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The Ohio State Debacle Continues With the Sugar Bowl ”CEO” Making A Point 

With Penn State president Graham Spanier singing the praises of the Bogus BCS and the absurdity of the college football bowls (Penn State president discusses BCS system) otherwise known as taking several weeks off and then playing in a meaningless exhibition game to Real Americans that know the difference between real competition and Complete and Total Bullshit the Columbus Dispatch provides us with the below outrageous nugget about the “suspended” Ohio State players that somehow magically are being to be allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl.  No, it wasn’t magic!  It was COLD, HARD CASH or rather MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!

Ohio State players apologize to “Buckeye Nation” 

“On a day when five Ohio State players said they were sorry for violating NCAA rules, Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan was unapologetic for pressuring OSU to try to keep the players eligible for the game.

On Dec. 22, Ohio State announced that six players would be suspended for selling memorabilia and/or accepting discounts on tattoos sometime early in 2009.

Linebacker Jordan Whiting drew a one-game suspension and was not part of today’s apology. The other five were suspended for five games: offensive tackle Mike Adams, running back Daniel Herron, receiver DeVier Posey, quarterback Terrelle Pryor and defensive end Solomon Thomas.

But those suspensions will not take effect until the start of the 2011 season. OSU officials, along with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, successfully lobbied the NCAA to reinstate the players for the Sugar Bowl.

Hoolahan said he was first told of the possible suspensions a few days after Ohio State learned of them on Dec. 7.

He said athletic director Gene Smith said to him that OSU was trying to push the suspensions back to the 2011 season, and Hoolahan then told Smith how strongly he felt about the players participating in the Sugar Bowl.

“I made the point that anything that could be done to preserve the integrity of this year’s game, we would greatly appreciate it,” Hoolahan said. “That appeal did not fall on deaf ears, and I’m extremely excited about it, that the Buckeyes are coming in at full strength and with no dilution.””

Thanks to the Columbus Dispatch which has had some great coverage on this Ohio State players’ suspension story in the last week.  We always enjoy picking up The Dispatch when we are in Columbus for business, a football game or The Memorial golf tournament because it is a great paper with some great reporters and columnists.

Isn’t the above story just great?  The CEO of the Sugar Bowl “made a point” to Ohio State AD Gene Smith in a phone call that these 5 Ohio State players should be allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl and that along with OSU officials and Big Ten commish and Lead Candy Ass on the North American continent right now Jim Delany lobbying the NCAA got the players’ suspensions moved back to the 2011 season which of course Ohio State AD Gene Smith hopes to have reduced.

Did you catch all that?  Let’s us translate the above BS for you:

The Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolanhan can tell the Ohio State University, the Big Ten Conference and even the NCAA what it wants and it gets exactly that and we are guessing that if Ohio State student-athletes or any student-athletes does something wrong and a bowl “CEO” makes a few phone calls then those players will of course be allowed to play in the bowl game.  

Yes, that makes perfect sense if corporate America and Candy Asses like Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolanhan are actually running the Ohio State University, the Big Ten Conference and the NCAA, but last time we checked there were other people running those entities but then again we all know what these Ohio State players being allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl is really about….

MONEY!

Plain and simple:  MONEY!  MONEY!  MONEY!

 

Does NCAA president Mark Emmert have a role here?  No, in our opinion Mark Emmert has sold himself out to the highest bidder and it is also our opinion now that Mark Emmert would sell out any student-athlete in intercollegiate athletics right now for a few pieces of silver.  Shame on you Mark, but then we are all starting to learn why you got the top NCAA job and that in our opinion is because you know how to smooze up to the “corporate types” that you enjoy selling OUR student-athletes out to.  You should be ashamed Emmert but your ego is so massive that you could probably rationalize anything at this point.

Does Big Ten commish Jim Delany have a role here?  Please, Candy Ass Jim Delany is in one man everything that is wrong with America today.  Jim Delany is a Pompous, Arrogant Ass and much like Mark Emmert it is our opinion that Jim Delany would trade any student-athlete for a few more bucks in the Big Ten conference’s pockets.

Ohio State AD Gene Smith?  Please, Gene Smith has shown his true colors in this Ohio State players’ suspension case and we all know now that Gene Smith can be bought lock, stock and barrel by a bowl “CEO” that calls to make a point.  Do you have a few bucks in your pocket?  Good, you can BUY the Athletic Director at the Ohio State University.  Sorry Gene, your tenure at Ohio State is forever tainted now because everyone now knows you will put $$$$$$$ ahead of what you know is right and if you really believe that allowing these Ohio State players to play in the Sugar Bowl is right then we can only wonder if you were raised by wolves. 

Jim Tressel.  What can one say about Jim Tressel but that Jim Tressel is nothing but a Complete and Utter Fraud.  Jim Tressel has always talked a good game about doing things the right way but Jim Tressel has now revealed his true character and Tressel being the head coach of the Ohio State University football team could have put his foot down and stood up for what he knows is right and left these OSU players that violated NCAA rules out of the Sugar Bowl but Jim Tressel chose wrong over right and that makes Jim Tressel a fraud and he will be a fraud for the rest of his coaching career.  Sorry Jim, but you just don’t have the guts of Chip Kelly, Paul Bryant or Lou Holtz.

Not only did Chip Kelly at Oregon make a courageous decision to toss Masoli off his football team after Masoli broke the rules he was supposed to be living under even with a national title type team ready to go for the 2010 season, but many other coaches have made the right decisions in the past to sit down players that violated team rules or even worse breaking NCAA rules.

One coach that we have forgotten about that stood up for what was right when faced with a very similar situation to Jim Tressel and others at Ohio State right now was Lou Holtz when he was the head coach at Arkansas in 1977. 

Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton Daily News picks up this great story that should be mandatory reading for these Sorry Excuses for leaders of young people at the Ohio State University:

The Buckeyes need to enact “Do Right Rule” 

“The decision now facing Buckeyes’ coach Jim Tressel — who must decide what to do with star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, top running back Dan Herron, heralded receiver Devier Posey and two lineman, all who must serve an NCAA-mandated five-game suspension to start next season because they peddled awards and in one case their Buckeyes’ uniform for, among other things, tattoos — is similar to the one Arkansas coach Lou Holtz dealt with in late December of 1977 as his team prepared to face No. 2 ranked Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl game.

Just before Christmas that year, three Razorback players — star running back Ben Cowins, stand-out receiver Donnie Bobo and back-up running back Michael Forrest — were nabbed in a police raid of a dorm room where a female student was found partially clothed.

Although the young woman was of age and no formal charges ended up being filed, Holtz told me the players had broken the “Do Right Rule.” That’s why he suspended them from the bowl game.

Not only was there discord on the team, but some boosters and bowl big shots — worried about ratings and sponsorship dollars (same as some folks are now with Ohio State) — weren’t happy with him either.

And then of course there was mighty Oklahoma on the horizon.

The Sooners’ wishbone attack — which featured the masterful Billy Sims — led the nation in rushing.

Meantime, Holtz had just left Cowins — a Razorback legend with 3,570 career rushing yards, 16 career 100-yard games and 14 TDs that season alone — at home. He’d also jettisoned Bobo and Forrest who had combined for another 8 TDs that season.

And to add to the misery, the Razorbacks All American offensive lineman Leotis Harris would miss the game with an injury.

Arkansas was a 21-point underdog and finally Vegas took the game off the board all together. Everyone thought the Sooners would pulverize Arkansas.

Holtz didn’t bend. “I don’t like doing this,” he told me, “but they broke the Do Right Rule….You can’t just worry about losing a game, you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose what you stand for.”

In one of the most stunning bowl upsets ever, Arkansas dismantled Oklahoma, 31-6.

Afterward Holtz was celebrated throughout the football world for standing up for what he believed in. In the process, instead of losing a team, he had gained one like he hadn’t had before

All because he held firm on the Do Right Rule.”

Thanks to a great columnist and writer in Tom Archdeacon for reminding us of this great story involving the Great Lou Holtz and the above story is one of the reasons we here at Coaches Hot Seat have always honored Coach Holtz as one of the best college football coaches of our lifetimes and someone that if he was still coaching we would send our kids to play for in a nanosecond.

Sadly, the same can no longer be said for Jim Tressel.

Very simply:  Jim Tressel is now a FRAUD and everyone knows he is a FRAUD and if he really gave a Damn about his football team, the Ohio State University, intercollegiate athletics and even these 5 Ohio State players he would not allow them to play in the Sugar Bowl but then we all know now that if you wave a few $$$$$$$$ in front of Jim Tressel he will sell out anyone even the memory of his father Lee Tressel who would have probably tossed these OSU players out the door with his bare hands if he had been their head coach.

There’s not much more one can say about the travesty and embarrassment to college athletics in America that is the case of these Ohio State players that have been given a pass so they can play in the Sugar Bowl and all because no one wanted to piss off the “CEO” of a bowl game that has nothing to do with intercollegiate athletics beyond using our student-athletes like whores to serve corporate interests and fat cats that pay the big bucks to entertain their families, clients and friends as they watch the “whores” they paid good money to watch do their thing.

Disgusting is what this Ohio State story is and that makes the BCS along with everything and everyone associated with it and the selling out of our student-athletes to the highest bidder a disgrace to intercollegiate athletics with new NCAA president Mark Emmert leading the charge of finding even more ways to sell out student-athletes to the highest bidders in corporate America.

Getting back to another lead Candy Ass in Penn State president Graham Spanier, he did a Q&A with the Pittsburg Tribune-Review over the weekend about the BCS and some of the things that come out of this Candy Ass’s mouth defy belief but then when you are talking about a guy that once authored a study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior concerning the practice of mate swapping or “swinging” then maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised! (Look it up!  It’s on Spanier’s Wikipedia page!  Yes, a study on “swinging!”  Oh, that was some government money well spent!)

Here’s the link to the Tribune-Review story on Spanier:

Penn State president discusses BCS system 

Check out this quote from Spanier:

“But we make our decisions on what we believe is best for the overall college game, for our universities, and for our student athletes.”

I guess that means that Spanier believes it is OK for the Sugar Bowl “CEO” to make a point that players that have violated NCAA rules should be allowed to play in a bowl game and have their suspension moved back to the next season.  Yes, that makes perfect sense if you are doing what you “believe is best for the overall college game, for our universities, and for out student-athletes.”  Please, Spanier is full of Bullshit and he knows it!

Graham Spanier is along with Jim Delany just another great example of everything that is wrong with America today.  Graham Spanier has not worked a day of his adult life off a college campus and we will say again if  you filled up America with Graham Spaniers in 1941 there would not be an America today for our children to live in because long ago the Germans and Japanese would have overrun Candy Asses like Spanier and conquered the American Republic.

Of course, if America was comprised of Candy Asses like Graham Spaniers in 1941 there would have never been a Graham Spanier because Spanier was born in 1948 and since Wikipedia tells us that Spanier is of the Jewish faith Hitler would have wiped all of the Jews from the face of the Earth if not for Real Americans standing up to that Bastard and all of his evil.  Now that is Damn ironic but we are sure that it is completely lost on Spanier because Graham is of course right now enjoying a bowl trip to play a meaningless exhibition games that means NOTHING AT ALL and isn’t it interesting that Penn State team is coached by the Great Joe Paterno who understands completely that the BCS is totally bogus and that college football should have had a playoff long ago.

Let’s Summarize for Everyone:

1.  The college and university presidents have sold out OUR student-athletes out to the highest bidders in corporate America to play in meaningless exhibition games which are little more than info-commercials that use OUR student-athletes as props or “whores” whichever one prefers to sell their goods and services.

2.  Far from a playoff in I-A college football being “NFL-like” as Candy Ass Graham Spanier claims it would actually be just like the very same postseason playoff that the NCAA uses for every other sport in intercollegiate athletics and for every other sports teams on the Penn State campus besides football.  Get your facts straight Graham, but maybe you are studying that whole “swinging” thing again for another “study” and you have gotten yourself confused! 

3.  The Sugar Bowl “CEO” can call and “make a point” and magically 5 key Ohio State players that broke NCAA rules are eligible for their bowl game while Ohio State officials including Jim Tressel sold their souls out for a few pieces of silver.  Pitiful for Ohio State University and as for Jim Tressel:  Disgraceful

4.  College football is really not about “student-athletes,” what is right for the colleges, integrity, academics, morals, principles or any other words one can conjure about what intercollegiate athletics is supposed to be about.  No, college football is now…

ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

Here’s the very scary and very troubling part of this entire Ohio State player suspension fiasco:

If Jim Tressel can be gotten to and convinced to trade what he has stood for during his entire coaching career then anyone can be gotten to and all it took was a few phone calls by someone that represented powerful corporate interests and the Ohio State University sold itself out, it sold its fans out, it sold its football team out, it sold its student-athletes out and OSU “officials” decided that doing the expedient and “corporate” thing was more important than doing the RIGHT thing and for that everyone involved in this decision should be ashamed and fired.

Will that happen?  Not a chance in Hell because when you get right down to it, it is our opinion that Mark Emmert, Gene Smith, Jim Tressel, Gordon Gee (we forgot all Gordo who has been very quiet on this entire Ohio State player fiasco which is very interesting in itself), Jim Delany, Graham Spanier and a lot of other blowhards that support the Bogus BCS and the absurd bowl system don’t really give a Damn about anything beyond their own paychecks and own selfish interests.

If Jim Tressel had a shred of guts he would tell the Sugar Bowl “CEO” to go take a flying leap and leave these 5 Ohio State players that broke the rules at home and play with his other 70 or so scholarship players and let the chips fall where they may and let integrity and doing what is right win out.

Sorry, Jim Tressel’s guts and courage left the station long ago and if the things we have been told about Lee Tressel are true by people that knew the man and got to see him coach a lot of football teams, then if Lee Tressel was alive today he would kick Jim’s ass over this Bogus decision and Jim would know he needed his ass kicked because Jim what you are doing is not only wrong it puts what is left of the integrity of college football at risk and frankly we here at Coaches Hot Seat are still stunned by your actions in this case.

In some ways Jim Tressel letting us down and many others across the country, Ohio State fans and fans of college football, is very much like one of our father’s letting us down because up to this point Jim Tressel was one of those guys that we put up on a pedestal in the same we do our fathers, former coaches, teachers and others that have had great influence over our lives.  Sorry Jim, there is no getting around this outrageous decision and you will forever be linked to whether you realize it or not right now. 

Note for Coaches Hot Seat Subscribers

We are going to be moving some things around over the next few days like we were before the Christmas last week and we will be posting our links less frequently over the next two or three days.  We will still be doing our overnight/early morning news story links and we will post again around dinner time each day.  We are working on a number of things at Coaches Hot Seat Central for our move to becoming a non-subscriber website beginning on April 1, 2011 and we have a number of things we are working hard on and that combined with many of us moving around the country for the Holidays will slow down our linking of stories for a few days.

Thanks for your patience and have a great week as we head for the New Year!

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There have been parents, teachers, mentors and others in our lives here at Coaches Hot Seat that have encouraged and many times implored us to continue to read and learn all through our lives and more than one person has said to many of us:

“Learn something new every day.”

Reflecting on the past week in college football and the suspensions of five Ohio State players for breaking NCAA rules certainly fulfilled the requirement of learning something new because we learned that new NCAA president Mark Emmert, Ohio State AD Gene Smith and Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel are not the men we thought they were.

We began last week believing that Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel were men of principle, integrity and that had a high standard of ethics but the decision to not suspend the five Ohio State players for the Sugar Bowl BUT for the first 5 games of the 2011 season means that all of the above has been tossed in the ocean.

Let’s make this very clear:  Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel now have nothing to stand on when it comes to principle, integrity and a high standard of ethics because they violated the basic tenets of what is right and what is wrong and we know enough about the above three men to know that they understand the difference between right and wrong but they still decided to do the wrong and unethical thing as it pertains to these 5 Ohio State players and their status for the Sugar Bowl.

Earlier this week before the Ohio State suspensions broke in the media several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were in Dallas, Texas on business and also chasing down a few leads that have been tossed our way by college football fans that have some real concerns at the current direction of the game.  Yes, we learned first-hand that the Texas Longhorn fans are a mighty unhappy bunch but Dallas, Texas is a terrific town filled with great people that were busy preparing for Christmas and not surprisingly all of our wives found some incredible shopping centers in the Dallas area (The Galleria for one is a sight to behold) that yielded some great presents for us and our children on Christmas Day! 

 

One night early last week we went to dinner in Dallas, Texas with some very interested bystanders to the game of college football and we talked for several hours about college football and intercollegiate athletics over thick Texas steaks and some of the best Napa Valley wine which our Texas friends really seemed to enjoy.  One of the issues that came up during dinner was the entire Cam Newton situation and the new NCAA president Mark Emmert and below is a short clip of our conversation (This dinner was held before the NCAA’s ruling on the Ohio State players):

CHS Member:  “Yes, the Cam Newton decision stunk to high heaven but one has to think that Mark Emmert is going to put the good of intercollegiate athletics above any one football player.”

Dinner Guest:  “You can’t trust Emmert anymore.”

CHS Member:  “Why do you say that?”

Dinner Guest:  “Because as the new NCAA president Emmert’s main interest now is protecting the most important thing as far as the NCAA is concerned and that is keeping the money flowing.  Mark Emmert is not going to do anything that will threaten the money flow and if that means that NCAA rules will be violated, broken, bent, changed in midstream or anything else one can dream up, it will be done to protect the one thing the NCAA really cares about….MONEY!”

CHS Members sit very quietly for a minute or so as we take-in our dinner guest’s comments and personal opinion and then…

CHS Member:  “Well, if that is the case then the game of college football and even intercollegiate athletics is in great danger.”

Dinner Guest:  “College athletics is only a few more stupid decisions by the NCAA of being at risk of becoming a complete fraud in the eyes of the public and once the idea gets into the public that the NCAA will put money above all else then college football and basketball are then little more than professional sports.”

CHS members looked around the table quietly at each other and one could see the clinched jaws that were set that night that even almost a week later haven’t changed much because intercollegiate athletics is in great danger now and it is our opinion that the people running the game are placing it in the dangerous position.

There is a lot more from our dinner conversation early last week that we would love to reproduce here but there are a lot of things that we here at Coaches Hot Seat and real media people are working on right now relative to college football, college basketball, the bowls, the BCS and other issues surrounding intercollegiate athletics and we and others will have our say and reporting on these matters down the road at the time and place of our choosing.

Getting back to the suspension of the five Ohio State football players anyone that has read the CHS Blog in recent years knows that we have always had a great deal of respect for the Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel and that respect flows from watching him coach both at Ohio State and at his previous stop Youngstown State;  the way that he carries himself and handles his players and football team; and lastly because we have a member of Coaches Hot Seat that is from and grew up in the state of Ohio, is graduated from the Ohio State University and who actually knew Jim Tressel’s father Coach Lee Tressel (A lot of people probably don’t know that Coach Lee Tressel was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996 for his great record at Baldwin-Wallace College where in 23 seasons he put up a record of 155 – 52 – 6 and won 1 NCAA Division III national championship (1978).

Over the years this CHS member from Ohio has always spoken highly of the Tressels, of the Ohio State University and of the state/people of Ohio, but this past week after it came out that Ohio State football players were selling and trading their awards for money and tattoos and that the NCAA/Ohio State was going to allow those OSU players to play in the Sugar Bowl while suspending them for the first 5 games of the 2011 season our good friend was livid and embarrassed for “his” Ohio State football team and “his” university.  While talking with our Ohio friend this week on the phone with him back East visiting family for Christmas the sound of his voice and his attitude towards the decision makers at Ohio State (and the NCAA) was beyond mad and bordered on complete betrayal.  During our conversation with our Ohio friend we asked him what he thought Coach Lee Tressel would have done if he had been put in the same situation as his son Jim with 5 players clearly violating NCAA rules:  “Please.  That’s easy.  Those players not only wouldn’t be going to or playing in the Sugar Bowl they would no longer be on his football team!”

We could not agree more with our good friend and fellow CHS member’s sentiments over the outrage that was the NCAA/Ohio State’s decision to allow these 5 Ohio State players to play in the Sugar Bowl and we have been heartened that so many in media feel the very same way. 

NCAA ruling defies common sense, Pat Forde, ESPN.com

OSU players should have been suspended from bowl game, Brian Kollars, Dayton Daily News

Ruling on Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State by NCAA ridiculous, David Moulton, Naples News

Ohio State shouldn’t let offenders play in bowl, Rob Oller, Columbus Dispatch

NCAA meets world, world laughs again, Joe Medley, Anniston Star

Any logic to NCAA penalties these days?, Lenny Vanglider, NewOrleans.com

Dez Bryant finds easy target, the NCAA, Matt Mosley, ESPN.com

Feigned ignorance equals bliss, full bowl roster for Ohio State, Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports

Like NCAA system, Ohio State ruling makes no sense, Jon Solomon, Birmingham News

NCAA is all about cash, Evan Mohl, Galveston Daily News

Terrelle Pryor gets an “F” in tradition, Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com

Suspended Buckeyes should miss bowl, Thayer Evans, FoxSports.com

There are lots more but in the interest of time in this Holiday season…..

Let’s just go straight to the heart of the problem with this decision on the Ohio State players:  Very simply, Mark Emmert and now his NCAA organization, Ohio State AD Gene Smith and Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel have violated the principles and integrity that they have claimed that they believe in which makes everything that all three of the above men now do in the future suspect. 

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest”

Mahatma Gandhi once said the above and everyone now knows that Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel all say one thing about the way things should be done and how student-athletes should go about their lives but do another themselves and that three of the top men in intercollegiate athletics would do such a thing undermines college football and the entire university sports system that we have now in America.

Oh, you think that is too big of a leap?  Sorry, you are wrong.  Mark Emmert was a man that we had grown to respect during his well-traveled and successful academic career but some of the BS that has been pouring out of him over the past few months would fill a large barn.  The press conference with Ohio State AD and OSU head coach Jim Tressel last week with them trying to justify what they know to be a wrong decision to allow these Ohio State football players to play in the Sugar Bowl goes to heart of what is wrong in not only intercollegiate athletics today but across our country.  People telling other people, especially people that work for them or that many people report to, how they should live their lives and then doing the opposite themselves!

Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel were wrong and they know they were wrong on their decision to allow these 5 Ohio State football players to play in the Sugar Bowl and that fact goes right back to the conversation that several of us here at Coaches Hot Seat had with our Texas dinner guess early last week.

“Mark Emmert is not going to do anything that will threaten the money flow and if that means that NCAA rules will be violated, broken, bend, changed in midstream or anything else you can dream up, it will be done to protect the one thing the NCAA really cares about….MONEY!”

Sorry, Mark Emmert, Gene Smith Jim Tressel and everyone else involved in this Bogus and Outrageous decision to allow the Ohio State players that clearly and in our opinion knowingly violated NCAA rules (more on that in a minute) to play in the Sugar Bowl because this entire Ohio State debacle is really only about MONEY and everyone including you Bastards know it.

As for Jim Tressel, if Jim Tressel really believes that allowing these Ohio State players that violated NCAA rules to play in the Sugar Bowl is the right thing to do then Jim Tressel’s entire life has been nothing but a lie and Jim Tressel is now nothing but a fraud.  Ditto for Gene Smith. 

Mark Emmert?  After watching Mark Emmert very closely since he took over the NCAA and after talking to some of our friends in intercollegiate athletics in recent week it is now our opinion that Mark Emmert is now on a daily basis violating the principles that he has claimed during his life he believed in and it is also our opinion that Mark Emmert would do anything and everything to cover up things, bend rules, break rules and many other things that the Emmert we used to know would have been outraged about, only to keep the money flowing to the NCAA.

Sorry Mark Emmert.  The Ohio State decision proved to us that our Texas friend was right and yes you are now nothing but a fraud that will violate your own principles, integrity and ethics in the pursuit of money.

Yes, those are out opinions and for those out there that believe this Ohio State situation, or situations now or in the past in other conferences, or admitted NCAA rule-breaking in the past are just isolated incidents we can only say to you:

WAKE THE HELL UP!

What the NCAA and the conferences do not realize (or maybe they do realize it which only makes things worse) is that college football and college basketball are marching to a drumbeat much different than the propaganda that the NCAA and the conferences are now selling to the general public and the only way for the general public to completely understand the lies and deceit that they are now being fed is for EVERYTHING to come out.  What does EVERYTHING mean?  Look it up.  It means EVERYTHING. 

As for the conference commissioners that were criticizing the Cam Newton situation and the NCAA/SEC decision to allow Newton to be ruled ineligible and then eligible to continue playing the season we are giving you a recommendation in the very strongest terms that all of you should SHUT THE HELL UP!  Just like with the Ohio State decision which in our opinion was a complete violation of NCAA rules and procedures by allowing these Ohio State players to play in the Sugar Bowl (which strikes right at the heat of Candy Ass and Gutless Coward Jim Delany’s comment about the Cam Newton decision earlier this year) there are a LOT MORE things going out there in our country that would make players selling trinkets and awards look like an afternoon little girls’ tea party. 

No one in power knows where the next thing or issue may drop and for fans of collegiate athletics that believe that the people now in power, the NCAA folks, the conference commissioners, the presidents, the ADs, are corrupting the sport with their Bogus ideas like the BCS and the Outrageous decisions like this one with the Ohio State players, the people in power not knowing what could come out next is a very good thing.  The problem with people in power that have as their main concern keeping the money flow rolling is that they will sacrifice the integrity of the intercollegiate athletics for $$$$$$$$ which in turn will almost always put those same people into some impossible situations as new and even bigger things come to light.

Take it from us….because it is our opinion that there is a whole Damn lot going on out in our country in intercollegiate athletics and if it is going to take the media bringing forward some or all of those things to begin the process of cleaning up college sports and saving it from itself then that is what should and will happen.  No, Mark Emmert nor anyone else will be able to head off the coming public relations disasters but these Bastards have already put themselves into such contorted positions to come up with their latest BS decisions that it will be fascinating to see how they react when something really BIG breaks.  No doubt in our minds, the people in power will make decisions that will revolve around one thing and one thing only and that is the only thing that matters to these folks anymore:

MONEY

Before we get to a CHS Blog post that we made in March 2010 on Jeremiah Masoli’s suspension at Oregon that has a lot of relevance here we would like to say a thing or two about the following comment from the NCAA and Ohio State about these players being allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl:

“The NCAA did not suspend the players for the Sugar Bowl because they “did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred.””

Really?  Well, if the above is true then Ohio State AD Gene Smith should be fired on the spot!  If the above is not true and Ohio State AD Gene Smith was making sure that his staff was adequately educating student-athletes on what could and couldn’t be done when it comes to receiving ANY kind of compensation while on scholarship and enrolled in school then the above statement is a lie.  Since we have followed Ohio State AD Gene Smith very closely over the year it is our opinion that the above statement is a lie.

We know of what we talk about here at Coaches Hot Seat when it comes to be “educated” on the rules of the NCAA since to a man all of us played on scholarship or as a walk-on at I-A and I-AA schools.  Guess what the very first things that we were all talked to about once arriving on campus over 20 years ago?  The rules of the NCAA and how they applied to what we could and could not do while we were on scholarship and/or a walk-on and while we were enrolled in school.  In fact, one of the very first things that we were talked to about were issues around receiving ANY kind of compensation, but especially about selling things such as university uniforms, clothes, items and even books that we used in class.  All of those things were NOT ALLOWED!  Many of these university athletic department staff members focused especially on the selling of books, clothing and any awards that we might receive because those are the primary things that we came into contact with that would have had any kind of serious value to other people and guess what?  To a man we all knew that we were NOT ALLOWED to sell things that were given to us by the university or that we won as an award for our play on the field as long as we were on scholarship or still enrolled in school. 

Over 20 years ago all of these athletic department staff people were very clear:

“Don’t sell anything that we give to you to use or that you are awarded to you by your play or your team’s play while you are still on scholarship or enrolled in school here.  Understand?  Good.”

Does it get any simpler than that?  We didn’t think so which means that not only in our opinion did Ohio State AD Gene Smith violate how own principles, integrity and ethics that he has claimed during his career that he stood for, but it is also our opinion that Gene Smith lied to the media in the press conference last week about the “education” that Ohio State student-athletes get and have gotten on NCAA rules. 

Sorry Gene.  Up until last week you were the type of person that we would have done almost anything for and now you are in our eyes nothing but a fraud.  And for what?  So 5 football players can play in a meaningless exhibition game?  It’s not worth it Gene Smith and not only do you know it’s not worth it you also know that you and Jim Tressel are wrong and for that both of you should be ashamed.  Our only wonder is how can you two look your children and grandchildren in the eyes with a straight face and tell them to go out do what is right and not do what is wrong in their lives?  Yes, we can only wonder exactly how do you do that Gene and Jim?  Please, we would love to know the answer to that question because both of you proved last week that you will now do ANYTHING for MONEY!

Relative to the decision by the NCAA and Ohio State to allow these 5 players that violated NCAA rules to play in the Sugar Bowl this past March we posted an entry in the CHS Blog about Jeremiah Masoli getting suspended for the year by Chip Kelly at Oregon.  We believe that this particular CHS Blog entry is very instructive to the differences between people of principle, Chip Kelly of Oregon and Paul “Bear” Bryant Alabama that have principles and others like Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel that will violate everything they claim to believe in for 5 players that clearly violated NCAA rules.  Read below that March 2010 CHS Blog entry and you decided for yourself who has principles, integrity and ethics and who doesn’t, but in our opinion Emmert, Smith and Tressel have now forever sacrificed their right to tell ANYONE that they are WRONG about ANYTHING.  It is so very ironic that that the below CHS Blog post from earlier this year talked about an incident from 1963 involving Coach Bryant suspending his star QB Joe Namat for the SUGAR BOWL.  Yes, the decision make by Paul Bryant to suspend Joe Namath for a bowl game and now by Jim Tressel to let his players play speaks volumes about the principles of the two men and in our minds it doesn’t matter how many games or championships Jim Tressel wins in the future he will forever be someone that has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he will sacrifice personal principle and integrity for money.  Ditto for Gene Smith and Mark Emmert.

With the Suspensions at Oregon and College Athletes Getting into Trouble on a Regular Basis it Seems the Coaches Hot Seat “Quote of the Day” is an Excerpt from The Last Coach, “A Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant – What Did Namath and Alabama do After Namath was Suspended by Bryant? – Only rack up 2 National Titles and 3 SEC Championships 

Posted on March 13th, 2010

With the season long suspension of Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli in 2010 by his head coach Chip Kelly (and the other trouble that college football players seem to be getting into on a regular basis these days), the Coaches Hot Seat “Quote of the Day” today is an excerpt from Allen Barra’s book on Paul “Bear” Bryant, The Last Coach (which is below).  We rarely quote from books in the CHS “Quote of the Day” but we thought it was appropriate because of how important we believe it is for coaches in collegiate athletics to fully realize how important discipline is to the success  of his/her program.  There are a lot of great lessons to be learned from the suspensions at Oregon, mostly by the players themselves, and if anyone really believes that the motivations, desires and needs of college athletes were a lot different in 1963 than in 2010 then that person does not understand basic human motivation and what it takes to build a championship program.

Excerpt, The Last Coach, Allen Barra

“A few days before the final game in ‘63, Bryant heard a rumor he couldn’t ignore.  Apparently Joe Namath has been involved in an altercation in a parking lot in front of a convenience store.  Bryant, who was preparing to fly to Tennessee on a recruiting trip, went instead to the dorm looking for Joe.  He was seated in the dining room drinking coffee when Namath came in; Bryant asked him to come back to the room he kept at the dorm for private conversations.  Whatever exactly Namath did, according to Bryant he admitted it.  In late years, Bryant would insist that Namath’s offense wasn’t major, but “I believe if you have rules you abide by them.  You can’t make exceptions.”  What he did not know for months, he later admitted, was “that other players were involved.  They let him take the rap alone.”  Namath never mentioned the names of the other players who were with him.

Bryant told Joe he was suspending him.  How many days?  Namath wanted to know.  Until the end of the year, was the answer, “or forever.”  Or until Joe proved something to him.  He would help Namath go to another school if he wanted to, or help him  get into the Canadian Football League, or allow him a chance to get back on the team if he stayed in school and proved that his transgression was just a bad mistake.  The choice was up to Joe.  Bryant then called a meeting of his coaches and told them of his decision.  All of them, except one,  argued for finding a way to keep Joe on the team;  a few of them might have been considering the extra bonuses they would receive – which amounted to about a month’s salary – if Alabama won its Sugar Bowl game, an unlikely prospect without Namath.  The lone dissenter was Gene Stallings.  Bebes was unyielding:  “If it had been me, if I had been the player, you would have fired me, wouldn’t you?”  he asked his boss.  Bryant had to admit that he would have.  “Then let him go,” said Stallings.

Bryant politely dismissed his aides and sat in his office for two hours, ruminating.  Finally, he called Namath and Assistant Coach Sam Bailey into the office.  He told Namath, he would give his right arm not have to do it, but if he didn’t, he would be hurting both Namath and the team.  He told him the university could reverse his decision, but if they did, he would resign.  This was Bryant’s own account, and it sounds like hyperbole to anyone that did not know his history, anyone who did not know that he had done precisely that at Maryland under precisely the same circumstances – or that he would later do it again at Alabama.

Namath teared up and begged his coach not to consider resigning.  He had a favor to ask:  would Coach Bryant call his mother and tell her before the news hit the papers?  Of course he would.  Mrs. Namath cried over the phone and begged Bryant to reconsider, but he told her his decision was final.  That night, unbeknownst to Bryant, Namath had dinner at the Bryants’ home with Paul Jr. and Mary Harmon, who tried to comfort him.  Some credit Mary Harmon with saving Namath for Alabama.  “I sent for him,” she revealed some years later.  When he arrived, she hugged him and said, “Joe what happened?  You couldn’t do anything bad.  You’re just too good of a boy to do anything bad.”  What Joe had been doing, according to at least once source was not only drinking but directing traffic in downtown Tuscaloosa – not exactly a low-profile pastime for Alabama’s most easily recognized football player.

As it turned out, the suspension of Joe Namath was to set the stage for one of Alabama’s and Bear Bryant’s most legendary improbable finishes.  At first, the loss of Namath seemed like a devastating blow.  Bryant’s players did not doubt that he had done the right thing, but at that moment no one could see how they would get through the games with Miami and Ole Miss.  The team pulled together in large part because Namath accepted the suspension – at least, he made no public complaint.”

The 1964 season, when Alabama did win a national championship but finished on a sour note, made for an interesting contrast with 1963. 

Namath now officially listed as “Joe Willie” in the Alabama press guide, came out roaring, complete sixteen of twenty-one passes and running for three touchdowns in an easy 31 – 3 season opener win over Georgia.  By the time Alabama was ready to host North Carolina State in the fourth week of the season…..”

The Last Coach, A Life of Paul “Bear” Bryant, Allen Barra

Paul “Bear” Bryant suspended Joe Namath late in the 1963 season for the final game and the Sugar Bowl.  What was Alabama’s record over the next three years you ask?

1964 – 10 – 1 – SEC and National Championship (Led by Joe Namath at QB.  Namath’s record as the starting QB at Alabama was 29-4)

1965 – 9 – 1 – 1 – SEC and National Championship

1966 – 11 – 0 – SEC Championship (Did not win National Championship even though Alabama was the only undefeated and un-tied team at the end of the year.  The story of the 1966 Alabama team is detailed in the great book, The Missing Ring: How Bear Bryant and the 1966 Alabama Crimson Tide Were Denied College Football’s Most Elusive Prize, by Keith Dunnavant.

End of March 2010 Coaches Hot Seat Blog Entry

There is a difference between Chip Kelly, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel and that difference is that Kelly and Bryant have principles that they believe in, stand up for and will sacrifice things for and Emmert, Smith and Tressel principles, integrity and personal ethics are changeable depending upon the particular situations they happen to find themselves in at then time.

Yes, a very strong message could have been sent to these 5 Ohio State football players and to student-athletes, fans, boosters and others around intercollegiate athletics that rules are rules and if you break the rules you will receive the appropriate punishment. 

Sorry, but Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel just proved to everyone but especially to college football fans EVERYTHING that is wrong with the game and if given the opportunity these Bastards will destroy intercollegiate athletics and for what?

Money

Yes, Mark Emmert, Gene Smith and Jim Tressel should be ashamed of themselves right now but we rather doubt that any of them gives a Damn about anything beyond making sure that the next Direct Deposit hits their bank account in a timely manner.

Sorry Bastards, but we are just not going to sit back and let fraudsters, Candy Asses and Gutless Cowards destroy collegiate athletics and if takes the general public being made aware of the true nature of college football and basketball then so be it but Mark Emmert and the Bozos at the NCAA better be aware that they have already painted themselves into a very small corner by some very stupid decisions that they have handed down in recent years and we can only wonder what the Hell these Ivory Tower Candy Asses are going to do when everyone learns the truth?

Now that is a Damn good question!  What will the Ivory Tower Candy Asses do then? 

Oh, bend and even break NCAA rules if necessary to keep the MONEY FLOWING!

Be proud Mark Emmert if you like, but please that man in the mirror that you see each morning is now a fraud and you know he….meaning….you are now a fraud.

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We here at Coaches Hot Seat would like to wish everyone a…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

On this Christmas morning Coaches Hot Seat members are spread all across the United States at the homes of their families and close friends and everyone reports that Good Cheer is Being Had by All….especially the children!

Christmas is of course celebrated and observed to commemorate the birth of Jesus and across the United States Americans of all different kinds of denominations and religions choose their own unique ways to recognize this special day.  Most of us here at CHS have been out in the malls and stores across our country in recent days buying gifts for our loved ones and friends we still find the spirit of Christmas in our fellow citizens everywhere we look in this great country of ours.

Our childhood memories of Christmas come flooding back this time of year as we watch our children wake up excitedly on Christmas morning to open their gifts from Santa Clause, family and friends as new memories are made for the new generations that continue on the very important religions elements of today and the happiness that comes from giving and opening so many gifts. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial page has since 1949 been publishing in the Christmas Eve edition their own unique view of Jesus and what he has meant to our world over the past 2000 plus years and we always find that the below editorial gives us pause and makes us realize that one of the first revolutionaries on Earth to stand up and speak Truth to Power was Jesus Christ and all that followed him that fought for justice, freedom, liberty were but following in his footsteps. 

“When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar.

There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter’s star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Yes, it always takes guts to stand up to entrenched power that is determined to keep its hold over a people and Jesus had the courage to stand up to some in his own religion and to the very powerful Roman Empire.  It took real guts for Jesus to stand up and say “Enough” and as the above editorial points out it was Jesus that brought light into the world and placed government into its proper place and role in our world and reminded everyone that power flows not from state but from the People and from the way they choose to worship and live their lives.  It is We the People that hold all the power and it is the government that works for and is supposed to be serving us not the other way around as is often though in Washington DC and in other capitals around the world.  Bravo to Jesus Christ for standing up for his beliefs and principles for all that have followed him and faced down power in this world.

As Robert F. Kennedy pointed out in speech in South Africa in June 1968 it is often the courage of one man or woman that changes the world:

“It is a revolutionary world that we all live in, and thus, as I have said in Latin America and in Asia and in Europe and in my own country, the United States, it is the young people who must take the lead. Thus, you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived.

“There is,” said an Italian philosopher, “nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the — in the introduction of a new order of things.”2 Yet this is the measure of the task of your generation, and the road is strewn with many dangers.

First, is the danger of futility: the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills — against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant Reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that “all men are created equal.”

“Give me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the world.” These men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and then the total — all of these acts — will be written in the history of this generation.”

Yes, Jesus Christ moved the world on this Day, Christmas Day, and 2000 plus years after the birth of Jesus many Americans still celebrate, admire, worship and recognize his birth, his life, his courage, his principles, his teachings, his guts and even his death.

Vince Lombardi had nothing on Jesus Christ because long before Coach Lombardi started building championship football teams in Green Bay, Wisconsin in the 1950s there was a man from Galilee that showed the world what real courage and standing up for one’s principles was really all about.

On this Christmas Day we here at Coaches Hot Seat celebrate his birth of Jesus and the magnificent and courageous life he lived and we also look forward to spending time with our family and friends something that we never really get enough of during our short lives on this Earth.

God Bless everyone during this Holiday Season and….MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

 

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The Red Phone Rings at Coaches Hot Seat Central – The BCS vs. a Postseason Playoff and the Big Ten Divisions Were Discussed

 

The Red Phone rang in the Coaches Hot Seat Central on Saturday as several of us were sitting around watching the NCAA Division II National Championship Game (A great win by Minnesota-Duluth over Delta State) and the I-AA NCAA Division I-AA Semi-Final Game between Georgia Southern and Delaware (No, we would not want to play Delaware if we were coaching a I-A team!) and on the other end of the line was a good buddy of ours that works in the media business. 

After exchanging pleasantries and Holiday greetings he says:

“Just read your last blog post on the BCS…..

(Big Ten Commish Jim Delany Can’t Understand Why the New Big Ten Division Names “Leaders and Legends” Didn’t Go Over Well With the People? – Oh, That Makes Perfect Sense Because Jim Delany Doesn’t Have A Lick of Common Sense! – The Pravda of the Big Ten Conference…The Chicago Tribune Is On the Job Though Trying To Salvage The Latest Stupidity Out of the Big Ten Offices! – The Big Ten Should “Solve the Problem” and It Can Then Solve the Problems! – The San Diego Union-Tribune Exposed the Hypocrisy and Fraud Behind the Bowl System and Bogus BCS – Yes, the College and University Presidents Are Some of the Biggest Hypocrites On Planet Earth! – John Stossel of Fox News On the Idiocy of Title IX and the Recent Athletic Team Cuts at Cal-Berkeley)

…..and one thing you left out is that the people that work in intercollegiate athletics at the AD and coaching levels and the college and university presidents need to understand that the folks behind the BCS have cost I-A football schools in the neighborhood of….

$2.8 BILLION DOLLARS

…over the 13-year life of the BCS between 1998 and 2010 and will cost I-A football schools about….

$1 BILLION DOLLARS

…over the three remaining years on the current BCS contract.

That is around $3.8 BILLION DOLLARS that the I-A schools have tossed in the ocean because they have chosen the current bowl system and BCS over a 16-team postseason playoff tournament.  That is $3.8 BILLION DOLLARS above and beyond what the I-A schools are now receiving for participating in the bowls and BCS games.

If you assume that the BCS conference schools would have received about 75 percent of that $3.8 BILLION DOLLARS then the 66 BCS conferences schools will each have tossed away about $57 MILLION DOLLARS.

In 2010 a 16-team postseason playoff instead of the BCS would have worked out to an additional $32 MILLION DOLLARS to each BCS conference on top of what the BCS conferences are now making from the bowl system and BCS.

Just something to think about. 

On your guys point about the Big Ten divisions and the way the Big Ten divided the conference what Delany and the Big Ten ADs didn’t think about is that they gave up a great branding opportunity by dividing the conference geographically in the way you guys showed on a map because having 6 teams in an Eastern Division and 6 teams in a Western Division with each division playing a certain style of football and against each other every year would really help create strong Divisional Brands within the overall Big Ten Conference brand, like the SEC has with their East and West Divisions, and not having that is a big mistake for the conference.

The Big Ten hit a homerun by adding Nebraska which both of us agree on and then from that point on they have just blown one decision after another and now we have a Big Ten conference that is just like the ACC that is not divided along clear lines and has very vague divisional names and thus no one can really recall the ACC’s division names and which teams are in which divisions and thus the ACC conference brand is just no where near as strong as the SEC conference brand.  The Big Ten now has a divisional split that is unidentifiable to the average or even devoted fan and division names of Leaders and Legends and neither of those things makes any sense at all.  Don’t even get me started on that new Big Ten logo which is hideous at best and complete incompetence at worst by the company that created it and the people in the Big Ten offices that accepted it.

 

By contrast the Pac-12 had aligned their two 6 team divisions in a geographical way and they figured out a way for the four California teams to play each other every year and that along with the other branding things that Scott is doing will really drive the Pac-12 brand into the future and allow fans to follow the conference a lot easier than the Big Ten.  I do have to say that the Pac-12 conference championship game being played on a college campus is not very smart especially with all the great venues that are available on the West Coast and Arizona to host a championship game in.  Don’t quite get that move Larry.

Hey, you guys and your families have a great Christmas and New Year’s and I will see some of you at The Masters in April!”

Not much more we can add to the above but that it takes some a very unique combination of Very Stupid and Very Gullible People to prop up and support the Bogus BCS! 

$3.8 BILLION DOLLARS tossed in the ocean…..and for what?  The Bogus BCS?

Legends and Leaders?  Huh?

Yes, these are VERY STUPID PEOPLE!

West Virginia and their Coach-In-Waiting Situation – What the Hell?

 

We can understand West Virginia AD Oliver Luck wanting to make a coaching change at WVU after Bill Stewart had a disappointing year, but this situation that Luck has set up with Dan Holgorsen coming in for one year and working under Stewart and then taking over in 2012 is the Damndest thing we have ever heard of!

We flat-out do no like Coach-in-Waiting situations here at Coaches Hot Seat because we believe that there should always be one Man or Woman in charge of a sports team and that by designating a “Coach-in-Waiting” you only create all kinds of problems with the current staff that don’t know who they are really working for, with players who sometimes don’t know who is in charge and with fans who don’t really know who to blame when things go bad or give credit to when things go good. 

There is just no getting around the fact that “Coach-in-Waiting” situations are just Total BS and that they should be avoided at all costs because a football team can only have 1 head coach at a time and having a “Coach-in-Waiting” puts two people in charge and that is really what West Virginia has right now with both Bill Stewart and Dan Holgorsen running things in Morgantown.

If AD Luck and others at West Virginia want to get rid of Bill Stewart and have Dana Holgorsen take over the WVU football program then they should buyout Stewart out right now and make Holgorsen the head coach….RIGHT NOW! 

In a radio interview after taking the “Coach-in-Waiting” position at WVU Dana Holgorsen was asked about the entire situation:

Holgorsen’s priority:  new staff hires 

Hell, the above headline says it all because we actually now have a “Coach-in-Waiting who’s priority is “new staff hires!”  This is just madness!

Here is the quote from the above article from Dana Holgorsen on working with Bill Stewart in 2011:

“Question:  On the potential of an awkward situation coaching beside Stewart:

“Bill Stewart is a great person. His heart is with West Virginia University. He was born there. He’s been there a long, long time. He wants what’s best for the university. I get to learn from him and get a lay of the land, so to speak, for a whole year. I can evaluate the program and make suggestions on how to make it better.”

What the Hell?  We wish someone would explain to us this entire Bill Stewart – Dan Holgorsen – Oliver Luck – “Coach-in-Waiting” Love Triangle because this is the Craziest thing we have ever seen in college football coaching!

If we were running West Virginia athletics and we wanted Dan Holgorsen to be the head football coach at WVU we would name him the head football coach right now and get him on the job right now so that he was not wasting his time coaching in a meaningless exhibition bowl game.  We would then tell Bill Stewart: “Thanks for the job you did, but we are moving you to an advisory position in the athletic department.”

What the Hell is the point in keeping Bill Stewart around for another year?  So Dana Holgorsen can learn on the job?  Holgorsen has been an assistant coach at the I-A level for 11 years now under Mike Leach, Kevin Sumlin and Mike Gundy and he surely has seen enough from these three coaches to know what being a head coach is all about and what a head coach is responsible for and Holgorsen watching Bill Stewart coach for a year on the same sidelines as the “Coach-in-Waiting” at WVU is just a complete waste of everyone’s time and could lead to a wasted year for the Mountaineers.

What if West Virginia has another mediocre year in 2011?  Who will get the blame?  Bill Stewart?  Dana Holgorsen?  Oliver Luck?  All three?  Who the Hell knows since we don’t know who is really in charge of West Virginia football for the 2011 season!

Please, would someone in Morgantown get a clue and tell Holgorsen to quit wasting his time coaching a team that is playing in a meaningless bowl game and get to West Virginia and take over the West Virginia football team as the head football coach!  Get Bill Stewart a job in the athletic department raising money and doing outreach to people around the state and let Dana Holgorsen start recruiting and start coaching football at WVU as the head coach!

 

Ralph Friedgen making way for the Pirate at Maryland?

 

We didn’t say anything when Kevin Anderson was hired as the AD at Maryland but all of us here at Coaches Hot Seat thought that Ralph Friedgen’s job might be in jeopardy unless he made it to the ACC Championship Game in 2010 and we thought that about Friedgen because we know a few things about the new Maryland AD Kevin Anderson.

Kevin Anderson goes way back in the San Francisco Bay area to when he worked for Stanford University athletics, the YMCA of the East Bay and Cal-Berkeley athletics and none of us here at CHS were surprised when Kevin was hired to run the Army athletic department in 2004 because we always believed that Kevin Anderson would run a big-time athletic department like Army and now at Maryland.

We here at CHS were also not surprised when Kevin Anderson said upon being introduced as the AD at Maryland:

“Maryland athletics is in good shape. But we do have our challenges. It is my vision to take the program from good to great. It is my expectation to get everyone on the Maryland bus.”

Later, Anderson added, “We’re going to compete at the highest levels, and we’re going to compete to win. The University of Maryland does not finish second. We finish first in everything we do.””

Yep, that’s Kevin Anderson all right and that is Music to our Ears here at Coaches Hot Seat because if you are going to take the time to do something then why the Hell would you be shooting for anything but first place?

Now that it looks like new Maryland AD Anderson has decided to move Ralph Friedgen out there is an awful lot of noise out there about Mike Leach will take over the Terps football program.

 

Mike Leach is a very good football coach and we would certainly consider him for any head coaching position that we had an opening for, but we just hope that Mike has given some long and hard thought to what transpired at Texas Tech over the last few years even before the incident with the James kid every happened, because long before James was put into a shed near the practice field at Tech there were some issues between Mike Leach and the Texas Tech administration and it our opinion that Mike if given another head coaching opportunity he needs to work very hard to have strong and respectful relationships with his AD, the school president and the faculty at the institution.

There is nothing wrong with being a little different and doing things your own way, but there is a time and place to coach football in the manner that you believe you should coach football and then there is the time when you need to act like a person that is in a very important position at an institution of higher learning.

If we were advising Mike Leach right now we would tell him that if he did get a new head coaching job to continue coaching just the way he did at Tech and be just as tough on the players as he was at Tech with the caveat being that injured players or players that you believe are not injured should be treated in a way that allows them to heal and/or do their own thing which will then allows the head coach to focus on the players that are healthy and that are motivated to suit up and play on Saturdays.  If a team doctor or trainer tells you that a player is injured then the player is injured and just move on without them until they are cleared to play because we learned long ago from a very good coach that it is a waste of time to worry about injured, sick or lazy players that couldn’t or didn’t want to play because there was plenty to worry about with the players that were at practice each day.

As for a college head football coach’s relationship with his immediate bosses, the AD and president of the school that one is working at, what Mike Leach and other head football coaches need to realize is that it does very little good to have an adversarial relationship with one’s boss and it is doubly bad and should be verboten to speak in negative terms or about disagreements with one’s bosses to other people or to the media (on or off the record).

As we said above Mike Leach is a very good football coach.  His players at Tech went to class and worked for and earned their degrees.  The Texas Tech football program was much better when Mike Leach left Lubbock than it was when he got there.  With all that begin said, if Mike Leach does get another shot at a Bogus BCS conference school like Maryland then he needs to focus on being the Best Damn football coach and person he can be AND be Damn sure he has strong and respectful relationships with the people that he works for and that sign his paychecks.

One thing for sure, Maryland AD Kevin Anderson is not going to take any shit off of Mike Leach or anyone else he hires as the next head football coach for the Terps but Anderson will let the coach the team the way the coach wants to coach the team and that is about all any coach could possibly ask for in this day and age.

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Big Ten commish Jim Delany can’t understand why people don’t like Leaders and Legends?  That makes sense since Delany doesn’t have a lick of Common Sense!

We can’t decide if the folks in the Big Ten conference are just very bad at marketing/branding or if they are just plain Stupid after reading up on Big Ten commish Jim Delany’s “shock and surprise” that the Real Men of Genius division names of “Leaders and Legends” were not received by the public as revelations from enlightened leaders telling everyone else what they should and should not like.  Sorry Big Ten “enlightened leaders” the general public does not dance to the tune of the Idiot and the Moron and the new division names Leaders and Legends could only have been dreamed up by some of the top Idiots and Morons in the country.  Let’s not even mention the new Big Ten logo which a kindergarten class could do better than during their morning snack break!

 

We out here in the general public learned about Jim Delany’s puzzlement about the dissatisfaction with the “Leaders and Legends” division names from the Pravda of the Big Ten conference the formerly great newspaper of the Chicago area the Chicago Tribune.  On the beat for the Big Ten conference for the Trib is none other than chief propaganda flag waver Teddy Greensteinwho hasn’t written a negative word about the Big Ten or commish Jim Delany is his life on Earth and probably will not because let’s just be honest here:

Teddy Greenstein is afraid of Jim Delany!

It would be nice if the Chicago Tribune actually covered the Big Ten conference instead of Teddy and his friends at the paper (along with lots of other media in Chicago and the Midwest) that so have their lips firmly planted on Delany’s ass that Delany has to sleep on his side at night!

Let’s check out the latest from that crack columnist and propaganda chief Teddy Greenstein in that formerly great paper the Chicago Tribune:

Delany surprised by backlash 

“In the days following the Big Ten’s unveiling of “Legends” and “Leaders” as the names of the conference’s divisions, commissioner Jim Delany expected to be asked about the league’s rich history and promising future.

Instead, in one interview he found himself talking about a strip club in Houston. Apparently “Legends” has a different association for some in parts of Texas.

“Having not spent much time in gentlemen’s clubs there — or in Houston — I didn’t make that connection,” Delany said Thursday on WGN-AM 720.

Delany appeared to create some news in that interview by questioning whether the division names are “sustainable.”

But lest people conclude that the Big Ten is about to call a mulligan, a league source said Friday that the plan is to “give it time,” conduct market research and likely wait several months before determining what to do.

Delany, who was unavailable for comment Friday, said during the radio interview: “I don’t think you make a judgment in 48 hours or 72 hours. Eventually, we’re going to have to address the issue of whether or not it’s sustainable, but I don’t think that’s a decision for today. We have to listen and we have to be humble about the reactions we’ve gotten.”

The general reaction has been that the league flopped in choosing names that many have deemed boring, cheesy and lacking a tangible connection to the Big Ten.”

Well, Teddy Greenstein got that right by saying that “that the league flopped in choosing names that many have deemed boring, cheesy and lacking a tangible connection to the Big Ten,” but that is really only a mild description of what the public has been saying about the Idiot and Moronic new Big Ten division names and logo.  Stupid, Moronic, Idiotic, but pretty standard for the Big Ten folks are the things we have been hearing, but then we actually talk to real people and real Americans instead of sitting at the feet of Morons while trying to figure out how to make their latest pronouncements look like they have any common sense at all!

Of course, the real problem with the new Big Ten division names is that coming up with division names should have never been an issue because if there was anyone at the Big Ten offices or in fact in the athletic departments of the Big Ten schools with a lick of common sense the Big Ten would have been divided geographically after the addition of Nebraska and then American Common Sense would have broken out and the following division names would have been used:

East and West!

Let’s go to the facts, or idiocy in the case with the Big Ten Conference:

Here is what the Big Ten Conference looked like when it added Nebraska:

 

Here is what the Big Ten Conference looked like after that Idiot Jim Delanysaid that the conference was going to take into account “competitive balance.”

 

Oh, it took a Real Moron to break the Big Ten Conference down like that!

Here is how the Big Ten Conference would have been divided if there was anyone with a lick of Common Sense in the Big Ten offices or in the athletics departments of the Big Ten schools:

 

Let’s look at the Big Ten divisions if they would have divided up geographically:

East

Penn State

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Indiana

Purdue

West

Illinois

Northwestern

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Iowa

Nebraska

Is there anything wrong with the above divisional breakdown using the Bogus “competitive balance” theory or not?  Of course not, but one has to have Common Sense to divide the Big Ten geographically and we all know that Common Sense is always in short supply when Dumbo Jim Delany is in the room!

Since World War II the best football programs in the new Big Ten are in order:

1.  Ohio State

2.  Nebraska

3.  Michigan

4.  Penn State

5.  Wisconsin

6.  Michigan State

7.  Iowa

8.  Illinois

9.  Purdue

10.  Minnesota

11.  Purdue

12.  Northwestern

So why is the Big Ten not divided geographically?  That is a Very Good Damn question and the answer is:  There are some very Stupid People running the Big Ten!

The problem at the Big Ten conference is that they have a “Problem” and until they fix the “Problem” which is the Idiotic way they divided the Big Ten they will be stuck with Stupid and Idiotic names for their divisions.

Many people will remember the book and then movie Disclosure which was written by Late Great Michael Crichton. 

In Disclosure the movie the lead character played by Michael Douglass is repeatedly told by anonymous emails that he needs to “Solve the Problem” which will solve the problems he is having with Demi Moore’s character.  Michael Douglas’ character finally figures out that focusing on the real “Problem” instead of the side issues solves everything and the folks in the Big Ten Conference need to do the same.

The REAL PROBLEM in the Big Ten Conference is that the Big Ten has a Pompous Arrogant Ass as their commissioner and it was a Pompous Arrogant Ass that along with some very stupid staff members came up with the Idiotic way to divide the Big Ten which led to the Moronic Big Ten division names. 

The REAL PROBLEM is Jim Delany and if anyone at the Big Ten schools had any common sense they would fire his Sorry Ass but short of that they would say to Jimmy:

“Jimmy, you’re an Idiot.  Now, before its too late let’s divide up the Big Ten geographically along East – West lines and be done with this Stupidity!”

Is there anyone working in the Big Ten schools with the Common Sense to say something like that?  Not a chance in the Hell and thus the Big Ten now has:

LEADERS AND LEGENDS!

Congratulation you IDIOTS because you have turned what should have been easy, simple and common sense and should have taken two seconds into maybe the Stupidest thing that we have seen in American sports in our lifetimes!

Solve the Problem! = Fire JIM DELANY!

College bowl system conflicting with academics?  No, it can’t be the Candy Asses cry out!  Oh, it can be and in fact IT BE!

Speaking of Candy Ass and Gutless Coward Jim Delany and his buddies that defend the Idiotic BCS and college football bowl season we have this morning a real newspaper that is still run by real journalists in the San Diego Union Tribune that has a devastating report on the hypocrisy of the college presidents as it pertains to bowl system.  Brent Schrotenboerof the Union-Tribune in the great article below shows that there are still some real journalists around in America that actually research, report, cover and write about truth and then present it to the public in a very readable and informative way!  Bravo to Brent Schrotenboer and the Union-Tribune for this great piece of journalism as opposed to Teddy Greenstein and the Chicago Tribune trailing Jim Delany around all day with their lips on Delany’s ass! 

College bowl games’ growth conflicting more with academics– Brent Schrotenboer

“Nearly 50 years ago, Ohio State University did something that would be considered unthinkable in today’s world of college football.

The Buckeyes were invited to play in the 1962 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena on Jan. 1. But classes on campus started Jan. 2. So the school rejected the invitation, opting to stay at home because its faculty council protested the game would interfere with academics.

A half-century later, Ohio State accepted an invite to play in the Jan. 4 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans despite the fact that classes begin on campus Jan. 3.

“My my, times have changed,” said John Sandbrook, who studied the college football postseason for an NCAA committee in 1994.

The bowl system has exploded from 18 games in 1996 to a record 35 games this season. As a result, the Buckeyes are one of an increasing number of bowl-bound teams with conflicts with academics, according to a review of academic schedules and interviews by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Critics call it hypocrisy.

For the past two decades, the presidents and chancellors who govern major college football have opposed a postseason playoff format because they said it would conflict with the academics of student-athletes.

Instead, they’ve supported the expansion of the bowl-game system to the point that it’s increasingly cut into the most important academic studies of all — final exams.”

Oh, that is some very good writing but get a load of this BS from the Candy Asses and Hypocrites that are running OUR colleges and universities!  Yes, those are OUR colleges and universities since it is the American Taxpayer that funds OUR colleges and universities to the tune of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of OUR Tax money every year!

““I can reiterate that most university presidents do not wish to see a playoff for many reasons, including the conflict with academics,” said an e-mail to the Union-Tribune from Penn State President Graham Spanier, who chairs the Bowl Championship Series Presidential Oversight Committee.

College football leaders have held this position even as the bowl season has expanded from two weeks in 1996 to more than three weeks this year, when bowls start Saturday and end Jan. 10. Until 1997, no bowls were played after Jan. 2. This year, seven bowls will be played after Jan. 2, conflicting with the start of the spring or winter session for five schools, including Auburn and Oregon, which play in the Jan. 10 BCS championship game. Oregon players will miss a week of classes while in Glendale, Ariz., for the game. Last year, Alabama canceled classes on Jan. 6-8 because it played in the BCS championship game Jan. 7.

Many proposed playoff formats range from adding one just more game to having a three- or four-week bracket. Yet, it’s been opposed for years:

In 1994, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer said university presidents opposed a playoff because they “have major concern in extending the season into the second and third week of January” and the start of the new semester.

In 1996, Ohio State President Gordon Gee said he was against a playoff system because it “violates the principles of academic integrity for institutions by extending playing time.”

In 2003, Spanierof Penn State said, “We’re skeptical that a national champion could be determined through a playoff format without intruding on student-athlete academics and welfare. A playoff would extend well into the second academic semester quarter. It would affect the academic integrity we’re all trying to achieve.”

In 2009, Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said postseason playoff reform wasn’t really possible “without interfering with the academic calendar or impinging on the academic missions of our universities.”

Also in 2009, Oregon President David Frohnmayer, then chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, stated he favored the bowl system because an alternative playoff system “disrespect our academic calendars.”

Frohnmayer now teaches at Oregon. He said Thursday he won’t be able to attend Oregon’s Jan. 10 bowl because classes start Jan. 3.

“I rejoice in the fact that the University of Oregon is going to the BCS final,” said Frohnmayer, who retired as president last year. “I will be in a classroom that day and not the bowl game, because our regular academic calendar has resumed.””

Oh, that is very FUNNY and just show what a bunch of Absolute and Complete Hypocrites we have running our colleges and universities in America today! 

Much thanks to Brent Schrotenboer and the San Diego Union-Tribune for exposing the Candy Asses behind the Bogus BCS, especially the college and university presidents, for what they really are:

BIG TIME HYPOCRITES that don’t really give a Damn about their student-athletes because if they did they would not support the Bogus BCS and all these bowl matchups which are just Meaningless Exhibition Games that MEAN NOTHING AT ALL!

Now, if the college and university presidents wanted a postseason in college football that respected academics and allowed time for students to finish their Final Exams and then play a 16-team college football playoff then they can read and learn at the Coaches Hot Seat Blog.

Congratulations to the 2010 Conference Champions in College Football! – Congratulations To ALL the College Football Teams That Had EXCELLENT and VERY GOOD Seasons in 2010 – Auburn and Oregon Are the Best Two Teams in College Football? – Fine, But That Is Your Opinion and Americans Don’t Settle Championships With Opinion….Except in College Football with the Bogus and Very Un-American BCS – Buck Up Candy Asses That Support the Bogus BCS…and That Is What You Are A Candy Asses…For At Least A Minute or Two and Act Like A Real American – Is That Too Much To Ask? – Yes, You Can Go Back to Acting Like A Candy Ass….But Is Acting Like A Real American For A Moment or Two So Hard To Do? – Didn’t Think So! – Yes, We Are Proud Americans Here At Coaches Hot Seat and We Are Raising American Citizens That Celebrate the Principles of Our Country Not Tear Them Down….But Then When You Have Been Raised to be A Candy Ass What Else Can Anyone Expect? – Not Much! – John Adams and What America Really Stands For As America Moves Into Its Twilight With The Candy Asses Leading the Way and Karl Marx Smiling Down From the Heavens! 

Now, let’s see here.  If the Coaches Hot Seat 16-Team Postseason Playoff Plan was in place all of the 16 teams in the tournament would have taken a week off after the conference championship games and final games of the season and they would have continued along with their normal routine of going to practice and going to class and preparing for final exams.  After the week off the 16 teams in the tournament would then have played a SATURDAY game on the home field of the higher-seeded opponent and below are what the First Round games would have looked like that would have been played TODAY!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Miami (OH) vs. Oregon in Eugene, Oregon

Virginia Tech vs. Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan

Nebraska vs. Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Oklahoma vs. Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin

LSU vs. TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas

Nevada vs. Stanford in Palo Alto, California

Boise State vs. Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio

UCF vs. Auburn in Auburn, Alabama

Now give some thought to the Second Round Games that would come out of the above First Round Games (if there were no upsets of course….and we all know that rarely happens!)

Michigan State vs. Oregon in Eugene, Oregon

Arkansas vs. Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin

Stanford vs. TCU in Ft. Worth, Texas

Ohio State vs. Auburn in Auburn, Alabama

Is there really anyone on Planet Earth that would rather be watching a bunch of Meaningless Bowl Games compared to the above First Round Game of a 16-Team Postseason Playoff?  Oh, that’s right we do have lots of Candy Asses in America today that rather enjoy sitting around on their asses and doing the “Easy” thing instead of what should be done which in this case with college football teams playing for and earning the National Championship in I-A College Football on the Field of Play!

John Stossel of Fox News and Cal-Berkeley Athletics

John Stossel continues his great series Politicians Top 10 Promises Gone Wrong this week and one of the things he looks into is Title IX and the recent cuts to sports teams at Cal-Berkeley.

Watching John Stossel’s show this week is well worth your time and it is on the Fox News Channel at:

Sunday, December 19, 3:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

Sunday, December 19, 6:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

Monday, December 20, 12:00 AM EST

Monday, December 20, 9:00 PM PST

As always John Stossel is very entertaining and he really shows the Absolute Stupidity of the cuts to Cal-Berkeley’s athletic teams and how Title IX is really hurting men’s sports at our colleges and universities. 

Hey, many of us here at Coaches Hot Seat have daughters that are now or will play sports in college on scholarship but that doesn’t mean that we should have to hurt men’s athletic teams in order to help women.  That is just plain stupid and Un-American!  We can have both men’s and women’s sports on college campuses and the Idiots behind the vigorous enforcement of Title IX are only hurting America and our young people but then do any of these folks really care about young people?  Please, most of these Wackos that support Title IX actually just want to punish men but in the process they are just bringing down men’s sports and hurting entire athletic departments and schools in the process.  Here is what the Wackos that only want to hurt and bring down men don’t understand:  If not for BraveAmerican MEN there would be no United States of America today for ALL of us to live in and if you Wackos and Idiots that believe we are living in some kind of post-war Fantasyland where strong and brave MEN will not be needed in the future we have some news for you:  There is evil in this world and when evil comes calling again on this planet as it did 60 years ago in Hitler and Hirohito it will be strong and brave Men that you will need to defend our country along with strong and brave WOMEN as well! (Strong and Brave women like we are raising here at Coaches Hot Seat that could kick the ass of Jim Delany and his press buddy Teddy Greenstein in about 5 seconds and bake a cake afterwards with “We just kicked the ass of Delany and Greenstein!” in lettering on top!”  Think Martha Stewart + Margaret Thatcher + Christy Brinkley combined for our daughters here at Coaches Hot Seat!  Yes, they can whip your ass in basketball, horseshoes, Scrabble, Monopoly, and then put together a great dinner for their Mom and Dad to enjoy!)

The situation at Cal-Berkeley athletics is just another example of the Candy Asses and Political-Correctness on our college campuses today that comes up with things like the bowl season and the Bogus BCS!

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