Keeping Michigan Secrets
I have to say that I was rather shocked to hear the news of K. Jones not being part of the team the last couple of days. While we knew T. Jones and Pace were injured hearing they were done and that Talbott was soon to follow was rather jarring as well.
My question to the Mgocommunity is that how is any of this a shock in the age of facebook, twitter etc? I follow this blog religously and my friend keeps me updated from Scout. How does this stay secret as much as these guys are stalked? I come on here and find out guys are tracking the movements of 16yr olds, but among thousands of students/insiders/staff members/beat writers/teammates etc. we can't figure out a current student can barely walk and will never play again? A guy is kicked off the team and info and rumors are all over the place with nothing concrete.
I'm not asking people to pry further into these kids lives, but I'm just shocked things are able to stay quiet in this day and age and wonder if other people are as surprised. Seems like guys would have this posted much faster. If you saw C. Pace in class and asked him how it is going with rehab and he said he was done. I would imagine that guy would have it posted asap and everyone would know that within hours. I don't even really understand why Hoke doesn't get that info out himself( I understand why maybe the K. Jones situation would not be handled) but why not say that guys are put on medical redshirt?. Why the secrecy surrounding that?
Well rumors about Kellen Jones have been circulating on the paysites for a while, and were getting deleted every time they were posted here, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. As far as Pace, even RR said that his career might be over, ans we saw Jones get his knee shredded in a game. Basically, none of this is too big of a surprise.
Yup, I can't speak about the Teric Jones part (I was surprised as well), but considering the amount of discussion around Kellen Joens, his release (and the reason behind it) came as no surprise.
What were the rumors about Kellen Jones on the paysites? I only read here and I havent heard a reason why he's not with the team. Can anyone fill me in?
They're rumors, and thus far, unsubstantiated ones. You're better off not knowing and this site is better off if people don't post them.
but from what's been posted here, Dandaman, I wouldn't be concerned that it isn't a legitimate reason. Again, not saying that there is any truth to the rumors, but if they are true, the right decision was made by any standard.
Thomas Gordon posted on the wall of a facebook group what happened. I'm sure he'll run steps for that, but the right call was made unless Gordon was lying.
would he lie?
Perhaps the reason that people are circumspect about posting specifics is that they are mature enough to understand that unsubstantiated rumors and speculation can destroy people's lives.
Maybe I am naive but I don't remember any football players whose lives were ruined by false Internet rumors.
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<br>Not trying to flame. I really can't think of any. Anyone have an example?
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<br>I'm not saying it was appropriate to speculate either. It just seems that the ruining of lives part happens when something is true and the existence of the rumor on the Internet was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
There have been some bogus rumors about players being injured. Some idiot started one about Craig Roh a year ago. I don't recall any false rumors about guys getting in trouble with the law, though.
a guy just has to post that the rumor is complete BS and that's the end!
It didn't hurt anyone. That was just an example of an internet rumor that proved false
have some base in the truth?
Is Les Miles our coach?
I never said that rumour are the truth, I said they have some basis in it.
Did you read the rumors on the Buckeye boards that Denard was blackmailed into not transferring? Some rumors are malicious, some are based on a misunderstanding and some have a basis in fact. How can you tell which is which?
My rule of thumb is that a rumor about one of our best players started on a hated rival's board has a .00001% chance of being true.
A rumor starting on Michigan boards about a player that your average Michigan fan has never heard of has a greater than 50% chance of being true and more than likely has some part of the rumor true.
This is one of the very last comments from that front page Misopogon posting. It was written by Raback, who has been credible with this stuff, and I don't want it to get buried.
I have heard from credible sources (don't ask, just trust) the reason for Kellen Jones' absense from the roster. I heard about this a week ago after the rumors came out (which I heard there were rumors, but didn't know about what.)
Kellen Jones' absense from UofM is not because of something he did, however it is being kept private for personal reasons.
I was asked to not say anything about it, so I can't really elaborate any further.
Just wanted to make sure we understood that Kellen didn't do anything wrong and is absent from UofM for reasons beyond his control. Nothing criminal in nature as the rumours (which I just heard) suggest.
I'm not an expert on any of that, but I would assume since he is taking a government-funded scholarship, it's no longer private. However, my guess is that the reasoning behind the medical hardship should not be made public because that would be a violation of HIPAA.
So far today I have read that our medical hardships are suspect and our large class this year is going to lead to over signing. Just a guess but the reason you found out these players aren't coming back is because the rosters were released to the general public. Our coaching staff, in an effort to not waste time, do not post on this site. This over signing talk is some jive ass bullshit.
We just switched from a spread to a pro style. Our biggest concern during the switch was losing Denard, so losing our 3rd string slot ninja is at least a decent possibility. Pair the philosophy change with 18-19 year olds and the unpredictability of what will happen in a years time, and you have yourself a full class.
In Alabama's case, we've heard from kids who were very displeased by being forced into medical scholarships, etc. So far, we have four losses. Two are absolutely not in question, and two others there's not a good reason to quesiton them.
If any kids get screwed, I'm sure we will hear about it, and then we can get mad. Until then, trust the coaches.
and must have faith that the coaches are doing things honestly. The coaches are obviously privy to information we don't have (including career ending injuries) and when they say they are going to recruit "x" number of players, it is because they already know some guys won't recover from the injuries, become eligible, etc rather than they are recruiting guys and kicking other players aside.
Again, best wishes to Orlando Pace, Teric Jones and Kellen Jones.
My best wishes to Orlando Pace in his retirement as well.
I'm willing to send best wishes to Kellen Jones and Teric Jones. But I am not going to send best wishes to Orlando Pace. Sorry, but that's just the kind of guy I am. Call me selfish; call me mean. But I am going to let other people worry about Orlando Pace.
We're dealing with young people who are getting only a free education in return for entertaining us. The reason we don't know all their secrets is that they deserve a certain amount of privacy and despite what people say about us, journalists generally try to be respectful of that privacy when we're doing our jobs.
I'm not nearly as plugged in as Brian and I still get tons of crazy rumors off of Twitter and boards and things e-mailed to me. Lots of them have been really false, or just not the sort of thing that should matter to a fan of the team.
The extent of Christian Pace's injury was reported on the blog before the spring game but until the AD office media relations guy told us about getting medicaled we didn't know what to believe.
As for the Kellen Jones thing, there literally is no good information out there. Paying to be on a premium board in this case will get you access to shit people made up. The hardest evidence of anything is a Twitter comment that was taken down, and those are notoriously bad sources of data. The truth will out. If we stay focused on what we actually care about -- the fortunes of the Michigan football team - The important thing is whether he's a Michigan player or not, and in this case he is not.
With one additional comment.
The Kellen Jones rumor was (properly) held in check for the most part until it was mentioned on another Michigan player's Twitter account. And that single posting seemed to give everyone the feeling that it was fair game, as in some sort of "posting or publication of public information."
And that is a problem.
I don't know quite how I'd deal with that, as a Head Football Coach. But as I think I have said maybe a half-dozen times here, living in the age of Twitter and Facebook, this has been a problem already, and is going to be a problem again in the future. I'd like to be understanding of kids -- college students -- and their attraction to Twitter. But I would pity the mortal soul of a Michigan player who Tweeted some private information about something concerning the status of a player on the team (injury, discipline, legal), and then had to face the wrath of a Bo Schembechler.
With all of the potential problems, I can't understand why all coaches don't have an absolute, iron-clad, no-exceptions "No Tweeting about the football team" rule.
I (sometimes) agree with your posts, but never have I whole-heartedly agreed with any statement as much as this. Twitter would NOT be tolerated in my program, as it can only be a detriment. I know a lot of people hated how 'hush-hush' Lloyd was with the media, but now we are dealing with the opposite extreme. Sometimes you shouldn't post the first thing that pops into your head. As Tony Dungy has said, 'don't post it if you wouldn't say it to your Grandma'.
I'm not sure Hoke's philosophy on these matters is much different than Carr's. There are just a lot more ways for college-age people to express themselves online than there used to be.
except for the fact that I think there ARE coaches, at major BCS-level programs, who have put those rules into effect. Did Chizik do it? Brian Kelly? I can't recall. I recall reading something about two big programs that were operating under no-Twitter rules. I don't think they said what the punishments might have been, in the event of an offense. And that gets sort of weird too. What do you do to a guy, who Tweets something harmful to the team?
"With all of the potential problems, I can't understand why all coaches don't have an absolute, iron-clad, no-exceptions "No Tweeting about the football team" rule." - Secion 1
For some reason, I thought some programs already had rules regarding this, or at least, it was explicitly frowned on?
I think it should be iron clad and facebook and twitter should be banned for guys on the team. I'm just saying that I am surprised that K. Jones would not tweet somethng to clear his name or his parents or an uncle, cousin, teammate, friend. The network of people that know things would seem to be rather large and leaks impossible to cover up. I guess I'm more impressed thananything that it doesn't get out there.
Like my example with Pace. It's not really shocking or breaking news so I can't imagine a person who comes on this blog didn't come across the info and make a post up. I don't mean Brian I just mean random guy who is on campus.
All the schools have to do is petition the NCAA to make it a violation for any player to communicate in anyway, other than through the team with anyone, once accepted as NCAA regulation, you would never have to worry about it again. If the NCAA won’t step in line and pass these rules we could just go it alone. It could be a selling point when a recruit comes to campus for a visit. We could say "hey you know all that communicating you did in high school, well here at Michigan you won’t have to do any of that anymore, we don’t allow it".
Better yet we could keep them in cages only letting them out for training, class, or a game. Maybe we could just give them a list of approved phrases that they are allowed to use. All these ideas would help prepare them for the real world.
there is none, move on
I totally understand deleting the rumors and would like to propose an imaginary scenario.
Let's say, for example, that here is a rumor that big time recruit John Q Smith is buggering small animals. If it is printed, and it proves to be false, it doesn't matter. Every time someone googles John Q Smith, "buggering small animals" is going to appear. That will make it difficult for him to find a job, or at least leave him with a lot of explaining to do. I'm pretty sure it would gross out potential dating partners, too.
It really isn't fair to do to anyone, what alone a 16 or 17 year old. If the legal system decides it is worth prosecuting, they will do it. If it isn't worth prosecuting, we don't need it in a public forum.
For example sir you are a lair! Dr. John Q. Smith MD, Caldwell, ID has never “buggered small animals“ at any age.
nobody knows nuttim bout nuttin
I am not afraid to admit, I often keep some Michigan secrets. I've always found loyalty to the team to be an admirable quality; therefore, it would be hypocritical of me to do anything but practice it myself.