I had hoped to use the usual late spring down time on the college football schedule to continue my series of salutes to the recently elected members of the College Hall of Fame. But there has been so much news lately that I have to post on all of it and get back to the celebration of past greats as soon as possible.
With the NCAA finally coming down on Southern California today and the talk of BCS powers moving from one conference to another I thought I would quickly touch on some news from earlier this week before it disappeared forever, buried under an avalanche of bigger news. Perhaps the most significant story from the recent past concerns former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, whose one-year ban from the squad was made permanent after he was arrested for the second time in 2010. Earlier this year Masoli was nailed for breaking into a fraternity and walking out with some stuff that did not belong to him. The current situation involved his being stopped for driving through a stop sign and then resisting arrest. He was then found to have some pot in the car. At the very least, Masoli has unbelievably bad judgement. At the worst, he is bad guy who cannot stop himself from breaking the law and until he wises up we will see his name on police blotters in the future.
Of course Masoli is also very talented and perfectly fit to do damage to opposing defenses in the Oregon offense. But Oregon already began to move on due to the one-year suspension Masoli was given after crime number one. They have veteran Nate Costa and youngster Darron Thomas competing for the starting quarterback job. That is one of the biggest differences between the college game and the NFL. Because college players can only give a program four good years--and many do not do that--we, the national college football fan--do not get caught up in individual player situations but in the team as a whole. Oklahoma and Texas will play this year without either Bradford or McCoy. The game will still be hugely important and should produce a national title contender. Florida fans are sad to see Tim Tebow move on, but still expect the Gators to compete for the SEC crown and therefore have a shot at a national title. BYU won their sole championship, in 1984, despite losing Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young and the same happened to Tennessee, who despite needing to replace Peyton Manning, went on to become title holders in 1998.
Contrast that to the situation in Pittsburgh with the Steelers, who did not have to boot quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for good. The individual player in this case is getting too much bad press in a way that is detrimental to the team as a whole. The Steelers cannot move on the way the Ducks did with Masoli as the pro quarterback, especially one with two Super Bowl rings, is the franchise. They are in bed with ol' Ben (willingly in their case) and must win with him, despite all of the off-the-field distractions. And the Steeler faithful has been let down by their quarterback. The Oregon faithful are angry in that Masoli's stupidity may have cost them a shot for a title, but the situation is a less personal one. There are no Masoli jerseys to discount or pictures to take off of city zoo press campaigns.
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