Unverified Voracity Finds Out How Low JoePa Can Go

If given a medical redshirt, can a player still take a regular redshirt year simply by not playing?  If Tate holds onto the backup job it's improbable but not out of the question that Gardner doesn't see the field next year.  I doubt this would happen (or that Gardner would want it), I'm mostly just curious about the rules.

is just what friends do for each other. What.

Man a lot of good toics to comment on here, but I can't get past the fact Terry Bowden ate Mark Mangino.   Terry just because you didn't get that Div 1 gig didn't mean you have to let yourself go.

This goes against my normal views for a business relationship or worker/employee relationship, but unless you violate a student conduct code or an athletic department conduct code, I think you should retain your scholarship. Why I cringe as I say that is, if you get a guy who puts in NO effort besides showing up to practice, it's hard to want to keep him on the team. But little effort isn't quite the same as breaking team/athletic department rules/university rules.

Which brings me to the two upperclassmen in the article. All we have is one side of each story, and it makes the coaches look like jerks. Given Miles constant oversigning, yeah, he's probably a jerk (I wonder what Moeller things of him?). But what if this quarterback was a complete screwup and wasn't working hard? What if this kid at Miami was into something he shouldn't have been and this was the polite way for the university to avoid embarrassing him.

Now - when you sign a kid to a letter of intent with the promise of financial aid in the form of an athletic scholarship for their freshman year - you need to honor that. That should get a coach suspended or fired. Because lets face it, most of the kids playing D1 FBS football probably need a ton of financial aid to attend, and scrambling for loans at that point are tough. Glad to see the kid got signed to a scholarship by Kentucky. I hope he gets a chance to do some damage against LSU in the future.

Having said that, even removing the scholarship for an upperclassman is unfair. They have one year left, probably still need the fin aid to attend and finish up the year, and then you yank their scholarship. They might not want to transfer to complete their degree, but without the fin aid, they might not be able to finish at all. It seems like a bad precedent to set.

Good to see the Big Ten and Pac Ten limiting their oversigning, whether through league mandates or not. 

4 thoughts popped into mind after watching that video - great selection.

1. The whole Les Miles and Randy Shannon episode just shows again the whole hypocrisy of big time college football. The top kids go to the big programs because they want to turn pro. The coaches at the top programs pretty much know that they have to win and win now to keep their jobs and there is little incentive outside of pretty broad rules about getting kids to go to class and actually learn anything. Making the rules tougher - that is limiting to the actual number of scholarships available + 1, for example might seem an answer but after what has been revealed, I'm afraid there will be wholesale "running" of kids off of campus to get their scholarships. In contrast Saban's over use of medical "retirement" seems downright paternal - at least trying to let the kid go to school. Bo and Woody were tough and so were Moeller and Carr. I think of guys like Antonio Bass. If he were down at LSU or Miami instead of here with a standup guy like Lloyd Carr, he would have been bounced out once the coaching staff learned he'll be lucky to walk normally and play pickup basket ball. These guys are just cold-blooded.

2. What is also amazing is that the Miami example was with a kid who was on the field and contributing. With that type of ruthlessness, they were still a bad team!

3. Each year at senior day, we see the players who are about to play their last Michigan game get introduced. Some are famous and have starred for years. Others are minor contributors who get a nod of recognition from their work on special teams. Others still get only a "whose that" response and most people in the audience don't have a clue who this kid was and what position he played. But they stuck it out and now they are walking with their family and friends and get a last final round of applause. I'm glad Michigan each year has a number of such players - players who were probably high school stars but for whatever reason didn't work out and didn't end up being a college star. I'm glad we are not a place who runs those kids out of Ann Arbor. Who knows, one of them might end up being a successful CEO and future AD.

4. If this is what it takes to produce a MNC, I'm much happier just winning the Big Ten every now and then. Camgate and this stuff prove, yes, there is a difference between the Big Ten and the SEC - and it isn't on the field. It is about basic decency and compassion. It may be down south, but the SEC looks like a pretty cold hearted place.

... in a pair of these:

as Joe Pa at his age.  He is a million times awesome.  He's the Jason Vorhees of old guys, just when you think he's done and gone, he rises again to destroy...

have been subjected to the medical redshirt explanation over the last several months it's been highlighted on this blog? Mine doesn't get it, but she's now properly aghast at Les Miles*

*she doesn't know who Les Miles is

It's been said by others, but of course the NCAA is going to ignore this oversigning problem because it would adversely some pretty high-profile teams like LSU and Alabama, and the NCAA has shown its hand by focusing far more on the financial aspects of college football than the notion of maintaing amateurism and educating young men.  I mean, look at the "investigation" they made into the Cam Newton story - they saw a team headed to the MNC game and a Heisman trophy winner pumping up the ratings, and they allowed another title to be cast into doubt and (if Auburn wins) very likely expunged from the record books in the future.

People have always wondered how the SEC came to dominate college football over the past 5-10 years, and I think we are starting to see a major reason why - whereas schools in most other conferences are limited to the players they actually recruit, teams in the SEC apparently are able to "trade in" any underperforming players with newer, better players every year.  In effect, they are operating as pro-style teams in an amateur system, and as a result they have a clear advantage when it comes to player development and talent level.  I'm happy to see ESPN shed some light on this matter - as opposed to documenting the bowel movements of Brett Favre - but I have my doubts that anything will come of it until the SEC loses a couple of big bowl games and are no longer as bankable in the eyes of the NCAA.

Is it just me, or did that Les Miles media day clip seal his position as spokesman for Touch of Gray?

" Paterno probably thinks going backwards is a Hun affectation"

Brilliant. Just brilliant. As a German, I can appreciate that comedy. Well done, sir.

Totally sucked

1987-1988 or something.

Stonewashed shorts and Spurrier with a whacked out visor. How I loathed those damn vizors of his.