What happened to Leslie Stirrups?

[BULLfreak]

I know he got into some trouble and did not make the grades but what happened after that? Did he go to JCO or his he trying to get his scores up in prep school? Also is there a chance he could get into USF if they wanted him?

[BULLfreak]

This is the last thing I found. Doesnt say if he got into Pearl or not

Hill will attend Pearl River CC with plans to return to USF next year

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published August 1, 2006

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TAMPA - Carlton Hill, the prized recruit who lost USF's starting quarterback job this spring, will play this fall at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi, with plans to return to USF in 2007.

USF coaches called Pearl River on Monday morning, and coach Tim Hatten said he would accept Hill, who has struggled with academic problems and was arrested on campus in June on a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.

"We're looking forward to getting him in here," Hatten said. "Any time you can get a four-star Rivals recruit, it's a good opportunity for us. He will play for us in some capacity."

Hill, who has entered a not guilty plea on the drug possession charge, declined comment when reached Monday. He likely won't play quarterback at Pearl River, which has a solid transfer in former N.C. State quarterback Mike Greco. Hatten said Hill could wind up at receiver, where he played some as a freshman last season and would have practiced at USF this fall.

Bulls coach Jim Leavitt said Sunday that Hill needed a break from USF, saying, "What would be great is to get him a year away and let him play somewhere. That would be the ultimate, to be honest with you."

USF has an existing relationship with Pearl River, as Bulls coaches have placed three signees who failed to qualify academically - defensive tackle Leslie Stirrups, linebacker Donte Spires and receiver Ishmeal Grant - at the Poplarville, Miss., school since January. The Bulls also have signed two players from Pearl River, but one failed to qualify academically and another quit before playing a game.

Because Hill was a qualifier out of high school, he would not need to earn his associate of arts degree from Pearl River to return to USF, Hatten said. He would need only to show academic progress, and the most likely scenario would have Hill returning to USF next summer with two years of eligibility remaining.

Ex-Bulls recruit arrested

Stirrups, who earned first-team all-state honors as a defensive lineman at Hillsborough High last fall, was arrested Monday on six felony charges relating to auto burglaries.

Stirrups, 18, who had signed a football scholarship with USF but failed to qualify academically, was to play this fall at Pearl River with plans to return to USF in two years. The severity of the charges against him could change that.

Tampa Police arrested Stirrups at 11 a.m. and charged him with two counts of burglary of a conveyance, two counts of third-degree grand theft, one count of dealing in stolen property and one count of giving false information to a pawnbroker. All six are felonies, and he remained in Hillsborough County jail on Monday night, held on $17,500 bail.

Stirrups, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound first-team Times All-Suncoast selection, was rated the nation's No. 8 defensive tackle by recruiting site Rivals.com.

[Last modified August 1, 2006, 10:26:19]

[BULLfreak]

He is not on the roster for Pearl River

http://www.prcc.edu/sports/football/2000team.html

[Greg Auman]

Hey guys. Meant to get this up on the blog late last week, but I checked in with the coach at Pearl River, and so far, it's an encouraging start for Leslie Stirrups there. He finished his spring semester and is due back either this week or next for summer classes. Coach Tim Hatten said he's had no problems with him there. He'll play at Pearl River this fall and likely one more year after that, though there's a possibility he could get his AA in time to enroll at USF in fall 2008. Check the blog later today for an update on other USF connections at Pearl River ...

[usfgrad84]

Any word on any other possible JUCO transfers for this coming season?  While gregory may be a nice backup at QB, I wouldn't mind having someone back there with a little more experience.

[crambone]

Didn't Stirrups snag a few digital cameras as well?

Still, he's a beast and I would love to have him on our team.

[BULLfreak]

Hey guys. Meant to get this up on the blog late last week, but I checked in with the coach at Pearl River, and so far, it's an encouraging start for Leslie Stirrups there. He finished his spring semester and is due back either this week or next for summer classes. Coach Tim Hatten said he's had no problems with him there. He'll play at Pearl River this fall and likely one more year after that, though there's a possibility he could get his AA in time to enroll at USF in fall 2008. Check the blog later today for an update on other USF connections at Pearl River ...

Thanks Greg

[Knight_Light]

Didn't Stirrups snag a few digital cameras as well?

Still, he's a beast and I would love to have him on our team.

Yeah.

Greg made some good comments about it around the time it happened...and had some good comments from the Pearl River Community College Coach at that time as well. Here it is in regards mostly to Stirrups:

http://www.sptimesphotos.com/blogs/usf/2006/08/more-thoughts-on-stirrups.html

When I called Pearl River Community College, where Stirrups was set to play this fall after failing to qualify academically at USF, coach Tim Hatten was blunt: This was not the kind of activity he'd tolerate in his program, not the kind of character he wanted to bring to Mississippi. Unless the charges go away very quickly, Stirrups has no place on his team. The easy reaction is that it's slightly hypocritical that one day after he takes Carlton Hill off USF's hands, knowing he's had a recent arrest for possession of marijuana, Hatten says he wants no part of Stirrups and his error in judgment.

With Stirrups though, the issue is greater, because it attacks a coach's ability to trust the young man. If he's willing to steal from customers of a business that employs both himself and his own mother, what conscience would stop him from stealing from a teammate's locker? What's truly mindless in all of this, both funny and sad at the same time, is how Stirrups got caught: With both cameras, police say he took a few pictures of himself and friends before pawning them, never deleting the images. So when police were able to recover the cameras, they saw the post-theft pics and showed them around at the parking lot office. Of course, they could identify him; he worked there. It's the kind of silliness you normally laugh at while reading Carl Hiassen novels.

His six felony counts are remarkably similar to another USF signee who failed to qualify academically and wound up at Pearl River three years ago, a linebacker named Gene Coleman. We chronicled his problems last spring in a story about how college programs rarely do any kind of background checks on recruits; with Coleman, he'd burglarized a neighbor's home, with more than $13,000 in jewelry stolen. Again, not the smartest criminal mind, police said Coleman had stolen a $40 Wal-Mart gift card straight out of a Father's Day card, and was later identified on store surveillance cameras as he bought video games. The neighbor never got her wedding ring back, but still told a judge she didn't think his actions should take a college scholarship away from him. This might not be the end for Stirrups. Coleman managed to avoid jail time in his case, and would probably be at USF today had he been able to get his academics straight at Pearl River. This is Stirrups' first known arrest, so it's reasonable to think he could get a plea agreement lowering the charges to misdemeanors -- the low end of the range for third-degree grand theft is $300, and he's barely above that on both sets of charges. He'll have to find a junior college willing to take him, then he'll have a year or two to show enough for a Division I program to trust him with a scholarship, all while solving the academic problems that have limited him so far.

On a far brighter note, I want to offer a link to an encouraging update from Times writer Brandon Wright on the rehabilitation of former USF standout J.R. Reed, hoping to return to the Philadelphia Eagles this fall after missing last season with a horrific injury that badly damaged the peroneal nerve in his leg. Reed, like Stirrups, is a Hillsborough High grad, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a former Bulls player more universally liked by fans, teammates and coaches. For all you newspapers-are-always-negative critics, the Reed story dominated the front page of Tuesday's sports section; the Stirrups one was on an inside page.

-------------------------------------

Here's how his case ended in a plea agreement:

http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/2006/11/plea_agreement_.html

[Bullpride08]

Wow, KL you saved that post!?!  What a shocker. ;D

[USFan]

Didn't Stirrups snag a few digital cameras as well?

Still, he's a beast and I would love to have him on our team.

Yeah.

Greg made a good post on this board around the time it happened...and had some good comments from the Pearl River Community College Coach at that time as well. Here it is in regards mostly to Stirrups:

When I called Pearl River Community College, where Stirrups was set to play this fall after failing to qualify academically at USF, coach Tim Hatten was blunt: This was not the kind of activity he'd tolerate in his program, not the kind of character he wanted to bring to Mississippi. Unless the charges go away very quickly, Stirrups has no place on his team. The easy reaction is that it's slightly hypocritical that one day after he takes Carlton Hill off USF's hands, knowing he's had a recent arrest for possession of marijuana, Hatten says he wants no part of Stirrups and his error in judgment.

With Stirrups though, the issue is greater, because it attacks a coach's ability to trust the young man. If he's willing to steal from customers of a business that employs both himself and his own mother, what conscience would stop him from stealing from a teammate's locker? What's truly mindless in all of this, both funny and sad at the same time, is how Stirrups got caught: With both cameras, police say he took a few pictures of himself and friends before pawning them, never deleting the images. So when police were able to recover the cameras, they saw the post-theft pics and showed them around at the parking lot office. Of course, they could identify him; he worked there. It's the kind of silliness you normally laugh at while reading Carl Hiassen novels.

His six felony counts are remarkably similar to another USF signee who failed to qualify academically and wound up at Pearl River three years ago, a linebacker named Gene Coleman. We chronicled his problems last spring in a story about how college programs rarely do any kind of background checks on recruits; with Coleman, he'd burglarized a neighbor's home, with more than $13,000 in jewelry stolen. Again, not the smartest criminal mind, police said Coleman had stolen a $40 Wal-Mart gift card straight out of a Father's Day card, and was later identified on store surveillance cameras as he bought video games. The neighbor never got her wedding ring back, but still told a judge she didn't think his actions should take a college scholarship away from him. This might not be the end for Stirrups. Coleman managed to avoid jail time in his case, and would probably be at USF today had he been able to get his academics straight at Pearl River. This is Stirrups' first known arrest, so it's reasonable to think he could get a plea agreement lowering the charges to misdemeanors -- the low end of the range for third-degree grand theft is $300, and he's barely above that on both sets of charges. He'll have to find a junior college willing to take him, then he'll have a year or two to show enough for a Division I program to trust him with a scholarship, all while solving the academic problems that have limited him so far.

On a far brighter note, I want to offer a link to an encouraging update from Times writer Brandon Wright on the rehabilitation of former USF standout J.R. Reed, hoping to return to the Philadelphia Eagles this fall after missing last season with a horrific injury that badly damaged the peroneal nerve in his leg. Reed, like Stirrups, is a Hillsborough High grad, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a former Bulls player more universally liked by fans, teammates and coaches. For all you newspapers-are-always-negative critics, the Reed story dominated the front page of Tuesday's sports section; the Stirrups one was on an inside page.

You have some serious issues.   And you're not even the highest UCFer poster on this board (another issue).