Another Bad Day for Tarheel Police Blotter

With this news as our backdrop (all just from just ONE DAY last week), new news has surfaced this week that indicates that it is obvious that the Athletics program at UNC-Chapel Hill has completely lost control! Therefore, we are all ‘shocked’ that we haven’t seen any extreme columns from everyone’s favorite authority on these issues – Barry Saunders.

On the same day that defensive end Khalif Mitchell was kicked off the Carolina football team for undisclosed offenses (some close to football recruiting may call it “gray shirting” issues related to John Bunting’s over-flowing cap numbers), we learn that a group of Carolina football players are wanted in connecting with an alleged nightclub assault. (Link)

These players better hope that they are projected to be real producers on the field or their days in Chapel Hill will surely be over soon as Coach Bunting will do everything in his power to free up those scholarships that are so valuable to his 50 man recruiting classes.

In the category of alumni indescretions, sentencing has come down on the Columbia, SC doctor that is linked to former UNC football player Kevin Donnalley.

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22 Responses to Another Bad Day for Tarheel Police Blotter

  1. Cardiac95 07/20/2006 at 9:33 PM #

    Bunting has been shedding undesirable upperclassmen for how many seasons now? Combined with his over-promising of scholarships & I just can’t comprehend how he is still able to recruit as well as he does.

    I understand that the “unc Machine” more or less recruits itself, but honestly…..if you were are a blue-bellied high school football coach, would you feel good about sending one of your kids to chapel hill knowing that this kind of monkey-business could leave him high & dry?

  2. choppack1 07/20/2006 at 9:50 PM #

    Look for Glenn to speak about this if Bunting has another losing season.

    As for the assualts, maybe an overzealous DA can assemble the entire football team from a lineup and allow the victims to select who “done” it.

  3. T.A. 07/20/2006 at 9:53 PM #

    I know i dont know how he keeps recruiting. Our football coach said that if carolina ever offered scholorship and didnt promise that you would play within your first two years to not even take it. And any one whos on the scout team gets treated like garbage they cant eat with the team and dress out for games.

  4. T.A. 07/20/2006 at 9:54 PM #

    Oh on my last post i was referring to the first thing cardiac95 said about scholorships

  5. choppack1 07/20/2006 at 11:30 PM #

    cardiac 95 – if this was Amato having these issues – over-recruiting, apparent gray-shirting, and a plethora of defections and off-field issues – you’d bet it would be ongoing story critical of both Amato and our college.

  6. Mr O 07/21/2006 at 7:30 AM #

    The media would be eating Amato alive if this stuff was happening in Chapel Hill. It really is amazing how much trouble the kids in Chapel Hill have been getting in over there.

  7. 82grad 07/21/2006 at 7:33 AM #

    Word is that it was his grades. He’s been on academic probation, summer school grades came out, and he didn’t improve. He’s a starter on the D-line, Bunting wouldn’t “gray shirt” him.

  8. doatesjr 07/21/2006 at 8:15 AM #

    Have any particular players been named in connection with the assault? The story says there are no suspects, so I’m not sure where the statement “group of Carolina football players are wanted” came from. It’s probably a bit early to accuse anyone just because the “victim” stated football players were involved.

    And to say that Mitchell “was kicked off the Carolina football team for undisclosed offenses” is a bit harsh. It makes it sound like the kid murdered someone. Bunting made it sound like the separation was relatively amicable.

    SFN: Puhlease. A kid got kicked out of school and the ‘separation was relatively amicable’? When the offenses are disclosed, then they will no longer be “undsiclosed”. Until then, what are we supposed to say? If you’ve got a problem with the reporting of the Carolina football players at WRAL, then you should probably bring it up with WRAL.

  9. doatesjr 07/21/2006 at 9:45 AM #

    I’d say that any situation where the coach says “Khalif’s a good kid who has a lot of potential both on and off the field”, “there will be a distinct opportunity for him to return”, and “our football program will stay in close contact with him”, is relatively amicable. I know Bunting is not going to trash the kid in public, but there certainly doesn’t appear to be any burning bridges with this issue (so far at least).

    My problem wasn’t with WRAL’s reporting. They didn’t say anything about “a group of Carolina football players are wanted in connecting with an alleged nightclub assault”, that was what the original post said. The term “wanted” implies the players are going to be charged with some crime. The WRAL article said police were “talking” to the players. Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but we all need to be careful. These situations are rarely so cut and dried as ‘big-bad football players beat up on poor college kid just out having a few beers with his girl’.

    And finally, athletes are like anyone else. They do stupid things, and some get caught while others don’t. Throw in the fame aspect and it is easy to see how this stuff happens all over the country in athletic programs.

  10. StateFans 07/21/2006 at 9:58 AM #

    When Lorenzo Charles steals a pizza, we hear about it for 20 years.

    When Carolina players get in fights – you can list over 20 Tarheel players in the last 20 years involved in these incidents – we hear that “it happens everywhere”. (It’s like talking to SEC fans).

    When Chris Washburn steals a stereo, we hear about it for 20 years and hear about how bad of leader that Jimmy V is because he had so much ”trouble” in his program.

    When Carolina’s football team has a subtance abuse problem (over 6 players busted for pot in the last couple of years), we hear about how the “stuff happens all over the country in athletic programs”.

    When Mike O’Cain had 3 or 4 football players get arrested in a span of a couple of weeks in the mid 1990s for some fights and burglery, Barry Saunders ripped the entire program and MOC to the extreme of calling for the death of the program.

    When Carolina has experienced 3 to 4 TIMES that amount of legal problems under John Bunting, we hear nothing…and are told how “this stuff happens all over the country in athletic programs”.

    We will remember that.

  11. Cardiff Giant 07/21/2006 at 9:58 AM #

    Amato needs to beat him. Then it won’t matter how many of them end up in the calabezo. It will be more matters of ironic interest, like Duke’s QB getting bounced for plagiarism.

  12. doatesjr 07/21/2006 at 10:02 AM #

    Talk about ‘whine and cheese’…..

  13. garden gnome 07/21/2006 at 10:04 AM #

    doatesjr said:

    “And finally, athletes are like anyone else. They do stupid things, and some get caught while others don’t. Throw in the fame aspect and it is easy to see how this stuff happens all over the country in athletic programs.”

    obviously this is true, but it is also a truth that when they get caught they could be put under a media spotlight and be subject to ridicule from fans of opposing teams.

    they know it going in (it’s told to them over and over), so they just have to deal with it.

  14. choppack1 07/21/2006 at 10:15 AM #

    Statefans – It just really goes back to the “template.”

    The media has clear favorites. UNC enjoys and leverages this status. Last year, I think their football was trumped only by Tennessee in arrests. Yet, you don’t see the following – “He is the 6th player to be suspended for drug or law-breaking offenses in the last year.” Or even, “Khalif was part of highly regarded DL signees. He is the 3rd to be suspended for either all or part of the season.”

    See, when things go wrong at state, here’s the basic formula:

    State player arrested—>other state players have been arrested—->Amato is ethically challenged ——>State’s programs when they are good and supported by State fans are always shady —>This is a reflection of the school and it’s athletic department itself.

    However, when a UNC player is arrested – it’s always an isolated incident. Perhaps the best example of this was D’oh. Does anyone believe that if Coach D’oh was 26-6, Dave Glenn would have broken the story. In spite of going to Chapel Hill and playing under Dean, despite Dean’s covering up of all of Phil’s shortcomings – when D’oh messed – it was all D’oh’s fault (maybe some of it Baddour’s.) It’s certainly wasn’t a reflection of UNC. Nor are any of these arrests, suspensions a reflection of Bunting or UNC.

    I do have a prediction, if things start going badly this year in football – the tone will change. If a player is arrested during the season, and the season hasn’t been going as well as expected, miracously, the media will realize just how out of control things have been. And like w/ Doh – these won’t be a reflection of the Carolina, but of Bunting own shortcomings.

  15. JimValvano 07/21/2006 at 10:32 AM #

    This next comment has since been proven to be an incorrect view by StateFans. I agree with what StateFans is saying. Let’s give the Tarholes hell about it…they do it to us. Let’s stoop to their level and act like it’s the athletes that smoke pot, beat their girlfriend, steal radios or computers ,or sell their shoes that make the rivalry great. The rivalry certainly isn’t what it is today because of guys like Billy Cunningham, Tommy Burleson, Lorenzo Charles, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Sidney Lowe, Eric Montross, J.R. Reid, Chucky Brown, or Tom Gugliotta. Not to mention guys like LaKista McCuller, C.C. Harrison and Ishua Benjamin. The rivalry is built on f*ck ups like Kelsey Weemes, Chris Washburn, and some dumbsh*t football player that I’ve hardly even heard of that might, possibly, could have been, almost allegedly done something to get in trouble with the law. Don’t get me wrong, I love NCSU, I hate the Tarholes, but maybe we should let this young man slip his way into oblivion and concentrate on what makes the rivalry. The action on the field, on the court, on the diamond, etc. Not the action off field, court, or diamond.

    As much as I find it entertaining that some of UNC’s baby tarholes are getting into trouble…I just don’t think that it warrants being discussed. Football teams are going to have some bad apples. When you load up on young men whom have lived on top of the world in high school and jampack them into places with other “gods� from other high schools…one or two might turn out to be idiots and get into trouble. I would actually prefer to drop arguments and talk like this because I know NCSU’s history with some athletes and getting into trouble and I don’t think we can say very much… … …Just a thought.

  16. choppack1 07/21/2006 at 11:13 AM #

    JimValvano – You’re missing the point. The point isn’t that we’re pure, just that you’ll never hear from the media around here – or SI or ESPN for that manner, that the Tarheels are running an athletic department that is out of control. Let the same exact thing happen in our program – and it is not only a statement about the individual, but our program and our school.

    This is about fairness and how the media builds up some, while it tries to destroy others.

  17. BobLee 07/21/2006 at 11:42 AM #

    Allow me to let you Pack fans in on a little secret … UNCers continue to bring up “475� and “Amphibious� BECAUSE it ALWAYS drives you guys bonkers. It’s been 20 years … 20 more years from now it will still be regular ammunition in the rivalry war of words. The more you complain about it, the more entrenched it becomes.
    In addition, Wash and Shack were principal characters in the Jimmy V controversy as to their academic prowess. Shackleford is from my hometown. There are dozens of “How dumb was Shack …� stories that have never been circulated. As long as the Personal Fouls legend lives, so will “475� and “Amphibious�. Again … the more Wuffs discuss it, the more you extend its life.
    As to whose police blotter is longer? If one goes back over 30-40 years it might be exactly even … certainly not enough difference to argue over (but lets argue anyway!). If one conveniently picks weeks, years, decades to compare then it comes down to who does the picking … both programs have had their “moments� and will likely continue to.
    Only UNC’s most hardcore loons would deny that John Bunting’s program has consistently had “incidents� and that consistency seems in tact with this latest story.
    The “K Mays Kick A Geek” incident under Carl is my favorite UNC FB mess. Seven players maul a geek and the one “walk-on” walks the plank.
    Did Deano have “an arrangement� with CHPD? OF COURSE HE DID. It’s an advantage of being a dominant figure in a college town. UNC is Chapel Hill … NCSU is NOT Raleigh.
    I often wonder why ol’ Nakhtar isn’t mentioned more by Wuffs. He and LT are among UNC’s most embarrassing. King Rice putting his fist thru the CHPD wall is a fave of mine along with Bosley Allen various cavorts. As far as # times mentioned, Phil Ford’s name and sordid bio certainly appears regularly and has a guaranteed shelf life in the rivalry war.
    As for Barry Saunders. “Bojangles Barry� is a race-baiting jackass. His role with The N&O is to write provocative crap that will generate controversy. He is usually wrong as he was in the Chris Paul v Julius mess. That his garbage ALWAYS gets attention from Pack fans means he is “doing his job�. If you guys want to go down to the N&O office and throw rocks at Barry, I will hold your coats.

    BLS

  18. 82grad 07/21/2006 at 1:26 PM #

    BobLee, JimValvano, you guys are right on. The more you complain and compare each other’s troubles, the more it will be brought up by opposing fans, and possibly blow up in your face.
    Just beat em on the field/court and then you can laugh at them.

  19. vtpackfan 07/21/2006 at 2:52 PM #

    Both Durham and Raleigh have media, Chapel Hill has Nada. Duke athletes and students alike figured this out many years ago and have been disguising themselves before they take jaunt down to Franklin St.

  20. blpack 07/21/2006 at 3:35 PM #

    It’s been a calm year in CH, compared with the other Big 4 locations. Now they are having their own set of problems, again. Move along, nothing to see here…

  21. Kingfish76 07/22/2006 at 7:55 AM #

    The tarholes are an embarrassment and should leave the ACC. By the way, take dook with them on the way out.

  22. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 07/24/2006 at 2:55 PM #

    What ever became of Percy Morman I think that was the kids name? A QB for State that was charged with rape in the 80’s.

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