Neuheisel denies tampering with current Colorado players
By Gary Brooks
SportsLine Staff Writer
SEATTLE -- First, Rick Neuheisel angered Colorado fans and players by bolting to Washington.
Three weeks into his new job, Neuheisel has been hounded with allegations from coaches throughout the West that he is walking on thin lines around recruiting rules and has committed NCAA violations.
National Letter-of-Intent Signing Day is supposed to be little more than a chance for coaches to spew a collection of superlatives about his incoming players.
Instead, for the Huskies' new million-dollar man, it's a time to go into defense mode regarding allegations that he's been tampering with current CU players, as well as trying to explain away why he was out visiting recruits Sunday when NCAA rules expressly forbid it.
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON OFFICIALS SELF-REPORTED VIOLATIONS to the Pac-10 this week, acknowledging that Neuheisel and four assistant coaches were making home visits on Sunday, Jan. 31. Coaches from at least four opposing programs got wind of the visits, and screamed foul to the Pac-10.
The Denver Post reports, too, that CU coach Gary Barnett contends that Neuheisel has inappropriately contacted current Buffs players.
"I know Coach Neuheisel has called some of them in their homes and has tampered a little bit," Barnett told the Post.
Barnett said he had tried to contact Neuheisel, who happens to be a member of the coaches' association's ethics committee, but that his calls were not returned.
Neuheisel denied it.
"The innuendo and things that are being said out there are categorically untrue," Neuheisel said Wednesday. He insisted he only called his former players to provide closure to their relationships.
"What I did was say goodbye. I called to wish them well. But never, ever did I mention anything with respect to tampering or the University of Washington."
ASKED IF HE WAS SURPRISED THAT BARNETT WOULD MAKE such accusations, Neuheisel said, "Nothing surprises me anymore. I tried to call him yesterday. He didn't return my calls."
Barnett is apparently just one of a handful of coaches who don't have Neuheisel at the top of their speed dial.
"That's too bad to have to start that way," Washington State coach Mike Price said Wednesday. "That's a serious mistake. I can see one guy slipping up ... but five?"
Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick is upset with Neuheisel over the recruiting of Adam Wade, who didn't sign a letter of intent Wednesday amid a tug-o-war between the Huskies and Rams.
Wade was not one of the players Neuheisel or his staff members visited Sunday.
LUBICK, THOUGH, POINTED OUT that Neuheisel's last-Sunday recruiting, is "a tremendous advantage ... It's a huge advantage against people living by the rules.''
Washington acknowledged and self-reported a violation after Neuheisel and his staff made home visits with four recruits Sunday Jan. 31 during a "quiet period." The quiet period rules state that in-person contact can be made on campus only.
Neuheisel admits that transgression, saying he had never needed to recruit into the final weekend before signing day, so he didn't realize it was prohibited.
"I was unaware of the rule," he said. "I was still trying to meet some of the guys. I'm embarrassed by it. In six years of taking those recruiting tests, I never missed a question. Unfortunately this was an error. I take full responsibility for it."
That responsibility means the Huskies could lose a scholarship, some recruiting time next year, or merely that Neuheisel will get a letter of reprimand from the league or NCAA.
The four players that were visited on Jan. 31 signed letters of intent with Washington are currently ineligible pending an investigation. Last year, the NCAA handled nine other cases that called similar, and each time, the player was reinstated.
ONE OF THE PLAYERS, DEFENSIVE BACK Chris Massey of Moreno Valley, Calif., had committed to Colorado when Neuheisel was still the coach in Boulder. That didn't stick and Massey had been reported to still be deciding between Washington and Nebraska Feb. 1. Neuheisel said he had an oral commitment from Massey on Jan. 28.
"All I know is it isn't uncommon for players to waiver when they make their decisions," Neuheisel said after announcing Washington's recruiting class. "Chris had been through it. The amount of things that were said to him by other schools would blow your mind. Without pointing fingers and saying what was said, it would blow your mind, the innuendo and the falsehoods that were presented to him. He's impressionable and he needed to be calmed down. But he wanted to come to Washington."
That Neuheisel actively recruited Massey was a gray area in itself at Colorado. Massey, Levi Madarieta of Weiser, Idaho and Adam Seery of Albuquerque, each had previously committed to Colorado -- but signed with Washington.
|
|
Rick Neuheisel has been dogged by questions of recruiting violations.
(AP)
|
Neuheisel had said upon changing jobs on Jan. 11 that he had put a call into ethics committee chairman John Mackovic, to discuss recruiting players to Washington whom he had already been recruiting to Colorado. Wednesday, he said he had never reached Mackovic.
"There is no written way of doing this," Neuheisel said. "Ultimately, the way I decided was fair was that the kids who had committed to Colorado I would no longer be recruiting unless they called me and asked if they could come to Washington. Because if he did that, obviously, he was no longer committed, per se to Colorado.
"I certainly, among my travels in the last couple weeks said nothing but good things about Colorado. I have a fond place in my heart for my experience there."
OK. But the fondness might be one way.
Barnett said the issue is not over.
"Most of these things are being acted on through the proper channels," he said. "I'm in the process of meeting with them (the players) I don't want to start a brush fire. There's an issue, we're addressing it. Life goes on. We'll play them on Sept. 25, and it will be fun."
Gary Brooks is a writer on SportsLine's staff.
|