Don’t get too comfortable LSU fans. If anything I would be even more nervous. That impromptu press conference that Les Miles held earlier today really means nothing at all. The fact that the University felt the need to address the rumors means that there was some truth behind them. As we all know where there’s smoke, there’s usually a fire. [click to continue...]
From the category archives:
College Football
Notre Dame Golden or Pyrite?
It takes a certain type of player to play in Cincinnati. You can’t just take any regular kid and throw him in stripes and expect him to fit in. Marvin Lewis and company have been struggling for years trying to find a certain type of player, unfortunately there aren’t games being played in prisons or juvenile lock-ups like the Longest Yard and Rounders would like you to believe. So where do they scout? The answer is now clear. Notre Dame.
The squeaky clean university had their name dragged through the mud this off-season in a series of arrests and brushes with the law. The only thing missing from putting them on par with the Bengals is a gun charge, but with the way things are heading it shouldn’t be long before someone is driving a “borrowed” car without prior knowledge of the .45 caliber pistol laying on the backseat.
I remember a time pre-Charlie Weis when a guy couldn’t get into the university just based on the merit of their football skills. You had to be squeaky clean and be considered of the highest character to be considered for a scholarship. Just three short years ago Notre Dame great and 1956 Heisman winner Paul Hornung lambasted the university stating that they couldn’t compete with their current academic standards. He also felt that by setting the bar so high that it was excluding black athletes.
“You can’t play a schedule like that unless you have the black athlete today. You just can’t do it, and it’s very, very tough, still, to get into Notre Dame. They just don’t understand it, yet they want to win.” Hornung explained.
Hornung’s comments may have been a little far fetched, but they certainly weren’t all wrong. The school wasn’t discriminating against the black athlete more-so than the athlete in general. This was back when Notre Dame was losing out on recruits who had them listed as their first choice, sometimes even after getting commitments. At the time the institution had a prerequisite that all incoming freshman had to successfully complete a highschool calculus class. TJ Duckett and David Terrell were among the high profile recruits who couldn’t get in.
This was a far cry from the schools 1980’s heyday when they were little more than a perennial football powerhouse. With Lou Holtz at the helm anything the program wanted they got. A perfect example was in 1988 when quarterback Tony Rice led the school to it’s 11th national title after being an academic non-qualifier his freshman year. This was the golden era when they would sign off on anything he brought to the table. This allowed him to bring in players that never would have made it through the gates during Bob Davie or Tyrone Willingham’s tenure, such as: Jerome Bettis, Bryant Young and Tim Brown.
After failing to win a bowl game from 1994-2004 the school began to realize that their once prestigious football program was becoming the laughing stock of the nation. The lowest point coming when it was revealed that the coach hired to replace Davie, George O’Leary, had lied on his application. He was immediately fired before coaching a single practice.
Tyrone Wilingham soon came in and did very little in his run with the team. The university figured that he did well at Stanford with little taltent so he should be able to succeed at ND. They weren’t exactly wrong, but after posting a 21-15 record over three years he was dismissed. He failed to win a bowl game and it was clear that something had to change to return to the glory days.
So they did what any desperate person would do, changed their ways. They hired the best man available for the job, Charlie Weis. Then they lowered their academic standards so that he could get the talent needed to fill out his roster. Really, what’s the big deal if there are 100 dummies running around campus? They have more than enough students around to keep their academic averages up. The school gets the best of both worlds: the income and acclaim of having a powerhouse football program and the prestige that comes along with being a high ranking member of the academia.
It can’t be that simple though. It wouldn’t be right. When you sell your soul you have to pay a price.
When you exclude your doors to the smartest people in the nation you can assume that the wild partying and scandals that come along with such behavior will be kept at a minimum. You don’t have to worry about people giving grades or being placed on academic probation. That’s not to say that less intelligent people will automatically bring these negative qualities, but in some cases they do. Especially when you are talking about over privileged athletes who believe they are untouchable.
Those types of things don’t happen at squeaky clean Notre Dame, or at least they didn’t. Since the players touched down for the summer Charlie Weis has been running damage control nonstop.
The first incident occured when Derrell Hand was picked up for soliciting the services of a prostitute. This is definately something that doesn’t happen very often. Sure, there was the Minnesota Love Boat incident, but this strikes me as something completely different. Call me crazy, but wouldn’t you think being a member of a prestigious football team would allow you certain opportunities with the opposing sex that the common man isn’t granted? Apparently not, but why even worry when you have the Domers backing you. Hand has been suspended until further notice.
Then, if things weren’t bad enough quarterback Demetrius Jones was driving the above mentioned “borrowed” car, but this time they found marijuana in the ashtray instead of a gun. The charges were dismissed. Anyways, how could anyone believe that a student athlete would burn away valuable brain cells on such a frivolous activity? The audacity those police officers had for even bothering him. Apparently he was spotted littering which was why he was pulled over. Let me ask you a questiong though, when was the last time you got searched for littering? How often does your car get searched for speeding for that matter? The answers to those questions are: never and one time when I was smoking pot/ drunk/ doing other susbstance.
So to the people that want to say he was innocent -get serious! It doesn’t happen like that. You are either: A.) Naive B.) A Domer fanatic C.) All of the above. The odor from a dead roach wouldn’t be strong enough for a police officer outside of the car to smell it, and if for some reason it was, don’t you think the passengers inside the vehicle would have found it and discarded it prior to this event? Think about it.
To finish off the trifecta super recruit Jimmy Clausen was picked up on June 23 for transporting alcohol as a minor. He was cited at a liquor store along with a 23-year-old who purchased two bottles of vodka, a bottle of whiskey, and a case of beer prior to entering his car. He was forced to pay a fine and should walk away without charges as long as he isn’t charged with a new crime in the next year.
Weis described the incident as an honest mistake and stated that Clausen had no intentions of consuming the frosty beverages. He explained that it was no different than a friend of his son’s giving him a ride to the supermarket to pick up a six pack. Apparently Clausen’s friend was going to drink all that liquor by himself and he was just doing him a favor by giving him a ride.
Maybe Notre Dame really is legit now. They have all the problems that “lesser” institutions face on a daily basis. Here’s to a new day in South Bend.
“Quarterbacks at Notre Dame are always going to be under a lot of scrutiny,” Weis explained. “It comes with the territory. Fair or not, that’s the way it goes.”
Whatever helps you sleep at night Charlie.
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