Saturday, January 12, 2013

Are Coaches Acting More Assholish On Purpose?




I was stunned when I heard that Tommy Tuberville was leaving Texas Tech for the Cincinnati job, especially given the destabilization and demolition of the Big East conference. Comparatively speaking, the Big 12 was a stable place.

Of course, Tuberville at Texas Tech never really made sense, and seeing as how the season ended there for him, I guess I can understand the need to get out of dodge.

But then my mouth gaped open when I heard about Tuberville's alleged dine and dash with recruits that Texas Tech was hosting when he took the Cincinnati job. Of course, Tuberville and Cincinnati denied the allegation. I mean, it's not the kind of thing that a coach with any semblance of a brain is going to admit to.

However...it appears that the Texas Tech prospects are not the only ones to get shafted by good old Tommy boy, as two athletes who had verbally committed to Cincinnati are apparently not going to go there and have been told by the new coaching staff that it's time to look elsewhere.

Okay, that happens when there is a coaching change. Butch Jones left Cincinnati to try and rebuilt the tire fire that is Tennessee, so it's understandable that Tuberville might not be interested in the same kind of athlete that Jones would have been.

If that be the case, and it is a plausible and rational one to make, then why not contact the student athletes shortly after you've been hired? Why make the recruits wait a month after your hire to inform them that the scholarship offer they thought was in place to the school that they wanted to come play for is no longer being honored? Why should the recruits have to call your office to find this information out?

Two former Cincinnati recruits are on the record in the story linked above from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Defensive back Demetrius Monday and defensive back Jaleel Canty were willing to discuss what is going on (or rather, not) with Cincinnati recruiting.

This is absolutely disgraceful and does no service to the student athlete. Instead of being honest and upfront with the student athletes and giving them a fair opportunity to go somewhere else (when clearly they are not wanted, Tuberville chose to go the passive-agressive route and just simply hope that the student athletes went away quietly. He held them in limbo for a month—a month!—when he could have simply picked up a phone and called them. Shameful.

Of course, it appears that karma may work in mysterious ways, as the pulling of a scholarship offer from a quarterback recruit from one of the football powers in northeast Ohio (Massillon) may keep Tuberville from ever recruiting at that school if the current football coach/athletic director at the school has his way.

Tuberville isn't the only coach to show disregard for a student athlete's future. At least none of the Cincinnati student athletes (as far as I know) were ready to show up for early enrollment only to be told, "Um, yeah, about that...."

That's what happened to Kylie Fitts, a top defensive end recruit from Redlands (California) East Valley High school. Fitts was ready to head to Southern California two days ago. Last weekend he was playing in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl and encountered USC assistant coaches who said, "We'll see you Thursday."

Tuesday came around and he was told not to show up. So now, a young man who worked hard and graduated early so he could get a head start on his career has to scramble and...do what, exactly, for the next four to six months. It's too late most places to get admitted for the spring; at most schools, spring semester has started or it's too late to get an application through to be enrolled for a winter or spring quarter (depending on what the college calls it).

He has no leverage; I just feel fortunate that he never enrolled and thusly does not have to sit out via some arcane and idiot transfer rule. But it is still a disgusting situation. As Michael Felder (former college football player and current college football writer put it:



(Yes, I do realize that the young man could stay committed to USC and just simply start in the summer. To be frank, though, I wouldn't. If you knew I was coming early, then be ready for me to come early. If you don't think you want me there, let me know that ahead of time so I don't have to work my ass off to ensure that I have the core requirement done and force me to lose half a year. Explain to me how that is fair. Besides, given how short handed USC is, and given the finish they had to this season that was supposed to be about "unfinished business," why not try to get some new blood in as quickly as possible?)

But let us depart from assholish coaching behavior surrounding recruiting, and move to an assholish statement or two made by a coach who had the unit he was responsible for get demolished on a very large scale.

Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel from Texas A&M has had an eventful year. After the departure of now Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, Manziel was a front runner for the starting job even though he was a redshirt freshman. He also managed to get himself arrested in the Northgate bar district of College Station carrying two fake ids.

Manziel, in addition to some of the twitter pictures (and his infamous mugshot) was last spotted on the field shredding the Oklahoma Sooners defense in the Cotton Bowl Classic. Manziel rang up 516 yards of total offense and four touchdowns as A&M rolled 41-13.

Which led to Mike Stoops, Oklahoma defensive coordinator (and brother of Sooners head coach Bob Stoops) dropping these choice comments during a radio interview with WWLS Radio in Oklahoma:

Now, Stoops has come back and apologized for making the comments, saying he regretted them. Granted, during the interview he did speak glowingly about Manziel and admitted that they got shredded by the freshman.

It's safe to assume that it was an attempt at humor by Mike Stoops, a man that has not really shown a penchant for levity in the past. And maybe on radio, at the time it worked. That benefit of the doubt could be granted.

It seems, though, that a coach shouldn't really talk about the players on an opposing team, and calling out a guy for an off-field discretion this summer seems to be over the line and would appear to work against the coaches code. It does not make Stoops look good in that context.

Stoops's behavior was the least assholish of the troika in question. It seems safe to say, though, that none of these three have brought honor to the profession with their latest antics.
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