penncougar wrote:

While I understand the athletic department's wishes not to leak out some of this sensitive information, I feel that this decsion is more political than anything else. Having read Cruisers blog entries faithfully, there is nothing of note different in there than any of the other inside information that Potkey writes in her blog for the Salt Lake Tribune or that Franchuck writes in his own piss poor writing style for the Daily Hearld.

Crusiers problem?? He didn't have the official media badge around his neck like the others do. They both wrote about Max's temper and his cockiness, but were the newspapers asked to quiet down. Of course not, that would be supressing freedom of speech. The only thing that Cruiser did that the others did not do in writing about Max is to pose the question that we were all already thinking. Will he tick his line off so much that they won't block for him? It's a fair question.

I'll pose the question to Pwride....you were contacted personally by the the guy at the athletic department. Do you know if the other outlets for similar information were contacted? Do you feel that Cruiser was singled out? Does this seem fair to ask him to tone it back while others are writing as they please?

Hello? Is anybody going to answer the great questions penned by Penncougar? Why on earth should Cruiser be silenced when others go on saying whatever they want. If this was such poor writing by Cruiser then why would Bronco read it to the team? This whole thing seems like a load of crap.

Keep us updated and if you don't sombebody else will and you thereby will really only be hurting your beloved Cougar Legion. Other sources will keep us informed and we will be forect to turn to them.

The one thing that I don't really get from all of this is Bronco reading a post from Cruiser to the whole team. Can anyone confirm this? From all I know of Bronco, that's the last thing he would do in the locker room. Any thoughts?

This doesn't answer most of the question regarding Cruiser's posts directly, but consider the following:

Imagine that Bronco has witnessed in the past how destructive internet postings can be. Perhaps team members had signed on to message boards to bash other team members, or their coaches. Not only are team members seeing themselves bashed online, but family members are seeing it as well. Everyone reads a post that relates information that can only come from an inside source, therefore making the sting that much more severe.

To combat this, Bronco wants to handle all problems internally. "Don't take to the public a problem you can't handle in person," he might say.

One fear the team may have had with Cruiser's posts was that it was coming from a source obviously close to someone on the team. May nothing said was overly damaging, but rather teetering on the cliff of a very steep hill Bronco has seen the team slide down before. Perhaps he read a portion of the post to the team to relate just how easy it was for someone to publicly share things they hoped to keep private. I think the primary threat was the Max Hall issue. Rather than team members venting in public, perhaps the better forum is in private.

This is all speculation. I'm sure Cruiser sat on information that he could have shared but didn't, using his wise discretion. That Cruiser has decided to voluntarily cease posting without any official obligation to do so demonstrates his devotion to the team and the fans that follow it. I appreciate all he has shared, and hope that he continues to add insight to this board.

BlueTrue wrote:

penncougar wrote:

While I understand the athletic department's wishes not to leak out some of this sensitive information, I feel that this decsion is more political than anything else. Having read Cruisers blog entries faithfully, there is nothing of note different in there than any of the other inside information that Potkey writes in her blog for the Salt Lake Tribune or that Franchuck writes in his own piss poor writing style for the Daily Hearld.

Crusiers problem?? He didn't have the official media badge around his neck like the others do. They both wrote about Max's temper and his cockiness, but were the newspapers asked to quiet down. Of course not, that would be supressing freedom of speech. The only thing that Cruiser did that the others did not do in writing about Max is to pose the question that we were all already thinking. Will he tick his line off so much that they won't block for him? It's a fair question.

I'll pose the question to Pwride....you were contacted personally by the the guy at the athletic department. Do you know if the other outlets for similar information were contacted? Do you feel that Cruiser was singled out? Does this seem fair to ask him to tone it back while others are writing as they please?

Hello? Is anybody going to answer the great questions penned by Penncougar? Why on earth should Cruiser be silenced when others go on saying whatever they want. If this was such poor writing by Cruiser then why would Bronco read it to the team? This whole thing seems like a load of crap.

Keep us updated and if you don't sombebody else will and you thereby will really only be hurting your beloved Cougar Legion. Other sources will keep us informed and we will be forect to turn to them.

I'd say Cruiser's problem is his anonymity. He has no accountability and as such poses a threat to the program. The official media badge at least allows the program to control the message.

With Cruiser, though we all believe he is on the up and up, we don't get that and if he goes off the deep end, the program could suffer. As it is, Cruiser doesn't have to comply, but as a personal ethical decision, I believe that is why he has elected to quit.

It's really too bad, I really liked his posts.

splitbamboo wrote:

I'd say Cruiser's problem is his anonymity. He has no accountability and as such poses a threat to the program. The official media badge at least allows the program to control the message.

With Cruiser, though we all believe he is on the up and up, we don't get that and if he goes off the deep end, the program could suffer. As it is, Cruiser doesn't have to comply, but as a personal ethical decision, I believe that is why he has elected to quit.

It's really too bad, I really liked his posts.

This is a good point. Everyone knows who Darnell is, and what he looks like, but cruiser is just a name on a blog for the vast majority of us.

Another clear difference is that he is not really a member of the media, but of the fan base. The administration will typically make requests of the fan base that aren't enforced, but just a favor. Cruiser could keep on posting until maybe he gets whatever access he has revoked, but he's a fan, and if Bronco or someone else from the team or administration asks him to do something he probably will. This is not the first time the administration has asked the fans to stop doing something that was little more than expressing their enthusiam for the team.

Isola wrote:

splitbamboo wrote:

I'd say Cruiser's problem is his anonymity. He has no accountability and as such poses a threat to the program. The official media badge at least allows the program to control the message.

With Cruiser, though we all believe he is on the up and up, we don't get that and if he goes off the deep end, the program could suffer. As it is, Cruiser doesn't have to comply, but as a personal ethical decision, I believe that is why he has elected to quit.

It's really too bad, I really liked his posts.

This is a good point. Everyone knows who Darnell is, and what he looks like, but cruiser is just a name on a blog for the vast majority of us.

Another clear difference is that he is not really a member of the media, but of the fan base. The administration will typically make requests of the fan base that aren't enforced, but just a favor. Cruiser could keep on posting until maybe he gets whatever access he has revoked, but he's a fan, and if Bronco or someone else from the team or administration asks him to do something he probably will. This is not the first time the administration has asked the fans to stop doing something that was little more than expressing their enthusiam for the team.

While I feel you have a vailid point, because cruiser is not a member of the media, I still feel that the stituation has been handled very improperly by the athletic department when both sources are simply sharing the same information. College football has changed and the mainstream media are now secondary sources or even further down the chain for most of the news coming out of college football programs. Fans must be made happy and blogging sites like this and CougarLegion are the new way of doing it. If anyone disagrees, take a look at the SEC. Coaches in the SEC purposely release information to bloggers that they don't release at first to the mainstream media. WHY???? Because it stirs attention and interest from the fan base. Its just the way things have become. Also, because of this increased interest, you have fans playing a more pivitol role than ever in recruiting and building a program for the future. If the BYU athletic department hasn't caught on to this yet, then we probably aren't ready for the bigtime.