Robert Morris AD Continues To Downplay Rice Allegations

There appears to be some confusion in Western Pennsylvania.

After initially stating that there was no evidence of any misconduct on the part of former head coach Mike Rice, Robert Morris athletic director Craig Coleman conducted a further investigation of the matter and came to a final conclusion:

"I think it is unanimous that the Murdock allegations did not occur," Coleman said Tuesday.

One former player said Rice was inappropriate "once or twice," which is clearly not 'unanimous,' though there was supposedly nothing on the level of what occurred in the Rutgers program, and the allegations by Eric Murdock about behavior at Robert Morris somewhere between "nothing" and "Tim Pernetti getting fired" may just be smoke.

Fun fact here - Coleman pointed out, very calmly and matter-of-factly, that it was apparently usual that Rice taped and then tossed away the first few weeks of practice, and Coleman said Rice had been profane, but not excessively. Good to know that there is an acceptable level of profanity for college coaches. I wonder what it is?

I'm also not sure that a "lack of significant testimony against Rice" really serves as proof of anything - as they say, absence of proof is not proof of absence. That's would seem especially true when verbal testimony about a coach who did things on tape - tape that he conveniently threw away "out of habit" - is your only current information.

As to Coleman's opinion that he "didn't know what to make of"one player's opinion being so much more negative than everyone else's," I think the easy response is "you should probably dig deeper." I don't think this is the last we've heard of Mike Rice, and pretty much nothing would surprise me at this point.