re: 2012 Arkansas Recruiting Thread - Mine is better than TTsTowel's

I'll be in town for a funeral on Sat. so just point the dbag out, I'll 7 wood a large bucket at their ride.

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He drives a crown Vic.

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Gangsta.

couldn't resist

trying to decide if I want to go bust some duckies or stay warm this morning.

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ETA: What are you doing in New York?

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You talkin bout Kansas or da big city?

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My bad, fell asleep.

Manhattan, NYC. I work in finance up here. I graduated UofA undergrad in May and moved up here two weeks later to start work.

I like Walton. I've always been a believer that education is the responsibility of the individual, but if you good some of the good teachers (Britton, Malakhov, Stapp) then you can learn a lot.

I work at one of the top investment managers in the world, and almost every single one of my coworkers are Ivy league, MIT, and HBS grads. I've learned that is only a piece of paper, unless you care to teach yourself you won't succeed. Oh yea, and frick Harvard Business School. It doesn't teach business, it teaches politics. I would never, ever want to go to HBS.

You work for Lindsey?

Good read.

LINK

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Virtually on the eve of the February 1, 2012, National Signing Day, CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd posts “Petrino not seeing No. 1 recruit Thursday“. If you care to look, it’s a half-baked mini-exposé which does everything but accuse Bobby Petrino of a recruiting violation in pursuit of Springfield, Missouri’s, Dorial Green Beckham, a player many consider to be the best in the country. At first blush Dennis Dodd’s post is difficult to read without stepping in the fading delight of an opportunity for some in the national media to skewer Bobby Petrino one more time. The practice is so four-years-ago-Pat-Forde and an eighteen-million-dollar buy-out contract old.

Regardless of the title (it will be addressed in a moment), consider the obvious about what’s not in Dodd’s post that any rookie beat writer would think to ask and forget for a moment that Dennis Dodd is into his third decade as a journalist.

To understand Dodd’s omissions, one has to understand what Dodd does. Almost nonchalantly Dodd begins skillfully with the sound-bite everyone will remember, “Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino will not be making an in-person visit Thursday to the nation’s No. 1 recruit according to the player’s coach.” Undeniably, the University of Arkansas admits Petrino’s absence from DGB’s in-home visit, and by all accounts is a decision that Arkansas Athletic Department made on its own. Dodd then seizes on friendly quotes provided to him from John Beckham who is Dorial’s high school football coach at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Missouri, Dorial’s adoptive father, and who appears to be one of the finer people anyone would want to meet. For years John Beckham has given his his home and his life to providing for those less fortunate than him. Although John Beckham appears to tell Dodd diplomatically that “a situation occurred” when Coach Bobby Petrino and Dorial Green-Beckham “bumped into each other” in San Antonio, Texas, Dodd does absolutely nothing to dissuade the dual impression connoted from the quotes, as if “a situation” and “bumped into” were euphemisms for something more and not purposeful, objectively neutral statements of fact.

Dodd details that the encounter occured while Dorial was in San Antonio for the U.S. Army All-Star Game, and Bobby Petrino was present for the American Football Coaches Association convention. The All-Star game was on Friday, January 6, 2012, while the Coaches’ Association convention began on Sunday, January 8, 2012, and continued through January 11, 2012. Set up by the earlier insinuations, Dodd points out the likely applicable NCAA bylaw and further points out that some of the days were either “quiet days” or recruiting “dead days” which severely limit or prohibit coaches’ contacts with recruits. All are true.

But plainly Dodd communicated with John Beckham. Nothing in the report indicates that Dodd bothered to ask Coach Beckham on which day the encounter occurred. Wouldn’t that have been simple for a thirty-year journalist? Did Dodd bother to ask the University of Arkansas when the encounter took place? When Dodd communicated with Coach Beckham did he ask what Dorial Green-Beckham’s itinerary was for the weekend? Dodd certainly could have asked the same question of Coach Petrino’s representatives. The difference that the timeline makes is the difference between a technical “in-home” recruiting visit as defined under the NCAA bylaws which occurred when the NCAA permitted recruiting and an almost obvious infraction.

Instead, Dodd’s apparent omissions fertilize his insinuations. What Dodd doesn’t say is that Dorial Green-Beckham was playing football in San Antonio on Friday, January 6, 2012, and Coach Bobby Petrino coached the Arkansas Razorbacks to a Cotton Bowl victory in Dallas on January 6th with his obligations and celebration keeping him in Dallas on Friday. According to the Official NCAA Division I Football January 7, 2012, was a green day where contact with prospective recruits was permitted, while January 8, 2012, was a “quiet day” and January 9-11 were “dead days.” On January 8, the American Football Coaches’ Association began at 9:00 a.m. The answer to one simple question would squarely place the contact in or out of a permitted time. Even if John Beckham couldn’t remember the exact date and the University of Arkansas wouldn’t respond, Dorial Green-Beckham is still a high school student and if John Beckham was with him in San Antonio, he likely had to be at work on Monday, January 9, 2012. Are those too difficult for someone with Mr. Dodd’s experience to explore? It’s highly doubtful. It takes under a minute to verify that the Springfield, Missouri School District resumed classes after the Christmas and New Years’ breaks on January 3, 2012 and was scheduled for class for the week of Monday, January 9, 2012. Likewise, a short map search would reveal that the distance between San Antonio, Texas, and Springfield, Missouri, is a little under 700 miles. Dorial Green Beckham either caught a flight out of San Antonio on Sunday, January 8, 2012, or started a fairly long drive. Aren’t those things obvious with very little thought?

What about answering the question of “where” did the encounter took place? Dodd doesn’t bother with that fact either. Were the two at the same hotel? Did their flights happen to be at the same airport gate? Was the encounter at a place where either was obviously on a detour to be there? The questions could go on and on.

Do professional journalists really accidentally fail to ask the who, what, where, when and why questions? Is it even reasonable to believe? Let’s not ask the questions like Dodd appears to have failed to do.

Rivals, Scout, and other services tell us that Arkansas and other schools, particularly new SEC entrant, the University of Missouri, are on Dorial Green Beckham’s short list. In light of the competition for such a highly-skilled athlete as DGB appears to be, does it make a difference that something which impugns the integrity of Arkansas become plastered across the country’s sports media? Would it make Arkansas less attractive as compared to another school, say Missouri?

Shouldn’t the NCAA know whether Dennis Dodd is now or has ever been considered a University of Missouri Booster? NCAA bylaws prohibit boosters from influencing recruits, don’t they? How long has Dodd known about the University of Arkansas’ decision before reporting it the day before Arkansas’ scheduled in-home visit?

Dodd’s bio from CBSSports.com tells its own story.

No wonder Dennis Dodd loves bowl season. His life kicked off (Dec. 31, 1956) just hours before the 1957 New Year’s Day bowls. To him, though, The Grandaddy of Them All isn’t necessarily the Rose Bowl. Dennis’ grandfather Daniel Barnard was a legendary amateur soccer star in St. Louis in the 1920s. Later, Grandpa worked for the railroad shuttling fans from St. Louis to South Bend on Notre Dame football Saturdays.

After somehow getting a journalism degree at the University of Missouri, Dennis started his career in Sherman, Texas. From 1981-89 he worked at the Kansas City Star, pausing long enough to propose to his lovely wife during the seventh-inning stretch of Game 5 of the 1987 World Series. Next were stops at the St. Louis Sun, The National (New York), Omaha World-Herald and SportsWriters Direct.

He has worked for CBSSports.com since February 1998 and saw his first game in South Bend later that year. Somewhere, Grandpa was watching.

Dodd would never try to help his alma mater, would he?

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Hogs "neither of DGB's parents accompanied him on his official visit to Arkansas last weekend"

true or false?

true...but his brother was there

:hatersgonnahate: