DUCKS COULD TAKE THE BIGGEST FALL
I didn't want to comment on how bad Chip Kelly's future in Eugene appears to be until I had read every single piece of printed evidence I could find. It took hours & now that I've become familiar with the story, I will say Kelly could be out very quickly. The coach who took his team to the BCS Championship game in only his second year as their head coach might be forced out in total shame. Unlike former Representative Anthony Weiner, it's not the cover-up that will get him fired, altho he, some of his staff & the compliance officer did a horribly bad job of trying to cover up a pending mess. No, not this time, it's the alleged violation itself that will cause Oregon to look for another head coach.
Charles Robinson & Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports have been investigating the recruitment of Lache Seastrunk last year. The pair has been eyeball deep in the Duck program since mid-February, it was then Kelly & company began to panic & a really pathetic attempt to cover their tracks was put into motion. Shall we begin at the beginning. always a good place to begin.
Back in January of 2010, Oregon was interested in recruiting a Houston-area running back, Lache Seastrunk. When Seastrunk found out the Ducks were interested in him, he spoke to Will Lyles, one of those parasitic hangers-on who claimed to be a recruiting mentor for kids in Texas. Lyles attended Texas Southern, played football a couple of seasons, but had not graduated. Lyles buddied up to several of Texas' most coveted football recruits, often providing the male influence the kids never had in their lives. Lyles contacted Oregon & said he was Seastrunk's mentor. The dance began between Lyles, Kelly, Josh Gibson, Oregon Director of Football Operations & Bill Clever, assistant compliance officer. Over 50 documented phone calls & more than 25 documented emails(compiled by Robinson & Wetzel) provided by Lyles give some damning evidence. One of the problems in recruiting Seastrunk was his mother, Evelyn Seastrunk, had a number of legal problems over the past ten years & his grandmother, Annie Harris, had actually raised him. The trouble began when Evelyn refused to sign his National Letter of Intent(NLI) to attend Oregon. She wanted her son to attend LSU or a Texas school. Once again Lyles intervened & the Ducks' hierarchy helped him. How could they get around his mother's refusal? Clever(unbelievable name for this story huh?) informed Lyles he could bypass mom if he could get Lache to name his grandmother as his legal guardian & then get grandma to sign the NLI. Lyles complied, did the end run around mom & filed the grandmother-signed NLI so he could attend Oregon.
Lache Seastrunk in High School
One hitch, Lyles wanted something for his effort. He told Kelly he was going to start a scouting service & would the Ducks be interested in becoming a client? Kelly asked him what he wanted for his services & Lyles said he didn't know what other scouting services charged. Kelly told him to find the highest priced scouting report, send him an invoice for the same amount & Oregon would pay it. That's exactly what happened. The Oregon football program was billed $25,000 for a scouting report. One huge problem was there was no report. Lyles got Seastrunk signed & Kelly approved a $25,000 expenditure for a report that never existed. Lyles, gave the pair from Yahoo! Sports over 4 1/2 hours of on-the-record interviews plus phone & computer records verifying his version of this story. It doesn't appear Lyles did anything illegal, immoral maybe, dishonest probably, but it doesn't appear he violated any laws. So he will likely be free to go when all this shakes out, tho I have no doubt his days as a high school scout are finished.
"They paid for what they saw as my access & influence with recruits."
Kelly told Lyles he would pay another $25,000 in the spring of 2011 for a real scouting report. Lyles told him he would submit one so he could continue to be paid. Lyles also provided several handwritten notes from Kelly & Gibson touting his ability to get prime recruits to visit Oregon.
More damning stuff surfaced when the subject of All-PAC 10 running back LaMichael James' recruiting back in 2008 was discussed. James, also one of Lyles "mentored athletes," was in danger of not being academically eligible because he couldn't pass a Texas High School standardized test needed to graduate. He was lacking in the math skills needed to pass the test. Oregon offensive coordinator, then Chip Kelly, discussed how they could sign James. Lyles said if he could get him to transfer to nearby Texarkana High School, in Arkansas, he wouldn't have to take the Texas test & would remain eligible. Kelly encouraged Lyles to do just that, thought it was a brilliant plan. James moved across the state line for his final semester of high school thereby dodging the test & later signed a NLI with the Ducks.
LaMichael James
The big red flag popped up for the NCAA auditors when they saw the $25,000 payment to Complete Scouting Services, a company they had never encountered. This spring the NCAA requested a copy of the report, which never existed, to see what Lyles' outfit was all about.
"They were on my ass to get the written reports on recruits. They were covering their tracks, they were covering their asses. They were scrambling."
Kelly called Lyles & told him to send him some sort of a written report ASAP. Lyles had nothing, so he started pulling player profiles off his computer. He shipped the info off to Kelly. It was entitled the "2010 National High School Evaluation Booklet." In it Lyles provided 140 player profiles, 133 of them were from Texas, hardly qualifying it as a "National" evaluation & one wasn't even alive.
"One of the kids was dead, I didn't know he was dead."
Another problem, almost every player listed in the "2010 Evaluation Booklet' was from the class of 2009, they had already chosen where they were going to play football. This was worth $25K? Now the NCAA wanted to speak with Lyles. But at the time they knew nothing of the Lyles-Kelly connection that recruited LaMichael James & Lache Seastrunk, so all of their questions for Lyles were about the players in his bogus report. Lyles didn't lie to the NCAA, they didn't ask the right questions. But it was the two intrepid reporters from Yahoo! Sports who got wind of Lyles' phony report & they began snooping around. By the time they finally contacted Lyles, they had a treasure trove of evidence that forced Lyles admit what had transpired between him & the Ducks.
"I'm man enough to know when I've made a mistake & I just want to come clean, I know I'll never be involved in football at this level again"
Really? Ya think? Like I said parasitic hangers-on.
"I sent an invoice to Oregon for the 2011 scouting report, but got no payment in return. I called Chip Kelly & Josh Gibson but to no avail, I don't think they're going to pay me this year."
Wow, that's big balls isn't it? How these people can close their eyes & go to sleep at night is way beyond my comprehension. Judging from the handwritten notes I have seen, email copies I have read & the phone records Robinson & Wetzel obtained, it looks bad for Chip Kelly, Josh Gibson & Bill(not so)Clever. Really bad, if all this evidence is proven to be factual, Kelly's gone in a flash. He can join Jim Tressell watching football on TV because it's likely this is as close as either will come to a college sideline. Paying an intermediary to influence a recruit is absolutely not allowed. Both parties knew that before they began this dance. No one at Oregon is returning phone messages regarding this story, they're probably circling the wagons up in Eugene, trying to figure if throwing Kelly to the wolves will prevent further damage. It won't, if the story is true, the Duck program will suffer a far worse fate than USC did last year when they received a 2-year post season ban & lost 30 scholarships over 3 years.
This has been a really bad period for college sports, maybe the worst in history. Sadly it's not going to get better any time soon.
Unless something earth-shattering happens on the NFL labor front or Chip Kelly steps down(holiday weekends are perfect cover, remember Tressell's Memorial Day weekend exit?), today is the first day of my family's "10-days at the Lake." Siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws & even a few friends come from New Jersey, Las Vegas, Kansas City, all over the map to boat, tube, wakeboard, play golf, drink, eat & laugh a lot. My sister, me & our spouses host this every year & I have a helluva lot of cooking to do over the next two days to feed this group, so I'll be away for a few days.
Please leave a comment or email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com Love to hear from you even if it's to call me an idiot.
Charles Robinson & Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports have been investigating the recruitment of Lache Seastrunk last year. The pair has been eyeball deep in the Duck program since mid-February, it was then Kelly & company began to panic & a really pathetic attempt to cover their tracks was put into motion. Shall we begin at the beginning. always a good place to begin.
Back in January of 2010, Oregon was interested in recruiting a Houston-area running back, Lache Seastrunk. When Seastrunk found out the Ducks were interested in him, he spoke to Will Lyles, one of those parasitic hangers-on who claimed to be a recruiting mentor for kids in Texas. Lyles attended Texas Southern, played football a couple of seasons, but had not graduated. Lyles buddied up to several of Texas' most coveted football recruits, often providing the male influence the kids never had in their lives. Lyles contacted Oregon & said he was Seastrunk's mentor. The dance began between Lyles, Kelly, Josh Gibson, Oregon Director of Football Operations & Bill Clever, assistant compliance officer. Over 50 documented phone calls & more than 25 documented emails(compiled by Robinson & Wetzel) provided by Lyles give some damning evidence. One of the problems in recruiting Seastrunk was his mother, Evelyn Seastrunk, had a number of legal problems over the past ten years & his grandmother, Annie Harris, had actually raised him. The trouble began when Evelyn refused to sign his National Letter of Intent(NLI) to attend Oregon. She wanted her son to attend LSU or a Texas school. Once again Lyles intervened & the Ducks' hierarchy helped him. How could they get around his mother's refusal? Clever(unbelievable name for this story huh?) informed Lyles he could bypass mom if he could get Lache to name his grandmother as his legal guardian & then get grandma to sign the NLI. Lyles complied, did the end run around mom & filed the grandmother-signed NLI so he could attend Oregon.
Lache Seastrunk in High School
One hitch, Lyles wanted something for his effort. He told Kelly he was going to start a scouting service & would the Ducks be interested in becoming a client? Kelly asked him what he wanted for his services & Lyles said he didn't know what other scouting services charged. Kelly told him to find the highest priced scouting report, send him an invoice for the same amount & Oregon would pay it. That's exactly what happened. The Oregon football program was billed $25,000 for a scouting report. One huge problem was there was no report. Lyles got Seastrunk signed & Kelly approved a $25,000 expenditure for a report that never existed. Lyles, gave the pair from Yahoo! Sports over 4 1/2 hours of on-the-record interviews plus phone & computer records verifying his version of this story. It doesn't appear Lyles did anything illegal, immoral maybe, dishonest probably, but it doesn't appear he violated any laws. So he will likely be free to go when all this shakes out, tho I have no doubt his days as a high school scout are finished.
"They paid for what they saw as my access & influence with recruits."
Kelly told Lyles he would pay another $25,000 in the spring of 2011 for a real scouting report. Lyles told him he would submit one so he could continue to be paid. Lyles also provided several handwritten notes from Kelly & Gibson touting his ability to get prime recruits to visit Oregon.
More damning stuff surfaced when the subject of All-PAC 10 running back LaMichael James' recruiting back in 2008 was discussed. James, also one of Lyles "mentored athletes," was in danger of not being academically eligible because he couldn't pass a Texas High School standardized test needed to graduate. He was lacking in the math skills needed to pass the test. Oregon offensive coordinator, then Chip Kelly, discussed how they could sign James. Lyles said if he could get him to transfer to nearby Texarkana High School, in Arkansas, he wouldn't have to take the Texas test & would remain eligible. Kelly encouraged Lyles to do just that, thought it was a brilliant plan. James moved across the state line for his final semester of high school thereby dodging the test & later signed a NLI with the Ducks.
LaMichael James
The big red flag popped up for the NCAA auditors when they saw the $25,000 payment to Complete Scouting Services, a company they had never encountered. This spring the NCAA requested a copy of the report, which never existed, to see what Lyles' outfit was all about.
"They were on my ass to get the written reports on recruits. They were covering their tracks, they were covering their asses. They were scrambling."
Kelly called Lyles & told him to send him some sort of a written report ASAP. Lyles had nothing, so he started pulling player profiles off his computer. He shipped the info off to Kelly. It was entitled the "2010 National High School Evaluation Booklet." In it Lyles provided 140 player profiles, 133 of them were from Texas, hardly qualifying it as a "National" evaluation & one wasn't even alive.
"One of the kids was dead, I didn't know he was dead."
Another problem, almost every player listed in the "2010 Evaluation Booklet' was from the class of 2009, they had already chosen where they were going to play football. This was worth $25K? Now the NCAA wanted to speak with Lyles. But at the time they knew nothing of the Lyles-Kelly connection that recruited LaMichael James & Lache Seastrunk, so all of their questions for Lyles were about the players in his bogus report. Lyles didn't lie to the NCAA, they didn't ask the right questions. But it was the two intrepid reporters from Yahoo! Sports who got wind of Lyles' phony report & they began snooping around. By the time they finally contacted Lyles, they had a treasure trove of evidence that forced Lyles admit what had transpired between him & the Ducks.
"I'm man enough to know when I've made a mistake & I just want to come clean, I know I'll never be involved in football at this level again"
Really? Ya think? Like I said parasitic hangers-on.
"I sent an invoice to Oregon for the 2011 scouting report, but got no payment in return. I called Chip Kelly & Josh Gibson but to no avail, I don't think they're going to pay me this year."
Wow, that's big balls isn't it? How these people can close their eyes & go to sleep at night is way beyond my comprehension. Judging from the handwritten notes I have seen, email copies I have read & the phone records Robinson & Wetzel obtained, it looks bad for Chip Kelly, Josh Gibson & Bill(not so)Clever. Really bad, if all this evidence is proven to be factual, Kelly's gone in a flash. He can join Jim Tressell watching football on TV because it's likely this is as close as either will come to a college sideline. Paying an intermediary to influence a recruit is absolutely not allowed. Both parties knew that before they began this dance. No one at Oregon is returning phone messages regarding this story, they're probably circling the wagons up in Eugene, trying to figure if throwing Kelly to the wolves will prevent further damage. It won't, if the story is true, the Duck program will suffer a far worse fate than USC did last year when they received a 2-year post season ban & lost 30 scholarships over 3 years.
This has been a really bad period for college sports, maybe the worst in history. Sadly it's not going to get better any time soon.
Unless something earth-shattering happens on the NFL labor front or Chip Kelly steps down(holiday weekends are perfect cover, remember Tressell's Memorial Day weekend exit?), today is the first day of my family's "10-days at the Lake." Siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws & even a few friends come from New Jersey, Las Vegas, Kansas City, all over the map to boat, tube, wakeboard, play golf, drink, eat & laugh a lot. My sister, me & our spouses host this every year & I have a helluva lot of cooking to do over the next two days to feed this group, so I'll be away for a few days.
Please leave a comment or email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com Love to hear from you even if it's to call me an idiot.
Comments