I don't see the two statements as necessarily mutually exclusive.Yeah, I'd say saying a player had his foot out the door the entire year has a very negative connotation to it, tantamount to character assassination. He very well might be a bench player at many P5 schools, but he's not deserving of a label that he had a foot out of the door if there's not really any truth to it. As for the 30mpg or I leave ultimatum you are suggesting, seems unreasonable that happened or that he asked for it as again, we would have heard about it. So I'll say again, I don't see a need to drag Sencire through the mud unless there's a real factual reason to do so.
I have worked with many professionals in my career who found a better opportunity / situation elsewhere, but still gave 100% to our firm during their notice period. When SH redshirted many felt that was step one in an eventual portaling, and Sencire may well have thought the same. Why does that preclude him from being a good person / teammate last year, and wanting his team to do well? Especially since the hard work and good attitude helped his personal development at the same time.
If he is of good character, as every indication seems, then this is exactly what was likely to happen.