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An interesting story I heard last fall from a former recruit.

HuskerBlueDevil

HuskerBlueDevil

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Nov 14, 2005
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Decided at the time to save this for a more dead time on the board, and the reference to the BYU player below reminded me of it.

I deliver for an organization that provides meals for people who can't shop and/or cook for health reasons. Last summer I started delivering to a very large man. We talked sports each time I stopped by. Then one Saturday in the fall he saw the NU blackshirts tee that I was wearing and told me that he had been recruited to play DL at NU back in the late 80's.

According to this guy he had narrowed his choices down to Baylor and NU, with NU leading. Then out of the blue BYU contacted him and offered him a new car, $5,000 cash, and a dorm room all to himself if he went to BYU. As he said to me "I knew it was wrong, but I came from the poorest family imaginable, and the $5,000 would be a huge help to the family. Plus I couldn't even imagine what driving a new car was like." He then contacted NU and told them about the offer. While he didn't come right out and say it, he said he was hinting at a counter-offer from NU. He said he could not remember what assistant he talked to, but the assistant responded with "That's not how we do things at Nebraska. Good luck with whatever you do, son." and that was it for NU.

He went to BYU, got everything they had offered, plus two young women that he referred to jokingly as his "girlfriends". They weren't girlfriends in that sense however. The interesting thing was that he was strictly required to attend class and write papers himself. The job of the "girlfriends" was to then take his, as he admitted, terribly written papers, and rewrite them in acceptable college format and style.

Obviously I'm not going to name names, but I looked the guy up online and a person by that name did play for BYU during that time frame, and later had a "cup of coffee" with two pro teams.
 
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I had a friend and seperately, a good friends best friend talk of their offers decades ago. Colo and others made a similar offer; as above. Nebraska would have no part of it. These were kids N wanted and one ended up all conference elsewhere; sure there are other stories, but we were not easy it seems.
 
HuskerBlueDevil said:
Decided at the time to save this for a more dead time on the board, and the reference to the BYU player below reminded me of it.

I deliver for an organization that provides meals for people who can't shop and/or cook for health reasons. Last summer I started delivering to a very large man. We talked sports each time I stopped by. Then one Saturday in the fall he saw the NU blackshirts tee that I was wearing and told me that he had been recruited to play DL at NU back in the late 80's.

According to this guy he had narrowed his choices down to Baylor and NU, with NU leading. Then out of the blue BYU contacted him and offered him a new car, $5,000 cash, and a dorm room all to himself if he went to BYU. As he said to me "I knew it was wrong, but I came from the poorest family imaginable, and the $5,000 would be a huge help to the family. Plus I couldn't even imagine what driving a new car was like." He then contacted NU and told them about the offer. While he didn't come right out and say it, he said he was hinting at a counter-offer from NU. He said he could not remember what assistant he talked to, but the assistant responded with "That's not how we do things at Nebraska. Good luck with whatever you do, son." and that was it for NU.

He went to BYU, got everything they had offered, plus two young women that he referred to jokingly as his "girlfriends". They weren't girlfriends in that sense however. The interesting thing was that he was strictly required to attend class and write papers himself. The job of the "girlfriends" was to then take his, as he admitted, terribly written papers, and rewrite them in acceptable college format and style.

Obviously I'm not going to name names, but I looked the guy up online and a person by that name did play for BYU during that time frame, and later had a "cup of coffee" with two pro teams.
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Ray-Allen-Threesome-He-Got-Game.jpg


Jesus Shuttlesworth says hello....
 
I work with a guy down here that played for Bama in the Franchione days. He was offered by a bunch of D1 Schools. He said that Bama didn't offer anything, but Auburn offered a new car.
 
Former QB for Minnesota, I heard him on ESPN radio giving a radio interview and he said his family was offered some cattle by a certain University back when he was coming out of high school. They were ranchers, so I guess they were targeting his family's interest. He did not sign with them. I THINK it was Sean Salisbury.
 
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If we're not offering cash to top recruits, then we need to start. The NCAA has proven it won't actually punish any major conference schools for infractions. All you do is pull the Auburn defense: we had no knowledge of it. Just claim the wealthy alum was going to donate $200k to the recruit's dad's church anyway.

Until the NCAA actually starts punishing people for recruiting infractions, then you'd be dumb not to cheat. Championships are more fun than honorable 9-4 seasons, especially when everybody else is already cheating.
 
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HuskerBlueDevil said:
Decided at the time to save this for a more dead time on the board, and the reference to the BYU player below reminded me of it.

I deliver for an organization that provides meals for people who can't shop and/or cook for health reasons. Last summer I started delivering to a very large man. We talked sports each time I stopped by. Then one Saturday in the fall he saw the NU blackshirts tee that I was wearing and told me that he had been recruited to play DL at NU back in the late 80's.

According to this guy he had narrowed his choices down to Baylor and NU, with NU leading. Then out of the blue BYU contacted him and offered him a new car, $5,000 cash, and a dorm room all to himself if he went to BYU. As he said to me "I knew it was wrong, but I came from the poorest family imaginable, and the $5,000 would be a huge help to the family. Plus I couldn't even imagine what driving a new car was like." He then contacted NU and told them about the offer. While he didn't come right out and say it, he said he was hinting at a counter-offer from NU. He said he could not remember what assistant he talked to, but the assistant responded with "That's not how we do things at Nebraska. Good luck with whatever you do, son." and that was it for NU.

He went to BYU, got everything they had offered, plus two young women that he referred to jokingly as his "girlfriends". They weren't girlfriends in that sense however. The interesting thing was that he was strictly required to attend class and write papers himself. The job of the "girlfriends" was to then take his, as he admitted, terribly written papers, and rewrite them in acceptable college format and style.

Obviously I'm not going to name names, but I looked the guy up online and a person by that name did play for BYU during that time frame, and later had a "cup of coffee" with two pro teams.
Click to expand...

Seems like between a few decades ago and now, there would have been sufficient dead time on the board...
 
redfanusa said:
If we're not offering cash to top recruits, then we need to start. The NCAA has proven it won't actually punish any major conference schools for infractions. All you do is pull the Auburn defense: we had no knowledge of it. Just claim the wealthy alum was going to donate $200k to the recruit's dad's church anyway.

Until the NCAA actually starts punishing people for recruiting infractions, then you'd be dumb not to cheat. Championships are more fun than honorable 9-4 seasons, especially when everybody else is already cheating.
Click to expand...

Not only no, but Hell NO.
 
redfanusa said:
If we're not offering cash to top recruits, then we need to start. The NCAA has proven it won't actually punish any major conference schools for infractions. All you do is pull the Auburn defense: we had no knowledge of it. Just claim the wealthy alum was going to donate $200k to the recruit's dad's church anyway.

Until the NCAA actually starts punishing people for recruiting infractions, then you'd be dumb not to cheat. Championships are more fun than honorable 9-4 seasons, especially when everybody else is already cheating.
Click to expand...

There is actually some truth to this reasoning.. if we are not doing things that are considered normal, then we purposely put ourselves at a disadvantage, but it's still a very slippery slope once you start doing something like this, and I don't think most people are going to want that kind of reputation. The perks of being a football player at UNL are still there, but obviously I don't think 60,000 dollar family payouts are right either.

The new $3700 stipend is not going to mean a whole lot in the decision making for an athlete. But it's true that we have a small population base and have to recruit nationally and well, if other schools are paying for the top athletes, it shows you just how much of an uphill battle we have.

I wonder what it's like at Michigan and Ohio State?
 
Pay players for a cple years, start dominating and then you can ride that momentum of a MNC and not have to pay players cuz they will want to come on their own. Just a pipedream
 
NikkiSixx said:
There is actually some truth to this reasoning.. if we are not doing things that are considered normal, then we purposely put ourselves at a disadvantage, but it's still a very slippery slope once you start doing something like this, and I don't think most people are going to want that kind of reputation. The perks of being a football player at UNL are still there, but obviously I don't think 60,000 dollar family payouts are right either.

The new $3700 stipend is not going to mean a whole lot in the decision making for an athlete. But it's true that we have a small population base and have to recruit nationally and well, if other schools are paying for the top athletes, it shows you just how much of an uphill battle we have.

I wonder what it's like at Michigan and Ohio State?
Click to expand...
One of my former employees was a big recruit for Michigan. He came from a very wealthy family and was not offered any money or cars. But he said shady stuff happened with other recruits, mainly the poor kids from Detroit and the surrounding areas. There were the booster handshakes with $100 bills along with the phony jobs and other benefits that everybody received. He bartended at a busy bar owned by a booster and said he made about $300/night, and really didn't actually do the bartending work much. They just wanted football players behind the bar and then had other bartenders who did most of the actuall work. Said it was the easiest job he ever had and he made mad cash. You are kidding yourself if you don't think this goes on at every university because it does. The difference is some schools take it to another level. The is no way to control boosters and what goes on with 18 yr old recruits. The schools can do a better job of monitoring the coaches though. Heck I saw a Northwestern Asst Basketball Coach pull out a huge roll of cash in a busy restaurant and peel off a bunch of $$$$ and hand it to the star player. He did this right out in the open and didn't care who saw it.

I know one school where an alumni has a credit card on file with a college bar and if any of the players come in to drink the bartenders put their drinks on the boosters tab. No questions asked he pays it. The owners of the bar and the university have no idea this is going on because the booster set it up with a manager at the bar. The owners would be pissed if they found out. It is good for their business to have the jocks in there but they would not want to be involved with that sort of illegal activities.
 
Mtnhusker said:
One of my former employees was a big recruit for Michigan. He came from a very wealthy family and was not offered any money or cars. But he said shady stuff happened with other recruits, mainly the poor kids from Detroit and the surrounding areas. There were the booster handshakes with $100 bills along with the phony jobs and other benefits that everybody received. He bartended at a busy bar owned by a booster and said he made about $300/night, and really didn't actually do the bartending work much. They just wanted football players behind the bar and then had other bartenders who did most of the actuall work. Said it was the easiest job he ever had and he made mad cash. You are kidding yourself if you don't think this goes on at every university because it does. The difference is some schools take it to another level. The is no way to control boosters and what goes on with 18 yr old recruits. The schools can do a better job of monitoring the coaches though. Heck I saw a Northwestern Asst Basketball Coach pull out a huge roll of cash in a busy restaurant and peel off a bunch of $$$$ and hand it to the star player. He did this right out in the open and didn't care who saw it.

I know one school where an alumni has a credit card on file with a college bar and if any of the players come in to drink the bartenders put their drinks on the boosters tab. No questions asked he pays it. The owners of the bar and the university have no idea this is going on because the booster set it up with a manager at the bar. The owners would be pissed if they found out. It is good for their business to have the jocks in there but they would not want to be involved with that sort of illegal activities.
Click to expand...

Exactly and yes!
 
redfanusa said:
If we're not offering cash to top recruits, then we need to start. The NCAA has proven it won't actually punish any major conference schools for infractions. All you do is pull the Auburn defense: we had no knowledge of it. Just claim the wealthy alum was going to donate $200k to the recruit's dad's church anyway.

Until the NCAA actually starts punishing people for recruiting infractions, then you'd be dumb not to cheat. Championships are more fun than honorable 9-4 seasons, especially when everybody else is already cheating.
Click to expand...

I start with the premise that absolutely EVERYONE in major college athletics with any means to do so, has at best chosen to ignore rules violations, if they . If you don't think that's factual, I don't even want to know where you stand on how "we" should go about fixing the problem. The NCAA has the same problems inherent in any entity of its size and scope: corruption, bureaucracy, shortsightedness, largely being clueless about the "realities" of today's "student-athlete", thinking their intended mission matters anymore, etc. Really it's just a microcosm that mimics the problems facing our Country in general.

Think these recruits would care about being on social media trying to impress anyone with money or material possessions if they hadn't seen someone else do it first? I certainly don't. Never count on depreciating assets, instead, actually fix the culture feeding into
Mtnhusker said:
One of my former employees was a big recruit for Michigan. He came from a very wealthy family and was not offered any money or cars. But he said shady stuff happened with other recruits, mainly the poor kids from Detroit and the surrounding areas. There were the booster handshakes with $100 bills along with the phony jobs and other benefits that everybody received. He bartended at a busy bar owned by a booster and said he made about $300/night, and really didn't actually do the bartending work much. They just wanted football players behind the bar and then had other bartenders who did most of the actuall work. Said it was the easiest job he ever had and he made mad cash. You are kidding yourself if you don't think this goes on at every university because it does. The difference is some schools take it to another level. The is no way to control boosters and what goes on with 18 yr old recruits. The schools can do a better job of monitoring the coaches though. Heck I saw a Northwestern Asst Basketball Coach pull out a huge roll of cash in a busy restaurant and peel off a bunch of $$$$ and hand it to the star player. He did this right out in the open and didn't care who saw it.

I know one school where an alumni has a credit card on file with a college bar and if any of the players come in to drink the bartenders put their drinks on the boosters tab. No questions asked he pays it. The owners of the bar and the university have no idea this is going on because the booster set it up with a manager at the bar. The owners would be pissed if they found out. It is good for their business to have the jocks in there but they would not want to be involved with that sort of illegal activities.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of Samuri Sam's and the Wilson Thomas quotes when he only referred to himself in the third person.

"Wilson Thomas don't take out no trash!" "Wilson Thomas don't clean dishes!" And so on.....dude basically just hung out in there, ate for free, and collected a paycheck. But I'm sure it was TOTALLY on the up and up....
 
Mtnhusker said:
One of my former employees was a big recruit for Michigan. He came from a very wealthy family and was not offered any money or cars. But he said shady stuff happened with other recruits, mainly the poor kids from Detroit and the surrounding areas. There were the booster handshakes with $100 bills along with the phony jobs and other benefits that everybody received. He bartended at a busy bar owned by a booster and said he made about $300/night, and really didn't actually do the bartending work much. They just wanted football players behind the bar and then had other bartenders who did most of the actuall work. Said it was the easiest job he ever had and he made mad cash. You are kidding yourself if you don't think this goes on at every university because it does. The difference is some schools take it to another level. The is no way to control boosters and what goes on with 18 yr old recruits. The schools can do a better job of monitoring the coaches though. Heck I saw a Northwestern Asst Basketball Coach pull out a huge roll of cash in a busy restaurant and peel off a bunch of $$$$ and hand it to the star player. He did this right out in the open and didn't care who saw it.

I know one school where an alumni has a credit card on file with a college bar and if any of the players come in to drink the bartenders put their drinks on the boosters tab. No questions asked he pays it. The owners of the bar and the university have no idea this is going on because the booster set it up with a manager at the bar. The owners would be pissed if they found out. It is good for their business to have the jocks in there but they would not want to be involved with that sort of illegal activities.
Click to expand...


DeAndre Johnson says hello!!! #athletesinbarsareagoodthing
 
1. Back during the Albert Means $200K payoff involving Alabama, the story mentioned that when his h.s. coach asked the NU coaches who visited what they could offer they just laughed and left. This was in the Solich era IIRC. I remember Michigan State was still in the running after that, whatever that means lol.

2. I went to college with a sucky team, but their best players still got cash in plain envelopes after games. Addressed to their campus mailbox. For example if the RB got 100 yards he'd get a bonus amount. No way to tell who or where it came from. The benefits like that and others described above happen on the periphery of the program, and probably cannot be controlled. When they get excessive the risk increases of getting caught though.
 
NCAA can't and wont do crap unless there is a smoking gun and they're getting raked over the coals in the media.

The only thing that will have an affect is if the IRS gets annoyed with the lost revenue from non-reported income and decides to make an example out of several people.
 
huskrz said:
If you don't think that NU alum/boosters haven't dropped some cash for kids back in the 80's and 90's you're sadly mistaken.
Click to expand...
Hell I know for a fact that it happened and does continue to happen. I take exemption to the absolutes being presented, and somehow the goal justifies the means. Integrity either you have it or you don't.
 
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elvis1403 said:
Ok offer proof
Click to expand...
I know some stories -- not SEC-sized stories, mind you, but some stories. I am sure some people on this board know a lot more stories than I do. However, I'm not going to to call out specific past huskers whom I know personally just to satisfy your curiosity, nor are they. If you'd rather believe the program has always been squeaky clean, be my guest.
 
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elvis1403 said:
Ok offer proof
Click to expand...

I don't have any specific proof myself, but in the reviled Big Red Confidential book from the early 90's, it was noted that NU had a program where families in the Lincoln area would take kids in and give them a home away from home. It was supposed to be that kids got their clothes washed and a hot meal on Sunday nights, but the NCAA eventually barred the practice. The rumor was that this was being misused, including at Nebraska where the laundry would show back up with hundred dollar bills pressed in the stack of of clothes.
 
While Big Red Confidential might have had one or two kernels' of truth in it, I wouldn't count on it. The very first sentence in he dust jacket blurb contained the lie that the athletic department owned two or three corporate jets that were used for nothing but to ferry coaches and recruits around. Things got less truthful from there. For example, according to the book, Nate Mason allegedly talked extensively about cocaine use by certain star players. In an interview with Mason done as part of a 6 part expose of the book by the LJS, Mason said that he only talked to Keteyian's researcher to tell him to get lost, and the only mention of cocaine was when the researcher offered Mason cocaine in exchange for dirt on players. Mason said that's when he threw the researcher down a flight of stairs. Having played a lot of pickup basketball with Mason, I can believe that. The thing is, I heard Keteyian on, of all things, a Denver radio station admit that he had hired college kids to do research for the book and had offered large bonuses for dirt. So when the dirt couldn't be dug up, it was made up. Combine that with the fact that Keteyian checked virtually none of the facts himself, or had anyone else do so, and you get a pretty good idea of Keteyian's journalistic integrity from the book, rather than any facts on NU.
 
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Well to be very clear, and all I will divulge, is I went to Lincoln from 1992-1997. I roomed with a starting player for 2 years, and am friends with many players that were on the team at the time. If you don't think that specific players who balled out got envelopes by specific boosters at the after game dinner, then you are living in a dream world. I will not give any information, but I know 100% for a fact it happened. And it wasn't just the football team, but also the basketball team FYI.
 
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General rule among college fans: The other schools cheat. My school never does.
 
I am sure lots of bad things happened, but it doesn't mean the story in the OP didn't. Way to go, nameless assistant coach!
 
HuskerBlueDevil said:
While Big Red Confidential might have had one or two kernels' of truth in it, I wouldn't count on it. The very first sentence in he dust jacket blurb contained the lie that the athletic department owned two or three corporate jets that were used for nothing but to ferry coaches and recruits around. Things got less truthful from there. For example, according to the book, Nate Mason allegedly talked extensively about cocaine use by certain star players. In an interview with Mason done as part of a 6 part expose of the book by the LJS, Mason said that he only talked to Keteyian's researcher to tell him to get lost, and the only mention of cocaine was when the researcher offered Mason cocaine in exchange for dirt on players. Mason said that's when he threw the researcher down a flight of stairs. Having played a lot of pickup basketball with Mason, I can believe that. The thing is, I heard Keteyian on, of all things, a Denver radio station admit that he had hired college kids to do research for the book and had offered large bonuses for dirt. So when the dirt couldn't be dug up, it was made up. Combine that with the fact that Keteyian checked virtually none of the facts himself, or had anyone else do so, and you get a pretty good idea of Keteyian's journalistic integrity from the book, rather than any facts on NU.
Click to expand...
Link?
 
HuskerBlueDevil said:
While Big Red Confidential might have had one or two kernels' of truth in it, I wouldn't count on it. The very first sentence in he dust jacket blurb contained the lie that the athletic department owned two or three corporate jets that were used for nothing but to ferry coaches and recruits around. Things got less truthful from there. For example, according to the book, Nate Mason allegedly talked extensively about cocaine use by certain star players. In an interview with Mason done as part of a 6 part expose of the book by the LJS, Mason said that he only talked to Keteyian's researcher to tell him to get lost, and the only mention of cocaine was when the researcher offered Mason cocaine in exchange for dirt on players. Mason said that's when he threw the researcher down a flight of stairs. Having played a lot of pickup basketball with Mason, I can believe that. The thing is, I heard Keteyian on, of all things, a Denver radio station admit that he had hired college kids to do research for the book and had offered large bonuses for dirt. So when the dirt couldn't be dug up, it was made up. Combine that with the fact that Keteyian checked virtually none of the facts himself, or had anyone else do so, and you get a pretty good idea of Keteyian's journalistic integrity from the book, rather than any facts on NU.
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When your name lends itself to a nickname like Drug DuNose you might say association with the activity was inevitable.
 
Edit
WestOmahaFirstWorldProblems said:
When your name lends itself to a nickname like Drug DuNose you might say association with the activity was inevitable.
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I don't think anyone is denying that drug use occurred. TO has said as much. But I was pointing out that Big Red Confidential is not a reliable source, since player after player quoted in the book denied even speaking with Keteyian's "researchers". I knew one of the players pretty well who Mason allegedly gave details about concerning their cocaine use, and another such player in passing. Neither used any sort of drugs at all, to my knowledge. The player who I knew in passing was so careful about what he put in his body he rarely drank anything but water or milk. He occasionally would go nuts and drink a soda (the only "Coke" I saw him use) but never even drank alcohol. Another interesting thing brought up in the LJS (which may be online, BTW, but I have no idea; I relied on my hard copy and my copy of BRC that I bought as a remainder at B. Dalton for $1.99) was that a DT from California was also quoted in BRC saying some damaging things about improper payments and drugs, IIRC. He was a very high profile recruit, but was kicked off the team by TO following his freshman year, and said some pretty unflattering things about the "sanctimonious" TO when he left. Yet even though he had no reason to support NU and TO, he stated that not only had he not said the things attributed to him in BRC, but he spoke to Keteyian's researchers only long enough to say that he had nothing to say about NU.

Edit: Pulled down my copy of BRC and actually paid $2.99 for it at B. Dalton. Sorry, Arman.
 
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