from Oxford this weekend. I was told Hop made an appearance at the KLLM Suite and had a conversation that was shared with me. I’m sure none of this will surprise you and you may already know but I’ll tell it any way. There was an abundance of trust issues within the athletic department following the Art Briles debacle. Things have never been the same relationship wise with Hop, JM and Bennett. According to Hop, he was given the Ok from both to pursue and hire Briles. When the news broke, the school caught some media backlash and RB and JM backtracked on their previous decision, hanging Hop out to dry. That was the beginning of the end. Hop apparently felt his integrity was in question so he shared all emails passed from JH, JM and RB with the local media. When Briles wasn’t hired, the uproar went away but the damage was done. He went on to say that the dept is in bad shape and there is no money. He even went as far to say that many assistants don’t get paid on time and that they have to wait for the school to get the money to pay them, sometimes it’s very late. That is very concerning to me, especially when trying to hire a new coach. Hop was not asked why he waited so long to resign if he was that miserable. He was also not asked why we were out of shape and out coached most Saturdays. He was also not asked about the depletion and development of talent on the team during his watch. Things need to get fixed and quick.
