Nebraska gave the college football community quite the swerve on Thursday when it named Oregon State head coach Mike Riley as the man to replace Bo Pelini. Riley’s hiring after 14 years with the Beavers and a brief stint in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers came completely out of left field because he was really never mentioned as a prospect for the job.
One man who was mentioned as a potential fit at Nebraska? Jim Tressel. The former OSU coach and current Youngstown State president was a growing presence in the rumor mill that became a full blown wildfire earlier Thursday. That’s when a man named Travis J. Morgan reported that indeed Tressel would be the new coach at Nebraska… in spite of an NCAA show cause penalty that doesn’t expire until 2016…
And just who is Travis J. Morgan, he of the reliable source that said Jim Tressel would be the next coach at Nebraska? Is he one of those teenage “reporters” flooding the zone in baseball? Is he a local news guy? Even (gasp!) a blogger? No, none of the above. He is a marketing guy at a casino who used to be a local sports broadcaster for KCAU in Sioux City, Iowa.
Amazingly, after Riley’s hire became public, Morgan had another source (or possibly the same one or possibly a little thing called THE INTERNET) tell him that the Oregon State coach had gotten the Huskers job.
That’s a reporting job Chris Broussard could be proud of.
I guess it’s true that everyone thinks they are a reporter these days in the age of social media. It’s also true that the vast majority of those reporters are terrible and should focus on doing their real job.
It’s a sad reality of the world we live in, though. If we can’t trust casino marketing directors to reliably report scoops on college football coaching moves… just who can we trust?
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