jokenjin
If They De-Commit, Then So Be It
I'm tired of reading about recruits committing and decommitting whether or not we get them back. If they don't want to be here, then fine - good luck with your career somewhere else. Yes, it sucks to lose on (potentially) great players, especially to conference rivals, but I'd rather have the kids that want to be here and respect the winged helmet than those prima donnas. Would I have liked to see McNeal here? Absolutely. Did I want Fera here? Of course. Same goes for Newsome and Campbell. But if they don't want to be here, then fine, don't be here.
This is why I actually respect Pryor and what he did, He dragged out his recruiting because he really didn't know where he wanted to go. He had to do some soul searching and figure out where the best place was for him to go and then go there. I wish to God that it had been Michigan, but he chose Ohio State. I hope he does well there, just not against us. Even listening in his press conference, he apologized to Rich Rodriguez because he felt bad since he had built some rapport with him and the coaches. So do I hate that he's wearing Scarlet and Grey? Yes. Do I hate him as a person? No, I don't.
This is even an opportunity to same something positive about Notre Dame. Weis doesn't take "soft verbals" - you're either all in or not. I can't remember if Omar Hunter last year ever verbally committed to ND, but he's the only one that I've seen waver and when he left Weis washed his hands of the situation and looked for other players that wanted to play for Notre Dame.
Ironic Lowe's Coaching Commercial
While watching a pretty entertaining, albeit frustrating game between Colorado and West Virginia (Colorado pulled the upset, 17-14 in OT), I saw a hilarious Lowe's Coaching Award commercial that drew a lot of thought.
As I understand it, Lowe's has a regional coach of the year award that they give out to, uhh, regional coaches that do well. Lloyd Carr won one of these trophies during his last year here at Michigan. I think Mangino from Kansas won the national coach of the year award from Lowe's. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
The tagline for this commercial was something along the lines of "this award goes out to the coaches that show character, integrity and strive for excellence on and off the field." I thought it was utterly hilarious that some of the coaches featured in the montage were the following:
Charlie Weis
Nick Saban
Joe Paterno
Gee, can we think of any three coaches who deserve this coaching award any LESS than these three? (Obviously, yes is the answer, but we can save that for another time, a.k.a. the end of this post).
Weis absolutely berates his players when they don't do something well and then takes all the credit in the world when they do. It's as if he takes credit for them being fast, beacuse obviously, he's had experience with that in his life. Maybe at a buffet or something. I remember during the ND - SDSU game, they went to the sideline reporter after Tate missed a TD pass that was overthrown by The Emu and she said that Weis was quoted as saying "Tate, that's a great example of how you not running the correct route costs us points." If you watch the replay, Tate cuts and heads out to the corner of the endzone, causing his man to fall and he's open, but Emu overthrows him by a little bit. He had a shot and laid out for the ball, but it wasn't good enough for Weis. I hate defending Notre Dame in any way, shape or form, but that's horrible, especially to a young kid and then having it called out on national TV. I wish Tate had some more drops against us.
Saban? That's obvious, too. We can start with the recruiting hijinks that he has made and somehow he got his huge clas to fit into NCAA guidelines by pretty much giving people the boot and helping them along, so to speak. Also, he has no sense of discipline, like removing someone's suspension IN THE MIDDLE OF A GAME BEACUSE THEY WERE LOSING. I get a lot of joy that they STILL lost to Lousiana-Monroe last year. At home. Also, let's not forgot his penchant of leaving teams, i.e. Michigan State, LSU, the Miami Dolphins. How long will it take for him to leave Alabama? I'd say, oh, within three or four years or so. For Auburn.
As for Paterno, I can see why they used him in the commercial. He's a venerable old guy and finds a soft spot in your heart. A very small part, but nonetheless, he's in there. However, he's had SO much turmoil this offseason and even during the season with players getting in trouble with the law. Evans, who should be terrorizing quarterbacks right now is suspended until duly noted for some chronic problems. He's slowly losing control of his program, but I believe he's earned the right to go out on his own.
Seriously - why couldn't Lowe's used the coaches that won the damn award? Carr? Grobe? Mangino? Either they're not big enough names or they just wanted to go with the big name coach. Specifically, THREE coaches who represent the clear cut opposite of what that trophy represents.
As for who DOESN'T deserve this trophy?
Bobby Petrino : sort of a Saban clone.
Greg Robinson : how long until Kiffin coaches the Orange?
Phll Fulmer : because EVERYONE (except maybe UCLA fans) hates him
Thanks for reading.



