OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
Coker: Miami still clean after recruiting Williams
Updated: Sunday July 25, 2004 5:37PM
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Miami's recruitment of a top football prospect with numerous legal troubles won't undo the Hurricanes' years of hard work in cleaning up their act, coach Larry Coker said Sunday.
Willie Williams, regarded as the nation's best freshman linebacker, was sentenced to probation twice in the past month for separate crimes -- including an incident during a recruiting trip to rival Florida.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--endclickprintexclude-->Miami officials currently are considering whether to admit the 19-year-old Williams.
"I'm very comfortable with what I know about the reasons we signed Willie Williams, the progress he's made and the things he can bring, not only on the football field," Coker said. "I'd like to see a very positive, positive outcome when Willie Williams is admitted to the university."
The recruitment of the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Williams has been something of an embarrassment for the Hurricanes.
Williams has a criminal background, arrested at least 11 times since 1999. Also, he has come to embody the sordid side of recruiting after he told a newspaper his stories of luxurious accommodations and lavish meals while making official visits to schools.
Miami's administration still stings from the program's excesses of the 1980s and 90s, which the NCAA eventually punished with a one-year bowl ban, three years probation and the loss of dozens of scholarships.
"We have worked very hard to create a clean image at the University of Miami," Coker told the Florida Sports Writers Association during its college football media day. "And that's why we've been very careful about recommending to admit Willie Williams."
Last month, Williams pleaded no contest to a felony count of setting off fire extinguishers at a Gainesville hotel and misdemeanor battery for hugging a woman without her permission. He received a year's probation for each plea stemming from the Jan. 30 incident.
Because of his Gainesville arrest, that violated Williams' probation imposed for a stereo shop burglary in 2002. On July 6, he was sentenced to three years probation and 250 hours of community service. Williams also is subject to random testing for alcohol and unprescribed drugs.
Williams' recruiting expose, published in The Miami Herald, has prompted the NCAA to crack down on the excesses schools commit while wooing high school athletes.
The rules, which would be in place for the upcoming academic year, call for colleges to use commercial airlines and coach airfares to fly athletes to campus, lodge them in "standard" accommodations and serve them reasonable meals.
Also, schools would be banned from giving recruits rides in vehicles not used for other prospective students, handing out personalized jerseys and using scoreboard presentations featuring the player.
Williams said private jets flew him to schools, he ate dinners of lobster and steak, he slept in a hotel room with a hot tub on the balcony and Coker himself drove him from his Carol City home to campus in a Cadillac Escalade.
Coker acknowledged feeding recruits lobster and steak, "but that's not excessive. Maybe nine lobsters is."
Coker added that he regretted the new rules would prohibit schools from flying in a recruit's parents. Their visits are essential, Coker said, because they need to see the city of Miami for themselves.
Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, also attending the FSWA's media day, denied sending a private plane to fetch Williams. But he agreed the NCAA needed to step in.
"Everybody's trying to keep up with the Joneses," Bowden said.
Updated: Sunday July 25, 2004 5:37PM
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Miami's recruitment of a top football prospect with numerous legal troubles won't undo the Hurricanes' years of hard work in cleaning up their act, coach Larry Coker said Sunday.
Willie Williams, regarded as the nation's best freshman linebacker, was sentenced to probation twice in the past month for separate crimes -- including an incident during a recruiting trip to rival Florida.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--endclickprintexclude-->Miami officials currently are considering whether to admit the 19-year-old Williams.
"I'm very comfortable with what I know about the reasons we signed Willie Williams, the progress he's made and the things he can bring, not only on the football field," Coker said. "I'd like to see a very positive, positive outcome when Willie Williams is admitted to the university."
The recruitment of the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Williams has been something of an embarrassment for the Hurricanes.
Williams has a criminal background, arrested at least 11 times since 1999. Also, he has come to embody the sordid side of recruiting after he told a newspaper his stories of luxurious accommodations and lavish meals while making official visits to schools.
Miami's administration still stings from the program's excesses of the 1980s and 90s, which the NCAA eventually punished with a one-year bowl ban, three years probation and the loss of dozens of scholarships.
"We have worked very hard to create a clean image at the University of Miami," Coker told the Florida Sports Writers Association during its college football media day. "And that's why we've been very careful about recommending to admit Willie Williams."
Last month, Williams pleaded no contest to a felony count of setting off fire extinguishers at a Gainesville hotel and misdemeanor battery for hugging a woman without her permission. He received a year's probation for each plea stemming from the Jan. 30 incident.
Because of his Gainesville arrest, that violated Williams' probation imposed for a stereo shop burglary in 2002. On July 6, he was sentenced to three years probation and 250 hours of community service. Williams also is subject to random testing for alcohol and unprescribed drugs.
Williams' recruiting expose, published in The Miami Herald, has prompted the NCAA to crack down on the excesses schools commit while wooing high school athletes.
The rules, which would be in place for the upcoming academic year, call for colleges to use commercial airlines and coach airfares to fly athletes to campus, lodge them in "standard" accommodations and serve them reasonable meals.
Also, schools would be banned from giving recruits rides in vehicles not used for other prospective students, handing out personalized jerseys and using scoreboard presentations featuring the player.
Williams said private jets flew him to schools, he ate dinners of lobster and steak, he slept in a hotel room with a hot tub on the balcony and Coker himself drove him from his Carol City home to campus in a Cadillac Escalade.
Coker acknowledged feeding recruits lobster and steak, "but that's not excessive. Maybe nine lobsters is."
Coker added that he regretted the new rules would prohibit schools from flying in a recruit's parents. Their visits are essential, Coker said, because they need to see the city of Miami for themselves.
Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, also attending the FSWA's media day, denied sending a private plane to fetch Williams. But he agreed the NCAA needed to step in.
"Everybody's trying to keep up with the Joneses," Bowden said.
:osu4:Its good to see them taking some heat rather than OSU