This story is COMPLETELY one sided...I'm not going to post the article...because they have my name...and I have a subscription to the Magazine. So, click the link and read the posts that've responded to it.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3361190
Oh fucking shit, man. This article just set me off.
As a former Tiger Tutor, I can be the first one to tell the world that the Auburn athletic department does NOT allow these athletes to get away with being lazy. I don't doubt for a second that Virgil point at Trahan and said, "You lied!" He's very hard on these athletes and speaks to them the same way a coach would.
It might be a sad situation, but Auburn can't bend the rules just because Mama doesn't understand why her baby isn't getting all the help he needs to keep playing football. Isn't that where the problem is? She didn't seem to give an actual shit about the situation until he was ineligible. Auburn parents have the ability to check their kid's grades. Not to mention, if Trahan needed extra help he could have ASKED for it. There are tons of tutors in the program that are willing to help. If he so happened to have one that didn't do their job correctly, he could have easily marched into Virgil's office and said something.
"When asked what sense it makes for Auburn to let her son, a starter, sink into an abyss, she searches for an answer." That statement says it all for me.
I had some players that I tutored who genuinely could not read past a 5th grade level. They went to class, took notes, and studied the material. When I met with them, they had no clue what was going on. I, along with other tutors and academic advisors, worked hard to help them the best we could. The ones that tried hard, passed. The ones that didn't, had big time issues.
I'd really like to know who the Auburn official was that said, "It's his fault. We asked how you were doing, and you said fine. You lied!" Was Feldman in attendence for that meeting, or did he get it from Trahan's Mama?