Several U Football Players Face Discipline

All the U had to do is put out a 2 sentence statement. "Players X, Y and Z will not participate in the Quick Lane bowl due to violation of team rules. The Gopher football program will have no further comment on this matter."

And they could have added that no laws were broken, if that is truly the case. I think that alone would have ended some of the speculation.

Objectively correct.


But Fleck doesn't give a crap about that. He only cares about preventing Georgia Tech from being able to know which of our starters won't be playing in the bowl game, before we take the field.
 


"A player or players will miss the bowl game. It's not six to eight. The numbers is inaccurate that was reported."

https://twitter.com/ryanburnsmn/status/1075480147652960257?s=21


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Should we start speculating which starters won't play in the Quicklane bowl, since Fleck won't allow their names to get out before the game?

Let's randomly go with: Tanner Morgan, Blaise Andries, and Chris Autman-Bell.
 

Objectively correct.


But Fleck doesn't give a crap about that. He only cares about preventing Georgia Tech from being able to know which of our starters won't be playing in the bowl game, before we take the field.

And I have zero issue with that. If this was truly a serious issue, or it involved legal issues, we would know about it. Other than that, it is a non-issue for me that PJ will handle. I don’t need to know about every single kid who gets some discipline because they violated a team rule. None of us need to know every single thing that goes on inside the program.


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And I have zero issue with that. If this was truly a serious issue, or iinvolvedlegal issues, we would know about it. Other than that, it is a non-issue for me that PJ will handle. I don’t need to know about every single kid who gets some discipline because they violated a team rule. None of us need to know every single thing that goes on inside the program.

Post #379
 






Right after @Coach_Fleck gets done talking about how this is a big market with media that ask tough questions, he's asked about ten questions about discipline issues on the team and has yet to be asked a recruiting question at his Signing Day press conference.

https://twitter.com/mjessenhoward/status/1075480506169479170

Wouldn't have happened if they'd released a simple statement naming the players and simply saying they broke team rules.

Lot of us here told them that too.

That's their fault.
 

A perfect example of how sad the local media is.


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No, it's a perfect example of how incompetent our department is. If this had been dealt with properly, there would have been no questions left and the media would have asked about recruiting. If your response to questions about the discipline issue is "we will have media availability next Wednesday, " you cant be surprised when you are asked about it on Wednesday.
 

Speculation is usually worse, or more drastic, than the truth. All the U had to do is put out a 2 sentence statement. "Players X, Y and Z will not participate in the Quick Lane bowl due to violation of team rules. The Gopher football program will have no further comment on this matter."

Instead, they let people speculate and spread rumors.

(Some) college football coaches think they're guarding government secrets.

Agree. Simple statement. Ofcourse GH would still have a 20+ page thread on speculating what rule was violated.
 

"6-8 players will not miss the bowl game. That is inaccurate. A player or players will miss the bowl game. Not going to get into what student-athletes do. This was nothing that was dealt with outside in a legal issue or anything violent. The reporting of the numbers is inaccurate. There could be a starter or starters that miss the game for discipline reasons."


Ryan Burns @RyanBurnsMN

#Gophers head coach PJ Fleck on the report of multiple guys not practicing.

"We had guys missing practices for many different reasons...if young men have violated team rules, they've been dealt swiftly."
 
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No, it's a perfect example of how incompetent our department is. If this had been dealt with properly, there would have been no questions left and the media would have asked about recruiting. If your response to questions about the discipline issue is "we will have media availability next Wednesday, " you cant be surprised when you are asked about it on Wednesday.

I'm sympathetic, but I'm not sure they would have been able to really get out in front of what questions come.

The media guys want all the gritty details and the U isn't going to give those ... but they'll still ask.
 

Love it. Head football coach: “yeah there might be a player or even players who miss the bowl game. Well yeah, there might even be a starter, or even starters who miss the bowl game! I mean, who really knows, right??”
 

I don't think you need to release every violation of team rules to the public. Kid misses practice, skips a class, etc. it doesn't mean we need to know about it. If its a legal matter, we'd find out. Who honestly cares this much about finding this out ahead of time?
 

Fleck addressed on KFAN saying kids miss practice for many reasons, but 2-3 will miss bowl for team rules. It's not 6-8.

So you’re saying the original story with “multiple” solid sources was inaccurate? Hard to believe. Pulitzer on the way?
 

I guess they have the right to keep it all internal, but that certainly doesn't help with all the speculation. From a PR standpoint they may have been better off just explaining it all from the get-go.
Who is speculating? Maybe 50 people on the Gopherhole? The vast number of people in Minnesota don't even know the Gophers are playing a bowl game. They have no clue and no concern.
 

Love it. Head football coach: “yeah there might be a player or even players who miss the bowl game. Well yeah, there might even be a starter, or even starters who miss the bowl game! I mean, who really knows, right??”

I agree with not naming names at this point. He doesn't need to, and it would be inappropriate. All that was needed when this broke was that a few players were disciplined for a violation of team rules. This has been handled internally and it's up to the players to resolve any issues that exist

IF this statement had come out, this line of questions could have been shut down quickly - as we said last week, we're not going to comment on internal discpline issues, next question.

Now the headline is Coach won't answer questions about discipline on team vs. Gophers land second good class in a row. Stupid mistake on Coyle's part, but I expect that. Fleck is not handling questions well, that's unexpected.
 

Maybe it's 2-3 b/c 2 of them decided to skip the bowl and 4-5 is closer to the reported 6-8. hmmmmm:confused:
 

I agree with not naming names at this point. He doesn't need to, and it would be inappropriate. All that was needed when this broke was that a few players were disciplined for a violation of team rules. This has been handled internally and it's up to the players to resolve any issues that exist

IF this statement had come out, this line of questions could have been shut down quickly - as we said last week, we're not going to comment on internal discpline issues, next question.

Now the headline is Coach won't answer questions about discipline on team vs. Gophers land second good class in a row. Stupid mistake on Coyle's part, but I expect that. Fleck is not handling questions well, that's unexpected.

The questions are not just about who is involved, they're also trying to get more information about what happened. He still would have been asked about the situation even if names were released.
 

It’s one thing if a player or group of players does something stupid and the coach makes them do up-downs, run laps, come in early to pick up trash, whatever. Internal discipline or “tough love”. That, fine, don’t need to hear about it, keep it out of the papers.

I draw the line at missing actual games. Missing a bowl game is even more serious.

The U is a public institution. Funded by public tax dollars.

That proves that the public had a right to know who won’t be playing in the bowl game for their public football team.

Wild guess that Fleck won’t say purely because of his gamesmanship crap where he won’t ever say who is playing, who is hurt, etc. Wish the NCAA would force coaches to disclose who isn’t playing in games at least X days before that game.

I don’t need to know exactly what rules were broken, but it should be known who it is.

Disagree. If it isn’t public record already, the school should only comment on injury or discipline issues with permission of the players. Don’t know why data privacy doesn’t apply to college athletes.
 

Which is simply him trying not to have to say which starters won’t be on the field, because he doesn’t want to give the other team an advantage.

Again, wish the NCAA would force coaches to disclose inactives X days before the game.

The NCAA doesn’t really have the power to command universities to violate data privacy law.
Which in some cases would apply for who is out for games.
 

The questions are not just about who is involved, they're also trying to get more information about what happened. He still would have been asked about the situation even if names were released.

Here, a single Gopher internet site, this thread already has 55 thousand plus views and over 400 posts. So yeah there would be additional questions asked about it at the Press Conference. Where they said the issue was going to be addressed.

Which it has been IMHO.

Probably won't know who until the 2-deep is released. Or until the announcers of the game mention it.

Probably never know whether unibody skipping the game was suspended or not. Doubt that Fleck or Coyle will address it.
 

Glad to hear it wasn't 6-8 guys involved. Sorry to hear though that "false" information was spreading around during a critical time of recruiting. Personally I believe just to allow the process to play out and just allow coach to do just what he was hired to do, coach accordingly and deal with things that he needs to. We don't need to get into the "gossip" part of the program.

I'm sure every program has some issues of sort and it is not my goal to micromanage this particularly situation. We get upset the announcers during the game bring things like this up, well some people continually do the same here.
 

Disagree. If it isn’t public record already, the school should only comment on injury or discipline issues with permission of the players. Don’t know why data privacy doesn’t apply to college athletes.

Injury issues are of course subject to HIPAA, but I'm not sure where you got your oft-repeated notion that players have a right to privacy with regard to discipline.
 

Injury issues are of course subject to HIPAA, but I'm not sure where you got your oft-repeated notion that players have a right to privacy with regard to discipline.

If a school suspends a regular student for an academic or discipline violation or data. outside of expulsion. Most of that is subject to data privacy.

If they got in trouble for cheating on a test, the university could not release that. I’d argue the program shouldn’t either.


No idea what the law says in regards to extra curricular at the college level. I’m more familiar with k-12 law.
 

If a school suspends a regular student for an academic or discipline violation or data. outside of expulsion. Most of that is subject to data privacy.

If they got in trouble for cheating on a test, the university could not release that. I’d argue the program shouldn’t either.


No idea what the law says in regards to extra curricular at the college level. I’m more familiar with k-12 law.

Right, but regular students aren't on scholarship, nor are they being suspended from athletic competition. You're comparing apples to oranges.
 

Coach P.J. Fleck says at least one starter disciplined for Gophers bowl game - Strib

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said Wednesday that at least one starter will miss the Quick Lane Bowl because of discipline, but he disputed a report from last week that six to eight players have missed practice this month for a violation of team rules.

“A player or players will miss the bowl game,” Fleck said. “Not six to eight. That is completely inaccurate.”

Fleck, speaking for the first time since the Star Tribune report of a disciplinary issue and possible suspensions surfaced last week, declined multiple requests from reporters to specify the number of players who have been disciplined.

Asked if any starting players will be affected for the bowl game, Fleck said “a starter or starters.”..

http://www.startribune.com/coach-p-...503157231/?om_rid=1635722697&om_mid=149178825
 

Now the headline is Coach won't answer questions about discipline on team vs. Gophers land second good class in a row. Stupid mistake on Coyle's part, but I expect that. Fleck is not handling questions well, that's unexpected.

My God.....look at this headline at the Strib:

"Fleck says 'a starter or starters' disciplined, won't play in Gophers bowl game"

We're doomed!!
 




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