James Cofer, Sr. - One of Two HS Players Who Began the Probation Ball Rolling on Clemson

[DonRocks]

My junior year in college, Clemson won the National Football Championship - all seemed right with the world; then, but my college-football world was about to come to a screeching halt.

James Cofer and Terry Minor, two high school players from Knoxville, told Clemson coach Danny Ford, on National Signing Day, that they wanted to back out of their commitment, and attend the University of Tennessee.

Ford said no (he had already denied other players scholarships based on their commitment), and they claimed Clemson bribed them - they even sued for $12 million and lost. To this day, I don't know what really happened, but the names "Cofer and Minor" were ones I had always associated with Clemson - who went 9-1-1 the following two years (when ties were allowed) - on probation, and unable to play in any bowl games.

Maybe they were right, but the way they did this was smarmy as hell, essentially blackmailing Clemson. There are plenty of stories about the probation itself on the internet, but Cofer and Minor themselves disappeared - the University of Tennessee declared them "too toxic," and didn't want them. They dropped out of college during their first semester, and I had never heard about them again.

Until today, when I did a little bit of research:

"Rule Changes May Cut Cofer's Drug-Case Sentence"  by Jim Balloch on archive.knoxnews.com (you may need to Google this, as direct access seems to be prohibited - if you follow the Google link, you can read the article).

"Feb 25, 2013 - U.S. Case Law" on cases.justia.com

It seems James Cofer, Jr. was involved in a narcotics ring, in cahoots with James Cofer, Sr. (the one who started the probation ball rolling).

Yes, writing this post is petty, but it's also therapeutic, and as they say, "Karma's a bitch" (it would have been honorable if they immediately reported Clemson, but they willingly accepted gifts (or, "bribes," depending on your perspective), and only complained when Clemson didn't let them out of their signed commitment). 

To this day, I still don't know the extent of the transgressions, or who was involved - perhaps Coach Ford turned a blind eye, I don't know.