Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
I agree he had a lot to lose. He was in a tough spot. IMO, he went to far by lending his name to their cause (by tweeting his support) whether he personally agreed with the cause or not. He could have let the kids be kids on their own by simply not coming down hard on those who missed practices/meetings/games, etc.
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If he does that, he risks a schism in-house. If the lockerroom splits, he's in trouble. By staying in front of it, he kept any potential disagreements low-key. The public face of the team now came out and united it.
Had he said nothing, it wouldn't have taken much for something seemingly benign (one of Scherer's tweets could have been enough) to take root and suddenly there's a perceived public split on MU's football team and you know the narrative will end up with the black kids vs. the white kids.
And yes, at that point all hell would've broken loose.
It just took one little blip on the throttle to straighten out the ship. If he says nothing, who knows where it goes? But at very little cost he made sure that team stayed completely intact.
Think of your alternatives. 1) He says nothing, the team unites and Wolfe/Loftin are still forced out. 2) He says nothing, the team splits, Loftin and Wolfe survive....for a week or two. But when the team you're trotting out there looks like 1940s Alabama and is getting embarassed on the field and in the national media - it's only a matter of time before Loftin and Wolfe get the axe at that point.
Pinkel gains nothing by being a martyr for two guys who had been railroaded...but who Pinkel couldn't save anyway. If I thought he could've kept this thing moving forward without simply being a draconian hardass, I'd have said he handled this poorly. But draconian hardass was the only real option that may have saved Wolfe/Loftin and at that point he'd have completely detonated his football program and their ability to bring in players.