Chris Garrett Follow Up
If this isn't being cut from a team because said team was going to be over the scholarship limit, then there is no such thing as schools cutting players because of having too many scholarship commitments going into the fall.
Bottom line here, LSU accepted more signed LOI then they had room for when you take into account NORMAL attrition (graduating seniors and juniors going pro early) and the harsh reality of the situation at LSU was that no matter what they were not going to be in a position to honor all of their signed LOI unless guys like Chris Garrett are shoved out of the program.
The worst part of this story is that Chris Garrett was originally committed to Mississippi State but LSU was able to get him to decommit from MSU and come to LSU. When it turned out that he wasn't good enough they cut him loose to make room for someone new.
“[The LSU coaches] felt he didn’t make enough progress from the time he was there,” said Rene Nadeau, college football analyst for ESPN and TigerVision. “He didn’t show enough growth.”
Dixon said Garrett was told he couldn’t transfer to any Southeastern Conference school except Mississippi State.
...
“Zach Lee is definitely staying,” Dixon said. “They wouldn’t cut a guy if they thought [Lee] was going pro.”
http://www.lsureveille.com/sports/football-qb-chris-garrett-to-transfer-from-lsu-1.2279585
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July 22nd, 2010 - 10:04
As a guy that doesn’t agree with the premise of this site, I am on board with this one. While I don’t really see a problem cutting a guy that has been in the program for 3 years and shown no sign of improvement, you can’t convince me that one year as a true freshman is enough to evaluate whether or not the guy will develop into a usable player or not. The only caveat I have is if there is a personality problem that the LSU guys are hiding (think Adam James) and if that’s the case it will likely never come out unless Garrett gets cut from the next team in a couple years – something to look out for.
July 22nd, 2010 - 11:49
I’m still waiting to hear specifics on student athletes who were living up to all their responsibilities and wanted to stay at a school but were cut to make room for a better player. How about a few specific players? How about one? Where are all these victimized student athletes who need the NCAA to protect them?
Oops! I’m sorry. This comment was intended for one of the other threads.
July 22nd, 2010 - 12:29
None of us can know the true story here, but it sounds like mutual agreement to me. Garrett thought he was good enough to play and Miles didn’t. Garrett wanted reps and a shot at the first string job and it seems likely Miles told him in their meeting that it wasn’t going to happen. Garrett’s conduct around the team and in the meeting may have contributed to the letter telling him his scholarship wasn’t going to be renewed.
There’s no suggestion that Garrett said he wanted to stay at LSU as 3rd string QB (or maybe even 4th string if Zach Lee enrolls), but Miles cut him. The people around him say he thinks he’s good enough to play and wants to play somewhere.
July 22nd, 2010 - 12:38
Here’s a story on Star Jackson, another SEC QB that Joshua would describe as “cut”. Jackson transferred to Georgia State where he would not have to sit through a redshirt year and had a better chance for significant playing time.
http://www.tidesports.com/article/20100720/NEWS/100729997/1011?p=2&tc=pg
Jackson lost the No. 2 quarterback role at Alabama during the season last year to true freshman A.J. McCarron, although it was Jackson who played when games were out of reach for UA opponents. He completed 13 of 18 passes on the year, appearing in five games, while McCarron redshirted.
“That was a situation where a guy came in, and we were just competing like every other position at Alabama,” Jackson said. “He and I were friends and everything — I just didn’t feel the situation was in my favor.”
Bitterness? There is no trace of it in his voice. Jackson described his two-year experience at Alabama as invaluable to his development.
“Coach (Nick) Saban and Coach Mac (Jim McElwain, UA’s offensive coordinator), they taught me so much about how to prepare,” Jackson said, “how to read things and get the ball out of my hand, and also just how to be a man.”
The Crimson Tide went 14-0 to win the BCS national championship, and Jackson gave his national title rings to his mother to hold for him. Jackson said a transfer was barely discussed when he met with Saban in April, as all UA players do after spring practice.
“That meeting was mainly about how I did in the spring, my academics, that kind of thing. Coach Saban didn’t really want me to leave, I don’t think,” Jackson said. “But I felt like I wanted to play, and once I made that decision he supported it.”
July 23rd, 2010 - 19:49
What incentive does Saban have to talk Jackson into staying so that he can continue to develop him? If Jackson stays then Saban is over the limit and someone else has to be cut. Jackson did Saban a favor if he truly left on his own accord. Now, had Saban not been over the limit and there was room for Jackson to continue to get his degree from the University of Alabama while being developed and continuing to compete for playing time under the care and guidance of the best coaching staff in the country, would Saban let him walk away so easily?
I still have a hard time believing that anyone would leave a program that just won the NC and has one of the highest paid coaching staff in country (head coach and assistants) – why would you walk away from all that to go play in Division II? I could see if Jackson went to another BCS DI school to come in as the starter, but it’s just nuts to think he willingly walked away from one of the best situations in college football to go play DII ball.
July 24th, 2010 - 09:09
If Saban tried to talk a kid out of what he wanted to do, you’d probably be criticizing him for putting his selfish interests instead of the kid’s best interests.
The number of QBs who get enough reps in practice to develop are limited because teams are limited to 20 hours a week of practice time. Jackson was passed for backup last year by AJ McCarron, who was a true freshman. There was a good chance he was also going to be passed by true freshman Phillip Sims, a freshman this year who enrolled in January and participated in spring practice. The reality is that Jackson’s opportunity for more development was probably going to be limited had he stayed at Alabama unless some of the QBs ahead of him were injured.
I don’t think most competitive kids who think they can play would regard being 3rd or 4th string, even in a top program, as ideal.
Jackson was a redshirt freshman last year. Had he transferred to a D1 school he would have had to sit out this year and would have had 2 years of remaining eligibility. That would have meant 3 years since high school with almost no game experience. By transferring to a D2 school he can play immediately and has 3 years to play instead of 2. My understanding is that one of the big reasons he picked Georgia State is because one of his high school coaches is on the staff.
I don’t think it’s “nuts” to take the kid at his word.
July 24th, 2010 - 12:26
And why was Sims on campus early? Because in order to squeeze him in and stay under the 25 per year rule, despite going over the 85 rule if everyone makes it, he had to enroll early and count back a year. The bottom line here is that Saban oversigned and then basically ran a spring tryout camp at the QB position to see if Jackson would be worth keeping. Had Jackson performed really well and would have been worth keeping the Saban would have looked elsewhere on the roster to trim players and get down to 85. Why you can’t see that for what it is and conceded that A. it’s a competitive advantage over schools that are not allowed to oversign and run spring tryout camps for football scholarships, B. it’s the exploitation of a loophole in the NCAA by-laws, and C. it goes against the principle and spirit of college athletics. And it’s not just me who thinks this way – Bobby Dodd, former head coach at GT felt the same way and it bothered him so much he and the president pulled GT out of the SEC in 1964.
Ther is only one explanation for your position and it is that you are blindly loyal to Alabama and Saban because for the time being they have afforded you the pleasure of having bragging rights, which appears to be the most important thing to any southern football fan.
July 24th, 2010 - 14:04
You’re clueless as usual. Just make it up as you go along. Sims didn’t count back a year, he is a member of the 2010 recruiting class. It is a lot more common for kids to plan ahead, finish high school early and enroll in January. I think Alabama had 9 from the 2010 recruiting class who enrolled in January and participated in spring practice. If Sims and some of the others turn out to be good enough to go the NFL after playing 3 years, by enrolling early and going to school during summers they could leave with a degree. Alabama had 22 players who had already earned their degrees before the BCS championship game against Texas.
And you don’t let the facts get in the way as usual. I link an article with an interview of Jackson saying it was his decision to transfer, you still say he was cut by Saban after a “tryout camp”.
Bobby Dodd left the SEC because Georgia Tech had become an also ran in the league. Bill Curry, who played for Dodd and later coached at both Tech and Alabama, has said it was a mistake and Dodd later realized it. Curry brokered a reconciliation between Dodd and Bear Bryant in the mid 70′s and Bryant tried to get Tech invited back into the league but Georgia blocked it. Today, Georgia Tech plays in a 55,000 seat stadium they rarely can fill. If Tech was invited back into the SEC they’d spend about 5 seconds thinking about it before accepting.
There is only one reason you care about this issue, because it’s a convenient excuse for Ohio State going 0-9 in bowl games against SEC teams, losing by a combined score of 265-135. And those beatdowns of Ohio State by Florida and LSU in back to back BCS championship games damaged the reputation of Ohio State and Big 10 football.
And please, no lectures on the “principle and spirit of college athletics” from a fan of a school coached by Cheaty McSweatervest.
http://www.thelantern.com/2.1351/clarett-accusations-find-new-support-1.86476
The continuing saga of former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett took some twists yesterday with new testimony from another former Buckeye and insight into coach Jim Tressel’s time at Youngstown State.
Two separate articles on ESPN.com spotlight two former players: ex-OSU running back Robert Smith and former YSU quarterback Ray Isaac.
Isaac, who quarterbacked Tressel’s 1991 National Championship team, discussed his time under Tressel. He said that Tressel introduced him to boosters who provided him with money and cars – allegations strikingly similar to ones made by Clarett this week.
Isaac took money from booster Michael “Mickey” Monus, chairman of the university’s board of trustees and chief executive officer of the Phar-Mor discount drugstore chain. According to the article, Isaac made somewhere around $10,000 and had the use of various cars during his football career.
“I got a call from Mr. Tressel,” Monus told a jury while on trial for corporate fraud crimes. “I believe the call was that he wanted me to be introduced to (Isaac) and to work out some kind of job for him.”
Tressel reportedly denied knowing about any improper benefits his players earned while playing for him at YSU, as he has done at OSU. The NCAA imposed minor scholarship cuts on YSU after the institution admitted to a “lack of institutional control,” according to ESPN.
The former quarterback had a chance to testify against Monus in court, and called Tressel for advice. Upon starting to tell him what he knew, Tressel quickly cut him off.
“I don’t want to know what you know,” Tressel told Isaac. “Just tell them the truth.”
July 24th, 2010 - 15:16
Is Ohio State on probation? NO Have they ever been? NO Did the NCAA sanction them over the Clarett “allegations”? NO Did Mo admit to lying in order to “get back” at tOSU for suspendingd him? YES Did Mo say he would take it all back if Tressel put a good word in for him with the NFL? YES Did Mo refuse to talk to the NCAA after telling his “story” to ESPN? YES
All of these things happened after 2004 when the Lantern (who has, since I was a student there in 73-76, had a huge hard on for the football program) published that article. The NCAA did an 18 month investigation and left claiming that tOSU “was a model of compliance” Time to let that one go.
I love how you think that the motive for this blog is due to the 0-9 record in bowl games as if doing so makes turns those losses (which you guys seem to care about way more than Buckeye fans) into wins somehow. Google “oversigning in CFB” see how many articles address this issue. Are they all written by Ohio State fans?
July 24th, 2010 - 19:51
Perhaps they aren’t XB. But this one is written by a Buckeye fan that just happens to live in the heart of Bama country and is married to a Bama grad/fan and whose in-laws are all huge Bama fans. Coincidence? I think not.
If you are a regular on The O-Zone (and if you follow Tony Gerdeman, surely you are), then you know that Josh wrote on the topic of Alabama for so long that the other forum members had to threaten him with expulsion. They encouraged him to start his own website on his pet project and this is what resulted.
I give Josh some credit because he does do his research. His problem is that he allows his personal vendetta to get in his way. This is different from what I do vis-a-vis Ohio State because I just like to rant. I am not trying to change the world, close imagined “loopholes”, get up enough support so that Nick Saban is exiled to Elba, or any such thing. Josh would probably write a half-credible saga here, were it not for the fact that he has turned it into a personal mission to bring down a program via the only “righteous” means he can come up with.
Maybe you could join his petition to have the NCAA bring an end to it. It will have to wait until 2011, however, because the window to petition them for this year closed on July 15th.
July 22nd, 2010 - 13:31
It would seem that Josh (and possibly Lee Roi) feel that they have their smoking gun with Garrett. I think I probably agree with catch 5 on this. Clearly if this is just a straight up case of LSU flat out cutting a kid to make room for someone else, then it was an abominable thing to do. But, like catch 5, I suspect that there is something else going on here that we will never know about. Of course I have no way of proving that, but neither do I think that Josh and Lee Roi have discovered that Col. Mustard did it with the rope in the study.
We just went through the Alonzo Lawrence thing fairly recently. How did that one turn out? It seems that Lawrence was “cut” by Alabama and the transferred to Southern Miss, where he was promptly “cut” again. It seems that Josh had his smoking gun with Lawrence too, but then it turned out the “gun” was made out of Lawrence’s lies.
Is Garrett telling the truth? Could be. And as I say, and l am not equivocating, IF the assertions made by Garrett are true, then shame on Les Miles and LSU. If not, and, and catch 5 says, we are not being told the whole story, then I don’t think any conclusions can be drawn from this.
As with everything else on this site, though, Josh will steer us to the correct end point, of that there can be no doubt.
July 23rd, 2010 - 08:35
From the article Joshua posts as his elusive smoking gun:
“Dixon talked to Garrett’s parents, who fully supported their son’s decision.”
Their son’s decision? Wait a minute. Joshua says it was Miles’ decision to cut him, and we know Joshua is honest, fair minded and objective.
July 23rd, 2010 - 13:07
Hey man, I clicked on your name and it brought up your blog. Really? I know Pam got under your skin a lot, but is that how you deal with it?? I met up with her at the Iowa game last year and not only is she attractive, but really fun. Seriously bud, you are a grown man and this is how you handle a woman giving it as good as she takes? Grow up. Very very uncool.
July 30th, 2010 - 08:51
I can guarantee you that he was not let go to get to a number. Do you think our coaches wanted to go into the season with 2 QB’s on scholarship. Last year we had to play two and the year before three QB’s were needed to get through the season due to injury in the gauntlet that is the SEC. It was a well known fact by those around the football team that Garrett didn’t want to compete. He wanted to sit back and “wait his turn”. He didn’t want to push our starter to get batter, he didn’t want to take many reps in the spring game because he claimed he was not ready and he does little outside of practice to prepare himself. I am not even sure if he knows where the film room is at LSU Football Facility. The coaches want competition at every position and his attitude of wanting to sit around for two more years and not try to get better every day was not going to fly with the coaches. I think most of you will see by the start of fall camp that LSU did not need to git rid of Garrett to get to a number. They will be under the number when it’s all said and done.
July 22nd, 2010 - 15:40
Dear Garrett,
How does it feel to be duped by a smooth talking bullshitting coach at L.S.U.? Arent you glad you gave up your commitment and joined the Tigers for a year before you got CUT due to performance? I bet that just feels great. What are you gonna do now that Les Miles was nice enough to allow you to transfer within the S.E.C.? Oh wait, you can only transfer to the worst team in the conference but that was still nice of him to promise you a roster spot when you signed and when he thought you werent good enough anymore because the found Zach Lee they ripped your heart out and cut you from the team. Les Miles is a great father figure coach isnt he? Well have a good one at Miss St. losing every game during the season.
Sincerely,
Every other conference who dont drastically oversign to gain an advantage
July 22nd, 2010 - 23:58
I get evaluated on my job every year, if I don’t perform I’ll get fired. I don’t see the big deal. I was on an academic scholarship in college, if my gpa went below a certain average I lost it. How is this any different?
July 23rd, 2010 - 22:28
Simple.
1. Student-athletes are not employees and universities enjoy tax-exempt status, therefore any comparison to scholarship players and the real work-a-day world is null and void.
2. I love this discussion, but comparing academic scholarships to athletic scholarships is an absolute joke. For starters, the terms of your academic scholarship were spelled out in writing; it was black and white and not subject to the opinion of someone who had a vested interest in your performance. It’s not like the teachers who were teaching you were being paid millions of dollars and if you didn’t get A’s every semester they would be fired. And lastly, I can promise you that at no time did schools give out more academic scholarships then they could afford to or are allowed to, and at no time would a school consider taking away your scholarship simply because another high school student has the potential to get better grades than you. You knew what the requires were and you were given ALL of the conditions in writing.
July 23rd, 2010 - 09:19
It’s amazing to me that as cynical as some of you are on this board, that you can’t see that Garrett was cut from this team. Your arguments will ring hollow until you acknowledge the truth when it is right before your eyes. “Mutual Agreement”. We are not renewing your scholarship, will you mutually agree to leave my school…and oh yeah, you can only transfer to one SEC school…These are unconscionable contracts and I will work to overturn them.
July 23rd, 2010 - 10:07
It’s amazing to me that you think you’re the arbiter of the TRUTH. Apparently you were in the LSU locker room and in the meetings between Miles and Garrett so you know all the facts. So I take it you believe that Garrett wants to stay 5 years at LSU riding the bench because he’s accepted that he’s not good enough to play and LSU is the only place he can get an education. What a tragedy. It’s not like regular students every transfer.
Where I will agree with you is that I think LSU (and other schools) should allow transfers to go anywhere they want to go. In fact, it shouldn’t even be up to the schools. The NCAA should mandate it.
It’s worth noting that at least one restriction on a transfer from LSU proved to be negotiable. When DB Phelon Jones decided to transfer from LSU after the 2008 season due to lack of playing time (oh wait, I mean when he was “cut”), he wanted to transfer to Alabama. Miles said he could go to Auburn but not Alabama, which makes little sense because LSU plays both of them every year. After some pressure from Jones’ father, Miles relented and Jones transferred to Alabama where he will be eligible to play this fall after taking a redshirt year because of the transfer. What a tragedy, another life ruined.
July 23rd, 2010 - 11:27
I guess you have experience in what happens in an athletic program…NOT…I have seen kids get cut firsthand. This is about power and control and I will work to shift that balance of power to a more equitable position…You don’t have a clue…
July 23rd, 2010 - 11:37
Attaboy, can’t make an argument that Garrett wanted to spend another 3 years on the bench at LSU instead of transferring, so invoke your alleged credentials.
July 27th, 2010 - 13:28
alleged credentials??? I’m sure my credentials are lot more rock solid than your opinions…I’m more than a blind follower of football. I can actually think critically about issues and suggest measures for reform. I have a law degree and soon a PhD. I see inequity in the system and you just want to close your eyes to the truth and keep watching your Saturday past time. I have played more football that you could ever dream about.
This is about coaches, athletic departments and the power they exert over SA’s. Do you think they gave the kid the option of keeping his scholarship without being a part if the team(some schools do this because they really care about education, I was just speaking with an administrator at Wisconsin about this)? Why would they limit his transfer to one SEC school.?What other scholarship student would face these restrictions…none! Why are athletes different? This is about controlling the labor in the enterprise…The forces of change are on the march and we will see the revenue producing sports for what they really are. Semi-professional leagues that under-pay their labor force. I have several suggestions to correct the imbalance but many of you here don’t want to hear the truth or even hear critiques of the current system so I won’t post them unless asked.
July 27th, 2010 - 16:33
Again with the credentials. Does that mean anybody who disagrees with you on anything is a “blind follower of football”? I said “alleged credentials” because that’s what they are on the internet.
In your haste to assert that you’re smart and everybody else is dumb, that you care about the student athletes and nobody else does, that you possess not just opinions like the rest of us but the truth, you apparently didn’t notice that I said I don’t think a school should be allowed to restrict where one of their SAs can transfer, as LSU is doing with Garrett and as Alabama recently did with a basketball transfer. I’ve also posted on this forum that I believe SAs should receive some type of stipend for clothing and a little bit of walking around money given that many of them are poor and that big time athletic programs produce a lot of profit for the universities.
You’ve said that you think SAs should get an irrevocable 4 or 5 year scholarship. What do they owe to their university and athletic program in return? How about athletes that commit felonies, don’t go to class and make sufficient academic progress, don’t meet basic athletic requirements (stay in shape, maximum effort, etc.)? You don’t think universities should be able to pull scholarships from guys like Lawrence Phillips, Jimmy Johns, Maurice Clarett, Jeremiah Masoli, etc.? Tennessee just had a bunch of players involved in beating an off duty police officer unconscious. One of them, a rising sophomore, was kicked off the team and had his scholarship revoked. Was that too harsh? If you’re OK with that scholarship being pulled, where are the lines to be drawn and who should draw them, the universities that grant the scholarships or the NCAA?
July 27th, 2010 - 22:54
Okay. I will disregard any life experience and just comment as a concerned citizen. I agree with you that all restrictions should be lifted from transfers. You should be able to transfer wherever you want with no penalty.
Maybe you don’t know this, but up until 1973, all scholarships were 4yr deals. In 1973 they were changed to give coaches more control over the athlete. Basically, practice when I want and how long I want and then go study.
You lost all credibility when you named all athletes with criminal problems. Athletes with criminal problems should be treated just like regular students. Normally, there is some due process and they are expelled from the university. Obviously I will not defend people like this.
Everything else you mentioned is subjective. Coaches can say that I’m not putting forth effort whenever they want. Sometimes, coaches just miss on talent but they should not be allowed to disrupt the educational opportunity because of their poor scouting or for the simple reason that the person just doesn’t reach their expected potential. As far as sufficient academic progress. If you are succeeding according to University standards then you should keep your grant-in-aid. A potential solution is to allow these students to keep their grant-in-aid but convert it to an academic scholarship if you want them to reach certain standards.
Other solutions:
Get rid of scholarships and go to need based aid. This would help solve some of the budget problems of the athletic department.
Go to a budget cap for college athletics. The money has to go to really make this an amateur venture. The excess money should go to academics. Schools will have to reduce the salaries of coaches and athletic department personnel.
Athletic participation should be no more than 10-15 real hours per week. The 20 hr week rule is a joke. Most activities are done on a “volunteer” basis.
If we want to keep the commercial venture as is. We can still institute the budget cap and start paying all athletes a $1000/per month stipend. This would cost about 4-5 million depending on the number of athletes (normally about 400). Also let athletes capitalize on their talents. If we are such ardent capitalists, then why prohibit someone from maximizing earnings on talent? Licensing revenue, loans from banks, lets allow everyone to prosper.
Scholarship revoking and scholarship non-renewal are two different things. The university should determine when the scholarships are revoked or not renewed, not coaches…remember the main focus is on education not on playing sports. We have lost sight of that and have a fully commercialized enterprise that takes advantage of its labor force. Education isn’t “free” if you working a 50hr week job.
July 28th, 2010 - 09:48
I didn’t suggest that you not use your life experience in what you write. I did suggest that it is more useful to make lucid arguments instead of throwing out your credentials (which none of us can verify) to assert that your opinion is the truth.
Unless I am misreading your comments, your desire is to put the genie back in the bottle and basically convert the big money college sports (men’s football and basketball) into club sports. Given the massive TV contracts and the revenue from attendance at games, licensing, merchandising, etc. Good luck with that.
You talk about funneling money from athletic programs back into the university. Do you think the football programs at Alabama or Ohio State are net financial contributors or drains on the universities?
You’re right, it is a subjective judgment of a coach when he says a player has a bad attitude, is not putting forth sufficient effort, etc. That’s the way it is in most real world jobs. Whether a professor gives a student an A or a C on an essay has quite a bit of subjectivity to it. I don’t start from the premise that most college coaches are out to screw their student athletes, and I don’t think it is a great tragedy when a student athlete who doesn’t fit into an athletic program or school transfers to another one.
And while I think student athletes in the major revenue sports should get a modest stipend, I don’t think they’re getting a raw deal under the current environment. Any of them who don’t think an athletic scholarship is a fair deal are free to turn it down.
July 23rd, 2010 - 10:39
I assume you kept up with the Alonzo Lawrence story, Mario. Have you talked to anyone in T-Town about that one? The “truth” that was “right before our eyes” turned out to be something else entirely when the kid was summarily dismissed from Southern Miss almost immediately after he transferred there.
I agree with DP. You have read the Garretts’ side of this, but unless you are privy to a whole lot more information, what you are doing is SPECULATING. I said earlier that if it can be firmly established that this kid was “cut”, then shame on Miles and LSU.
But Alonzo Lawrence was the last “smoking gun” and that gun turned out to be a big pile of baloney.
July 27th, 2010 - 13:34
As you will notice, I don’t sit on these blogs everyday. I have a pretty busy life which does not include sports 24/7…So to answer your question, I don’t know about Alonzo. I can guarantee you this, there are more stories of athletes being pushed out of a program than you can ever imagine. I was talking to a D-1 basketball coach, and he confirmed that many times coaches want their own guys and they actively help people transfer…the nice way of putting it…
August 1st, 2010 - 10:06
Do you know why he was given permission to transfer to only one school in the SEC? Because that is his home state school that he was recruited by during the recruiting process. You guys are all up in arms because he can’t go to another SEC school when in reality no other SEC recruited him out of high-school and would not be interested in him now for his QB ability. All this outrage is comical for something that doesn’t even matter. He can go to ANY school he wants outside the SEC. Not much different than a no compete clause. Why let him go to any SEC rival and hand them information about your offense on a silver platter. He is allowed to go to the school he originally committed to in Miss St. or any other college outside the SEC. Wow, he has hundreds of choices. Poor kid…
July 23rd, 2010 - 12:12
DP,
You’re not reading what is being said! It is documented that Garrett received a letter in the mail telling him that his scholarship would not be renewed. He had no idea about this at the time and that is when he asked for his transfer. Read this: he asked for his transfer because he wasn’t going to have a Scholarship and he wasn’t going to play football for free. It is hard to assume this when Miles admitted it.
July 23rd, 2010 - 12:34
It’s not “documented”, the reports are conflicting. Here’s a report that says Garrett asked for his release:
http://lsu.rivals.com/barrier_noentry.asp?ReturnTo=&sid=&script=content.asp&cid=1101349&fid=&tid=&mid=&rid=
“LSU coach Les Miles confirmed Thursday night that redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Garrett is leaving the football program. Garrett had a meeting with Miles on Wednesday and asked for his release.”
I’ve read the accounts that Miles sent Garrett a letter telling him his scholarship was not being renewed. None of us know the order of events or all the circumstances. Maybe Miles did cut him, though I’d think given LSU’s shaky QB situation the 3rd string QB wouldn’t have been cut ahead of a 4th string tight end. Maybe they agreed in a meeting that it was best for all parties for Garrett to transfer and the letter only confirmed what had already been agreed upon.
It seems very likely to me that Garrett thinks he is a good QB and wants to play instead of sitting on the bench. I don’t find it very likely that Garrett was content being 3rd string at LSU and wanted to spend another 3-4 years there riding the bench until Miles cut him.
July 23rd, 2010 - 19:39
I believe the release that Garrett asked for was from his current scholarship agreement so that he could go ahead and start the transfer process. His scholarship, I believe, runs through the month of July and he probably just wanted to get out of town.
July 27th, 2010 - 13:31
This is the more likely scenario…He received the letter and then asked for his release because without the release he would have to sit out two years. With the release, the penalty is reduced to one year.
July 26th, 2010 - 16:18
Zach Lee is also coming in so he is not getting rid of the third sting “who was never really able to come in and compete.” It did say on Tigerbait how Garrett was home for the summer and received a piece of mail stating his scholarship would not be renewed. He was never aware of this before this had happened. Regardless of the situation these teams have way more normal attrition than a normal team. L.S.U has what? 3 guys going down this year for “medical redshirt?” There is only one guy I can think of on the Huskers in the last 6 years to receive one of those and he was kid who was getting playing time so it was a pretty big loss. Just saying. Also, on the tight end, it probably wouldnt be smart for him to cut the 4th string TE cause at times there are 2 of those on the field depending what formation they are in. I do know LSU runs some double tight so that wouldnt be smart especially when you have a stud qb coming in.
July 27th, 2010 - 16:44
“He was never aware of this before this had happened.”
You know this how, you were present in the meetings between Miles and Garrett?
You’re like Joshua, you simply assert things you can’t possibly know as fact, which makes having any discussion with either of you an exercise in futility.