The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football (83 page)

The e-mail from Heather Lyke to Gene Smith was sent on April 20, 2006, at 4:46 p.m.

The 2012 Cornerstone of Hope event, in which some $350,000 was raised, was attended by one of the authors of this book as the guest of DiGeronimo.

The charges against DiGeronimo were outlined in the NCAA’s Supplemental Case Summary dated November 21, 2011.

DiGeronimo’s controversial “if there’s no tattoo-gate, this thing doesn’t come out” comments about the case appeared in a story written by Bill Lubinger of the Cleveland
Plain Dealer
on September 15, 2011.

Multiple interviews were conducted with Bobby DiGeronimo at his home, in his car, at lunch and at the 2012 Cornerstone of Hope gala. Subsequent follow-up and fact-checking interviews were conducted over the phone.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request for Gene Smith’s athletic-department-issued cell phone records between April 1 and May 31, 2005, an Ohio State spokeswoman said those records fell outside the university’s four-year retention policy and had been destroyed. DiGeronimo said his company phone records from that same period could not be located.

For this chapter interviews were conducted with Bill Moos, Mike Marlow, Joe Giansante, Gary O’Hagan, Mike Leach, Sharon Leach, Elson Floyd and Guy Bailey. Paul Wulff declined to be interviewed.

All of the dialogue between individuals in this chapter comes directly from interviews with those who are quoted. Details from the meeting in Florida between Moos and Leach were enhanced by receipts, travel documents and calendars provided by Washington State University’s athletic department. The dialogue from the press conferences held by Bill Moos and Mike Leach comes from tape recordings of the respective events. Washington State’s associate vice president Gil Picciotto and Bill Moos’s secretary Debbie Nankivell also provided critical background detail for this chapter.

Information on head coaching salaries was taken from reports in
USA Today
and the
Chronicle of Higher Education
. The authors also had access to the individual employment contracts of many of the head coaches listed in the chapter.

Pricing for premium seating at the upgraded Martin Stadium was taken from “The Cougar Football Project,” published by the Cougar Athletic Fund.

Facts and figures pertaining to state budget cuts to Washington State University and the University of Washington were taken from “Wulff’s Costly Departure Raises Issues of Priorities,”
Tri-City Herald
, December 4, 2011.

While writing this book, Jeff Benedict profiled Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah for
Sports Illustrated
on December 3, 2012. Excerpts from that piece—“The Next Zig Thing”—appear in this chapter.

For this chapter, interviews were conducted with Bronco Mendenhall, Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah, Kyle Van Noy, Ken Frei, Chad Lewis and Jordan Johnson. One of the authors was also given access to Ken Frei’s journal, which detailed his interaction with Ansah in Africa. Brett Pyne, BYU’s sports information director, assisted with our description of Ansah’s first game against Wyoming. The description and play-by-play from the BYU–Ole Miss game came from a televised recording of the game.

The story of Nick Saban’s hiring at Alabama was predominantly Moore’s alone. He told it in his corner office in the athletic department facility in the spring of 2013, just weeks
before entering the hospital for a pulmonary condition that took his life. With associate athletics director Jeff Purinton at his side, Moore could not have been more gracious or personable in spinning a tale he obviously wanted to tell.

In this chapter, researchers Timothy Bella and J. J. Feinauer spoke to thirty-four players who responded to a BCS title team survey. The interviews took place between July 2012 and October 2012.

Other interviewees included Marcus Lattimore, the former South Carolina running back; Scott Anderson, president of the College Athletic Trainers’ Society; Jim Thornton, president of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association; David Bailiff, head coach for Rice University; and Jarad Moon, a former Florida State player whose life has been altered by injuries sustained while at Florida State. Those interviews took place between June 2012 and March 2013.

Lattimore’s agent, Pat Dye Jr., was also interviewed about his client’s injury, surgery, rehabilitation progress, potential draft status and other subjects.

In terms of the season-ending injuries, we used a number of sources to confirm the injuries, including
USA Today
’s injury tracker, media reports and team reports. We updated our database twice a week, once usually on the Sunday following the Saturday games and once again before the following week’s games. The injury period ranged from August 2012 right up to the final regular-season and conference championship games in December 2012.

We also used quotations and information from outside sources, such as the
New Republic
, the
Birmingham News, PLOS ONE
, NFL Network, ESPN and 2012 press conferences from University of Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian.

The overwhelming majority of this chapter was based on interviews with the Jones family and personal observation. Chester Jones was interviewed more than a dozen times on various issues related to his son’s upbringing, recruitment and injuries, including lengthy interviews in September and November 2012. It was Chester Jones who told one of the authors, and later added detail to, the story of the tragic death of Ricky Seals.

One of the authors saw firsthand the dining room table in the Jones home stacked with recruiting letters. One of the authors also attended the Sealy-Bellville game and sat with Jones.

The injury to Seals-Jones’s left knee was witnessed on the ESPNU television broadcast. Subsequent statistics from that game came courtesy of St. Pius X’s head football coach, Blake Ware, who called Jones the most gifted high school athlete he’d ever seen.

The charges related to the recruitment of Cam Newton and the subsequent NCAA investigation was pulled from published reports and
NCAA.org
.

Reporting on the method of under-the-table payments to college football players was provided on a source basis from conversations with boosters, runners, agents and financial planners.

Dialogue as it relates to Seals-Jones’s recruitment stems from the memory of Chester Jones and Ricky Seals-Jones.

The information on the $300,000 offer to Chester Jones was originally provided by a secondhand source at a 7-on-7 event. The primary source was named at the time and eventually located and interviewed at length regarding the specifics of the offer, which the individual who heard it confirmed. Following Jones’s denial, the source was contacted twice more, the final time during the fact-checking process to triple-check the sourcing and information. The source again confirmed the attribution and the details of the offer.

A request to interview certain members of the University of Texas coaching staff was declined on December 11, 2012, by John Bianco, associate athletic director for media relations. Bianco cited NCAA rules that prohibit comment on prospects or on the recruiting of specific student-athletes.

One of the authors shadowed Mike Leach during the off-season in 2012. Most of what’s reported in this chapter—the practice sessions, workouts and team meetings—was observed firsthand during visits to Pullman, Washington, in 2012. One of the authors was also present during the phone calls Mike Leach had with high school recruits, as well as the car ride and dinner that are described with Sharon and Mike Leach. Additionally, interviews were conducted with Mike Leach, Sharon Leach, Tyler Bruggman, Dave Emerick, Jim Mastro, Nick Galbraith and John Fullington.

In 2011, the authors collaborated on two special reports for
Sports Illustrated
and CBS News. The first—“Criminal Records in College Football”—appeared in the March 7 issue of
SI
. The second—“Straight Outta Compton”—appeared in the December 5 issue. Reports also appeared on the
CBS Evening News
and CBS’s
Early Show
. Some reporting from those stories appears in this chapter.

For this chapter, interviews were conducted with Samuel Jurgens, Nick Saban, Scott Decker, Geoff Alpert, Rob Wilson, Tom Seeberg, Keith Donerson, Danielle Farber, Kenneth McGee, Araceli Nogueda, Sergeant Brandon Dean, Lacy Westbrook, Lavell Sanders, Brandon Beaver, Eugene Beaver, Alphonso Marsh, Curley Rachal, Kyle Whittingham, Mike Leach and Delshawn McClellon.

The authors communicated with Caleb Paul after he was assaulted. But he declined our request for an on-the-record interview.

The arrest and conviction statistics for college football players in 2012 are based on the authors’ original reporting. The 204 player arrests were confirmed by published reports. The information on James Wilder Jr.’s three arrests was taken from published reports.

The information on the criminal problems with the University of Oklahoma’s football program in the 1980s came from “How Barry Switzer’s Sooners Terrorized Their Campus,”
Sports Illustrated
, February 27, 1989, along with other published reports.

ALABAMA

The primary source for the description of the assault on Samuel Jurgens was our interview with him. We also relied on police records from the case. Our reporting on Nick Saban’s response to the arrests was taken almost entirely from a discussion about the subject with Saban.

Jason Neff, a criminal defense attorney for Brent Calloway, was helpful in providing information in the early stages of the criminal case against the four Alabama football players. Reporting on prior arrests at Alabama during Saban’s tenure was based on published reports in Alabama newspapers and on ESPN.

NOTRE DAME

One of the authors spent significant time with Tom Seeberg and was given access to e-mails and other correspondence between the family and Notre Dame officials, medical records, text messages and documents. We also relied on a report issued by St. Joseph County prosecutor Michael Dvorak.

PENN STATE

One of the authors covered the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse trial and the fallout from the scandal, spending more than a hundred hours on and around the Penn State campus and conducting dozens of interviews. The authors also relied on the 270-plus-page independent report issued by former head of the FBI Louis Freeh and Freeh’s subsequent press conference in Philadelphia on July 12, 2012, to announce the findings of the investigation.

ALPHONSO MARSH AT DOMINGUEZ HIGH AND THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

The reporting on the Dominguez High School football players is based on multiple trips the authors made to Compton in 2011 and 2012. The authors attended games and practice sessions
and conducted interviews with all of the mentioned players, along with their parents. One of the authors also made multiple trips to Salt Lake City to chronicle Alphonso Marsh’s arrival and experience during the summer and fall of 2012. The authors also relied on additional reporting from Deanne Fitzmaurice, a photographer who was retained for this book to shadow Alphonso Marsh in Compton and in Salt Lake City. Some information from her observations enriched the reporting. One of the authors also communicated regularly with Marsh and his former teammates at Dominguez High through Facebook and Twitter.

Most of what’s reported in this chapter—the pregame rituals, the locker room scenes, the games and the postgame material—was observed firsthand by one of the authors during visits to Provo, Salt Lake City and Atlanta in 2012. During these visits, one of the authors shadowed Kyle Van Noy, Mike Leach, Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah and Bronco Mendenhall. Photojournalist Deanne Fitzmaurice accompanied one of the authors during the visits to Provo and Salt Lake City. She had access to the players and coaches and was present on the sidelines and in the locker room. Her photography was used to enhance the reporting.

Additionally, one of the authors conducted multiple interviews with Kyle Van Noy, Cody Harris, Mike Leach, Bronco Mendenhall and Ezekiel Ansah. All statements and actions attributed to University of Utah fans during the BYU–Utah game were observed by one of the authors.

Quotations attributed to Max Hall and Austin Collie regarding the BYU–Utah rivalry appeared in the
Salt Lake Tribune
and the
Deseret News
.

For this chapter, interviews were conducted with Mike Leach, Bill Moos, Elson Floyd and Tyler Bruggman. Marquess Wilson did not respond to requests for an interview.

All documents referred to in this chapter either are in the possession of the authors or were shown to the authors. Washington State University also provided access to the e-mails and text messages to and from Bill Moos and Elson Floyd, as well as those to and from WSU trustees Ryan Durkan and Scott Carson. The authors also had access to the text message from Marquess Wilson to Bill Moos, as well as Wilson’s letter.

Additional sources included WSU’s internal review of the football program; the outside review conducted by the Pac-12; published reports of Mike Leach’s postgame press conference following the Utah game; a report by Bud Withers in the
Seattle Times
regarding Leach’s behavior following the Utah game; Stewart Mandel’s reporting on
SI.com
regarding Leach; a
Los Angeles Times
story, “Ring of Fire,” about Barry Alvarez; and published reports on
ESPN.com
and elsewhere regarding Marquess Wilson’s departure from the team.