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WATCH: Arizona’s Sean Miller vehemently denies ESPN’s report of $100K payment discussions
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Sean Miller isn’t going down without a fight.
Days after ESPN came out with a report that the FBI had recordings of the Arizona coach offering to pay recruit DeAndre Ayton $100,000, he denied the accuracy of the claim.
Miller took to the podium to defend his name with a statement (via Sports Illustrated):
“There was no such conversation”
Sean Miller denies an “innacurate, false and defamatory” report that he discussed paying DeAndre Ayton pic.twitter.com/5fnCJSV7Zy
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 1, 2018
“I have never arranged or directed payment or any improper benefits to a recruit or prospect, or their families, or their representative,” Miller said. “And I never will.”
Miller said that because there is an ongoing FBI investigation, he couldn’t comment further about the specifics, but he denied ESPN’s reporting that Miller talked to ASM sports employee Christian Dawkins about arranging the payment to Ayton. Miller said there was “no such conversation.”
Following the release of the report, Miller wasn’t allowed to coach in Arizona’s game on Saturday. He has since been re-instated as coach and is expected to coach the team on Thursday night against Stanford.
It’s worth noting that 247sports’ Evan Daniels, Brian Snow and Josh Gerson might’ve found some holes in ESPN’s reporting, most notably when the alleged the wiretapping took place.
Whatever the case, it appears that Miller is certainly not taking this sitting down.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
