Statement from Hackett: believes Gary was offered "incentives"
Jim Hackett was quoted as saying he thinks Gary was offered "incentives" during his recruitment. Very bold statement for someone attached to an athletic department to make and I'm pretty surprised it hasnt gotten any more coverage so far. My bets are on Ole Miss or Auburn as to who it was
February 4th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
He knows Harbaugh is doing it the right way and he doesn't like to see him struggling against the cheaters out there. He stuck up for his man so Harbaugh isn't taking all the pressure of it all. Just like with the recruiting hubbub
February 4th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
Well said Stephen King. I was trying to say the same thing above but was not as articulate.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
I read it as an attempt by a man who has secured his legacy, announced his retirement, and hired / vetted his successor to try to do the right thing for the future of college football. You can have a legitimate argument about whether or not eliminating bagmen is (a) actually the right thing to do and (b) possible, but statements like this from a man in Hackett's position will be impetus toward having that discussion and deciding, as a community, which direction the sport should go.
The reason you don't see ADs say anything similar to this very often is that they have too much to lose. Hackett doesn't need Clemson's (or Alabama's, or Mississippi's, or...) AD to return his phone calls, or to agree to some future proposal, or anything else. He has the luxury of a platform from which to deliver his message and the freedom to be honest without fearing the consequences.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:40 AM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
will be on ESPN.com college football headline list by the end of the day. Book it.
EDIT: And that "media explosion" referenced below, go ahead and google "Hackett Gary Incentives" right now and see what kind of results you get.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
If you think that qualifies as a "media explosion," your definition differs markedly from mine.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:55 AM ^
OK, well, in that case, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that he vetted this with Gary and his family first. And I definitely hope you're mistaken that Gary will suffer -- he certainly hasn't done anything wrong.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
in fact, such a big mistake that I almost wonder if Hackett believed he was speaking in confidence.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
That would be surprising for a former CEO. One of the first things I was taught during orientation for my first job is "never say anything that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the New York Times.' And that was years ago, well before the social media explosion and smartphones in every pocket. When you rise to the CEO position of a major company, you're often privvy to a lot of details that would be of great interest to third parties (e.g., the Wall Street Journal). Learning not to speak off-the-cuff is an absolutely requirement for a successful CEO.
Even if he didn't know that he was speaking to a reporter, he should have assumed that his words would get out, given the amount of buzz the SWTS event was generating. Also, based on the series of tweets, it looks like Zúñiga was interviewing him at the time, or at least part of a group conversation.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^
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February 4th, 2016 at 1:19 PM ^
Sorry, I meant "vetted the disclosure of this information." As in, I hope that Gary and his family weren't blindsided by this.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
Who the hell keeps negging you?
February 4th, 2016 at 12:59 PM ^
I kinda think Hackett is being his advocate here, Rashan seemed to be under significant stress yesterday and its possible based on rumors elsewhere that he had to go against family members to make this choice, which would be a horrible position to be put into. Maybe he had Rashan's blessing in saying something?
February 4th, 2016 at 11:36 AM ^
100% disagree with you for a few reasons.
1) Even if Michigan broke a minor rule or 3 (like say tweeting him in a dead period or such nonsense). That's completely different than handing his parents a bag of cash.
2) By not taking the incentives, Hackett is saying Gary and his family are of the highest integrity.
3) How do you know what type of attention Gary wants? If someone in a really high up position said, "jblaze has a lot of integrity and is a good dude", I'd be happy. I'd think all of us would be proud of that.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 12:16 PM ^
I think this was just the right amount of response.
Nuanced, not directly accusatorial, but enough to serve notice that future high-profile recruits that we pursue that are illegally incentivized by other programs MIGHT have those programs called out.
Hackett served notice that we are not part of any Code Of Silence, so don't phk with our recruits illegally.
I'm okay with that.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:25 PM ^
Yeah but whether Hackett meant to or not, he just threw our only consensus #1 recruit back out into a media frenzy. This cannot be good for the Garys. On top of that, Im positive the NCAA wont do anything about it but I could see this really impacting our recruiting of other high profile recruits down the road. Coaches are going to use this against us for years to come. This is one of those things thats best left to the recruit or family to air out.
February 4th, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^
I don't think Gary has much to worry about in terms of being skewered by the media (any more than he already has been).
Read what Hackett said CLOSELY. He said he "THINKS" Gary "MIGHT" have been offered incentives.
There's nothing to pursue here. You know what? We ALL think Gary, and just about every one else worth serious look, has probably been offered SOMETHING by SOMEONE at SOME TIME during the recruiting process.
That and a quarter will get you a quarter.
Reporter: "Mr. Gary, someone says you might have been offered incentives to go to other programs. Is that true?"
Gary: "No," or, "I can't remember," or, "I'm just glad to be at Michigan so I can now focus on the NEXT step."
End of story.
But the culprits involved can read between the lines: Michigan knows what you're doing. We're hunting for big game and big name recruits now, and if you engage in this kind of behavior, you have been warned: you will be called out on it.
How nice would it be if, in the future, when we were pursuing a promising high school player, the other programs withdrew illegal incentives because they knew there was a fair chance that the player might ultimately come to Michigan and spill the beans?
I think that's what this is all about.
Gary is no stranger at this tender age to media attention. And with this one, it's all smoke, no fire, so no legs to this story unless someone produces evidence. Gary is the only one likely to provide a substantial eyewitness account, so that is unlikely to happen without UM blessing. And to act like he is a neophyte to media attention is ridiculous. He is NO stranger to attention and thrives just fine under it.
This story will make our recruiting lives easier in the future.
February 4th, 2016 at 1:38 PM ^
stephenrjking - i fully support Hackett having the cajones to speak up. recruiting gets uglier every year, and in my opinion it's wrong to keep silent.
sure, the NCAA does a lousy job of enforcement, but their job is made much more difficult because people with direct knowledge of malfeasance clam up.
if his statement leads to an investigation, and cheaters are caught and punished, that's a positive thing in my book.
perhaps i'm naive, but maybe it would make things less difficult for the next Rashan Gary.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:37 AM ^
Hopefully, this was not something said in confidence that is gonna piss Gary or his Mom off.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:42 AM ^
If this has to happen and the NCAA is doing nothing then it sorts out the people who are willing to prioritize their education and being in a clean program over the sort that will take illicit money. It's an integrity filter.
February 4th, 2016 at 11:44 AM ^
On to 2017...who is our biggest threat for DPJ?
February 4th, 2016 at 12:01 PM ^
Triple Post. Three posts for the three names for DPJ.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
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February 4th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
Triple Post
February 4th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^
This seems to be a OSU-UM-MSU dogfight. I think OSU is the bigger threat. Kid is really smart, too. I could see him looking at Stanford and other big academic schools.
February 4th, 2016 at 3:07 PM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
Assuming it was a legal and transparent bidding process, what would be the free market value of a guy like Rashan? How much $ would you be comfotable Michigan offering him?
February 4th, 2016 at 12:26 PM ^
Nearly $100,000 in education benefits and he gets that for playing a game! The other 40,000+ students who attention the University of Michigan have to figure out how to pay for their own tuition.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:47 PM ^
1. I didn't say he did/ didn't deserve money, it's a theoretical.
2. If you think you're going to create a system where people are paid based on how much you "feel" they should earn than I think you're going to have a bad time.
February 4th, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^
attend*
Sorry for the typo.
February 4th, 2016 at 12:33 PM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 12:35 PM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 1:02 PM ^
His mother also made mention of some 'offers' from SEC schools and they shut the recruitment right down
February 4th, 2016 at 1:09 PM ^
I mean, Ole Miss is the clear leader in that department, but Clemson fans sure thought he'd flip in a way that didn't seem completely "oh, we are really good so you'll want to play here."
February 4th, 2016 at 1:15 PM ^
This is Harbaugh firing a warning shot at the rest of college football.
"You try to buy one of our recruits off? We're not just gonna sit and take it--we're going to make you a national story. We don't care what bridges we burn to do it either."
Maybe some people don't like it and would rather we keep our mouths shut. I say screw it. If we are committed to running a clean program then we have to fight back against the bastard cheaters somehow. We aren't going to stop them from paying players, but if they know that trying to steal a Michigan recruit with cash is going to get crazy Harbaugh out on the National News outing them to the press, they might think twice about just who they are going to offer their bags of cash to.
Silence is their friend. They count on the fact that no one is crazy enough to call them on their shit. Well, now maybe someone IS.
We're never going to compete for the kids looking for bags of cash to begin with. So the message here is, you can have those kids. Stay the F*** away from OUR kids.
February 4th, 2016 at 1:30 PM ^
/giphy gampling in this establishment
February 4th, 2016 at 1:33 PM ^
I'd love to know where he got his information though, mainly out of curiosity. I'd definitely add Clemson to the list of suspects, along with traditional dirty programs Auburn and Ole Miss. It's become so hard to sign elite players like Gary because of the illegal flow of money in the recruiting process. Fortunately, he and his family have taken the high road and said no to this crap.
February 4th, 2016 at 2:05 PM ^
February 4th, 2016 at 1:59 PM ^
Family, from everything I have seen and read, is a high character high quality family. I am glad to have them here on that basis alone. The fact that Rashan is also one hell of a football player is icing on the cake.
February 4th, 2016 at 5:20 PM ^
That's crazy talk, what's next someone says it was an SEC school that offered him incentives???