Recruiting 2009: The year of the “secondary violation”
Just when you thought the shirtless wonders at Tennessee had cornered the market on the self-reported secondary recruiting violation, along comes G-Chiz to mount a challenge. And if you’re asking, “Isn’t this getting a little silly?”, the answer is … uh, yeah.
Background: Under the guidance of the boy wizard Lane Kiffin and his spiritual adviser Ed Orgeron, the Volunteers have reported four — count ‘em — “secondary recruiting violations” for sins ranging from the improper use of a fog machine to an overzealous Twitter Tweet. Not to be outdone, Auburn and Gene Chizik and his Limo Kings have apparently joined the fray.
Auburn hosted a group of rising seniors for what was known as Big Cat weekend. Amazingly enough, Big Cat weekend made big news in the loveliest village. According to Charles Goldberg of Al.com, the recruits wound up on Toomer’s Corner, where gleeful townspeople broke out the ceremonial toilet paper, which generally only happens after the Tigers win a big game, which they used to do periodically.
From Goldberg’s report: “Auburn athletic officials spent Monday reviewing last week’s Big Cat recruiting weekend to determine if any secondary rules violation may have occurred surrounding the traditional rolling of Toomer’s Corner, an event attended by visiting high school football players.”
Loading ...See, you’re not supposed to publicize recruiting visits. (Every school winks at this one, but it’s a rule.) As Marcus Lattimore, a running back from South Carolina considered the nation’s No. 1 recruit, told Bryan McLaughlin of Sporting News Today: “Somehow it got out that we were all there.” Somehow?
From Andrew Gribble’s exhaustively detailed report in the Opelika-Auburn News: “Three Auburn recruiting-themed Web sites had information regarding the event posted on message boards sometime Saturday afternoon. Niffer’s Place, 1151 Opelika Rd., also publicized the gathering on its marquee.” Indeed, as Gribble notes, at least seven police officers “were called to the scene for a ’special assignment.’ ”
Even if Auburn does find itself guilty of — cough, cough — a “secondary violation” or two, there won’t be a penalty. The NCAA will just tell the school to try not to mess up again. But messing up and saying you’re sorry is now just another way of SEC life, and not necessarily an unprofitable way. (And Georgia is by no means immune: It just self-reported three secondary violations involving the football program.)
Example: Lattimore has just narrowed his field of prospective collegiate destinations to eight, according to McLaughlin, and guess which school made the cut. As Lattimore told SNT: “We definitely felt the love from Auburn.”
Imagine that. Or, better still, just watch this video.
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76 comments Add your comment
U Gotta B Kidding Me
June 2nd, 2009
3:49 pm
kage,
crawl out from under your rock. Common sense says that you don’t spend the $$ in this economy to just drop by AU on an “unofficial” visit which just happens to coincide with other “unofficial” visits by other athletes. And to travel from places as far away as Conn, Texas, etc..
Are you really that naive?
Left my heart in dega and my teeth in high school
June 2nd, 2009
4:37 pm
“crawl out from under your rock. Common sense says that you don’t spend the $$ in this economy to just drop by AU on an “unofficial” visit which just happens to coincide with other “unofficial” visits by other athletes. And to travel from places as far away as Conn, Texas, etc..
Are you really that naive?”
Check out the football players parking lot in ttown next time there is a practice. Will you apply those same standards to your team?
kage
June 2nd, 2009
5:22 pm
I just don’t know how you can assume that these kids can’t afford to go to Auburn for a weekend. Do you know what kind of money their families make? Do you know if they have jobs after school? Did you check their bank statements over the weekend to see what they spent? Next time a recruit visits Tuscaloosa 3 or 4 weekends in a row, I want you to come on here and ask that same question about them.
Quit being an a** and accept the fact that they are actually interested in Auburn, and they want to get to know the coaches and their potential future teamates.
KevinInKsaw
June 2nd, 2009
5:33 pm
No joke. Talk about being extremely short-sided. How can you possibly know what these kids can and can’t afford? Way to show your true colors “U Gotta Be Kidding Me.” Well done.
gatorman770
June 2nd, 2009
5:41 pm
PaulC – The Gators are just trying to over take UGA in the sport of arrest, but still have along way to go to beat 12 in a year. I believe the biggest crimes of stealing a dead girls credit card and a laptop computer resulted in those players being permanently kicked off the team and out of school. Besides in the latest incident wouldn’t you punch somebody if someone be stealing yo’ chain!
Let’s examine famous alumni arrest for tomorrows class. LOL
gatorman770
June 2nd, 2009
5:48 pm
CrimsonRedScarlett – Don’t you know USC is untouchables as far as NCAA is concerned! Could be part of the reason California is in so much debt – Payoffs!
george
June 2nd, 2009
6:33 pm
how much you wanna bet Bradley does not write an article on all the secondary violations UGA has just gotten. 6 to be exact. OF COURSE NOT because he is the most biased writer in the land!
UGA=SecondaryViolations
June 2nd, 2009
6:52 pm
Hey Mark – I just read Tim Tucker’s post about UGA self reporting secondary violations (six since January 1, 2009 with three involving the football program). In addition, there were fifteen secondary violations by UGA from July 1, 2008 thru December 31, 2008 (but none involving the football program). Just wanted to get your opinion on this. Thanks for your work.
Mark Bradley
June 2nd, 2009
7:59 pm
The post above now includes a reference and a link to Georgia’s secondary violations. Thanks for the concern.
U Gotta B Kidding Me
June 2nd, 2009
7:59 pm
I don’t and never did say I know the financial situation regarding all these long distance recruits.
Common sense says how many families are going to drop everything to spend the time and money to drive down to AU for an organized “unofficial” visit? Guranteed some of these recruits got some help with their trip.
Tom
June 2nd, 2009
8:25 pm
Wanna see secondary violations?
Watch Reshad Jones try to tackle. LOL!
Atl Auburn Grad
June 2nd, 2009
8:37 pm
UB, get over it Dude. Your obsession with policing Auburn’s recruiting sitch is indicative of a greater personal grudge. The NCAA is a mess. Some degree of regulation is necessary to level the playing field, but honestly, many of their rules seem completely arbitrary, and do not precipitate the youngsters’ best interests. Their EDUCATION is what matters most — how they learn and grow to provide for themselves in the future. What do YOU care if a kid from a poverty-level family in a no-jobs town gets a nice summer job and a little coin in his pocket? Are YOU going down to Podunksville, Redneckland trying to improve the lives of these people? If not, then why don’t you shut yer chili-dog hole until you can think of a meaningful cause to rant and rave about. Just sayin’.
BamaDon
June 2nd, 2009
8:43 pm
You have to give the Auburn coaches credit, they are trying every thing
to get the recruits to come visit. Most will smile and say nice things to the coaches and laugh about the cow college when they get home and tell family and friends.
Mark Bradley
June 2nd, 2009
9:24 pm
Good one, Tom. Maybe the highlight of my day.
Smyrna Man
June 2nd, 2009
10:07 pm
Mark…
I can see 4 AU violations in this video alone, and you have to bring up how the Vols have 4 total under Kiffin. OMG, whatever are the vols to do? You going to write an article about UGA’s 6 recent violations?
PS Why dont you put your chowda where you mouth is and put $500 up on UF -50 against the vols. I got $500 obn the vols not losing by more then 50. Come one big guy you said the vols would lose by over 69. Give me a break. BTW “Just For Men” called, they need a new spokesman for their “Touch of Grey” campaign
Smyrna Man
June 2nd, 2009
10:22 pm
Forgot to add… Love all the article y’all have done about all the arrests down in gainsville. Some great reporting Man, does Urban gets a free pass or what?
Gator Growl
June 3rd, 2009
12:38 am
This “smoke and mirrors” or “gimmick” recruiting really started when these shows like “Countdown to Signing Day” started televising these commitments and all the sudden players were trying on 15 hats or using props and all this other nonsense. Seems like now You Tube is taking over now, those guys at Auburn really looked like idiots, and look, I’m not blaming Auburn ’cause they are just taking what’s there. But the NCAA needs to start adding up these secondary violations and doing something to control what has turned into a freakin’ three ring circus!!! You know, EVERY school in this conference has something great to sell, whether it’s an advanced education and specific degrees, fantastic facilties, rabid fanbase and tradition, location, campus life and unique enviornment, early opportunity to play, the best conference and competition in college football, the exposure and press, the opportunity to develop and take it to the next level, etc etc without resorting to this kind of stuff! Just my opinion!
Gator Growl
June 3rd, 2009
1:12 am
And PaulC, I just threw that rock back at ya and shattered your glass house…sorry. But seriously, it is good to know you have crawled out of your cave. Look, ONE arrest is too many and I’m not going to go down the list for you to show what these guys did and how they were delt with, also the fact that MANY off them were recruited by the previous staff…although I can and will be very happy to if you need clarification. The bottom line is, we all have problems and many are reflective of our society and many because a HC can’t babysit their players at 2 AM in the morning! I do believe Urban is going to have to do something drastic, as in make an extreme example of someone, to get the message across to some of these knuckleheads. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of our players are good citizens, but theres always those who choose a different direction, as in GET OUT! I’ve already sent several E Mails calling for a 6 game suspension if Janoris Jenkins instigated this whole thing. And if he doesn’t like it, show him the door! I’m sure you guys up there in La La Lane Land could use an All American corner! And even if he didn’t, he still ran away, so I’m in favor of 3 games minimum. I’m sure he won’t be happy about it, but he might just have to miss that epic beatdown we’re gonna put on the Viles Sept 19th!!!
Atlanta Journal Constitution » Blog Archive » Recruiting 2009: The year of the “secondary violation”
June 3rd, 2009
2:25 am
[...] Mark Bradley | ajc.com – [...]
Bill
June 3rd, 2009
10:29 am
It’s funny how every time “little sis” auburn gets in trouble they somehow find a way to blame Bama. Get the chip off your shoulder and congrats on winning 6 in a row…I wonder how many times we will have to hear how they won 6 of 7, 6 of 8, 6 of 9, etc,…
Roll Tide
Mark Bradley
June 3rd, 2009
10:41 am
Urban Meyer always gets a free pass on this little blog. I love the man.
TigerFan
June 3rd, 2009
11:11 am
You Bama fans are all rediculous, I love how you all flock to auburn stories as if you feel threatened! Lets just play football and see what happens.
P.S. Saban isn’t a God- he will not own the state of alabama or Auburn. We had a down year, just like alabama did for so many. Auburn will return and dominate you like we have the past decade.
sc
June 4th, 2009
10:07 am
The big cat weekend was so effective that au lost it”s lead for Lattimore. Going into the visit ML publicly stated that au was his leader and after he was given the toilet paper everybody is even now. Kudos au.
ESPN Now Enabling Lane Kiffin’s Recruiting Violations Media Meltdowns | myMLB - Reds
June 9th, 2009
2:55 am
[...] the school in January. (I don’t have statistics to back this up, but I’m sure this is not an egregious number for a major program.) But his controversial reign has people buzzing, which is why ESPN decided to [...]
htparrothead12
August 19th, 2009
6:39 am
Nick Saban had 20+ secondary violations his first year at Bama. Come back after 16 more.
NC Tiger Fan
January 3rd, 2010
2:35 am
@Thomas. I don’t think you’ve been paying attention dude. Auburn got a verbal commitment from the number one QB recruit on New Year’s Eve. His name is Cameron Newton, and he’s going to be a big draw for two five star recruits who are considering AU, Lattimore and Seastrunk. War Eagle!!! We have a great recruiting class coming in next year, and the tide is gonna get rolled over in Iron Bowl 2010.