Tavion Thomas….the real truth.

[ReconUte]

Just talked to a very reliable source close to the team last night that told me what really happened and it’s not his damn toe! 
Tavion got into a fight with Glover and punched Glover in the face. Jackson tried to break up the fight and Tavion ended up slapping Jackson in the face with an open hand. 
Quote from my friend “Tavion is an ungrateful POS and this team is better off without him!” 

[dystopiamembrane]

My friend said that your friend is a naughty gossip boy.

[ReconUte]

Well gossip means what he’s saying isn’t confirmed or true and he’s never told me anything untruthful about the team before. He’s an Alum and is a top 50 player all-time so I’m gonna go ahead and take his word as truth. 

[dystopiamembrane]

I don’t doubt that it’s true. Just couldn’t care less what young men do in the locker room.

[Stone]

Penn State agrees with that attitude.

[dystopiamembrane]

He deserves a good spanking.

[ReconUte]

LOL….he’d pick me up and pound me into the ground without breaking a sweat. 

[dystopiamembrane]

Does he pound you often?

[ReconUte]

LMAO…I ain’t going down this rabbit hole with you. Lol 

[chinngiskhaan]

What is the point of posting this. Just gtfo with this crap. Even if it is true, what good does this do for anyone to spread the news?

ReconUte indeed!

[Ute Dub]

Depth of understanding is good. The team has been through a lot and has been keeping their s**t in house. But let’s not pretend like Tavion was not a two edged sword. An enormous talent and burden for the team. Coach Whitt always wants to do what’s best for the player and he has as much as possible for Tavion. Truth is, this isn’t the first time Tavion has f**ked around and found out. Now he needs to make his own path. God bless him to get on a good path. 

[Ute Dub]

Also, I heard one of the main running backs almost quit the team because he was so sick of Tavion. Think, guy who has played on both sides of the ball before.

[Dog luuver26]

Exactly. The gossip I see on this site is worse than what I see with my teenage daughter sometimes. LOL.

[RoboUte]

There was a topic about this fight earlier. On that same topic a poster gracefully chose his words: “He didn’t have much of a choice”. The writing was kind of on the wall knowing that Tavion was already on thin ice.

[utefansince79]

Will just note that I sympathize with Tavlon for the recent loss of an aunt who raised him and I perceive that growing up he likely didn’t always have the benefit of two supportive loving parents able to care for him and provide for his needs, something many of us take for granted.   

But he is still responsible for his actions and whatever has taken place in the locker rooms and/or practice fields.

I wish him well in his future endeavors.  He will need to continue to make choices and it will serve him best to make the right decisions.

 

 

[Central Coast Ute]

I saw a tweet about a month ago and I forget what it was, but it was about TT. People were arguing about the tweet but Bernard liked the tweet. That answered the question for me.

[ProudUte]

I heard the same thing.  

Time to move on.  I wish Tavion well.

[UteBacker]

I think that anyone that follows Utah football closely (like us) had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  Good on Whit for having Tavion’s back all year and good on Whit for drawing a line in the sand.  *All in or in the way*.

[Onlyu]

I will say this…I have never seen ANY player get more chances in our program than Tavion. It started in the Spring, continued through the Summer (well before his Aunt passed) and erupted again multiple times in season. He was suspended multiple times for various reasons during that stretch.

I believe Whitt understanding his background, circumstances and lack of a close support system bent over backwards to give this kid more chances than he probably deserved.

We can root for the kid, feel sorry for his circumstances, be thankful for what he gave us on the field, wish him the best, hope or pray that he makes the right choices moving forward but defending him at this point is beyond ridiculous. The kid couldn’t get out of his own way.

[UteBacker]

Poetic as usual, Onlyu.  I hold no ill will towards Tavion.  I wish him luck (I think he’s in trouble).  He was a BEAST last year and he played an instrumental role in getting us to the Rose Bowl.  Selfishly, I’d love to have a fully committed Tavion Friday night, but whatever.  Next men up.

[Stone]

Was the player leadership council on board with the many chances Tavion received? I assume so, but I would expect that if there was some frustration from the players regarding Tavion’s attitude, then I imagine there is some relief to see him gone, and perhaps there will be some renewed energy and cohesion amongst the team moving forward (just in time to beat USC).

[Trailgoat]

Best of luck to TT. Yeah, I recall some media comments from credible guys close to the program last Spring about TT’s waning focus. Sports programs at all levels deal with similar situations all the time, part of the gig. Hopefully TT learns from the life experience the Utah program provided him. Good life lesson for the other players as well about patience, compassion, and accountability.

Fair or not, guessing TT got some more breaks other players may have not due to his football talent and value/need to the team. Curry doesn’t get hurt this may have been addressed differently. Losing Curry can’t be overstated. That said, opened opportunity for JJ and Glover. Utah RB room next season barring any transfer portal chaos is going to be loaded. I am a huge Curry fan. Hopefully Boykin signs.

[belli1976]

I wonder if #22Forever affected Whitt in giving TT more than deserved chances. This is NOT criticism on Whitt. More a, how could it not affect anyone to be more charitable.

I think/hope the running game thrives. It never felt like anyone could get in a rhythm. Last game seemed to have the rhythm. It would be great to see Glover or JJ have break out game. JJ’s development has been great to watch.

[Utah]

Honestly, I quit 247 because I was tired of the cougarboard-soap opera-rumor-speculation-everything has to be so dramatic way it turned into. I. Don’t. Care. 

I want Thomas at Utah. I also want a good culture and a team of people working together. If it isn’t a good fit, then that’s ok. Life is hard. We all have our s**t to deal with. Thomas has his. Whitt has his. 

It didn’t work out. I’m grateful for what Thomas has done, and if it’s time to move on, I’m excited to see Jackson and Bernard and the rest. 

As for the details…who cares? It adds nothing. He’s gone. We have a game vs USC for a shot to go to the Rose Bowl. I’m much more interested in that. 

But leave the cougarboard specualtion bull s**t off here please. 

[UteBacker]

Haha.  While I mostly agree with you, Utah, you do realize that a sports chat board is the male equivalent of the relief society, right?  It’s where we go to fill our gossip needs but still feel manly, so cut ReconUte some slack.

[DrahtUte]

It’s so unbelievably easy to just not read the topics you aren’t interested in. Don’t try to tell the rest of us what we can and can’t talk about. If you want to cry about people talking about Utah sports topics that you don’t like, you should just go over to cougarboard.

It sounds like Tavion was dragging our entire running back group down. We’ve been wondering all year why they were underperforming. Now we’re starting to get an idea. This topic is entirely relevant. 

As a supporter of Utah athletics, I want players who can represent my school well on and off the field. Character matters a lot.

The U coaching staff has now distanced themselves from Thomas. It sounds like he’s got the potential to damage the reputation of the school. We fans should also try to know who Thomas really is before we defend him. 

[Central Coast Ute]

What do you mean he has the potential to damage the schools reputation?

[DrahtUte]

From this report, it sounds like he could just be a violent person.

Writing this story off as just one of the usual skuffles that happen on football teams doesn’t work because of the fact that he got kicked off the team for whatever he did,  Glover and Jackson didn’t. Punching and slapping your fellow running backs outside of practice is a lot different than a running back and a linebacker getting into a tiff during practice. 

If he is a violent person, how long until we see a headline about the Utes former star running back assaulting someone?

[Central Coast Ute]

I see. I thought you were saying he has info that could potentially be damaging. Thanks for the clarification.

[UteThunder]

I would imagine what he means is, Thomas has the potential to make headlines for bad behavior which could reflect poorly on the University of Utah. Because if he’s in the news in the future it will either be positive, (making the NFL), or negative (being arrested) and in either case he will be referred to as “Former Utah star running back.”

[RustyShackleford]

At this point it’s not speculation it’s all but been confirmed by many people in the know. Imagine a Utah forum talking about Utah stuff like their RB1 stepping away from the team all of a sudden. Maybe you should just stay off all forums chief because this is what they look like. Shame on you for trying to say what people can and can’t post

[Crazyforu]

I won’t add a ton more, it’s fair to say that where there is smoke, there is fire though.

I am not besties with Tavion, we have texted back and forth throughout the year though. In simple terms, Tavion told me directly that there isn’t any love lost (he used different words) between himself and another RB. 

Take that for what you will, he was given many chances though, it just wasn’t what everyone hoped it would be.

[Stone]

This could go a long way with the questions we fans have had this year regarding the RB position. We saw Tavion underperforming and were given vague explanations. But it seemed like even the other RBs were not excelling – which could be due to inexperience or injuries. I have no idea. But I am going to posit that another possible explanation was lack of cohesion with the group.

It is possible (dare I speculate?) that Tavion may have been a bit of a cancer in the RB room, which may have spilled over into other position groups. These guys are human, feel allegiances, and have friends on the team at all positions. Players block harder, run harder, play harder for their “brothers” and friends than they do for someone they dislike. That is human nature. Not saying guys are purposefully sucking when someone they dislike gets the ball, but they may not put in the extra effort needed. All in or in the way is so true. Because when a player is not all in, they are, in fact, in the way and negatively impact others on the team. They become a cancer. 

Again, not saying that Tavion is any of this, but it is certainly possible based on the information discussed above. Hard to know because it was against Colorado, but the running game looked as good as it has all year (to be fair, Tavion and the running game also looked awesome against Stanford).

[Distantute]

Im glad hes gone. He was terrible all year and nobody likes him apparently. He has zero chance at making an nfl roster.

[Crazyforu]

Absolutely possible.

The response I got Saturday from TT when others were playing well wasn’t what I expected. 

Safe to say these guys weren’t all rowing in the same direction. Addition by subtracting absolutely could be the case here. Honestly, that just sucks because he is such a talented kid. 5 star talent with, not the same in other areas though. 

[RustyShackleford]

He was throwing shade at the other RBs when they were doing good? If so that’s embarrassing for him.

[Charlie]

I have come to have a lot of respect for how Whitt works with this type of issue.  Just knowing Whitt is there is beyond enough for me.  His process gives players a fair chance to come back from an issue.