Urban Meyer's recruitment of junior college receiver Carl Moore — already under investigation by Florida officials for possible NCAA rules violations — might involve Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow as a participant in additional violations.The new allegation surfaced from a Dec. 18 story in the Sacramento Bee. The story details how Meyer, who was with Tebow for the Dec. 8 Heisman presentation in New York, called Moore shortly after Tebow was presented the award. According to the story by Joe Davidson, "Florida coach Urban Meyer placed the call and then placed the device in the hands of Tebow."
Tebow reportedly told Moore: "Carl!, I just won the Heisman! Come on down here, and let's win a national championship!"
NCAA rules state that a coach is not to make a call and then let another of his student-athletes talk to a recruit.
To this point, the investigation into the recruitment of Moore had centered on Meyer's involvement with Moore's girlfriend, Maranda Smith. From published accounts, Meyer had recruited Smith for the Gator gymnastics team in hopes of securing Moore. Under NCAA rules, this is forbidden because a football coach cannot recruit for another sport.
In a Gainesville Sun story last week headlined, "UF notebook: Gymnastics gets recruiting assist from Meyer," Smith said she "used to talk to [Meyer] every day back in November when he was recruiting Carl."
But Smith was telling a different story on Wednesday. This account from the Miami Herald's website:
" '[Meyer] never called me personally,' Smith said. 'Carl sometimes didn't have his phone or his phone would get cut off. So, he had given Coach Meyer my number and [Moore told Meyer], "If you call my number and I don't answer or it goes to voice mail, call Maranda because I'll be with her more than likely," and that's how he got a hold of Carl.' "
"Smith said on Wednesday that she 'never talked to Coach Meyer about life or anything for more than two seconds.' Smith said that Meyer would call her and then ask to speak with Moore."
Meyer was not available for comment and said to be recruiting, but the Orlando Sentinel reported Tuesday that Meyer had "met last week with Jamie McCloskey, UF's senior associate athletics director for compliance. The coach emerged from that meeting thinking he had committed no NCAA recruiting violations.
" 'No problems with that,' Meyer said. 'We're fine.' "
On Wednesday, the Sentinel reported that was not the case, this time quoting McCloskey:
"We are in information-gathering mode," McCloskey said. "And we're going to see where that takes us."
Did Meyer really believe he was in the clear when he talked to the Sentinel, or did he merely hope that the issue would go away?
Back to the Meyer/Tebow call to Moore. Here are the specific rules in question regarding that call:
NCAA rule 13.02.5.2: "Enrolled student-athletes or other enrolled students shall not make or participate in telephone calls to prospective student-athletes at the direction of a coaching staff member or financed by the institution or a representative of its athletics interest."
NCAA rule 13.02.5.1 (b): "It is permissible for an enrolled student-athlete to receive [not make] telephone calls made at the expense of a prospective student-athlete after July 1 following the completion of the prospective student-athlete’s junior year in high school. Telephone calls made by enrolled students (excluding student-athletes) pursuant to an institution’s regular admissions program directed at all prospective students shall be permissible."
Our continued thanks to State of Miami.
27 comments:
Just keeps getting better and better doesn't anonymous Gator fans??!!
i love the backstroke from Maranda Smith the best. we never had these convos ... Carl's phone got turned off a lot ... he called me and we talked for 2 secs at the most.
heres my perspective on this boot wearing story.
my wife, for some damn reason, leaves her cell phone in the car or on the washer/dryer as soon as she comes in from the gararge. basically, rendering her phone useless when shes in the house.
so, when anyone from her family calls me (1. shes home and 2. we never heard her phone) I toss the phone to her NEVER ANSWERING MY PHONE.
now, if there were as many calls as both sides say there were, these numbers become recognizable and/or the numbers are programmed in her phone.
she has no reason to answer the phone unless she has her own angle.
I wasn't there so I truthfully do not know. but just thought I would share my perspective on things. and anyone out there not gaytor fan i'm sure sees my point.
notice i didnt bother getting in Tebow. that would be too easy.
Waaaah. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what FSU and USC have on their plate.
I've always noticed envy in the wake of others' success, but all of this takes the cake.
Ms. Smith is a liar now. She can thank Urban Crier for that.
Look out for more cover-up lies about to start flowing out of gainesville. Meyer is a weasel who thinks he can push the limit of the rules and make minor violations without penalty. hes arrogant and getting desperate as he runs off class after class of players. What you have this year Florida? 4 seniors?
LOL. Meyer is the MOST overrated coach ever. He went undefeated at Utah. Whoop-te-do. He lost 4 games at UF with a mega-talented roster. call me unimpressed.
To cbgator: You mention a drop in the bucket to what USC and FSU have on their plate. Didn't you mean a drop in the bucket to the Gators and Tank Black Pay for play scandal that took place in Gainesville, a few years back? Or maybe your getting things confused with the Charlie Pell Scandal that also took place in Gainesville, a # of years back. Urban just may be the 2nd coming of Charlie Pell himself. Then again you could be thinking about the AK47 assault rifle attack that Williams and Caldwell (and a couple others) made on an apartment house there in their own back yard called Gainesville, Fla. Should I go on? How about the 11 arrest this past year of the Gainesville "thug class" that were arrested for everything from beating up their wives to selling pot (all covered up by your illustrious state att. of Allachua county and the great learning institution called UF. Give me a break Mr Clean and next time you choose to answer a blog, please don't send a boy to do a mans job--get some facts.
Wow, anonymous just shut that gator piece of sh!t up. And by the way, what are you talking about in "the wake of success". Success is USC not backing your way into 1 little national title, idiot. You still suck and you are back to your 4 loss seasons, as usual.
Wow I havn't seen anyone backtrack from a statement like that since "its good to be" Chris Rainey back tracked from saying he gets wads of cash from old lady's since committing to the gators. Wow is all I can say. Got get 'em Charlie Pell I mean, Urban Meyer.
cbgator,
thanks for coming out of the ranks of anonymous!!
second, this story just keeps gaining speed for its day time tv likeness, not the infactions themselves. the infraction, i've admitted a story or two back, is nothing.
but one championship does not breed success. (this has been a gaytor rebut all week that somehow this has been brought on by success) you guys followed that up with a 4 loss season. you guys always have a decent year or two but in the broad scheme of things, your team is still in the 3rd place in the state!
In 3rd place in the state? Really? How? FSU is bad and shows not sign of getting better, and Miami is struggling to get back to decency. Florida had four losses, sure, in the SEC, one of which was to an LSU team that had to convert on 5 different 4th down plays to win. I think the Gators are just fine and getting better. Both USC and UF are under investigation, so perhaps they can sit in the same penalty box in the future. And you can't back into a championship; UF won that game by a mile, and were the most worthy team to play the frauds from THE Ohio State University.
And at least UF hasn't lost to a 40 point underdog lately, unlike USC.
That being said, Meyer is an idiot for even having the HINT of impropriety here.
No one said anything about the championship game itself. They backed their way into the championship by barely beating everyone, escaping S. Carolina with a blocked fg, and having a host of teams lose in front of them so that they could sneak into the title game (Just like they did in 1996). So, yes, they did back their way into the Championship game. Try going undefeated and dominating an entire. That's what true Championship teams do.
* entire year
win 5 titles and come calling back gaotr!!
Great post.
I've been hearing rumblings out of G'ville for a while in regards to Meyer's recruiting tactics.
No, I'm not jealous of UF's recent success. As much as I disliked Spurrier, as a rival coach, I respected him. Meyer is rude, arrogant and incredibly disrespectful of the game of football and those who made it such a special sport. Frankly, he openly mocks the spirit of the sport with his sneering words and sly recruiting tactics.
Is it embarrassing to get caught with mud on your face by the NCAA or the press? Absolutely. It's horrifying. But instead of making excuses for it, true fans are saddened by the actions of those who committed the sanctions - not accepting of them, because hey, we win, so everyone is just jealous, right? (That seems to be the prevailing thought process of UF fans posting about this around Rivals and Scout...and that's just sad. Newsflash - the sun and moon do not rotate solely around Gainesville, FL.)
So sure, make fun of my degree, my aged coach, and our recent cheating scandal. At least we owned up to it with integrity. The point is never the degree of wrongdoing - it's that it was wrong. Right and wrong are not mitigated by degrees of grey or whether or not your program is successful. But hey, I must just be jealous, right? ;)
The phone call happened the night of 12/08/07. Moore signed the day of 12/08/07. Therefore he wasn't even a prospect. He had signed a letter of intent. Why are people so Obsessed with the Gators. Get a life or at least a team of your own and leave the Gators alone.
Cait.....FSU has never owned up to anything. They have been caught violating more rules than any other
program in the NCAAs in the past 20 years!!!! Think of how many more were never caught. TONS. Bowden didn't discover the cheating and say "Hey we better report this." Noway. They got busted cheating and it went to the press and then Bowden lies to recruits about what happened...That's why you lost so many "commits".
FSU is just sad & pathetic right now so you just waste your time on Gator stories.
really:
Carl signed his LOI on Dec 19th. He committed on the 8th. As a JUCO student he had to finish classes and then sign a letter of intent, which couldnt have happened until after December 15th. Sorry.
How do you know any Tebow/Moore conversation even took place. There are no sources quoted yet the article puts quotation marks around what Tebow said. Do they know for a fact that Tebow said this or are they just guessing. Or maybe they got ther information from someones mom who had a friend whose brother's cousin was at the Heisman trophy ceremony and he happend to over hear Tebow say this to Moore. Give me a break quote a reliable source if you are going to report something.
@you are all morons:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/sioncampus/01/24/campus.clicks0124/index.html
I'm sorry; you were saying?
@fsu#1:
As I understand it, we're about to submit our final report to the NCAA, who is pleased with how we've handled the investigation of the widespread cheating in the Music Appreciation course in question.
Either way, the cheating was wrong - at least we admit it. Will you do the same?
Alan Shirkey is gay. He wears Tim Tebow micro thong undies.
The team? YEs it does, but I guess you can't say that about the team that took their name from an indian tribe and disgraced it by acting like fools as often as possible.
The Seminoles need EGO help this year anyway they can get it...I know that my girlfriend answeres my phone from time to time because I am busy working or studying...something Seminoles don't have to worry about when teachers serve up high school level courses.
I respect Urban Meyer for winning a National Championship with Ron Zook's team. Last time i checked they were the same kids that were getting chewed out after FU couldn't beat a 10 point underdog in Michigan, who just got embarrassed at home by THE Ohio State University.
As a student at FSU I can't stand the fact that our team had to cheat on a course, period. We offer legitimate tutoring services, but with the lack of integrity and respect for an entry level course such as Music History they took advantage of the system and got caught by our own school, not the NCAA. This happened over a year ago and as a result a handful of our players were suspended at the beginning of the season, before the NCAA was informed.
but HEY! at least you guys deny and deny and DENY until the light is shed upon your glory hole known as Gainesville. I honestly can't understand why in the hell you guys wont admit your coach is being a giant douchebag. I guess soon enough you'll know when you open your eyes and ears.
it is easy to say that Urban Meyer won with a great team, but the fact is that he still won-and it seems clear that you are also admitting the team is great-so a great coach won with a great team-an undefeated record in any conference is still amazing- any team can beat any other team any given day, though I think it will be a few years alteast until FS will get that win against UF, but then again it is football and lesser teams can win..so maybe it comes down to coaching...Bowden's days are done...what's next for FSU...finding fault in a phone call
that may or may not have even taken place...awwwww...
How in the hell could you possibly stand up for dirty recruiting?
its called karma and its going to catch up.
Charlie Weis had his team in the Fiesta bowl, then the next year after all the previously recruited kids leave he ends up 3-9 against sub-par competition (exceptions: USC, Michigan, Boston College). He looked brilliant then and picked up a 10-year extension...
Here is a link only for documented misdeeds and transgressions of Florida coach Urban Meyer:
http://www.myspace.com/thepeoplevsurbanmeyer
Remember how Meyer had trouble adapting to the intensity of the SEC? He lamented the noise in Baton Rouge and cried after the beat down at Tuscaloosa? This is the same thing. He thinks he's still back in Utah where he could do things like this and no one would know or care. In the SEC if Philip Fulmer doesn't rat you out some booster you've never met (Bobby Lowder, etc.) will spend his last dime making sure you go down. He doesn't realize he's swimming in an SEC fishbowl that is totally transparent.
Gators, take it from a long time Sooner fan.
Pretending like your coach can do no wrong on this is NOT, & I repeat NOT, the way to handle the situation, even if he is winning national titles.
that myspace thing has been wiped out. even the video from youtube of jimmy johnson talking about how meyer was on the phone with recruits during the pre-game at the NCG. This really smells fishy, or at least like a dirty, filth-wallowing reptile.
Post a Comment