As college athletic departments re-evaluate their football programs and the future of their coaches, we get reports of firings. In the case of UC-Davis, Sports Illustrated’s Thayer Evans reported that Ron Gould was fired. Citing a source, Evans wrote that Gould’s 9-25 record over the last three seasons including 2-9 in 2015 was the reason why he was being let go.
But an interesting happened on the way to this story. There were denials, but not just your average run-of-the-mill denials. UC-Davis strongly denied it on Twitter in response to Evans:
@ThayerEvansSI The information in the article is incorrect and not true.
— UC Davis Athletics (@ucdavisaggies) December 1, 2015
And to top it off, UC-Davis went one better in yet another denial to Football Scoop:
SI has reported that UC Davis has fired HC Ron Gould.
UC Davis just emailed me. They aren’t happy. Per UC Davis, SI report is fabrication.
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) November 30, 2015
It’s one thing to give a terse denial, but to go out and call a report an out-and-out fabrication is another. Perhaps UC-Davis will let go of Gould at some point, but for now, he appears to still be an employee of the University.
To top it off, Michael Silver formerly of SI had this:
Just talked to Ron Gould. Contrary to the SI report, he is still the UC Davis head football coach.
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) December 1, 2015
UC-Davis appears to be reaching out to take control of the story. Evans had a source who told him that the school was firing Gould. Either that source gave Evans bad information or the university is doing all it can to do a dance. One is wrong and the other is not.
Evans has come under fire for several of his college football stories and this is the latest. We’ll find out which party is right and which one is wrong as this story continues to play out.
UPDATE: SI pulled Evans’ story without any notice of a correction or retraction and Evans’ only comment on Twitter has been to retweet Silver. Ummm… ok?
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.