Yesterday, Kansas coach Charlies Weis held a Q & A for over 30 minutes with reporters, during which time he spoke about a variety of topics, ranging from introductions of new players (Dayne Crist, Jake Heaps and Justin McCay) to the dismissal/departures of 10 players from the program (it was reported yesterday as just a handful of departures when in fact it was more like two).
Included in that group was quarterback Brock Berglund, who spent most of the 2011 year dealing with a legal issue that turned out to be a third-degree assault case in his home state of Colorado.
Weis wouldn’t go into great detail about the 10 cases, but an interesting tidbit was written about Berglund’s dismissal. Apparently, Berglund found out about it via Twitter, rather than from the coaches. From KUSports.com‘s recap:Berglund, whose highly publicized legal battle in Colorado kept him away from the program for nearly all of the 2011 season, called the Journal-World on Monday evening and said he learned of his dismissal via Twitter. The freshman quarterback who said he will pursue playing options at other schools said he planned to return to Kansas as recently as a week ago but had softened on the idea after learning that his request to contact others to discuss his future had been denied. KU officials said Berglund sent an email to several people in the KU athletic department at 3:08 p.m. Sunday informing them that he would not be at a mandatory 5 p.m. Sunday team meeting. The fact he missed it was enough for Weis to make the decision for him.
“He was considered dismissed from the team for not attending the mandatory team meeting,” a KU spokesperson said of Berglund.
Obviously, there are several unknown factors here and KU hasn’t officially offered a response to this report. It seems Berglund was already thinking of other options and it’s not uncommon for a new coach to kick players to the curb if they don’t “meet expectations” just as the coach is bringing in two new transfers. Weis said yesterday that each of the players dismissed had an opportunity to return to the team provided they met certain criteria, and that they did not.
The point is that these things happen, as unfortunate as they may be; the concerning part is that Berglund reportedly was made aware of his dismissal in the worst possible way. Whether KU attempted to contact him with the news or not hasn’t been revealed.
But no matter how the whole thing went down, this sounds like a case where a split is the best thing for both sides.
UPDATED 5:30 p.m. ET: Berglund has come forward and shared his version of the story with TheShiver.com. The quarterback doesn’t divulge too many things that the Journal-World does not, although it sounds more and more like Weis didn’t give Berglund “the opportunity to come back.”
Of course, that’s to be expected from someone who was just dismissed from the team, but Weis doesn’t come out smelling too good from both reports.
