Auburn's Newton reportedly cheated at FL

[Jack&Dew]

Does not look like Newton's problems are going away.

Auburn's Newton reportedly cheated at Florida - College football- NBC Sports

 

[The Zooker]

Ouch, busted. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he had somebody scouting cash for him. The kid was pretty much a scum bag here. Cheated at school, bought stolen property, slacked at practice. Nobody can ever blame Meyer for letting him go despite whatever success Cam is showing now.

 

[XofDallas]

There's a whole bunch of discussion on a number of national forums and in the comments to a number of articles in the national media, to the effect that some people at U F may well be mounting a concerted smear campaign against Newton and Auburn. And frankly, given that: (1) the Mississippi State issue was reported in the media very soon after Urban Meyer (privately) found out about it: (2) the reporter who broke the "cheating" story is believed to be close to Meyer; and (3) such information is protected from release by federal privacy laws, a whole bunch of people are finding that idea to be entirely credible.

These reports may damage Newton's Heisman chances and give Auburn a bit of a black eye, but quite seriously, the University of Florida is also losing friends and admirers over this stuff, big time.

 

[The Zooker]

After a little digging it actually appears that Newton himself stole the laptop. I always believed the story that he just bought stolen goods. I broke my own cardinal rule of not believing everything I see in the media. This kid is looking worse and worse in my eyes.

 

[robdog]

This is definitely not looking good for him at all. Going to be interesting to see how the NCAA comes down on these allegations. Terrible timing considering Auburn is in the hunt for the national title.

 

[The Zooker]

There's a whole bunch of discussion on a number of national forums and in the comments to a number of articles in the national media, to the effect that some people at U F may well be mounting a concerted smear campaign against Newton and Auburn. And frankly, given that: (1) the Mississippi State issue was reported in the media very soon after Urban Meyer (privately) found out about it: (2) the reporter who broke the "cheating" story is believed to be close to Meyer; and (3) such information is protected from release by federal privacy laws, a whole bunch of people are finding that idea to be entirely credible.

These reports may damage Newton's Heisman chances and give Auburn a bit of a black eye, but quite seriously, the University of Florida is also losing friends and admirers over this stuff, big time.

I think it's pretty clever. It means Meyer is indeed looking ahead of the schedule and thinking he might be playing Auburn in the SEC title game. Meyer wouldn't waste his time by smearing somebody just for revenge or any other petty reason. But I could see Meyer doing it to hang a cloud over Cam's head during the game. He knows the media sessions leading up to the game will be brutal and it could distract Cam from properly preparing. I actually don't mind these tactics either. Cam f'd up royally here. If releasing the truth is considered a "smear campaign" then we need a lot more smear campaigns in the press. Cam set himself up with his own actions, made his own bed.

 

[The Zooker]

And we all know how Meyer doesn't like to be criticized. I think he may have had enough of folks telling him he shouldn't have let Cam go. Now Meyer can say, "Well, Cam cheated, stole a laptop, slacked at practice, and solicited schools for money." That should be enough to shut up his detractors on the issue.

 

[XofDallas]

Zooker, I understand your thoughts - and truth is a defense to fraud allegations. But it's not a defense to violation of academic privacy statutes. Further, with respect to the Mississippi State reports, there's still no indication either that Newton or his father had anything to do with what the runner did, nor is there any indication anything similar happened at Auburn.

My main concern, though, is this might benefit Meyer if Florida makes the SEC Championship game, but nevertheless hurt Florida more in the long run. The Gahan Wilson cartoon, "I think we won!" is coming to mind right now.

 

[The Zooker]

For the record, I don't know whether Meyer had anything to do with this or if it's just the haters coming out in full force against Meyer like they always do. I'll ask my journalist buddy to see what he's heard. Nothing would surprise me either way. College football is a shady business.

 

[The Zooker]

It is kind of funny how lots of people are jumping on the conspiracy theory about Cam getting set up due to his success. I think folks should recognize the obvious things first. Cam is the Heisman frontrunner. His team is undefeated and poised to go to the BCS Championship Game. That makes him the top story in the world of college football. What happens when you are in that position? Your past gets scrutinized. Remember how every little detail of Tebow's life came out when he was in this position? We learned everything about every stage of his life. Well the same thing is happening now to Cam. And the fact of the matter is that Cam has a shady past. So obviously the media is going to report on it. They use this same method in all areas of journalism. They don't need an opposing team or Auburn hating group of folks to tell them how to do their jobs. They dig and they report. That's just how it is. It doesn't require a secret backdoor conspiracy to get these things rolling.

 

[Leakfan12]

I really hope They beat S Car so the Gators can shove the ball down Cam's :censored: throat.

 

[The Zooker]

My buddy says that he's seen absolutely nothing that suggests Meyer had anything to do with this. Literally hundreds of people inside and out of UF would know this information and anybody could have leaked it to the press. He said he'll keep me updated though if anything new pops up.

 

[DRU2012]

My first thought here was, "Yeah "X"? What's YOUR angle?"--and we know you've got one, even if it's just that you're another Texas Gator-Hater looking for SOME way to get the "most disappointing, underachieving, messed-up season"-moniker off your Longhorns and onto Florida and Urban Meyer, always a juicy target (especially so this year--this is a tale spreading like wild-fire down here, thanks to local media-apologists for Mack Brown and Co.--and folks like the aptly-named "XofDallas").
Meanwhile, once again Urban can't possibly be right with this crowd: if he HADN'T gotten rid of Cam, can you imagine the way this would have been covered if he'd had similar success as a Gator? Oh, and by the way: apparently Coach Meyer did NOT try to ruin this kid's future at the time, choosing just to let him "move on" after numerous screw-ups, including ones that the public knew nothing about at the time (like this cheating scandal, normally enough in itself to get you thrown out of UF). If he wanted to use this in the Machiavelian way proposed now, for whatever reasons, he could have done so at any time. The idea that he "kept it in his pocket" just for this situation, foreseeing all of these many different lines of cause and effect coming together in JUST this way at JUST this time, is either paranoid, or a pretty damn dark assessment of Urban Meyer as some "Evil Genius".
That doesn't say it's impossible, of course--but in the final analysis I'm with Zooker on this: Like most such convoluted conspiracy-theories, it just doesn't require all the above machinations to explain the actual events that have (and continue to) unfolded, just the ongoing situation and the people involved doing what they "normally" do.
...Which pretty well leaves me feeling the way Leakfan12 has so aptly put it above.

 

[The Zooker]

I don't want to start a new conspiracy theory angle but my media buddy said that if anybody was pulling a smear campaign then he would suspect Bama folks first in this situation. Not that he suspects them or any other group is after Cam with a plan. It would just be the first place he would start looking at if he were put in charge of investigating the situation. In the end he agrees that it's just the media doing what the media does, investigate the past of high profile people.

 

[The Zooker]

Here's something that cracked me up:

Attempted character assassination of Cam Newton continues | al.com

In one paragraph Scarbinsky assassinates the character of Urban Meyer by saying he forgives indiscretions too easily and gives too many second chances in his dirty program. In another paragraph he will talk about how folks need to stop assassinating the character of Cam and that the kid deserves a second chance and forgiveness for his past indiscretions. I love the double standard. Typical.

 

[DRU2012]

Here's something that cracked me up:

Attempted character assassination of Cam Newton continues | al.com

In one paragraph Scarbinsky assassinates the character of Urban Meyer by saying he forgives indiscretions too easily and gives too many second chances in his dirty program. In another paragraph he will talk about how folks need to stop assassinating the character of Cam and that the kid deserves a second chance and forgiveness for his past indiscretions. I love the double standard. Typical.

Yeah, we're seeing a BUTT-load of that in TX--in fact, when the local loud-mouthed-yahoos interviewed that Auburn radio-guy on the phone right after his whitewash-interview with Cam last week, THAT guy went from one sentence where he's complaining about "one shady, discredited character being able to ruin this fine young man's good name and magical season with a few public statements about something there's no proof of", to the next sentence where HE does the same thing with the innuendo regarding Urban Meyer's supposed involvement! Amazingly, pathetically hypocritical. So what else is new?

 

[The Zooker]

Of all the reporting I've seen and heard about the matter, I think Scott Van Pelt has handled it the best. He basically said what we're all saying in that there doesn't need to be a conspiracy for this to happen. Cam is high profile and the media researches high profile people. Cam did some shady stuff so it's going to get reported.

 

[DRU2012]

If you're watching the ESPN coverage like "Rome Is Burning" and "Around The Horn" (that opened up with this story a little while ago--in fact, with the cheating revelations, "The Hidden Cam"--good tag, no?-- has been a big part of every show on "the 4-letter network" this aft), along with the growing pattern of media coverage, I can see it clearly developing along lines that include (obviously and predictably) the usual Gator-haters and anti-Urban Meyer crowd, but also (I'm sorry and disappointed to observe) certain racial considerations--whether it's the way the on-air journalists of African/American descent have lined up to parrot the Auburn publicity-mill's line of PR, or the clearly erudite and articulated educator (I missed his name) Jim Rome brought in who IMMEDIATELY went after the whole idea of ANYONE going after this "fine young man" over "ancient unproven innuendo" (and joining Rome in suggesting "certain others' ulterior motives", hint hint), this is perhaps to be expected, but nonetheless unfortunate.
Maybe I'm naive, but I wasn't even thinking along these lines. To me, this was (and IS) a matter of intra-SEC rivalries, on the one hand, and "right and wrong", on the other. The real story is the one that involves the money. All the rest, including this latest story and the general question of Cam Newton's "integrity, is as a result of OTHER questions that have been raised having to do with the circumstances of his road from Florida to Auburn--but with the scrutiny a Heisman Candidate is under now (especially after the Reggie Bush thing) guaranteed he'd be under a magnifying glass in ANY event. In our celebrity obsessed "Media World", it's all (un)fair game.

 

[XofDallas]

Responding to DRU2012 -

I'm not a Gator hater. I have admired the Florida program and Coach Meyer, and have defended it and him to others. I'm not an alum, don't live in SEC country, graduated from a school in New Hampshire, live in Texas but either don't care about or dislike all Texas schools in the Big 12. Basically, I'm just a college football fan.

Since my posts this morning, I've read Meyer's quote in response to allegations made that neither he nor his staff leaked any information concerning Newton to the media. I believe him. Given that he and his staff didn't leak that information though, other, objective, people will still wonder where this information has come from.

I'm stopping here. My point is that others, many of whom have not previously been Gator haters, won't.

 

[DRU2012]

OK, "X--", I accept your position and apologize; I tend to be more and more "hair trigger" in my response to these claims due to the way it's being covered down here in Austin.
It's gone way over the line--the Longhorn media-shills have taken it beyond the pale. I shouldn't even tune the local ESPN radio outlet in...Listen to this brilliant logic-chain I stumbled into on my drive home this evening (no evidence, mind you--they're just running with the original little crumb of a rumor they got on the phone from the official Auburn-apologist they talked to a few days ago):
Meyer's mad 'cause he lost Cam, his buddy Mullen at MSU is mad 'cause HE was supposed to get him but didn't, so Urban gave the info to Dan, who leaked it thru' the reporter Urban hooked him up with over at the New York Times, and that's where ALL this stuff is coming from..."See, Urban Meyer even let some guy who threatened to kill some defenseless little girl back on the team--he's a DIRTBAG, and these are all dirtbag moves from a bitter, bad guy who can't stand that Cam is doing so well and making him look bad."
So. There it is: along with all the internal inconsistencies, self-contradictions and outright horsesh*t (or should I say "Longhorn manure"?), this "popular local radio personality" calls our coach a dirtbag, on the air.
That was just too much for me. I may have my own questions for and about Urban Meyer, and some of the baffling things that have gone on with our team of late, but I know he has always tried to do things "the right way" as he saw it...and anyway, it isn't like some Florida sports personality would go on the air and say, "Never mind the Gator's problems, what about Texas? Now everyone can see what a forked-tongue phony scumbucket Mack Brown really is--the man would promise the moon to a five-year-old if his parents were built like brick-sh*t-houses, or if he thought the genes were there to one day produce a canon-armed QB!"
There's nothing for it, of course--no use calling in to tell them off (I've tried--once they realize I can actually put more than 2 words together and might hold my own I get cut off by the screeners), so I'm left with the rather petty (but no less closely held) hope that this whole Cam Newton thing REALLY blows up in ALL their faces. "Grab ahold of the big lead weight, boys! Going down..."
Ha! Now more than ever it looks like it just might come to pass , and sooner than even I could hope:
News is coming in now at ESPN of there being recordings in the possession of the NCAA of Newton Sr. making his pitch-for-cash on the phone. Let's see how all these fine folks who self-righteously
proclaimed their "shock" at the "unfair treatment" this "young man who has done everything the right way since leaving the University of Florida" has gotten and for whom "not a shred of real evidence has surfaced of any wrongdoing" deal with the egg that is suddenly appearing on ALL their faces. You've heard about rats on a sinking ship...something like that is on its way, I imagine.