Somebody Thinks They Have Some Dirt On Texas

QUOTE:
Look, if we have a dude doing wrong, I want to hear about it and I want it dealt with. We pride ourselves on our clean living, so if we’ve done something wrong, let’s deal with it.
If it’s just mudslinging from a guy who should be cleaning aisle 7, then put a sock in it.
/QUOTE

THIS.
And very much.

It’s probably something along the lines of our of assistants telling him that if he keeps sh*ting in our yard we’re going to cut the rottweilers loose.

Strangely that seems to be pretty much what happened.

Also if he had anything even remotely credible and defensible he would have fired that cannon already. There’s an entire world out there (and not just aggies) that would treat him as a hero if he had anything.

This bit of controversy brought to you by Lance Z’s relationship with Houston talk radio personality Lesbian Craig and Will Lyles’ brother. It’s a Houston thing, nothing to see here. Cleve Bryant is the only thing we need to worry about and Lance knows this.

Lyles has unloaded on one school that he sees as responsible for his current plight (Oregon), and they were a well paying client of his. So, it stands to reason that if he had something on Texas, he shared it with Yahoo / Robinson as well, and Yahoo made a determination that the claims either couldn’t be proven or validated.

Net-net: If Lyles had something on Texas worth printing, we’d be reading about it.

The fact that someone called ‘Lesbian Craig’ is on major market radio has to mean that at least the Fourth Seal of the Apocalypse has been opened, if not the Fifth. Sounds like somebody of Zierlein’s caliber, though, so I’m glad they’ve found each other.

Interestingly, Lesbian Craig was apparently fired from Houston radio station KILT a couple of years ago. Which is ironic, as I imagine this is how all of his listeners pronounce the word ‘killed’.

As to Lyles having a single solitary thing to burn Texas with, I think Frank Costello in The Departed said it best – “If you coulda, you woulda.”

Unless a coach or booster(s) have done some things we don’t know about, I don’t think we have anything to worry about here. Judging from the series of posts about street agents on this blog starting a couple of years ago, it sounds like Texas has consistently refused to deal with Lyles and has been instrumental in persuading high school coaches to follow suit.

Lyles admits that he was uninformed on NCAA rules. It also never occurred to him that serving as mentor/advisor to prospective recruits while being paid by the schools recruiting them created a conflict of interest. What a remarkable combination of street smarts and naivete.

I still want to know what happened with the call Lyles supposedly made to Van Malone, when he was on the Aggie staff, regarding Patrick Peterson. Van made a very specific allegation against Lyles but for some reason that whole thing has been swept under the rug and no one seems interested in asking Lyles about it.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/03/will-lyles-patrick-peterson-texas-a38m-80000/1

One thing not specified in the radio interview by Robinson was the format for Lyles answering questions (I also don’t know if this was specified in the yahoo article). Were they real time answers in person or by phone, or were they written answers to printed questions? If it’s the latter, it seems more likely answers could have been coached by a legal counsel. If Lyles did retain legal counsel in answering questions, does Robinson know, or would he want/need to know?

Regarding Robinson warning Lyles that anything he said that was found to be untrue or a lie would be reported, for Lyles the concern would be him saying something that did not happen when it did, i.e. Lyles has a lot to hide. There is far less risk for Lyles saying that something did happen when it in fact did not happen, particularly when it relates to anyone not named Will Lyles. The risk is gets shifted to Robinson for printing something damaging to someone other than Lyles that didn’t happen. This latter example is where Texas probably comes in. In Lyles’ mind, he got fucked by Texas. If he puts something out there that turns out to not be accurate and Robinson prints it without proper vetting, no skin off Lyles’ back and he feels a measure of personal vindication.

One other thought that crossed my mind is if Lyles perceives that Texas could cause him some actual direct trouble in the future, he might be more inclined to manufacture a bluff in hopes of creating hesitation by Texas. So far, Robinson isn’t running it.

Not worried about Lyles and any accusations he makes against UT or any of their assistants. I think schools linked to him should be worried at this point. Him playing the victim and pretending he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong is such BS. He’s been discussed online for the past two years now. Why did he think UT fans had problem with him in the first place? Why did he think UT wouldn’t even deal with him or kids associatd with him? He could’ve checked the NCAA rule book two years ago just to be sure he had nothing to worry about. Anyway, I’ve read that he was going to go after Major because Major is the one going around telling everyone what a sumbag he is. Also, how serious is the Cleve stuff on a scale of 1 – 10. The guy thinks he was wrongfully terminated and is appealing the decision. I’m thinking the really bad stuff in Clevegate was maybe done by an assistant coach that’s no longer here? Why else would Cleve want his job back if it was that bad?

More random musings – if Lyles has retained legal counsel, I wonder if there are other interested parties -the kind who have remained ‘loyal’ to Lyles – who would like to ensure he can afford to hire attys qualified to play eleven dimensional chess.

The saying “keep your friends close and your (potential) enemies closer” comes to mind.

I think people are losing perspective – Lyles did not lawyer up. He works at Spec’s for 7 bucks an hour. The legal vetting was done by Yahoo. We don’t know what aspect of Yahoo’s story was put under review prior to publication or whether that item survived editing. We also don’t know if it regarded Texas or Oregon. I’d say Jesus is right – there’s nothing to see here. Robinson has shown an appetite for going after big stories, so unless we hear he’s interviewing former staffers and wandering around Austin, this is nothing.

The journalistic standard is two independent sources for verification. If Yahoo! had those two sources the legal people would clear it; they’ve not ever been shy about publishing exposes of powerful programs as long as they have the sources. So basically Craig Robinson is saying that Lyles said stuff about Texas that he could not get anyone else to verify in the days before publication. Which should surprise exactly no one.

Sure, it could be something big and scandalous. Or it could just be a pissed-off dude who believes that several years of his life’s work were steamrolled at the wave of Mack’s invisible hand, so now he’s trying to get all up in Mack’s bidness out of petty vengeance. Whatever the rumor is, several days of follow-up research by one of the best in the sports journo business led to absolutely no one who would confirm it, which doesn’t bode well for people that want to see Mack get the knife. People such as Lyles.

In terms of defamation, if you spread it, you’re responsible for it.

However, if the person being defamed is a public figure, the standard is quite high. You have to be reckless… basically know that it is wrong and go ahead anyway.

It sounds like Yahoo is taking a hard look at what Lyles may have claimed… as they should.

Was Cleve found guilty of anything? I don’t know the law here, but I would imagine Cleve’s suit is more about terms of the separation than fighting to come back. If it’s a settlement, not a guilty verdict, he probably wants to make the separation look more like he is leaving for the good of the team, removing the extra distraction, but not guilty of any harassment charges. Improves his chances for higher severance package he might be eligible for.

What Cleve wants is a settlement, or payoff as it were. It’s about money, period!

Lance also has a tie through the Ft. Bend Hightower program. Look, his wife my be a Horn and one of his best friends from high school might be the son of a former Horn quarterback, but he has way too many ties that can be drawn between the two that are not exactly pro Texas. Either he got played by someone or as I said before he was needing to generate some talk for the morning show.

absolutely agree that if there is anything, let’s root it out now and learn to do better.

that said, everything i am reading, here and elsewhere, just says what we’ve all been saying. yahoo got an earful and can’t find anyone to vouch. i’ll buy that robinson hasn’t given up looking, and he is right about that.

there is a very good reason for yahoo to avoid repeating anything they can’t substantiate and that is the burgeoning yahoo reputation. last thing robinson wants to do is put out a big, really noisy story that blows up in his face, whether he is worried about the court of law or not. yahoo is rapidly becoming the conscience of college ball, and any embarrassing slip up pokes a nasty hole below his waterline, and he knows it.

http://twitter.com/ArmenKeteyian/status/87571789294743552

Headed to JFK for flight to Austin. Turns out, this TV investigative thing can be rather time consuming.

http://twitter.com/ArmenKeteyian/status/87593178013769728

@jpmcdonough believe me, it’s a site specific interview or I’d be at the beach.

drew, i assume he gives no indication of his subject.

i see that he is an investigative correspondent for cbs news. i wonder if, after the friday yahoo article, if cbs has gotten very interested in the street agent issue. if so, i’m guessing he should start his info gathering in mack’s office. at least, that’s where i would start.

lyles on 60 minutes?

lyles on 60 minutes?

I’m betting its more like Cleve on 60 minutes.

With CBS and the SEC, I doubt they’re nosing around on the Lyles trail considering the scrutiny it could bring LSU’s way. If it is a Lyles story, he’d be headed to Eugene instead since that’s where the pot is really boiling.

My bet is on Keteyian chasing down leads in the Lance Armstrong story, unless there’s some major bombshell in the Cleve story that no one knows about, which would be the scoop of the decade to end up on 60 Minutes.

Interesting find, Drew.

If CBS is coming to Austin to talk to Texas Inc. about street agents, it would be great if we were the ones who contacted them first. The time for being proactive about improving the street agent problem is right now. Striking when the iron is hot on a national story will enhance awareness. And for whatever role UT stands to play to improve the street agent problem moving forward, it’s better to get out in front before any smear attempts appear. If UT delays being proactive and something embarrassing to UT is reported by the media, it’s a lot easier to be discredited as being reactionary and defensive. There is reason to believe Will Lyles hoped he could do it through Yahoo’s Robinson, but if the street agent landscape is at risk of a seismic shift, there are certainly other interested parties who would try to preserve the status quo.

the timing suggests lyles since the big yahoo expose came out friday. i suppose something on cleve could come at any time, but the iron is really hot right now on this streetgate story.

i agree that if the subject were texas that lyles would likely be the first interview. lyles isn’t in austin these days, is he? i suppose lyles could meet the guy here so that he could prove his point by showing him where on a sidewalk that mack stood when he gave a high school coach a scrooge mcduck bag of money.

for that matter, the man’s wiki page shows that he handles all kinds of stories. might not be a sports-related story at all, but i’m hoping its a 60 minutes piece on street agents. i wonder if mack or deloss has been in touch with those guys but they wouldn’t agree to take in on until they read the yahoo piece.

Casual Observer may be on to something. It may be Lance stuff as Le Tour De EPO just started and Keteyian usually was the guy who did the CBS final day wrap up for that event.

Anyway, I just though the timing was interesting.

My money is on CBS sending Keteyian here for

Lance Armstrong or

Gloria Allred

Cleve is a smug-faced prick, at least that’s been Clarence’s experience…

i just read about the 60 minutes interview with hamilton. i don’t watch tv and didn’t realize that had happened. i reluctantly move my vote to an interview with lance.

i was hoping the street agent story was juicy enough to show it to the 60 minutes crowd. we need a groundswell on that issue. i guess a slow one will do.

what’s that word that means something that just keeps coming no matter what you do? you know, that ‘who ARE those guys?’ word.

A non-coach allegedly acting inappropriately toward a staff member in the football office is not going to make 60 Minutes. How many head coaches who have been found guilty of serious violations were on 60 Minutes? Not many I can think of. The country could care less about the Cleve story.

With CBS and the SEC, I doubt they’re nosing around on the Lyles trail considering the scrutiny it could bring LSU’s way.

No way on this one. If the story was good enough, they’d do it.

Doh:

Not if it turns out that UT knew about it and tried to bury it to protect Cleve. You can preach to me about Mack being an upright and virtuous guy, but anyone who would leave Greg Davis in charge for that many years despite the obviously poor quality of the on-field product is either A) the proud owner of a mile-wide blind side, or B) someone willing to go to unreasonable lengths to protect his friends.

As I’ve said elsewhere, Allred prides herself on big targets that make noise when they go thud. She loves playing the role of protector of victims, but she LOVES the camera. Don’t kid your self on that. Texas qualifies under these criteria and then some.

I have a hard time believing that UT would permit this sort of behavior. Not because your people are actually that moral, but because your legal staff is that smart.

If there was going to be widely publicized fallout associated with Cleve, it would have happened late last fall. I don’t think there’s anyone around who will source anything substantive for a story today – not the aggreived who settled out of court, not Cleve, not Mack.

Bob – seriously? No way they touch the SEC angle. No way.

Way too much advertiser money on the table for to have anything to do with the SEC. The more I think about it, It has to be Armstrong. His story fits the 60 Minutes demographic, unless, like I said, they have the nuclear bomb of stories to unleash on all of us – if that were the case, someone on our interwebs network of pro-UT sources would have caught wind by now.

If it’s not Lance, then it would be Mack and Dodds are raising their hand publicly to say “we outed Lyles .” Doing so would be incredibly foolish because it sets precedent to say “We’re Texas…nothing untowards EVER could happen here.” Hell of a claim to make when there’s no possible control every burnt orange jock sniffer in the state of Texas.

what’s that word that means something that just keeps coming no matter what you do? you know, that ‘who ARE those guys?’ word.

I like Manny’s characterization of his Philosophy of Defense, which fits the bill here (albeit two words rather than one): Relentless Attack.

Nate – on the GD stuff…touche. And your take on Allred is dead-on; her involvement is just spooky and not to be downplayed. And your take on the moral position of the department is also pretty dead-on. I figure just based on personality cues that Mack prefers to see himself as an upstanding person. But that’s not the reason for the compliance atmosphere at UT; they could hire Barry Switzer and not a damn thing would change. The money situation at Bellmont dictates everything now. DeLoss’ goose is laying golden eggs the size of watermelons, and they don’t want some small-time agent-wannabe or some tattoo artist with a hankering for team gear to f*ck it up for everyone. It’s a highly-risk-averse business situation.

And re: 60 Minutes…my vote is Armstrong by a country mile. Any Lyles story would involve sending reporters to Houston and Oregon and would not likely involve an agreement to an interview by anyone at UT. Or at least, I can’t see why anyone at UT would want to give Lyles the dignity of a response given the damage his word has taken lately. And the Cleve story is not ripe enough for a national feature story; there’s just not much to report, unless the girl wants to go public. If that’s the case, I welcome it; I want to know what happened. But I don’t think that’s likely at this point. All indications are that they’re satisfied (which is to say: no indications, even though Gloria Allred’s involved). It’s Cleve that’s pissed but his story isn’t prime time material..

The Lance story is ripe, though. And he hasn’t addressed the latest allegations yet. Seems obvious that he’d tell his story to 60 Minutes.

Someone think he has some dirt on Texas.

you got ‘someone’ and ‘he’ into singular count agreement, dave, but now your verb is off. for whatever reason, ‘think’ is plural usage in our language, and what you should have used is ‘thinks’, which is the singular count version of that verb. “they think” but “he thinks”

not a good idea to correct someone unless you get it right.

dagga, i don’t imagine we’re going to hear the details on that. whatever we paid to satisfy the lady involved surely came with assurance her mouthpiece would remain still. only cleve’s side of the story is left to deal with, i gather, and apparently he thinks [see dave: “he thinkS”] he has us over the proverbial barrel and that texas will see to it that mack’s bosom buddy is happy, too.

i’ve said before and i’ll say again now that i hope mack pays attention and learns something from this and from the 5-7 debacle [look it up, dave]. he has collected friends like bicycle annie used to collect trinkets from the trash. sometimes you have to evaluate friendships, and if a friend is using you, you don’t have as many friends as you think you do. what was the old saw? “use your friends wisely?” anyway, i hope mack doesn’t become as cynical as i am, but he can’t leave his critical faculties at the door, either. where would we be today if several recently departed overly-protected friends had been dealt with 8 or 10 years ago?

when you shake hands, mack, that doesn’t mean you close your eyes and ears.

Bob – seriously? No way they touch the SEC angle. No way.

Seriously. ESPN has just as much to lose in regard to the SEC if Auburn goes down, and they’ve been talking about that the whole way.

Lyles just isn’t that big a deal, even if everything he said is true. The only thing unusual about it is that Oregon got themselves tied directly to the deal.

“The only thing unusual about it is that Oregon got themselves tied directly to the deal.”

This is what amazes me most of all. Why in the world would the family not use a “buffer?” This is like one of those “Bum Steers” where the bank robber leaves his drivers-license with the teller.

i don’t think they could use a buffer. i think lyles had visions of self-importance that meant he had to have his pic taken with pete carroll, etc. i bet the book on him was to butter him up and he’d go to work for you. ‘butter’ yes. ‘buffer’ no.

There’s also that little matter of a Governor there in Austin that may run for president. I’d think that and/or Lance A. would be much better guesses than Lyles or especially Cleve for 60 minutes type fodder.

I haven’t thought of Bicycle Annie in about three decades. Thanks alot Uh.

“But that’s not the reason for the compliance atmosphere at UT; they could hire Barry Switzer and not a damn thing would change.”

False. In this hypothetical, you’d need to make sure all of your assistant coaches’ wives stocked up on mace and “No Means No” training guides. You’d probably also want to think about hiring a good forensic accounting firm.

A later Tweet by Kateyian said something about being headed to Fort Hood, to do a story on some prick ripping off soldiers.

gig, he got word that we are onto him, and he’s trying to throw us off the trail. kinda like that car making a u-turn on that bridge in ‘the godfather’, he’s trying to ditch us. why would he fly to austin to go to fort hood? makes no sense. a cunning one, this guy kateyian.

enjoyed that, nate. needed a chuckle. whatever else, barry was the real deal. he wore his heart on his sleeve, soda speak.

yeah, earl, i spoke to annie one time. one time. man, did i get an earful.

file in the ‘for what it’s worth’ cubby:

someone asked kateyian if he is a texas ex. response: “No, although I would have loved to. Especially now with Garrido as head baseball coach.”

the plot thickens. he really IS trying to throw us off his true target, and with that statement it is obvious that he is after US. the garrido mention suggests an exposé of cliff gustafson. boy, they don’t forget a grudge, do they?

interesting that he mentions getting up early for a 50-min walk/run around lady bird lake. for whatever reason, he came to austin, not ft hood. sounds like he went up to hood for the fourth, though. i don’t think his interview has anything to do with “Just about to make someone’s life rather miserable for ripping off soldiers on the 4th of July.” i’m guessing he saw someone ripping off soldiers and he chewed some butts for it.

dude is in austin for some reason and he says he really likes us. for what that’s worth.

ok, tin hat off.

I’m not sure this will reverse the damage Lance has done. They’re riding side-by-side engulfing entire lanes on Munger now here in Dallas with the hubris of a Hells Angels’ chapter. Too late, imho.

I agree with nah in regards to the role Lyles said that he could provide to the families and the the value he could provide to the colleges.

He supposedly help James with finding away to get out the graduation standards from a Texas high school. With Lache he admits to helping him find away to bypass his mother in getting his letter of intent signed to go to UO. Other places I have heard him being given credit by parents for helping them navigate the process of enrolling and participating in some of the scouting combines.

I don’t know how complicated any of the events mentioned above are, but it is no different than anyone in my profession in getting paid for helping a client design and implement a strategy to address a specific concern in their personal and professional lives. One big difference is that I am required to let my client know if I am receiving compensation for the product we are using to implement the solution.

The more I read about these events two things leap out to me. First, Lyles was in way, way over his head and did not receive how he was being used and just how quick the people he had supposedly developed relationships would turn their back on him to protect themselves.

Second, the cover-up with UO reminds me of either Fargo where the kidnap plot goes wrong or the scene in Office Space where the 3 conspirators ask Orlando Jones for advice on how to launder money and end up buying multiple subscriptions to Jet magazine.

It is pretty obvious cheating in this manner was something new to UO and Lyles likewise really had no experience covering his tracks.

Lyles said Jeff Wood, the father of then University of Texas quarterback recruit Connor Wood, paid the $4,000-plus bill. Connor and Seastrunk were teammates on a 7-on-7 squad coached by Lyles. Jeff Wood declined comment when reached by Yahoo! Sports. Lyles said he personally asked Wood to help and Wood did so "out of the goodness of his heart." He said he doesn’t believe Wood was seeking to influence Seastrunk’s recruiting and said, to his knowledge, neither Oregon nor Texas knew of the tutoring.

This was mentioned in a BC story the other day, but the crickets are louder than any comments whatsoever about it. I imagine that if Jerry Bomar had paid for one of Adrian Peterson’s classes, you’d be just as silent and blasé about that, too.

Davey, you’ve got it all wrong. It was 40 subscriptions to Vibe magazine.

No, but we might be silent if Jerry Bomar paid for Kendall Turner’s classes, that being the direct comparison.

Oops, meant Kendall Hunter.

Looks like the $4,000 was wasted on you, Lache.

Nate,

My mistake and I am shocked that the defenders of Austin based pop culture did not smite me for my error. Thanks for the correction.

One thing I find really interesting and someone correct me if I am wrong on this, but aren’t many of the 7 on 7 leagues affiliated with the corresponding high school? How in the world did a kid from Central Texas with according to the Lyles and the guys at Yahoo a unstable home life end up on the same 7-on-7 team as a quarterback from a small private school in Houston?

Davey O’Brien said: July 5th, 2011 at 3:54 pm

One thing I find really interesting and someone correct me if I am wrong on this, but aren’t many of the 7 on 7 leagues affiliated with the corresponding high school? How in the world did a kid from Central Texas with according to the Lyles and the guys at Yahoo a unstable home life end up on the same 7-on-7 team as a quarterback from a small private school in Houston?

Perhaps 7 on 7 is the football version of AAU basketball?

Va,

It is possible and I am surely not expert on this matter. Truth be told not even a novice. My impression was that the summer 7-on-7 was comprised as teams from the various high schools. The school’s coaching staff can’t oversee the event, but there is a supervisor much like the ultimate frisbee team my son was part of the past two years at KC.

Maybe there is another league or version and that is how Lache and Conner hooked up, but that does seem very odd to me that those two were on the same team.

Man I love that picture of Ketchum. Paint him green and he’s indistinguishable from Shrek.