Finally got around to transcribing what I thought was a mighty interesting interview last week. Only typed out the parts from Clip 2 in the link dealing with Bjork's spin on finding Freeze's dirty little secrets and his explanation of the athletic foundation phone set-up. Bjork is in all three clips and discusses other topics such as NOAs, Matt Luke.
Transcript is poorly punctuated and a few things like the discussion of how much time is left, lots of Bjork's "uhs" are left out ...transcribing without software is a pita. So if you're going to use direct quotes, better listen for yourself and make sure what you use is accurate.
http://www.supertalk.fm/h2h-exclusi...signation-and-what-lies-ahead-for-the-rebels/
Clip # 2 3:48 - 9:29
H2H:
What did Ross Bjork know and when did he know it? And why was whatever that day was two weeks ago the tipping point?
Bjork: Yeah, so I think this is a layered answer. I was asked at the press conference was there anything else we had heard about, you know maybe in the last couple of months or whatever so we looked into some of those things and we talked to Hugh Freeze about them. We looked at records regarding many of those things as well.
H2H: Phone records?
Bjork: Phone records. And we didn't find anything. You know so that's one layer. And then, we, we got the call like many people did on that July the 12[SUP]th[/SUP], on that Wednesday before our appearance at SEC media days saying that within the phone records that were provided to Houston Nutt's counsel, there's a phone number that's on there that may be tied to a place in Tampa may be around a recruiting issue and people were sort of shopping that story around. You probably heard it if you guys were over there, we got some calls. So we pulled those phone records that we provided. We looked at that number and we were concerned about that number at what it popped up. And so we looked at all his records and said has that number ever been called or received a call from and we had that answer very quickly and it had not been. It was a one time call, you know there was not other calls before or after that night.
H2H: In that small window window of phone records?
Bjork: In that small window. We talked to Hugh Freeze about it and he didn't recall making that type of call, didn't recall an answering machine pickup or anything so we thought you know what, since there wasn't a call right before or after in similar, uh, of a similar nature that it was, it was a mis-dial. But we wanted to be sure. And so, starting the next day, we pulled again, had all his phone records and started a review of the rest of the phone records. Takes awhile, right, to review 39,000 phone records. And so really by Tuesday of the next week, we had discovered that hey there starts to look like a pattern is here. We matched it up with some other things the next day, the next morning found that there's a pattern here so obviously that's more than one call, more than the one call.
H2H: When you say a pattern, is it a pattern with the exact same number that you're talking about or as you dug, you found out businesses or services that were comparable to....
Bjork: Same type of services ...whatever you want to call 'em. So a pattern was more than one. I mean it was over multiple years as well that we discovered and so we had that information. Coach Freeze needed a chance to tell his side of the story which we talked about at our press conference. So we had that meeting, myself and Dr. Vitter was on the phone.
H2H: What was his side of the story?
Bjork: Basically that he admitted the conduct and he admitted that he had done those things, made those calls.
H2H: So he had lied to you previously plus this behavior had been going on for an extended period of time.
Bjork: You know, I don't believe Coach remembered that call when we first talked to him about it. I really don't because I don't think he had looked at the phone records at that point in time. But by the time we had a full picture on that Wednesday morning and then talking to him on Wednesday night, he knew and obviously admitted the conduct and so we had a plan in place and we executed that plan the next day and everything unfolded that afternoon, Thursday afternoon.
H2H: A lot of folks then know how that was tied into this lawsuit deal of requesting phone records
Bjork: Right
H2H: So the last couple of weeks with some of the things you guys have put out or at least told the Nutt team about hey these other records you can or can't have them. People have asked the question, I'll ask you. Why release two or three days of phone records to them if his phone was paid for by the foundation and you didn't have to, if you didn't have to release them, why release them?
Bjork: We believe we have to release the phone records because they're a work related document, right, and we're a state institution, so the vehicle and I don't know how much time we have, it's sort of complicated with the state law. State law says state employees cannot make personal calls on state issued equipment phones. So the vehicle we use is the athletic foundation. I would assume Mississippi State, Southern Miss, whoever, maybe other universities in our state have this same type of set-up. And so the athletic foundation allows us to access the records so we track recruiting calls, we can track business calls. So when Thomas Mars asked for a limited time-frame of phone records which was what was produced which then led to the July 12[SUP]th[/SUP] information, it was a limited time-frame and we, Coach, had a chance to redact those calls at that point in time, the same type of process we're going to go through when we release all of his phone records, that personal calls are allowed to be redacted and we believe that position will stand.
H2H: They could have redacted that one call but missed it?
Bjork: Missed it. Correct.
H2H: It's a pretty big miss. In your meeting with Hugh Freeze, did he ask to stay on as head coach?
Bjork: We talked about several scenarios that he, that he had proposed. And we just simply said that we have to assume that everything is public and we don't believe that he could continue as the head coach
Transcript is poorly punctuated and a few things like the discussion of how much time is left, lots of Bjork's "uhs" are left out ...transcribing without software is a pita. So if you're going to use direct quotes, better listen for yourself and make sure what you use is accurate.
http://www.supertalk.fm/h2h-exclusi...signation-and-what-lies-ahead-for-the-rebels/
Clip # 2 3:48 - 9:29
H2H:
What did Ross Bjork know and when did he know it? And why was whatever that day was two weeks ago the tipping point?
Bjork: Yeah, so I think this is a layered answer. I was asked at the press conference was there anything else we had heard about, you know maybe in the last couple of months or whatever so we looked into some of those things and we talked to Hugh Freeze about them. We looked at records regarding many of those things as well.
H2H: Phone records?
Bjork: Phone records. And we didn't find anything. You know so that's one layer. And then, we, we got the call like many people did on that July the 12[SUP]th[/SUP], on that Wednesday before our appearance at SEC media days saying that within the phone records that were provided to Houston Nutt's counsel, there's a phone number that's on there that may be tied to a place in Tampa may be around a recruiting issue and people were sort of shopping that story around. You probably heard it if you guys were over there, we got some calls. So we pulled those phone records that we provided. We looked at that number and we were concerned about that number at what it popped up. And so we looked at all his records and said has that number ever been called or received a call from and we had that answer very quickly and it had not been. It was a one time call, you know there was not other calls before or after that night.
H2H: In that small window window of phone records?
Bjork: In that small window. We talked to Hugh Freeze about it and he didn't recall making that type of call, didn't recall an answering machine pickup or anything so we thought you know what, since there wasn't a call right before or after in similar, uh, of a similar nature that it was, it was a mis-dial. But we wanted to be sure. And so, starting the next day, we pulled again, had all his phone records and started a review of the rest of the phone records. Takes awhile, right, to review 39,000 phone records. And so really by Tuesday of the next week, we had discovered that hey there starts to look like a pattern is here. We matched it up with some other things the next day, the next morning found that there's a pattern here so obviously that's more than one call, more than the one call.
H2H: When you say a pattern, is it a pattern with the exact same number that you're talking about or as you dug, you found out businesses or services that were comparable to....
Bjork: Same type of services ...whatever you want to call 'em. So a pattern was more than one. I mean it was over multiple years as well that we discovered and so we had that information. Coach Freeze needed a chance to tell his side of the story which we talked about at our press conference. So we had that meeting, myself and Dr. Vitter was on the phone.
H2H: What was his side of the story?
Bjork: Basically that he admitted the conduct and he admitted that he had done those things, made those calls.
H2H: So he had lied to you previously plus this behavior had been going on for an extended period of time.
Bjork: You know, I don't believe Coach remembered that call when we first talked to him about it. I really don't because I don't think he had looked at the phone records at that point in time. But by the time we had a full picture on that Wednesday morning and then talking to him on Wednesday night, he knew and obviously admitted the conduct and so we had a plan in place and we executed that plan the next day and everything unfolded that afternoon, Thursday afternoon.
H2H: A lot of folks then know how that was tied into this lawsuit deal of requesting phone records
Bjork: Right
H2H: So the last couple of weeks with some of the things you guys have put out or at least told the Nutt team about hey these other records you can or can't have them. People have asked the question, I'll ask you. Why release two or three days of phone records to them if his phone was paid for by the foundation and you didn't have to, if you didn't have to release them, why release them?
Bjork: We believe we have to release the phone records because they're a work related document, right, and we're a state institution, so the vehicle and I don't know how much time we have, it's sort of complicated with the state law. State law says state employees cannot make personal calls on state issued equipment phones. So the vehicle we use is the athletic foundation. I would assume Mississippi State, Southern Miss, whoever, maybe other universities in our state have this same type of set-up. And so the athletic foundation allows us to access the records so we track recruiting calls, we can track business calls. So when Thomas Mars asked for a limited time-frame of phone records which was what was produced which then led to the July 12[SUP]th[/SUP] information, it was a limited time-frame and we, Coach, had a chance to redact those calls at that point in time, the same type of process we're going to go through when we release all of his phone records, that personal calls are allowed to be redacted and we believe that position will stand.
H2H: They could have redacted that one call but missed it?
Bjork: Missed it. Correct.
H2H: It's a pretty big miss. In your meeting with Hugh Freeze, did he ask to stay on as head coach?
Bjork: We talked about several scenarios that he, that he had proposed. And we just simply said that we have to assume that everything is public and we don't believe that he could continue as the head coach
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