Rutgers players under investigation for fraudulent use of credit cards

[ColonelRutgers]

This is bad, but let me just say that this could have been something much, much worse. White collar crime is less consequential than the real bad ones, like rape, assault, drugs, guns etc. In fact a good crisis management play could turn this into a “college athletes need money” issue instead of a culture issue.

I'm sure they weren't buying soup and deodorant with the credit cards.

 

[ScarletDave]

Hopefully Pat Hobbs has a clause in Chris Ash’s contract that says if a scandal arises where more than say 5 players are arrested, then he can be fired with cause and we won’t have to be on the hook for the rest of his contract. IF he learned from Kyle Flood/Hermann deal. If not, it’s his own fault if he goes down too. Worst case scenario is Ash gets canned but we have to pay off his contract plus his extension while we still get less money than the rest of our conference.

 

[WhiteBus]

Not Ash’s fault but it happened on his watch. So frustrating....

He can show some balls and intolerance by suspending all 8 by tomorrow. Complete bullship. Its one thing if you Saban and Meyer. Ash doesnt have that steam. Take action now or be on your way.

 

[RU4Real]

Hopefully Pat Hobbs has a clause in Chris Ash’s contract that says if a scandal arises where more than say 5 players are arrested, then he can be fired with cause and we won’t have to be on the hook for the rest of his contract. IF he learned from Kyle Flood/Hermann deal. If not, it’s his own fault if he goes down too. Worst case scenario is Ash gets canned but we have to pay off his contract plus his extension while we still get less money than the rest of our conference.

Yeah, that wouldn't ever be in any contract. He has no control over who gets arrested so he could never be held contractually responsible for it.

 

[BoroKnight]

This is bad, but let me just say that this could have been something much, much worse. White collar crime is less consequential than the real bad ones, like rape, assault, drugs, guns etc. In fact a good crisis management play could turn this into a “college athletes need money” issue instead of a culture issue.

Nope. I could turn this into a "college athletes cheat at more than classes" issue, too. Sorry, they now get full cost of attendance. Do you think a salary would stop people from stealing? Has it ever? It's called character, and if this is true, they lack it. Case closed.

 

[Proud Gator]

The thing I don’t understand is this happened at Florida’s ONE YEAR AGO. Like did the players not see how that turned out? And credit card fraud is not easy, my guess is that none of our players are technologically savvy enough to do this well

Gators had 9 players get clipped, including a few starting stars at WR and RB. Some purchases were for candy and sonic meals, you can’t make this sh__ up, do they think there are no electronic fingerprints. The only good thing to come from it was our head coach got canned. Good luck with this

 

[King of S]

I have come around to this - if Ash wins five games under these circumstances he gets an extension.

Extension?? Please. Lucky is he makes it through the next 2 years.

 

[koleszar]

I'm sure they weren't buying soup and deodorant with the credit cards.

Apparently KJ was buying beer and taking out cash advances for marijuana. He was stopped and summoned for open container, in possession of less than 50 grams of a controlled substance and a host of other offenses in June. O and he forgot to tell anybody about it. Rutgers had no idea until James Kratch found it in an open records request and they were asked about it after he was kicked off for the credit cards. This kid is already on strike three.

 

[Abro1975]

Too bad 3 year starter honorable mention All Big 10, 3 year starter, Kiy Hester was seemingly shown the door , because they thought KJ Gray would be a star. Geez.

 

[RUfromSoCal?]

Hopefully Pat Hobbs has a clause in Chris Ash’s contract that says if a scandal arises where more than say 5 players are arrested, then he can be fired with cause and we won’t have to be on the hook for the rest of his contract. IF he learned from Kyle Flood/Hermann deal. If not, it’s his own fault if he goes down too. Worst case scenario is Ash gets canned but we have to pay off his contract plus his extension while we still get less money than the rest of our conference.

what happened to the "ignore" button?

 

[King of S]

Radio silence from Hobbs and Ash.

 

[LevaosLectures]

This is bad, but let me just say that this could have been something much, much worse. White collar crime is less consequential than the real bad ones, like rape, assault, drugs, guns etc. In fact a good crisis management play could turn this into a “college athletes need money” issue instead of a culture issue.

You're insane.

 

[-RUFAN4LIFE-]

Hopefully Pat Hobbs has a clause in Chris Ash’s contract that says if a scandal arises where more than say 5 players are arrested, then he can be fired with cause and we won’t have to be on the hook for the rest of his contract. IF he learned from Kyle Flood/Hermann deal. If not, it’s his own fault if he goes down too. Worst case scenario is Ash gets canned but we have to pay off his contract plus his extension while we still get less money than the rest of our conference.

Wow, troll bait if I ever saw it.

 

[WhiteBus]

Radio silence from Hobbs and Ash.

That I don't like at all. Youre a month away from summer camp. A great PR move would be suspend them all. Figure it out by camp. Why no action or comment?

 

[TonyVolt]

You see this happen under Schiano?

 

[WhiteBus]

You see this happen under Schiano?

Schiano would suspend a kid for missing a class. This crap is bad and what is worse is no action by the school.
At the Academies not only are you suspended you are tossed out of school.

 

[Dpgru]

Apparently KJ was buying beer and taking out cash advances for marijuana. He was stopped and summoned for open container, in possession of less than 50 grams of a controlled substance and a host of other offenses on June 18th. O and he forgot to tell anybody about it. Rutgers had no idea until James Kratch found it in an open records request and they were asked about it after he was kicked off for the credit cards. This kid is already on strike three.

Your post is very telling. I hope the idiots who, in the first half of this thread, were posting that Ash should have learned from his mentors how to cover this kind of thing up and keep his important players on the field read it carefully. None of those big time programs have a watchdog like the SL and it's media arm NJ.com watching every move the athletic program makes salivating at the chance to attack. You can't cover anything up at RU like you can elsewhere. It will be discovered and you will be buried. Handle it up front and deal with it. If it sets the program back a bit you just have to deal with it but a cover up, once exposed, could be a death sentence. (not necessarily in an NCAA sanction sense, but a PR disaster)

 

[soundcrib]

https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/...tgers_possession_marijuana_charge_east_b.html

 

[arigoldrutgers]

This is bad, but let me just say that this could have been something much, much worse. White collar crime is less consequential than the real bad ones, like rape, assault, drugs, guns etc. In fact a good crisis management play could turn this into a “college athletes need money” issue instead of a culture issue.

You're insane.

What exactly did I say that was insane?

 

[Rokodesh]

Hopefully Pat Hobbs has a clause in Chris Ash’s contract that says if a scandal arises where more than say 5 players are arrested, then he can be fired with cause and we won’t have to be on the hook for the rest of his contract. IF he learned from Kyle Flood/Hermann deal. If not, it’s his own fault if he goes down too. Worst case scenario is Ash gets canned but we have to pay off his contract plus his extension while we still get less money than the rest of our conference.

There is no way in hell any coach would accept those terms after Flood was fired for lack of institutional control. You might ask well ask them to sign an at-will contract with no severance.

 

[RU from Jersey]

Certainly not as bad as what happened at PSU, MSU and most recently OSU, but this is real bad for program looking to crawl up from the bottom. I wonder if I can get my season ticket money back now?

 

[cardinal2383]

This could be as bad as it gets. If 6 or 7 players get charged with credit card fraud it will become national news and for the second time in 4 years the RU football program will be tagged with promoting a criminal like atmosphere.
We have one of the weakest programs in the Big Ten and frankly this will set it back 10 yeats.
In the event the worst case scenario occurs
some serious soul searching is in order.

 

[WhiteBus]

Certainly not as bad as what happened at PSU, MSU and most recently OSU, but this is real bad for program looking to crawl up from the bottom. I wonder if I can get my season ticket money back now?

Not as bad?? The other 3 programs win. Besides stating some are worse doesn't make this better or ok.

 

[retired711]

Maybe we should wait until the facts come out before coming to conclusions about the future of the program?

 

[vkj91]

That I don't like at all. Youre a month away from summer camp. A great PR move would be suspend them all. Figure it out by camp. Why no action or comment?

There is it a lack of action. Athleitci department is fighting to kick some kids out while suspending others. Certain school side people want to just kick everyone out. They are waiting on Barchi and company

 

[Knight Shift]

The thing I don’t understand is this happened at Florida’s ONE YEAR AGO. Like did the players not see how that turned out? And credit card fraud is not easy, my guess is that none of our players are technologically savvy enough to do this well

Not a good guess. Maybe raising the APR of the football team was not such a good idea. If RU kept Flood, this would have never happened.

 

[Knight Shift]

Well then, the July summer football quiet period is over. Ash has his first crisis. Will be interesting to see how he handles the media and team. Will make or break his term here.

Crisis? Please. Small potatoes.

 

[Knight Shift]

Maybe we should wait until the facts come out before coming to conclusions about the future of the program?

What are you a lawyer?

 

[WhiteBus]

Maybe we should wait until the facts come out before coming to conclusions about the future of the program?

From a PR standpoint you are falling into the Flood issues. Suspended them now and sort it out. This isn't a legal issue for Rutgers, can not wait. They will have their rights in court, doesn't mean you have to wait through until that is complete. This is showing about who you are.

 

[RUforlife]

These kinds of stories would be a lot easier to take if we were winning 8/9 games every year. Sure this kind of stuff happens at the football factories, but at least they get to enjoy winning and then maybe a couple of years of probation and then cycle starts again, we don't get any of the fun, we just get the pain over and over again. UGH!

 

[DJ Spanky]

There is it a lack of action. Athleitci department is fighting to kick some kids out while suspending others. Certain school side people want to just kick everyone out. They are waiting on Barchi and company

Oh, boy! Someone's going under the bus!!!

 

[Knight Shift]

Oh, boy! Someone's going under the bus!!!

Only if there was a video that someone tried to show Barchi.

 

[APKnight]

This is very bad.

 

[WhiteBus]

There is it a lack of action. Athleitci department is fighting to kick some kids out while suspending others. Certain school side people want to just kick everyone out. They are waiting on Barchi and company

I didn't say to kick anyone out yet. Suspend those accused. Sends a message to all players and sends a message to everyone looking at this program.
I don't give a rats ass what other programs do. Rutgers doesn't have the blind support that they do. And following what happened under Flood we can not be seen as the program that hasn't learned from going through that crap.

 

[runuts]

Every year this disaster of a program brings me closer to owning a boat.

You don't want to do that, especially when we are on a perpetual sinking ship.

 

[arigoldrutgers]

Does anyone have any inside information on if any expected starters are implicated in this? and if so, any big names (Sitkowski, Melton, Hilliman, etc)?

 

[RepeatedCrown6]

8 players could be involved ?? Are we going to lose our whole secondary again like we did that one year ? That was always fun!

Knowing Rutgers luck this is just a guess of the other 6

Artur Sitkowski/Jon Lewis
Raheem Blacksheer
Micah Clark
Austin/Wharton
A punter
And a Right Guard

 

[WhiteBus]

You don't want to do that, especially when we are on a perpetual sinking ship.

Dress like a lady and get into one of the lifeboats.

 

[vkj91]

Does anyone have any inside information on if any expected starters are implicated in this? and if so, any big names (Sitkowski, Melton, Hilliman, etc)?

There is one I’d really hate to lose but only Gray is starter

 

[vkj91]

I didn't say to kick anyone out yet. Suspend those accused. Sends a message to all players and sends a message to everyone looking at this program.
I don't give a rats ass what other programs do. Rutgers doesn't have the blind support that they do. And following what happened under Flood we can not be seen as the program that hasn't learned from going through that crap.

But you are assuming nothing is being done based on message board info. Team has been spoken to, HS coaches have been spoken to, recruits have been spoken to, all major players have been spoken to. Just us lemmings are waiting for official word.