New Morgan Trent - RichRod Allegations
Bobby Deren, a senior writer for the Rivals Rutgers site, scarletnation.com has published Draft Season: Four Months on the Clock in which he chronicles the experiences of Morgan Trent, Kenny McKinley, Frantz Joseph and Lydon Murtha as they prepared for the 2009 draft.
This bengals.com story reports that Draft Season contains some sharp allegations about RichRod's evaluation of Trent in his communications with NFL scouts.
At the end of the book, Deren describes the scene with Lloyd Carr, the former Michigan head coach that recruited him to Ann Arbor, breaking the news to Trent that current head coach Rich Rodriguez did him no favors.
“Rodriguez had bad-mouthed him to every NFL scout he could,” Deren writes. “Rodriguez claimed that Morgan was lazy, he had an attitude problem and he was a big reason the Wolverines finished with a 3-9 record…”
Trent admits the words were “jarring,” and they were hard to understand given that he was so serious about his career that he actually moved in with his brother and sister-in-law and their two small children while going to Michigan.
...
[Bengals defensive backs coach Kevin] Coyle heard the rumblings, but he didn’t talk to Rodriguez and put more stock in other people close to the Michigan program that had been there before.
“When there is a coaching transition and the team ends up not having success, you have to step back and try to decipher what the truth really is,” Coyle says. “There was a lot of heat on those people and there was some pointing of blame. Plus, the players were somewhat chagrined, so you had to look at everything.”
Presumably this information has played a part in Trent's willingness to speak negatively about RichRod and the Michigan football program.
Predictably, to date this story has only been picked up by the Freep (print version link).
Hitler is the new RR.
You may now lock the thread.
You're Welcome.
Trent did quit on the team his senior year. It was visible, it happened. He may have worked his ass off for Lloyd, but it was obvious (at least in his play on the field) that he quit on RR. RR told the scouts that and Trent heard it and had this to say. No real surprise on either side. My opinion.
it is my density.
If you want to get accurate information about these kids, you can't run with that info make it a story. I doubt the comments were as represented, but others have done a good job paraphrasing what was likely said. Again, if you're paid to evaluate these kids, why would you take a chance on losing a useful resource.
I don't want to wish the summer away, but kicking the living snot out of UConn can't get here fast enough...
RR gave his honest assessment. The scout did due diligence to corroborate. Lloyd extended a hand to Trent so that he'd know he had to make up for it (as well has his often shaky play) ... and Morgan burned them all. Not that Lloyd got burned that much but, LC strikes me as a guy who expects to have his private conversations remain private and certainly not to reference him should they go public.
I get why Trent would be mad and what not but, I think he misplayed this and simply took an easy opportunity for some cheap retribution. It was immature.
From Twitter:
RT @freepwolverines: RR continued... "I said just the opposite about Morgan Trent to NFL scouts and wish him well with the Bengals."
RT @freepwolverines: Rodriguez denies bad-mouthing in bk abt Trent:"The comments attributed to me are inaccurate and absolutely ridiculous.
I suspect Morgan Trent would be grounded with the No-Fly Zone.
from "that paper":
Rodriguez says book inaccurate; he didn't bad-mouth Morgan Trent
By MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITERMorgan Trent was the most successful Wolverine to come out of the 2009 NFL Draft class, playing most of his rookie season as a nickel cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals.
But his path to getting there was a bit more challenging than he anticipated, according to a book released a few months ago by Rivals.com writer Bobby Deren, as it identified Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez as a factor in Trent slipping down the draft board, getting picks No. 179 overall, in the sixth round.
The book painted a scenario that former U-M coach Lloyd Carr told Trent that Rodriguez bad-mouthed him to NFL scouts before the draft. The story was unattributed, not citing a source.
Rodriguez issued a strong denial Saturday that anything of the sort ever occurred.
“The comments attributed to me are inaccurate and absolutely ridiculous,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I said just the opposite about Morgan Trent to NFL scouts and wish him well with the Bengals.”
http://freep.com/print/article/20100508/BLOG14/100508015/Rodriguez-says…
I doubt that there is a FBS Football coach at any schol who would bad mouth one of his athletes to "every NFL scout". That is just horrible politics and would make that coach seem like a jerk(for lack of a better descitption) to all of those scouts/teams. Even if the coach is a jerk, he wouldn't want to come off as one, because who you know and your repuation is important in the coaching business. What benefit is there to bad mouthing a player so he gets a lower draft position? The coach would obviously want to get his players drafted as high as possible so his school would get more ESPN recognition on draft day, he could use the high draft position for recruiting furutre players, and happy and wealthy ex-players are definite plus. Whether you like RR or hate him, there is no practical sense to this rumor besides grasping at headlines to help sell books.
thread is locked
i'm going to SHABOOMS!