Luke Nails It – Calls out the CaroLoons

UNC Scandal15

Actually, he nails it several times in the same article:

This bowl game is for Quinton Coples, who filled the void on the defensive line left by his wayward teammates and as much as anyone represents the good that came out of North Carolina’s season.

This bowl game is for T.J. Yates, whose leadership helped the Tar Heels navigate a season full of self-inflicted distractions.

This bowl game is for Anthony Elzy and Ryan Taylor and Quan Sturdivant and all the other Tar Heels – including injured Bruce Carter and Alan Pelc – who wrote their own papers and managed to play within the rules.

They deserved something for their effort, and a trip to Nashville is as good as anything.

…

And it is not for Butch Davis, who through deliberate action or inexcusable inaction allowed all of this to go on under his watch. That includes the relationship between now-suspended agent Gary Wichard and former assistant coach John Blake, Davis’ old friend and new ex-employee, and the tutor at the center of the academic investigation, who continued to be employed in the Davis household even after the university cut her loose.

The conclusion will likely make the board monkeys look like they are auditioning for Linda Blair’s role in an Exorcist remake:

Meanwhile, the giant, gleaming blade of the NCAA looms overhead. While there are North Carolina fans who continue to believe that the university has done nothing wrong and will be completely exonerated, presumably with a letter of commendation written in kryptonite ink on a parchment made from unicorn hide, the rest of the world knows judgment is coming.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

UNC Scandal

15 Responses to Luke Nails It – Calls out the CaroLoons

  1. PackerInRussia 12/15/2010 at 10:19 AM #

    As much as I enjoy seeing UNC fail, I think it’s pretty impressive that they still managed to make it to a bowl game. I will not pat the coach on the back, though. I will put a different spin on it than those in the media. Rather than being awestruck at the job he did coaching, I will say that it’s the least he could do considering the crap that he got them into. Since I won’t give him the credit, I don’t mind it going to the players who played well and did so within the rules (I don’t blame them for not ratting out their friends).
    Although when it comes down to it, what’s a trip to Nashville compared to Miami and Las Vegas. That may not be such a huge reward after all.

  2. TheAliasTroll 12/15/2010 at 10:19 AM #

    Haha here ya go:

    http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=78&f=1408&t=6894055

  3. TOBtime 12/15/2010 at 10:24 AM #

    ^Troll, those comments are PRICELESS! Can’t wait to hear who they turn on when the “gleaming blade” of the NCAA falls. The seeds you plant eventually come up.

  4. Bowlpack 12/15/2010 at 10:32 AM #

    Did anyone happen to catch the ESPN 30 for 30 on SMU in the 80’s titled, “Pony Excess”. It was amazing to me that even then, the indiscretions were viewed as something more symptomatic of college football in that “everybody did it”. That is, until disgruntled players began to tell their tales and the local media in Dallas was more concerned with scooping rival news sources and the whole thing fell apart. To think that there isn’t a recruiting angle to the current investigation on UNC would be to deny the fact that the coach in charge of recruiting was dirty. I’d expect there to be more to come in that regard or perhaps that is wishful thinking on my part as I’ve become a blinded by schadenfreude. The fact that the players aren’t really talking (especially the ones that have been declared permanently ineligible) seems a bit suspicious to me. There may be larger stakes than we’ve been able to surmise from the evidence at hand. Similar to the SMU case, the Board at UNC could have some consequence in this as we’ve speculated via the direction and orders supplied by Erskine Bowles to Butch & Co. There is a bit of simile here as the corruption at SMU lead toward Bill Clement, a man of great political stature in Texas. I don’t see this ending well for the Tarheels. Certainly, there won’t be any death penalty as the situation doesn’t call for it under NCAA guidelines (twice the offender in a 5 year span), but we will see heavy sanctions. The only difference here is that SMU was a contender and put together some of the best football teams in the history of college football where UNC hasn’t managed to exceed 8 wins or a bowl victory. If you’re going to cheat, at least do it well so that you can go down in a blaze of glory. It’s really just pathetic at this point…

  5. VaWolf82 12/15/2010 at 11:43 AM #

    I agree with Luke that the players who did nothing wrong deserve a bowl game and the perks that come with it. I also don’t believe that the large majority of players were actively involved in the “unpleasantness”. However, I would not have named names, simply because I don’t know that:

    – all of the improper benefits were identified
    – all of the cheaters were identified
    – recruiting violations weren’t used to get them to UNC in the first place

    As far as ratting out goes…if someone had grown a set and spoken up, then the issues would not have been as large or as wide-spread. By assisting a cover-up through silence, those players that didn’t actively do anything wrong are now helping to build the case for LOIC.

  6. redwolf87 12/15/2010 at 1:09 PM #

    You read the comments from the UNC folk, and you have to honestly be concerned about their mental stability. Seriously.

    What will these people do when the hammer drops? It’s like their religion being exposed as a fraud before their very eyes.

  7. wolfbuff 12/15/2010 at 1:10 PM #

    VaWolf, we don’t know that someone didn’t attempt to at last blow the whistle internally. Based on how they have handled this since it became public, I wouldn’t be surprised if these things weren’t being covered up inside long before. That would include telling anyone who came to the coach or AD they’d “take care of it”, or just “get lost, kid, you’re bothering me.” Or better yet: “why don’t you take this trip to Miami / Las Vegas, California and we’ll talk when you get back.”

  8. VaWolf82 12/15/2010 at 1:29 PM #

    We don’t know everything (and never will), but we can draw conclusions based on what we do know. It just seems unlikely that someone would inform the compliance office of obvious NCAA violations and then sit quietly when nothing gets done. If the info was ignored, why wouldn’t they inform the media then or speak up now?

    There are alot of things that are possible, but some seem more likely than others.

  9. fullmoon1 12/15/2010 at 2:18 PM #

    “Unicorn Hide”. That is awesome.

  10. Prowling Woofie 12/15/2010 at 2:29 PM #

    Doubtful that any of these guys would ‘rat out’ a teammate that was receiving preferential treatment (at the very least), but I can’t imagine that it wasn’t causing some discord in the locker room between the ‘staaaahhhzzz’ and the rank and file student-athletes.

    The media continues to espouse the virtue and courage of the other 69-70 members of the team who supposedly were innocent of any wrongdoing, but I think that’s a bunch of crap. My beef all along is that everyone over there is tainted now. How can you say with any confidence that the dirty Associate Head Coach/Head of Recruiting wasn’t slipping a little something into everyone’s stocking ? We’ve only heard of some of the more blatant offenses, but the NCAA hasn’t even opened the can of worms on possible/probable recruiting violations. The big middle prong, if you will 😉

    Unfortunately, I’m afraid UNC got Blake out of the picture and paid him to shut up before the NCAA had a chance to properly grill him. Since he’s no longer on staff, he’s outside the reach of the NCAA investigative team.

    I’m sure the NY Spin Doctors recommended that action, and if so, earned their pay with that one step alone.

  11. phillypacker 12/15/2010 at 3:27 PM #

    I’ve raised this question with a number of people around this investigation, including a rep with a media outlet, “Why in the world has UNC been allowed to self-investigate? Given the complete lack of honor over there from JB/BD all the way up to Holden Thorpe, how could anything more come out of self-investigation than the least UNC would have to release?”

    When I asked this of a reporter, he said, just wait and that said media outlet was figuring out the best way to handle the question. To the best of my knowledge, no one besides those of us in the SFN lunatic fringe, have raised the issue.

    Could someone do a chart comparing NCSU/Clemson/etc. with the very special treatment that the punks over on the hill are receiving? If I had a better grasp of the history, I would do it myself. Anybody interested? Column 1 School Involved, 2: Suspected offenses committed by school, 3, School response, Column 4 Media response Column 5, Entity doing the investigative reporting to NCAA (independent/school) 6 Outcomes

    If not us, why not one of the many media outlets involved in reporting on this issue? The local media have been reactive rather than active much of the time with the UNC situation.

  12. xphoenix87 12/15/2010 at 3:41 PM #

    There are many fantastic sentences in the English language. There are some real gems, great literary masterpieces. Among them now lies this piece of golden wordplay:

    “…presumably with a letter of commendation written in kryptonite ink on a parchment made from unicorn hide…”

    Give that man a Pulitzer.

  13. Phang 12/15/2010 at 7:18 PM #

    Methings that unc has burned their bridged wrt to the N&O

  14. gcpack 12/15/2010 at 9:05 PM #

    I still think when its all said & done the UNChumps will essentially walk scott free. Maybe a reprimand & some restrictions but nothing serious which they truly deserve.

  15. bradleyb123 12/16/2010 at 1:40 PM #

    If the NCAA was going to let Carolina off easy, wouldn’t they have already given their ruling? The conspiracy theorist in me thinks they’ll get off light, too. But they’re not a perennial football power, so the NCAA may not go easy on them. And the longer it takes, the more I think they’re either still checking something out, or really analyzing the info that they already have. I just want justice to be served. I don’t want them getting more or less punishment than they deserve for what happened.

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