http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/1870...tide-staff

(02-18-2017 08:53 AM)bullet Wrote:  http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/1870...tide-staff

It would be interesting to see who paid whom under the table to prompt the firing. Maybe no one, but if I were betting . . .

Small-town high school coach vs. Darth Saban ... predictable outcome.

There are two assumptions here that are erroneous.

1. That Alabama had anything to do with the firing of the Head Coach. No. They wouldn't risk it, especially in Louisiana. I would think that the principal wanted to open the opportunity for more scholarships, and greater scholarship selectivity to his players.

2. That L.S.U. had nothing to do with influencing the former coach.

There is one thing here that is likely true. Alabama has unethical recruiting practices.

So I don't think Bama had a thing to do with the coaches firing. Alabama's ban by the High School coach may have been at another school's behest in a state where coaching connections are important for advancement. And just because the first two assumptions are likely wrong doesn't mean that Alabama was innocent in its recruiting practices. But, it doesn't prove that they were unethical either.

IIRC, the coach got PO'd when Alabama rescinded a scholarship. Hard to believe a coach doesn't have the ability to control who observes practice. Games are open to the public so nothing he could do there.

In any case, it doesn't seem to have hurt Alabama at all.

(02-18-2017 07:23 PM)Wolfman Wrote:  IIRC, the coach got PO'd when Alabama rescinded a scholarship. Hard to believe a coach doesn't have the ability to control who observes practice. Games are open to the public so nothing he could do there.

In any case, it doesn't seem to have hurt Alabama at all.

Well, it's certainly not the first time they've gotten a commitment and rescinded the offer. They've also have some odd practices with the handling of gray shirts. I find it to be a new way around the limits and a return to the late 60's and early 70's when stockpiling players was practiced by all of the top brands.

Love this coach. All need to have balls like him. A concerted effort would inspire change of ethics winning and lack of ethics losing.

Louisiana, good old boy network alive and well... as usual, just ask the governor or Amous moses

(02-19-2017 12:03 AM)JHS55 Wrote:  Louisiana, good old boy network alive and well... as usual, just ask the governor or Amous moses

Good Ole Boy Networks in Louisiana get complicated up north. The LSU gravitational pull, while still pretty strong, is weaker in Shreveport/Bossier, which is a good 250 miles from Baton Rouge, and is partially separated by culture as well (southern Louisiana= cajun/creole/catholic, northern = traditional southern baptist bible belt). Bossier is really a long way from anywhere in the SEC, it's actually closer to Texas A&M (about 175) miles than any place else, but the cultural distance between them is pretty far.

While definitely having a strong "Louisiana" identity, Most Bossier/Shreveport folks nevertheless identify much more with Dallas, which is "only" 190 miles away than with New Orleans, which is more than 300 miles away, and they typically get Cowboys, not Saints, games as their "home" NFL network games.

That's a reason why Alabama has had good success out-dueling LSU for top recruits up there, that and well the fact that Alabama has had so much recent success that their calling card is welcome just about everywhere these days.

Bottom line is I would take what happened at face value: The coach's comments were indiscreet, and could cost their kids opportunities with the SEC's and nation's top program, which could hurt the school's "recruiting" of talent itself. He could have kept the 'ban' in place and his job, but he should have kept his mouth shut about it.

(02-18-2017 01:46 PM)JRsec Wrote:  1. That Alabama had anything to do with the firing of the Head Coach. No. They wouldn't risk it, especially in Louisiana.

That depends on what you define as "Alabama." Coaches or staff of UAT? Absolutely not.

The III's and IV's from the Board of Trustees and the upper echelons of the tax-evading Crimson Tide Foundation? They are absolutely capable of this, and absolutely possess the arrogance, sense of entitlement and petty cruelty to do such a thing.

http://footballscoop.com/news/alabama-is...m-alabama/

Let's get real. If you are a parent of a major prospect and you have a reasonable understanding of the recruiting process you know that even if your kid doesn't want to go to Alabama, having Alabama giving him attention increases his options.

More importantly. I've seen this game played before.

I don't for one minute ascribe any moral high ground to that high school coach.

Several years back either Nutt or Ford at Arkansas suddenly change a scholarship offer into a gray shirt offer to a well regarded (in the local media) small school player in Arkansas and the coach publicly pouted like this. Nothing changed but the profile of the high school coach.

(02-20-2017 08:57 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  http://footballscoop.com/news/alabama-is...m-alabama/

It's a weird quirk based on conditions that no longer exist.

Back when the NCAA capped national appearances, ABC was casting about looking for people who were interesting to show on TV.

The bowls were mostly at-large so you could rise from obscurity to get a decent game.

Back thirty years ago playing those games could hurt a program but not any more.