Someone please write the date down; August 16th, 2011. I have a feeling ten years from now we’ll still be talking about today like it was yesterday. Same way I remember running down the block during a break in a summer sports journalism class to get a copy of the SI calling for Miami to drop football. At the time I never thought there could be anything worse than that story. Today I realize I was wrong.
I’ve covered this program for close to twenty years. The SI story. The deaths of Marlin Barnes, Chris Campbell and Bryan Pata. I was there for the brawl and for the firings of several coaches. Nothing compares to this.
Before you start to tell me these are just allegations, stop. There’s too much here and even if the NCAA can only prove 10% of what’s in that story, we’re looking at another major setback. Earlier today I thought, “it might be bad, but at least we won’t have that whole lack-of-institutional-control thing”. I was wrong. This is very, very, very bad and no matter how many times you try to tell yourself that this is coming from a desperate convicted felon and that it was more than four years ago, it’s not going to erase the fact that this is going to effect UM for a long time to come.
Yes, I believe Nevin Shapiro is an absolute tool. I’m sure I met him at some point, but my assessment is based on reading the Yahoo! report today. Still, my anger is directed at all the people who had a hand in this thing and aren’t here anymore. Kirby Hocutt bolted. Frank Haith bolted. Aubrey Hill bolted. Clint Hurtt was told to find a new place to get on probation. Jeff Stoutland? Gone. Equipment guys? Gone.
Meanwhile, Al Golden, Jim Larranaga, Shawn Eichorst and their staffs are all left to deal with the fallout and a mess they had nothing to do with. Donna Shalala is still here too, but at the age of seventy it wouldn’t surprise me if she decided to retire. I’m glad she got the academic rankings as high as she did because it might be a while before that success is matched on the field.
Today we learned that all those days spent yucking it up at the likes of Ohio State, North Carolina, Southern Cal, etc. was bad karma. This stuff goes on everywhere. Just so happens our kids live in the country’s playground. If Miami were Lubbock, it’d be a bit more difficult to rent floors of hotels for prostitute parties without the entire town being in the know.
Back to UM at 6am tomorrow, where I half expect Coach Golden to be dressed as a clown and fired out of a cannon onto the practice field. It will be an absolute circus and it’s completely deserved. This is arguably the biggest scandal in college sports since SMU and that’s not just my take – that’s the stance of every national writer I’ve read this evening.
One thing’s for sure – I care a lot less about Jacory Harris versus Stephen Morris as this point. Honestly, Jacory had over ninety calls / texts to or from Shapiro. This quarterback competition may soon become a one-man race.
Lastly, we’re still doing allCanes Radio this Thursday night from the Titanic from 7pm to 9pm ET. Tune in via allCanes.com or stop on buy as I could use some drinking buddies.
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the u might get the death penalty or very near. this guy shapiro has nothing to lose and he is snitching b/c he felt slighted once he got caught on the ponzi scheme. the only way to put a stop to this is thru a shiv otherwise this buy is going to snitch until he dies. nothing to lose at this point and a guy that has evidence.
good luck with this.
Some of these guys should probably delete their Twitter accounts.
Damn shame. I can't believe the turn of events. Everyone who has a picture with this tool is responsible. Shame on the powers, staff, administration, everyone. The problem is we are in limbo until a ruling comes and then we will be left behind during the punishment years. Even without the death penalty this kills the program if not permanently then for a long long time. I expect golden and staff to bolt at the first opportunity and somehow I have a feeling it will be Penn state next year. This was supposed to be the beginning of something special and now it's all gone due to greed and poor judgement by all involved. All coaches found guilty should be fired from their schools and banned for life. All players should be suspended and banned for life. The worst part is the team was losing and was living it up as though they were NCs. What can you do other than to shake your head in shame. It's bad enough the players from the Coker era were doing it. But the 2008 class? To have this go in within the last 4 years is where the problem lay because it mskes it continuous. The class that has under achieved accomplished nothing other than mediocrity. Jacory, forston and the rest have been one of the biggest disasters in um history. And where was all the discipline that Shannon was praised for. HIS OWN COACHES WERE GOING BEHIND HIS BACK. there was no institutional control. I'm so disappointed at the whole thing. Good luck to all the current coaches and innocent players that had nothing to do with this. Hopefully their future wil be brighter than this for them. I wouldn't blame a single commit for de-committing.
At first this seemed like a minor story, but it certainly doesn't look good now. It's really a shame to start off the Golden era with this BS... Another huge setback for this program.
Oh Football God's, please please please make it stop !!!
Step one for Miami is that every player who took anything from this p.o.s. should be permanently blacklisted from all things related to The U. Any team records they hold should be wiped out for the next guy on the list that did it the right way. Their names should be removed from team rosters. They should be permanently banned from ever stepping foot on Greentree, or a sideline again. Want to come down for off season training...nope sorry, move on down the road. These morons made selfish decisions that they knew damn well could end up hurting the program and their "family" and now it's time for the family to disown them. You talked about karma in your article. I hope it catches up will every one of these selfish players who put a little fun over the University and team they claim to love so much.
You are dead on. SMU will pale by comparison to this. Unquestionably the most embarrassing day in the history of UM. Where were Larry "Elmer Fudd" Coker, Randy Shannon, Paul Dee et. al. while all this was transpiring? Butch Davis? Maybe what happened in Chapel Hill was indicative of something much more insidious than we ever knew about "Butchie Boy".
The sad fact is that the overwhelming majority of participants go free while the innocent are left to suffer the consequences.
"Tis a sad, sad day indeed.
The Canes program is blowing up like the Hindenburg. Shapiro doesn't know how to spend his money, all that cash and no talent. While Shannon was asleep at the wheel his boys were getting busy with chicken heads. The program is in shambles and its going down a wormhole to total disaster. Burn baby burn
way to have a life and comment on a hurricane blog about the gators why dont you go suck tim tebows dick and leave this blog?
go harp you little fiddle elsewhere. This is a time and place for 'Canes family only. Its ok to smack talk rivals about the game, but to wish for the destruction of a program is weak man..especially when your program is less than squeaky clean.
I hope to God not all of this is true, but regardless the bad press and giant cloud over us is going to hurt team chemistry, future recruiting, and the marketing of our program for a decade. I just can't believe this. I'm sad , I'm disappointed that my hope in watching a new Golden era just got destroyed, and I'm mad as hell as a bunch of self important players and admin were acting like this and didn't even have the talent or balls to make us better than a mediocre team while they decided to live like kings. Ridiculous. Those players should be personally financially responsible (or at least the coaches) for the aftermath, whatever it is. This has the potential to basically ruin U football and the U brand for a long time if even a small bit of it is true.
We're f**cked. This guy was rubbing elbows with the administration and I think the players took their cues from them. This will get ugly. I have no idea where this could end but it won't be good. I agree with Colin Cowherd that it's very ironic that the only conference in major college football right now that is somehow not being investigated is the SEC. But that doesn't take away from where Miami is right now. This situation is bad and will be made worse with it being Miami. This could put us back ten years.
Um, Auburn? Just because it's not making headlines doesn't mean it's not happening. We were investigated for months before this blew up. I think GTech was investigated for like a year. The SEC is being investigated, and if they aren't it's because they make the most $ and have the NCAA by the balls.
Wrong, Auburn , Tennessee,Ufelons and lsu.
This is definately a kick in the stones! Make no bones about it, however I believe that with the recent track record of the NCAA and all the wishy washy punishment, probations, loss of scholarships, etc. The NCAA will probably use Miami as an example, or we will "get off light" But either way, us as fans, broadcasters and journalists, have to stand fast in the face of opposition. Golden, Eichorst, and Larranaga are all professionals, and will do WHATEVER is needed to correct theses problems and hopefully will use this whole debacle as a training tool for our future student athletes.
I just hope this all ends quiclky!
Go CANES!