Recall that 2012 was the year of going back to big boy football at Auburn. They had bought, uh - signed Jovan Robinson the year before from Woodale High School in Memphis and there were grade problems, the changing of which cost at least one high school counselor her job. August of 2012 Robinson reports to camp at Auburn, participates in two practices, and is declared ineligible. Ends up at Georgia Military, I think.
http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2012/08/auburn_freshman_running_back_j.html
Auburn immediately goes to work (in Memphis again) and gets a commitment from Wilkins. December 2012, Chizik is fired and Gus comes in. Wilkins commits to Gus then six games into the season breaks his leg. Nasty injury and no one really knew if he would come through it. The infamous weekends in January 2013 when Ole Miss got commits from NKemdichie and Tunsil is the same time frame when Wilkins flipped from Auburn to Ole Miss.
The one thing this staff and administration continues to cling to is that the worst of the accusations is academic fraud----but that wasn't "us"---none of those guys are here and haven't been here in years.
Do we really believe that a University with as much money as an SEC school like Ole Miss, an institution who has reminded us time and again how much they intend to play by the rules, and how closely they are watching what goes on in their program regarding academics, is going to allow a 4th year Junior starter to fall victim to something as petty as "not progressing toward a degree"?
I don't blee dat----and if the fraud bug bites in this case, settle in for a long ride. But I do think we have almost a carbon copy of what went on at Auburn from 2009 to 2012. I feel certain we'll find the breaking of this news is more spin from the UMAA. He only missed it by "that much" and we appealed and we'll accept the blame for the miss. It was all just a big misunderstanding. We didn't intend to break the rules.
If I put on my tin foil hat just right I can see one of these in the future:
http://collegefootball.blog.ajc.com...s-tarred-and-feathered-erroneously-at-auburn/
Quote - Chizik's tenure also had off-field turmoil, including an NCAA investigation of Newton’s recruitment and a report alleging academic fraud and payments to athletes. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs disputed that report in April 2013 after an internal investigation and defended the coach he had recently fired as “a man of the utmost character and integrity."
CA - what do you hear on the north side of Memphis?
