The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football by Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian Read Free Book Online

come.”
    Earps didn’t rule out the possibility. But after only a few hours of sleep, she was exhausted and had no desire to trek more than three hours to Byrnes. Johnson agreed. It wasn’t worth the effort.
    But when Earps and Johnson showed up for work at the football complex later that afternoon, Kiffin and his staff were having a luncheon. Earps and Johnson were invited. When they entered the room, Kiffin made an impromptu announcement: “These girls are going to Byrnes today.”
    The coaching staff, led by Kiffin, broke into applause.
    “I guess I don’t have a choice,” Earps thought. “I’m going to Byrnes.”
    Johnson agreed—now they had to go.
    “At this point I wasn’t planning on going,” Earps said. “I was exhausted. I had pulled an all-nighter. So this was not on the top of my list. But when Lane said, ‘These girls are going to Byrnes,’ I didn’t want to look bad.”
    Earps and Johnson spent the early afternoon in the football office using colored chalk and poster board to make signs to hold up at the game. One said COME TO TENNESSEE . Another read MILLER & WILLIS HAVE OUR HEARTS . Numerous assistant coaches complimented them on their artistic touch. And at one point, Coach David Reaves, a brother-in-law to Kiffin who was in charge of recruiting in South Carolina, gave them some gas money—$40—for the trip. After Earps put on an orange outfit, the girls set out for Duncan, South Carolina, arriving just before kickoff.
    Byrnes won big that night. But Earps and Johnson stole the show with their colorful signs and eye-catching outfits. The mother of one player called them “dolls” and asked to snap some pictures after the game. Earps and Johnson held up one of their signs and posed with Miller and Willis.
Sports Illustrated
senior writer Andy Staples, who had gone to the game to watch Lattimore, also snapped a picture. He had no idea that Earps and Johnson were from Tennessee and were part of Orange Pride.
    Earps and Johnson made such a good impression that the father of one player invited them to spend the night with his family. But the Byrnes team mother stepped in. “Look,” she told Earps and Johnson, “you girls need to get a hotel tonight and get out of town in the morning.”
    “If only Lane had given me his credit card,” Earps joked.
    The team mother didn’t laugh. Instead, she led the girls to a local hotel and paid for their room. The following morning Earps and Johnson trekked back to Knoxville. But before they got home, they heard from Coach Reaves. He told them that the Byrnes coach had called him and expressed concern about Tennessee hostesses being at the game.
    “Reaves said that we were basically too obvious,” Earps said. “But he told us that he denied knowing anything about it.”
    Earps was puzzled. “I thought, ‘And you are just going to cover it up?’ I just felt, well, if he’s going to play dumb, so will I.”
    Nonetheless, it didn’t sit well with Earps. It was as if they were trying to hide something. If that had been the point, they would not have held up signs saying come to Tennessee. Earps and Johnson didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. If the coaches knew otherwise, why did they compliment the signs? And why give them gas money for the trip? And why did Kiffin encourage the whole thing in the first place at the team luncheon?
    Later that night, Miller and Willis traveled to Knoxville for the Tennessee–Ohio game. Earps and Johnson met up with them on campus. And they continued to maintain steady contact with both recruits through social media. Both players committed to Tennessee midway through the season. By that point, the trip to Byrnes High seemed like old news. Besides, the program had a more urgent public relations mess on its hands.
    On November 12, three of Kiffin’s prized freshman recruits—including receiver Nu’Keese Richardson—were arrested by Knoxville police for felony attempted armed robbery outside a