Minnesota WR A.J. Barker Leaves Team

[SvrWxCy]

A.J. Barker is leaving the Minnesota football team effective immediately and has released a long, but well-written article on tumblr outlining the specific reasons why he is leaving. For those not wanting the read the whole thing, he is leaving because of alleged mistreatment from head coach Jerry Kill and the training staff.


Untitled

 

[pdxclone]

The amazing part is all the comments on the StarTrib website. I had to stop reading them as they are 75% (like the poll) against the young man. Unfortunately this type of situation happens more than you think. Lots of promises surrounding scholarships and to walk-ons are broken every day. Most coaches do have the attitude that Kill is "accused" of in the letter. It is a what have you done for me this week business. Trainers will not be working too long if they are not pushing to get athletes back into competition regardless of the long term effects.

 

[ianoconnor]

Dang, son.

 

[wartknight]

He's a walkon. Kill's right. He is a dime a dozen. Kid is lucky that Kill even knew his name. Kid sounds entitled and spends a good chunk of the letter talking about how good he was.

 

[MNclone]

You realize that although he is a walkon, he is the leading receiver for the Gophers this year...

 

[wartknight]

Yes I am aware of that. His teenage girl sounding blog makes him sound like a kid who has never been told no before.

 

[Bret44]

He's a walkon. Kill's right. He is a dime a dozen. Kid is lucky that Kill even knew his name. Kid sounds entitled and spends a good chunk of the letter talking about how good he was.

Season

30

577

19.2

63

7

If Kill doesn't know the kids name with those numbers he needs his head examined.





And yes I realize what I said.

 

[pyrocyz]

He's a walkon. Kill's right. He is a dime a dozen. Kid is lucky that Kill even knew his name. Kid sounds entitled and spends a good chunk of the letter talking about how good he was.

He wasn't bad. he had a few multi-touchdown games this year and 3 100 yard receiving games.

He was also their leading receiver (by a long shot).

I don't think that he was all that and awesome, but he wasn't chopped liver.

 

[wartknight]

Ha!
DJK's thoughts on the situation:

@DJKoulianos: aj barker, we've all been through similar situations/scenarios, wanted publicly expose our coach. no1 actually does it though. #thickerskin

 

[Mr Janny]

Ha!
DJK's thoughts on the situation:

@DJKoulianos: aj barker, we've all been through similar situations/scenarios, wanted publicly expose our coach. no1 actually does it though. #thickerskin

now THAT is funny.

 

[ISUAgronomist]

@DJKoulianos: aj barker, we've all been through similar situations/scenarios, wanted publicly expose our coach. no1 actually does it though. #thickerskin

#EDUCATING

 

[CLONECONES]

Holy smokes

 

[Rabbuk]

Ha!
DJK's thoughts on the situation:

@DJKoulianos: aj barker, we've all been through similar situations/scenarios, wanted publicly expose our coach. no1 actually does it though. #thickerskin

All i can think of is, "English mother****** do you speak it."

 

[ty4cy90]

Idk sounds like a pretty decent guy and a good writer, unlike DJK.

 

[State43]

If a guy walks on, leads the team in receiving and his coach says, sorry, no schollys available, that is messed up.

 

[Max57]

too many words #140charsorless

 

[Boxerdaddy]

tl;dr #140charsorless

FIFY

EDIT:

I did read it though. I expected to come out of it feeling like the kid thought he was entitled but not so much. Not saying he's right but certainly doesn't look good for Kill.

 

[wartknight]

I think you would find stories similar to this on 90% of D1 campuses around the country. Probably a higher % at schools where they can give partials ("bones" as they call them (throw him a bone) Give a kid $500 schollie and tell him if he works hard he can get a bigger one. If you don't have to give him one, don't.

 

[GMan]

I think you would find stories similar to this on 90% of D1 campuses around the country. Probably a higher % at schools where they can give partials ("bones" as they call them (throw him a bone) Give a kid $500 schollie and tell him if he works hard he can get a bigger one. If you don't have to give him one, don't.

This is pretty much my take on it. I think situations like this are more common than we would like to admit in D1 sports, but players just don't openly speak about it like Barker did. Shows us all a little bit of how the sausage gets made.

I can't recall all the exact facts of the situation, but it sounds somewhat similar to the Wesley Johnson fiasco. McD and Johnson had a different "interpretation" of Wes's injury, but instead of writing a long, rambling diatribe about it, Johnson took the most common route which is to simply leave.

 

[CY88CE11]

This is pretty much my take on it. I think situations like this are more common than we would like to admit in D1 sports, but players just don't openly speak about it like Barker did. Shows us all a little bit of how the sausage gets made.

I can't recall all the exact facts of the situation, but it sounds somewhat similar to the Wesley Johnson fiasco. McD and Johnson had a different "interpretation" of Wes's injury, but instead of writing a long, rambling diatribe about it, Johnson took the most common route which is to simply leave.

The difference here is that Barker isn't on scholarship. He's the best receiver on his team, yet the coach thinks he's not good enough to ever earn a scholarship, or even treat him like any other player. That's just what I got from it.