PopnFried, if the reports are accurate, Floyd is guilty of directing one $1,000 payment toward one player. It seems to me that this would be highly unusual behavior for a person who played completely by the rules the other 364.9 days of the year. Right now there are only reports about one payment to only one player. That does not mean there may not have been more payments to this player and/or payment(s) to other players.

My thoughts are speculation as are yours, as I have no evidence to support the potential situation I’ve described…but it’s possible there’s more to the story that we just don’t know yet.

Many have assumed that he is a respectable coach. Maybe this is just one of many clues that he is not. Look at the fact that Hackett had his jaw broken in practice, look at the like 30 year old “freshman” who was in the same recruiting class as Mayo. Then there is the thug nature of the team and university. I would not consider this an aberration, but a sign of his true character as a coach.

Is it in a person’s nature or character to act in a particular way? There was a lot of negativity when Coach Neuheisel came back home, because of assumptions that his past misdeed (singular, not plural) revealed a character which would make it likely that there would be a repetition of that misdeed. Coach Neuheisel addressed that concern directly and repeatedly.

From Timmeh and justsc there is only silence.

So let’s ask the question directly about Timmeh – is it in his character to cheat? While I personally believe that voluntarily associating oneself with justsc reveals a monumental character flaw, I recognize that this belief is probably not shared (or at least admitted) by all. So let’s look at specific, articulable facts. Fortunately, Doyel at CBS Sports has documented Timmeh’s past in some detail:

“And nothing about Tim Floyd’s past says he deserves the benefit of the doubt. He turned USC around by prospecting in the gray area of recruiting, luring players with package deals and recruiting players committed to other schools and even having an NCAA rule nicknamed in his honor.”

The list in the “gray area of recruiting” is a must read. It mentions hiring family members to get players. It mentions “running off” recruits, i.e., filling one’s roster, then continuing to recruit hoping to land someone better, and if that happens you cut loose a prior committment. It mentions stealing recuits. The article is a must read. And it was written in 2005. Has anything happened in the interim to suggest that Timmeh’s character was not accurately captured in that article? No. In fact, just the opposite. There was no mention of the package recruiting of Derozean and his rap-singing sidekick. That’s a new one.

I often addressed judges and juries by arguing that what a person did then is more imporant than what he says now. Timmeh, of course, is silent, so all we can do is look at what he has done in the past. What he has done in the past demonstrates a fixation on success as a coach which manifests itself on doing whatever it takes during the recruiting process. [I add a footnote here re Sidney.]

You combine what Doyel noted in 2005 about Timmeh’s character. You add to that the Derozean package. You add hiring more parents. You add thuggery by Timmeh’s players which goes unpunished. You add the entire concept of OJ Payo recruiting Timmeh by way of the only guy I know of who was told never to set foot in Inheritance Hall (Mr. Guillory).

I conclude from all this that it is entirely within Timmeh’s character to have made a personal delivery of funds to Guillory, and to have done so in a public place. All of the character-revealing conduct cited by Doyel were all done in public. There is no need to guess at what might have taken place or what probably did take place that we don’t know about, because what we do know is enough. Timmeh’s conduct suggests the arrogance that blatant cheaters need. The big shots in the news recently (Madoff, Lay, et al.) were so fundamentally arrogant that they thought they would never get caught. Timmeh is no different. It reveals a character which in my opinion is basically amoral.

Let me conclude like this. In the 70’s, a certain basketball powerhouse had the best player in the world as the leader of the best team in the world. This player wanted to wear his hair longer than the person in charge of the team wanted his players’ hair to be. There was a confrontation. The man in charge of the team made it clear that he did not mind walking away from an almost certain ncaa championship. I could have made this anecdote clearer and shorter by mentioning names, but I refuse to mention the name of a real Coach and a real mensch in the same post as that guy at justsc. That wouldn’t be right.

Bottom line for me: Nothing in Timmeh’s character says he wouldn’t have personally handed over the money. Indeed, his character suggests an arrogance that makes the personal delivery quite likely.

Footnote re Sidney: We all know Sidney pulled the justsc hat out of the box at the press conference, but then ended up at Mississippi State. We won’t ever really know the answer to this, but Timmeh’s past conduct suggests that he agreed to pay whatever Sidney’s handlers wanted him to pay. I’m guessing, based on no evidence other than my perception of the characters of the players, is that someone above Timmeh vetoed the idea (probably smartly) because of the almost certain scrutiny that Sidney would bring, scruitiny which justsc can’t handle at this point.

while I assume this is the first time he has gotten caught. Big difference.