Morgantown Mess

Does anyone in power at West Virginia football look good right now? The decision to have Bill Stewart coach one more season with coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen operating as offensive coordinator was idiotic. If you want Holgorsen as your head man, then hire him as such. Having a lame duck situation cannot be a good thing, unless the coach-in-waiting is taking over for a guy looking to leave. It worked very well at Kentucky, for example, where Rich Brooks was looking to go and the school wanted to keep Joker Phillips around.
I assumed that Stewart was gone after the team--and especially the offense--performed so poorly in losing the Champs Sports Bowl to North Carolina State last year by a 23-7 score. Holgorsen had been a hot commodity and it looked wise for AD Oliver Luck to snap him up. But neither coach was happy with the situation and from the looks of things Stewart and his wife were so determined to stay that they began sniffing around for some dirt on the new guy to get him fired. Holgorsen, meanwhile, was asked to leave a casino in the middle of the night and was therefore not helping the situation. suddenly rumors were flying around that Holgorsen had a drinking problem and that he had been in trouble with the law numerous times since being hired by West Virginia.
While it is difficult to know exactly what happened, Holgorsen's problems were exaggerated by the Stewarts, who now became the bad guys in this soap opera. But all of this could have been avoided by removing Stewart after the 2010 season. That was Luck's decision. And he had better hope that Holgorsen wins and stays out of trouble.

View From Bennett Avenue

When I opened the college football page for ESPN this morning, I was presented with more negative crap about certain college football programs. Items 1 and 2 of their "Headlines" dealt with the ever-changing Terrelle Pryor situation, number 3 concerned the stripping of USC's 2004 national championship by the BCS, the fourth item was about Mike Hamilton's stepping down as Tennessee's embattled AD (his problem go beyond football, but he would have survived if his football program was in good shape), number 5 featured the West Virginia continuing situation with head coach in waiting Dana Holgorson, etc, etc.
Now I am not blaming ESPN--and I usually do--for presenting us with bad news but I must say that the continued state of affairs is depressing. The season cannot start soon enough. But until then expect more stories about what school did what wrong and which player slugged which innocent bystander. After all, not only are there more cameras than ever before, the number of coaches and players willing to flaunt their rule breaking seems to increase with time. All you had to do was take a picture of the players only parking section at Ohio State to know they had a problem. The investigation of USC football was reaching its end when they hired Lane Kiffin who was the head recruiter during part of the investigated time and then brought watchdogs to Tennessee. The situation now is that programs, coaches and players think they are above the law. Dump them all.

View From Bennett Avenue

How bizarre was the beating Patti LaBelle's body guards gave Army CB Richard King recently? And his reward? Being ordered to active duty. This was a non story before the video was released and is now being spun by King's lawyers as a celebrity using her power to dump on a regular guy. If that is the case then I hope LaBelle has to pay up. If King is the one with the problem--and West Point's alacrity in booting him does not look good--then it is telling that the first side to YouTube can win the debate. The most eye opening part of the video is LaBelle posing with Houston police after the incident. They must not have been impressed with King's four INTs last year.

View From Bennett Avenue

Off with their heads!
I want all of the cheaters out, and out now. And I have a very broad understanding of cheating. If something happens on your watch, you are responsible and you have to go. Tressel skated through problems at Youngstown State years ago, and then the mess with Maurice Clarett and others. So why would he do the right thing now? Jim Calhoun gets caught cheating but can still walk away with the national championship in hoops. But he'll be suspended next year for the violations. That a scary few of his kids graduate does not seem to tarnish his image either. Again, why would he do the right thing? And Pete Carroll continued to run a loose program during the investigation into the Reggie Bush situation before jumping to the NFL. And do not get me started about Auburn's national title.
The coaches cannot help themselves. If you do it the right way yet do not win enough you get canned so the temptations are there. The problem is that the media looks the other way, fearing a loss of access while also being charmed by these guys, the fans usually could care less as long as the team is winning, and the administration not only looks the other way but is at times complicit themselves. You are Kentucky and you have been nailed with major violations in basketball numerous times, so you hire Calipari? You are Southern Cal and are being investigated for the umpteenth time and so you hire Kiffin?
The whole culture has to change. Folks who do it the right way need to be saluted. Teams that cheat need to be nailed, and that includes television bans. And, no, guys like Tressel are not role models or father figures. They are cheats. College football will survive nicely with both OSU and USC on probation. Feel free to add some more schools too.

Memorial Day

Many college and former college football players have fought for our country and many have made the ultimate sacrifice. Before we focus on barbecues, parades, and traffic today, I wanted us to remember one such player.

Jack Lummus was a two-sport (baseball and football) star at Baylor in the late 1930s, earning honorable mention All America for his fine play at end, before signing on with the New York Giants football team in time for their fine 1941 season. After the Giants lost in the title game, Lummus enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on January 30, 1942. Although most of his service time centered on work here in the States, Lummus more than made up for any missing action once he was given command of Company E's third rifle platoon two weeks after he landed on Iwo Jima. Given an objective on the northern part of that island hell-hole, Lummus soon realized that some defense bunkers were keeping his men pinned down. And so despite wounds incurred from grenade shrapnel, Lummus single-handily knocked out not one but three enemy strongholds and killed countless other members of the enemy who were in single-man defense positions. This action earned Lummus a medal of honor, which sadly was given to his family posthumously as Lummus, while leading his men past up the ridge moments later stepped on a land mine. Although he lost both his legs--legs that allowed him to become a star center fielder and end--Lummus continued to urge his men forward before he was taken away. He then was famously quoted as saying, "Well, doc, the New York Giants lost a mighty good end today." He died that day, aged 29.

More Hall of Fame Ramblings

I wanted to wrap up my reflections on the latest class of players and coaches elected to the College Football Hall of Fame with some additional coverage of last week's press conference in New York City.

Fourteen players were elected to the Hall including one each from the three Florida-based powers including Deion Sanders from Florida State and Russell Maryland of Miami. With the Florida schools now recognized as national power programs--something that was not true back when Florida inductee Carlos Alvarez played wide receiver for the Gators from 1969 through 1971--their numbers will increase over time. And it is interesting in how the voting works in that Alvarez was helped by his brilliant academic work and subsequently impressive law career, while Sanders, for one, had to be so brilliant as a player that voters overlooked his infamous stoppage of his academic pursuit mid-year when he had reached eligibility for FSU's bowl game. I am not sure if Sanders has subsequently returned to school to get his degree, although I would bet that he did so. As for Maryland, his induction was meant to reward him for his excellent play on the field during the brilliant run by the Canes in the late 1980s, early '90s and, I guess, for his being one of the team's "good guys." Maryland played the "lovable bear of a man" role perfectly at the press conference, getting laughs by recounting his humble beginnings with Miami and for thinking the call from the Hall was a joke by former teammate Cortez Kennedy.

The Big Ten has always been a dominant force with electors, thanks in part to the large numbers of Big Ten grads peppering foundation chapters throughout the Midwest and sunnier places down South. And so three graduates of Big Ten schools, Sandy Stephens of Minnesota, Gene Washington of Michigan State and Eddie George of Ohio State were elected while one of two coaches, Lloyd Carr of Michigan, earned a spot. That that group is not an overwhelming one--sure George is a former Heisman winner but he is getting in before many stars from the 1980s and early '90s--is more proof that it helps to be a Big Ten grad.

That may change a bit when the Hall moves to Atlanta. While I am not accusing the Foundation of fixing anything, it will help attendance to start including more players from the Deep South. In addition to the three Florida players mentioned, Jake Scott of Georgia and Alabama's Marty Lyons are also heading to the Hall--all in time for next fall's enshrinement festivities in...Atlanta.

Hopefully there will be some love that weekend for the others to be enshrined, Doug English of Texas, Bill Enyart as a rare Oregon State inductee, Will Shields of Nebraska (to help welcome them to the Big Ten!), Darryl Talley of West Virginia, Clendon Thomas of OU and Rob Waldrop of Arizona. The other coach elected in was Fisher DeBerry of Air Force. The National Football Foundation always treats its people right and all of the former players and coaches will all feel welcome at the induction ceremonies in New York in December and then at the Enshrinement Festival.

View From Bennett Avenue

This is my 300th post here at SMQs and I would have loved to have written a piece on the importance of college football or something similar in light of the recent National Football Foundation press conference. But then Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box died at 22 and I no longer feel like it. My condolences to the Box family and Sooner nation.