As originally reported by Yahoo Sports, ESPN Outside the Lines has released their assessment of the LSU Tigers scouting video purchased from Willie Lyles. The Tigers procured crappy-quality and outdated junior college video worthy of the 2001 Internet of California and Kansas recruits.
At first glance, this doesn't look that great for Cal. You know, the whole guilt-by-association thing that ESPN loves to spin around and all that. Lyles has peddled pretty lame material to LSU and Oregon, so it would be logical to assume Cal would be next on the docket.
This doesn't mean it's bad for Cal either. Several points to address.
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According to head coach Jeff Tedford and athletic director Sandy Barbour, the NCAA already inquired about Lyles, and there has been no further inquiry on the man in the past few months. Why would the NCAA save Cal for last when concurrent investigations were underway against LSU and Oregon? It seems safer to conclude the NCAA didn't see anything worth investigating in April and moved on. Either that or the investigators fell asleep from Tedford's three hour lecture on quarterback progressions.
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LSU was under a gag order from the NCAA while they conducted their investigation. Considering Tedford and Barbour have already gone on the record about the subject of Lyles, it's safe to presume Cal is also not under any gag order of sorts, or they aren't in serious threat of being investigated in the future. Either that, or Tedford is college football's version of Fluttershy, and you need dragons to awaken his interest.
- What the NCAA is most concerned about is the steering of recruits by "street agents" like Lyles to particular schools, then being paid for said services. Two recruits with connections to Lyles ended up at said-investigated schools--Lache Seastrunk went to Oregon, Patrick Peterson went to LSU. Who went to Cal? I'm putting my money on banana.
Although the situation looks pretty rough for LSU and Oregon, you cannot conclude similar problems for Cal until you hear a notice of inquiry. For now though, all looks safe for Cal fans (or at least as a safe as a Cal fan can feel).
Check out these sites for further discussion of the Lyles connection: And the Valley Shook (LSU), Addicted to Quack (Oregon), and the California Golden Blogs (Cal).