Zach Osterman

zach.osterman@indystar.com

BLOOMINGTON — The beginning of the end for Kevin Wilson’s tenure as Indiana University football coach came April 7, 2015.

That’s when the father of a player appealed to IU's athletic department about how his son had been treated after an injury. He wrote to the university that serious damage to his son’s back initially was overlooked, that his son was made to lift weights while injured and was ridiculed as soft.

The father's complaint prompted an external investigation last year into the handling of injuries in IU's football program.

Documents obtained by IndyStar and exclusive interviews conducted with Athletic Director Fred Glass, the injured player, Nick Carovillano, and his father, Dean, suggest that Wilson and his staff may have created an unhealthy environment for injured players.

It was the first of two such investigations, the initial one ending with Glass's sharp rebuke of the culture Wilson had created, and the second — conducted this past month — ultimately contributing to Wilson’s departure from Indiana.

Glass would not specify what prompted the second investigation, only saying it played a role in Thursday’s decision.

“Was my decision (Thursday) impacted by things that went on before, including this? … The answer is yes,” he said.

The university, according to the documents, moved quickly after the initial complaint. Glass met with Wilson on April 13, 2015, and followed up the same day with a memorandum that included this warning: “As you know, IU will not tolerate any behavior among you and your staff that penalizes, ostracizes or criticizes any injured football player. I trust that you and your staff are abiding by this long standing policy.”

A month later, on May 13, Glass met with Wilson again, this time to discuss conclusions from the investigation and steps to be taken. In a memorandum Glass wrote to Wilson after the meeting he noted that Wilson had admitted to him that he “made jokes to injured players about their injuries or implied that they were not useful members of the team.”

“As head football coach,” Glass wrote, “you are directly responsible for the welfare of your student-athletes. Accordingly, any comments attributed to you and your staff, whether said in jest or not, which have the effect of pressuring or demeaning injured players are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” Glass warned that further such statements or actions would “subject you and your staff to disciplinary action.”

So how did IU get to Thursday?

***

Indiana recruited Carovillano out of Cincinnati-area powerhouse St. Xavier. While Nick entered college at less than 250 pounds, Dean Carovillano said IU’s staff hoped to develop his son as a defensive tackle. It was a decision Carovillano said he disagreed with.

Nick Carovillano was working on a drill in practice one day in September of that year when he injured his back during a collision.

Carovillano approached a team trainer, who asked if the pain were radiating down into his legs. When he said no, the trainer told him he wouldn’t treat the injury, Carovillano told IndyStar. In an email to IU officials detailing his son’s story, Dean Carovillano said his son was later told by trainers to address persistent pain from the injury with extra stretching, and was told he had shin splints.

“I approached a different trainer in week two of my injury, saying I’m starting to get pain down my leg, my back still hurts,” Nick Carovillano said. “Basically, they’re just kind of giving me the runaround, saying I’m not hurt. ‘You’re being soft. There’s nothing wrong with you.’”

After practicing and lifting weights through pain for three weeks, Carovillano returned home to Cincinnati for a weekend while IU was on the road.

There, a doctor examined Nick briefly, according to Dean Carovillano, and instructed him to stop playing football immediately. At that point, IU agreed to bring his son to Indianapolis for further testing. Nick was diagnosed with a bone fragment and three damaged discs in his back.

“I went to the training room almost every single day for three weeks trying to express that I’m hurt, I’m having issues,” Nick Carovillano said. “It just felt like they didn’t care. They just saw me as a body that needed to be out there practicing.”

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Carovillano was shut down immediately and given rehabilitative exercises to do. He emphasized that he felt IU’s strength staff, and then-defensive line coach Larry McDaniel, always acted with his best interests in mind.

“Once they figured out that I was actually hurt, I’d say the entire attitude of the trainers and the coaches completely changed for me,” he said. “They were a lot nicer, more caring, wanting to help me with my injury. Everybody except Wilson.”

Under Wilson, IU maintained a tent in one corner of its practice field where injured players would spend practice doing light workouts under the supervision of the strength staff.

The workouts, Carovillano said, were always designed with players’ injuries in mind, and he believed them safe. But, he said, Wilson’s attitude toward players in the tent demoralized him.

“He would come over and yell at us, saying, ‘I’m paying $70,000 a year for you to sit on your ass,’” Carovillano said. “That happened about halfway through the season and carried on to the end of it. If you were injured, he just wanted to make you feel like crap. He just wanted to make you feel bad, so you basically would stop being injured.”

Wilson did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Carovillano participated in offseason conditioning drills as his health improved, but one day, during a practice, his foot went “completely numb.” When he approached a trainer about it, he was told simply to avoid contact and hitting. Carovillano said he felt the training staff no longer valued him as a member of the team.

“It just seemed like I wasn’t welcome there, and I was kind of considered a disappointment to them,” he said. “I injured myself playing for them. I wasn’t starting at all. Everything I was doing was for the betterment of the team. You get injured, and the whole attitude changes toward you.”

In April 2015, Carovillano resolved to leave the program. His parents drove from Cincinnati to Bloomington to help him move home.

During that drive, Dean Carovillano said, McDaniel called him, asking to meet with the family before Nick left.

Wilson, McDaniel and four other members of IU’s coaching staff were waiting for the family in Wilson’s office inside the North End Zone facility at Memorial Stadium, according to Dean Carovillano.

They met for about 40 minutes, according to Carovillano, and encouraged his son to at least see out the semester, suggesting that if he withdrew mid-semester, the program’s Academic Progress Rate would suffer. (If a player leaves mid-semester and does not finish classes, then his departure will damage IU’s APR score. Long-term ramifications of low APR scores include penalties such as postseason ineligibility, practice restrictions and, in severe cases, lost scholarships.)

“I thought I would have a meeting that would air everything out,” Carovillano said. “It had nothing to do with that. It was just to try to keep him there until the end of the semester.”

Despite the pressure, Nick left the team and school April 6, 2015.

***

After the Carovillanos moved their son home to Cincinnati, Dean Carovillano contacted IU associate athletic director and football sport administrator Anthony Thompson by both phone and email April 7, 2015 to complain about his son’s treatment by the football program.

The next day, Thompson responded by email to Carovillano, and on April 13, 2015, IU retained the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP to investigate the complaints, according to a statement provided to IndyStar by IU.

The statement noted three complaints made by Carovillano: “(1) the University’s medical care of Nick’s injury was inadequate; (2) the coaching staff exerted improper influence over the provision of medical care to Nick and other injured players; and (3) a general ‘unhealthy culture’ surrounding the football program led Nick and other injured players not to obtain the necessary medical care.”

Glass promptly met with Wilson to notify him of the investigation. According to documents provided by IU, a memo sent by Glass to Wilson stated: “We expect your full and complete cooperation with this review. You are not to discuss this matter with anyone. It is imperative that you do nothing to interfere with this review or be perceived as interfering with this review.”

Thompson asked if the Carovillanos would consent to Nick’s participation in the investigation. Dean Carovillano said he asked whether his son would need to speak to lawyers provided or empowered by the university as part of it. Told Nick would, he declined participation.

“I had a kid who was just emotionally a wreck, physically a wreck,” Carovillano said. “I didn’t know, honestly, who to trust.”

Taft interviewed 20 people as part of its investigation, and issued a 26-page report May 1, 2015.

“An outside investigation has concluded that Nick did not receive inadequate medical care, that there is no evidence that the coaching staff exerted improper influence on the medical staff regarding the student-athlete’s medical care,” Glass wrote following the report’s conclusion, in a memo to Wilson.

But, Glass wrote, “even within the unique culture of football, there were behaviors that may create an unhealthy environment for injured players. This last conclusion was based on a variety of findings, including your own admission that you made jokes to injured players or implied that they are not useful members of the team.

“Some players said that they felt pressure or witnessed coaches pressuring others and indicated that they found it depressing and demoralizing to have coaches make such comments when they were already frustrated with their injuries. It was found that coaches appear to push players to work harder than they should when they have injuries that are unconfirmed by an outside test.”

Glass directed Wilson to follow changes recommended in the report, including bringing the team’s doctor in-house, training IU’s coaching staff regarding “best practices for handling injured players,” including refraining from jokes or “implied pressure” toward injured players and developing “a protocol to better incorporate injured players into team activities and develop a feeling that they remain valued members of the team.”

Glass’ memo ended with a stated expectation that Wilson “embrace these recommendations and cooperate fully with Anthony Thompson and (Deputy Director of Athletics) Scott Dolson, who I have asked to implement them.”

***

Glass said “anecdotal information from the medical and training staff seemed to reflect” Wilson had adhered to the recommended changes.

When the 2015 season ended, Glass told IndyStar, he felt encouraged by exit interviews conducted with football players.

Exit interviews are standard practice at Indiana for outgoing athletes. They are kept largely confidential and meant to cover a wide range of topics related to those athletes’ Indiana careers. Glass said that among football players, those interviews went “much, much, much better” in 2015 than they had in 2014.

Five former players — defensive backs Greg Heban and Tim Bennett, tight end Anthony Corsaro and offensive linemen Jason Spriggs and Ralston Evans — all said they often felt Wilson and his medical team were overly cautious with them.

“He closely watched me, monitored me, made sure I wasn’t doing anything that could jeopardize my future,” said Evans, who suffered a catastrophic knee injury during the summer before his freshman year and needed more than a year to make a full return to football. “I remember times when me and coach Wilson, we would get into it, because I wanted to play, I wanted to practice, and he would hold me back.”

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Most of the five players mentioned similar, specific instances — Spriggs with an MCL injury and a sports hernia, Heban with a concussion, Corsaro with a foot injury and later a shoulder problem.

“I don’t feel that I was ever forced into anything,” said Spriggs, now with the Green Bay Packers. “I always remember coach Wilson saying, ‘If you’re hurt, you’re hurt, and you can’t go.’ He doesn’t know your body. If a player felt that they were hurt, that was their choice. If they didn’t feel that they could compete, and he wasn’t going to put them on the field.”

But this past month, new incidents prompted Glass to ask Taft to review the program a second time. Glass would not specify what those incidents were, but told IndyStar he was “really shocked in early November when issues arose that I thought had been long resolved.”

IndyStar has submitted an open records request for the most recent Taft report.

“If these issues had been in a vacuum, they would’ve been the kinds of things we could’ve worked through,” Glass said. “It wasn’t the first time I dealt with these issues. There comes a time when you run out of chances.”

***

Nick Carovillano now lives at home with his parents. He did not return to football and has not returned to school. He said he still experiences back problems related to his injury.

“We just kind of let it go, and said, you know what? We’ll handle any medical expenses. But that’s the way it is,” Dean Carovillano said.

But, he said, Thursday’s cryptic news conference reignited the family’s displeasure with the program.

Carovillano said that he watched, hoping Glass would disclose what led to the separation between coach and program. He was disappointed when Glass cited only “philosophical differences” and resisted reporters’ requests for specifics.

“There are no philosophical differences when it comes to handling injuries,” Carovillano said. “There’s a right way and a wrong way.”

Ultimately, Carovillano said, his family’s primary issues were with Wilson.

“We don’t want anything from the university. We just want him to be truthful. That’s what we want,” he said. “It would’ve been a good day. But we didn’t appreciate the stance the university took. There was a better way to handle it. But we’re glad he’s gone, Wilson’s gone.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.