[adam42381]

BJ must be taking the day off. He sent me a private message this morning about this thread. I sent him the following reply and told him earlier this evening that he was welcome to post this message publicly:

Re: Coach arrested?
Sent: Fri Nov 30, 2012 11:54 am
by JLFJR

Hey BJ. Just saw [your message]. Jason Eaker was placed on administrative leave this morning. We are praying for Jason but could not allow him to remain in a position of leadership. The AD was saddened and surprised by the outcome of yesterday's legal proceedings.

The local press was given this statement at about the same time.

I wish this post stopped at this point.

[adam42381]

Wow, you guys are so fast to jump to conclusions without facts. When the facts are not clear, why not give Liberty the benefit of the doubt, at least for a few hours? And this is not the first time this has happened. I recall that many of you have jumped to conclusions in the past only to be embarrassed when the facts came out.

Is this about Asa? If my memory serves me correct, in that case, pretty much the opposite of this paragraph is what happened.

This.

[flamesfan30]

chancellor, we have a 79 page thread on our aspirations to go fbs, which were so clearly laid out in that wonderful NYT article. You will not find a more passionate group of people who care about and love this school than right here on this board. The thing with the copyright law was a misunderstanding by me, and thank you for taking time to explain that. I seriously appreciate that. the fact that you continue to post here is a testament to your willingness and understanding to connect with the liberty community. Its something that's unique and one of my favorite things about LU (and you, good sir!)

but this is not about coach eaker. this is about a track record of over-reacting to criticism. the following have all taken place since I started as a freshman at liberty in 2008.
*credit to ballah09 for posting the original version of this list in his post found here*https://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewto ... 88#p413288

• 1. Democratic club debacle
  2. Secret video taping of the city council
  3. Censorship, ala Facebook, threatening lawsuits ala, Peter Lumpkins. (not that I'm defending that guy in any way...)
  4. Liberty Counsel and Matt Staver being linked to a kidnapping, and there actions resulting in a lawsuit brought against themselves and TRBC
  5. making political statements in general. ala chick fil-a
  6.Threatening to not support the GOP because they had the GOProud and Log Cabin there supporting republican candidates.

these if left alone, or responded to in the correct way (i.e. 1. having all political clubs be unofficial in the first place, instead of after the fact 2. not doing it 3-6: not posting political statements thru official university channels), they would have been non-issues. honestly, aside from the misunderstanding of what "trustworthy" means, the way this situation has been handled has shown a vast improvement over the past way of doing things.


also, on a side note, can i keep my little avatar? i don't think anyone will confuse me with an official spokesmen for the university

[Sly Fox]

JLFJR breaking news on FlameFans. For those begging to know what the school planned to do as a result of the court proceedings, you have your answer. This is what I was referencing in my earlier post that stated I was comfortable with how the school was handling the situation. I feel really bad for Coach Eaker and I know this has been a huge learning experience for him and his family. Hopefully he bounces back stronger and wiser for the future.

[adam42381]

I feel really bad for Coach Eaker and I know this has been a huge learning experience for him and his family. Hopefully he bounces back stronger and wiser for the future.

Agreed. I have no clue what actually went down here. That said, in my opinion, rehabilitation should always be the first option instead of incarceration. Hopefully he gets the help he needs.

[thepostman]

I am glad Liberty took the step that needed to be taken. It looks as if lessons were learned with the Asa situation. This is not nearly as bad as that situation but I think we learned our lesson.

I still don't think Johnny Moore should have the responsibility of speaking for the the University in an official fashion. Someone with much better training in that aspect should get that position. They should also take his twitter rights away, but that may be my fault for ever following him. No longer, haha.

[flamesfan30]

nah, johnnie should most definitely keep his twitter. its an essential part of being a campus pastor at this point. he just needs to learn under almost no circumstances is it ever okay to use caps lock

[Purple Haize]

I am glad Liberty took the step that needed to be taken. It looks as if lessons were learned with the Asa situation. This is not nearly as bad as that situation but I think we learned our lesson.

I still don't think Johnny Moore should have the responsibility of speaking for the the University in an official fashion. Someone with much better training in that aspect should get that position. They should also take his twitter rights away, but that may be my fault for ever following him. No longer, haha.

It's scary that we think alike.
I know that my Company's Insurance will pay for substance abuse issues and hope LU has a similar policy addendum and its being utilized.

[JLFJR]

chancellor, we have a 79 page thread on our aspirations to go fbs, which were so clearly laid out in that wonderful NYT article. You will not find a more passionate group of people who care about and love this school than right here on this board. The thing with the copyright law was a misunderstanding by me, and thank you for taking time to explain that. I seriously appreciate that. the fact that you continue to post here is a testament to your willingness and understanding to connect with the liberty community. Its something that's unique and one of my favorite things about LU (and you, good sir!)

but this is not about coach eaker. this is about a track record of over-reacting to criticism. the following have all taken place since I started as a freshman at liberty in 2008.
*credit to ballah09 for posting the original version of this list in his post found here*https://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewto ... 88#p413288

• 1. Democratic club debacle
  2. Secret video taping of the city council
  3. Censorship, ala Facebook, threatening lawsuits ala, Peter Lumpkins. (not that I'm defending that guy in any way...)
  4. Liberty Counsel and Matt Staver being linked to a kidnapping, and there actions resulting in a lawsuit brought against themselves and TRBC
  5. making political statements in general. ala chick fil-a
  6.Threatening to not support the GOP because they had the GOProud and Log Cabin there supporting republican candidates.

these if left alone, or responded to in the correct way (i.e. 1. having all political clubs be unofficial in the first place, instead of after the fact 2. not doing it 3-6: not posting political statements thru official university channels), they would have been non-issues. honestly, aside from the misunderstanding of what "trustworthy" means, the way this situation has been handled has shown a vast improvement over the past way of doing things.


also, on a side note, can i keep my little avatar? i don't think anyone will confuse me with an official spokesmen for the university

I knew my post would invoke responses from FF members proclaiming how much they love and support LU. I do believe that in spite of all the unfair junk that gets posted.

Sounds like your issues are more with Mat Staver and Liberty's conservatism on social issues in general. I am not even familiar with issues #3-#6 above, i.e., I don't remember the details and neither I nor Liberty had any official or unofficial involvement in any of those. Maybe my memory is getting bad. I did turn 50 this year but those items don't even ring a bell. Your #1: The way LU handled the Democratic Club issue was praised by Gov. Tim Kaine. The bad press resulted mainly because of lies by club members about what action LU took against the club and what Mark Hine said and then reported as truth by the mainstream media. Your #2: I personally apologized to the officials who were taped for allowing my staff to let #2 happen. Local Democrats were telling public lies about LU during that election and my staff was overly defensive as a result. I also apologized to the public that it happened at all. Sorry, I just don't see how any of these items you list were an "over-reaction to criticism". And I don't think this Eaker situation was a vast improvement over past actions. The facts were just different this time and warranted a different outcome. We don't always do things right but our real flaws and mistakes are not the ones that you mention above. My Dad used to say "never get upset when people say things about you that are not true. Just be glad they don't know the truth!"

[flamesfan30]

its true. and yes, the resolutions to these things were handled correctly in the end. its just the fact that they were able to get out of hand in the first place that created an issue.

I guess then my question is, how much of that is the media creating controversy and how much do we bring upon ourselves with t-shirts like "politically incorrect since 1971"? (i actually own one of those btw) which may mean one thing to us, but an entirely different thing to the world?

[Purple Haize]

You kinda admitted that your staff over reacted in two instances and caused you too apologize. You also admitted that 'the liberal media' does a better job getting in front of the story then your own people. What does this have to do with the current thread? Nothing.
I'm just hopeful that he is provided an avenue to deal with this problem and can move on. Yes, this is a different case then Asa.

[JLFJR]

I was going way beyond the current thread in my comments, PH. And the mainstream media does a better job of getting ahead of stories because they own the forum. That's how Obama gets away with so much, IMO.

[GillsHill2013]

I was going way beyond the current thread in my comments, PH. And the mainstream media does a better job of getting ahead of stories because they own the forum. That's how Obama gets away with so much, IMO.

Thanks for posting Jerry. I appreciate the clarity on the situation. Above all, Eaker and his family will be in my prayers and should be in everyone on this forums as well.

[JLFJR]

You are right, GH2013! Thank you for keeping the focus on Jason and his family.

[flamesfan30]

yes. sorry, I kind of hijacked the thread there.

will Jason be getting any help from the university? I know we have the student care office for us, but is there anything similar for faculty/staff?

[Schfourteenteen]

. The AD was saddened and surprised by the outcome of yesterday's legal proceedings.

Wow, you guys are so fast to jump to conclusions without facts. When the facts are not clear, why not give Liberty the benefit of the doubt, at least for a few hours?

The problem is this scenario happened in a high profile case already, and statements similar to this one take away any reason to think LU/Liberty University/LU Cookie/LUO/Lamar/Lehigh have control over the program.

The AD is supposed to have the facts that we apparently are not privy to. If he didn't, and he is surprised by the verdict, why is Eaker still employed? It immediately points to JB being misled throughout the entire scenario.

[JLFJR]

Eaker is not still employed by the university. Did you not read the thread above?

[adam42381]

Eaker is not still employed by the university. Did you not read the thread above?

Administrative leave ≠ not employed from the understanding I have of the term. Is he still being paid by the university? If not, that isn't traditional administrative leave.

[g-webb1994]

Just my .02, y'all ought to feel blessed that the President of your school takes the time to come on a public forum like this and at the least acknowledge you and your concerns. I wish some of the leadership at my alma mater had at least that much transparency and concern at times, both in the past and present. Kudos to JLFJR.

[LUFlamesNation]

Also, I think I saw in this thread that Flames Nation was claiming to be waiting on a response from Liberty's general counsel.

I replied to him and offered an agreement that outlined the ways it could be used but he wanted something too open ended. I said he needed to give me a list of specifics. I don't believe he ever got back with me. I'm in the Christmas tree tonight so I can't check my emails to confirm if something came over Thanksgiving break or not.

I replied to Mr. Corry with a very specific request 17 minutes after his previous e-mail stating it needed to be more specific. That was on November 15. So yes I'm still waiting on a response from General Counsel, as I said.

Thank you.

[RVAparks]

Also, RVA Parks, Johnnie Moore and Liberty had no problem with anything Flamesnation posted, only with the fact that the site was apparently using Liberty's trademarked logos.

Super... but you don't have a problem with a high ranking member of your staff and the university twitter feed outing passionate alumni with a tweet simple saying, "FLAMESNATION CANNOT BE TRUSTED!". You don't think that causes a backlash of tweets both ways? The Kool-Aid drinkers further attacked FlamesNation and others came to their support. It's curious that this happened the same day and right after the Eaker "leak".

Like I said, if authority is challenged in any way then the reaction is overreact, cover up, and thus making a bigger story out of things then it needs to be. Last year I was homecoming at Liberty and sent Jeff Barber a simple tweet asking about the traffic back up and where the best place to park would be. I then tried to help others once I found a spot on the back side of the stadium. How did Barber and the University react? They banned my twitter feed. Really? How childish was that. My dad was with me and he could attest to merely asking a question and how ridiculous the "incident" was.

I run a similar blog to FlamesNation for Longwood. Sure not everyone internally agreed with the content that was be posted on the site or the message board. But do you know how it was handled? The head of alumni relations for the athletic department called me, politely asked me to not use official Longwood images for licensing purposes and to put up a disclaimer that this was not an official site. Instead of reacting in a manner where they would tweet 25,000+ people that "LANCERSBLOG CANNOT BE TRUSTED!". There is extreme jingoism to a fault on some of the highest places at Liberty in in that I went from an excited student/alumnus to a confused alumnus...to an embarrassed alumnus.

[Purple Haize]

Not to beat a dead horse..
But I certainly hope, and I may be in the minority, that Eaker is still employed by LU but just on administrative leave. If this incident is reflective of a substance problem, then he should be afforded the opportunity to get help. As I stated earlier, it has been the policy of just about every company I've worked for to allow employees to seek counseling/help etc in overcoming these situations while at the same time keeping them on payroll. I have seen how this can be a positive for the employee in all aspects of life, and currently work with someone who went throughout it. If LU cut the string entirely, that, IMHO is not just bad employee/employer interaction but not very merciful either.

[RVAparks]

Not to beat a dead horse..
But I certainly hope, and I may be in the minority, that Eaker is still employed by LU but just on administrative leave.

This may be a moot point given that the whole staff may not be employed at LU soon. It's not completely out of the realm of possibility that this team is 3-11 going into Big South play with no Division I victories.

[JLFJR]

Eaker is not employed in the sense that he is no longer serving as a coach or anything else for that matter. He is on administrative leave.

RVA, i see where some of your concerns are coming from now. My staff doesn't always do everything exactly as we would hope in every situation but that doesn't mean I denounce them or reverse every bad decision. I explained that when Coach Rocco allowed Asa Chapman to play in certain games. There was no "Eaker leak". Jason Eaker's arrest had been public information and even published in some tabloid that anyone could read in the grocery store weeks before. Johnnie Moore only knew Flames Nation existed because of the Tebow story. The organization that is bringing Tebow to town had asked me to keep the story quiet for a few days and only to say that I had a big announcement to make soon. It was because of the Tebow story on FN that Johnnie and the general counsel noticed the trademark infringement there. We told Johnnie to get the word out that FN was not an official site so people (including the group that asked me to keep the story quiet) would not be confused and think that LU was announcing the Tebow visit. That's why he said the site cannot be trusted. He meant it cannot be trusted as the final word from LU on Tebow. We found out later that the folks who had asked me not to announce Tebow had inadvertently posted it on one of their websites that they didn't know was live.

Finally, Flames Nation, I'll send your post to David Corry but I think the item you sent him 17 minutes after his communication may be the one that he asked you to modify. You guys need to communicate again.

Thanks!

[Purple Haize]

Words mean things. Saying something 'can't be trusted' is a whole lot different then saying something isn't affiliated with the University. In one you are calling them liars. In the other you are distancing yourself. Saying someone is on 'administrative leave' is different then saying they no longer work at the University. Saying God gets even with people.....
Just saying that words have meanings

I'm still hopeful that the University is supporting Eaker if he is seeking help through this issue