The publisher of a Louisiana Tech fan website claims head football coach Sonny Cumbie pulled his media credentials in front of the whole team for not being supportive enough.
Ben Carlisle, who publishes BleedTechBlue.com, posted on his site’s message board his account of an incident Tuesday morning at the Bulldogs’ practice. He claims Cumbie called him over in front of many of the players and coaches and criticized him in an awkward encounter.
“Coach Cumbie called me over to where the entire offense/offensive coaching staff … was gathered,” Carlisle wrote. “After asking me to introduce myself and tell the offense what I did, I explained that I covered recruiting, radio show, post-game show, etc.
“As I spoke he demanded that I ‘look them in the eyes when I talk.'”
“When I was finished, he told me I wasn’t supportive enough to be given further access to the program, kicked me out and told me that I was no longer welcome at practice except for the open media portions (which hasn’t occurred since fall camp).”
Carlisle, who played baseball at Louisiana Tech, went on to say he’s been a Bulldogs fan “since I was born.”
“Truthfully, it is very difficult at times to remove my very biased ‘fan’ hat from my un-biased ‘journalist’ one. Plus, if you’ve been following what we do here for any amount of time, you know that I am often laughed at for my ‘homerism.’
“I will find any reason possible see a silver lining in this program. One thing I will not do is give this board, our members and our listeners an accurate assessment of how I think things stand in all of our athletic programs.”