Depending on what he’s told NCAA investigators, Chip Kelly might be the latest Pinocchio among the coaching fraternity. If you haven’t heard, Kelly’s Oregon Ducks have replaced Ohio State as the major college team under the microscope, all because Oregon cut a $25,000 check to someone named Will Lyles, who might be the one person in college football capable of slowing down the Ducks.
Long story short: Until recently, Lyles ran a Houston-based company that evaluated high school prospects and sold scouting reports to college coaches. Deft reporting by Yahoo!, the Eugene Register-Guard and The Oregonian tells us that Oregon paid Lyles to provide its football coaches a something called a “national recruiting package.”
In recent interviews, though, Lyles insisted that Oregon paid him for “access and influence” to two prominent Oregon recruits, running backs Lache Seastrunk and LaMichael James. Lyles admitted to Yahoo! that he manipulated the former’s guardianship status to help with his letter of intent to Oregon (shady) and arranged the latter’s move from Texas to Arkansas to secure his eligibility at Oregon (shadier). In February 2010, Lyles billed Oregon $25,000 in return for his “national package,” three weeks before his brand new company, Complete Scouting Services, was up and running long enough to register a website (shadiest).
