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

have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.”
    The article centered on the trip to Byrnes High to recruit Willis and Miller. The article named the players but not the hostesses. “It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players,” the
Times
reported. The piece also mentioned the recruitment of Bryce Brown and made reference to a picture of him with an unnamed hostess (Earps) that had surfaced on a social media Web site.
    Earps was horrified. “The story didn’t name me, but I knew it was about me,” she said.
    Unable to concentrate, she packed up her laptop and left the library.
    The university promptly issued a statement acknowledging an NCAA review and promising full cooperation. “We are concerned about the alleged activities of some members of the Orange Pride,” the university said. “Both university and NCAA guidelines are a part of the Orange Pride’s orientation and training. If those guidelines were violated, we will take appropriate action.”
    The next day, Corey Miller’s father spoke to the
Knoxville News Sentinel
. “Nobody put these girls on these boys,” Miller said. “It wasn’t like they came to our boys. Our boys started talking to them.”
    Miller said he was unsure whether his son was dating one of the hostesses. “They became friends,” the elder Miller said. “I know they talk an awful lot. I don’t know if he calls it dating or not. I don’t think there’s anything wrong.”
    Miller may have intended to downplay the situation. But by that point the story had legs. After Kiffin had accused Urban Meyer of recruiting violations, the specter of his program being caught playing fast and loose with the rules was garnering national attention. It was a particularly explosive story in Knoxville. Later that day, Earps went to a local supermarket to pick up some groceries. While checking out, the clerk recognized her. “Hey,” he called out, “it’s her.” He held up the sports section of the Knoxville paper.
    Mortified, Earps hurried out of the store. “I was on the front page of the sports section,” she said. “I thought my life was over. I felt like people were staring at me everywhere.”
    Earps returned to her apartment and locked the door, afraid to show her face in public. She didn’t even come out to take her final exam. More than anything, she just wanted the situation to die down.
    But it didn’t. Three days after the
Times
story appeared, SI.com published the photograph that Andy Staples had taken of Earps and Johnson standing with Willis and Miller. “I did not know who the women were at the time,” Staples said in his SI.com piece, “and did not put two and two together until the
Times
published its story.”
    The SI.com photograph instantly went viral. The next morning Earps got a call from Lane Kiffin. “I didn’t answer, because it was early in the morning,” Earps said. “He left a message: ‘Hey, Lacey, it’s Coach Kiffin.’ He said, ‘This will pass. My dad has always told me to give it the forty-eight-hour rule. The media will talk about it for forty-eight hours, and then it will pass. It will go away.’ ”
    Earps hoped Kiffin was right. “I just remember feeling the coaches are going to help us,” she said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

    Lacey Earps never heard another word from Lane Kiffin. But just before Christmas, assistant athletic director David Blackburn called her and Dahra Johnson into his office. “I’m going to have to temporarily suspend you until this investigation is over,” he told them.
    The girls were crushed. “He asked me not to have contact with recruits,” Earps said. “I couldn’t work anymore.”
    Earps couldn’t help feeling as if she’d been thrown under the bus.
    “Orange Pride was something I loved,” Earps said. “I never did anything to be ashamed of. I just wish I had never gone to Byrnes. And I