Crimson Red Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

What will CNS do about this?

UA- New offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, and UA Director of Football operations Joe Pannunzio named in article.

NCAA rule-breaking with coaches and staffers: Shapiro said he violated NCAA rules with the knowledge or direct participation of at least six coaches – Clint Hurtt, Jeff Stoutland and Aubrey Hill on the football staff, and Frank Haith, Jake Morton and Jorge Fernandez on the basketball staff. Multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports Shapiro also violated NCAA rules with football assistant Joe Pannunzio, although the booster refused to answer any questions about that relationship.

"Among the specific incidents, Shapiro or other sources say Hurtt, Hill, Stoutland, Pannunzio and Allen all delivered top-tier recruits to Shapiro’s home or luxury suite so the booster could make recruiting pitches to them. Among the players who were ushered to Shapiro while they were still in high school: Eventual Miami commitments Ray-Ray Armstrong, Dyron Dye and Olivier Vernon (prompted by Hurtt); eventual Florida commitments Andre Debose (Hurtt) and Matt Patchan (prompted by Stoutland and Pannunzio); eventual Georgia commitment Orson Charles (Pannunzio); and eventual Central Florida commitment Jeffrey Godfrey (Allen)".

The University of Alabama (Pannunzio and Soutland), University of Florida (Hill) and Louisville University (Hurtt) all declined to make the coaches available for interviews. Allen declined comment, calling all of Shapiro’s claims “egregious and false.”

Article:

KEARNEY, N.J. – A former University of Miami booster, incarcerated for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme, has told Yahoo! Sports he provided thousands of impermissible benefits to at least 72 athletes from 2002 through 2010.

In 100 hours of jailhouse interviews during Yahoo! Sports’ 11-month investigation, former Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro described a sustained, eight-year run of rampant NCAA rule-breaking, some of it with the knowledge or direct participation of at least seven coaches from the Miami football and basketball programs. At a cost that Shapiro estimates in the millions of dollars, he said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to: cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and on one occasion, an abortion.

I was about to post this.  Miami is toast.

On a related note, is Yahoo! Sports investigating the barn?  :D

(http://www.best-horror-movies.com/images/The-Shining-Here-comes-Johnny.jpg)

I'm with the NCAA. You rang?

THAT SORRY SOB SHOULD BE TARRED AND FEATHERED..A REAL PIECE OF WORK..

IF   IF  IF  IF  this is all true and is proven to be true:  then CNS has a responsibility to fire these two mugs..ASAP.. We simply CANNOT afford to have two guys on staff with dirty hands!
I think there is enough smoke here to believe there is a fire....And I hope Miami dies a slow death..never liked em anyway.

Good Lord, does no one vet the coaches we hire?  I can't/won't believe CNS had any knowledge or else he would not have hired them. I just hope they have the decency to quit wo CNS having to fire them..and He SHOULD!

I have read it right, the NCAA has been investigating this for the past 2 yrs..that mean CNS had to know they were involved in a situation under investigation by the NCAA...How in the name of all that is Crimson could he then hire these two pukes? No one else better? BS!!!

I'm sorry but BAMA needs to be purer than the driven snow these days..with all the crap going on in college FB, we don't need even the hint of a scandal!

Don't you know the booger-eaters will have a field day with this! If just to get the heat off themselves.

College football HAS to be cleaned up or it will die.

When I check in tomorrow, I hope to see that these two pukes have been fired.

Yea..lots of "ifs" but it does seem that either [1] CNS knew about these things when the two were hired and overlooked the evidence that he was aware of at the time, or, [2] the two didn't divulge this possibility in the interview process, which could be grounds for dismissal for misrepresentation or some such.  But if they didnt' divulge it and CNS knew nothing then there is at least some breach of trust which is a bad working situation.

Unless this story is substantually shot down, then just not a good situation.

This statement that he gave is the one I liked most, seems like I've heard something similar to this before.


Some of those players – a lot of those players – we used to say we were a family,” Shapiro said. “Well, who do you go to for help when you need it? You go to your family. Why the hell wouldn’t I go to them

Al.com article

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/report_two_alabama_football_st.html

this will never stick ... not one facebook picture to base the wrong doing on   :P
now if yahoo had a bunch of facebook pictures ? UM might should be worried ...
that's what the real journalist do , isn't it ?

This is no big deal, if they are guilty, just fire them.

Miami Vice Police Detectives Tubbs and Crocket should have arrested Nevin Shaprio before this got out of hand!

(http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/3748/img037lf6.jpg)

Couldn't. They were buds.

Paid off? Not Tubbs and Crocket. Miami Vice was the first TV show that I can remember that had modern contemporary rock music playing during the episodes with Eagles band member Glenn Frey and a host of other bands.

Folks, this could impact the entire Tide season this year. If the O-lne coach is guity, then his mind is not going to be on his job but on saving his butt from this mess and if he gets fired in the middle of the season, then we will have a huge problem. I think we need to be calling Chris Samuels right about now to see if he's available.

Wall Street Journal just released this story.

Report: Players Received Gifts From Miami Booster.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576513273662162978.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

SI updated their article an hour ago.

Report: Ex-Miami booster says he gave player impermissible benefits

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/08/16/miami.hurricanes.yahoo.investigation.ap/

My thoughts on this issue:

1. The guy making these accusations is in jail for running a Ponzi scheme - a Bernie Madoff type of fellow.  I've always been a bit skeptical of jail house confessions of this nature from convicted felons.

2. The accusations he is making has nothing to do with any recruiting efforts made by Alabama - this story is about Miami - not Alabama.

3. The two Bama staff members mentioned in the article might (I emphasize "might," because nothing has been proved, other than accusations made by a convicted felon serving time right now) have done something wrong at Miami, not Alabama. With these accusations becoming public, you can bet these two will keep their noses clean like never before, even if they are prone to doing this kind of stuff.

4. With the climate currently exisitng in college football, I would be willing to bet money that Saban and the UA compliance staff have been vigilant in vetting coaches and players. Accusations that Saban knew something and ignored it are ludicrous, in my opinion.

5. Saban's comments the other day about message board bullcrap seems relevant to this issue. Wringing hands and worring about this seems to me to be a waste of time. After all, no one on this board really knoiws what is going on in South Florida.

In my humble opinion, the absolute worst that can happen is these two individuals are forced out at the end of the season. Firing them now or mid-season makes no sense, unless they run to Saban's office and make full confessions of their subterfuge.

Even if this does happen, it makes Bama's staff look good - we're cleaning house of coaches who have done wrong at other institutions - who else in the college football world has done anything remotely similar?  Certainly not USC, who hired Lane Kiffen (the last time I checked he is still there, notwithstanding his shenanigans in Tennessee).

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I agree.  The worst case scenario for us is that we have to replace these two during the season at a time when it is not very convenient.  Replacing the O-line coach at this point could be an issue, but the other guy has nothing to do with what goes on during the game on the field.  If we did get a new O-line coach, obviously we would not put in any sort of new blocking schemes or anything at this point.  He would just have to work within the system that is already in place and coach 'em up on fundamentals.  Even if we had to do that, I think we will be OK.

Actually we probably wouldn't hire a new coach until the end of the season, but I still think we will be OK.  Maybe we could get the guy who retired recently to come back and help through the end of the season.

I would think that CNS is way ahead of us in how to handle this anyway. This guy is singing like a canary and you have to wonder about how much the two men at Bama were really involved with this guy if any. If he could run a ponzi scheme he's a fat talker anyway so I think I will wait on CNS to address this before passing any judgement on the two.

Sorry, I do not agree...if you were running a business, say an investment firm, and in the last yr you had hired a couple guys..then the news hits that these guys were in another firm that got caught in an illegal scheme..and these guys were personally involved, would you not fire them on the basis of running a company legal and above board and to keep SEC prying eyes away? Of course you would.

No difference here..get those bums out...NOW!

Based on the word of a guy in prison?  Due diligence.  Then get rid of them.

SSG: Don't you agree we don't need this kind of distraction with so much on the line?  (pun intended)

Our OL coach will have this on his mind ALL the time this season...If he is innocent, how he will prove it, IF he is guilty,, how he will survive it..regardless of his innocence or guilt..his mind will not be focused on the OL 100%!!!!!  And we gotta have that!

Sorry, but CNs owes this guy nothing...esp. if Stout was less than forthcoming about the crap at Thug U.

Gotta be like Caesar's wife..beyond reproach.

Even if Jeff Stoutland is found to be very involved in the Miami problem, and I don't think he will be, isn't formed OL Coach Pendry still on University pallroll in an administrative position.

Lawyers would have a field day if they fired him based on that guys story.

Due diligence.  Dont get me wrong if CNS comes out and fires them I will be happy, but dont expect it.

Getting back to the topic at hand, have y'all read the Yahoo story yet? I have never seen anything like that, even with SMU. Thing about it, former players are saying, "Yeah, it happened." I cannot see UM getting out of this alive...

I love the oceanside pool.

(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/tools/med/2011/08/ipt/1313373413.jpg)

We'll see how the NCAA handles this.

Hmmmmmmm, yeah, I think I'll have me sum o' them french fried pataters. Hmmmmmmm.

Don't reckon I got no reason to kill nobody.

I'm ye boy..Carl.

I'm as BAMA bred as anyone, and I like to think I have a decent sense of fairness..but..let's consider what this crap will do to a very promising season...can we afford it? 

I will still voice my opinions, but I trust CNS , MM, and our Prez will sort it all out..legally, ethically, AND in the best interests of the BAMA nation.

Check out the roster and the coaches bios..seems like Stoutland's and Pannunzio's have been deleted...so what do you make of that?

Fired?  If I were CNS/MM/Prez, and wanted to clean house, now is the time to do it. Can't take a chance, don't want the sh*t from Thug U to cling to us in any way.

To H*ll with Ohio, Oregon, USCw, Miami..and esp the boogers. I hope the NCAA pukes have a field day..looks like they may help the economy..hiring more investigators!

I hear what you are saying, and you raise valid concerns.  I'm not too worried about it though.  The violations (if any) occurred at Miami, so really the only thing for Alabama to consider is whether or not they want to fire these guys.  And on that point I trust the people in place within the athletic department to make the correct decision.  If it turns out that they are fired, it will be a disruption to the team, no doubt.

They are still shown on rolltide.com, wearing Miami shirts.

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/m-footbl-coaches.html

I believe we'll hear something today..either they are fired, or CNS announces his vote of confidence.

This thought just occurred to me..has anything good ever come out of Miami, Thug U that is?

Do you think CNS knew these guys when he was in Miami?

Lord, EVERYONE knows Miami Thug U is the fountainhead of cheating!!  And we hire 2 coaches? One who is HEAD of FB ops?  Day--um!

I believe decisions are being made. This story broke in the Miami Herald months ago. I am sure there were serious discussions with the coaches. Everyone needs to relax.

I would think that CNS already knew about the two coaches before it hit the newspapers. If he fires them you can bet they deserved it, but they will have a fair chance to clear themselves, that is Saban's way.

Ok, I'm going out on a limb here, but I predict Miami won't be one of the teams coming to the SEC. SC, if I'm right, do I get e-creds?  ;)

 :lol:

       :lol:

I'll give you 1 for making me laugh.

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That's what I do. My work here is done. Off to Ferguson.  8)

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=AoKq1rTs.NAlGIxdfruGZb5PMuB_?slug=ys-joe_pannunzio_allegations

Allegations: Joe Pannunzio

• Nevin Shapiro’s cell phone providers condensed his calling records from 2002 to 2008 and deleted the booster’s text messaging records prior to 2009. Despite a significant portion of his records being expunged, Yahoo! Sports was able to identify 422 calls or texts between Shapiro and Joe Pannunzio from 2006 to the booster’s incarceration in April 2010.

http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=Atf8is2llWLiuUwYtZ_dxIdRMuB_?slug=ys-jeff_stoutland_allegations

Allegations: Jeff Stoutland

• Stoutland joined a second coach, identified by two sources as then-assistant Joe Pannunzio, at Shapiro’s $6 million Miami Beach mansion for a recruiting pitch to offensive line prospect Matt Patchan.

Corroborating accounts

• Two sources present at Patchan’s alleged visit to Shapiro’s home corroborated the presence of the recruit and his family, as well as the presence of two Miami assistants and multiple Miami players.

When did he start at Alabama?  Did the communications stop immediately at that point?

Hired in February of this year according to al.com.
Communications stopped when Shaprio's incarceration in April 2010.

link (http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/02/alabama_hires_joe_pannunzio_as.html)

Something stinks here and it ain't my underwear. The claims by the booster are more than enough for the NCAA to hammer Miami and these coaches. We need to cut our losses, soon.

Alabama preseason practice report: Day 13 (morning practice)


http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/alabama_preseason_practice_rep_12.html

Sounds like if they stay on staff, they could all ride together to attend the NCAA Regional Rules Seminars.

I would be remiss if I don't support coach Saban! I don't think nothing comes as a surprise to CNS, although you have to believe he doesn't want any searching going at Alabama because of these 2 coaches. This is going to trickle and trickle for a long time I believe. RTR!

You know, it might not be too bad to have these guys on staff working under a microscope, as opposed to having guys we think are clean working unsupervised.   Hmmm....

 :-\

How would you like to work in your office when someone placed a HUGE smelly turd on the floor next to you? And you had to smell it and look at it and have everyone comment on it every day?

That's about what we have with Pinnoccio.