Tech coach Spencer resigns over rules violations
Georgia Tech co-offensive line coach Todd Spencer has resigned. Spencer offered his resignation in the midst of a school investigation into numerous text messages to recruits that he had sent in violation of NCAA rules.
“I find it inexplicable that an employee would violate these rules with regard to text messaging after our ongoing focus to educate our personnel on NCAA rules and regulations,” athletic director Dan Radakovich said in a statement. “Actions of this type simply are not acceptable in our programs and will not be tolerated.”
NCAA rules limit electronic communication between coaches and prospects or their parents or guardians to e-mail and faxes. Other forms, such as text messaging and instant messaging, are not allowed.
Monitoring software caught the violation Jan. 12, and Spencer was placed on administrative leave the following day. The athletic department has been in a state of high alert in matters of NCAA rules compliance since being placed on probation after findings of failure to cooperate and failure to meet the conditions and obligations of NCAA membership in an investigation into possible impermissible benefits violations to two former football players. The school notified the NCAA immediately following the discovery of the violations.
Spencer offered his resignation Jan. 27. Prior to that, Tech coach Paul Johnson had recommended to Radakovich that Spencer be fired. In the letter, obtained by the AJC through a Georgia Open Record Request, Johnson said he found Spencer’s actions “troubling and inconsistent with the expectations I have for our staff.”
“There is no need to put our program in further jeopardy,” Johnson wrote.
The matter is not expected to affect the school’s appeal to the NCAA sanctions, the verdict of which is likely to be released soon. It is unclear, however, if Tech’s probationary status would impact the degree of any sort of penalty levied by the NCAA for Spencer’s texting violation. The investigation is ongoing.
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169 comments Add your comment
Really?
February 1st, 2012
8:23 pm
snellville jacket
I can’t understand why people say trade school fans lack english skills.
bp
February 1st, 2012
8:32 pm
You have to cheat to win in college football, We have to get better at it.
Norton
February 1st, 2012
8:33 pm
Jail or education
Norton
February 1st, 2012
8:37 pm
Seems like Ga players prefer jail
Babsy
February 1st, 2012
8:46 pm
Kev, what will we do? Our beloved buzz has been disgraced!!! It’ll make me feel better if I kick that stupid dog of ours – trust me, its for the best!
Go bees!
IL Jacket
February 1st, 2012
8:51 pm
Ken, where are you? You’re missing a good game. At least bettrer than Sunday night.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
8:53 pm
IL Jacket, I forgot about the game. Just turned it on. I see the score, but how have we been playing?
Go Jackets!
February 1st, 2012
8:54 pm
IL Jacket, we are hanging with them…
Go Tech!
Go Jackets!
February 1st, 2012
8:55 pm
Tech up at half 25-24
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
8:55 pm
We seem to get rebounds and then lose the ball an awful lot.. And oh, damn, we’re out of timeouts now.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
8:56 pm
Go Jackets, are you on some kind of delay, or were you just reporting what it WAS. With 5 minutes left in the game, we are down 11
Go Jackets!
February 1st, 2012
8:59 pm
Tech lead at the half Supersize. FSU dominating now
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
9:01 pm
Go Jackets, what you posted sounded like that was the current score, and I wondered if you were watching it on some kind of delay.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
9:04 pm
Why isn’t Rice playing? Like I said, I forgot about the game and just turned it on at the 6 minute mark.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
9:05 pm
How do we score in the 80s against UNC and may not break 50 against the Noles. Is FSU THAT good, at least on defense?
Tech dropout
February 1st, 2012
9:50 pm
Did GA Tech sign any kids today or do I have to read about Dream Team 2?
BC
February 1st, 2012
10:06 pm
Enter your comments here
BartowDawg
February 1st, 2012
10:07 pm
Tech has got to cheat to get any good recruits to come down there and risk getting robbed, shot and/or raped on the way to football practice!
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
10:08 pm
@ The Factor, read BartowDawg’s 10:07 post if you want to see slander
BC
February 1st, 2012
10:09 pm
How can a techie, not see the abuse of……….
Rick
February 1st, 2012
10:13 pm
Yahoo rivals puts gt at 10th in the acc behind dook?
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1326494
Rick
February 1st, 2012
10:21 pm
Listen to will adams just a few months ago
all the fam that goes to tech. what a joke
http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/recruiting-football/Trio-of-lineman-look-to-make-impact-at-GT-1098569;_ylt=As4vuqRvjh864E3DPehBxogh7qB4
Old Blind Dawg.
February 1st, 2012
10:25 pm
The NCAA cares ONLY about the NCAA. The NCAA is a self absorbed self governing money sucking machine that is out dated and out of touch. The NCAA needs to be dismembered and a new system put in place.
Those of you comparing the Spence texting and CMR need to get a clue – one (CMR) was inadvertent and self reported the other (your guy) was a continuing violation of the rules to gain an advantage.
lance manion
February 1st, 2012
10:28 pm
Rick=Dick. Get it?
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
10:57 pm
Blind, I have tried to comment on your post twice, but the filters are apparently really screwed up tonight, so I will just let it pass. Suffice it to say I both agree and disagree with what you posted.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
11:01 pm
Blind, let me try one more time…..the only “continuing violation” was by Spencer himself, and only he knows why he was dumb enough to do it. CPJ fired him, a long time friend, so CPJ recognized the severity of the situation and handled it just like he should have.
superDawg
February 1st, 2012
11:12 pm
supersize you go running to ken crying about the use of words you don’t like because you are a nurd.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
11:19 pm
superDwag, if you’re going to insult someone, then learn how to spell the word first.
Supersize that order, mutt
February 1st, 2012
11:26 pm
The filters are blocking almost every post I try to make, so I am out of here.
Really?
February 1st, 2012
11:42 pm
supersize
Slander is spoken It’s libel when it is in print. What was libelous about the comment though?
gtfanfrom1951
February 2nd, 2012
6:06 am
Dawgs are so dumb!
A (non-Dawg) signing day buffet | Get The Picture
February 2nd, 2012
7:21 am
[...] don’t always see coaches get canned on signing day. In Tech’s defense, it doesn’t sound like it had much choice in the [...]
dogSTILE
February 2nd, 2012
7:38 am
Mr Stein, I have a little DUI issue, could you help me?
J W
February 2nd, 2012
7:51 am
Although it is / was a rules violation, that rule is as stupid as it is outdated. Why do we allow the NCAA to operate as if it were a dictorship?!
“Minor” violation – accept Coach Spencer’s resgination and stop all this nonsense about “firing” and turning him into the NCAA.
billyBobjacket
February 2nd, 2012
8:04 am
Well, the recruiting can’t get any WORSE with Spencer gone. It looks like he cost us two pretty good OL prospects this year alone. Nothing is “minor” when you are already on probation, especially when you are appealing the prior sanctions. Stupid, just stupid, glad he was shown the door, wish it had been sooner based on his pattern of recurrent stupidity.
gt4ever
February 2nd, 2012
8:07 am
CPJ is certainly consistent with throwing people under the bus…. He can’t back his coach or his players…. Hmmmm, who would have thunk it….. What a JOKE!
Old Gold Britches
February 2nd, 2012
8:13 am
Ken, So everyone at the fish wrapper has to write negatives abt the Jackets and /or positives about the mutts. Where is an article on the GT recruiting class. This ia a good class. It could have been better, but it is not a bad class.I would have thought you of all people would have talked abt these recruits in detail. The mutts have a good class, but not really what they are use to having sign.
MC
February 2nd, 2012
8:15 am
DesignerJacket
February 1st, 2012
3:52 pm
Tolerate nothing, CPJ! Look at him cleaning house for silly NCAA violations. We can’t have any of this and it sure looks like we won’t allow it!
LMAO! ROFL! Are we talking about the same CPJ that held a meeting with players being investigated by the NCAA to get stories straight. He and Radikivich are the primary reason GT is on probation right now and the dirtiest program in the ACC. Again LMAO!
billyBobjacket
February 2nd, 2012
8:57 am
Nobody playing big time D1 football can truthfully say their house is clean. Everybody cuts corners, pushes the envelope, looks for that edge. All the coaches sell the recruits with “promises” they know they might not be able to deliver on, and they all recruit kids who they know their university would not even look twice at if not for the athletics. Once on campus, most of the football players do stupid things, some do criminal things, and a few of them get caught at it. When adults come on these forums and argue the merits of their favorite schools, it really sounds like “your cheating is worse than my cheating” or “my thugs are better than your thugs”. If we really wanted clean programs with the best kids, we would hold them to the same standards as the rest of the admitted students, then we really could say the Tech players are smarter than UGA’s or Clemson’s or FSU’s. But face it, we want to see the biggest, fastest, most athletic kids playing for us, and will look the other way, hold our noses, and cringe a little bit when we find out that coaches and players may not all be the most brilliant and best-behaved ambassadors of our school.
HighTech
February 2nd, 2012
9:54 am
What kind of person actually becomes a coach anyway? If you’re looking for a genius, don’t look at the sidelines of any school’s program.
GT is 4th rate High School Team
February 2nd, 2012
9:55 am
You Buzzards have nothing to say but how good you type and spell words as if you invented the Webster dictionary. LOL.
JTK
February 2nd, 2012
10:22 am
One has to wonder why do a number of the puppy fans spend so much time on a Tech blog. Maybe the puppies don’t have a blog. Given the suspected reading abilities of the UGA fan base, they found that it made no sense to have their own blog. Or maybe the puppy fans got on this blog my accident and don’t know how to get off. Whatever.
ajc stinks
February 2nd, 2012
10:46 am
I long to see the head line “AJC Urinal folds, all reporters fired, sports writers classified as unemployable, only future jobs likely as ditch diggers for city.”
killerj
February 2nd, 2012
10:48 am
Ghetto Tech? ha ha ha,here,s one for you…..better than Deliverance Georgia Squweeeeeeeeeeeeal,4 to 1 baby,hows that feel back there brother? have a good day! Thwg!
UGA idiots
February 2nd, 2012
11:02 am
It’s funny. All of the UGA fans who follow a Tech blog.
How much more of a loser can you be.
Krystals, anyone?
February 2nd, 2012
11:25 am
Neither “major” football program in this state is relevant or a threat to anyone but each other.
JSS
February 2nd, 2012
11:29 am
@ Ken Sugiura…
Great job on the NFL head injury story… Can you follow it up with a college version in the future (especially in the light of Tech’s linebacker Julian Burnett’s head trauma)?
Really?
February 2nd, 2012
11:38 am
Ken
Does the nfl story mean you might be moving to a different beat? Falcons fans would love to finally get some quality coverage and you would be a great fit.
HighTech
February 2nd, 2012
12:20 pm
Really?…Do you troll as freely on the Falcons blog as you do here? Do you call them the ghetto Falcons or discuss how many people get assaulted on their way to the Dome? Just wondering. I know Ken gives you a great deal of latitude to post your garbage here. Were you banned from the Falcons blog? For a UGA fan, you seem very interested in Georgia Tech.
Al Bundy
February 2nd, 2012
1:04 pm
I wish it would have been Al Groh who sent a text message to a recruit!