Nebraska Football HC Matt Rhule believes that RB Dante Dowdell, who decided to transfer to
Kentucky, was tampered with in the portal, saying: “I love Dante and Dante loved it here. Dante loved it here. I’ve got nothing but elite things to say about Dante. This was a long, hard, arduous process for him. In the end, he went in the portal and took an opportunity. These aren’t kids going into the portal to see what’s out there. These are decisions — these are offers being made before they’re in the portal. To go in the portal. So this isn’t like ‘I’m unhappy, I’m leaving’. This is ‘Hey, I’ve got this.’ The numbers are a lot. Hard decisions for kids. Once you’ve played for me one day you’ve played for me the rest of your life. I love Dante.” While Rhule didn’t mention anyone by name,
Kentucky Sports Radio’s Adam Luckett points out the Huskers have made some big additions themselves in the portal this year, including signing standout UK WR Dane Key.
Did Kentucky tamper to land Dante Dowdell? Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule seems to think so.
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Miami (FL) Men’s Basketball HC Jim Larrañaga has stepped down in his 14th season leading the Hurricanes. (
link); In explaining his decision to step down, Larrañaga remarked: “I’m exhausted. I’ve tried every which way to keep this going, and I know I’m going to be asked a lot of questions, but I want to answer them before I’m even asked. What shocked me beyond belief was after we made it to the
Final Four just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave. “I said, ‘Don’t you like it here?’ (They said) ‘No, I love it. I love Miami. It’s great.’ But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself, as a coach, what is this all about? And the answer is, it’s become professional. … I just didn’t feel like I could successfully navigate this whole new world that I was dealing with. Because my conversations were ridiculous with an agent saying to me, ‘Well, you can get involved if you’re willing to go to $1.1M and that be the norm. You’re talking to people that expect a million dollars for playing college basketball.” Larrañaga went on to say: “If someone tells you, ‘Oh, I’ve been offered a million dollars. What would you offer me?’ Like you’ve been offered a million dollars? Man, you better take that right, because that’s, that’s ridiculous. A million dollars to play college basketball. And then you find out, he was offered $100K. You know when there’s no transparency, there’s no professionalism in the sport. It’s a pro sport. Now, you have to have a pro mentality, and you have to have a pro system in place to deal with all of it. If we’re going to have agents, if we’re going to be paying substantial amounts of money, then there needs to be some accountability for that.”
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It is a crazy world and of course tampering is happening all over the place. Even at Montana and for the Griz. There are many ways to reach out to a player and get in their ear.
The question is, do the Griz coaches have the energy and the ability to recruit and motivate in this new era. Is the athletic department and school on the same page?