NativeGriz said:
I agree Copper and I heard most of the same stuff Washingtonfan1 posted.
I forgot to add, I did ask RE if he had considered or requested football to be dropped for one year and he stated "absolutely not" and it sounded like a confident no, but then I have heard from at least 5 people claiming he did request for FB to be dropped and CC said no.
To me Carol Williams relationship to the accuser's mother should have been public knowledge, but I dont know the law that well.
I heard the party scene among FB players was a huge concern and may have been part of the reason for firings. FB does seem to be targeted because they are ignoring a lot of other partying taking place in other sports. There was a fight involving BB players after leaving the bars with some local thugs and that is ignored, but you can bet if it had involved FB players, it would have been front page news.
I was also advised the Missoulian took Coach Phlu's comments on JJ being a model citizen out of context.
The question from GF was: How does the team feel about having JJ back.
Coach P: They feel great to have him back. He is one of the team leaders etc. and he was a great kid/model citizen back in Oregon.
Next day Missoulian: Coach P calls JJ a model citizen.
Obviously that engraged a lot of people, including me at the time.
A few thoughts, I'm sure I will be in the minority on some.
I agree with WBTFG, you are all assuming Engstrom was completely open and truthful. It is possible that Engstrom recognized there was a football fan with slanted questions, pre-conceived opinions, and an agenda and thus didn't say much of anything substantial, just basic answers of which the questioner has added analysis and drawn some incredible conclusions.
The President at UM asked for football to be dropped or not held for a season? Give me a break. If anyone actually believes that, they are not able to rationally consider any of this or Engstrom's impact on this whole situation. It is amazing how much rumors that people hear around town turn in to solid fact on this board.
The Pat Williams thing...I have no doubt that Pat Williams has an opinion on all of this, and I have no doubt he shared it with Engstrom, but what leverage does Williams have over the UM President? He is one vote on the board, he has been out of Congress for years. AND, as someone pointed out earlier in this thread, if Williams had so much power and sway over Engstrom, there is ZERO chance that Foley would have been hung out to dry. Their connections go back a long way in Montana politics.
Phlu's comments about JJ weren't taken out of context in the Missoulian because they were on video, on KPAX.
The rumor mill has taken so many leaps and assumptions on this because we all want someone to blame and fix it, and we refuse to believe that anyone in our beloved athletic department or coaching staff made any mistakes. In the absence of actual, proven facts, people should live by the rule that if something sounds way too outrageous or ridiculous to be true, it probably is. Did Engstrom make mistakes, I have no doubt that he did, and I think that is obvious. People don't know nearly as much about all of these issues as they think they do, yet others treat them as experts and then it is fact in egriz land.