College Football Thread

[dakshdar]

http://www.espn.com/college-football/st ... head-coach

This is crazy on so many levels:

One person (Mike McQueary) said that another person (Tom Bradley) once told him Greg Schiano said he saw something happen with Sandusky. Bradley says that Schiano never came to him with anything like that and that he never said this to McQueary. Schiano says he never told anything like that to Bradley. Schiano loses Tennessee job (and potentially millions of dollars and the biggest head coaching job he's had a shot at) as a result.

It's hearsay of hearsay, is inadmissible in court, and never lead to any pursuit of Bradley or Schiano by authorities in Pennsylvania who went after everyone they could reasonably get when this situation went down.

Tennessee AD looks like supreme idiot right now - but everyone saying Schiano can't be hired (multiple Tennessee ranking state officials are saying this) because of his connection to the Sandusky case are basically throwing out every standing tenet of our justice system. He should sue the shit of them if he can.

[Cnasty]

If he Can I guess is the question and I assume in the US you can sue for anything!

Tennessee is such a mess right now. Is Fullmer available?

[dakshdar]

Tennessee signed a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with this current men's basketball coach before he was hired.

It can be read here: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ten ... ntract.pdf.

If Schiano's was the same, and it stands to reason the school would use the same format for something like this twice, they may owe him $1 mil per year of the pending contract as this would almost certainly come under the heading of "termination of the MOU without cause". So, they may pay him $4-5 million to never work a day for them. Might avert the lawsuit but man do they look even worse. Schiano's MOU has not become public and isn't expected to be, but if he's paid by the University, as a state entity, people will be able to figure it out.

[BFiVL]

The chancellor never signed it and 4 people must sign before official. I still think he could sue for defamation in the long run but I think they will settle something. He will get 6 figures for having lunch in Knoxville.

[The_Niddler]

I still think he could sue for defamation

I am the last person to ever want people to sue, but he should in this case. They are trying to drag him through the Sandusky stuff and if he was never involved in that, then he should.

[BFiVL]

I still think he could sue for defamation

I am the last person to ever want people to sue, but he should in this case. They are trying to drag him through the Sandusky stuff and if he was never involved in that, then he should.

That’s the tough part. It’s not UT. It’s the fans. His reputation has suffered for sure but here is my opinion from the plethora of UTters I deal with. They really don’t care about the Sandusky hearsay. ( it really is thin on Schiano). They just don’t think he is good enough. They haven’t really accepted the fact they are not players in the SEC any more. 20 years since NC or SEC title. They still think they are a premier program. They can’t go in to Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and recruit like they did when Phil was there. Couldn’t happen to a better group of people though LOl

[shel311]

Tennessee has never commented on anything Sandusky/Schiano related, correct?

I'm pretty sure the only way defamation applies is if someone from the University actually stated something that is 100% false. I don't think either happened here. Now they may settle to just get it done, but I don't see how defamation applies here, unless I missed some really bad statements from Tennessee.

[dakshdar]

Possibly not by the University directly, but State legislators and other officials definitely chimed in on Twitter about it.

[BFiVL]

Possibly not by the University directly, but State legislators and other officials definitely chimed in on Twitter about it.

Now apparently interviewing the mullet today. That would be a grand slam at this point.

[dakshdar]

Here's an article with the twitter quotes from Tenn. politicians. Honestly, it's pretty damning stuff for a nearly 30 year old accusation that was never followed up on (interestingly, one Tenn. Democrat calls out his Republican co-workers that haven't said anything about Roy Moore who is accused of way worse with much more "evidence" in terms of people coming forward).

http://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/co ... 896097001/

A few selections:

Bill Lee @BillLeeTN (running for Governor)

We expect the highest standards for our public institutions. The special few chosen to lead within those institutions should have a demonstrated history of integrity and character. I hope today’s rumors are not true, because protecting children is more important than anything.

Diane Black
✔
@DianeBlackTN (US Representative)

Absolute wrong choice and I hope these reports are incorrect. As a supporter and season ticket holder, I know UT can do better. https://twitter.com/sportscenter/status ... 1217974272 …

US Rep. Jason Zachary @JasonZacharyTN

I have reached out to @John_Currie and others in administration at UT expressing that WE as a TN Community do not approve of Schiano. #higherstandards

US Rep. Eddie Smith @RepEddieSmith

Our Tennessee standards mean something, and a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for. I sincerely hope that these rumors are not true, because even serious consideration would be unacceptable.

US Rep. Kevin Brooks @RepKBrooks

We took an oath to do nothing “which shall appear to me injurious to the people” of Tennessee. If true, we will stand against the selection of Greg Schiano as Coach at UT.

Lots of people basically saying Schiano is "guilty" without evidence (other than hearsay of hearsay) and without a trial. No one being explicit enough to simply state that this would be a bad idea given his connection - there are people actually saying he would be a danger to children in Tenn and he doesn't meet their "high" standards. Sickening what one person's unverifiable statement can do to someone's life/career.

[shel311]

Lots of people basically saying Schiano is "guilty" without evidence (other than hearsay of hearsay) and without a trial. No one being explicit enough to simply state that this would be a bad idea given his connection - there are people actually saying he would be a danger to children in Tenn and he doesn't meet their "high" standards. Sickening what one person's unverifiable statement can do to someone's life/career.

Legally speaking, how specific do you have to be before it gets to defamation?

Unless I'm wrong, I've always thought you had to actually say something false about that person, and while there's some sketchy tweets, not sure any of them technically said anything false.

[BFiVL]

Lots of people basically saying Schiano is "guilty" without evidence (other than hearsay of hearsay) and without a trial. No one being explicit enough to simply state that this would be a bad idea given his connection - there are people actually saying he would be a danger to children in Tenn and he doesn't meet their "high" standards. Sickening what one person's unverifiable statement can do to someone's life/career.

Legally speaking, how specific do you have to be before it gets to defamation?

Unless I'm wrong, I've always thought you had to actually say something false about that person, and while there's some sketchy tweets, not sure any of them technically said anything false.

If harm is inflected and he can prove it then he’s got a case unless I’m mistaken.

[shel311]

I don't think just harm is the case, it has to be harm because of something said that was categorically false, right?

They may have chose their words wisely and like I said I don't know how specific the law gets, but reading the tweets, they technically did not say anything false about Schiano(the 1st tweet about protecting children would be the one that could most be disputed)

[DRiccio21]

the school wouldn't want a distraction like a defamation case hanging over their heads. they certainly know they've fucked up and chances are if he made any legal action they'd write him a check just to make the story go away.

a few hundred k or even a couple mil isn't a big deal to a major university.

[dakshdar]

I don't know the legal requirements either, but the lot of them is insinuating that he cannot meet basic personal/ethical conduct standards to be hired into the position at Tenn. Many states would likely consider that a warning flag that he isn't good enough for their state either. In this case, it clearly cost him a job and significant income:

He made $700k this year at Ohio State on a 1 year deal. His contract ends in late January 2018.

He was going to sign a contract that would have guaranteed him in the neighborhood of $20 million over about 5 years.

It will also be widely known that the reason he was not hired, in the realm of the public discussions and outcry, was intrinsically linked to a perception that he was guilty of something tied to child abuse with Sandusky.

How will another school look at this? Even if he would be a huge upgrade as a coach for a smaller school out there, do they dare risk the backlash they will almost certainly now get because people are already onto this line of thinking? In some ways, his only option at this point is to hope that Ohio State wants to bring him back. Maybe he can leverage something from Meyer to get a job somewhere else if he gets a chance - perhaps some school desperate to get better at football will approach his hiring differently.

It's a very murky situation.

[BFiVL]

I don't know the legal requirements either, but the lot of them is insinuating that he cannot meet basic personal/ethical conduct standards to be hired into the position at Tenn. Many states would likely consider that a warning flag that he isn't good enough for their state either. In this case, it clearly cost him a job and significant income:

He made $700k this year at Ohio State on a 1 year deal. His contract ends in late January 2018.

He was going to sign a contract that would have guaranteed him in the neighborhood of $20 million over about 5 years.

It will also be widely known that the reason he was not hired, in the realm of the public discussions and outcry, was intrinsically linked to a perception that he was guilty of something tied to child abuse with Sandusky.

How will another school look at this? Even if he would be a huge upgrade as a coach for a smaller school out there, do they dare risk the backlash they will almost certainly now get because people are already onto this line of thinking? In some ways, his only option at this point is to hope that Ohio State wants to bring him back. Maybe he can leverage something from Meyer to get a job somewhere else if he gets a chance - perhaps some school desperate to get better at football will approach his hiring differently.

It's a very murky situation.

This.

[shel311]

Not that it's surprising but it looks like LSU OC Matt Canada is trying to interview for the Rice head coaching job. Shit!!!

I really liked what I saw out of him this season. Etling is an extremely limited QB, and he posted the all time highest QB Rating for an LSU QB and only threw 2 INTs all year. I think Canada was able to basically max out what he could get out of Etling.

[shel311]

In the past 7 years, Chip Kelly has signed 20 years worth of contracts for $100mil.

[Weasel]

In the past 7 years, Chip Kelly has signed 20 years worth of contracts for $100mil.

Solid gig

[shel311]

Kiffin is such a great Twitter follow. Just buries Saban here:

https://twitter.com/Lane_Kiffin/status/ ... 3818771%2F