Scott Carter leaving Tampa

Should be fun to see how this is received on the beat in Gainesville.

Tweet from Gainesville's Pat Dooley:

"In another attempt to shut out the media that covers the team, Florida has hired a writer to cover team for its web site."

 

Good luck, Scott.

 

I wonder how many other schools are going to take this approach. Probably all of them eventually.

 

How much more can some of these schools shut out the media? Seriously.

I don't have a problem with them hiring writers for good content on their websites.

But if some of these schools limit access to coaches and players any more, reporters are going to have to start doing end arounds. That's going to make things a lot more difficult for the schools and potentially messy.

It's not a battle the schools can win if the reporters refuse to be herded into the shearing pen.

 

Just wait and see.

They'll push incrementally. Anything hugely significant gets the FWAA fired up or newspaper-site bosses going to visit the AD or conference bigwigs.

With more bloggers and sites clamoring, and less resources at papers that may be sharing or combining, schools can pick their spots to make small changes that will add up.

Reporters who refuse the shearing pen may be supported by their superiors, but they don't get the info. And fans don't care. All they see is another "POS reporter" battered around by their favorite coach, and they're happy that Coach McDickweed "did something about that guy!" (Even if he didn't).

 

Late to the party, but good for Scott. As a Tampa Bay kid living far from home, I appreciated his work. Never read Adkins (that I recall), but I look forward to reading his stuff this weekend.

I don't see how Carter's gig at gatorzone.com is going to threaten Pat Dooley's ability to work, but maybe he knows something I don't.

 

Scott Carter's copy, after being edited by the SID staff, will be less homerish than anything Dooley writes.

 

SEC Guy, well done.

 

Good for Adam and congrats.

I hired Adam as one of my corros in like 2002 or 03. Did a great job. Then I lobbied for him to go into being part-time on the copy desk, then I pushed for full time as one of the prep writers. He truly worked his way up the ladder.

Congrats again Adam.

Funny story about him: He was in the office on a high school football night when he was a corro and it was about the second week of the season. He was near my desk and as usual it was a bit frantic, especially since there were storms delaying games left and right.
One of the other corros got stuck trying to get into the office in a monsoon and ended up hitting a curb and getting a flat tire. He wasn't in the best section of Tampa either. The corro had to dictate and it was about midnight - we had to be off the floor by 12:30.
I asked Adam to take dictation.
About five minutes in, I hear Adam and I quote "I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE BUM KNOCKING ON YOUR WINDOW JUST GIVE ME THE STORY." I had to keep from busting a gut laughing. Fortunately, we got the story in and the corro was alright. I did call him the next day and told the corro, that would probably be the worst night of your sports journalistic career. Alas, he didn't stick with sports and moved on, but Adam was a howl that night.

 

Several sportswriters have done this. The one I know best is my pal BG Brooks, who now does web writing for U of Colorado athletics after the Rocky Mountain News folded. There are others, but I'm drawing a blank right now.