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August 2006
Pressure to win intensifies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here are five coaches who really need to win their openers in order to calm down parts of their fan bases. Some are already on the “hot seat.” Others could soon coach their way on to the hot seat. The first game, more than anything, is about establishing a quality of life for the season. These guys could certainly use an upgrade.
1) Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee (vs. California): I’ll say this one more time. Despite what so many on the blogosphere proclaim, Fulmer, who has won 77.6 percent of his games (that’s No. 1 among active coaches), is not on the “hot seat.” Now if he goes 6-6, this time next year he WILL be on the hot seat. But I will say this: If the Vols lose to the Golden Bears, ranked No. 9 in the preseason, the two weeks leading up the Sept. 16 game with Florida are not going to be a whole lot of fun. Fulmer needs to show his fans a sign that last season (5-6) is officially over.
2) Dennis Franchione, Texas A&M (vs. The Citadel). Coach Fran was hired to close the gap between the Aggies and Texas/Oklahoma. He is being paid $2 million per year and right now A&M is 0-6 against the Big Two in the Big 12 South. Obviously Texas A&M will win against The Citadel but the Aggies need to look good doing it. They don’t have a tough game until Texas Tech on Sept. 30.
3) Larry Coker, Miami (vs. Florida State on Monday). Coker is sticking to his guns after suspending four key players for the Florida State game. He booted wide receiver Ryan Moore off the team indefinitely. After last December’s embarrassment to LSU in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Coker needs to convince his fans that the program isn’t in a gradual decline. A win over the Seminoles cures all ills.
4) Chuck Amato, N.C. State (vs. Appalachian State). Normally, an ACC team against a I-AA team is a walkover. But Appalachian State, the defending national I-AA champion, is a good team that is very well coached. The Wolfpack has finished 3-5 in the ACC the past two seasons and are looking for the program to take a step up. Struggling against the Mountaineers would be a step back.
5) Rich Brooks, Kentucky (at Louisville, Sunday). Brooks has won only four SEC games (two vs. Mississippi State and two vs. Vanderbilt) in three seasons at Kentucky. This will be his best team since he arrived in Lexington. He doesn’t have to beat Louisville, ranked in the Top 15. But the Wildcats have to compete or the questions about his future will start next Monday morning.
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Five the hard way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five teams that are good enough to win the national championship, but may be destined to check in at the Heartbreak Hotel.
1) Ohio State: The Buckeyes are everybody’s preseason No.1 but they may not survive September with trips to Texas (Sept. 9) and Iowa (Sept. 30). Too many people drew conclusions about Ohio State for this season based on their final two games last season against Michigan and Notre Dame. Both teams had bad defenses.
2) Florida: The Gators are going to be very good in Urban Meyer’s second year, but the combined record of their opponents is 83-50. Florida plays four teams in the preseason Top 15. In a five week stretch Florida plays Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, and Auburn. Then the Gators take a week off and play Georgia. Ouch.
3) Notre Dame: You don’t win the national championship without having at least a good defense. There were times last season (Michigan State, USC, Ohio State) when the Irish just couldn’t stop anybody. As good as QB Brady Quinn and coach Charlie Weis are, the offense will have a bad day sooner or later. It’s just a question of when.
4) LSU: On paper, LSU has the most talent of any team in the SEC. But the SEC schedule, which had the toughest games at home last season, flips in 2006. LSU must go on the road to Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas. No team, no matter how good it is, could win all four of those games.
5) West Virginia: The Mountaineers are good and have the weakest schedule (53-71) of any team ranked in the preseason Top 15. But because of that schedule West Virginia has no margin for error. The teams listed above can lose a game and still stay in the hunt for a BCS championship. West Virginia can’t. And it’s hard to see the Mountaineers winning at Louisville on Nov. 2.
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Staffords react with calm, class
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coach Mark Richt’s decision to name Joe Tereshinski III as Georgia’s starting quarterback reaffirms two realities about college football in the modern era:
1) Successful quarterbacks at this level are not defined by what they do, but rather what they don’t do.
2) The most important person in a situation like this is a parent who acts like an adult, not an agent.
I once asked David Cutcliffe, the tutor of Peyton and Eli Manning, about the most difficult lesson for talented young quarterbacks to learn.
“That an incomplete pass is sometimes a very good play,” he said.
There is little doubt about who has the most talent in the Georgia quarterback race. Matthew Stafford has “star” written all over him. But the more talented a team is the more a quarterback, like a point guard in basketball, is called upon to manage the game and get the ball to his playmakers. And, like a point guard in basketball, the most important trait the quarterback must have is the ability NOT to turn the ball over.
With what is going to be a great defense and a very good running game, JTIII is the perfect quarterback for this Georgia team; for now.
But what about Stafford? How does he react to hearing — probably for the first time in his young life — that he’s not the best player on his team?
Our Carter Strickland was wise to call the father, John Stafford, who uttered the words that are so seldom heard from parents of talented children.
“I think it’s the right thing to trust the coaches because they are awfully good ones,” said John Stafford.
When Josh Portis, a true freshman, couldn’t beat out Florida’s Chris Leak, an All-SEC quarterback, his mother suggested it was time to move on. “He needs to be at an institution where his talents can be taken care of,” said Patricia Portis, whose son is now at the University of Maryland.
Harrison Beck of Clearwater, Fla. was a plum recruit for Nebraska, which was converting from the option to more pro-style offense. But after limited playing time as a true freshman (when he completed 1 of 10 passes), he entered practice two weeks ago still No. 2 on the depth chart behind senior Zac Taylor. His reaction? Rather than stay and compete, he just skipped the third practice of the season and never went back.
I assume she had watched a lot of practice film because Beck’s mother decided that head coach Bill Callahan (who led the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl) and his staff were just a bunch of dolts.
“It’d be different is he was sitting behind Matt Leinart or Brady Quinn,” said Evelyn Beck-Bothwell. “If he got more time and attention from the coaches, he’d be ahead of (Taylor). That’s just my opinion, but I’m his mother.” Beck is now at N.C. State.
When I played football a million years ago I wasn’t very good. But I know exactly how my mother would have reacted if I had come home complaining about a lack of playing time. She would have said: “Practice harder.”
And if I had quit on my teammates, she would have kicked my butt all the way back to the head coach’s office and apologized to HIM because she raised her son better than that.
It appears Matthew Stafford has that kind of parent. And for that, the Bulldog Nation should be grateful.
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Taking stock, two weeks out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the season, so it’s time to take a look at our portfolio of college football stocks. I am not a licensed college football advisor, but I do play one on this blog.
BUY 1) Brandon Cox, QB, Auburn: Say hello to the best quarterback in the SEC. The reports I get from preseason practice are that Cox is bigger and stronger and more in command of the team than ever before. With Al Borges calling the plays and with a slew of weapons around him, you better take this guy on your fantasy team.
2) Georgia: The more and more you look at the Dawgs, the more you realize that if a couple of things fall into place, they just could make it back to Atlanta. Fans are obsessing about the quarterback position when they should be worried about the offensive line and its lack of depth. But the real reason Georgia may go back to the SEC championship game is the defense. I really like the defense.
3) Stock in the South Bend (Ind.) Marriott. Our buddy, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline, reports that the South Bend Marriott is getting $699 a night for rooms during Notre Dame football weekends; and that’s with a three-night minimum. And they are turning people away. Is this a great country or what?
SELL 1) Willie Williams. What does it say about Williams, the former Miami linebacker, when he can’t get into Pearl River (Miss.) Community College? After first welcoming Williams, whose high school rap sheet looked like bad episode of “Cops”, Pearl River said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Willie, here’s some advice. Look at Clarett, Maurice. Get your act together or this will not end well for you.
2) Erik Ainge, QB, Tennessee: If the Vols had to play California tomorrow Mr. Ainge would not be ready. The early scrimmages have been discouraging. He has a lot of ground to cover in the next two weeks. Man, there is a lot riding on that Sept. 2 game with California.
3) Oklahoma. The hope in Norman was that cutting QB Rhett Bomar loose might rally the troops in time to play the season. Now there are concerns that the NCAA is going to parachute in any day now and set up shop. Can Bob Stoops keep his guys focused?
Bloggers brought Bomar, Sooners down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It looks like something good may actually come from Oklahoma’s decision to kick quarterback Rhett Bomar off the team earlier this month. In case you missed it, Mr. Bomar had told the IRS that he made $18,000 from working at an auto dealership. A quick check of the employment records showed that ol’ Rhett didn’t work a whole lot to get the money. Lo and behold, it turns out that the NCAA has a rule about that.
Thus, Oklahoma’s hopes of winning a national championship basically went out the exhaust pipe.
Why is this good? For with that decision a message was sent to aggressive boosters — and you know who you are — who fancy themselves as movers and shakers in the world of college athletics.
The message? The bloggers took down Dan Rather and, Bubba, they can take you down, too.
There have been hundred-dollar handshakes for college football players since the leather helmet days. Boosters have long bragged to their buddies how they take care of this player and that player at the good old alma mater. I mean, what’s the sense in having a lot of money if you can’t buy some football players, right?
But those deals required a wink and a nod and the ability for both sides to keep their mouths shut. We are quickly learning that in the age of the blogosphere, there will be very few secrets.
Bomar’s “arrangement” with Big Red Sports/Imports (don’t you just love that name?) had been hinted about in the blogs as long as seven months ago. And once this kind of thing gets into the air, it is just a matter of time before it explodes. And, like a Washington politial scandal, somebody is ALWAYS going to talk.
And it’s a pretty good bet that our friends at Big Red Sports/Imports are going to pay a significant financial price for their jolly good fun. Their business will always be the punch line to a joke. Their business will also be blamed by the Oklahoma faithful if the Sooners don’t compete for some kind of championship.
In the future, a man’s entire life’s work could be destroyed overnight simply because he wanted the rush of slipping a college football player a few thousands bucks.
Now that’s entertainment.
Don’t cry for Clarett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I really don’t feel sorry for Maurice Clarett. But there is a lesson to be learned from his sad saga. If you’re the parent of a budding college athlete, it should scare the hell out of you.
As a freshman, Clarett scored the winning touchdown in the Fiesta Bowl that gave Ohio State the 2002 national championship. Today, less than four years later, he is being held on $5 million bond for a variety charges.
His self-absorption was evident from the day he walked onto the Ohio State campus. His year at Ohio State was marked with one incident after another which came from the same root: Clarett’s belief that his immense talent (and it was immense) put him above and beyond accountability to any societal structure. Not team, not university, not community.
As late as several days before the national championship game, Clarett was making headlines in Phoenix because the university wouldn’t fly him home to attend the funeral of a friend. His entire team was trying to get ready to play for a championship and the focus, once again, was on Clarett and HIS needs.
And when Ohio State finally gave up on Clarett, he demanded that the NFL change its entire structure on underclassmen to allow HIM access to the league. When the league refused, he lashed out as though a grave injustice had been done to HIM.
And today, Maurice Clarett gets far more media attention than he deserves for a promising life that was trashed at the twin altars of Ego and Arrogance.
Here’s the lesson if you’re the parent or a guardian of a potentially great athlete. Help them develop their immense talent but not to the exclusion of all else. Do not allow them to fall victim to the pathology born of the excesses of the celebrity/recruiting process. Remind him that while he may be a star on the athletic field, everywhere else he is still a kid and he had better act like it.
The sense of entitlement that this culture creates in young athletes can, in some cases, have some dire consequences down the road.
The chilling vision of Maurice Clarett in a bullet proof vest and handcuffs is living proof of that.
Bomar’s bonehead move costs Sooners
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay. I need some help here. I’m not being an old fogey yearning for the Good Old Days. I really want to understand.
What the hell was Rhett Bomar thinking?
Oklahoma is in everybody’s preseason Top 10 and in some circles (like mine) is considered a dark-horse pick to win the national championship.
That is, until last week when it was revealed that Bomar, the starting quarterback, had been suspended for a blatant violation of NCAA rules. Simply put, Bomar and his teammate, guard J.D. Quinn, got a significant amount of money for a small amount of work at an auto dealership in Norman, Okla.
Now Bomar is suspended and will probably be forced to transfer. Oklahoma’s season, at least its hopes of competing for the national championship, is very much and doubt.
This isn’t a situation where an athlete got caught up in the complexity of the NCAA rulebook and inadvertently did something wrong. When it comes to violations, this is as basic as it gets. You don’t get paid for work you don’t do.
I don’t want to hear that college athletes should be paid. That’s another discussion for another day. All the parties involved have to deal with the world as it is, not as it should be.
Bomar knew the rule. He knew the consequences if he got caught breaking the rule. And he chose to do it anyway.
Not only does it put Bomar’s college football career in jeopardy, it potentially affects every member of his team. If you’re Bomar, how could you possibly face those guys again?
We’ve had a bunch knucklehead behavior this summer but I won’t take the time to list them all. I just want to know: What are we dealing with here?
Stupidity?
Selfishness?
A teenage mind where the synapses that connect action and consequences are not fully connected?
You invest the better part of your youth to a sport with hopes of excelling and perhaps using it to make a good living. And you blow it over a relatively small chunk of change?
Please help me understand this.
