Conspiracy Theories: Aren't limited to Bama: South Carolina and Fulmer

I ran across this yesterday while surfing around different SEC sites. Interesting read, to say the least even though it rivals War and Peace when it comes to length.

There were a couple of thoughts that came to mind when I read it. You'll notice several comments throughout this post that indicate there were areas that weren't being *under control* within the South Carolina Athletic Administration. Secondly, while I've never been one who subscribes to Conspiracy Theories, I've always said where there's smoke, there's usually a fire.

It's a long read Tigers, but one that is interesting considering what the SEC/NCAA/Fulmer have been accused of in the last few years.

As a caveat, by no means do I intend/wish for this to a another Bama/Fulmer conversation. The sooner that chapter is over (still has legs unfortunately), the better.

It is important to note that when Holtz was hired at USC one of the very first comments he made was his intention to "keep Fulmer out of the state of South Carolina."

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Three years of investigation plus three years of probation equals six years of NCAA inVOLvement in the University of South Carolina's Athletics Department activities ...

Even convicted felons get time served.

While the media lines-up to take shots at the University of South Carolina football program, some even reverting back to references of the Tommy Chaikin, Sports Illustrated induced steroid scandal story from twenty years ago - Gamecock fans know the true story.

No doubt, there were infractions of the most minor sort committed under Lou Holtz, infractions that Holtz had no way of knowing were committed at the time.

Holtz was made privy to the violations after the fact. But that too is neither here nor there. Holtz's lagacy will be tagged with these violations and penalties for all time - the result of poor management. Of failing to properly supervise those underneath him. Of 'losing control.' That was always a forgone and predetermined conclusion instigated by certain members of the media, both locally and nationally.

It could affect Lou's chances at making the College Football Hall of Fame and that would, in and of itself, be a crime.

Think back.

Lou Holtz took a devastated 1-10 football program that had been driven into the ground by now Clemson assistant Brad Scott, and went 0-11 in his first season at South Carolina.

But the Gamecocks played hard.

In the next two seasons Holtz proceeded to take Carolina to two consecutive Outback Bowls and two consecutive wins over eventual mythical National Champions Ohio State, the Gamecocks being the last team to beat the Buckeyes prior to their undefeated run to the title. (An antidote to the rants by some of the talking heads that Carolina should be forced to forfeit both bowl victories over Ohio State is that, OSU committed violations during the same period and were playing with ineligible players as well.)

Then, to begin the 2002 season, the NCAA comes knocking at the door and everything begins to fall apart for Holtz's rebuilding project right in its prime. Just as the fruit of Holtz's labor was ripening.

Yet no violations, save one, would actually occur until after the actual beginning of the investigation.

Are you with me so far?

It doesn't matter that these so-called five major violations did not involve payments to players or gifts or anything else of the sort normally associated with recruiting inducements that might give a program an advantage. These violations involved helping a few student-athletes realize their full potential as students, in the form of tutoring prior to enrollment. Or a transcript change after the fact for one. Or a borrowed car for another.

I repeat. A couple of improper tutoring charges and the big one, helping Derek Watson transfer to South Carolina State.

Did you get that? Tom Perry helped Derek Watson transfer AWAY from South Carolina to South Carolina State by supposidely altering his final transcripts at USC. It was an attempt to help a kid continue to improve his life at another school.

Ironically it was the recruitment of Derek Watson that beget the investigation in the first place. It has been alledged, and spoken about in hushed tones in dark smoke-filled rooms, that Tennessee's Phil Fulmer was the one that raised the flags on Derek Watson in the first place with the NCAA.

There is a lot of hearsay evidence out there, floating around, to support these claims.

Phil Fulmer has friends in high places in Indianapolis, we all know that. Ask Alabama fans.

And while Watson was the most highly touted, highest ranked recruit in the class of 1999 being sought by the Volunteers, once he decommitted at the last minute and instead chose to stay instate, he became an academic/public relations liability to Fulmer. (Albert Haynesworth and Terea Smalls were the vehicles used to raise questions among the media. A smart move by Fulmer in the plausible deniability game if correct.)

Fulmer abhors last minute decommitments and any potential student athlete who was not smart enough to sign with Tennessee after being committed for so long, was also obviously not smart enough to qualify to attend any other institution of higher learning, especially those competing against Fulmer in the SEC Eastern Division.

Lou Holtz's presence worried Tennessee and Clemson people alike. South Carolina had been fertile recruiting grounds for the Vols for years and Holtz was threatening to build a fence around the Palmetto State.

So the flag was raised on Watson and the investigation got underway just before the Virginia game of 2002. A game in which the Gamecocks were obviously the superior and favored team, yet they lost in a heartbreaker 21-24 with the weight of the recent announcement of the investigations distracting their every move the week prior. The distracted Gamecocks committed a record six turnovers in the game and still should have won.

Almost three years later, after finding no improprieties where the recruitment of Derek Watson was concerned, the NCAA finally found a boo boo where his transfer was concerned. And they call it 'major.'

There was an old joke that was in effect for the past five decades or so at South Carolina. 'They can't be cheating. They're too mediocre to be cheating.'

South Carolina's football program has never been investigated for recruiting violations up until now.

But mediocrity is no protection when you are recruiting against some of the big boys out there. You have to get down and dirty to win in the deep Southeastern United States it seems. You have to learn to play the dirty game, else you are constantly pounded even further down, never allowed a chance to climb the ladder of football prominence in a region of the country where college football is truly King.

Outsiders have no idea.

Take for instance these juicy bits of insider gossip and perhaps you will understand the beginnings and the end of the witch hunt.

Phil Fulmer, well known for his involvement in the Alabama investigation, is upset that Derek Watson turned his back on Tennessee at the last minute, the night before signing day, and cast his lot with Lou Holtz's Gamecocks. And Watson disappeared no less, hidden away in some far away hotel away from the last minute meddling of the Volunteers coaches who were said to be scouring Watson's hometown looking for the star running back during the no-contact period.

Then understand that information was alledgedly being passed from people in Knoxville, to people in Clemson (South Carolina's hated arch rival), where, according to some, it allegedly ended up eventually on the virtual desk of Clemson's compliance officer Becky Bowman - allegedly. And Bowman, a former NCAA case worker, is said to be close personal friends with Jackie Thurness, the NCAA investigative case worker overseeing and directing the field investigators during the investigation in Columbia, SC.

And it has been suggested, but not verified mind you thanks to the NCAA's no-comment policy regarding their ongoing or concluded NCAA investigations, that Thurness had some sort of grudge against Lou Holtz, remnants of a prior investigation she was involved in while Holtz was at Notre Dame.

And who was another key player in the minds of many where these farcical findings are concerned?

Why Clemson Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips of course. Good old T.D. Phillips, who some say was orchestrating such leaks of NCAA information out of Clemson that the upstate town had been renamed 'NCAA Indianapolis South' by some. At least where the SC investigation was concerned.

Yes, that's right. There was talk of so much information being leaked about the investigation via Clemson, that Clemson fans on message boards often seemed to know more about what was going than Mike McGee, South Carolina's Director of Athletics during the bulk of the investigation. It is said that Bowman was receiving more calls about the Carolina invesitigation than she was about the day to day activities within her own program.

Clemson became the hub of the entire case and the middleman between the Tennessee rats angry over the Watson decommitment and the NCAA. Or so it has been suggested.

Clemson people were all too happy to oblige. At least that was always the feeling you got from Clemson fans reveling in the investigation taking place in Columbia and bursting with anti-Gamecock NCAA investigation news at every turn.

And still, three years later, it comes to this. Ten infractions, five considered major, none involving illegal payments or gifts or improper recruiting.

Nothing there that would give the Gamecocks an advantage on the football field. Nothing there that would indicate a rogue program gone mad in their attempt to win within the rugged SEC East.

But you wouldn't know that listening to the talk shows or reading some of the national media's take on this thing. To read or listen to the talking heads you would think that Carolina was operating in the same gray areas as ... well as, a Clemson or Tennessee.

Clemson, the second most penalized program in the history of the NCAA. A program that cheated so much during their pre and post Mythical National Championship years that the joke was that players leaving Clemson and going to the NBA or NFL were actually having to take pay-cuts to step-up to the pros.

And Tennessee. The Tennessee Volunteers who somehow manage to turn failing high school athletes into honor students? The program who it is said has a parking lot around their athletic facility that resembles the lot around a Cadallac Escalade dealership? Ironically one of the violations listed was that a poverty stricken, parentless Derek Watson drove, I say again DROVE, a Carolina booster's SUV twice. (2 times)

Thanks guys. You have your revenge. It's not as bad as you had hoped, not as damaging as you wished for, but you have your revenge.

Three years probation and the loss of four scholarships over the next two year period - two each out of the next two Spurrier recruiting classes.

Steve Spurrier will have to beat you with only 83 on the roster rather than 85. No biggie.

And for Gamecock fans who have had to endure this for the past three years and will now have to live with it for the next three? Take heart. Seek no revenge for you shall have your day, soon enough, as the sleeping giant is slumbering and coming awake in Williams-Brice. It is only a matter of time now. Those dressed in orange, those who are insecure knowing what is coming, have fired their last volley ... their wads shot. Payback is coming but not from the seedy underworld dealings of being associated with NCAA investigations these days. You shall have your days in many future Novembers on the gridiron against those who have attempted to do you harm. It's part of their bad karma now, not yours.

In the meantime ignore the talking heads who know nothing. Their opinions are meaningless. Take your licks and suffer the consequences of the actions of those you placed in charge. You are still on the right track and that has been proven by the panicky actions of those to the north of you. Everything is going to be ok.

Three years was too long to end with next to nothing. But the NCAA, like the IRS, can always find something if they look long enough and hard enough. The additional year added to the two was simply a show of power, a heaping-on, by those who one day will not be in power, for their days are numbered too. Yet the best thing Gamecock fans and their program can do is take their punishment and drive on with the mission.

That is something South Carolina Gamecock fans know how to do. They always have been and always will be the most resilient, most undying, college football fans in the country.

And they will continue to be even after this.

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I live in Charleston, SC. It's been interesting listening to the local sports radion shows since this story broke several years ago. To this day, the fan base in this area is pretty well split 50/50 on whether their program is better off or worse off since Holtz took over. What do you guys think?

 

Let it go, Bama fans. Let it go

You got caught with your pants down and now want to spread the blame.

 

J. !

Lesen Sie den frickin' Posten.. es handelt von Südlichem Carolina, nicht Bama.

 

Re: J. !

Ich besprach die Verweisung zu einer Verschworungstheorie. Lassen Sie es gehen, Alabama. Ihre Schule hat betrogen und wurde gefangen.

Niemand ist gegen Sie egal wie viel Sie alle Schrei um es!

 

Re: J. !

Yeah.....what he said!!!!!!!! I think. :lol:

 

Well said.

One day Mr. Fulmer is going to get his. He plays Mr. Clean and likes to be the Rat.

If it was LSU he was attacking we would feel the same way.

Mr Fulmer knows the day he is involved ratting LSU is the day he feels the wrath of ... well lets just say i dont think he wants to tackle that monster.

 

Sie wissen, dass das nicht der Fall ist. Aber wie vieler anderer Fußball um den NCAA Sie wahrscheinlich fächelt, haben viel Zeit die Vorlesung um das nicht verbracht "booster Probe".

Ich werde Ihnen mich glauben, bin ich froh es ungefähr ist, über zu sein. Es gibt vielen Stoff aus dort ich wollte nicht sehen das Licht des Tags.

You have to admit, it's quite a yarn this guy has spun.

 

GREAT POST!

Tennessee is one of the "dirtiest" programs out there and they're caught in the middle of the maelstrom of hate and revenge "KARMA" from more than one side. Visor Boy is now in the picture & it's just a matter of time until Tennessee is caught red-handed with enough evidence to slit their own throats. With so many after them now and so many who know Tennessee is dirty, you wonder how long it's gonna be before someone "sets them up" for a Big Fall. :dis: This is terrible for the SEC. LSU just needs to keep out of this garbage and focus on their wholesome goals while the blood feuds rage in the east.

 

nicht sprecken sie Deutsch... English?... danke!

God, thats my heritage and I butcher the language...shame on me.