Blake called Austin, Thomas, Davis, and agent while Austin and Thomas trained in California before 2009 season

General UNC Scandal28

 

Let’s take a break from the cool new parking prong and look at an excellent piece from J.P. Giglio in this morning’s N & O.  I don’t have a ton of time, so I am just going to quote an excerpt.  The entire piece is well worth reading.

Thomas and Austin have said they went to the Proactive Sports Performance in Westlake Village, Calif. – where dozens of Wichard’s clients have trained – before the start of UNC’s training camp in August 2009.

A hotel receipt obtained by Yahoo! Sports, which financially links Austin to Wichard’s agency, shows the dates of the players’ stay in California as July 23 to Aug. 1

Between July 20 and Aug. 3, Blake’s phone records show that there were 20 calls or texts to Wichard’s cellphone, 10 to Austin’s and eight to Thomas’.

Blake was also in contact with Davis twice on July 28.

Austin said in a March 2011 interview that no one at UNC knew about the trip to California. The trip came under scrutiny during the NCAA investigation into whether players received preferential treatment, benefits or services.

“They had no reason to know,” Austin said of the trip at UNC’s pro day before the NFL draft on March 31. “I didn’t think I had to call the university and say, ‘Well, I’m going to California to go train.'”

Marvin sure was well-educated on NCAA regulations!  He is claiming had no idea he had to notify anyone that he was going to California to train at an agent’s facility on someone else’s dime?  They must have a tremendous compliance office over there.  Aside: will we have to vacate our 2009 win against them?

Also, I can’t resist this quote from the article:

In addition, the phone records show that Blake contacted numbers linked to Austin and Wichard during the NCAA investigators’ initial visit to campus last July.

Yeah, I’ll bet!

Stay tuned.

 

General UNC Scandal

28 Responses to Blake called Austin, Thomas, Davis, and agent while Austin and Thomas trained in California before 2009 season

  1. lush 06/17/2011 at 9:04 AM #

    so butch davis lied to the NCAA when he said that he knew nothing about the trip.

    and the assistant head coach, who is employed by the university and the agent, set up the trip.

    when does espn start calling for butch the way they did tressel?

  2. MattN 06/17/2011 at 9:07 AM #

    This will end badly for Davis. No wonder UNC resisted with everything they had against the release of this stuff.

  3. Gowolves 06/17/2011 at 9:16 AM #

    Come on guys! I want him gone along with Dicky and Thorpe. I have much dislike for UNC. With that being said the above quotes do not link anything to Davis that he knew. Now we all know he did but right now all we have is circumstantial. Again all this is not enough to clean house unless they can prove the cars belonged to a UNC alumus or agent or If BMFD knew what was going on. Now there is a lot of smoke and the NCAA might come back say there is no way in the world he couldn’t have known. They just have to have a preponderance of evidence. Kinda like a civil trial.

  4. BJD95 06/17/2011 at 9:29 AM #

    The cat pictures make this Schadenfreude Christmas (or maybe Hannukah, since it’s a mutli-day rollout) even more fun. Kudos to OMD!!

  5. TAEdisonHokie 06/17/2011 at 9:46 AM #

    Butch Davis is caught between a rock and a hard place at this point in time. The timing of those two communications from Blake to Davis on July 28th seems to indicate they were talking about more than just defensive line schemes. If Butch knew what was going on, and there is strong circumstantial evidence indicating that he did, his tenure at UNC is going to be much shortened. If he really didn’t know about the cars, the training trips, the parties, and all of the other stuff we’ve been reading about over the past year, then at the very least, this points to a major lack of institutional control.

  6. lush 06/17/2011 at 9:56 AM #

    didnt the ncsa recently rule that it was not enough to not have known anything? the head coach should know if there was this many violations arount the program

  7. MattN 06/17/2011 at 10:07 AM #

    Gowolves: The NCAA is not a court of law. You do not need to be sure beyond a shadow of a doubt. If the NCAA THINKS you did it, you did it as far as they are concerned.

    The level of proof is not the same as a courtroom….

  8. package5 06/17/2011 at 10:09 AM #

    did they release Davis’ phone records?

    someone in the media tweeted yesterday that UNC did not release Davis’ phone records…. am I right?

  9. Hungwolf 06/17/2011 at 10:10 AM #

    Butch knowingly hired a dirty coach. Other coaches at UNC not associated with the football program knew Blake was dirty. Blake lied, called players while investigation going on. Baddour, thorpe, and davis have lost all creditability with media as it is apparent they have lied to the media and were not forthcoming with the facts. The phone calls are the first evidence of much more to come that will keep linking Davis to the fact that he did know and Baddour & Thorpe covering it up. I still say Davis black mailing UNC, guarantee he’s told them if he goes down he taking the Bball program and the administration with him. Why else would UNC go to such links to protect his crooked ass?

  10. GAWolf 06/17/2011 at 10:17 AM #

    you know how Indians used moons to calculate time? Unc uses Fridays. how many Fridays can they keep up the hilarious charade that they aren’t caught red-damned-handed?

    They’re like Barney from How I met your Mother….wait for it…wait for it….

  11. Old MacDonald 06/17/2011 at 10:19 AM #

    “did they release Davis’ phone records?”

    I don’t think so — that N and O piece seems to have been written using Blake’s records.

  12. Gowolves 06/17/2011 at 10:19 AM #

    I do beleive is it like a civil case. It walks like a duck and quacks like a duck its a duck. “Beyond a shadow of doubt” your words is more in crimal cases where you are innocent until proven otherwise. In a civil trial the level of proof is much lower. It is similar to a courtroom when comes to civil cases.

  13. WolfBlood 06/17/2011 at 10:20 AM #

    This is all so much fun.

  14. logarithm 06/17/2011 at 10:32 AM #

    None of this is damning but it all expands the investigation. I’m hoping the gaps in the records, their lack of cooperation in releasing them, and just how suspicious they are all speak to the character of the program in general. It’d be a shame if anything got dismissed because Blake, Austin or Little were already out of the picture. I’m also hoping their recruits are put off by the idea of going into a program with at least some kind of punishment hanging over their heads.

  15. BJD95 06/17/2011 at 10:34 AM #

    Death by a thousand cuts is the phrase that comes to mind.

  16. 1.21 Jigawatts 06/17/2011 at 10:40 AM #

    jpgiglio
    “UNC provided a summary of Butch Davis’ cell use on his ‘919’ number which included zero calls”

    “Records for the ‘216’ number Davis uses, and showed up on Blake’s record, were not released”

  17. 1.21 Jigawatts 06/17/2011 at 10:45 AM #

    jpgiglio
    “It’s an assumption at this point that Davis pays for the 216 number out of his pocket”

    “Given the stall tatics from UNC during the entirety of the lawsuit and investigation, that’s not a given”

    “Clearly, Davis had the 216 # from Cleveland, was hired by UNC and kept it. Nothing nefarious about that”

    “We were given the 919 records from Dec.2008 to Nov.2010, there isn’t a single call on the log provided to us”

  18. TAEdisonHokie 06/17/2011 at 11:10 AM #

    You have to ask yourself why Butch Davis’ 216 call records were not released.

  19. lsutton5144 06/17/2011 at 11:10 AM #

    So if you have enough sense to think ahead – and I really hate giving credit to Davis for doing that – you use your own cell pnone to make calls on, knowing that the records could probably not be accessed but the school issued phone probably could. I don’t think for a minute that he didn’t make any calls at all,just not any on the “919” phone.

  20. Tampa-Pack 06/17/2011 at 11:26 AM #

    This is why everyone on the staff has lawyered-up. They all know everyone knew everything and are trying to save whatever piece of their ass is left. No doubt Butch knows this goes on at other unc departments and has threatened to take everything down if he isn’t taken care of. Otherwise he is canned day 1 – to maintain the “carolina way”. I’m so glad he didn’t fall on the sword. Thank goodness for those car bowl participation trophies!

  21. Old MacDonald 06/17/2011 at 11:29 AM #

    “You have to ask yourself why Butch Davis’ 216 call records were not released.”

    Yeah, that’s a real mystery. LOL

  22. MattN 06/17/2011 at 11:38 AM #

    They will claim because it his personal phone. But university business done on a personal phone is subject to FOI as well. Otherwise, politicians all across the US would have a secret phone that they’d do all their dirty work on….

  23. IamGumbyDammit 06/17/2011 at 12:11 PM #

    Wanna bet he billed UNX for his personal phone on an expense report? If so, UNX should have received a FULL copy of the bill and ta-da! – a public record. Even if he didn’t, I have to agree with MattN that you can’t (or at least shouldn’t be able to) hide official work on a private number to avoid NC Public Records laws. After all, Palin released her yahoo emails for that FOI request.

    I am both baffled by the Three Gay Caballeros’ repeated straight-faced assertions that they have cooperated fully throughout this investigation (and somewhat impressed they do so with a straight face). Can someone point me to the dictionary where “cooperate fully” is defined as “lie, deny, hide, delay, appeal, ligate, withhold, and obscure”?

  24. Gowolves 06/17/2011 at 12:20 PM #

    “Three Gay Caballeros”

    LOL now that good sir is funny!

  25. GAWolf 06/17/2011 at 1:01 PM #

    There is a case in the Colorado Supreme Court, Crummy v. Ritter, that addresses this exact issue. If held as scheduled, the case was heard in April 2011. I cannot find that a decision has been rendered… more info here, including access to all of the brifs filed for and against the release of personal cell phone records used to conduct state business by a state official/employee:

    http://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Education/Materials.cfm?s=Spring&y=2011

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