Comments on: Battery Charges Filed Against UF’s Leonard

By: MJWilliamson

MJWilliamson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:11:26 +0000

@John at MrSEC

John, when you say

“All I said was that it doesn’t “look too good” and that “it’s another black eye” for the UF program.”

right after claiming NOT to judge Muschamp, you make a distinction without a difference.

You have already judged him, especially when you add

“Leonard was the ninth Gator arrested since Muschamp took over the UF program in January of last year.”

Again, factually correct, but nowhere do you share how Muschamp handled those other eight cases (several players were dismissed from the team,) nor do you even bother to explore what the eventual outcome of those cases might have been.

John, I am not of the opinion that you favor one program over another.I have read you long enough to be pretty sure that is not the case. I have read you long enough to know that you have strong opinions about things, and sometimes you do not let the facts get in the way of those opinions.

In any case, I don’t want to leave you with the opinion I don’t like your site. I appreciate your site a great deal, and love your mathematical analysis.

Regards

Mike

By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:04:17 +0000

MJWilliamson…

Did I judge in the story above whether or not Muschamp did the right thing? You may want to re-read the piece.

All I said was that it doesn’t “look too good” and that “it’s another black eye” for the UF program. Unless Florida fans like seeing their players make national news for dragging girls down halls by their hair and feet, I don’t see how anything I wrote could be argued. That story is bad press.

Further, if Coach X lets Player Y back onto the practice field and the very next day Player Y is charged by the State Attorney’s Office, that’s not a positive for the school that’s home to both Coach X and Player Y. Regardless of how it plays out in the end, it looks bad now. There’s no debating that. And that’s what we wrote.

Having said that, if you’d like to know whether or not I believe Muschamp did the right thing — and I didn’t write this view in the post above though you apparently thought you saw it — no, I don’t. I think he’d have been better off keeping Leonard off the team until his legal issues were taken care of… just as Les Miles did with Jordan Jefferson last year. If Muschamp had done that, he’d have been saved the embarrassment of hundreds of sports sites yesterday pointing out that a UF player had been charged for a crime exactly one day after Muschamp let him back on the practice field.

Thanks for reading,John

By: MJWilliamson

MJWilliamson — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:21:54 +0000

I think I will let this whole thing play out before I judge whether Muschamp did the right thing or not. You should too, John