Thursday February 08, 2007

The Truth

The Truth
Nine years ago I had a conversation with a high ranking Clemson athletic department official who told me that the University is going in a new direction with new goals from an academic standpoint. He was very clear when he told me that this would hurt the athletic department.

I was there on April 7, 2000 when Jim Barker was named the 14th president of Clemson University. I consider him a friend but in my opinion his "Top 20"
initiative was another step towards the decline of the Clemson athletic department.

Barker's 10-year goals included two Final Fours in men's basketball, a national title in football and two national titles in Olympic sports. I think it is unfair to place public goals on employees and not give them the resources to be able to reach those goals.

Five years ago I told three members of the Clemson board of trustees that the "Gaffney gate" deal was a sensationalized version of the truth and that was the tip of the iceberg as to how the playing field was not level for this football staff.

And on February 7, 2007 the next step towards football mediocrity was taken by Clemson University.

After consulting with more than 10 sources inside the athletic department and the university administration, I am fully confident that you will find the following to be true:

*Clemson has an academic review board that prospects' transcripts must go through in order to continue to be recruited by the football staff. The board's official name is Athletic Academic Review Board (AARC).

*This board is made up of six or seven individuals including Becky Bowman (director of Vickery Hall) and Larry LaForge (management professor and NCAA faculty rep). Provost Dorrie Helms is not on the review board but is involved. The president is also aware of the results.

*This board turned down the following players among others:
JoJo Cox-unsigned
Dwight Jones-North Carolina
Tydreke Powell-North Carolina
Ryan Houston-North Carolina
Brandon Paul-Florida State
Weslye Saunders-South Carolina
Olufemi Ajiboye-South Carolina
Jarius Wynn-Georgia

*Wynn and Ajiboye have cleared the NCAA clearinghouse and are currently enrolled in their respective schools.

*The board also turned down Markish Jones and six prospects that did eventually sign with Clemson. However, Bowden demanded that they review the cases again. Markish Jones was given a clearance the second time because he was an in-state prospect. The board gave second reviews to the seven players and the coaches were allowed to send LOIs to each prospect after Bowden's battle.

*Dwight Jones committed to Clemson but the day before signing day, Clemson assistants had to call his mother and high school to explain that he could not sign with Clemson. Jones' mother was in tears after hearing the news. Jones signed with North Carolina, a top 10 public institution, on Wednesday.

*Clemson originally turned down Kourtnei Brown even though he had a GPA and core that are passable scores according to the NCAA Clearinghouse. The reason Brown was turned down was because he was in the lower half of his class in terms of class rank. Brown's high school is a small, Christian school that 93% of the students at the school went on to college last year. It is among the most competitive high schools in the state.

*Because the other five that Bowden fought for were signed by the Tigers, I will omit their names. However, I will reveal that all five were on defense. I could not imagine this class with the five plus Brown not being a part of the program. I could not imagine what the future of the defense would have looked like.

*The morale among the coaching staff is extremely low. The staff recruited numerous prospects for countless hours and drove and flew countless miles in the past year only to have over 15 players turned down by this board.

*In the past, the board has claimed that no player they have ever turned down ever made it to a Division I-A school. This is false on two fronts.
First, some went to a D-I school after being placed in a prep school or junior college. Also, Wynn and Ajiboye are currently enrolled at SEC schools.

*What this board has prevented is the signing of a prospect that has a chance to qualify but does not and is placed in a prep school or JUCO. Under this scenario, some of Clemson's all-time leading players would have never entered Clemson University. Gaines Adams is the all-time sack leader at the school and is a recent Clemson graduate. Adams was signed by the Tigers but did not qualify out of high school. He re-signed with Clemson after a year at prep school. There are many examples of great Clemson players who went on the become Clemson graduates who had to go the JUCO or prep school route. There are members of the academic review board who feel it is not appropriate to sign these type of prospects.

*The Clemson staff essentially wasted hundreds of hours on players like Dwight Jones. One Clemson assistant saw Jones at every legal opportunity.
On Saturday Tommy Bowden and two assistants went to Burlington to try to convince Jones one last time to sign with the Tigers. The attempt was successful. However, Tuesday the academic review board gave the staff the news and the staff had to deliver the news to Jones.

*Clemson assistants had to write letters of recommendations for players to the academic review board. They had to personally go in front of the board and plead each case. I could not imagine how degrading that would be. What happened to trusting your coaches?

*Six of the top 20 public universities finished in the top 10 in the rivals.com recruiting rankings.

*Clemson has an Athletic Council that meets periodically. They also have a Sportsmanship Committee. Former NCAA faculty rep Cecil Huey sits on both of those committees and according to several members of the committee made the statement that, 'The Clemson-USC fight in 2004 was the single most embarrassing moment in Clemson history." Huey also spearheaded a committee meeting that was attempting to eliminate booing the opponent or officials at home sporting events. I mention these two examples for two reasons. First, Huey has been an extremely influential member of the academic movement at Clemson. Second, they both represent how far removed from the real world Huey and his academia cronies have become.

*The University has turned down proposed majors and eliminated other majors that were considered not in line with the Top 20 goal.

*The administration had compliance director, Stephanie Ellison, sit in on Bowden’s press conference Wednesday. Bowden joked and asked her what she was doing there and if he had already committed some minor violations that she would send to the president’s office. Bowden has a way of lightening the mood and was clearly joking with her but what does it say that they placed Ellison in the room for the press conference? What are they afraid the coach would say? I have been to countless press conferences and have never seen a member of compliance. How degrading was that move? How paranoid was that move?

*It is the feeling among several staff members that Clemson will have a hard time in recruiting in the future with this academic review board in place.

*Several members of the athletic administration feel it will be difficult to retain coaches in the future with the academic review board in place.

*Here are some quotes from athletic department officials and university administrators that have been said to me in the last six days:

"I don't know what Danny Ford did to you guys years ago but it must have been unbelievable because this place is still paranoid."

"The administration has no idea what it takes to be successful in football.
They are scared to be great. This place could be great but they are scared to be great. They want to 8-4 so everyone gives their money to IPTAY and buys the season tickets. If they went 4-8 they would have to fire people and they don't want to do that. If they went 12-0 they would be scared to death that someone would think badly of them... that Danny Ford is coming back or something."

"As a staff they are hand cuffed. The public has no idea the hoops they have to jump through here that other schools don't. Other coaches laugh at us when they find out what they have to go through."

"These people have no idea what goes on in this industry. Think this kind of thing would happen at Georgia, Florida, Tennessee or LSU? Alabama is spending over $30 million on Saben alone. Think this academic review board would go over there? Who do you think will be better in football in the next few years Alabama or Clemson?"

"We signed a great class but imagine what it could have been if they would not have been in the way."

"Things won't change around here until we have some expensive funerals."

"The perplexing aspect is that Bowden has graduated players at a high rate and academics are good here. But he gets no credit for that. They handcuff him instead."

"One Clemson runs one way. It is a one-way street that flows from Jervey to Sikes."

These are quotes that I believe tell the story. Please understand that they asked me to please not use their names in fear of losing their jobs. After I spoke in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville and on the radio after the Gaffney Gate situation, a major ordeal occurred at the university and athletic department. Instead of righting what was wrong, the university called meetings and went on a mission to find out who leaked information to me. They were more worried about the perception as opposed to solving the problem.

I am confident that the next step here will be another attempt from the university to out my sources. I am sure that not many of the university officials want to be seen in public talking to me in the next few months.
However, they need to fix what is broken. Clemson football is not doomed to mediocrity but is headed there. Signing a kid and him not qualifying is not the end of the world. It is not embarrassing to the university.

I realize this blog entry will be met with skepticism by some. I have confirmed it with multiple sources and have full confidence that I am stating the facts in this case. I also realize that it may hurt the university on the short term but I think the facts coming out will help in the long run. Personally, I do not want to hurt the football program. I only want to be part of the solution not the problem.

Abolish the academic review board before it kills the Golden Goose--Clemson football.

I will conclude with a statement I told the chairman of the board of trustees at Clemson five years ago. "Cecil Huey, Becky Bowman and several others want Clemson to be Duke Monday through Friday but that will never happen because of perception. However, if you don't fix it, Clemson will become Duke on Saturdays in the fall."

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