Addressing Massillon Head Coach Jason Hall’s Apparent Beef With Tommy Tuberville

And article was released last Saturday by Friday Night Ohio that indicated that the relationship between the University of Cincinnati and Massillon Washington High School has been soured in recent weeks. The gist of the article is Jason Hall’s displeasure with Tommy Tuberville around the recruitment of quarterback Kyle Kempt. He had been a Cincinnati verbal commitment for months now but appears Kempt isn’t anymore for reasons illustrated below.

Since the article was posted, interpretations have been drawn that have shed Tuberville in a bad light. Most of them have drawn upon Hall’s quotes, which are mainly in an angered and negative tone, to assume the Cincinnati head coach is very much in the wrong here. The article is innocent enough as it doesn’t pinpoint just what happened to Kempt. We only have Jason Hall’s interpretation. The issue is that the Massillon head coach voiced his opinion without hearing the other side of the story.

Well now it looks like we have it and it sounds like Hall is way out of line.

According to Bearcat Lair’s Chad Brendel, Tuberville did nothing underhanded to Kempt’s scholarship offer. Per Brendel, the sequence of events around Kempt’s recruitment are as follows. Sam Kwaitkowski, also with BCL, provided some clarification on the details:

• Butch Jones left Cincinnati.
• As a result, Kempt starting looking around (understandable).
• With Kempt shaky on his commitment to UC, Tuberville offered and received a commitment from another quarterback (also not surprising).
• Kempt officially decommitted from Cincinnati.
• Jason Hall went off the handle.

So what exactly did Tuberville do wrong?

Nothing.

In the world of recruiting, high school players many times are tied stronger to the head coach of a school than the school itself. It looks like this is the case for Kempt and I absolutely don’t have a problem with him looking around after the Jones left. And no one should have a problem with Tuberville either for hedging his bet against a wavering commitment with another quarterback to fill the ranks. It doesn’t sound like he pulled a scholarship (ahem, Charlie Strong) or was deceitful in general. It does sound like Coach Hall is in serious need of a reality check. While he admits there’s a “misunderstanding” at play, most of his quotes do nothing but defame the UC head coach.

Also, I’m not faulting the writer of the article here. Porter himself doesn’t blame Tuberville. He indicates that he doesn’t have the full story around Kempt’s recruitment and just what happened between he and the new Cincinnati head coach:

"Kempt either decommitted from Cincinnati or Tuberville pulled the offer Jones made to him."

Clearly it sounds like the former happened, at least according to Chad Brendel and Sam Kwaitkowski who are on the pulse of all things Bearcats recruiting.

So now that the truth is out there it’s clear Jason Hall owes Tommy Tuberville, the University of Cincinnati, and to a lesser extent his quarterback Kyle Kempt an apology. If it hasn’t been given yet, hopefully one is on its way.