance to the chancellor’s office in November 2020.
Too many people knew, and the football program was begging to get caught.
At least 105 people were involved in more than 200 violations committed under Pruitt from 2018 to early 2021, which led the NCAA earlier this month to impose five years of probation on the UT football program and show-cause penalties for eight former coaches and staff members.
The total includes 29 recruits, 39 family members or friends of recruits, 10 UT players, three players’ family members, nine high school and non-scholastic coaches, three boosters and at least a dozen members of Pruitt’s staff who had “hundreds of opportunities to report actual violations,” the NCAA decision said.
But more than 2,500 pages of documents, including approximately 6,000 text messages, obtained by Knox News via open records requests show the circle was much larger than 105 people – including a “reservation checklist” Pruitt’s staff created of friendly Knoxville business managers who willingly took cash payments in unorthodox fashion.
By late 2020, the scheme had passed the point that Pruitt could rein it in.
How did it take so long? It’s not like these folks were criminal masterminds.
Pruitt’s coaches could’ve covered their tracks better.
During one impermissible visit, they paid for a recruit’s room at the Crowne Plaza. But they wanted to conceal that he was a UT recruit invited secretly by Brian Niedermeyer.
So when the hotel front desk asked who to attach to the room, the UT staffer replied with a fake name: “Patrick Niedermeyer.”
Effing brilliant, that.
It all led to widespread whispers of paying players and recruits, which eventually reached a willing whistleblower. That athletic department employee was startled by how many people knew about the infractions yet did nothing, so they reported it to Chancellor Donde Plowman’s office rather than the athletic department.
I guess they weren’t buying Fulmer’s “I know nothing” act.
Read the whole thing. I guarantee your jaw will drop once or twice.
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UPDATE:
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange, Recruiting
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
Phil Steele has posted early lines for a number of 2023 college football games here, via SuperBook.
Here’s what I found for Georgia:
- Georgia at Auburn +20
- Georgia vs. Florida +22.5
- Ole Miss at Georgia -20
- Georgia at Tennessee +9.5
- Georgia at Georgia Tech +34
And other games of note:
- Tennessee at Florida +7.5
- LSU at Ole Miss +4.5
- Ole Miss at Alabama -15.5
- Alabama at Texas A&M +7.5
- Texas A&M at Tennessee -7
- Tennessee at Alabama -10
- LSU at Alabama -7
- Florida at LSU -17
- Alabama at Auburn +14
- Texas A&M at LSU -9.5
Is it just me, or do those Tennessee spreads seem somewhat illogical? Georgia’s giving more than three touchdowns against Florida at a neutral site, while the Vols are slightly more than a touchdown favorite in Gainesville. Yet the spread in Knoxville for the Georgia game is under double digits.
What there sticks out to you?
The glorious reign of George Kliavkoff
Man, one minute you’re riding high, forming an alliance with two other conferences to thwart Greg Sankey’s master plan for the CFP, and the next you’re getting your ass handed to you by one of your ostensible alliance partners who turned around and poached your two marquee programs. And next after that…
You’ve got to hand it to the Pac-12 presidents. Nobody thought anyone could do more harm to the conference than Larry Scott did, and here Kliavkoff is putting on a master show in “hold my beer”.
Filed under Pac-12 Football
Thought exercise for the day
Mandel gets asked in his Mailbag ($$) about whether he’d place a national championship bet on Georgia or the rest of the field. Here’s his answer:
Georgia has won the last two and is the undisputed favorite to win again this fall. It’s not without questions — is Carson Beck fully ready to take over for Stetson Bennett? Is Mike Bobo a capable replacement for impactful OC Todd Monken? Should we be more concerned the defense took a slight step back last season? But is there another team you have more confidence in? I certainly don’t.
And yet — I would take the field…
All of which is to say — I still have more confidence in Georgia than anyone else this season, and I cannot imagine the Dawgs losing to anyone on their schedule prior to at least the Nov. 11 Ole Miss game, if not the Nov. 18 Tennessee game. But there will be at least a few worthy adversaries come Playoff time. I could see a world where Georgia’s flaws get masked by being so much better than most of its opponents, only to be exposed by a more worthy adversary come the final four.
Two questions for y’all: one, which would you take and two, did you remove your red and black colored glasses before making your choice?
Hey, look at that ox being gored!
Ah, here’s the real problem schools have with NIL.
The trick is to somehow claw the money back while claiming they’re doing so in the best interests of the players.
Filed under Big Ten Football, It's Just Bidness
Today, in what is this “Sherman Act” you speak of?
Jeez, this is dumb.
Substitute “coaches’ salaries” for “NIL deals” and see how you like them apples.
In other words, stick to sports, Pat.
Filed under General Idiocy
Get The Picture 