JJ has a LOOOOng way to go before he and I are in good graces. And I know for certain he does not care about that. He only cares what a select few think. At the same time, I will give credit when it is due and I think it is due. Scarb is right about this. JJ has handled this attack well, so far.
http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2013/04/instead_of_taking_the_fifth_ja.htmlAuburn AD Jay Jacobs isn't going down without a fight (Scarbinsky)
By Kevin Scarbinsky | kscarbinsky@al.com
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on April 06, 2013 at 10:45 AM, updated April 06, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Auburn AD Jay Jacobs announces Nov. 25, 2012, that he's fired football coach Gene Chizik. (Julie Bennett/al.com)
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - It’s about time Jay Jacobs got a little credit.
That’s right.
I said it, and it needed to be said.
This could’ve been the worst week of his tenure as the Auburn AD.
Instead it may have been one of his finest hours.
Sure, it’s hard to beat standing on that podium in the University of Phoenix Stadium holding that crystal football. There’s no clearer sign in his profession, especially in his conference, of a job well done.
But the true measure of an athletics director isn’t watching his football team complete an undefeated season with an undisputed national championship for the first time in 53 years.
It’s directing your athletics department through what could be called a crisis of national proportion.
For two straight days in two different stories, one by a nationally known writer and the other by the 800-pound gorilla of sports media companies, Auburn was portrayed in the worst possible light.
It was painted as a program that put winning above everything from playing by the rules to looking out for the best interests of its student-athletes.
How did Jacobs and his department respond? Did they come down on the side of silence and caution, which has been their history?
No. They hit back hard at the stories taking shots at them, way harder than they have since early November of 2010, when the first story questioning Cam Newton’s recruitment put them on trial.
Make no mistake. Auburn is on trial here despite what the judge in the armed-robbery case against Antonio Goodwin said, and Auburn will stay on trial as Mike McNeil, Dakota Mosley and Shaun Kitchens have their days in court on similar charges.
Instead of taking the fifth, Jacobs and company have decided to take the stand and take a stand in their own defense.
On Thursday, the university released a statement and an open letter from Jacobs to the Auburn family that supplied names, dates and facts that appear to contradict some of the points in the ESPN story about the university’s response to the growing threat of synthetic marijuana in 2010 and 2011.
“Some of the statements made in the story are wrong and need to be corrected, while others need to be put into proper context,†Jacobs’ letter said. “One player interviewed by ESPN, for example, alleges that up to half of the 2010 football team was using synthetic marijuana. It's hard to be more wrong than that. The facts and our drug testing results simply do not support such a claim.â€
Auburn didn’t stop there.
School officials attacked the credibility and motive of Selena Roberts, the Auburn grad and former columnist for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, who wrote a dramatic story on her website, roopstigo.com, which alleges that the Tigers cheated in various ways en route to the 2010 BCS title.
On Friday, Auburn released the email exchange in which Roberts asked to interview Jacobs for a story about the March, 2011, night the four Auburn football players were arrested and charged with armed robbery. The story she wrote is a much broader and unflattering look at the football program.
Jack Smith, Auburn’s director of strategic communication and a former newspaperman, called Roberts’ approach “gotcha, hide-the-ball journalism at its worst.â€
It’s incorrect to argue that Auburn’s simply attacking the messenger here. The school is attacking the message with documents such as emails and phone records, the kind of documentation that’s been lacking in the attacks on the school.
Auburn’s even shown some social media savvy. Go to the AU Tigers Facebook page and you’ll see a slick ad featuring an Auburn football helmet and these words: GET THE FACTS. AuburnTigers.com/TheFacts. That ad, which directs you to the program’s statements on its website, had reached more than 300,000 people by 9:30 Saturday morning.
The entire rapid-response effort is a smart move because the attacks on Auburn have moved beyond the serious questions of academic fraud, impermissible benefits and other NCAA violations in the chase for a crystal football.
The attacks have gotten personal, and the person right in the middle of the dartboard is Jacobs.
The ESPN story on how Auburn did and didn't handle the emergence of synthetic marijuana implies that the school didn’t do enough soon enough to look out for the best interests of its student-athletes as young men.
It’s one thing to question the AD for his coaching hires and contracts. It’s another to question his character.
Auburn’s reaction has made it clear that Jacobs and company are tired of being painted as a rogue football program and they’re not going to take it anymore.
The athletics department has offered a vigorous and compelling defense to the latest attacks against it. For that, Jacobs deserves a lot of credit.
The AD has taken plenty of heat during this academic year, and not just here. Many Auburn fans have questioned his decision-making and his leadership and suggested that it’s past time for him to become the former AD.
It’s obvious more than ever that he’s not going down without a fight.
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