Article on UM player Russum

bobcat92 · Post by **bobcat92** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:04 pm

From Wednesday's Lewiston Morning Tribune.

Russum back on track with Griz; Following scandalous dismissal from Arizona State, Lewiston High grad rebuilds his promising football career at Montana

By JOSH WRIGHT of the Tribune
This column catches up with area athletes competing in the collegiate ranks

His career path was mapped out to T. Go to Arizona State. Work through the system. Be a three-year starter. Take a shot at the NFL.

It was all in front of Brent Russum. He had the tools -- size, athleticism, footwork -- to excel as a Pac-10 offensive lineman. And he had the desire.

But in the almost two years since his plan derailed -- after being booted from the ASU football team for allegedly photographing a naked female student without her permission -- Russum's been left contemplating a bevy of unanswered questions.

Could he, for instance, walk back into Lewiston High, approach his old librarian, Ms. Funk, and tell his side of the sorted story?

Not right now, the hulking tackle says. A "stigma" still hovers around him, and it doesn't seem to be going away soon.

"People judge me on what they read," Russum, now at the University of Montana, told the Tribune recently. "That's the reason I'm talking to you. I want to clear it up a little bit."

Russum's case, in fact, went to a grand jury, but he was never charged, a Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokeswoman said. What would have been a Class 5 felony in Arizona evaporated into a cloud of allegations and bitterness.

He finished his time at LHS as a coveted football prospect. With a regimented training plan and eating schedule, Russum transformed himself from a lanky, 205-pound athlete into a 280-pound specimen.

Soon, big-time schools started calling.

There "was a big appeal (for him) when he was coming out of here," Bengals football coach Emmett Dougherty said. "There's a lot of big guys out there. But you have to be athletic."

Ultimately, Russum chose ASU because it was geared toward his needs. Its weight-lifting program had been voted No. 1 in the nation in '04 by Sports Illustrated, and he was going to play for another Idaho native, Dirk Koetter.

During his redshirt year, he started a "pretty common" relationship with another freshman. She was in a human sexuality class, and they quickly started experimenting sexually, Russum says.

One day in the spring they both agreed, he says, to make a sex tape. Russum's teammate, Jonathan Lehmann, also took part.

According to details of a police report published in the Arizona Republic, the woman, who was "very intoxicated," went to the two players' dorm room and started to "fool around" with Russum.

Lehmann, who had faked going to sleep, then started filming under bed sheets, the report said. The woman asked Lehmann to stop and then passed out.

She later woke up to find Russum and Lehmann taking nude photos of her, according to police interviews.

"I'm not going to lie," Russum says. "Her and I planned to do some promiscuous stuff, or immoral in some people's eyes. ... We were both young and chose to do something. It got out of hand."

He was arrested days later, while in a geology class. Even then, he thought the problem would be quickly resolved.

"Usually you talk to a lawyer," Russum says, "but I was like, 'There's not problem here. Her and I were practically dating.' ... I told them everything I knew."

Once Russum was released by police, he immediately went to Koetter to tell him what happened. The coach listened to his story, then "told me that he had to kick me off the team," Russum says.

In a few frantic hours, the lineman had gone from being in class to being handcuffed to making national headlines.

Russum contends Koetter, who has since been fired and replaced by Dennis Erickson, wrongfully ousted him from the team. Arizona State's code of conduct, he says, outlines that a student who's charged, convicted or admits to a felony can be automatically dismissed.

None of that applies in his case, Russum says.

Repeated attempts to reach Koetter, now the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars, were unsuccessful. Arizona State officials, meanwhile, would not comment on Russum.

Why was he dismissed so quickly?

One reason might be that Koetter was feeling pressure from school administrators to not wait handing out a punishment. At the time, the Sun Devil program was dealing with the messy case of Loren Wade, a tailback charged with murdering former ASU player Brandon Falkner outside a nightclub.

Critics claimed the coach and the athletic department mishandled Wade's incident.

"Timing was the key issue," says Brent Myers, Russum's offensive line coach at ASU. "There was a very small window of tolerance."

Russum, though, maintains he never got a satisfactory explanation from the school. To him, his case is far from resolved. He is considering suing the school down the line.

Meanwhile, Myers -- now the O-line coach at Louisville -- says he always believed Russum and Lehmann's side of the story. "I thought those kids looked me in the eye and told the truth."

Dougherty is also supportive of his former player.

"He didn't do himself proud," the coach said. But "I'm real proud of him. He's made the best of things at Montana."

Russum started 11 of 14 games last season in the Grizzlies' run to the Division I-AA semifinals. Whether or not he makes it professionally after next season, the 6-foot-4, 290-pound junior wants to delve into some sort of business administration.

"I'm not afraid of not going to the NFL," he says, "and I'm not banking on it. Right now, I'm planning on becoming a business man."

Hell's Bells · Post by **Hell's Bells** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:30 am

"People judge me on what they read," Russum, now at the University of Montana, told the Tribune recently. "That's the reason I'm talking to you. I want to clear it up a little bit."

1BadBobcat · Post by **1BadBobcat** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:04 pm

I'm not quite sure this article really cleared anything up. To be honest, just based on what was reported from Russum's side, I probably would have booted him off the team as well.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:55 pm

So the fizzledoutagain have a porn star

Oh man, what kind of cheers will our creative kids like Catinthehat be able to come up with that third weekend game in Bozo this year

Suppose we're going to have to listen to a lot of Village People tunes by the band?

info197176 · Post by **info197176** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:56 pm

..rather have a porn star then a drug dealer and a muderer.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:09 pm

info197176 wrote:..rather have a porn star then a drug dealer and a muderer.

Old Willie would have said something to the effect: "Etu, Yohance?" Who else was in on this? That's right, all that crap didn't happen in Montana, so it's conveniently forgotten.

info197176 · Post by **info197176** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:34 pm

Duncan McKenzie is another name from Bobcat's sordid past....

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:10 pm

info197176 wrote:Duncan McKenzie is another name from Bobcat's sordid past....

Why don't I know that name? Who was he again?

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:47 pm

...assume he's being sarcastic and referring to Duncan Mackenzie of Microsoft; think visual and try to understand what a strange combination it probably was having Mackenzie work with Matt Proctor, an airborne ranger from fizzledoutagain land.

GOKATS · Post by **GOKATS** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:51 pm

info197176 wrote:..rather have a porn star then a drug dealer and a muderer.

Had to look up the definition of a muderer.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... der+mucker

Think it's more of a griz problem.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:08 pm

GOKATS wrote:
info197176 wrote:..rather have a porn star then a drug dealer and a muderer.
Had to look up the definition of a muderer.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... der+mucker

Think it's more of a griz problem.

The great info of 1971 and 1976 just called us a bunch of muder f..kers

Well, takes one to know one for we know the self-proclaimed-all-knowing (according to him) would never butcher the language

info197176 · Post by **info197176** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:36 pm

Duncan murdered Conrad school teacher Lana Harding....he was a former cat football player

crazycat · Post by **crazycat** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:57 pm

info197176 wrote:..rather have a porn star then a drug dealer and a muderer.

Rather have what?

We have/had one player that was on one of our teams charged with dealing drugs. Your staff has actually gone out and picked up a sexual deviant and a player accepting cash payments for your roster. Congrats. Seems like the trend, in terms of illegalities, is for things to go bad for players after they leave MSU, while things go bad for players and then they become Grizzlies. As far as I know, we don't currently have any players that have already done things like Russum or the Okla. transfer have done. Good luck if they revert to form.

MSU Toddler · Post by **MSU Toddler** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:43 am

this thread will have no winners......

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:19 am

MSU Toddler wrote:this thread will have no winners......

Amen! Just refuse to spend time, effort and discussions posting all the former fizzle athletes who committed serious lapses in judgement and/or crimes before, during or after their association with the toxic waste site known as mazzola in this site. Those of you so inclined to act the ass, go to efizzedoutagain and post their long list of kids and illustrious former jocks who screwed up and bear in mind (bad pun

) it's huge.

I do in fact think it's funny they have the lastest rendition of Jonny Wad wearing dark pink and you gotta know our students are going to have a great time in Bozo at his expense in November

bobcat92 · Post by **bobcat92** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:14 pm

Sorry I posted this article. What a double standard the Griz fans have about recruiting. MSU can't recruit anyone that might in some future circumstance commit a crime while at MSU or after leaving. But it is ok for UM to recruit players that have questionable pasts. We can go through the laundry list of UM players and coaches that have troubles with the law and do the same about MSU.

Should this player have been given another chance to play at UM. I don't personally know. Obviously BH was comfortable bringing him to UM.

If he had said he was sorry about the incident and he used poor judgement I think he would have come off looking a little better.

The article made it seem that he really didn't understand what the big deal was. Maybe it was that way it was written.

I personally hope he does well at UM and has a productive life.

info197176 · Post by **info197176** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:23 pm

I agree 92, I'm done...my real issue is with cat grad, he is an ass hole and I should just ignore his redneck, bigoted, classless banter.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:25 pm

bobcat92 wrote:Sorry I posted this article. What a double standard the Griz fans have about recruiting. MSU can't recruit anyone that might in some future circumstance commit a crime while at MSU or after leaving. But it is ok for UM to recruit players that have questionable pasts. We can go through the laundry list of UM players and coaches that have troubles with the law and do the same about MSU.

Should this player have been given another chance to play at UM. I don't personally know. Obviously BH was comfortable bringing him to UM.

If he had said he was sorry about the incident and he used poor judgement I think he would have come off looking a little better.

The article made it seem that he really didn't understand what the big deal. Maybe it was that way it was written.

I personally hope he does well at UM and has a productive life.

I actually hope he has a great time and gets all kinds of sh*t from our kids during the game

And for what it's worth, I hope none of the MSU folks waste their time going into efizzledagain and posting--part of the reason I could never be a bartender--never try to reason with those incapable of understanding reason.

BR GRIZ · Post by **BR GRIZ** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:49 pm

info197176 wrote:Duncan murdered Conrad school teacher Lana Harding....he was a former cat football player

This is twice in the last couple of weeks I've thought of Duncan, after not thinking about him in years. The first time was with the recent hangings in Iraq.

When convicted of the crime, Duncan selected hanging as his method of execution. During his years on death row he packed on alot, and I mean alot, of weight. I was told years ago by a very good source that this was part of Duncan's plan. Duncan believed there was an unwritten rule in Montana that the State would not actually hang you if they believed your head would come off, and his weight gain was to prevent the State from carrying out the execution.