Willie Lyles Speaks...but who is the disgruntled party?
by Paragon SC on Jul 1, 2011 5:00 PM PDT
in General Pac-12
Email
Print
By now you have all seen or heard about Wille Lyles supposedly coming to clean to Yahoos! Charles Robinson and Dan Wetzel.
It is no secret that I am not a fan of Robinson. He and Jason Cole still haven't proved that former USC Basketball Coach Tim Floyd paid off Rodney Guillory. So, obviously I always take what Robinson writes with a grain of salt. Wetzel has his own journalistic integrity issues dating back to when he was pulled off the Reggie Bush story.
That being said...
Willie Lyles opens up about his relationship with Oregon and Oregon Head Coach Chip Kelly.
You can read the rest for yourself but two things stand out...In a wide-ranging, multi-day interview, Lyles said Kelly "scrambled" in late February and asked Lyles to submit retroactive player profiles to justify the $25,000 payment to his company, just days before the transaction was revealed in a March 3 Yahoo! Sports report. Lyles also provided details of his fledgling company – Complete Scouting Services (CSS) – as well as the extent of his relationship with numerous Texas high school stars and his role in Ducks’ recruitment of certain prospects.
Lyles said he spoke with NCAA enforcement staffers for six hours in early May as part of their ongoing investigation. He said he didn’t reveal the stories concerning Kelly, James and Seastrunk to investigators because the specific topics never came up in questioning.
Really?
I wonder what they talked about? It would not surprise me if some of Lyles' "other" clients were part of that discussion.
But this is the odd thing to me...
That said, Lyles also insisted he didn't steer prospects to Oregon, or any other school.
According to Yahoo!:"There was no quid pro quo," Lyles said, claiming no school, including Oregon, ever asked him to direct a player. "Never. It wouldn’t make sense for me to help one school. I was trying to get every school to buy my service. That was my business."
Lyles is trying to portray that he was snookered by Oregon...
"I look back at it now and they paid for what they saw as my access and influence with recruits," Lyles said. "The service I provided went beyond what a scouting service should … I made a mistake and I’m big enough of a man to admit I was wrong."
Right...
Meanwhile if you peruse the Oregon boards over the last few months more than a few UO fans have said it was Oregon that was defrauded. That doesn't appear to be the case for two obvious reasons.
1) UO never asked for their money back or publicly called out Lyles as being a fraud. If I wwas defrauded of 25K you can gaurantee that I would be demanding my money back in a very public way and I would tell every other collegue in the business that Lyles was bad news. Oregon has kept quiet.
2) It is right there in the Yahoo! report...Kelly and his staff "scrambled" to get the national package that Lyles should have had readily available if he was a legit service.
So who is the disgruntled party in this?
Who knows where this ends up. Even if the NCAA considers this minor Kelly still comes off looking pretty dirty.
I am sure Oregon fans are thrilled with that image.
Welcome to the club Ducks!
- - -
Here are some other links on all of this...
Will Lyles Opens Up, Implicating Oregon Scandal - Burnt Orange Nation
Will Lyles reveals his relationship with Chip Kelly and Oregon football, as a scandal rapidly unfolds.
Chip Kelly clearly isn't doing things 'the right way' at Oregon - Stewart Mandel
Oregon coach Chip Kelly is known as a master tactician, a guy who employs a unique offensive attack and frenetic pace to give his teams an edge over opponents. It turns out Kelly was using a far more ethically questionable approach to give his program an edge in recruiting. Following Friday's explosive Yahoo! Sports interview with controversial middleman Will Lyles, Kelly may soon be known more for the latter than the former.
Duck and Cover - KansasCity.com
The late, great Notorious B.I.G. once said, "Mo money, Mo problems."
Scout Will Lyles: Villain or victim? - Yahoo!
The ex-recruiting service operator, whose dealings with Oregon have prompted an NCAA probe, tries to move on after his world and business crashes.
Graphic: Phone calls and texts between Oregon coaches and Willie Lyles | OregonLive.com
A graphical representation of phone calls and text messages between Ducks coaches and Willie Lyles from December 2007 to March 2011.
Oregon’s overpriced ‘scout’ hangs Chip Kelly out to dry - Dr. Saturday
6 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
This does look good for Oregon
The NCAA doesn’t care if Lyles is clean or not, a nice guy or a convicted felon. However they do care if you lie to them and it’s pretty clear Kelly did just from the documentation provided. The Oregon radio station just had Wetzel on and he says they tried to disprove everything Lyles said, only the things they could back up made the story. I’m not going to say that is correct or not but it is what he said (and no I’m not a fan of Wetzel either). The telling thing to me was the almost year that went by between the payment (before Lyles become a scouting service) and when Oregon pleaded with him to come up with documentation. I will say this, the NCAA better re-interview Lyles and with real questions or they should become the story.
Exactly!
I was wrong about this “special package” deal. I’ll admit it, right here- right now. I guess you can say I’m just sick and tired about the entire “process” of NCAA investigations concerning college athletics. It’s like my brain’s been saturated to the point of overkill.
I agree with your last statement 100% (“. . .or they should become the story.”)
This is BIG. As Trojan fans, it’s quite difficult to have any rational conversation with a rival D-1 program’s fanbase- they’re quick to the trigger in assuming that we Trojans are too butthurt over the Death Penalty sanctions that the NCAA imposed on us concerning the Bush/Mayo situation. We have facts and documentation on our hands regarding the way the NCAA enforcement staff and NCAA COI members conducted themselves surrounding the investigation and subsequent hearings.
That the NCAA didn’t ask Lyles questions regarding Coach Kelly, LaMichael James, or Lache Seastrunk strikes me as incredibly odd. They’re the main players in this whole brouhaha. What in the world could they have possibly been interested OTHER THAN Kelly, James, and Seastrunk?
Freaking son of a bitch! The NCAA is chock-full of total looney tune characters. They’re bi-polar, in a not so good way.
If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!"
by BixBeiderbecke on Jul 1, 2011 7:54 PM PDT up reply actions
This is Anything BUT Minor
“Even if the NCAA considers this minor Kelly still comes off looking pretty dirty.”
The NCAA is currently backed into a corner by their own bylaws, even if they wanted to turn a blind eye to Oregon.
Oregon’s complicity and blatant disregard for recruiting bylaws is not a minor issue to the NCAA.
When Josh Gibson, with the assistance of assistant AD Bill Cleaver, steered Lyles through the maze of circumventing Seastrunks mother from signing the LOI, in lieu of his grandmother’s signature, they became partners in crime.
They actually became co-partners in crime earlier, when Lyles assisted LMJ in transferring high schools for his last semester, in order to qualify for Oregon. Chip Kelly knew about that, as well.
This case is rife with blatant violations and disregard for the bylaws throughout. Hosting Willie Lyles on a recruiting trip before the USC game, with the knowledge and consent of Chip Kelly and others, is the definition of assisting the staff in the recruitment of players.
Another angle I haven’t heard broached as of yet is Chip Kelly signing off on his NCAA paperwork last September, claiming he wasn’t aware of any possible NCAA violations.
That’s Tressell territory he’s now entered into by lying on an NCAA document.
by brdcstr on Jul 2, 2011 1:56 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Thanks for your take on this, Paragon.
I’ve mentioned on this board before that I think that USC got screwed with their pants on by the NCAA, and that they were unfairly singled out for example’s sake. I think you guys have a pretty unique perspective on how the NCAA works.
Looks like it could be our turn to spin the wheel of punishments now. Here’s hoping that the NCAA wakes up on the right side of the bed. (Or, at least, I’m going to hope that.)
"[Autzen Stadium's] steep concrete banks and closed ends turn a small but rabid crowd from WAC-sized cheering section into a horde of bees with megaphones capable of reaching 127 decibels of hatenoise." -Spencer Hall
I feel for some of your fans...we have been down this road ourselves
if the NCAA finds Lyles credible then strap yourself in…it will be a bumpy ride.
"Lightning from the Sky, Thunder from the Sea,"
"We aim .......... to please"
Conquest Chronicles
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Conquest Chronicles
Related FanShots on Conquest Chronicles
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
