Former Dillard High School football coach Ken Scott sat down for an interview recently with HBO's Real Sports. He expected the question-and-answer session to be about the life of one of his former players, Stanley McClover.
McClover, who signed with Auburn out of Dillard in 2003, had approached Scott about doing the interview.
"He made it sound like it would be something positive for him, for Dillard and for Auburn," said Scott. "I expected it to be positive."
Minutes into the interview Scott said he realized he was wrong.
"When I started talking about how positive the recruiting process was for him, they didn't want to hear it," said Scott.
Neither did McClover, who was with Scott during the interview.
"In the middle of the interview I'm talking about positive things and he interrupts me and says, 'No Coach, they don't want to hear that. They want to hear about the time when the Auburn coaches came here and put you out of your office. That's when everything went down.'
"I was shocked. I stopped in the middle of that interview and said, 'What are you talking about? Where did you get that? That never happened.' That really shocked me that he stopped me and said to tell them about that because that never happened. I know that for a fact."
According to Scott, Eddie Gran, who recruited Dillard for Auburn from 1999-2008 and is now running backs coach at Florida State, is named by McClover as one of the coaches to be present during the alleged meeting at Dillard.
Scott finds that even harder to believe.
"Eddie Gran is a man of integrity," said Scott. "Eddie Gran is a first-class guy and always has been. I don't understand what Stanley is talking about because I know Eddie Gran well and I know it didn't happen."
When reached for comment, Gran also denied McClover's allegation.
"That absolutely, positively never happened," said Gran.
Junior Rosegreen, a former high school and college teammate of McClover, doesn't believe the allegation. Rosegreen graduated from Dillard in 2001 and was an All-American at Auburn in 2004.
"I was at Auburn and Stanley wanted to go to Auburn because I was there and he knew we had an opportunity to do some big things there," said Rosegreen.
Rosegreen spoke to McClover just before McClover interviewed with HBO. McClover wanted Rosegreen to be included in the segment.
"Stanley left me a message saying, '(HBO) is doing a story about my life and I want you to be a part of it.' And I was fine with that," said Rosegreen. "Then I found out the story wasn't going to be about Stanley's life, it was going to be about him trying to throw Auburn under the bus. I immediately called Stanley and told him I'm not doing anything and he better not use my name. I told him that I am not going to be a part of that because it's bull [crap].
"He said he was going to talk about getting paid to go to Auburn and I know that is a lie. I don't believe a word he says. He's not a man you can trust. I know him and I don't want to be a part of anything he has going on."
To ensure his name wouldn't be used in the story Rosegreen called Tim Walker, a producer for HBO's Real Sports who was conducting interviews for the story.
"I called him and cussed his [butt] out," said Rosegreen. "He would say, 'I just want to hear Stanley's story.' I said, 'Stanley's story is he's a storyteller. That's his story.'"
Rosegreen said Walker was only looking for negative information.
"(Walker) tried so hard to get me to say something bad about Auburn," said Rosegreen. "He would say, 'off the record...off the record'. He said that about 10 times. I said, 'Fine. You want me to tell you something off the record? Here you go: Stanley is a damn liar.'"
Walker also contacted Jeris McIntyre and Anthony Mix with the same off-the-record requests.
"He kept saying, 'Give me the off-the-record stuff. It will be off the record,'" said McIntyre. "He kept asking me over and over and over questions that were 'off the record'. He really tried to get me to talk bad about Auburn."
Attempts to reach Walker for comment were unsuccessful.
McIntyre called several former teammates at Auburn to inform them of McClover's allegation including Jason Campbell, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Ronnie Brown, Ben Obomanu and Devin Aromashodu.
"Everybody was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" said McIntyre. "Cadillac said, 'There is no way that happened. There is no way it went down like that.'
"Nobody believes Stanley. Nobody."
McIntyre said he doesn't understand why McClover claims to have gotten paid to sign with Auburn, but Rosegreen had an opinion.
"Stanley blew his money. He's broke," said Rosegreen. "When he didn't make it in the NFL ... I know when things aren't going well for him he's going to try and blame someone else instead of himself. He wants to blame someone else. He's always been like that."
McClover declared for the NFL Draft after playing just two years at Auburn. McClover was a partial qualifier in 2003 which meant he could practice but not play. He played the 2004 and 2005 seasons before being drafted in the seventh round by the Carolina Panthers in 2006.
"The coaches told him that he didn't need to leave (college) early," said Rosegreen. "The (NFL) general managers said he needed to stay in college and learn how to play the run, but he didn't listen."
McClover spent two seasons with the Panthers and two with the Houston Texas during his NFL career.
"He spent four years in the NFL and is already broke," said Rosegreen. "I was told Stanley got $20,000 (by HBO for the interview), and I know for a fact you don't get that money until you give them something, until you tell them what they want to hear.
"That is the only motive he has for telling these lies."
Scott also believes McClover may have received money in exchange for his interview with HBO.
"We are all trying to figure out why he would say that," said Scott. "I don't know if he saw an opportunity to make money, if he just saw dollar signs and thought he would try and take advantage of it, but as far as I know it never happened. Auburn never offered or paid him money to sign.
"At no time since I've been here has the Auburn coaches come down, sat in a room with any of my players and tried to convince them to switch their commitment. I can't understand why he would do this unless he was offered some money by HBO."
HBO did not respond to email or voicemails from AuburnSports.com.
According to Scott, HBO's Real Sports correspondent Andrea Kremer and a camera crew were at Dillard to interview him. Scott said when the interview was over, when the HBO crew left Dillard, they didn't seem satisfied.
"I can't speak for HBO, but it seems like when they left here it was a dead end for them," Scott said. "They couldn't confirm anything he told them about what went down and that it went down here. They were trying to solidify their allegations about any money and they couldn't.
"I think they got a little frustrated because they didn't get anything. There wasn't anything to get."
Scott has not spoken to McClover since.
"I would love to talk to him. I don't hold a big grudge against him, but I would like to know what his reasons are," said Scott. "I wonder why he would do this, especially to Dillard. He gave everybody here the impression that people from HBO were doing a little document on him and he wanted to bring them to our school and show them where he's from, but then we find out it's something completely different. I think some people here feel like 'Why did you do us like that? What did we do to you?'"
Until McClover answers those questions, Scott said, "I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think right now he would be welcomed back here with open arms. People here feel like he lied to them, that he turned his back on Dillard. Nobody believes him. If it was true, he wouldn't have come here and told us the interview was about his life.
"He never mentioned anything about getting paid, but then again, he knows I know that never happened. I have never dealt with anything like that."
Numerous voicemails left on McClover's cell phone were not returned.
McClover is one of 11 players from Dillard to sign with Auburn since 1990. Seven of the 11 were All-SEC performers at Auburn. Three were All-Americans. Scott said McClover is the only one to ever claim to receive money to sign with the Tigers.
Rosegreen hopes McClover's allegation doesn't negatively affect Auburn's recruitment at Dillard in the future.
"He's trying to mess it up for other kids at Dillard who want to go to Auburn and I ain't got nothing else to do with him," said Rosegreen. "I love Dillard and I love Auburn. Those are my schools. When someone cuts me open, I bleed blue and gray (Dillard) and blue and orange (Auburn). I would never be a part of any bull [crap] like this.
"Stanley lied to those people at HBO and that's sad."
HBO's Real Sports is scheduled to run an episode titled "The State of College Sports in America" March 30. McClover's interview is believed to be a part of the show that will also include former players from other colleges.
McClover, who signed with Auburn out of Dillard in 2003, had approached Scott about doing the interview.
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| AuburnSports.com | |
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| McClover spent two seasons with the Carolina Panthers and two with the Houston Texans in the NFL. |
Minutes into the interview Scott said he realized he was wrong.
"When I started talking about how positive the recruiting process was for him, they didn't want to hear it," said Scott.
Neither did McClover, who was with Scott during the interview.
"In the middle of the interview I'm talking about positive things and he interrupts me and says, 'No Coach, they don't want to hear that. They want to hear about the time when the Auburn coaches came here and put you out of your office. That's when everything went down.'
"I was shocked. I stopped in the middle of that interview and said, 'What are you talking about? Where did you get that? That never happened.' That really shocked me that he stopped me and said to tell them about that because that never happened. I know that for a fact."
According to Scott, Eddie Gran, who recruited Dillard for Auburn from 1999-2008 and is now running backs coach at Florida State, is named by McClover as one of the coaches to be present during the alleged meeting at Dillard.
Scott finds that even harder to believe.
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| AuburnSports.com | |
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| Gran successfully recruited Dillard High for Auburn during his 10 years on the Plains. |
When reached for comment, Gran also denied McClover's allegation.
"That absolutely, positively never happened," said Gran.
Junior Rosegreen, a former high school and college teammate of McClover, doesn't believe the allegation. Rosegreen graduated from Dillard in 2001 and was an All-American at Auburn in 2004.
"I was at Auburn and Stanley wanted to go to Auburn because I was there and he knew we had an opportunity to do some big things there," said Rosegreen.
Rosegreen spoke to McClover just before McClover interviewed with HBO. McClover wanted Rosegreen to be included in the segment.
"Stanley left me a message saying, '(HBO) is doing a story about my life and I want you to be a part of it.' And I was fine with that," said Rosegreen. "Then I found out the story wasn't going to be about Stanley's life, it was going to be about him trying to throw Auburn under the bus. I immediately called Stanley and told him I'm not doing anything and he better not use my name. I told him that I am not going to be a part of that because it's bull [crap].
"He said he was going to talk about getting paid to go to Auburn and I know that is a lie. I don't believe a word he says. He's not a man you can trust. I know him and I don't want to be a part of anything he has going on."
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| Rosegreen was an All-American safety at Auburn for the 2004 undefeated team. |
"I called him and cussed his [butt] out," said Rosegreen. "He would say, 'I just want to hear Stanley's story.' I said, 'Stanley's story is he's a storyteller. That's his story.'"
Rosegreen said Walker was only looking for negative information.
"(Walker) tried so hard to get me to say something bad about Auburn," said Rosegreen. "He would say, 'off the record...off the record'. He said that about 10 times. I said, 'Fine. You want me to tell you something off the record? Here you go: Stanley is a damn liar.'"
Walker also contacted Jeris McIntyre and Anthony Mix with the same off-the-record requests.
"He kept saying, 'Give me the off-the-record stuff. It will be off the record,'" said McIntyre. "He kept asking me over and over and over questions that were 'off the record'. He really tried to get me to talk bad about Auburn."
Attempts to reach Walker for comment were unsuccessful.
McIntyre called several former teammates at Auburn to inform them of McClover's allegation including Jason Campbell, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Ronnie Brown, Ben Obomanu and Devin Aromashodu.
"Everybody was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" said McIntyre. "Cadillac said, 'There is no way that happened. There is no way it went down like that.'
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| Todd Van Emst | |
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| McIntyre is one of several former Tigers that doesn't believe McClover was paid by Auburn. |
McIntyre said he doesn't understand why McClover claims to have gotten paid to sign with Auburn, but Rosegreen had an opinion.
"Stanley blew his money. He's broke," said Rosegreen. "When he didn't make it in the NFL ... I know when things aren't going well for him he's going to try and blame someone else instead of himself. He wants to blame someone else. He's always been like that."
McClover declared for the NFL Draft after playing just two years at Auburn. McClover was a partial qualifier in 2003 which meant he could practice but not play. He played the 2004 and 2005 seasons before being drafted in the seventh round by the Carolina Panthers in 2006.
"The coaches told him that he didn't need to leave (college) early," said Rosegreen. "The (NFL) general managers said he needed to stay in college and learn how to play the run, but he didn't listen."
McClover spent two seasons with the Panthers and two with the Houston Texas during his NFL career.
"He spent four years in the NFL and is already broke," said Rosegreen. "I was told Stanley got $20,000 (by HBO for the interview), and I know for a fact you don't get that money until you give them something, until you tell them what they want to hear.
"That is the only motive he has for telling these lies."
Scott also believes McClover may have received money in exchange for his interview with HBO.
"We are all trying to figure out why he would say that," said Scott. "I don't know if he saw an opportunity to make money, if he just saw dollar signs and thought he would try and take advantage of it, but as far as I know it never happened. Auburn never offered or paid him money to sign.
"At no time since I've been here has the Auburn coaches come down, sat in a room with any of my players and tried to convince them to switch their commitment. I can't understand why he would do this unless he was offered some money by HBO."
HBO did not respond to email or voicemails from AuburnSports.com.
According to Scott, HBO's Real Sports correspondent Andrea Kremer and a camera crew were at Dillard to interview him. Scott said when the interview was over, when the HBO crew left Dillard, they didn't seem satisfied.
"I can't speak for HBO, but it seems like when they left here it was a dead end for them," Scott said. "They couldn't confirm anything he told them about what went down and that it went down here. They were trying to solidify their allegations about any money and they couldn't.
"I think they got a little frustrated because they didn't get anything. There wasn't anything to get."
Scott has not spoken to McClover since.
"I would love to talk to him. I don't hold a big grudge against him, but I would like to know what his reasons are," said Scott. "I wonder why he would do this, especially to Dillard. He gave everybody here the impression that people from HBO were doing a little document on him and he wanted to bring them to our school and show them where he's from, but then we find out it's something completely different. I think some people here feel like 'Why did you do us like that? What did we do to you?'"
Until McClover answers those questions, Scott said, "I can't speak for everyone, but I don't think right now he would be welcomed back here with open arms. People here feel like he lied to them, that he turned his back on Dillard. Nobody believes him. If it was true, he wouldn't have come here and told us the interview was about his life.
"He never mentioned anything about getting paid, but then again, he knows I know that never happened. I have never dealt with anything like that."
Numerous voicemails left on McClover's cell phone were not returned.
McClover is one of 11 players from Dillard to sign with Auburn since 1990. Seven of the 11 were All-SEC performers at Auburn. Three were All-Americans. Scott said McClover is the only one to ever claim to receive money to sign with the Tigers.
Rosegreen hopes McClover's allegation doesn't negatively affect Auburn's recruitment at Dillard in the future.
"He's trying to mess it up for other kids at Dillard who want to go to Auburn and I ain't got nothing else to do with him," said Rosegreen. "I love Dillard and I love Auburn. Those are my schools. When someone cuts me open, I bleed blue and gray (Dillard) and blue and orange (Auburn). I would never be a part of any bull [crap] like this.
"Stanley lied to those people at HBO and that's sad."
HBO's Real Sports is scheduled to run an episode titled "The State of College Sports in America" March 30. McClover's interview is believed to be a part of the show that will also include former players from other colleges.
