The Bobcat Nation

From MSU.

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State senior receiver Rick Gatewood will miss the first three games of the 2005 season after a routine internal audit this summer showed an error in the certification of his eligibility for the 2004 season, MSU Athletic Director Peter Fields announced Monday. Montana State University declared Gatewood ineligible upon discovering the error and notified the NCAA, which informed the school last week that Gatewood's eligibility will be restored following MSU's third game this season.

Gatewood, from Richmond, Calif., gained 995 yards receiving last year, earning First Team All-Big Sky honors and the league's Newcomer of the Year Award. Montana State is appealing the decision.



-msu-

Are you ****** me?

Umm.... doh?? This isn't good news at all...

You better link this mofo.

What the !@#!%^(*_U%? How does this come up just days before opening day? I guess we will get a chance to see how the WSU transfers produce early on. Unbelievable

i hope this is damn lie. I hope to god that MSU's appeal is put through. If he does miss the first three games, I'm glad we have the depth at the position. In any case, I'm pissed.

I wonder who $hit the bed on this one. Was it Ricky? Coaches? Athletics? Enrollment Services? Clearinghouse?

Unless someone is damn good at spoofing emails this was sent out as a press release from MSU Sports Info to all media outlets. It isn't reported on msubobcats.com yet, however I know there are others here that get these releases as well, someone want to verify this unfortunate news for me.

Edit: Didn't even notice this was a post originally from GOKATS, thought it was the one I had done. In that case, I can verify what GOKATS posted.

wbtfg wrote:I wonder who $hit the bed on this one. Was it Ricky? Coaches? Athletics? Enrollment Services? Clearinghouse?

When it comes to academics... I put it all on the "STUDENT" athlete.

Cat Pride wrote:

wbtfg wrote:I wonder who $hit the bed on this one. Was it Ricky? Coaches? Athletics? Enrollment Services? Clearinghouse?

When it comes to academics... I put it all on the "STUDENT" athlete.

I don't necessarily agree...someone had to clear him to play last year. There are a lot of rules and regs to the NCAA, and it's not the athlete's job to know these rules, it is the responsibility of the coaches and the administration. Ricky may have thought that he had completed all of the necessary credits, and apparently no one told him any differently until now.

Who is in charge of MSU compliance? I'm certain that there isn't a large staff in charge of this, but for Pete's sake, this is the #1 receiving threat we are talking about. I can see a 3rd-team redshirt sophomore falling through the cracks, but Gatewood?

This is inexcusable.

Cat Pride wrote:

wbtfg wrote:I wonder who $hit the bed on this one. Was it Ricky? Coaches? Athletics? Enrollment Services? Clearinghouse?

When it comes to academics... I put it all on the "STUDENT" athlete.

The press release does not necessarily say that this is a problem with academics. Remember Gatewood was a transfer and there are numerous things that have to happen to make them eligible to play, only one of which could be academics. Let's not get carried away with assumptions and start a bunch of bad rumors people.

kmax wrote:

Cat Pride wrote:

wbtfg wrote:I wonder who $hit the bed on this one. Was it Ricky? Coaches? Athletics? Enrollment Services? Clearinghouse?

When it comes to academics... I put it all on the "STUDENT" athlete.

The press release does not necessarily say that this is a problem with academics. Remember Gatewood was a transfer and there are numerous things that have to happen to make them eligible to play, only one of which could be academics. Let's not get carried away with assumptions and start a bunch of bad rumors people.

Good post kmax. Let's wait until we get further info before we start pinning the blame.

Damn poor timing though.

kmax, wbtg... I hear where you are coming from. I may have misread this thing. I assumed he was ineligible due to grades.

Can you imagine the person delivering that news to Coach Kramer? Talk about kill the messenger.

Hey, I've got faith in the recieving corps though. And hasnt Rick been nursing an injury anyways? I bet Mike Brown can be an adequate fill-in. Besides that, it will give the running game a chance to develop even more so... just trying to find a silver lining.

Having the passing game diminished won't do anything to help the running develop. It'll just allow the defense to key on the running game that much more.

These are things that make or break you in terms of post-season. Losing a close game to Cal Poly or SFA will be tough for MSU to swallow knowing that Gatewood would've made a difference. Two non-conf. losses B4 the conf. season starts will force MSU to win the league or forget about home playoff games.

If this is true I still think we will still be okay. We are pretty darn deep at WR and Murray should be able to fill his role I would think. What bugs me is Greatwood checked out last year and nobody caught it? Obviously this wasn't Ricky's fault so why is the NCAA penalizing the player and not the school? I don't think Ricky is the one at fault here MSU should make sure that when he transfers everything is in order.

This is surprising news, but I think we can still be a very competitive team w/o him. Will we be as good? No, but we will still be good. One other thing is at least he can't get hurt in the OSU game

There is still a chance that MSU's appeal will succeed, but don't hold your breath on that one.

Well this may have just put a dagger in our OOC season. We have always started slow, but many thought that this could change this year since we have basically the same offense back as last year. Now with our #1 WR out, Guinn is the only returning WR that got any significant playing time last season. Add that to the loss of Wolf, and now Gatewood, I fear we may yet again start the season in traditionally Cat style.

Murray, Brown, Miller, and even Guinn better step it up for SFA and Poly. Their play is going to be key in deciding whether or not this is a playoff calibre team, because if they DO step up and perform well, then we know we are as deep at WR as we hoped we would be. If they have good games and we win them, I am going to be extremely confidence come conference time.

You have absolutely got to be f"""ing kidding me. Talk about a sh*tty day... first, I have to wake up in hazy/smoky Missoula and go to the first day of class (last year, thank GOD), then I check after class to get some good readin' on Bobcat Nation and this is what I see?! The NCAA should reverse the ruling upon appeal... which probably means it won't.

Since I'm trying to be more optimistic these days (thanks to FlatheadLakeCat), I think we have no problem here.

1. Defenses were going to double cover Rick anyway; now they won't know who to cover.

2. It's simply an extended pre-season now for the other 5 or 6 guys. We've got other Gatewoods waiting in the wings; now they get more PT to prove themselves and gain confidence.

3. It's not an injury; Rick can continue to practice, lift, and condition and will be that much fresher for the conference slate.

4. Travis will end up with MORE confidence by game 4 because he'll have game-time experience chucking the rock at all the other guys. Imagine how confident he'll be when Rick returns!

( That actually felt pretty good! )

As far as who to "blame" for this incident, I guess we'll hear about that soon enough. I can't imagine how this could happen so it should be very interesting to find out if it's really a breakdown at our end or if Peter Fields is just "hedging his bet" against possible NCAA action by reporting & acting on it first.

If it makes anyone feel better, last year Gatewood only had 4 catches for 48 yards during the first 3 games.