Very very interesting timeline

[WarTiger6 0]

This was posted on TOS by MariettaTiger. I certainly hope he doesn't mind me reposting this, but he obviously put a lot of time into it so I assume he would like for as many people to read it as possible.

He makes a lot of interesting points. The bottom line is that with the way Cam's recruitment out of JUCO unfolded makes the story being pushed by MSU very unlikely.

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Based on what we know whether it be fact or rumor and using some logic here is my take on what went down.

First let's look at the timeline of Newton leaving Florida and going to Blinn

Newton was recruited and brought to Florida by Mullen

Not wanting to sit on the bench for a 3rd straight year (along with the laptop stuff), Newton and his dad agree leaving Florida and getting a fresh start was best for Cam

According to reports, Kenny Rogers first contacted Cecil about Cam after leaving Florida offering his service of finding a new school, to which Cecil said it wasn't needed because they were going to Blinn

By leaving Florida and going to Blinn, Newton's recruitment was going to start over and Cecil took the reins on this because he knew Cam needed to focus on doing what he needed to do at Blinn

Next let's look at Newton's JUCO recruitment

The first article on Cam's recruitment was written by Steve Robertson on March 10, 2009. In this article Robertson spoke to Cecil about what was going on with Cam. A majority of this article focused on Mullen as the new coach at MSU and Cecil saying him and Mullen were good friends. At this point MSU was not recruiting Cam, but Cecil first admits that they would strongly consider MSU because of Mullen being the new coach there.

The next article on Newton was in June by a JUCO website. In this article, Cam said he had written offers from Kansas State and Arizona, but admitted interest also in Kansas, Tennessee, MSU, Iowa State and North Carolina. No offers, just interest.

In September, the UT scout site ran an article about Tennessee having serious interest in Cam, but also stated that no offer had been made.

On October 13, Steve Robertson wrote a second article on Cam with quotes from Cecil. In this article Cecil says they will definitely visit MSU because of their respect for Mullen (doesn't say it, but I assume MSU has offered and is recruiting Newton hard now). Cecil also lays out a lot of details of what they are looking for in a school including wanting to make sure that the team has other pieces in place so that the team would be competitive for a championship. Cecil also says they do to the very short window, so they would be very selective on which schools they visit. As of this article, it looks like MSU, Kansas State and Tennessee were the schools because Cecil says they were looking at some other schools from the SEC and Big 12. Of these only MSU and Kansas State had offered.

As of another article October 28, neither Oklahoma or Auburn have still been mentioned.

Nov 17, Robertson does his first interview with Cam. In this article he mentions going to Arizona (not specified when or if it was official), that Kansas State was up in the air because of the coaching changes and was really focused now on MSU. He also announces in this article that he is going on an official visit to MSU (the only official reported visit to date).

So as of November 17, Newton has a confirmed offer from MSU, a shaky offer from Kansas State, an offer from Arizona. Nothing from Tennessee and still no word on Oklahoma or Auburn even recruiting him.

The MSU Official Visit

Prior to the MSU visit, Kenny Rogers claims that Cecil contacted him get information about MSU. I think this did happen sometime that fall once MSU started seriously looking at Newton. Cecil knew Mullen but didn't know MSU. He probably figured that Rogers could give them a more objective view of MSU and not the coach recruiting speak. They probably even agreed to meet once at the official visit.

On Nov 27, Rogers says he met with Cecil along with two coaches in Starkville at the hotel. Rogers says Mullen was there along with the players and other recruits for a while but all of them eventually left.

It was at this meeting that Rogers claims that Cecil Newton first asked directly for money (between $100K and $180K). His claim is Cecil made the comment while they were sitting in the lobby of the hotel.

I think actually the opposite happened. I think the coaches asked what it would take to get Cam to commit and probably already had Bill Bell lined up. Why do I think this? Newton doesn't have many college opportunities to start with as we learned above. Why would he be stupid, ask for an extremely high amount of money and risk losing his son's best college opportunity (at the time).

Rogers says after the meeting on Friday, he only briefly saw Cecil again that weekend. One of those times was when they were at the game.

The other time was on Sunday when Rogers claims that Cecil called him from a gas station on their way out of town. Rogers went there to talk with Cecil and called Bell to see if he could do the money. I believe this happened, but not exactly this way.

If you read Robertson's post-Newton visit article, Cam talks about feeling like he let Mullen down because he did not commit. I think Rogers tracked down Cecil and Cam at the gas station to make a last ditch attempt to try and get the deal done.

After the Visit

In the same post-visit article, Newton first mentions that he is going to Oklahoma on Dec 11 for an official, but still doesn't have an offer from them. Why if Cecil is shopping Cam would they go visit a school they didn't have an offer from them? Newton's comments are very clear that he is looking for another place. You might say he was looking because MSU balked at the offer from Cecil, but if that had happened, they would have stopped recruiting Newton, which they didn't up until his Auburn commitment.

In a Nov 29 article from UNC's scout site, they had an interview with Cecil talking about UNC starting to show some interest. They were going to come to Blinn to evaluate him and then maybe offer.

Show after "offering MSU his son for $180K" he is now shopping him to two schools that haven't even offered? Ridiculous! And Auburn isn't even still in the picture.

There is no write up on Newton's visit to Oklahoma on Dec 11.

Dec 14 is the first time Auburn is mentioned in a recruiting article. A short update on a JUCO site.

Dec 17, Newton announces he is visiting Auburn and it is down to MSU, Oklahoma and Auburn. In the article, he is very excited about going to Auburn, but remember Auburn hasn't even offered him yet.

Cam visited Auburn without his parents. The pretty peculiar if his dad is supposedly shopping him. Newton comes away from Auburn with an offer and says he is on cloud nine following his visit. But most interesting is Cam's comment about everything with Coach Chizik being on the "up and up" and that "he is in control of that program."

On Dec 31, Cam announces that he is going to Auburn.

So how did we get to today

Why would MSU report improper recruiting of Newton in January to the SEC if they made the offer as I am assuming? Could John Bond have found out about it from Bill Bell as reported and told the AD about it. Did the AD question the coaches about it and they told him that Cecil was the one who made the offer?

Why did MSU take from January to July to get "details" to the SEC and the NCAA? Maybe they needed to get a fool proof story together?

Why did the story even get out? Did Meyer catch wind of the contrived story by MSU and call out Bond and Mullen about it to get it out to make Newton look bad? Mullen did supposedly push back, maybe because he knew the truth?

Did MSU, knowing that they were cooked, get out in front of this by providing "sources" and releasing a statement to shape the story and perception? Smart move by the way.

Why did Newton supposedly call the coaches and say "the money was too much?" Maybe MSU offered him money and he felt that was over the line. Cam and his dad want to get him to the NFL. Cam already has a mark on his record and maybe didn't want to risk doing anymore damage to his NFL potential.

Bottomline

If things went down as I think they did, Auburn knows the Newton's side of the story and so does the NCAA. That is why they are playing Cam.

Unfortunately the media has decided to take the MSU side of the story because that's where the sources are speaking. Everyone else is keeping the mouths shut either for the integrity of the NCAA investigation or for the potential lawsuits.

[auburn123 0]

That's an incredibly well done post, and it makes the most sense of anything I've seen anywhere.  If he is right, then  :happydance: :happydance: :happydance:

[triangletiger 1,599]

Excellent work!  You could teach those ESPN schmucks a thing or two about investigative journalism.  I appreciate your dilligent research.

[Guest midnight]

so msu officials swear cam and his family asked for money, but stoops, kiffin, and our coaching staff say they never noticed any strange recruitment, but msu still tried to recruit cam after they were asked for money?

[SS 0]

Wow!!  I think when this is all said and done.....it would make a great book and movie deal......really, I'm serious.  Even if the above is not "exactly" what happen, I still believe that it will be an interesting story (with all the facts and a little Hollywood twist).......I just hope and pray that Auburn is all clean

[Magnolia and College 1]

I'm still not sure that MSU was involved. They may have known or found out at some point but hopefully didn't instigate any of it.

[Rickys Rants 0]

Thanks for sharing!

[triangletiger 1,599]

I'm still not sure that MSU was involved. They may have known or found out at some point but hopefully didn't instigate any of it.

The more of this story that unfolds, the more I come to the conclusion that Kenny Rogers is the only really bad guy in all this.  Others may have made some mistakes in handling things, but Rogers seems to the source of all the problems. Based on reputation alone, I'm prone to believe the word of Cecil Newton over the (fluctuating) word of Kenny Rogers.

[dp4au 2]

thanks for taking the time to put this together.  I just hope that we get some type of official response soon.

[Weegle777 78]

If this Bell guy is involved, it does have everything to do with MSU. Rogers is being investigated by the NFLPA for lies he told a potential client, a lady came out in an article by Rivals saying how much of a snake he is, this isn't really that difficult. Also, why did MSU keep recruiting Cam? Because if they had gotten him into MSU, all of this Rogers-Bell crap would have never come out.

[AUFan1 0]

Rogers is the recruiter. The guy doing the dirty work to find players who need a college..remember he said he seeks players out when he hears about them leaving school.. he did say he contacted Cecil when he heard Cam left Fl, and offered to help.

Bond is a go between. If you have a system set up for buying players, you need a guy in between guys like Rogers, and people with the money, people like Bell.

Bell is the money man. He probably isn't the only one though. I would imagine you would have to raise the money from a couple different sources to pay the kinda of money we are talking about.

If a system for buying players is set up, I doubt Cecil Newton would know how to find guys like Rogers or Bond or Bell.... Guys like this seek you out, not the other way around

[Lint 0]

Bottomline

If things went down as I think they did, Auburn knows the Newton's side of the story and so does the NCAA. That is why they are playing Cam.

Unfortunately the media has decided to take the MSU side of the story because that's where the sources are speaking. Everyone else is keeping the mouths shut either for the integrity of the NCAA investigation or for the potential lawsuits.

If Cam plays tomorrow, it speaks volumes to this....

[bzlivn 0]

Speaking of Timeline.  It looks like the NCAA investigation is about a week ahead of the media at this point.  Until media runs out of information the NCAA will not be finished with their investigation.  So this will drag on at least another week.  Most project many more months given the possible lawsuites will only add to the information the NCAA will want to investigate.  So get your mind right.  There will be alot more he-said-she-said.

I am curious.  If there will be lawsuites, when would those possibly start?  I don't know the process.  I imagine there are depositions and case building.

[tigertill 0]

Nice. This really sounds good.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,232]

As an admitted (no aggressive) Auburn homer, this is the most logical and well thought out scenario - again for Auburn and the Newton's.  I have really been wondering if this went down in November, why did MSU wait until January to officially report it and then sit on their hands until July for the response to the SEC??!!

[Lint 0]

As an admitted (no aggressive) Auburn homer, this is the most logical and well thought out scenario - again for Auburn and the Newton's.  I have really been wondering if this went down in November, why did MSU wait until January to officially report it and then sit on their hands until July for the response to the SEC??!!

The reason is obvious:  They continued to recruit him.

[312234 0]

From the timeline, AU showed interest Dec. 14.  Rogers claims Mr. C. Newton wanted cash in November at that hotel.

When did AU actually first show interest?

[PowerOfDixieland 3,232]

As an admitted (no aggressive) Auburn homer, this is the most logical and well thought out scenario - again for Auburn and the Newton's.  I have really been wondering if this went down in November, why did MSU wait until January to officially report it and then sit on their hands until July for the response to the SEC??!!

The reason is obvious:  They continued to recruit him.

So then the logical deduction that follows is obvious.  The deal was done the reverse of how Rogers is now claiming, Starkville is beginning to smolder and John Bond's sign off yesterday was indeed a "suicide note".

[Guest gkc81]

It is still going to be awhile before we "know" AU is in the clear, and I believe and hope we are.  I also hope I eat crow and we find out AU is in the clear real soon.  But it is not easy to prove you are innocent when bad stuff has occurred involving folks you are associated with.  The sad thing is the criminal system supposedly operates on an innocent until proven guility bases, the media and public opinion not so much.

[Cat4AU 0]

Very good analogy.. thank you..

                   

[kevon67 2,368]

Very nice!! It makes me sick to see ESPN put so much stock in a man who has changed his story several times.

I guess Schap farted at the dinner table and will do anything to further cover the fact he claims it had to be his mother-in-law, because he is a man of character and would never do such a thing

[BigBlueWDE 1,136]

"Unfortunately the media has decided to take the MSU side of the story because that's where the sources are speaking. "

That's one sentence that has allowed me to have some hope during this entire thing. All of the stories, ESPN, NYT, etc. etc. used sources from the same little clique of folks to create all of the smoke. If the credibility of that clique is brought into question, then it's possible that we are in the clear. I just don't understand why they didn't at least attempt to corroborate something through more official channels. I mean, Joe friggin' Schad, didn't even bother to ask the SEC office if the purported conversations were part of the reports. He was a deer in headlights when told that the SEC office didn't confirm what he was being told from the MSU camps. Then the story was edited to say that "it was verbalized". I mean, anybody ever heard of due diligence.