Into the Fire

During a December 11 news conference introducing him as ASU's football coach, Erickson told the media he had nothing to do with the NCAA sanctions against the Miami Hurricanes.

"There have never been any NCAA infractions that I've been involved in," Erickson stated flatly.

Love backed Erickson's incredible assertion, stating: "Dennis Erickson was not involved in those issues, and that is what was found to be true."

Both statements are contradicted by the NCAA's 1995 Committee on Infractions report on violations and sanctions for the University of Miami, as well as by scores of stories that appeared in the Miami news media in the early 1990s.

While the NCAA never said that Erickson personally committed a major infraction, it determined that his actions as Miami's football coach directly contributed to two NCAA infractions by the university that led to sanctions.

Not only is ASU rewriting Erickson's resumé, the university also is destroying e-mails between the athletic department and members of the public concerning Erickson's hiring, an act that may be in violation of the Arizona Public Records Law.

ASU spokeswoman Terri Shafer stated in an e-mail to New Times that the athletic department has an "unwritten policy" allowing the immediate destruction of e-mails exchanged between the athletic department and the public.

Just as the Army lied about Tillman's death in the mountains of Afghanistan, claiming, at first, that he was killed by hostile instead of friendly fire, ASU is obfuscating the truth about the turbulent past of the coach it plans to pay $5.6 million over the next five years to lead a football program shadowed by a high-profile murder and other outrageous behavior by players.

And just as the Army tried to cover up the facts surrounding Tillman's death, ASU appears guilty of attempting to hide public reaction to the hiring of one of the state's highest-paid public employees.

On May 18, 1995, the Miami Herald published a devastating investigative report on the University of Miami football team under Dennis Erickson. The story was a prelude to the NCAA sanctions that would be levied the following December.

Under the headline "Hurricanes: Eye of the Storm — A Program in Disarray," the Herald described an astonishing assortment of illegal activities that permeated the football program.

"Interviews with more than 50 current and former athletic officials, players, and others close to the team reveal a litany of lawlessness before and throughout Erickson's six-year tenure," the Herald reported.

The Herald wrote that Erickson battled with athletic department officials to allow players who had been recently indicted in a federal Pell Grant scandal to participate in games. More than 50 Miami players received more than $170,000 after submitting fraudulent applications. (The U.S. Department of Education Pell Grant Program was set up to provide cash to low-income undergraduate students.)

The Herald story also uncovered information that the university later confirmed revealing that Erickson violated Miami's drug policy and played athletes who had tested positive for illicit drugs, including All-American Warren Sapp, in the 1995 Orange Bowl. Sapp, the newspaper reported, had tested positive for marijuana.

The newspaper broke down the violations into categories including:

• Sexual misconduct: "Women were humiliated and sometimes assaulted in football dorms." The paper reported that players gang-raped passed-out female students.

• Arrests: At least a dozen Miami players were arrested during the 1994 season on charges including possession of cocaine and battery on a police officer.

• Alcohol abuse: "One ex-Miami coach said Erickson would get so 'obliterated' that he was 'walking on his knees. How could he discipline players,' the coach asked, 'when he didn't have discipline in his own life?'" One of Erickson's assistants, Gregg Smith, was arrested for DUI in 1992 and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Smith is now an assistant offensive line coach at ASU. Coaches invited at least one player to drink with them before the Sugar Bowl.

• Violence: "Campus police often clashed with players, and Erickson received late-night calls asking that he go to dorms to help police control his players.

• Drugs: Despite drug-testing programs, marijuana use was widespread and often shared with the assistant coaches' secretary. Players smoked pot the night before the 1994 Fiesta Bowl, which they lost to Arizona 29-0.

• Guns: Players owned guns and would often fire them out of windows and into ceilings.

The Herald reported that two Miami athletic directors said Erickson was a lax disciplinarian. "Dennis was too lenient," Dave Maggard was quoted as saying. "He needed some backbone behind him . . . He has a big problem disciplining the team."