So that raises the question, could there be any ramifications for the recruits that visited? It's not like THEY didn't know they weren't supposed to go......
He was probably a 17- or 18-year-old kid. If a potential coach tells you "hey, come work out in this park--it's legit" you probably trust him or don't want to reject him and risk being seen as "soft" or losing a scholarship offer.
Not a good look for Herm either way...he was either so hands off he didn't know any of this was going on OR he was in the middle of it and all of his "do it the right way" posturing was just that, fake posturing. What a mess.
I think the bigger story is the potential dysfunction within the ASU program in which someone was either 1) leveraging extremely strong ethics aligning to the NCAA rules and whistleblow and/or 2) someone potentially unhappy and retaliating by throwing the whole program under the bus.
I read this article last night. If true it's damning for the Sun Devils. Herm Edwards hands off CEO style may come to haunt him and Antonio Pierce probably wrecked his career. Yahoo Sports does have a way of being overly dramatic on scandal stories, but in this case it's hard not to see that what ASU did repetitively is about as bad as it gets.
But according to the Yahoo article in particular, it wasn't even his hands-off approach—he was allegedly actively involved in these recruits and their visits during this dead period.
It says that Herm met with a bunch of the recruits. I am wondering if he was so distant to managing that he did not understand what he was doing and just allowed Pierce to run things. Pierce has had some ethical issues in the past. It's hard to imagine Herm being so distant that he did not know what he was doing was wrong. I guess we'll find out, I imagine this could lead to a two year bowl suspension, change of coaching staff and limits placed on scholarships. ASU could go down the tubes very quickly.
When I read last night I wondered the same thing.. Gut says that it wasnt Edwards orchestrating this behavior, but then was it him essentially being complicit because of the results OR was he not fully aware of what was happening. I've seen my share of eager child-king-like people hired or promoted to leadership roles only to run roughshod on morale, with the CEO not really in tune with what was happening on the ground.
His hands would be quite off if he didn't realize that recruits weren't allowed on campus and if he didn't realize the individuals he was taking pictures with were recruits and family rather than his own current players or rando guests. Pierce may have initiated or pushed, but I can't fathom how Herm didn't know (unless these allegations are false).
Im not saying he's completely innocent, but why would you pose for photos if you know what you're doing is a serious violation of rules? Perhaps a lack of respect for those clouds your interpretation of them? Either way, I think there are 2 parts of this story. 1. The specific covid violations, and 2. The cancer that appears to have spread throughout the program. While #1 has a bigger impact on the short term, #2 is legacy, character altering stuff, and I think a bigger question to ask is regarding how directly involved was Edwards along the way in contributing to these bad conditions that basically lead to a staff mutiny (retroactively after getting fired (by Pierce?))
Absolutely, he was photographed with recruits during a world-pandemic-induced-over year-long, dead period. There is no plausible deniability to be had here. His only defense is that he was astral travelling into another dimension when these photos were taken or that he is demented and senile.
A “Bay Area prospect - who enrolled at a rival PAC-12 school” was recorded and analyzed by ASU coaches in violation of the rules.
There’s not a lot of recruits who fit that bill, and, of that group, the Cal roster holds the majority.
So that raises the question, could there be any ramifications for the recruits that visited? It's not like THEY didn't know they weren't supposed to go......
I don't think so bc as you point out, the onus is on the team (member of the NCAA), not the prospect (not yet a member of the NCAA) to know the rules.
He was probably a 17- or 18-year-old kid. If a potential coach tells you "hey, come work out in this park--it's legit" you probably trust him or don't want to reject him and risk being seen as "soft" or losing a scholarship offer.
Not a good look for Herm either way...he was either so hands off he didn't know any of this was going on OR he was in the middle of it and all of his "do it the right way" posturing was just that, fake posturing. What a mess.
I think the bigger story is the potential dysfunction within the ASU program in which someone was either 1) leveraging extremely strong ethics aligning to the NCAA rules and whistleblow and/or 2) someone potentially unhappy and retaliating by throwing the whole program under the bus.
Makes you want to look to people in the ASU program who were recently demoted, not promoted, or terminated.
But all this dysfunction seems to meet the definition of "lack of institutional control"
Very weird IMHO.
I read this article last night. If true it's damning for the Sun Devils. Herm Edwards hands off CEO style may come to haunt him and Antonio Pierce probably wrecked his career. Yahoo Sports does have a way of being overly dramatic on scandal stories, but in this case it's hard not to see that what ASU did repetitively is about as bad as it gets.
But according to the Yahoo article in particular, it wasn't even his hands-off approach—he was allegedly actively involved in these recruits and their visits during this dead period.
It says that Herm met with a bunch of the recruits. I am wondering if he was so distant to managing that he did not understand what he was doing and just allowed Pierce to run things. Pierce has had some ethical issues in the past. It's hard to imagine Herm being so distant that he did not know what he was doing was wrong. I guess we'll find out, I imagine this could lead to a two year bowl suspension, change of coaching staff and limits placed on scholarships. ASU could go down the tubes very quickly.
When I read last night I wondered the same thing.. Gut says that it wasnt Edwards orchestrating this behavior, but then was it him essentially being complicit because of the results OR was he not fully aware of what was happening. I've seen my share of eager child-king-like people hired or promoted to leadership roles only to run roughshod on morale, with the CEO not really in tune with what was happening on the ground.
His hands would be quite off if he didn't realize that recruits weren't allowed on campus and if he didn't realize the individuals he was taking pictures with were recruits and family rather than his own current players or rando guests. Pierce may have initiated or pushed, but I can't fathom how Herm didn't know (unless these allegations are false).
Im not saying he's completely innocent, but why would you pose for photos if you know what you're doing is a serious violation of rules? Perhaps a lack of respect for those clouds your interpretation of them? Either way, I think there are 2 parts of this story. 1. The specific covid violations, and 2. The cancer that appears to have spread throughout the program. While #1 has a bigger impact on the short term, #2 is legacy, character altering stuff, and I think a bigger question to ask is regarding how directly involved was Edwards along the way in contributing to these bad conditions that basically lead to a staff mutiny (retroactively after getting fired (by Pierce?))
A lot of people presume they're bulletproof and won't get caught.
Absolutely, he was photographed with recruits during a world-pandemic-induced-over year-long, dead period. There is no plausible deniability to be had here. His only defense is that he was astral travelling into another dimension when these photos were taken or that he is demented and senile.
They were supposed to contend for the Pac-12 South title. But that looks shaky right now.