Interesting comments on Recruiting Roundup re Blackwell/MSU
Sam Webb was talking about an interview he did with Derrick Tatum, a former NFL player who now runs an elite athlete training academy down in Georgia. Sounds like it's similar to what Blackwell was doing at Sound Mind Sound Body. Tatum is currently training some of the elite guys that Michigan is recruiting, one of them being Quindarius Monday.
At the end of the interview with Tatum, Webb turned off the recorder, but Tatum asked him to turn it back on in order to make one last comment on the record. Tatum wanted to make it clear that he won't be taking guys to MSU anymore given what Tatum perceived to be the poor treatment of Blackwell by MSU. Sam didn't play audio clips or quote Tatum, but sounds like Tatum basically vouched for Blackwell's character and felt he got scapegoated. Sam made it sound like Tatum's sentiment wasn't just limited to Tatum but was held by other guys in elite recruiting/training circles. Wasn't clear how much Tatum knew about the specifics of what went down with the 3 players, though.
Tatum and guys like him felt that there was clearly one person responsible for the culture issues at MSU and it wasn't Blackwell. Sam didn't elaborate on who that person was, but indicated that Blackwell's treatment is likely to have an impact longer-term for MSU recruiting.
Maybe he wanted advice on whether to share this gossip or not. Asking a Pastor wouldn't be a bad choice.
Pretty obviously, MSU's problems went beyond just one person on the football/ athletic staff, and therefore goes to the head coach. He's the one most responsible for creating the culture. But Backwell was fired because he did not immediately report what he heard was going on regarding the sexual assualts. Hell, there was some speculation that he might even be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. Somebody was leaking that information, and deliberately so. If any of that is true, MSU really had no choice but to fire him.
On one hand, I've heard rumors that Blackwell had a grandiose view of his role in the MSU football program - and that put some folks off. If so, then I can see why Dantonio would tire of him even absent the (failure to report) sexual assault allegations.
On the other hand, if the other rumors we've heard are true - i.e., that Blackwell had knowledge of the alleged sexual assault with the three freshman football players, and did not elevate it - that works out nicely for everyone on MSU's football staff. I get the sense that Blackwell's buddy is accusing MSU of using Blackwell as a fall-guy. In the sense that they were plenty happy for the information to stop at his level, until the situation elevated.
In any event, it's pure conjecture at this point. The only thing for certain is that the MSU football program is a tire fire of extreme proportions.
people defended PSU/Sandusky/Joe Pa. They defended Art Briles and Baylor. They defended Tressel and a hundred other cheaters.
Just sayin' that just because people defend someone doesn't mean that guy isn't guilty or a bad guy.
And yes, MSU is a tire fire, recruting is going to suffer badly, and they're going to start this year with 70 scholarship players. And it may just get worse.
I think it's the scapegoating nature of what happened to Blackwell. Did any other coach, staff member or anyone in the AD get fired?
They pinned all of their issues (one being a rape culture) on one recruiting guy, who is also African-American.
My question is, did MSU ever get this caliber of recruit anyway (high 4* and 5* guys who go to elite training camps)?
a) They also pinned some of their issues on several players, who were dismissed.
b) There's a reason that MSU didn't renew Blackwell's contract. I don't know the exact reason(s), though I have heard rumors, but why make Blackwell the "scapegoat" instead of Employee X? Blackwell might be a decent guy who made an unfortunate mistake in some way, but it's very likely that he was part of the issue.
but for Blackwell to get fired/not renewed at nearly the exact same time that both Hollis and Dantonio got "full support" from the Trustees does not add up (particularly Hollis, when the Nasser investigation is still on-going). I'm not saying Blackwell did not do anything wrong, but it was a very convenient way for them to report "problem solved" very prematurely given all of the circumstances.
Magnus, I'm sure you know more from your friends/ colleagues, but all I'm saying is that Blackwell was the only coach, staff or admin to go down. I'm not saying he didn't do anything wrong, almost all scapegoats do, but he's the only one getting punished for it.
The firing is one thing, but this has to be a huge blackmark against him.
thus far
MSU's 2016 fb season broke his fall.
can't stop watching.
this is gold!
just so I can find it in the future :)
For MSU this will be a perception problem. In the African-American community this will be looked at as "white guys throwing a black guy under the bus to save their own ass". Whether this is true or not is up to an investigative journalist, but the optics won't look good regardless.
I disagree; so called 'African Americans' are as diverse in opinions and intelligence as 'European Americans'.
JRob's talking about optics and while there may not be a monolithic group, there is a culture that one needs to be aware of in this situation. Not sure why JRob needs to be called out for stating a pretty obvious consequence of burning Blackwell.
...I've always tried to say that we don't all think the same thing. But right now, there are plenty of HS football players and parents in the Detroit area that want to see more information because it appears to them that he was scapegoated. I think it's crap that he's gone, but Hollis still has a job considering all the stuff going on in that department. I also think it's crap that Dantonio is hailed as a "good guy" when he held a scholarship for Robertson to deal with his criminal proceedings and a young woman was allegedly assulted by him as a result of that action.
Regarding recruiting though, what matters most to the five star and high four star athlete is "will this program win and prepare me for the NFL." MSU was already losing that battle to us in the Detroit area in the last two recruiting cycles. Now they're going to start losing three star and some four star kids to directional Michigan schools because of "family atmosphere".
About relationships, and perception sometimes is everything. We had bad relationships when RR was here and the perception was that he didn't prioritize the state and city as much as MSU did. I don't know if this was true, but that was the perception, and we are just digging ourselves out of the hole. I don't know what Blackwell did or didn't do, but the perception that he is being scapegoated will hurt MSU for sometime to come in the state and city.
Exactly. he was also a major voice in the Dennis Norfleet debacle. Fuck Penn St, and MSU also.
Feeling sorry for Blackwell in this case like he got screwed over or something.
From everything we know in the story, he knew about an assault and did not report it. Everything after that is null and void when it comes to this case.
Just sounds like a friend that is sticking up for his buddy.
I think a lot of people failed at MSU or at least a key few individuals. I'm sure there were plenty of opportunities to turn things around. I'm sure there were plenty of indicators that things were going in the wrong direction.
If the people involved with running that program couldn't see that they are either incompetent or purposely looked away.
Blackwell may not have done things right but I still feel that a lot of MSU's problems are the failures of people at the top.
Dantonio knew about the sexual assault before Blackwell. It says one of the players involved (Robertson) told Dantonio, then Blackwell learned about the incident from the same player hours later. If true, I might feel like a scapegoat in that situation, too.
I don't know how seriously to take this. I know Blackwell is well-liked and has a lot of friends, but that probably just means that his buddies are willing to go to bat for him and got a heavily edited version of what happened from him.
In my opinion, you don't burn a program asset like Blackwell unless what you have is pretty damning, and that leads me to believe that Blackwell was certainly part of the problem and in a way that justified the firing. Now it is entirely possible that MSU is trying to hold him out as a sacrifice and hoping it ends there, but thats different than according him treatment that was disproportionate to his level of culpability.
Mike Weber was going to either UM or OSU. We basically embarrased MSU with all the Detroit kids we got in 2016. We picked up Ambry Thomas when he was all but ticketed to MSU. They tried to make themselves feel good about the QB commit for 2018 (Theo Day) by saying he chose MSU over UM, but I never heard his name until he verballed to MSU.
Blackwell was hired at a time when we had one coach who basically ignored Michigan (RichRod) and another coach who was in over his head (Hoke).
Dude is overrated and Sparty is probably pissed that Chris Partridge turned into one of the best athletic department hires of the 21st century (totally no conjecture there) while there guy underperformed to the point they figured he was not valuable enough to stand behind.
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Good points all, but he still had a ton of connections in the Detroit and recruiting scene that I am not sure are replicated elsewhere on the MSU staff.
There is also the question of optics and how this would play out in Detroit and other areas and to me that means there was probably a very good reason to push him out of the program.
Has Blackwell made any public statements? I haven't seen anything, which makes me think he's laywered up and this could get a lot messier than it already is.
I think it's a fine stand to take, but a bigger reason a bunch of these guys won't be going to MSU is because elite guys don't want to go to a program that will be lucky to win 4-5 games this year.
starting to pity little brother.