Hurricane brewing....

[1inStripes]

Not good in Coral Gables if your a fan of "da U". I wonder if Jim Larranega is regretting the move now.

[centennialdawg]

Yeah, this one promises to be a category 5

[CoeburnCane]

No excuses for it. The only real arrests we had in the news the past few years were Robert Marve breaking a side-view mirror, and Ramon Buchanan getting arrested for drunk in public--which compared to some other schools' recent arrest records is basically nothing. I honestly didn't know about all of this going on behind the scenes...if true. I don't think a lot of people did, because this conman making the allegations was probably really good at hiding it and paying folks hush money to keep quiet. I would hate it of course as a fan if our program got nailed going forward, considering about 95'ish % of the folks are gone from the program (players/staff-wise), but the NCAA has to punish someone. I honestly wish it was the actual folks who did these things (allegedly), but it's folks like Tyrone Moss and other ex-players and staff that get off scott free.

One thing I hope everyone keeps in mind--this stuff has yet to be proven, and all the allegations are being made by a convicted felon/ponzi schemer. This guy was smart enough to run this scheme for 10 years or so, and to hide it as much as he could...meaning falsifying records, aka--keeping two sets of books. Some of these records could be falsified, and some of these pictures could very well be him walking up to a random player/coach and asking for a picture and them obliging. Dumb of them to oblige, but hey--I've got pictures of me with former UM players/coaches that I've bumped into at ballgames...but that doesn't mean I've given them money or we're tight or anything. There's also a signed Jon Beason picture that Shapiro has, with a message of "To Lil Luke, thanks for all the love"--and then below that is Beason's signature. I'd be interested to know if Shapiro added that to the picture later himself...entirely possible. All that is me playing devil's advocate on this stuff though, trying to make sense of it.

That being said--at the end of the day, the NCAA has to tie together the trail and get corroborating evidence. Then they can take action. Plus, there's a lot of this stuff that is past the 4 year statute of limitations and they cannot punish the program by rule. The only exception is if they find out that the rules were broken by the program willfully and complicitly, then everything's fair game.

It indeed doesn't look good. All I can do as a fan is wait and hope.

[1inStripes]

It indeed doesn't look good. All I can do as a fan is wait and hope.

As much stuff as has went on at UT the past couple of years, I know that feeling. Some of that stuff could be falsified, no doubt about it. The photos of him with Shala even make it look bad since it is someone of authority although she may have not known what was going on within the department. I'm wondering what the folks at Mizzou are thinking about Haith right now too.

[CoeburnCane]

As much stuff as has went on at UT the past couple of years, I know that feeling. Some of that stuff could be falsified, no doubt about it. The photos of him with Shala even make it look bad since it is someone of authority although she may have not known what was going on within the department. I'm wondering what the folks at Mizzou are thinking about Haith right now too.

True. Also--don't think that these kids in the past few years, being UM players, couldn't get into nightclubs/strip clubs on their own, and were just there...and then this dude just walked up to them as a big fan and wanted a picture...and is now trying to take things 10 steps further when these folks he thought he was "tight" with wouldn't help him out.

Al Golden said something really good in an interview today, so good, I'll quote the article I'm pulling it from directly:

Golden said if any student-athletes did take improper benefits that "I would hope we would learn from them. We're in an educational setting, and it's no different than if a student makes a mistake on campus. We just don't toss them out, turn our back on them. We try to educate them. And they're all at an age right now (where) certainly if they were exposed to Mr. Shapiro clearly we have to make sure we prevent that from going forward. So how do you do that? Well, you do that by getting to the facts, the truth. How did this guy, if he did, get around our players like that? Me as a head coach, I want to know. And I know our assistant coaches want to know because we want to make sure it never happens again. It shouldn't happen."

"We're just trying to move forward," Golden said. "Whatever the number is being interviewed right now, being named, that makes up less than 10 percent of our team. It's really important to understand that we have a lot of guys in that locker room that do things the right way, that come from great families and have made good decisions and that want to improve today and get better. We have to manage to the team and not just to guys who, if they did make a mistake ... we don't want to just manage to them."

He added that "This is a very complicated issue, obviously, because of the source and allegations."

* Asked how hard it is to coach in these circumstances, Golden said, "I'm not going to say it's not difficult, but I'm standing here in front of (the media) because I want to make sure we get it right, make sure as quickly as we can get to the bottom of whatever happened, then we can move forward. I wasn't here when it happened. For me and my staff and the student-athletes, we're trying to get to the bottom of it so we can move forward. The only way you do that is to cooperate with the NCAA and get the truth."

Regardless of what happens, the guy in charge of the football team NOW wants to make sure this stuff doesn't happen ever again at UM, and he wants the truth about what happened so the program can face the music and move forward. In the face of all the allegations, that's comforting to me. I'd also say Jim Larranaga is the same way as far as any allegations against the basketball team goes as well.

[1inStripes]

I would say so. I think UM hired two quality individuals in Golden and Larranaga. Larranaga does love a challenge and truly I dont think he second guesses his choice as long as the university will stand behind him and give him the time. Its just going to take him longer than expected now to improve the team more than likely.

[R13]

and some of these pictures could very well be him walking up to a random player/coach and asking for a picture and them obliging. Dumb of them to oblige, but hey--I've got pictures of me with former UM players/coaches that I've bumped into at ballgames...but that doesn't mean I've given them money or we're tight or anything. There's also a signed Jon Beason picture that Shapiro has, with a message of "To Lil Luke, thanks for all the love"--and then below that is Beason's signature. I'd be interested to know if Shapiro added that to the picture later himself...entirely possible. All that is me playing devil's advocate on this stuff though, trying to make sense of it.

That's not playing devil's advocate. Wasn't this guy leading them out of the tunnels, had a blow-up in the press-box and even had a part of campus named after him at one time? If any of those are true, let alone all, kind of throws out the idea he's just a fan with some pics that's conjured up this whole thing to get attention or what have you.

[PV2WISE2VCU]

I personally am rooting for the death penalty. Blow the thing up, it's the only way any major changes will happen; it's past time one of the big boys got a death sentence. FWIW, I don't hate Miami; I feel USC and OSU should have been nailed too.

[centennialdawg]

If you go that route, then so should Florida, FSU, UT, South Carolina. Need I say more? I am more inclined to believe the way Cane does. Most all of the affected ones are gone now. Put them on a couple of years probation and no bowl appearences during that time. That will straighten it out some. The death sentence is too much in this case because the affected people are gone.

[CoeburnCane]

That's not playing devil's advocate. Wasn't this guy leading them out of the tunnels, had a blow-up in the press-box and even had a part of campus named after him at one time? If any of those are true, let alone all, kind of throws out the idea he's just a fan with some pics that's conjured up this whole thing to get attention or what have you.

1) He never led them out of the tunnel. There's footage of him sneaking up to the tunnel wearing an Antrel Rolle jersey that's been on loop on ESPN everytime this story comes up b/c that's the only video footage they have of him. Next time they have him on ESPN--pay special attention to the next part of the footage--the security guards chasing him back over to the sidelines while he celebrates getting on the field. The only reason why he was close enough to sneak on was via his sideline pass...which with the amount of money he had, was easy to procure.

2) His blowup in the press box happened b/c he got drunk in the skybox he bought (and didn't fully pay for, which was eventually taken away by the University) and broke into the press box to talk stuff to the Athletic Dept brass due to the arse-whooping we took from UVA to close the Orange Bowl.

I've actually talked to a few folks from Miami Beach who knew him, one who even went to HS with him. He's described by those who know him as a guy with little-man syndrome who was extremely selfish, and anytime he did something wrong, it was someone else's fault. One story told by those folks who knew him was that he would find himself at these clubs and parties with players b/c he would hang close to the sideline and listen in and find out where the players were talking about going after the game...and he would make sure he showed up and bought a VIP spot with his money. Then, he would seek out players and take pics with them, try to get in tight w/them. It's not like he herded all players to the clubs and paid for all their drinks/food all the time...which is what he'd have everyone believe. Not saying there weren't players that bought in and decided "what the hell, I'll never get caught", but a lot of this has 3 pieces of evidence: photos that could be taken out of context, credit card statements (which doesn't prove the players were there and that he paid for them), and a felon's word.

I'm not dumb enough to say that there weren't any UM players that had anything to do with this guy, as I think that Vince Wilfork is guilty as sin in all of this if all the allegations with him are eventually proven true, but I think at the end of the day--the NCAA won't be able to tie at least half of this to any players within the last 4 years...which would be the statute of limitations for NCAA violations and following sanctions. I'm also sure Tyrone Moss took money as he said so himself, and it wouldn't surprise me if Frank Gore took $1,000 from this guy to help take care of his baby.

Believe what you will, all I know is that this guy is scum, and anyone who had dealings with him while knowing what he was all about, deserve to be punished as severely as possible.