Eddrick Gilmore

[BIG DAWG]

Since Gilmore is not listed on the meangreensports.com 2006 football roster, I just like many of you am now very concerned.

I e-mailed several people within the Mean Green ranks, I have only recieved the following e-mail which states that his status is "undetermined". It also lists reasons for not going deeper into the situation was FERPA, in teacher speak, that usually has to do with grades.

Josh,

Eddrick Gilmore's current status with the North Texas football team is undetermined and cannot be addressed at this time.  Per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) no University employee is legally permitted to comment specifically about his current status.  Thanks.     

Eric Capper

Associate Athletics Director

University of North Texas

940-565-2476

>>> "Josh Martin" <@hotmail.com> 6/29/2006 8:14 AM >>>

I have noticed with several other Mean Green fans that eddrick Gilmore is

not listed on the 2006 roster you have recently posted on the athletic

website.

Is Eddrick Gilmore on the team?

I so hope we did not drop the ball on this kid, as he seemes to be a big talent, and a huge reason we decided to go to the 3-4.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

--It may the kid that dropped the ball..... He might not have kept himself eligible. the final responsibility is the student's, not the university or the athletic department.

I hate the "It is not my fault attitude" in most cases.

[untbowler]

why the hell can't these kids get their grades? Maybe it is b/c they have to work 30 hrs a week to make rent... wait no that is not, or maybe they have worry about finding food for the rest of the week..... wait no that can be it either.

I guess the hours and hours of weight lifting and training must take away from their study time

[BIG DAWG]

I understand that it ultimately rests on the shoulders of the athlete, BUT the coaching staff could step in and hammer home the point a little. Maybe run the piss out of them, tutors, ect.

[bigrobdsp]

every school in the nation has problems like these. while it is rediculous, it is also part of the game of college football.

[H-towngreen]

Yes we will have kids fail off the team, name a team who doesn't? It happens!!! Just be happy we don't have kids being kicked off the team for more serious violations. These types of things are expected when you are talking about 85 kids between 18-23 on their own for the first time.

[SilverEagle]

every school in the nation has problems like these. while it is rediculous, it is also part of the game of college football.

←

That is true, but we seldom have the luxury of losing a starter to grades. Because, unlike the UT's and OU's of the world, our talent level (with some exceptions) drops off dramatically after you get past our starters.

And until we get better recruiters/evaluators of talent on staff, these situations (assuming that this even is a situation) will always hit us hard.

Now, as to whether or not this is a situation. When someone doesn't appear on the roster, and that person should be a starter, AND when the SID makes guarded statements about the situation,.......I'm very concerned.

[mad dog]

My understanding is that the SIDs are not allowed to make comments either way on a student's eligibility for much the same reasons that a teacher can't read out test scores in class. It is completely confidential information.

We will let you guys know as soon as we know anything at all.

[BIG DAWG]

It was said that his status is "undetermined" and his name is left off the roster, so isn't there something there that says he is not going to be with us next fall?

[GangGreen]

It was said that his status is "undetermined" and his name is left off the roster, so isn't there something there that says he is not going to be with us next fall?

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No, I think it says that it is undetermined.

[mad dog]

No, I think it says that it is undetermined. 

←

Q. F. T.

[greenjoe]

Sorry to be so uncool. What's Q.F.T. ?

[H-towngreen]

Sorry to be so uncool.  What's Q.F.T. ?

←

My guess would be-

Quite F**k Time???

[mad dog]

My guess would be-

Quite F**k Time???

←

ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing)

OMG... ur teh N00bZ0R!!!!11! (I can scarcely believe your lack of experience)

QFT (Quoted for Truth)

just having fun, here

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Once again, there would be two reasons for his not appearing on the roster and I believe SID Capper pretty much confirmed that it wasn't an oversight.

However, it may be possible for Gilmore to make up a deficiency in summer school so that could be the reason for the 'undertermined' status.

On another little side note, I noticed that the #95 was not assigned, even though there were about five or six duplicate numbers. Could there be some merit to the rumor that Big Cat has/might again qualified/qualify? (Yes, I realize that his old number was 94, but maybe he wanted to change).

[bigrobdsp]

ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing)

OMG... ur teh N00bZ0R!!!!11! (I can scarcely believe your lack of experience)

QFT (Quoted for Truth)

  just having fun, here

←

yaarbcn

Edited June 30, 2006 by bigrobdsp

[SilverEagle]

On another little side note, I noticed that the #95 was not assigned, even though there were about five or six duplicate numbers. Could there be some merit to the rumor that Big Cat has/might again qualified/qualify? (Yes, I realize that his old number was 94, but maybe he wanted to change).

Now there's a happy and hopeful thought that I'll be glad to join you in.

Edited June 30, 2006 by SilverEagle

[UNTStill]

I am an associate professor at the Univ. at Albany (NY) and diehard Mean Greener since 1960. I even covered then-NTSU for a while as a Record-Chronicle sports writer. In this note, I'm using UAlbany only as an example, and one with a lot of differences from UNT (UA has been D-1 for only 6 years, and has 1-AA football), but one to make a point: while it is certainly true that the 18-22-year-old on his own for the first time, thrown into a D-1 level stressful situation, is automatically at risk for, well, less than stellar behavior all around, I want to say that the general success of the student-athletes has everything to do with the CULTURE of the place.

UAlbany ranks solidly well in most student-athlete success rankings, generally int he top 1/3; of the 65 teams in this year's NCAA basketball tourney (you might have seen UA give UConn all it could handle until the last 10 minutes, when the UConnies realized NBA scouts were still in the stands), UA ranked 21st in academic standings. Overall, UA has had the most student-athletes as "academic honor roll" members in the America East conference in each of the last 3 years. And, here's a good note about a TEXAN: a volleyball player from Round Rock is this year's Conference Woman of the Year and up for the NCAA award.

I say all of this because the AD (Lee McElroy, a former Texas HS star from the Sixties, when there still existed that separate athletic league for African-American high schools) has just been chosen presdient of the national association athletic directors. He has established a CULTURE of rigorous accountability -- and I mean, rigorous, with HIGH expectations -- on the part of coaches and players, and has a very solid SUPPORT SYSTEM which makes it nearly impossible for a player to avoid academic responsibilities (of course, there are always several out of 400+ who fail, who quit, who transfer, who leave for a minor league contract, etc.). I love having athletes in class -- they (again, generally -- always exceptions) tend to come to every class except when traveling or in a game, meet deadlines, ask for extra help, actually do the assigned readings (a rarity these days!), and, as you can imagine, are extremely competitive, or at least used to hard work. Again, I think this has to do with the culture of the athletic department.

The point of all: how would you describe the "corporate culture," so to speak, of the athletic department?

BTW -- my understanding is that at many places the student-athletes sign waivers to FERPA regulations, but the athletic departments only release "good" info about an individual's academics. But FERPA is a reality: earlier this year, an irate mom yelled at me because I wouldn't go into details about her daughter's academic grades, work, standing, etc. I think Mom and Dad had been shocked when they had learned from their daughter that she wouldn't be graduating on time after all.

[UNTStill]

I meant to add, off subject -- there are quite a few Texas athletes up here at UAlbany -- Jason Siggers from Dallas on the BB team; another player from the Houston area on the women's BB team; a few softballers; the outstanding VB player from Round Rock; a few others. They tend to do very well!

[C&S]

I posted this several times before but I am going to post this again.

There are numerous things in place for students athletes to succeed at UNT. I know some of you don't and won't believe this but the football coaches including Coach Dickey are known to be standing outside the classrooms of football players' classes to check to see if they are coming to class. The athletes are required every several weeks to have their professors sign off on attendance and grades that the athlete HAS to personal hand to the professor and have signed. These are turned in to the coaches. Freshman are REQUIRED to attend 8 hours of mandatory study hall each week. Upperclassmen with low GPAs from the previous semester are REQUIRED to attend mandatory study hall as well. If they miss, then they run. Tudors and study groups are available. It is up to the althlete to utilize them.

Now, having said all of that, The athletes have the responsibility of taking care of their academic business. After all they have been given the PRIVILEGE of playing Division 1-A football.

[UNTStill]

I agree completely, about academic standing ultimately being the responsibility of the student-athlete. I'm talking generally about a culture of accountability and expectation that is visible both in the classroom and on the playing fields/courts/etc. And I'm glad to hear about what UNT has in place. We should remember, too, as has already been pointed out, the largest majority of UNT athletes are staying eligible, right? It's the old journalistic formula of "one event, a hundred times the hot light of publicity" -- one name player gets in trouble, and that becomes (unfortunately) a generalization unfair to lots of other student-athletes.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---It sounds to me that UNT athletics has it act together concerning trying to keep athletes eligible. The university can can only do so much (legally) and after that it rests on the student's shoulders. I have never thought that losing a student-athlete now and then is an insult to the university and it fact the opposite is true., It shows that the university has some standards and that athletes are held accountable to them and just aren't given grades as is likely done some places. Thank goodness we have never seemed to have had the problems such as at Ohio State or Colorado has had where tutors write term papers and do other unethical things. Those are the schools I have NO respect for.

---This is one area I have really been proud of UNT. Almost all of the old SWC schools had scandels in athletics (I can't remember any major ones at UT) and in fact SMU was so bad and thumbing their nose at the NCAA that they got kicked out of football and probably should have been in basketball as well under the now infamous Dave Bliss. When I was at UNT (NTSU), the MVC had higher academic standards than the SWC or the NCAA minimums. Since then the NCAA has really upgraded that area especially in admissions standards.

---Having said this, we really don't know much of anything about the student listed at the top of the thread. Maybe he is gone and maybe is isn't. Some students get in academic problems simply because they just don't have the ability or "personal drive" to stay in college. I have a lot of student in my college classes that expecting more of the same that they had in HS school and that comes as a shock to them how much more is expected. Some of them are there because of parental expectations but really don't want to be there. Most of them are soon gone but a few of them will be back in a few years when they mature more and can't get decent jobs.

.

[Green92]

Nice post '66. Good stuff.

[mad dog]

Also keep in mind the fact that, as a program outside the BCS bubble, we are going to have to necessarily take a few more chances on guys who are perhaps marginal students, but great athletes.

Case in point: anyone remember a certain fabulously talented running back a few years ago that was a monster on the field but a mouse in the classroom?

This is the ramification of that kind of gamble.

[DeepGreen]

When I was at UNT (NTSU), the MVC had higher academic standards than the SWC or the NCAA minimums.

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I was at NTSU at the same time and I can say that SWC basketball couldn't hold a candle (or a jockstrap) to the Missouri Valley Conference. It was a top notch basketball conference back then.