Why this (DJK) is different

BSpringsteen

BSpringsteen

Well-Known Member
We had City Boyz Inc, some sort of celebration of thug life and bad spelling.
We had drunk driving
We had credit card fraud and petty theft.

But we never had a senior leader whose name is written into the Iowa record books do this.

This wasn't getting busted for pot. No one cares about that. Everyone smokes pot.

This wasn't an underage drinking ticket or even an OWI.

This was cocaine and pills.

Yes, there is personal responsibility in all of this. No one put the blow up his nose, or signed the lease for him. But several warning signs show up to me immediately.
This was a guy not living with another teammate which seems to be the standard across all campuses on all teams.

And so in asking how this could have happened and what it could mean, I ask where was the leadership on this team?

Iowa City is a small town, even amongst the students. It's not hard to have a reputation on campus.

You mean to tell me that none of the other players on the team, knew his roommate was trouble? Not one of them said, hey DJK, this isn't a good idea, come live with us?

None of the players on the team, went to Kirk and said, hey DJK is living with a drug dealer?

Kirk and/or Soup couldn't have sat him down and had an earnest conversation with him, "you know how much talent you have, but you don't know the NFL. You need to keep your nose clean and you need to get out of this situation."

So while this is all DJK's fault. I think Krik and Co. really dropped the ball.

Where was Chigozi Ejesai (sp?) in all of this? Isn't this his JOB? I'm sorry but this is an epic fail in his job and he needs to be fired.

Where are his teammates? The coaching staff isn't the fuzz, letting your coach know that your teammate is in a bad situation isn't ratting him out.

It says a lot to me about the isolation of DJK and the rest of the team, and that falls on Kirk to demand an environment that stresses togetherness and camaraderie.

It is now apparent that quite simply, that this team isn't particularly close with one another. Yes with 85 guys, you'll have cliques and fights. But their are fraternities that are bigger than that on campus that are able to keep it together better than this.

And now after a disappointing 7-5 season, and a season coming up somewhere between rebuilding and reloading, the shine of the Iowa football team has taken a significant hit... not because of the one incident. Rather because of how an environment where something like this could happen was able to exist so easily.
 
i think u raise a lot of relevant points.

this will be the longest offseason ever, especially if iowa loses in the bowl game.
 
last offseason was pretty long but for different reasons...

KF has failed (again) to keep a team together.

And again, I am fine with KF having glaring weaknesses in his abilities... we all do, at least those of us who are honest.

But the difference between the good and the great are the great recognize their weaknesses and are able to slide their ego aside to have someone else turn it into a strength.
 
1. DJK did live with teammates (and by all accounts, good teammates) until the start of THIS season.

2. Said teammates DID know that his new roomie(s) were bad news.

3. Don't know what info got back to coaching staff.
 
BSpringsteen said:
last offseason was pretty long but for different reasons...

KF has failed (again) to keep a team together.

And again, I am fine with KF having glaring weaknesses in his abilities... we all do, at least those of us who are honest.

But the difference between the good and the great are the great recognize their weaknesses and are able to slide their ego aside to have someone else turn it into a strength.
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This is the most dissapointing thing about this season for me. For the second time in four years, Ferentz has had a team quit on him. And the seniors were there when Iowa lost to Western Michigan in 2007. Losing is one thing, having your team quit on you is much, much worse.
 
I just don't see how no one noticed anything going on, how did it get to this point? Unless magically DJK just started using pills, coke and pot during the last week, how could no one on the team no about this? And if someone knew, why wouldn't they have said something?
When was the last time he was drug tested? And the biggest factor to me, is how did no one know he was living with someone who had been convicted of drug charges in the past? Even if DJK wasn't doing anything wrong, wasn't using any drugs, there is guilt by association. This goes back to the Everson/Satterfield incident, where apparently no one on the coaching staff knew that players weren't living in their assigned dorms?

I don't know what the answer is, but Ferentz and co. need to come up with another way of interteam checks and balances. I know several NCAA coaches assign coaches to certain players, and will do random checks on them at random times to make sure they are keeping their nose clean and are doing the right things. I understand they can't babysit them 24-7, but as much time as the team spends together, I don't see how it's possible that no one knew this was going on.
 
Maybe that's why it seems more troubling than others in the past. Seniors have been arrested and in trouble before but not for something of this magnitude. Seniors are supposed to be the leaders, whether it be officially as in team captains or unofficially where they support and become role models for the underclassmen. When seniors get in trouble it damages their credibility but for the most part we have never had a senior get in trouble like this. Calloway riding a moped drunk was just dumb, but not serious. DJK having cocaine, pot, and pills in his possession and living with a known drug dealer is more than just a mistake, it's absolutely poor judgment.
 
bighawkeyedaddy said:
I just don't see how no one noticed anything going on, how did it get to this point? Unless magically DJK just started using pills, coke and pot during the last week, how could no one on the team no about this? And if someone knew, why wouldn't they have said something?
When was the last time he was drug tested? And the biggest factor to me, is how did no one know he was living with someone who had been convicted of drug charges in the past? Even if DJK wasn't doing anything wrong, wasn't using any drugs, there is guilt by association. This goes back to the Everson/Satterfield incident, where apparently no one on the coaching staff knew that players weren't living in their assigned dorms?

I don't know what the answer is, but Ferentz and co. need to come up with another way of interteam checks and balances. I know several NCAA coaches assign coaches to certain players, and will do random checks on them at random times to make sure they are keeping their nose clean and are doing the right things. I understand they can't babysit them 24-7, but as much time as the team spends together, I don't see how it's possible that no one knew this was going on.
Click to expand...

My guess is that others knew but there is usually unwritten codes of conduct where you don't rat out your friends/teammates.
 
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Good points, B. I think what's hurting, too, is that this involves a kid who obviously had a rough start to life, seemed to get a fresh take with adoptive parents, clearly was a talent but lived life on an edge that Kirk Ferentz felt a need to rein in. After so much time in KF's doghouse, I think some of us had some sympathy for DJK as we saw a good player seemingly limited in the number of passes thrown in his direction, yet still making tough catches and taking hard hits, especially during his senior season.

We were hoping for a feel-good ending to this story, not this.

If that's still possible, it looks like it has been kicked far, far down the road.
 
BSpringsteen said:
Where was Chigozi Ejesai (sp?) in all of this? Isn't this his JOB? I'm sorry but this is an epic fail in his job and he needs to be fired.
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I am not sure if I want to go that far. But, it might mean there needs to be an expansion of the duties of that position.

However, I am still not exactly sure what that guy is supposed to be doing.
 
See Caar - this is why I think he needs to be fired.

It is one thing for students to be engaged in criminal activity after dark. He can't stop DD from stealing credit cards or Everson/Satterfield from doing the unspeakable.

THIS is the kind of stuff that he is supposed to be able to suss out. This situation was clearly a time bomb waiting to go off, and no one did a damned thing.
 
BSpringsteen said:
last offseason was pretty long but for different reasons...

KF has failed (again) to keep a team together.

And again, I am fine with KF having glaring weaknesses in his abilities... we all do, at least those of us who are honest.

But the difference between the good and the great are the great recognize their weaknesses and are able to slide their ego aside to have someone else turn it into a strength.
Click to expand...

How does this arrest reflect one of Ferentz's weaknesses, and to your point, his inability to recognize that weakness as it relates to this event? Or to the 7-5 record? I'm asking, because I don't see it.
 
I agree with all the points. It does seem strange that it had to get to this point. However, I still believe the staff did know and did do some things within reason to try and help DJK. I believe this due the history of being in the doghouse. I also know from experience that people that are affiliated and or do drugs become very good liars. So he easily could have hoodwinked all those around him. THe fact he was able to perform at a high level just made it that much easier. But there are still many things in this story that seem strange.
 
USBHawk said:
1. DJK did live with teammates (and by all accounts, good teammates) until the start of THIS season.

2. Said teammates DID know that his new roomie(s) were bad news.

3. Don't know what info got back to coaching staff.
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One of these teammates was the head coachs son. I would have to guess that many on the team knew DJK was hanging and living with some bad influences. A simple heads up from son to dad that one of the members of the team was making some questionable choices would not have been out of line. In hindsight, I think DJK himself, his family, his teammates would appreciate it if someone had told him a few words about these choices. Someone knew and as far as we know, did nothing. Again hindsight says I wish someone would have "ratted" him out to the staff. Maybe it could have been stopped in time.
 
homes said:
How does this arrest reflect one of Ferentz's weaknesses, and to your point, his inability to recognize that weakness as it relates to this event? Or to the 7-5 record? I'm asking, because I don't see it.
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To me it reflects this because it is the second time he has clearly lost a team, and not just from his perspective, but a team not acting as a cohesive unit.

There is a lack of a "us against the world" mentality with this team that keeps them together.
 
So how does it reflect his status to finish out school and at least get his degree?

I'm guessing that he couldn't have been partaking in too much extra curricular activities if he has been able to for four+ years: 1) play and train at a high level, (talented or not, you still have to practice and maintain quite a bit of time towards segment meetings and football in general), b) keep it on the down low for so long, and 3) he still maintained enough in the classroom to pass and still remain eligible.

Unfortunately, the character flaw of poor judgement in several areas, not the least of which is his guilt by association with certain individuals, may make it hard to complete the last semester anyways
 
You can lead a horse to water.....

This is a guy who has required more special attention than any player in the history of hawkeye football.

DJK was a 23 year old SENIOR and shouldn't have to be babysat by the staff. Yet he still was to an extent via twitter, FB, and the media. How much special attention should one SENIOR get from a head coach who has a list of responsibilities that I am not going to try and list?

Why would you assume that teammates knew the extent of what was going on?

From my college experience and encountering cocaine on very few occasions, the people who partake in such activities are in the tightest clique I have ever experienced in my life. It's a freaking secret society, which is fine because I wanted no part of it. It would not at all surprise me if teammates didn't know the extent (key word) of what DJK was into. If they knew about the pot and didn't come forward so what. I guarantee more than a couple players smoke some weed and it goes on in every single college football team in america. I think we should give the innocent, meaning his team, the benefit of the doubt here.

As for the guy whose job it is to be aware of this stuff, where were you?

I get that it might be difficult to catch wind of such activities, but that is the freaking job you signed up for. He is a police force of 1 patrolling 90ish. Ask any police force in the country if they wouldn't like that ratio. How could he not see a red flag when the guy with the biggest spotlight on him doesn't live with anyone affiliated with the team? Let alone a convict? Seriously? Hey DJK who ya livin with? A 21 year old white kid? STRANGE! Chigozi Ejesai needed to be canned, yesterday.

There are two people who should be taking any responsibility to this point, the self admitted guilty DJK and the guy who's job it is to make sure this crap isn't going on within the team. Until additional info comes out regarding teammate knowledge or coaching staff knowledge I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
LE - the players are only guilty of evidently not caring. I feel like DJK either was totally 100% isolated, or the players simply didn't care. Either one is a big problem for the program, but not for any players individually.

They all knew who he was living with.

But agree completely on Ejesai. He needs to go.
 
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