Is college football so competitive that National Championship winning coaches will put up with outright criminal behavior on a continuing basis? Hell yes! We could go on for days about today's society. Our eroding moral fiber. Our lack of parental discipline. Yada, yada, etc. The pressure on these coaches is so high to win---make the school money---that they accept many troubled, and, or borderline, players.
The coaches won't stop accepting troublemakers until we fans say, enough! But we want our school to win damn it. Don't give me that ####, but so-and-so does it the right way. BS! Name one team that's won a NC in the last twenty-five years that hasn't had some troubles off the field. Notre Dame, Penn State, everyone has had something going on. The only teams that can claim to be doing it the right way are the Service Academies. And when was the last time Army or Navy won a NC?
It is a Catch 22 situation for sure. Do we want a winner, no questions asked? The old don't ask, don't tell approach. Or, would we be satisfied with being a 500, at best, team most years---how you livin', Stanford--- ,and do it the right way?
Originally, this post was to bash LSU, and---thuglife4ever---quarterback,Ryan Perrilloux, but once I started I went in another direction. That direction is, to ask yourself, "How much #### am I willing to overlook, year after year, to have a winning team?"
There are a couple of posts dealing with this subject matter out there right now and you both make good points. You also read posts periodically about coaches who are on the proverbial "hot seat." Not so much because they are losing control of their program but mostly because they haven't won this or that in a long, long time. While my Sooners haven't won a National Championship since 2000 I think they are in very good hands with Coach Stoops. He has shown time and time again that representinig OU in a respectful and dignified manner is foremost and if a player continually lets the program and his team down then Stoops deals with it appropriately. Citing examples of Dusty Dvoracek, Rhett Bomar, and last year, DeMarcus Grainger. Discipline is strict but fair. Just as Dvoracek was suspended for a year and allowed to return, Grainger was handled the same way last year. There is a problem here that seems to fade away in situations like this which do NOT help to control things. The NCAA. They are so misguided in the way they try to control discipline issues. OU self reports the Bomar incident and what actions they took, which is encouraged by the NCAA. The NCAA then hammers OU. Other programs have issues with players breaking the rules, don't necessarily deal with them up front. and the NCAA plods along and does nothing for years.
By the time they finally take action the violating player(s) are on to the next level or far removed from the institution. Timing, consistency, and common sense elude the equation continually. Honestly a black and white code of conduct needs to be devised with just as black and white consequences that EVERY team in EVERY sport at EVERY institution is required to follow. Take the final decision out of the coaches hands. Give the coach the first right of discipline for minor offenses (skipping classes, team rules violations, etc., etc.) and make it an institutional call when a student athlete gets arrested for this or that. Make theses players responsible for their behavior by ruling with an iron hand. Sound old school? Fine. And then when violations aren't self reported but are discovered at a later date...then you hammer the offending school. Right now there is too much grey area in which coaches, players, and administrations can play in and they are thusly willing to take a hit ot wait out the NCAA. I could go on and on with this but that is just my take briefly and shortened.
BTW - OU and Stoops is just an example. I'm sure there are many other institutions who would fit here.
When a sports program first has a problem they put a kid on double-secret probation and suspend him.(See Lawrence Phillips:Nebraska '95 suspended 5 games...won without him...bad Cali kid he was!)
After that they should start tossing the police blotter candidates off the team. The precedent and punishment is set. Grow up, kiddies.
GCoach and I both watch and learn from the past punks.
Popular excuses:
-Hey, that's not my UZI.
-Hey, she invited me and my 12 boys to her dorm room.
-Hey, it's socitey's fault that I'm a criminal.
-Hey, a playuh's gotta do what....shaddup fool.
-Hey, I thought this U protected the ath-a-letes!
-Hey, I only had 18 drinks and I'm a starter!
Coach...brilliant insights. I love your black and white code and consequences. If the NCAA would take the discipline out of the coach's hands, that would cure a lot of ills.
At the first presser, after one of his players failed an NCAA drug test, Calipari said the player was suspended for violating a team rule. This is why discipline should be taken out of the coaches' hands. Calipari knew why he was suspended, and it wasn't a team suspension, it was an NCAA mandated suspension.
garageguy....Brilliant. You know, for an LSU fan, you have quite a way with words. You might want to trademark that, and make some tee shirts and bumper stickers.
Oh...Hanahan...don't get me started. But having the NCAA handle the problems is the wrong solution. They totally screwed Oklahoma. They ask schools to self-report, then hammer them when they do. If OU hadn't investigated the car dealership scandal, the NCAA would have never known about it. Yet they gave OU the same punishment as a school who hadn't reported it.
The NCAA is the biggest problem in college football. Their rules are obscure, and the penalties they hand out are ridiculous. The NCAA ruined a schools football program (SMU) and an entire conference went up in smoke as a result (Southwest Conference).
Currently, my team is being investigated, and this has been a TWO YEAR PROCESS. For Pete's sake...make a decision or be done with it. The NCAA is inept.
As far as the thugs...when you continually get high-risk students admitted under the SPED loophole, it will bite you in the ####. Spurrier's teams have had a 50% SPED admit. That's ridiculous...it should be maybe 2 or 3 out of 20. Steve is setting these kids up for failure at a major university, and when they can't cut it in the classroom, they start taking their aggressions out off the field. Ok...I'm done with my rant.
...had a Gremlin once. It caused me years of counseling! I still receive matchbox sized Gremilins from friends. Ah, the stories, fun and family bonding that piece of cr=ap caused. It stalled on hard left turns and whenever it hit puddles of water. I rigged up a hair dryer to the cig lighter for the purpose of drying out the distrib cap. My friends wouldn't ride in it. Good times. Had it for a painful year and sold it for double the purchase price. I'm still haunted by the crying of the girl whose Daddy bought it.
A Torino! Sweet. I'd have Starsky'd that baby up. My favorite vehicle is Paid For! Nope, I've picked up a difficult to find P-Wagon.
Hanny, what's the state of mind in Carolina today? I talked to a co-worker who's ready to slash the wrists. Carolina baskeyball is taken as seriously as Husker f'ball. It's sick.
husk.....I'm in Memphis right now, and these people are ecstatic. Haven't heard from any Carolina fans yet. But, you know they are F-N stunned. That beat down came out of nowhere.
If Memphis wins it, I'm thinking of going to the airport to meet them for some laughs.
I'll be the one holding a sign that reads....Joey Dorsey for Mayer......mis sp on purpose, so the team---along with JOKERS and B&O---can read it.
what you talking about? I already did my piece on Ryan Perilous....he's back with the team.....what's the Vegas odds on him #### up over the summer? I hear all those riverboat casinos are now up and running. Sigh. I still think Garcia is a bigger ####. But not by much.
He just came back today. He was suspended for the rest of spring practice, and the spring game, for his behavior at the Kona Bar last Sunday.
This is new. He, a former player, and three, ahem, employees from the Crazy Horse Cabaret were in the Kona last weekend. RP was screaming obscenities and called his Arab-American server Osama.
The cops were called. RP ran before the po po got there. Thus keeping his perfect record of being suspended 3 times, yet never having acually been arrested.
Did you do a blog last week on him, and I missed it?
Good lord...suspended again? You need to do another post just on that subject...he's a night mare. Wait a minute...he wasn't arrested? Or detained/ Then it's all hearsay dear.
Spurrier has respect a great coach. Unless, he packs his bags now, he's going to let that SC team ruin his reputation. I have a lot of respect for SC and they will win some games. They will even put up winning records and go to bowl games. BUT, there is too much competition in the SEC east that are larger and have way more funding. To see them in the SEC championship is a long shot...at least anytime soon. To see them in a NC, well thats just......Spurrier will be gone within the next five years. If his pride doesn't take him elsewhere, the school is going to kill him. Players in trouble, schools cutting his prospects, or the fact that they always seem to fall apart. No way SC is going to any championship and no way is Spurrier going to stay much longer. Then again, i could be wrong.
Hanahan, you must be gray headed by now. I love the fact that your a true fan of your teams, but USC and Dolphins. How do you do it?
It is indeed a Catch-22. All it would take to start turning the tide is for one coach to permanently boot his all-conference QB or RB to get the discussion flowing and give some other coaches the courage to properly disciline some lesser players.
But no coach wants to be the first to step forward, and it's understandable. Besides being worried about their million-dollar contracts, head coaches also have to look up for their staffs. When a head coach gets fired, it means that 12-15 assistant coaches and administative staffers (many who live paycheck to paycheck on $35K-$45K a year) also get put out on the curb.
jmoriello - Rhett Bomar was heralded as the second coming of Jason White. The kid that was going to lead the Sooners back to the promised land. He put up very respectable numbers his freshman year to continue to encourage the hype. He had alcohol issues and then the car dealership issues and Stoops sent him packing. Let me see...last time I looked Stoops would be considered one of those high side coaches. He did step up and do the right thing...and his program got hammered for it. It didn't create much discussion. So...are they damned if they do and damned if they don't? Obviously!!! That is why this needs to be removed from the coaches hands...depending on the level of the transgression committed by the student athlete. It is indeed a sad state to think that there can't be some kind of system set up and FOLLOWED by all institutions to deal with this. I mean if a coach is losing players because they can't stay out of trouble...and the institution is removing them from the team...do you really think the institution is going to fire him because he can't win a NC with what is left? At some point in time the players themselves have to be held accountable for their behaviors...not the coach!
And the next job the fired coach goes to...he takes his staff with him unless some of them end up elsewhere. That is the nature of the beast called coaching.
I am just a bit curious...........................t he magazine HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP reported his profile was found on the famous rich men seeking affairs site http://#### last week and he was seeking his sugar woman there.......................... wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I can't believe he was either. Probably his agent trying to blow up his value. The Fins finally get the #1 pick, and there's no one this year worth the money. So no one else wants to trade for it either. I say take Jake Long. If he's not that great, it won't stand out as much as a defensive flop would.
han/rev/ted moseby,
Did you see the one sack that he gave up? Gholston got past him. If only Henne would have released it within the 5-7 sec window that Long gave him. Long is a beast...and I can't stand Michigan or that stupid U.P.
Hanahan - It starts at the pee-wee leavel with parents yelling at the coaches, caoches yelling at the pee-wee's to go out and fight to win a game. High School's letting kids play when grades slipped below the average and still letting them play to win.
Why would collage be any different. Now they are in the Pro's and in trouble. All because they didn't stop them when it should have been stop. Look at NASCAR turning a blind eye when a winners car dosn't pass inspection, we will take away everything but the win.
I have to agree with Coach comments his second from the top, its got to be all sports from the ground up to the pro's or nothing kind a deal. They will need to take the money out of it to make it work, and that won't happen. . . . Great stuff.
Hanahan
The college coaches at times are not better than the players. They'll sometimes obfuscate their responsibilties to the university as well as the program just to ensure that things go well on the field. In no way does that teach the player self respect or discipline and if anything emboldens that player to continue along the same path. And hell the NCAA themselves are by no means without blame in all of this. Much of the time they'll sit idly by while transgressions are repeatedly broken .
