College football coaches hate the off-season. Here’s why:
- Clemson star Sammy Watkins was arrested for simple possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance following a traffic stop early May 4th.
- Purdue’s leading receiver Antavian Edison was arrested early in the morning on May 6th in Fort Myers, Fla., on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, along with his brother.
- This past weekend, Arkansas players Andrew Peterson, Marquel Wade and Maudrecus Humphrey were arrested and charged with burglary after the three were allegedly caught on camera going into dorm rooms and stealing a variety of items that were valued at ~$5000.
- West Virginia players Darwin Cook and Terrence Garvin were arrested last Tuesday in Morgantown for stealing three bottles of Gatorade as well as bags of chips and pretzels from a convenience store. Not only did surveillance catch them stealing the items on camera, they were seen getting a bag from behind the counter to carry it out in.
- Four oklahoma sooners were suspended indefinitely for the always vague “violation of team rules.” Three players- Trey Franks, the adorable Jaz Reynolds and Quentin Hayes- are all out and wide out Kameel Jackson said he was leaving ou to transfer to Texas A&M, even though the Aggies had no idea he was coming. No stranger to suspensions, Franks is reportedly gone for the year and Reynolds seven games.
- Three Texas Longhorns and one former Longhorn were arrested in the Roppolo’s Dust Up last weekend after the police were called on Kenny Vaccaro, Alex Okafor, Barrett Matthews and soon-to-be-transferring Eryon Barnett. The three current players were arrested for failure to comply with a police order and Barnett was arrested for falsely identifying himself.
And that’s just what I know off the top of my head. There are 120 Divison I college football teams and countless other I-AA and smaller schools with football players that are trying to stay off
EveryDayShouldBeSaturday.com’s “Fulmer Cup” standings, which is a running tally of the school with the most arrests during the school year. It is an entertaining list, assuming your guys aren’t on there. It is a nightmare for a coach to get that phone call in the middle of the night and hear some of his players got picked up for doing something ridiculous. Still, the website has that list for a reason and the reason is there are always going to be players doing dumb things. Why? College kids are knuckleheads. Not all college kids, but a sizable portion.
That isn’t a secret, is it? College kids do dumb things. They make poor decisions, are irresponsible and often act as if there are no repercussions for their actions. That pretty much sums up most every weekend for me, but we aren’t talking about me. While college athletes, especially the ones at big-time schools, have a vested interest in acting more mature than they are (and most do) they are still college kids who occasionally remind us that even the most talented and promising of them are still 22 at the oldest and prone to knuckleheadedness. As with most college kids, you hope that if they have a moment of knuckleheadedness it brings about some clarity and is a wakeup call to grow up and that it isn’t something terrible that injures, hurts or otherwise permanently affects them or others, like it did in Idaho Sunday when Vandals wide out Ken McRoyal was shot and killed after a fight at a party. In some of the cases above that line between knuckleheadedness and criminal was crossed, but looking at the Texas kids it was a classic case of knuckleheadedness. I’ve seen a lot of people in the last week defending them and plenty attacking them. Kenny Vaccaro tweeted out “this is all a misunderstanding” and I’ve seen the other sides say “you don’t get arrested for misunderstandings.” I’m guessing the truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Most people don’t get arrested for misunderstandings, but most people aren’t All-Conference players on the only franchise in the 14th biggest city in America. They have more eyes on them than anyone else and that means more attention, but that can be good and bad, depending on the circumstances. It’s that way at just about every school and coaches and staffs are constantly preaching to their players to act accordingly and not put themselves in situations where they can embarrass themselves, their teammates and their school… But sometimes college kids are just dumb.
That is exactly what this was, to me at least, last weekend- college kids just being dumb. They are going to have to answer all these character questions in the months leading up to the draft next year and (I imagine) they are going to be publicly apologizing to every single member of the football team and staff if they haven’t already. Lastly, I expect they will get some personal, one-on-one time with Mr. Bennie Wylie for their efforts.
It certainly isn’t good news or anything you would hope for, but it isn’t the end of the world, either. Hopefully everyone involved got that moment of clarity that comes from this sort of thing and they will be better people for it. And hopefully that’s it for the knuckleheadedness this summer.
We said goodbye to Missouri last week, so let’s so goodbye to our rural relatives down the road in College Station this week.
And it’s goodbye to Texas A&M
This is weird. I’ve been racking my brain trying to find a similar situation to the Texas/A&M divorce and I can’t. I think this is the example. Everyone has Aggies in their lives: friends, spouses, siblings, in-laws, kids, etc… It’s always been there. ALWAYS. The weird thing is they will still be in everyone’s lives, it just won’t involve athletics. Sure, there will be some trash talk for a while as both fan bases watch the other team, but eventually you have to move on with your own thing and it probably will go away. Won’t it? I can’t imagine the kids in high school now that are on their way to each school will be overly concerned about the success or failure of the other on the field. People are still going to have friends that go there from high school, parents with tickets, uncles and aunts that are grads, on and on. But there will be no games to determine bragging rights anymore. I guess the bragging rights go away? Well, no, because of this.
Scoreboard. Forever. On with it.
Texas A&M
Whoop! Whooooooop!!! We own tu in football, basketball and baseball. You can’t handle the SEC-style of play we bring to the table in, what is it again? Baseball! Yes, baseball. We are going to open the Kevin Sumlin Era with a perfect 14-0 record and a National Championship! Sure, the last six National Champions came from our new conference and yes, four are from our new division, but do you think that is going to bother us? We won ONES of titles in the Big 12 and ran out of time in a thrilling 54-15 loss to Nebraska in the other appearance, so we are MORE than prepared for the SEC… Yes, we are. YES, WE ARE. Stop it. No, it was not a mistake. NO, we are not irrational and rash, YOU are irrational and rash. Are, too. Yes you are. Are, too. With all this money we are going to make getting out from the shadow of tu we are going to get all the top coaches and top facilities and then the top talent to the greatest college town in the world and the titles will roll in… What? HOW are we going to get those coaches and facilities? We are going to win the whole thing next year, that’s how. I just told you that… Yes, we will win the whole thing next year, all the coaches will want to work for us, donors will give money to upgrade the facilities, then we get the top players in the state and the National Championship will be ours… What do you mean, that’s flawed logic? We will win and then get all the things we need to win… NO IT ISN’T! It’s fool-proof: You need the facilities and the staff to get the talent, so we will win the National Championship next year and THEN we will use the money to get the staff and facilities to get the talent to win the National Championship. How are you not following that? Teasip!!! Hahahahaha. SEC here we come! Did you see our SEC tee shirts? Flawless! Were, too. No, they were perfect. Were, too…
Football Record: 112-75
Conference Record: 68-63
National Titles: 0
Conference Titles: 1
Division Titles: 2
Bowl Appearances: 11
Bowl Record: 2-9
What else can be said that hasn’t already been said? They won two bowls games in 16 years. Two. That’s two more than we would have won if we were a team in the Big 12. And by “we” I mean you and me right now. The big difference is we wouldn’t take ourselves so seriously and we would definitely have female cheerleaders.
The Highlights:
Basketball Record: 257-234
Conference Record: 98- 160
National Titles: 0
Conference Titles: 0
Conference Tournament Titles: 0
NCAA Tournament Berths: 6
Final 4 Appearances: 0
I had no idea until I started digging that the Aggies were as HORRIBLE in basketball historically as they were. They averaged going 6-10 in Big 12 play and an overall record of 16-14 each year. They had a nice run under Billy Clyde and Mark Turgeon, but for the most part they were wretched. Now they replace Kansas with Kentucky and the drivable games to Texas and Baylor with trips to LSU and points much farther east.
I had a coach who used to yell at me all the time. I mean ALL the time. I was telling my dad about it once and he said “if he stops yelling at you, that’s when you are in trouble. It means he doesn’t care anymore.” Consider this me not yelling at Texas A&M basketball anymore.
The Highlight- Last year. Texas swept the most disappointing team in all college basketball (the Aggies) and the Texas women beat the defending national champion Ags in both regular season meetings.
The Lowlight- The Acie Law shot. Seriously, this was the game-winner, in overtime, and the final score was 46-43. This video is 3:55, meaning it’s every single positive A&M basketball highlight that has ever existed-
Baseball Record: 586-342-3
Conference Record: I have no idea
National Titles: 0
Conference Titles: 4
Conference Tournament Titles: 3
NCAA Tournament Berths: 10
College World Series Appearances: 2
This is something the Ags do very well. They are the two-time defending Big 12 Tournament Champs and are in a good place to win the Tourney again this year. They are in a 3-way tie with Texas and Oklahoma State for second place right now, but hold a series win over the Horns and close out the regular season at Oklahoma State this weekend.
I expect this will be the Ags best sport in the SEC because we play good baseball in this state and the fans care.
The Highlight: Texas taking two out of three last year at A&M to win the Big 12 Title. Texas rallied from a 4-1 deficit and a 90-minute rain delay to come back in win, 6-4, giving them the No.1 overall seed and a share of the Big 12 Title.
The Lowlight: All of those Texas basketball losses to A&M. Looking at some of those records in the early days of the Big 12, the Aggie basketball team must have looked like the football team in The Water Boy before Adam Sandler starts playing.
Well, that’s it for us and the Ags, unless we meet in the post-season. I have no doubt that will happen and happen soon. Won’t that be fun?
So….
You ever break up (or get broken up with) and you know it’s the last time you’ll see this person face to face and you have that awkward goodbye moment? Someone will say something like “keep in touch” or “I hope you find what you’re looking for” or something more insightful but they don’t really mean it? I’ll not do that here as we say our final goodbyes.
I don’t understand your silly traditions, Ags, or your aversion to girls in short skirts with pompoms on the sideline. I’ve never understood your hysteria for the marching band. “winning halftime” or anything to do with the Corps. You use “tea sip” as a derogatory term and think Texas fans should be offended by “tu.” You call yourselves “Texas Aggies.” Nothing you do makes any sense to me, including this move to the SEC. But you didn’t ask me what I think, nor should you care.
I don’t want to keep in touch I don’t know what you are looking for or care if you find it. I will not miss you, Ags, and I expect you feel the same way.
See ya when we see ya.
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