As you've all read by now, Chad Kelly was involved in an incident Sunday morning in Buffalo that led to multiple charges including third-degree assault, second-degree assault, second-degree harassment, second-degree menacing, resisting arrest, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree obstructing governmental operation.
That's a long list of charges, and it's bad no matter where you fall on the keep him/release him scale. I'll try to provide some context to the situation. Most of this you already know, but it can't hurt to organize it a little bit - for discussing and understanding.
Here's the story if you haven't read it.
The Buffalo News broke this story, and I've seen some posts about how it's anonymous sources and it's important to wait until the facts are more clearly established. I do expect more information to continue to come out, but the information in the Buffalo News comes from officer statements and the police report. Those are reliable sources, and it's safe to assume the version of events is mostly accurate. To think otherwise would be to say the police are lying. I'll stick with thinking horses - not zebras - when I hear hoofbeats.
The list of charges is long and doesn't sound good. There are two things in Kelly's favor regarding the charges: All of them are misdemeanors and none of the charges are alcohol related or evident that he did more than resist with the officer. No physical altercation with police. However, there is the sentence, "Kelly kicked and tried to swing at officers as they removed him from the vehicle." Intent the same as contact made? I don't know. Just pointing out the charges are long but all relatively lower-level.
Hugh Freeze released a statement Sunday night that he's still gathering facts in the matter. That's the expected and correct response. Don't be knee-jerk. Let it all play out. Kelly's attorney: "It remains to be seen who was the aggressor and thankfully it was a scuffle where no one was hurt,"
Here are the two things that put Freeze in the toughest situation: The optics are beyond awful, and it shows at very minimum poor judgment. Kelly's prior issues are well documented. Neal put them in his commitment story. They're out there. Freeze met with Kelly multiple times before offering him to make sure of the fit and to gauge personality and all that.
Now a week later, this pops up. It became a national story instantly because of his last name, Ole Miss' current standing in the college football world and the bizarre nature of it all. "I'm going to my car and get my AK-47 and spray this place," was one of the worst sentences that could have been uttered from an optics standpoint. It fit in Twitter messages. It drew connection, fairly or not, to the awful event in that state this weekend and is just baffling. Now, Kelly didn't actually have an AK-47 obviously, and it was almost certainly just a stupid statement with no prior thought, but that doesn't help the situation. From a PR standpoint, that's an asteroid hitting Earth.
I don't know what Freeze is going to do. Maybe he already has his decision. Freeze knows Kelly to whatever degree, but now he's in this unenviable situation. Is it an isolated incident with poor judgment, and it won't be an issue in Oxford? Or is it better to know in December than next September when he's under center? I don't know. Not my call. But that's the decision. And I don't have any knowledge of the situation, but what if some of the charges are dropped? Is there any video? Was he somewhat caught up in his buddy's mess? Do the actual charges that stick matter or is this strictly about decision making and being worth the perceived potential time bomb?
This happens 10 days earlier, and we probably know the answer to those questions. And he hasn't enrolled yet, so Ole Miss could let him go about his way, but the Ole Miss name was definitely attached to him on Sunday.
And then, on a potentially related note, Trent Hosick, the Arizona Western QB who Ole Miss kicked the tires on, tweeted this last night: "Things just always have a way of working out." That's very likely nothing to do with anything, but the timing is interesting at least. What it does mean is Hosick will be linked to Kelly during the rest of their college careers. Hosick hasn't signed anywhere yet, but the fan base will always wonder what if when it comes to him - if Kelly is dismissed or doesn't work out.
By the way, never read too much into tweets. These kids have way more going on than football.
Signing Kelly was a gamble. He was a good citizen at East Mississippi, and Freeze was comfortable in their meetings to give him the OK, but this was the other side of the situation. And it popped up quite quickly. Freeze gets paid a lot of money to make decisions like this, and Kelly forced one on him before even stepping foot on campus.
This post was edited on 12/22 7:07 AM by Chase Parham
That's a long list of charges, and it's bad no matter where you fall on the keep him/release him scale. I'll try to provide some context to the situation. Most of this you already know, but it can't hurt to organize it a little bit - for discussing and understanding.
Here's the story if you haven't read it.
The Buffalo News broke this story, and I've seen some posts about how it's anonymous sources and it's important to wait until the facts are more clearly established. I do expect more information to continue to come out, but the information in the Buffalo News comes from officer statements and the police report. Those are reliable sources, and it's safe to assume the version of events is mostly accurate. To think otherwise would be to say the police are lying. I'll stick with thinking horses - not zebras - when I hear hoofbeats.
The list of charges is long and doesn't sound good. There are two things in Kelly's favor regarding the charges: All of them are misdemeanors and none of the charges are alcohol related or evident that he did more than resist with the officer. No physical altercation with police. However, there is the sentence, "Kelly kicked and tried to swing at officers as they removed him from the vehicle." Intent the same as contact made? I don't know. Just pointing out the charges are long but all relatively lower-level.
Hugh Freeze released a statement Sunday night that he's still gathering facts in the matter. That's the expected and correct response. Don't be knee-jerk. Let it all play out. Kelly's attorney: "It remains to be seen who was the aggressor and thankfully it was a scuffle where no one was hurt,"
Here are the two things that put Freeze in the toughest situation: The optics are beyond awful, and it shows at very minimum poor judgment. Kelly's prior issues are well documented. Neal put them in his commitment story. They're out there. Freeze met with Kelly multiple times before offering him to make sure of the fit and to gauge personality and all that.
Now a week later, this pops up. It became a national story instantly because of his last name, Ole Miss' current standing in the college football world and the bizarre nature of it all. "I'm going to my car and get my AK-47 and spray this place," was one of the worst sentences that could have been uttered from an optics standpoint. It fit in Twitter messages. It drew connection, fairly or not, to the awful event in that state this weekend and is just baffling. Now, Kelly didn't actually have an AK-47 obviously, and it was almost certainly just a stupid statement with no prior thought, but that doesn't help the situation. From a PR standpoint, that's an asteroid hitting Earth.
I don't know what Freeze is going to do. Maybe he already has his decision. Freeze knows Kelly to whatever degree, but now he's in this unenviable situation. Is it an isolated incident with poor judgment, and it won't be an issue in Oxford? Or is it better to know in December than next September when he's under center? I don't know. Not my call. But that's the decision. And I don't have any knowledge of the situation, but what if some of the charges are dropped? Is there any video? Was he somewhat caught up in his buddy's mess? Do the actual charges that stick matter or is this strictly about decision making and being worth the perceived potential time bomb?
This happens 10 days earlier, and we probably know the answer to those questions. And he hasn't enrolled yet, so Ole Miss could let him go about his way, but the Ole Miss name was definitely attached to him on Sunday.
And then, on a potentially related note, Trent Hosick, the Arizona Western QB who Ole Miss kicked the tires on, tweeted this last night: "Things just always have a way of working out." That's very likely nothing to do with anything, but the timing is interesting at least. What it does mean is Hosick will be linked to Kelly during the rest of their college careers. Hosick hasn't signed anywhere yet, but the fan base will always wonder what if when it comes to him - if Kelly is dismissed or doesn't work out.
By the way, never read too much into tweets. These kids have way more going on than football.
Signing Kelly was a gamble. He was a good citizen at East Mississippi, and Freeze was comfortable in their meetings to give him the OK, but this was the other side of the situation. And it popped up quite quickly. Freeze gets paid a lot of money to make decisions like this, and Kelly forced one on him before even stepping foot on campus.
This post was edited on 12/22 7:07 AM by Chase Parham
