UCF Scandal

UCF Scandal editor’s note: Unlike other “scandal” sites, we are a very compassionate team here at UCF Scandal and share in the grief over the loss of Ereck Plancher. With respect, we’ll not editorialize on the school’s response, only publish the media’s findings.

How can UCF conduct an internal review into a player’s death without interviewing players?

Posted on Mar 26, 2008 1:57:04 PM

Mike Bianchi

(NOTE TO READERS: I am updating my previous blog post with some clarification from UCF associate athletic director Joe Hornstein):

I have to tell you, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I read our Kyle Hightower’s story in Wednesday’s Sentinel about UCF concluding its “catastrophic incident” internal review into the recent death of football player Ereck Plancher. In the story, it actually said that the review was completed without interviewing any of the football players.

Huh?

How do you conduct a internal catastrophic incident review without officially interviewing the people who were closest to Plancher that fateful day last week when he collapsed and died during an offseason workout? This would be like the police conducting an investigation into a vehicular death and not talking to the other passengers in the car.

Hopefully, there’s been some misunderstanding. Hopefully, somebody misspoke. Hopefully, UCF officials didn’t really conduct an official review without interviewing players, did they?

That’s why I contacted Hornstein Wednesday afternoon. His response: “On multiple occasions our players were strongly encouraged to speak to the coach and position coaches on anything dealing with the incident of March 18.”

Hornstein also sent me a statement in which it is pointed out that the catastrophic incident report “does not speak to or involve or provide a medical evaluation or conclusion of the incident,” but is intended to “establish protocol” when a catastrophic event happens.

That’s all well and good, but I’m still puzzled. It appears that this is as close to an official internal investigation as UCF is going to get. To complete it without any players being interviewed in an official capacity by some sort of school attorney or administrator seems almost unfathomable.

Seriously, how do you conduct an internal review into a player death without interviewing players?

As I wrote in a previous blog, UCF officials are obviously being very careful not to do anything or say anything that can be used against them should a lawsuit be filed. Let’s face it, in almost every case when a player dies during a team workout, somebody ends up getting sued. It happened at Florida State when Devaughn Darling died, it happened at Florida when Eraste Autin died and it happened at Northwestern when Rashidi Wheeler died. Meanwhile at the University of South Florida, the family of Keeley Dorsey, the South Florida player who died last January, has also retained a law firm to look into Dorsey’s death.

It’s understandable that school officials are worried about potential litigation, but the No. 1 concern here should be that Ereck Plancher is dead.

You would think a UCF investigator would officially interview anybody and everybody who was there that day — assistant coaches, equipment men, water boys, videographers and, yes, players — to find out if proper procedures were followed.

Link to Orlando Sentinel

After a suspicious encounter with a TV in which the infamous UCF star injured himself, Brandon Marshall has since lied regarding the circumstance surrounding the injury. Now lying should come as no surprise to UCF players and fans as it occurs at the very top of the UCF football program, but the Denver Post does a good job sorting through the latest Marshall incident.

Excerpt from full story linked here

“I understand I’ve had my problems, but what people are saying, they’re trying to twist this thing around to make me sound like some kind of bad guy,” Marshall said Monday.

Marshall has been some kind of bad guy in part because he has had lots of problems and isn’t always forthcoming.

While he was a student-athlete at the University of Central Florida in 2004, Marshall was arrested in Orlando (where the recent “accident” occurred) on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. According to The Orlando Sentinel, Marshall’s friends were arguing outside with others at a Denny’s, and police were called. As the result of a shouting match, Marshall was arrested and handcuffed. Charges against Marshall were dropped, but he was suspended for one game. In another incident, he was charged with driving with a suspended license. There have been other unkind descriptions about Marshall’s stay at UCF.

Those occurrences can be dismissed as college foolishness and irresponsibility.

However, 2007, off the field, was particularly ugly for Marshall, and can’t be dismissed so readily.

Shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, Broncos teammate Darrent Williams was murdered. Another Denver wide receiver, Javon Walker (released recently), and Williams’ friends told HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” that trouble began when two men got into an argument with Marshall and his cousin at a nightclub in downtown Denver. Media reports stated that Marshall sprayed champagne on the men, and they flashed gang signs. The dispute later was continued outside, and Walker said he pulled Williams away and into a limousine as Marshall and his cousin left in another car. Soon after a shot was fired into the limo Walker and Williams jumped in, and Williams was killed.

Marshall has declined to talk publicly (but, no doubt, to investigators) about events that night leading up to the tragedy.

In March of last year, Marshall was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and false imprisonment. Marshall attempted to prevent a taxi, which picked up his girlfriend, from leaving his property in suburban Denver. Marshall said he was trying to retrieve his cellphone. Chargers were dropped when Marshall completed an anger management course.

Marshall was charged with DUI in October after being stopped in LoDo, but pleaded not guilty, and his attorney is challenging the Breathalyzer test result.

With the Broncos, at training camp last year, Marshall sat out the first two weeks with a quadriceps injury. Coach Mike Shanahan then ordered Marshall to practice.

After the Broncos’ 41-3 loss to San Diego at home on Oct. 7, Marshall ripped the spectators, most of whom departed long before the humiliating game ended. “If you’re going to be a Broncos fan, be a Broncos fan. Don’t boo us when we’re down. When we start winning, then what?”

In December Marshall got into a brief shouting match in a receivers meeting with assistant coach Jeremy Bates, but denied rumors that he told Bates to cut him from the team.

Financial issues coming home to roost for UCF Athletics as audit report uncovers millions in audit findings. Most peculiar are the loans to the UCF Athletic Association with no stipulated payback schedule or requirement and nearly $50 million in student-athletic fees diverted:

UCF Student Newspaper, Central Florida Future - March 17, 2008:

• UCF mishandled several million dollars in funds and is spending more money than it should, according to a recent state audit.
• Several findings involved the university assessing fees and transferring funds without having legal authority for its actions. According to the audit, the university loaned $7.4 million to the UCF Athletics Association Inc. in violation of Florida statutes. There is not yet a plan as to how that money will be paid back.
• The university also transferred about $15 million to the association and the University of Central Florida Foundation, the audit states.

The Chronicle of Higher Education - March 17, 2008:

• A routine review by a state auditor has found that the University of Central Florida may have inappropriately lent its independent intercollegiate-athletics association more than $7.4-million, a practice the university has discontinued, and provided more than $49-million in student fees to the athletics association without proper oversight.

The Orlando Sentinel - March 26, 2008

• State auditors criticized UCF for its unusual practice of lending money to the UCF Athletics Association, a 4-year-old organization that does not fall under the requirements of Florida’s sweeping open-records law. Auditors found the university had no repayment plan for the loans, which amounted to $9.5 million.
• Auditors also took the school to task for diverting athletics fees, which students are required to pay, directly to the association without having an adequate way to monitor how the money was spent. Students at UCF pay an athletics fee of $11.72 per credit hour.
• Those payments amounted to about $14 million last year, or nearly half of UCF’s entire budget for athletics. UCF gave the association about $49 million in student-athletics fees between the 2003-04 and 2006-07 fiscal years, according to the audit.

Sneaky.