Technically speaking, Willie Lyles is the owner and operator of the Houston-based company, Complete Scouting Services. But a pile of accusations over the past couple of months stemming from potential recruiting violations at Oregon and LSU have landed pimp master Lyles and said programs under the NCAA microscope.
And in his first “tell-all” with FoxSports.com‘s Jason Whitlock since the initial reports, Lyles said (surprise!) that the recruiting concerns about Oregon running back Lache Seastrunk and LSU DB Patrick Peterson were blatantly untrue.
“That is unequivocally false,” Lyles said on Whitlock’s podcast. “(Lache) chose Oregon because he felt Oregon was the best fit for him. He liked the running backs coach, Gary Campbell, and he felt it was a good system and a good fit for him. (Lache) enjoyed the campus when he went on his visit and he enjoyed the people. He made the decision that was best for him.”
Lyles also “unequivocally” denied that a conversation between him and Texas A&M cornerbacks coach Van Malone ever happened. Malone said in a March interview with ESPN that Lyles contacted him in 2007 insisting that if the Aggies wanted Peterson, they would have to pay $80,000.
However, Lyles did offer an interesting excuse, er, “counterpoint” on why he felt his name was being kicked around in the dirt like an old soccer ball.
It’s Texas’ fault. One-hundred percent.
“There’s a particular entity out there that would like to see the movement of players from the state of Texas to schools out of state stopped,” Lyles said. “It’s been well-documented on the blogosphere stating those objections and stating those issues with kids leaving the state of Texas.
“That would be the University of Texas and they do have a problem with people leaving the state of Texas.”
Talk about ridiculous accusations. The state of Texas has a wealth of athletes; keeping them all within state borders is impossible. And let’s be honest: the University of Texas hauls in a Top-1o recruiting class practically every year filled with almost exclusively in-state recruits who start giving verbal commitments soon after the previous signing day ends.
To suggest that the “entity” has singled out Lyles because a few recruits chose to leave the state is “unequivocally” like the 23-year-old kid flipping burgers at McDonalds holding a grudge against “the man” who’s keeping him down.
Lyles may have taken the interview with Whitlock to clear his name, but he really did just as much to tarnish his “reputation” as anyone in the media, or institution of higher education, ever could.
In fact, a rather famous quote by one Abraham Lincoln comes to mind.