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It was inevitable -- after the Monday night Twitter firestorm about Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston and lack of interest from the Texas Longhorns despite some indications he did like the school, head coach Mack Brown was asked about the situation during his Wednesday press conference.
The word from the longtime leader of program? That those unreturned phone calls from Winston's high school head coach weren't indicative of what was really going on:
Mack Brown: "We were told by people we trust you had no chance" at FSU QB Jameis Winston. "I trust my source."
— kbohls (@kbohls) September 4, 2013
Brown said he was told Winston would sign with FSU, go pro in baseball or "maybe slip to Alabama."
— kbohls (@kbohls) September 4, 2013
Obviously, there's some dissonance here between what Winston and his head coach were saying and what was going on behind the scenes, according to Brown -- it happens some times in recruiting, where public pronouncements are often the worst indicators of the truth.
And Brown clearly put a lot of credibility into the source who told him that, as the source apparently had direct contact with Winston. Should that have been enough to stop him from talking to Winston directly? Perhaps not, unless the reasons why Texas had no chance were, well, let's not even go there without way more information.
But why would Brown even continue talking about it?
Mack: "If there's people talking inaccurately about what's going on, I want to set the record straight."
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) September 4, 2013
And then there was this:
Mack says he's finished with the Winston talk. ... Wait, now he's talking about it again.
— Mike Finger (@mikefinger) September 4, 2013
/shakes head
In any case, that sound that you're hearing right now? Yeah, that's the sound of a shovel digging a grave for this story. A deep one.