Report: Garza Paid For Recruit’s Unofficial Trip

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Here’s the wire service story on Yahoo’s report that Willie Mack Garza paid for tailback Lache Seastrunk to visit Tenneseee on an unofficial visit during Lane Kiffin’s tenure.

AP — Former Tennessee assistant Willie Mack Garza paid for a top recruit
and his mother to fly to Knoxville for an unofficial recruiting trip during Lane Kiffin’s tenure at the school, Yahoo! Sports reported Monday night.
Garza followed Kiffin when he took over at Southern California, but
the secondary coach resigned Sept. 1, citing personal issues unrelated to USC.
Yahoo! Sports reported Garza wired $1,500 to talent scout Will Lyles
in July 2009 and the money was used for plane tickets for running back prospect Lache Seastrunk and his mother, Evelyn.
Lyles told NCAA investigators about the transaction in August,according to the website. He said NCAA investigators were examining Tennessee’s recruiting practices.
Garza, USC spokesman Tim Tessalone and the NCAA declined comment when
reached by Yahoo! Sports.
“We are aware of the situation as is the conference office,”
Tennessee spokesman Jimmy Stanton told the website. “We’ve been verbally contacted by the NCAA enforcement staff regarding a recruiting issue in 2009 related to the former coaching staff and a student-athlete who never attended Tennessee.
“We believe, as does the conference office, that this matter is not
subject to the repeat offender provision.”
The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Seastrunk signed with Oregon out of high
school and was redshirted. He transferred to Baylor in August.
Evelyn Seastrunk acknowledged the trip to Knoxville but declined comment when asked by Yahoo! Sports who paid for the plane tickets or where they stayed during the trip.
“I’m so sick and tired of this Willie Lyles said this and Willie
Lyles said that,” she said. “I don’t care what Willie Lyles says. I don’t care as long as my son is OK.
“Whatever undercover dirty stuff that they’re doing, I’m pretty sure
that Willie Lyles is not the only person. He’s just the only one that’s been caught. This is something that they’ve been doing forever.”
The NCAA is investigating services provided to Oregon by Lyles, who
started his own scouting company in January 2009. At issue is whether Lyles helped steer Seastrunk to the Ducks.
Yahoo! Sports said it obtained a receipt for the wired money for the
Tennessee flights, and it listed Willie Garza as the sender and Will Lyles as
the receiver of $1,500.
Lyles told the website he agreed to speak to NCAA investigators on
condition they granted Seastrunk immunity from any penalties associated with this incident.
“I wanted to make sure Lache would be fine, this isn’t about him,”
Lyles said. “It’s the NCAA’s rules and the schools not following them. During our meeting it became clear the NCAA already had knowledge of what was going on at Tennessee.”
Tennessee just faced the NCAA Committee on Infractions following a
two-year investigation into recruiting by former men’s basketball coach Bruce
Pearl and the football program under then-coach Kiffin. It chose not to punish the university beyond its self-imposed sanctions, which included two years of probation.
The NCAA also concluded in August there wasn’t enough evidence to
prove 12 recruiting violations committed by Kiffin and his staff were any more than secondary violations.
Those charges included 16 improper recruiting phone calls and impermissible contact between football staff interns and recruits.

8 thoughts on “Report: Garza Paid For Recruit’s Unofficial Trip”

  1. He was certainly a questionable hire last year, but as of now I STILL do not know what to think about Lane Kiffin as a coach. He is a great recruiter obviously, and you only have to wonder would things be different if this dark cloud called sanctions wasnt hovering over the team. You also must wonder what the outcome of the last game would be had there not been 4 turnovers (2 being in the red zone). I guess my main concern is…does he get the most out of his players?

  2. Mrs. Slob also performed a trick at no charge for the recruit, his dad, the bellman, cab driver, pilot, steward, oh man, the list goes on and on. Enough to kill a person. ROFLMAO

  3. I wonder what Garza’s salary was. It would have to be pretty low for there not to be a strong incentive for an up and coming assistant coach to invest in recruiting.

  4. Kiffin just had to know this was happening. Seastrunk is a running back being recruited for the Vols offense whose coordinator & play-caller was ……….LK. Haden should use this to his advantage while it is a hot topic!

  5. I know this is not rocket science, but my take is that the NCAA will take about 6 months to investigate Tennessee. They probably want to put a bow on the entire Lyles mess at Oregon, LSU and now Tennessee. Our season will be over by then. The NCAA is going to have a hard time looking past this at Tennessee. And Kiffin will most likely be sanctioned in some way as the head coach of a program that already got sanctioned in his only year there.

    If its anything other than a clean bill of health for Kiffin then SC will fire him. Hopefully the timing will be such that recruiting is over next year before the NCAA makes its determination. Until then SC, Kiffin, Haden, et al will have no comment. So Id say its highly likely that SC has a new coach next year.

    Kiffin (and Tennessee) has a chance to slip by sanctions if the NCAA feels that the self imposed sanctions Tennessee placed on themselves is sufficientand they usually do. But thats a big if, so all bets are off at this point.

  7. Mrs. Slob files suit against NCAA. WOW. Prof Slob arrested for exposing himself. Fortunately for Slob, his is only a misdemeanor. ROFLMAO

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