Background On The Recruitment of Seantrel Henderson:
Sometimes we still post information at other websites, such as for the good folks like Ray Hines, Buddy Martin, and Franz Beard at Gator Country. During the previous week, we Tweeted on our G8trinsider page and at Gator Country on the background behind the Seantrel Henderson mess at SC, why he didn't sign his letter of intent, and the real scoop behind the propaganda coming from both Lane Kiffin and the Henderson camp on the reasons why. It wasn't to wait for the decision of any infractions committee, which wouldn't release their findings to the public anyway, and reports of which would be untrustworthy coming from Lane Kiffin, desperate to sign Henderson. Nope. Here's the real story on why UF didn't sign Henderson, and why SC now likely CAN'T.
We read with interest the NYT article on his recruitment, but there is much, much more to the story. The Henderson's knew about the pending NCAA sanctions from the beginning. It never really bothered them until their demands were not met. Meyer and the Henderson's (Seantrel and his father) never connected for a pretty good reason. Seantrel's father continued to ask Meyer "what can you do for me?" And both Steve Addazio and Urban Meyer continued to try to persuade his father to drop his demands and do things the right way until the week prior signing day.
Seantrel's father took the same approach to Miami, and head coach Rand Shannon backed off of him immediately, while trying to maintain the limited ties that would keep them in the running should the situation change with respect to Henderson's father, who loved the promise of the Miami scene to advance himself. Much the same with Jim Tressell at Ohio State, though, as we will see, Tressell seems determined to follow a path closely paralleling Lane Kiffin's encouraging the idea that Henderson's father was a budding rap star.
When Lane Kiffin arrived at USC and picked up the recruitment of Henderson from the former staff, he spoke to Seantrel's father and discovered that he was an aspiring entertainer, and wanted to obtain entre into the rap scene. Kiffin promptly told him that he could introduce him to rap ubermensch and SC super booster Snoop Dogg. This meeting in fact occurred, and was an egregious violation of NCAA recruiting regulations, as an improper benefit. Spoiling the party was the SC compliance office, which discovered the scheme through another prominent booster, immediately calling a special meeting with Kiffin and a member of Snoop Dogg's entourage, with the result being that SC was forced to terminate its recruitment of Henderson, owing to the fact that the NCAA is already investigating and this would add fuel to their fire. SC will self-report this violation, may end up being officially disqualified from recruiting Henderson, who has yet to sign his Letter of Intent, citing "concerns" surrounding the penalties that may come out of the pending NCAA investigation.
It is interesting to note the difference in tone in the communications to the Henderson coming from the various coaches. A couple of examples were supplied in the NYT article, and I reproduce them here. First we see a text message that originated from Buckeye's coach Doc Tressell, a major player for Ohio State in Henderson's recruitment.
"That was a Grammy performance made me think of u! After u did that rhyme 4 me in Dec u said u felt best bout the Buckeyes. The Bucks hbe not changed!! We want u to be down here ovr spr break to learn more bout Columbus. Doc"
Contrast that with the message the Henderson's received from UrbanMeyer:
"I hope all is well and I apologize for not being able to make it up there to visit. I tried but my AD and doctor would not allow it. I know your family will be making a life-changing decision in the next few days. I want you to know that he will be taken care of here both as a student and as an athlete. The opportunity to be part of this great Gator Nation with the networking opportunities is unmatched. We have put together the #1 recruiting class in the country and Seantrel is the last missing piece. This class is similar to Tebow, Spikes, and Percy's class where they wanted to come together to be the best and they did! If you have any questions, I would love to speak w u. Go Gators! Urban"
All the difference in the world, in our eyes. Meyer is a mentor and Doc Tressell is behaving like a pimp. You be the judge. But confirmation of our background came from a follow-up article published by the times:
"On Monday, the Ohio State running backs coach Doc Tressel sent an e-mail message to Henderson's father referring to a performance by the rappers Lil Wayne, Eminem and Drake during the Grammy Awards on Sunday. When Tressel, the older brother of Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, visited the Hendersons in December, Seantrel made his father freestyle rap for him."
Recall how we posted that Henderson's dad wanted benefits from Kiffin and how Kiffin promised to introduce this aspiring rapper to Snoop Dogg -a prominent Trojans booster? Interesting context when viewed in light of the above. No?
Bottom line, Lane Kiffin violated NCAA recruiting regulations, and that will send Henderson to another school. SC will have to self-report these violations to the NCAA, adding fuel to the investigation that is ongoing. SC can't touch Henderson with a 100 foot pole now. Expect him to sign elsewhere now that the SC compliance office is involved.
