[ad_1]
Former NFL player Keyshawn Johnson discussed the allegations against the Arizona State football program on his show, ESPN Radio’s Keyshawn, JWill and Zubin, on Thursday and he talked about who he thinks is among the whistleblowers who prompted the investigation.
Former ASU offensive analyst Kevin Mawae.
After talking about how he is familiar with the ASU program and giving some of the history of the program under coach Herm Edwards and Athletic Director Ray Anderson, Johnson said:
“You’ve got a lot of disgruntled people that were part of coach Graham’s universe,” Johnson said on the show, referencing Todd Graham, the coach at ASU before Edwards. “So, you’ve got these internal issues going on. Now, all of a sudden, AP (Antonio Pierce) gets kicked up as defensive coordinator, gets more power to help turn Arizona State’s program around.”
More: If Herm Edwards’ side of ASU recruiting allegations story isn’t good, he should be gone
Johnson continued: “Kevin Mawae, an ex-teammate of mine, didn’t get the offensive line coaching job. Then goes to the Indianapolis Colts, he gets fired. Herm doesn’t hire him, and he played for Herm. So, he becomes this whistleblower type that is kind of like, saying, ‘You know, oh, well, they’re doing this, they’re doing that.’ It’s not improper benefits. The thing that they may have violated is the rules of the NCAA bringing guys or communicating with players and families during COVID. So, it’s a little bit different than what the stories have been probably trying to make it sound like.”
He continued: “You’ve got disgruntled employees because Herm Edwards and Ray Anderson are empowering people that look like them and some people are getting mad at them, let’s be honest and real. 100%. Not a joke.”
Earlier this week, Mawae interestingly put out a tweet that said: “For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all.”
The quote, a verse from the Bible, has since been deleted from Mawae’s account (he had previously deleted all tweets from his account before June 2).
In February, Mawae, who had worked as an offensive analyst for ASU for three seasons, became an assistant offensive line coach for the Indianapolis Colts after he was passed over for the offensive line coach position at Arizona State.
Mawae was a candidate to replace the retired Dave Christensen as Sun Devils line coach but that job first was awarded to Klayton Adams, who had been the assistant offensive line coach with the Colts. Adams backed out of the job days later after the Colts offered him a significant raise and a promotion to tight ends coach.
The ASU position then went to Mike Cavanaugh who had coached the same position at Syracuse.
More: Reports: ASU football under NCAA investigation for possible recruiting violations
Mawae played 241 games in the NFL, starting 238 of those. He was drafted out of LSU in the second round of the draft in 1994 (36th pick overall) by the Seattle Seahawks but it was his eight-year tenure with the New York Jets that drew him the most accolades.
While with the Jets Mawae played under Herm Edwards, starting their long association. Edwards later brought Mawae on board at ASU in 2018 as offensive analyst.
Now, at least according to Johnson, that situation with Edwards could be coming full circle with Johnson alleging that Mawae could be a whistleblower in the ASU case.
The Athletic, a subscription sports website, was the first to report that ASU’s compliance officer recently received a detailed packet with information that high school prospects visited during the COVID-19 dead period. The Athletic story says compliance officials began interviewing staff members shortly after receiving the information.
A subsequent report from Yahoo! Sports cited anonymous sources, saying that an anonymous person sent a dossier containing dozens of pages to ASU’s athletic department, including screenshots, receipts, pictures and emails related to numerous potential violations within the football program. The documents purportedly describe weekends with multiple student-athlete visits; nighttime, out-of-sight facility tours; and a private workout for a recruit that was recorded and evaluated by ASU coaching staff.
ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson, in a wide-ranging interview with The Arizona Republic on Thursday, declined to discuss specifics because of NCAA protocol. But when pressed whether the investigation would overwhelm the season, he firmly said “no.”
“We’re going forward. That’s something that we can’t control. It can’t be something that bogs us down. We’re heading forward with our off-season. And now we’re going to get ready to bring them in,” he said of the players.
More: ASU football schedule easiest among Power 5 teams for 2021 college football season
The Arizona Republic’s Michelle Gardner, Anne Ryman and Jeff Metcalfe contributed to this story.
[ad_2]
Source link