Coach luper "a used car salesman"

[BZ770]

Thad Ayers is a tool I copied it so he won't get paid.

"Yolanda Smith has a unique perspective on Saturday’s SEC championship game between Auburn and South Carolina.

She’ll be in the stands at the Georgia Dome to watch her son, Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina’s freshman-sensation tailback, whose college decision last February came down to an intense recruiting battle between the Gamecocks and Auburn.

She is fiercely protective of her son, who is third in the SEC in rushing yards. So much so that being in “super-protect-your-son-mode” had her struggling with a cold earlier this week.

And with the father of Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton making headlines recently for having shopped his son to Mississippi State in a play-for-pay scheme, Smith is a college football star’s parent who refreshingly stands for integrity. She’s the mother feared by coaches willing to break NCAA rules.

“I guess you could label me as an 'I’ll tell on you' type of person,” says Smith, a court clerk, who works in Spartanburg County’s warrants division in South Carolina.

Smith has proven that. When attractive University of Tennessee hostesses attended one of her son’s high school football games last season at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., she had her son discuss it with The New York Times.

Because there’s an unwritten code of silence among recruits, that wasn’t a popular decision among two of his Byrnes High teammates, who were also being recruited by Tennessee and refused to talk publicly about the hostesses. But that didn’t stop Smith and Lattimore, the Class of 2010’s top-ranked high school tailback, from discussing the matter with an NCAA investigator.

So when Smith talks, we should all listen, carefully, especially when it comes to her thoughts on the differences between the way her son was recruited by Auburn and South Carolina.



They'll pay
The NCAA is playing a dangerous game in the Cam Newton mess, Bruce Hooley says.
She describes Curtis Luper, Auburn’s running backs coach and recruiting coordinator, as a “used car salesman.”

“He appeared to be kind of like, sort of a ‘whatever it takes’ kind of person,” Smith says.

Smith wants to make it clear that, to the best of her knowledge, neither Luper nor anybody else at Auburn offered money or anything else to her or anyone in her family. She says she made it known to all schools recruiting her son that she would not allow the breaking of NCAA rules.

“It’s all in the way you present yourself to any schools on how they’ll approach you,” she says. “Once they realized that’s not who we were, they knew better.”

But of Auburn, she says, “They tried to do and say whatever they could to get him there. They definitely did that much.”

Smith says Luper made so many promises to her son that she had to ask him to stop.

“Anything that you tell him, I would expect you to do,” Smith recalls telling Luper. “This is a 17-year-old kid coming to your school and you’re telling him he’s going on the field and he’ll play as a freshman. You don’t even know if he’s physically able or if he’ll be able to do that.”

After Luper failed to hit it off with Smith, she says Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn stepped in as the Tigers’ lead recruiter for her son. She gushes about Malzahn, who she describes as “a super cool, great guy,” and his wife, Kristi.

“Coach Malzahn is a man of integrity,” Smith says. “That’s how I feel about him.”

But Smith says Luper remained persistent in recruiting her son and continued to visit occasionally.

“He was all about, you know, ‘No matter what, we’re going to take care of Marcus,’” Smith says.

And when it became clear to Luper that Lattimore was going to choose South Carolina, he made a last-ditch attempt at him, Smith says.

“He asked us what was Auburn missing that South Carolina had,” she says. “Different things like that. He wanted to know what more that they could do.”



Role reversal
How on earth did Steve Spurrier become the face of virtue? Steve Eubanks explains.
Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson did not return a call, text-message or e-mail seeking comment from Luper as of Friday night.

It came as no surprise to Smith that Luper was one of the main Auburn coaches who recruited Newton.

“I assumed that’s who it was,” she says. “I’m assuming they used the coach that best appealed to that particular player and his family in order to get them to come to their school.”

Yet Smith credits “God’s hands” for her son not attending Auburn and him being able to avoid the controversy surrounding Newton.

“He steered us in the right direction,” she says. “And for that, I’m very, very thankful.”

As is South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who unlike Luper, didn’t make any promises to Lattimore, Smith says.

“South Carolina let him know that if you come here, you’re going to have to prove yourself,” she says. “That’s what we liked about South Carolina. You’ve got to prove yourself. They weren’t going to promise you anything.”

So when Lattimore decided on South Carolina over Auburn because of its proximity to home, his sister attending there, and the opportunity to become the Gamecocks’ legacy for tailbacks, Smith supported her son’s decision.

“It’s a dream come true for him,” Smith says. “It’s a true blessing for him and for me.”

And one that mother and son accomplished without a price tag.

“You don’t use your kid to further yourself in life,” Smith says. “You hope that they’ll make themselves better people and be able to go on and do that. They didn’t ask to be here. You just give them the best that you can and let them take that and build on that.”

That’s something another parent likely to be in the stands of Saturday’s SEC championship game needs to learn."

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Marcus-Lattimores-mom-contrasts-recruiting-of-Auburn-South-Carolina-120310

[The Prowler]

Yeah....Lattimore would've started or atleast would've played a lot this year

[jmar]

Yeah....Lattimore would've started or atleast would've played a lot this year

I hope coach Luper is salesman of the decade at AU.

[Jumbo]

Fuck Her, that is all.

[The Prowler]

"Coach Luper was sayin' all kinds a thangs like getting him a tutor to help him in da studies...and being able to start at RB."

Yup, snake oil salesman.

[JohnDeere]

Thayer is grasping at straws now.

Nothing in the article that could even be called unethical stands out to me......and probably 200 other D1 recruits were told they could start on a potential team.....the only difference Auburn is ranked #1 and has a legendary player on the roster.

[AUTiger1]

Thayer is grasping at straws now.

Him. Brando and several others are so damn butthurt that they are resorting to it.

[jmar]

Him. Brando and several others are so damn butthurt that they are resorting to it.

Am I the only one that thinks Brando's is out of line? Evans is a different story.

[CCTAU]

Marcus Smith would have been a great addition to AU's backfield.


15 minutes.........GONE

[AUTiger1]

Am I the only one that thinks Brando's is out of line? Evans is a different story.

Spencer Tillman jumped his case this weekend over the whole Camgate thing.  It's obvious that he has issues with Auburn.  He shows his bias against them on the Finebaum show many of times.

[Tiger Wench]

As far as Lattimore and his momma - you know they have to be having some SERIOUS regrets right now.  Had he not done that shitty hat trick, and come to Auburn, he would still have contributed, and might have been part of one of the most awesome backfield dual tandems since Ronnie and Caddy.  He would still have been playing in the SECCG.  But because he chose to be the big frog in a tiny, perenially middle of the road pond, instead of a team player on a real contender, he will be sitting his ass at home on January 10.

Good.  Karma is a bitch, momma.

[The Prowler]

As far as Lattimore and his momma - you know they have to be having some SERIOUS regrets right now.  Had he not done that shitty hat trick, and come to Auburn, he would still have contributed, and might have been part of one of the most awesome backfield dual tandems since Ronnie and Caddy.  He would still have been playing in the SECCG.  But because he chose to be the big frog in a tiny, perenially middle of the road pond, instead of a team player on a real contender, he will be sitting his ass at home on January 10.

Good.  Karma is a bitch, momma.

All because Coach Chizik didn't want to dance with her like Coach Spurrier did.

[Jumbo]

As far as Lattimore and his momma - you know they have to be having some SERIOUS regrets right now.  Had he not done that shitty hat trick, and come to Auburn, he would still have contributed, and might have been part of one of the most awesome backfield dual tandems since Ronnie and Caddy.  He would still have been playing in the SECCG.  But because he chose to be the big frog in a tiny, perenially middle of the road pond, instead of a team player on a real contender, he will be sitting his ass at home on January 10.

Good.  Karma is a bitch, momma.

That voodoo that you do.

[AUChizad]

Dude literally doesn't write anything that isn't a hit piece on Auburn. Still somewhat backhanded, but now he writes a piece about Cam being the greatest player of all time?

Is this a white flag?

On the field, no questions about Newton
Thayer Evans
Updated Dec 5, 2010 4:05 AM ET
ATLANTA

There have been plenty of questions about Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton this season.

That’s what happens when your father shops you in a $180,000 pay-for-play scheme, you’re declared ineligible by your school as Newton was earlier this week and then reinstated a day later by the NCAA.

And while lots of questions remain about Newton’s controversial saga, there aren’t any on the field. Not anymore after an MVP performance in which he accounted for 408 offensive yards and a career-best six touchdowns Saturday in his team’s 56-17 thrashing of South Carolina in the SEC championship game.

Because now he’s the answer to who will win the Heisman Trophy during next Saturday night’s award ceremony. He’s also the reason Auburn will play Oregon in the national championship game Jan. 10 after the Bowl Championship Series standings are released Sunday.

But actually, some still have a question about Newton on the field. It’s whether there’s ever been a better college football player.

“That’s a good question,” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said.

And it’s one about Newton that Auburn coach Gene Chizik is actually willing to answer.

“He’s probably the best football player I’ve ever seen,” Chizik said.

That’s a declaration with meaning coming from someone who was defensive coordinator at Texas when the Longhorns won the 2005 national championship behind the heroics of electrifying dual-threat quarterback Vince Young. It made Newton bust out in a broad, cheeky smile and finally made him say what people have been saying about him all season.

“Wow,” Newton said.

That’s pretty much all that can be said on the field about Newton, who Saturday joined former Florida teammate Tim Tebow and Nevada's Colin Kaepernick (who also accomplished the feat Saturday) as the only players in Football Bowl Subdivision history to have 20 rushing and 20 passing touchdowns in a season. And Newton proved that dual-threat versatility against South Carolina by hitting wide-open receivers for 335 passing yards and four touchdowns as well as running over defenders for 73 yards and two TDs.

That left Spurrier, a Heisman winner himself, shaking his head and smirking in frustration, especially after Newton’s 51-yard, tipped, Hail Mary touchdown pass to close the first half.

“He’s almost a one-man show,” Spurrier said.

Just like Newton’s celebratory theatrics that we’ve become accustomed to after games this season. After being carried onto the field by his teammates as the final seconds ticked away Saturday, he blew kisses with both of his hands to the crowd and stood with arms spread wide.

Then, making his first public comments since Nov. 9, the day after a report that he cheated academically three times while at Florida, Newton told a national television audience and rabid Auburn fans still soaking in their first SEC title since 2004 that “A wise man told me, ‘If God is with me, who can be against me?’”

The crowd roared in response, just like it did when he stood in the Tigers’ end zone with teammates and sang the song, “Lean On Me,” while swaying and clapping with them.

“Lean on me, when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend,” Newton bellowed with a grin. “I'll help you carry on, for it won't be long 'til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.”

Later in a postgame press conference, that’s what Newton emphasized when he read a statement written in blue ink that he had studied carefully beforehand. He thanked his teammates, family, coaches and Auburn supporters.

“As I said before,” Newton said, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

And with that, Newton read aloud that he would answer only football questions related to the game. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple when Auburn has limited the access of your father to its athletics program as it announced earlier this week.

As much as Newton and the Tigers would like the controversy to go away, it won’t. Get ready to hear plenty more about it in the 37 days between now and the BCS title game.

But the questions are valid, especially ones such as whether Newton’s father, Cecil Newton Sr., will be allowed to attend the Heisman Trophy ceremony, which Chizik declined to let Newton answer.

That means more uneasiness for SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who was sweating Saturday in the climate-controlled Georgia Dome. He spoke carefully when asked if he was worried that Auburn’s accomplishments this season could eventually be stripped away by the NCAA, whose enforcement investigation into the Newton matter is ongoing.

“We’ll see what the facts are,” Slive said. “That’s speculation. That’s a hypothetical. The facts we have today are different than what you just posed.”

And it’s all hollow talk, at least according to former Auburn coach Pat Dye, who resigned at the end of the 1992 season in the wake of a pay-for-play scandal before the Tigers later went on NCAA probation.

“There hasn’t been a question for me with off-the-field,” Dye said of Newton after the game.

If only Newton’s off-the-field questions were really that easy. It’s just too bad they can’t be answered like those about him on the field.