Sports

Jun. 28—IOWA CITY — University of Iowa Athletics must turn over all materials former players have requested from an "independent and external review" of the Hawkeye football program — including reports on specific coaches — despite UI assertions the records are subject to "attorney-client privilege" and should be private.

"It is uncontested that (the Husch Blackwell law firm's) investigation was not made, and the report was not prepared, because of any prospect of litigation," according to Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Helen Adams' June 24 order in the federal lawsuit that several former Hawkeye football players filed in October 2020 against the UI, the Iowa Board of Regents, head football coach Kirk Ferentz, and others.

Referencing the UI's decision to hire national law firm Husch Blackwell LLP to conduct an independent and external review of the program, following allegations it enabled racially-motivated discrimination, Adams ordered the UI to release all its findings — not just the parts it wants.

"The (Husch Blackwell) documents came into existence well in advance of the plaintiffs' lawsuit," she wrote. "The defendants could not possibly have prepared the HB documents in anticipation of litigation when no such prospects of litigation existed. As such, the HB documents are not privileged."

The UI in early 2020 hired the firm to investigate the football program's culture after numerous former players went public with allegations of racism and discrimination — leading the UI's $1.3 million separation deal with former strength coach Chris Doyle, among those accused.

As part of its review, Husch Blackwell interviewed current and former players and employees and produced a report confirming the program "perpetuated racial or cultural biases and diminished the value of cultural diversity."

The university publicly released one report on the findings in July 2020, and a group of former players subsequently filed a federal lawsuit — which has brought accusations of harassment, intentional delays and bad faith from one side or the other.

In seeking documents to build their case, player attorneys have asked the UI to turn over hundreds of thousands of pages of records, including all documents associated with the Husch Blackwell investigation. The university, in withholding records, has argued they either don't exist or are protected by privilege and privacy laws.

Documents players want include Doyle's performance evaluations and Husch Blackwell personnel reports on Ferentz, assistant coaches Brian Ferentz and Seth Wallace, and Doyle.

To the university's argument of "attorney-client" privilege, Adams wrote that's "a long-established rule that confidential communications between an attorney and his client are absolutely privileged from disclosure against the will of the client."

According to Adams' order, though, attorney-client privilege applies "only to those disclosures necessary to obtain informed legal advice which might not have been made absent the privilege."

"In order for the attorney-client privilege to be applicable, the parties to the communication in question must bear the relationship of attorney and client," according to the order. "A communication is not privileged simply because it is made by or to a person who happens to be a lawyer."

Finding that the UI failed to show it engaged Husch Blackwell to provide legal services, Adams wrote the fact the investigation was conducted by an attorney "is irrelevant."

"There is nothing in the record to support the argument ... (that) the HB law firm provided any advice to Iowa for the purpose of an opinion on law, in anticipation of litigation, in preparation for trial, or any other service which only a lawyer is authorized to perform," she wrote. Plus, she said, when the UI made one part of Husch Blackwell's work public, it must make all its reports public.

"This court holds that Iowa waived attorney-client privilege when it voluntarily disclosed the report to the public," her order said.

And, the judge found, because the UI has indicated it plans to use the report as part of its defense, in the players' lawsuit, "It would be unfair to allow defendants to use the HB materials as both a sword and shield."

Among the judge's orders, UI must produce much of the requested documents — including the Husch Blackwell reports — to the player attorneys by July 11.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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Square-jawed Ron Fraser had turned the Miami Hurricanes into a persistent powerhouse in college baseball. Skip Bertman, an assistant there, was hired as Louisiana State's head coach before the 1984 season.

LSU went to Omaha for the College World Series 11 times in 15 seasons from 1986 through 2000, and won five titles. Bertman coached in 2001, while also becoming the athletic director.

Bertman hired Smoke Laval that year, with a guarantee to become the head coach in 2002. Smoke made it to a pair of College World Series in 2003 and 2004, but when the Tigers missed the 2006 tournament, he was out the door.

Paul Mainieri was the replacement, and won LSU's sixth national title in 2009. In the 12 CWS since then, other SEC teams won seven national titles: South Carolina (2011, '12), Vanderbilt (2014, '19), Florida (2017), Mississippi State (2021) and Ole Miss (2022).

To make that baseball league even saltier, Oklahoma and Texas will soon be joining.

Mainieri resigned after a successful 15-year run late in the 2021 season. Jay Johnson was hired away from Arizona as his replacement on June 25. Jason Kelly, a former national assistant coach of the year, was hired away from Arizona State as Johnson's pitching coach on July 8.

There is a claim that during the the 13-day stretch there was contact between Jay Johnson and the Twins' Wes Johnson as to his interest in becoming LSU's pitching coach.

What we must now assume is before Jay Johnson hired the well-regarded Kelly that he learned this:

Wes Johnson would be interested in moving from the major leagues to the monster league of college baseball, the SEC, if the deal was right.

The timing didn't have to be right, just the deal.

The Tigers' 2022 season ended June 6 with two straight losses to Southern Miss in a regional. On June 17, it was announced Kelly was leaving to be the head coach at Washington.

Again, there was contact between the Johnsons. Once the deal was right, Wes was willing to leave the Twins, pronto.

It happened so suddenly that on Sunday, as Kendall Rogers from @D1Baseball was breaking the news on Twitter of the LSU hire, top Twins management still had not been told directly by Johnson that he was leaving.

The generous words aimed at Johnson by team officials, manager Rocco Baldelli and Twins' pitchers on Monday were astounding for their praise and/or tolerance.

Yes, he was a positive personality and expert in biomechanics who was way more than a traditional pitching coach. He basically had built a Twins' pitching department.

Example: Wes sold the theory of "induced vertical break'' and "horizontal break'' to Twins' pitchers so thoroughly that those numbers are now on an outfield ribbon board at Target Field — not for fans, but for pitchers to turn around to discover if a pitch had reacted as intended.

And yet, here was Uncle Wes, bailing out midseason on a first-place team, when he could have taken the LSU job, stuck with the Twins, and reported for duty in early October — at the latest after the Twins went 0-2 in a first-round series.

Fall ball at LSU. Who cares? Practice starts in January. Schedule starts in mid-February.

What was the hurry for Johnson to get out of Dodge, or in this case, the Twin Cities? Twofold:

One, when you add up the official salary of $380,000, plus freebies, plus a sizable amount from a donors' fund, plus $100,000 that he figures to make as a cut from LSU's baseball camps, the total pushes toward $700,000, which is at least $300,000 more than he was making here.

Two, the most important signing date for baseball recruits long had been the second week of November, when high school seniors would agree to letters of intent.

That's now changed for most of the SEC and top-level D1 baseball. The vital recruiting is happening right now — grabbing players with a track record from the transfer portal.

"Major league baseball drafts and signs most of the best young pitchers, and then college super teams — powerful lineups of proven 22-, 23-year-olds — are being built through the transfer portal," said John Anderson, the Gophers coach. "That makes this a huge time of year in the SEC."

Bottom line: LSU wants its big-league hire there in person as a portal closer, and for 700 grand or so, they probably deserve that.

Thus, good luck in Baton Rouge, Wes, and would you consider taking Emilio Pagan with you?

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