Does the fact that Mel is a government employee play any role here?  Even though he is no longer under contract, he is reportedly still doing his job and would presumably be getting paid for it.  Despite Brian's suggestion that he is an "at-will" employee, it is my understanding that government employees cannot be fired without due process (a firing without due process would be an unconstitutional taking under the Fifth Amendment).  If he disputes the findings in the report, doesn't the University have to take undertake the proper procedures to ensure he receives due process before he is fired?  To me, this seems the most logical explanation for why he wasn't immediately fired and why it has taken over three months to get to this point.    

To be clear, I am not defending him or suggesting that he shouldn't be fired, but I think, as a government institution, the University may have to jump through a lot more hoops here than people realize.  Also, should a further investigation clear him (I am not suggesting this is likely, just considering the possibility), he would remain as Head Coach, so I could understand the school waiting until any subsequent investigation was completed before releasing the initial report (i.e. to avoid the PR nightmare that they are currently in).   

I appreciate your take on this Craig, but I think what you're saying and what Brian/Seth are saying are both true. WH's stated recommendation was to further investigate. WH's report also laid out several fire-able offenses. WH provided Manuel with the information he needed to make an informed decision. All he did with that information was have an anonymous survey conducted, when the end decision looks to be pretty obvious.

I'm scratching my head that the department hasn't said anything about any of this. I'm wondering why we had to hear about it via MLive. The whole thing stinks. I think Mel needs to go, and I think some serious questions need to be asked about Manuel.

Just re-downloaded the podcast, and now it has Sam Webb, so it's definitely not the podcast I downloaded yesterday.  Wacky!

Okay, just went through the archives, and what I listened to was the 8/19/2021 Roundtable -- https://mgoblog.com/content/wtka-roundtable-8192021-big-red-pilled  The OL preview talk near the end is really interesting after the season -- Ira comments that what he was hearing in camp made him optimistic about the offensive line, Seth tries to talk him down from what in retrospect was the 200% correct position.  On the other hand, Seth is completely right that they were saying nice things about Filiaga because he was getting passed.