Former UCF QB: Motivation far different than intimidation

[South_Florida_Flip]

Cyber -

How does it feel to post something in an attempt to rally "your side" only to find common sense prevail, despite our fun little "rivalry."

The bottom line is that while you'd like to see O'Leary in scandal, and we love to see Leavitt find himself in hot water, this is a hatchet job.

Everything most of us hate about today's media is represented in this series of "news" articles.

In the first 2 - they were poorly done, but at least made some relevant points.

The Moffett article is trying to create a story instead of reporting on one. 

If the line at the bottom "at least he has a life to live" doesn't make your blood boil, I question how your interest in being anti-UCF can overrule your common sense and judgement of right and wrong.

A "hatchet" job? Maybe the latest article is a sour grapes article, but the initial report by the Sentinel might have uncovered something very serious in regard to how your program is being run. You can try to downplay this all you want, but this is going to get much worse before it gets any better, if it gets better at all. Those 4 players have everything to lose by coming forward, but they felt strongly and compelled enough to do so. I doubt that these 4 players would be lying in regard to what happened at that practice and I think most people would find them to be more credible than Coach O'Leary is.

[USFan]

This is turning out to look very ugly for that school in mouse town.

The story about the four players was playing all morning on ESPN.

Sad... very sad for that poor family.

[USF_Grouper]

Moffett needed to grow a pair and be a leader and he never did.

Cyber, go figure you would support any negative press.  I'm sure there are plenty of players who would speak different about O'Leary.  You're as pathetic as the Slantinel reporters who are just trying to destroy GOL at this point.  The smarter posters here see that.  The Slantinel is so desperate for business, they are resorting to tabloid journalism running stories with all anonymous quotes and an interview that was only realted because of the last sentence and that was forced in.

For the record, Moffett is sucking ass in AF2.

You think UCF news (good or bad) sells papers in Orlando? 

What would you suggest the paper do?  Ignore 4 current players accusing coaching staff and administrators of lying regarding accounts of a practice that resulted in the death of teamate?  Ignore an attributable interview with a former starting QB who claims GOL is verbally abusive and that he would discourage players from playing under the current coaching staff?  If I were a UCF fan I would be very intrested in the apparent lack of respect many current and former players have for GOL.  I think UCF fans should be upset, perhaps with the current and former players, perhaps with the administration, and perhaps with their coaching staff, but not with the newspaper.

[DawgPound]

Moffett needed to grow a pair and be a leader and he never did.

Cyber, go figure you would support any negative press.  I'm sure there are plenty of players who would speak different about O'Leary.  You're as pathetic as the Slantinel reporters who are just trying to destroy GOL at this point.  The smarter posters here see that.  The Slantinel is so desperate for business, they are resorting to tabloid journalism running stories with all anonymous quotes and an interview that was only realted because of the last sentence and that was forced in.

For the record, Moffett is sucking ass in AF2.

You think UCF news (good or bad) sells papers in Orlando? 

What would you suggest the paper do?  Ignore 4 current players accusing coaching staff and administrators of lying regarding accounts of a practice that resulted in the death of teamate?  Ignore an attributable interview with a former starting QB who claims GOL is verbally abusive and that he would discourage players from playing under the current coaching staff?  If I were a UCF fan I would be very intrested in the apparent lack of respect many current and former players have for GOL.  I think UCF fans should be upset, perhaps with the current and former players, perhaps with the administration, and perhaps with their coaching staff, but not with the newspaper.

The Slantinel is desperate for any business, so they get what they can.  The local news has a better chance selling than national stuff people can get anywhere.

What makes this look like a tabloidish job is that Moffett sucking and getting benched really doesn't have anything to do with Plancher, a good kid who worked hard and ended up with an accidental death.  The Slantinel(Hightower), maybe in an attempt to win UCF athletics over again but still attacking, published an article that showed Plancher passed 2 physicals, but UCF does not do EKGs on all their players as opposed to schools like UF, FSU and Tennessee(all mentioned).

It's no secret O'Leary and Moffett did NOT get along and he rode him into the ground.  Moffett, from what I heard, was quite the party boy and that landed him in the dog house, which only made things worse.  What this article failed to mention was that Moffett started over half the season in 2006(8 games) yet had worse stats across the board compared to Israel.  Moffett didn't win those close games in 2005, having Marshall and Walker(Smith didn't hurt) catch everything in sight did.

The Slantinel is after O'Leary, plain and simple to stir up business...and they will even use a kid's death to do it.  It's really sick.

[South_Florida_Flip]

DP, are you really trying to convince yourself that the Sentinel is trying to sell papers and trying to go after O'Leary? I'll give you the Moffett article, but the initial article a couple of days ago is very damning to say the least. The local papers did the same thing here after Keeley passed away, so you shouldn't be surprised that the Sentinel is doing the same thing. It's unfortunate that they may have uncovered something that you don't want to read, but the Plancher family is certainly owed that much, especially if they did not get a straight answer from O'Leary.

[___ Eats It]

DP... for the record, the St. Pete Times and the Orlando Sentinel were the only papers in the most recent round of circulation reports (November 2007) to report an INCREASE in circulation.  Every other paper in Florida lost readership and saw circulation numbers shrink due to alternate forms of media.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2007/11/doh.html

"The most recent circulation numbers, which covered the six months ended 30 September, were the Sentinel’s best circulation performance in several years, the sources noted"

Sounds like they were doing just fine before they decided to blow the lid off of O'Leary's house of cards.

Your excuse doesn't fly.

[DawgPound]

DP, are you really trying to convince yourself that the Sentinel is trying to sell papers and trying to go after O'Leary? I'll give you the Moffett article, but the initial article a couple of days ago is very damning to say the least. The local papers did the same thing here after Keeley passed away, so you shouldn't be surprised that the Sentinel is doing the same thing. It's unfortunate that they may have uncovered something that you don't want to read, but the Plancher family is certainly owed that much, especially if they did not get a straight answer from O'Leary.

What answer is there to give them at this point?  They don't even know how he died.

"Yeah, we had conditioning drills that are routinely done across the country and something went wrong."  Ummm..no

The Moffett article is what gave me this idea.  That article doesn't deserve even being created.  It has no reason to be around.  Moffett has been gone for over a season.  Maybe last year it would have been relevant, but now it looks like they are trying to create a story instead of reporting it.  What I think is that they are trying to milk Plancher's death for all it's worth and they have hit a low point.  They have no autopsy report and all they have are some "anonymous" quotes that can't be verified.  They are trying to tiptoe journalism ethics.  By having the Moffett story with a real person and quotes, they are trying to legitimize their prior article with the players.  Bringing the family back in was just wrong.  They used the shady article to create unrest and then exploited it.

The Slantinel team writing these aren't supposed to be doing editorials.  They are supposed to be objective, but that is certainly not what they are doing.

[Jamie]

Regardless, this can't be how UCF wanted to spend their spring practice season. Instead of trying to build some momentum off of last season, they're going to have to spend all their time talking about the Plancher tragedy and all the other things that are going along with it. Huge distraction for the program.

[___ Eats It]

DP, are you really trying to convince yourself that the Sentinel is trying to sell papers and trying to go after O'Leary? I'll give you the Moffett article, but the initial article a couple of days ago is very damning to say the least. The local papers did the same thing here after Keeley passed away, so you shouldn't be surprised that the Sentinel is doing the same thing. It's unfortunate that they may have uncovered something that you don't want to read, but the Plancher family is certainly owed that much, especially if they did not get a straight answer from O'Leary.

What answer is there to give them at this point?  They don't even know how he died.

"Yeah, we had conditioning drills that are routinely done across the country and something went wrong."  Ummm..no

It's not about why he died.  It's about what UCF was doing and why they lied about it... about who was there and why they lied about it... about players who are afraid to speak the truth for fear of retribution from a tyrannical, abusive coach.

It's about what the hell is REALLY going on over there at UCF that nobody in the administration wants to admit.

[KB]

I don't know what's funnier:

Moffett telling high school guys not to go to UCF

or

High school coaches letting a former, disgruntled UCFer talk to recruits.

Isn't it against recuriting rules to let alumni, boosters, etc talk to recruits, good or bad?