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Tears Gator Tears

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When I was at UM, I was a tutor for the Athletic Department. Keep in mind, this was during the years when Alexander Wolff called our program a criminal enterprise, when he told Tad Foote to shut the program down.

And outside of a specific instance I know about (which went through The Honor Council) involving 2 players in a test situation who were accused of looking at another student's test paper, for which they were NOT found guilty, I can tell you that nothing like what just happened at UF ever happened at UM when I was there (and I heard PLENTY of the "other" stories about behavior at parties, clubs, etc.). Players that I worked with, both individually and in groups, stayed for the entire time they were being tutored. And these were "supposedly" among the worst-behaved and "most criminal" of the Miami football players who ever attended The U.

Some of you know Dr. Anna Price, she kept a tight rein on the Academic Support program. It wasn't just some kind of "keep the kids eligible" boondoggle. If you ever went to her office, she had photo after photo from years worth of athletes who were proud to have GRADUATED, some of whom may have been the first in their family to graduate from college (as I was too). Dr. Price would devise individual study plans for every athlete, based on ability and coursework, and some had to do "more tutoring" while others required fewer hours. And the players did well. Miami had eliminated most of the "jock majors" and a good percentage of the athletes were in the School of Business with me. ****, I remember a group project that I did that included both QB Craig Erickson and LS George Michael, we got an A.

The bottom line is that Miami (and JJ's approach to the issue, after Schnellenberger had let too many academic issues slide) has a very legitimate, genuine, and individual approach to helping athletes transition from (often lesser) high school academics to college academics. I tutored Hi-C when he was academically ineligible due to Prop 48, and I helped him to make up for his lack of higher level HS math classes, so that he could handle Business Calc.

A lot of detail gets overlooked when people comment on academic support and tutoring. When I was at UM, the athletes didn't disrespect me or other tutors because they knew they would have to deal with Dr. Price. I knew when certain players were "not played in a game" because they had "broken a team rule" that basically involved not doing their required study hall/tutoring hours.

Anyhow, I know that the NCAA APR rules are something that has arisen over the past 10 or 15 years, but I can tell you that UM has been serious about academic support for the athletes since JJ took the job as head football coach in the 1980s. And people need to stop making excuses for poorly-behaved athletes "because they are young and dumb". I know that people can ***** up sometimes, but most of these college athletes grew up playing at least one sport that uses conformity and discipline to build teamwork and production. The team-sport athletes do better when the rules are enforced, as opposed to people making excuses for them. I've seen our football team, in particular, struggle when there is "star-treatment" given to certain players.

But, sure, we are going to keep hearing stories out of Gainesville about how "no charges were pressed" or that a person being choked "could talk and breathe". Think about that, and then think about why you rarely hear the same kinds of stories at UM. I'm not saying they NEVER happen, I'm just saying that UM does a better job of ACTUALLY dealing with these problems than most schools do. The Gaytors (among others) are a school that tends to react to problems, they do just enough to get by. UF is one of the schools that treats academic support as an "eligibility maintenance" program. Doesn't matter how many athlete study halls they build (they are just trying to compete with other SEC schools), the effort is not genuine and the outcomes are evidence of that.
 
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If you don't believe me, here are a few nuggets on Aaron Hernandez during his stellar academic career at UF:

"His classes his first year included bowling, theater appreciation, wildlife issues, and a course entitled "plants, gardening and you."" (Hernandez got Bs)

"He made the conference honor roll during his sophomore year, but as a junior got a D in a class on poverty and did not complete his second attempt at an introductory statistics class."



Intro to Stats. That is a 200 level business course at UM that is a pre-requisite for several upper-level business courses. A UM athlete who can't handle that class wouldn't be able to make any academic progress.

Keep this in mind, too. At UF, most students are just general students for the first 2 years, they have to "apply" to get into a particular college or school. At UM, you are in your college or school from Day 1. State schools with jock majors are the only places that let you take "bowling", "theater appreciation", "wildlife issues" and "plants, gardening & you" as first year "electives". And how can you take a class on "poverty" as a JUNIOR?
 
TheOriginalCane said:
"Complainant opted not to pursue charges"?

SHE WAS EMPLOYED BY UF AS A TUTOR OF ATHLETES. It is VERY COMMON for people to "opt not to pursue charges" WHEN IT INVOLVES THEIR JOBS.

"She could breathe and talk"? Hmmm, either Huggins is the kindest and gentlest woman-choker of all time, or SHE IS JUST MINIMIZING WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. How many of us have ever been in a dispute where (a) the other person was so angry that he/she tried to choke you, but (b) the choking was so light and friendly that you could breathe and carry on a full conversation with your assailant?

This "investigation" is the equivalent of when the F$U Athletic Director kindly and gently asked Adrian McPherson whether he stole the checkbook from the booster, and when Adrian denied it, the investigation was closed due to lack of evidence.

OF COURSE a person who is employed by UF, and doesn't want to lose her job, might POSSIBLY not tell you how serious, violent, and frightening the incident actually was. OF COURSE she might choose not to press charges. OF COURSE she might say that she could "breathe and talk".

But, nooooo, Thomas Goldkunt wants to act as if NOTHING HAPPENED. You know, because charges were not pressed. Because people NEVER "opt not to pursue charges" out of fear.

This guy can claim to be a "reporter", but he is nothing of the sort. He has no journalistic ethics and he asks ZERO relevant questions.

Goldkunt HAD THE INFORMATION, yet it was another reporter who had to ask Mullet about the strangulation incident.
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He’s not a real journalist, if this was before social media age guy wouldn’t be writing anything. He’s no more than a fan who runs a web site of his favorite team. Subscriptions he gets and his team winning is what he cares about.

Dan LeBetard who many hate because of pursuing a story about our Hurricanes is actually a true journalist because he separates fandom from truth.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
When I was at UM, I was a tutor for the Athletic Department. Keep in mind, this was during the years when Alexander Wolff called our program a criminal enterprise, when he told Tad Foote to shut the program down.

And outside of a specific instance I know about (which went through The Honor Council) involving 2 players in a test situation who were accused of looking at another student's test paper, for which they were NOT found guilty, I can tell you that nothing like what just happened at UF ever happened at UM when I was there (and I heard PLENTY of the "other" stories about behavior at parties, clubs, etc.). Players that I worked with, both individually and in groups, stayed for the entire time they were being tutored. And these were "supposedly" among the worst-behaved and "most criminal" of the Miami football players who ever attended The U.

Some of you know Dr. Anna Price, she kept a tight rein on the Academic Support program. It wasn't just some kind of "keep the kids eligible" boondoggle. If you ever went to her office, she had photo after photo from years worth of athletes who were proud to have GRADUATED, some of whom may have been the first in their family to graduate from college (as I was too). Dr. Price would devise individual study plans for every athlete, based on ability and coursework, and some had to do "more tutoring" while others required fewer hours. And the players did well. Miami had eliminated most of the "jock majors" and a good percentage of the athletes were in the School of Business with me. ****, I remember a group project that I did that included both QB Craig Erickson and LS George Michael, we got an A.

The bottom line is that Miami (and JJ's approach to the issue, after Schnellenberger had let too many academic issues slide) has a very legitimate, genuine, and individual approach to helping athletes transition from (often lesser) high school academics to college academics. I tutored Hi-C when he was academically ineligible due to Prop 48, and I helped him to make up for his lack of higher level HS math classes, so that he could handle Business Calc.

A lot of detail gets overlooked when people comment on academic support and tutoring. When I was at UM, the athletes didn't disrespect me or other tutors because they knew they would have to deal with Dr. Price. I knew when certain players were "not played in a game" because they had "broken a team rule" that basically involved not doing their required study hall/tutoring hours.

Anyhow, I know that the NCAA APR rules are something that has arisen over the past 10 or 15 years, but I can tell you that UM has been serious about academic support for the athletes since JJ took the job as head football coach in the 1980s. And people need to stop making excuses for poorly-behaved athletes "because they are young and dumb". I know that people can ***** up sometimes, but most of these college athletes grew up playing at least one sport that uses conformity and discipline to build teamwork and production. The team-sport athletes do better when the rules are enforced, as opposed to people making excuses for them. I've seen our football team, in particular, struggle when there is "star-treatment" given to certain players.

But, sure, we are going to keep hearing stories out of Gainesville about how "no charges were pressed" or that a person being choked "could talk and breathe". Think about that, and then think about why you rarely hear the same kinds of stories at UM. I'm not saying they NEVER happen, I'm just saying that UM does a better job of ACTUALLY dealing with these problems than most schools do. The Gaytors (among others) are a school that tends to react to problems, they do just enough to get by. UF is one of the schools that treats academic support as an "eligibility maintenance" program. Doesn't matter how many athlete study halls they build (they are just trying to compete with other SEC schools), the effort is not genuine and the outcomes are evidence of that.
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Appreciate you sharing
 
MiamiChris said:
He’s not a real journalist, if this was before social media age guy wouldn’t be writing anything. He’s no more than a fan who runs a web site of his favorite team. Subscriptions he gets and his team winning is what he cares about.

Dan LeBetard who many hate because of pursuing a story about our Hurricanes is actually a true journalist because he separates fandom from truth.
Click to expand...


I would also say that LeBatard (who was my classmate for several years, and we both lived in Eaton as well) actually goes well beyond fandom, in the fact that he used a lot of information that he gained on a PERSONAL level (i.e., being on-campus friends with many of the football players in the 1980s) and he parlayed that personal info into his earliest Herald articles that reported negative incidents involving UM football players.

I may not be a huge fan of LeBatard's, but in his younger days, he would write an expose on his grandmother if it would have advanced his journalistic career.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
I would also say that LeBatard (who was my classmate for several years, and we both lived in Eaton as well) actually goes well beyond fandom, in the fact that he used a lot of information that he gained on a PERSONAL level (i.e., being on-campus friends with many of the football players in the 1980s) and he parlayed that personal info into his earliest Herald articles that reported negative incidents involving UM football players.

I may not be a huge fan of LeBatard's, but in his younger days, he would write an expose on his grandmother if it would have advanced his journalistic career.
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Part of the reason I am laughing when he complains about being "evicted from his home" during the recent local radio shake up. Dude would not have a career to feed his three chins if he did not rat out people that trusted him and welcomed him into their circle.
 
RVACane said:
God bless you. I’m glad you did this in a professional way as well so as not to allow him an easy out for extraneous reasons.
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Thank you.

I can be pretty crude and vulgar on here, but I know the most effective use of language is without vulgarities. Especially in that context. I let the context and the strength and logic of my argument be the focal point.
 
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