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Glasper, if you didn't know, was a safety last season on N.C. State football coach Tom O'Brien's last Boston College squad. Despite being an anchor for the Eagles' defense, he didn't get drafted. In this piece on ESPN.com, Glasper has an explanation why, and some pretty pointed criticism of O'Brien.

According to Glasper, O'Brien changed course after BC had played four games in 2006 forcing Glasper to play with an injured hip rather than allowing the safety to take a medical redshirt for the season. Playing hurt, Glasper reasoned, made him damaged goods in the eyes of NFL scouts.

First impression? This is a very damaging story for O'Brien and N.C. State. If a coach gets a reputation as being untrustworthy and willing to treat players as expendable commodities - which this story certainly suggests - then it's going to be very, very hard for him to sell himself and his school on the recruiting trail. And we all know what happens with recruiting goes badly.

Hold on though, because there are several different impressions to be formed here, if you go back in time and do a little more research.

First, check out this story that ran on Glasper in the New Haven Register just before the draft. Glasper's still ticked, but not nearly as overt in his criticism. And while the ESPN.com piece states that Glasper didn't find out until after the fourth game of the season that he wouldn't be allowed to redshirt, the New Haven piece doesn't specify the time. Here's how that issues is handled in that piece ...

But he was surprised to find out that the BC coaching staff wouldn't allow him to red-shirt. Although the doctor that performed his surgery hadn't cleared him to play, BC's team doctor had, apparently reasoning that, technically, nothing had to be repaired in his hip. If Glasper elected to sit out this past season, he would not have been offered a scholarship for next year.

So he played, though not until the fifth game of the season.

That may not seem like a big difference, but it's actually huge. In the ESPN piece, O'Brien comes off as downright unethical - withdrawing the promise of a redshirt when his team's defense starts to struggle. In the New Haven piece, while it's still not clear when O'Brien informed Glasper he couldn't redshirt, O'Brien comes across as merely an old-school coach, essentially telling Glasper that he won't give him a medical redshirt because the team doc has cleared the safety to play. That doesn't make O'Brien seem like the most loveable guy, but it's much better than being seen as a liar.

One side note: Kevin Lempa, the defensive backs coach mentioned frequently in the ESPN.com article, did not join O'Brien at State. Instead, he now works at Maryland. Some have suggested he has an axe to grind with O'Brien. Others wondered whether he wasn't brought down to Raleigh because he butted heads with O'Brien over how Glasper was handled. Of course, it's also possible that Lempa just took another job at another school and it has nothing to do with Glasper.

It should also be noted that Glasper was one of the players that BC brought to the preseason ACC football media gatherings. That's a strange thing to do if the team had already agreed to redshirt the player, as the ESPN.com piece says BC had elected to do with Glasper.

In two earlier stories, from during the season, Glasper doesn't appear nearly as bitter about the decision to play, rather than sit out the 2006 season. Here's what he said in a Boston Globe article a few days before he played in his first game.

`` Sitting out is probably one of the worst experiences I've ever had to deal with, especially considering the fact that in 14 years of playing I've never sat out a season of football," Glasper said. ``Watching the first home game against Clemson, I was nearly in tears watching the guys come out because for the first time I felt like I wasn't a part of something. I mean, they were going out there and I'd been with them for three years."

Asked to gauge where he was in his recovery, Glasper said, ``I think it just comes right down to heart. You can't put a percentage or anything on it, on how I feel or anything. I just know deep down in my heart I'm meant to play football and, ultimately, that's going to happen."

Certainly it can be argued that Glasper was merely saying all the right things because he knew that the coaches held all the power in determining his future with the team. Maybe at that time he was inwardly ticked at being forced to come back while outwardly declaring his burning desire to get back on the field. But then there's this article in the BC student paper that ran before Glasper played in his final home game for BC. Look at what Glasper says about returning from injury:

"Coaches want their players back on the field and contributing as soon as possible," said Glasper. "And that should be the idea of players. I don't think the idea should be to place your future ambitions ahead of what you're trying to attain as a team."

This isn't an attempt to run down Glasper's reputation. Nor is it an attempt to polish up O'Brien's reputation. Just view it as additional information that you can use to make up your own mind.

One more thing, though. It looks like Glasper is taking a softer line than the one he took in the ESPN.com piece. Here's what he said to the N&O last night.

“I have no animosity toward Coach O’Brien,” he said. “I'm not bitter about anything or have any hatred.

“He's a good coach, a phenomenal coach. I understand what he did. From a coach's perspective, he did what he thought was best for the team. Maybe he knew that it would be his last year at BC and wanted it to be the best year it could be.”