What Im saying is and Im not sure how this was missed but, .......none of us..... no one... not a single person on this planet truly knows anything about the situation other than him and whomever he has confided everything in. So I ask, how can a person sit here and judge this kid, judge his family, while not simultaneously blaming the schools or collectives, for making poor decisions? No one truly knows anything about what led to his decision. He also siad he spoke to God. Maybe he did. Maybe thats not good enough for the God fearing people here and elsewhere? Maybe they dont believe him? Why? Its all speculation or reported inuendo and ultimately people here have such strong opinion son absolutely nothing that they are willing to jam this kid into a piece of shit box and thrown him in the garbage pile.
Its kind of ridiculous to me. Thats all Im saying.
As an aside or corollary, I recently took another position with another firm and I have existing projects that require managing and transitioning. Its a lot of money and responsibility to be handing off to someone else...particularly because it puts that in the hands of my bosses and I do not know who will take them over after I am gone. Some people at my firm took it poorly. Some think Im just up and leaving with literally much less notice than this kid provided his coaches. Others took it better and yet no one is wishing terrible outcomes for me. No one is online saying they hope I get hit with a new tax burden because of my decisions. lol. Why is it different for a NCAA kid playing football in the United States University Semiprofessional Football League?
I think it is totally reasonable to judge the kid or his support system for so poorly misreading his situation and value, and in turn messing up his own situation, and also that of his team.
Tennessee didn't dump a starting QB for no reason, which leaves two primary possibilities:
1. He asked for more money than he's worth
2. He was shopping around for a better deal at a bad time, and it got back to Tennessee
If option 1, that's a bad read by his camp with all the evidence on film of the growing he still needs to do. And that's not an indictment of the kid as a player! He was a freshman playing SEC ball, and acquitted himself pretty damn well. But it's also true that he feasted on the worst of his opposition, and looked worse against teams with a pulse (as one does). The only reasonable argument to be worth more than your current team is interested in paying, is if you've blown it out of the water against the best competition... and he didn't.
If option 2, that's just poor business practice. Tampering is normal, and kids are shopping themselves around during the season, after the season, during bowl games, during workouts, and during spring ball. But we haven't seen it blow up this spectacularly that often. Occam's razor says Nico's camp fucked this up bigtime somehow.
All evidence points to a screwup on Nico's side. That doesn't mean we're absolving Tennessee, the NCAA, and/or college football at large of all problems and issues on the other end of things.