BleedGopher
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per Joe:
P.J. Fleck invited Rachel Baribeau to speak to the Gophers football team in March, soon after the university hired him, in the wake of the team’s sexual assault scandal.
Baribeau is a longtime college football insider from her work as a TV sideline reporter and host on SiriusXM College Sports Nation. She’s also a domestic violence victim, after an incident years ago where a boyfriend dragged her by the hair.
En route to Minnesota, Baribeau wondered how she’d frame her message. She had read stories from last fall about the alleged sexual assault, the restraining orders, the university suspensions and the team’s boycott.
“I was very aware of what went on there,” Baribeau said. “And as a woman, to be honest, I did a lot of praying before I went.”
The Gophers had cleaned their image under former coaches Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys, ranking among the national leaders in fewest arrests while they coached together from 2011 to 2015. They overhauled the team’s poor academic standing from the Tim Brewster era and were far more competitive on the field.
But Claeys’ 15-month tenure as head coach took a major hit on Sept. 2, when several players were involved in an alleged sexual assault, only hours after the season’s first game.
Now, with Fleck in charge, the Gophers are trying to repair their image again, or “change the narrative” as Baribeau says.
Senior Steven Richardson said Baribeau preached “breaking away from the stereotype, sadly, that football players have toward women and relationships, treating them as a queen instead of just some other person.”
“Those issues need to be talked about in college football,” junior lineman Jared Weyler said.
The alleged sexual assault led to no arrests or criminal charges, but the university suspended 10 players in December after a school investigation. After multiple appeals, five players had their suspensions overturned, four were expelled and one received a one-year suspension.
Gophers players, furious that five additional teammates were suspended without hearing, staged a two-day boycott before going on to defeat Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. Returning players haven’t said much publicly about the scandal.
“I haven’t really seen it come up at all,” Richardson said. “With Coach Fleck coming in, we’ve just learned how to deal with it and push that as a last-year thing not a this-year thing.”
Fleck unveiled a “Gopher for Life” program, similar to the one he had at Western Michigan. The goals, he said, are “educating and developing the complete man — academically, athletically, socially and spiritually.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...onths-after-sexual-assault-scandal/438785483/
Go Gophers!!
P.J. Fleck invited Rachel Baribeau to speak to the Gophers football team in March, soon after the university hired him, in the wake of the team’s sexual assault scandal.
Baribeau is a longtime college football insider from her work as a TV sideline reporter and host on SiriusXM College Sports Nation. She’s also a domestic violence victim, after an incident years ago where a boyfriend dragged her by the hair.
En route to Minnesota, Baribeau wondered how she’d frame her message. She had read stories from last fall about the alleged sexual assault, the restraining orders, the university suspensions and the team’s boycott.
“I was very aware of what went on there,” Baribeau said. “And as a woman, to be honest, I did a lot of praying before I went.”
The Gophers had cleaned their image under former coaches Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys, ranking among the national leaders in fewest arrests while they coached together from 2011 to 2015. They overhauled the team’s poor academic standing from the Tim Brewster era and were far more competitive on the field.
But Claeys’ 15-month tenure as head coach took a major hit on Sept. 2, when several players were involved in an alleged sexual assault, only hours after the season’s first game.
Now, with Fleck in charge, the Gophers are trying to repair their image again, or “change the narrative” as Baribeau says.
Senior Steven Richardson said Baribeau preached “breaking away from the stereotype, sadly, that football players have toward women and relationships, treating them as a queen instead of just some other person.”
“Those issues need to be talked about in college football,” junior lineman Jared Weyler said.
The alleged sexual assault led to no arrests or criminal charges, but the university suspended 10 players in December after a school investigation. After multiple appeals, five players had their suspensions overturned, four were expelled and one received a one-year suspension.
Gophers players, furious that five additional teammates were suspended without hearing, staged a two-day boycott before going on to defeat Washington State in the Holiday Bowl. Returning players haven’t said much publicly about the scandal.
“I haven’t really seen it come up at all,” Richardson said. “With Coach Fleck coming in, we’ve just learned how to deal with it and push that as a last-year thing not a this-year thing.”
Fleck unveiled a “Gopher for Life” program, similar to the one he had at Western Michigan. The goals, he said, are “educating and developing the complete man — academically, athletically, socially and spiritually.”
http://www.startribune.com/gophers-...onths-after-sexual-assault-scandal/438785483/
Go Gophers!!