The Shady Side Of College Sports

These days with all the controversy going on in college sports, its no surprise that art has imitated life when we see movies like The Program and Blue Chips. Just this year, teams like USC and Tennesee have been accused of recruiting violations. USC was even forced to return Reggie Bush’s 2006 Heisman Trophy and had wins vacated from their record books. But why do we watch and glorify these actions? Because its dramatic and we love the drama.

Let’s start with The Program. Coach Sam Winters has tons of pressure on him to win after a sub par season the year before. But this ESU team is on the rise. Joe Kane is a Heisman candidate, Darnell Jefferson is a hot shot freshman running back ready to help the team, and Alvin Mack is a virtual lock for the NFL. Recipe for a bowl eligible team right? In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.

The Program Trailer

Lets start with Jefferson. For as talented as he was, he had two glaring issues. He had acute fumble-itis, and he was cocky, a bad combination for a freshman back. He had to earn his starting spot over the incumbent Ray Griffin. Griffin wasn’t a bad running back but he had some injury issues. I think Winters would have been better off platooning the two players. Maybe have sort of a thunder and lightning backfield.

Then there was Joe Kane. He had all the tools necessary to win the Heisman. Not necessarily a lock for the award but a good player nonetheless. He had help around him though. Would Kane be as good without Bud “Light” Komanski protecting him on the offensive line? That remains to be seen. His maturity seems like it would be a problem for NFL scouts. He doesn’t deal well under pressure. He chose to drink to deal with the pressure of being a Heisman candidate. I mean, who does he think he is? Kerry Collins? Just when Kane looked like he was ready to put the team on his back and lead them to the promised land, they lose to Michigan and doubt starts to creep in. Then when it seems like things can’t get worse, Kane gets into a bar fight, gets arrested for drinking under the influence and misses four games and the team went 2-2 in that stretch. And if you thought the back up quarterback was some saint waiting for Kane to go down so he could get his break, you’re wrong. Coach Winters’ daughter got expelled for taking a test for him. Poor Bobby Collins. You would think that all that time on the bench would give him an opportunity to study and take his own tests.

At least Alvin Mack knew there was nothing for him in the classroom. He was focused on football and nothing else. I think that may have been what pushed Steve Lattimer to begin using performance enhancing drugs. In the offseason, he put on 20 pounds of muscle and no one batted an eye. And when he gets caught, he was only suspended for three games. Thats a lesser penalty than the one the NFL has. ESU clearly doesn’t discipline well.

Looking at the last two games of that season, ESU lost to Iowa when the running back literally trucked Lattimer at the goal line. Conventional wisdom tells you that him being off the steroids during his three week suspension made him weaker. You can believe that if you want, but I think he just sucked. He was a run stopping linebacker and thats fine but the NFL likes versatility and if you’re not versatile you better be damn good at the one thing you can do. Another setback for ESU was Alvin Mack’s neck injury. At that point, one has to feel bad for him because the injury would prove to be career ending. Then again, this is the same guy that refused to study because he figured his NFL career was a given. In the last game against Georgia Tech, Bobby Collins got the start but after being down 10-0 at halftime, Joe Kane came in and led the Timberwolves to a win and a bowl game. I’ve always questioned how big this bowl game was because ESU was a four loss team. How bad was the rest of the conference, or the NCAA, for that matter…where a four loss team could get a major bowl game? To that, I say shenanigans.

Taking a look at Blue Chips, Coach Pete Bell coaches the Western University Dolphins and he had a littany of violations to deal with. The main issue at hand is the fact that there are several top recruits that are receiving payments money and gifts for playing at Western U. Three of the recruits in question are Ricky Roe, whose family received a brand new tractor for their farm, Butch McCrae’s mother got a house and a job at Western U, and Neon Boudeaux was given a Lexus. A lot of people would like think that Coach Bell was oblivious to the situation but they’d be wrong. Coaches know whats going on in their programs. Lane Kiffin knew what was going on in Tennessee, Pete Carroll knew what was going on at USC, and both Sam Winters and Pete Bell knew what was going on at their programs.

Blue Chips Trailer

Coach Bell did make up for his mistakes after his Western U Dolphins took out the top ranked Indiana Hoosiers. Stepping down and admitting the scandals exposes the issues and puts him in a better light. My only issue is that I have to wonder about the merits of the high school team that hired him to coach their team. This guy is literally coming off of a major scandal, one of which I’m sure will be talked about for a long time, with sanctions being forced onto the school…and some high school hires him? I smell shenanigans.

The point is this- scandals in college sports aren’t going away. Whether its steroids, alcoholism, point shaving, recruiting violations, crazy players laying down in the middle of the highway or dead players coming back as ghosts to help their teams in the NCAA tournament, its rare to see teams not have some sort of trouble. The key for these teams (Vanderbilt, I’m looking at you) is to try to stay above all the crap and try to field a good team and compete.