Ron English Denies NFL Rumors

By Sean · Tuesday, February 6, 2007 · 6:55 PM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Rumors began circulating earlier today stating that Ron English, Michigan’s defensive coordinator, was going to interview for the same job with the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL. I found this very hard to believe considering today is the eve of Signing Day.

The original report came from Sirius NFL Radio’s Adam Schein and was picked up by a Vikings blog on the St. Paul Pioneer Press website.

University of Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English is interviewing for the Vikings vacancy today with coach Brad Childress, Adam Schein of Sirius NFL Radio reports.

It turns out those claims were completely 100% false as Ron English released a statement citing those reports as being incorrect. Considering English was in Ann Arbor all day also, it’d be pretty hard to be in Minnesota at the same time.

“I have not had any contact with the Minnesota Vikings,” English said in the statement, “and do not plan to leave Michigan.”

I don’t really want to start throwing around accusations, but I find this to be very suspicious considering the timing of this rumor. With signing day being tomorrow, there’s a ton of schools out there still waiting on announcements from potential commits and others still trying to convince recruits that have verballed somewhere else to change their minds. The problem for coaches out there is that this is supposed to be the silent period, meaning that no contact can be made with recruits. This leads me to a hypothesis or inference you could say.

Donovan Warren, Michigan’s prized cornerback from California set to sign a letter of intent for Michigan tomorrow, was originally looking to be a lock for USC before Ron English visited him and impressed him enough to end up committing to the Wolverines. For a change, Pete Carroll and USC lost out on a recruit that went to Michigan instead. With this rumor that was started earlier today, I strongly believe it came from Pete Carroll or someone at USC and was meant to be pointed directly at Donovan Warren. Ron English is one of the main reasons Warren committed to Michigan, stating that English promised he would not leave unless it was for a great head coaching job. Since coaches aren’t allowed to talk to recruits at this time, what better way to try and change someone’s mind than starting a B.S. rumor about a certain coach that was huge in convincing a player to choose his school over someone else’s.

Quite frankly, I’m starting to get awfully sick and tired of these negative recruiting tactics. Urban Meyer supposedly used them and completely turned RoJo’s family off from considering Michigan. Now, I strongly think Pete Carroll and USC used them and failed miserably to try and get Donovan Warren to change his mind. Nice try Pete, why not just go for it all when USC is already falling into a cloud of suspicion.
All I have to say is that I’m glad tomorrow is signing day so all of the rumors can end and we can all take a deep breath.