RR v. Trent article

Here we go again!

...Gil Brandted.

DEAD!

Despite the inevitable snide remarks, that was actually a pretty interesting read.  Thanks for sharing.  Side note, what the heck is Morgan Trent doing in that photo?

I feel bad for RR. He has to deal with so much unnecessary shit. I bet if he knew this was how he'd be treated he wouldn't have left WVU.

It is actually a good read and kind of important. 

Summary:  A lot of what coaches say doesn't matter at all b/c the scouts watch all the tape and talk to all kinds of ancillary people the player associates with, and watches practices to see how hard they work.  RR was never even contacted by anyone after the pro day, so never even had a chance to bad-mouth Trent.

...not for the "old news," but for David Birkett showing objectivity. 

After Rosenpuke, Shyster, and Dull,who really don't count as writers anyway, "Sparty Dave" is the last writer I would expect to actually allow the facts to speak in RR's defense.  Could this be the beginning of a new era of objectivity at Ann Arbor Dot Com?

I hope so.  It would certainly make them a lot better read, and it might even get them more clicks.  I wonder if they have figured that out yet?

Thanks for the link.

Like Birkett's writing and analysis. At the most basic level, Morgan Trent is showing a failure to take responsibility for his own actions. I have to drill this into my own kids EVERY DAY:  take responsibility for yourself. What happens with someone else isn't the issue:  the issue is whether or not you are doing what you are supposed to. As regards Trent, it is easier to blame things on RR or others than to look at himself in the mirror, and what he did, and what he didn't do.

At this point, it is water over the dam. Time to move on. However, I believe RR, believe Carr, and still think there are too many people out there who either have it in for Rod, or have it in for Carr. Brian's reference to Occam's Razor in his mea culpa would be well used by all of us. It would be very unlike either RR or Carr to throw a player or the program under the bus. Therefore, there must be another, simpler explanation. In this case, 3 simple explanations:

1)  Trent's failure to take personal responsibility for his poor work habits.

2)  Handlers, agents & friends telling Trent what he wanted to hear (not your fault, Trent.)

3)  Slimy writer dragging RR's name through the dirt to make the book more saleable.

What can we do with this?    Objectivity, reporting, fact checking, insight.   Waste of time.   You just killed the internet.

The guy has a mixed record.  But I, for one, will keep reading him, with interest.

In recent months he:

1.  Helped defend Rich Rodriguez in the wierdly overblown story (thanks to reporting by Mark Snyder of the Free Press that can only be regarded as deliberately malicious) about the mention of "Katrina" at the Football Bust.  Birkett helped develop the story (that MGoBloggers were among the first to report) that Regent White was the first speaker to metion "Katrina", and she actually dwelt on the subject at length.  As opposed to Rich Rodriguez's thoughtful allusion to "a hurricane" in passing, with, literally, a nod to Regent White.  Something that Mark Snyder never mentioned, and never corrected.

2.  Engaged in some dubious bloviating about Demar Dorsey.

3.  Authored this latest column which substantially lays waste to the poorly-researched and defamatory story by Bobby Deren, that Rich Rodriguez "bad-mouthed" Morgan Trent.  The information that exculpates Rich Rodriguez continues to pile up (Rodriguez denial, Lloyd Carr denial, Morgan Trent backpedaling, no supportive witnesses), and this story by Birkett helps.  I seriously don't know of anyone now, other than Bobby Deren, who is backing up Deren's characterization of Rodriguez.  And for reasons that are utterly inexplicable, Deren won't reveal any of his confidential NFL scout "sources."

If Dave Birkett is batting .666 based on this short list, he's WAAAAAY ahead of Mark Snyder at the Free Press.

what dudes with access and connections should be doing with those things?  Tim and Paul don't have these things and probably couldn't have done an article like this.  If their UM sports dudes start figuring out that they fit in along side of Mgoblog, we could see some pretty decent columns like these on a regular basis.

is  how an article should be written.

This was a very well reasoned article that actually brought in a knowledgable source.  Let's give credit to writers we sometimes hate when they take the time to get something right and speak clearly.  This was not a page hits generating article.  But it was a good one.

The agent theory is one I suspect is correct.  Agent lures player with sky-high projections, then he's wrong and he's backpedalling. 

Player: I thought you said I would go in the 2d to 4th round!

Agent: That's what the scouts and personnel were telling me, unfortunately . . .

So Morgan Trent hears this -- music to his pride-wounded ears, and walks away satisfied.  Later he shares the news with Carr, who politely says "that's too bad Morgan" (rather than "uh...no dummy, it was the million big plays you gave up").

I recently met and talked at length with an NFL agent.  I was fascinated, envious, and apalled.  It is a crazy world.  And a world where you tell a player just about anything to keep him happy and thinking you're smart.
 

who summed up this whole farcical story in one phrase:

"much ado about nothing"

I find this story interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, it is significant that RR came out with a second statement that actually has a claim whose veracity (or voracity) can be verified (or unverified): namely, RR is claiming he has never sought out any scouts for any purpose, and, except re BG, only talks to them at the UM senior day. This would be an extremely bizarre place to badmouth one of your own players, obvs., so it is likely that it never happened.

This is a much stronger rebuttal than his previous one, which I interpreted more or less as "I spoke to scouts but didn't badmouth Trent." Making the falsifiable claim that he only spoke to scouts at the senior day makes his story much more believable to me.

Second, the testimony of Brandt lends much credence to Lloyd's story: if what Brandt says is true, that scouts wouldn't care much about what a coach said about a player, Lloyd would certainly have known this. Thus, even if he heard that RR was saying disparaging things about Trent, he certainly wouldn't have rushed off to tattle, and if asked by Trent, he might have just given a calm, "yeah, I've heard some of that too," never intending it to mean "OMG RR is sooooo talking about you behind your back!!!"

So basically, this story to me makes RR and Lloyd look even better, Trent look even more whiny, and Deren look even more hacky.