Add defensive back Byron Moore to the growing number of players that have decided that the two-year bowl ban is enough for them to bolt USC for the chance to play elsewhere.
From the Los Angeles Times:
“He wants a fresh start,” Byron Moore Sr. said in a text message. “USC coaches and staff were great.”
Moore is the third player to leave USC since the NCAA announced major sanctions against the athletic program in June. The penalties include four years’ probation, a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. USC is appealing some of the sanctions.
Junior defensive end Malik Jackson said Monday he would transfer to Tennessee. Junior linebacker Jordan Campbell is transferring to Louisville.
The Trojans lost their entire 2009 secondary to the NFL this past April and now the position looks incredibly thin with the departure of Moore. They’re going to be hurting for depth once the season gets rolling (especially when injuries, which are always inevitable, start to stack up).
Unfortunately for USC, Moore probably won’t be the last player to transfer this offseason. For current Trojans, having the opportunity to play in a bowl game is outweighing staying with Lane Kiffin and riding things out in Southern Cal right now.
It’s hard to blame Seantrel Henderson for getting out of his letter of intent at USC to join another program like Miami, Ohio State or Minnesota (which were three schools, along with USC, that he was reportedly interested in). Thanks to the fairly recent sanctions handed down by the NCAA, the Trojans won’t be able to compete in a bowl game over the next two years and obviously that’s important to a player like Henderson, who was considered the second best recruit from the class of 2010 according to Rivals.com.
But will Henderson inevitably miss out in the long run?
The 6’7”, 295-pound offensive lineman, who played for Cretin-Derham High School in Minnesota, committed to USC in February before waiting to sign his letter of intent with the Trojans until the NCAA had wrapped up its investigation. Then, after reportedly meeting with Miami head coach Randy Shannon over the weekend, Henderson wanted to opt out of his commitment to USC, which Lane Kiffin and the Trojans granted by releasing him from his LOI with zero penalties or restrictions. (If USC wanted to, they could have made Henderson sit out an entire year before transferring because he had already signed with the program.)
On the surface, it appears as though Henderson is making the right decision. After all, what blue chipper would want to go through the next two seasons without the opportunity to play in a bowl game or perhaps a national title? It couldn’t have been a hard sell for someone like Shannon to sit the young man down and say, “Come to Miami and have the opportunity to play in four postseason games over the next two years, or go to USC and be limited to two.”
But let’s keep in mind that USC is a NFL-producing factory. Last year, the Trojans sent seven players to the NFL, while in 2009 they sent 11 and in 2008 there were 10 USC players drafted.
In not-so-surprising news, the University of Georgia and athletic director Damon Evans, who recently went through a highly embarrassing DUI arrest, have reached a settlement agreement according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As part of the agreement, Evans is expected to resign on Monday.
Evans, 40, was arrested on a DUI charge after a traffic stop late Wednesday night. Evans refused a breathalyzer test and spent the night in the city jail.
Courtney Fuhrmann, 28, who was in the car with Evans, was arrested for disorderly conduct. A married father of two, Evans called Fuhrmann “a friend.”
When the state trooper who pulled Evans and Fuhrmann over asked Evans why he had a pair of red panties between his legs, Evans replied: “She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home,” the trooper’s report states.
At one point, Evans pleaded with the officer: “I am not trying to bribe you, but I am the athletic director of the University of Georgia,” the report states.
People make mistakes, but athletic directors of major universities can’t make those kinds of mistakes (i.e. the ones were you try to bargain with a police officer to let you out of a DUI while you sit there with a woman who isn’t your wife riding shotgun and her underwear in between your legs).
There’s no way UGA could allow Evans to keep his job. They would have looked like hypocrites if they didn’t fire the same man that was shown in DUI prevention videos before all of the school’s home football games last year who said to the police officer after getting pulled over: “We go through life and we all drink and jump in a car.”
When the athletic director of a major university gets arrested for DUI, it’s embarrassing for all parties involved.
When the athletic director of a major university gets arrested for DUI, bargains with the police officer to let him go, is riding with a younger women who isn’t his wife in the car and also has her underwear on his lap at the top of being pulled over, it’s really, really embarrassing.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details of Georgia athletic director Damon Evans’ June 30th DUI arrest:
Evans, who admitted to drinking three Vodka cocktails, began bargaining with the trooper as soon as he realized he might be placed under arrest. “I am not trying to bribe you but I’m the athletic director of the University of Georgia,” Evans said.
The arrest report, released at 4:55 p.m. Friday of a holiday weekend, reveals several embarrassing details for the 40-year-old Evans, whose lucrative new 5-year contract went into effect Thursday.
The passenger in Evans’ car, 28-year-old Courtney Fuhrmann, was being “very loud and obnoxious and was obviously intoxicated,” Cabe wrote. She repeatedly got out of the car, ignoring the trooper’s instructions, before she was handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, according to the incident report.
“I apologize and don’t want to use my influence but she is trying to protect me,” Evans told Cabe. Furmann remained “combative,” the trooper wrote, and after Evans refused to take a breath test he was arrested.
Wait, the story gets better.
The trooper, who noted that Evans had a pair of red panties between his legs, asked the athletic director “what her panties were doing in his side of the seat. He stated, ‘She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home.’ ”
Evans told the trooper “there was nothing there” between him and the Buckhead woman “because he had a wife and family.”
Evans appeared relaxed when first stopped by the trooper. “I feel pretty good,” he told the trooper, then “smiled and laughed for no apparent reason.” Cabe said Evans had “red, bloodshot, watery eyes and droopy eyelids” and he detected “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”
The Nebraska native asked the trooper to let him off with a warning.
“I told him I don’t issue warnings for DUI,” Cabe replied.
Evans tried again: “I don’t want you to use who I am but I would just ask that you take me to a motel.”
After he was arrested, the father of two — who refused a Breathalyzer — told the trooper, “We go through life and we all drink and jump in a car.”
As if things weren’t bad enough for Evans, he was the one who also did a DUI prevention public service announcement video that ran throughout Sanford Stadium during Georgia home football games last year.
Everyone makes mistakes, but I don’t see how Evans can keep his job after this. Georgia showed video of this guy telling thousands of students last year not to drink and drive and then he gets busted for the same crime. He looks like a giant hypocrite and I wonder what would happen if a student athlete were to be arrested for the same thing. What kind of punishment would he face? Would he be allowed to stay on the team?
Maybe UGA will stand by Evans and set an example that people deserve second chances. But the details of this situation might be too embarrassing for the university to allow him to keep his job. Not only was he driving drunk, but he was also riding around with a chick’s panties between his legs. Oh, and he’s married with two children and the women he was traveling with wasn’t his wife.
Buried at the bottom of a recent article by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about former Seahawks’ head coach Jim Mora was an interesting comment by ex-NFL’er Marshall Faulk, who said he would have definitely taken cash if he had been offered it at San Diego State.
“Were you ever offered anything in college?” I asked.
“Nah, I went to San Diego State,” Faulk said. “Other than good weather, they didn’t have much to offer me, unfortunately. I wish I’d gone to a bigger program and had them slide me some cash to take care of my family, but that wasn’t the case.”
“Would you have taken it? I asked.
“Heck yeah, I would have taken it,” Faulk said. “I’m not gonna lie to you, there’s no doubt about it.”
Faulk’s comments might sound a little surprising, but should they? Let’s keep in mind that players in college are essentially still kids and haven’t had the opportunity to make money yet. So when they’re offered cash, they’re presented with the opportunity to buy cell phones, video games, and whatever else they’re into.
I’m not saying it’s right for them to accept gifts and therefore put their program at risk of being punished, but I don’t think we should be surprised when someone like Faulk says he would have taken money had it been offered it to him in college. If answering honestly, the majority of people may have said the same thing.
That said, hopefully student athletes will learn from the situation with USC and Reggie Bush and look at the bigger picture. It’s just not worth accepting gifts and running the risk of not only ruining your future, but the future of other athletes who play for the program.
