The tumultuous offseason has finally almost come to a close for the Men of Troy. It started in the winter, when Pete Carroll abruptly left the program that he had made into the best in America during the decade. After his departure, a frantic search for a coach ended with the hiring of former Tennessee Volunteer coach Lane Kiffin, which caused a load of controversy in Knoxville. Then came the disheartening allegations of the Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo scandals that subsequently landed USC the toughest sanctions levied on a Football program since the 90s. Five players transferred. A Top recruit (Seantrel Hendersen) cancelled his commitment and ended up signing with Miami. USC hired a new Athletic director and Associate athletic director. And just when we thought the drama might be over… Coach Kiffin has been accused publicly and harshly by Jeff Fisher of a coaching faux pas, in the way he hired away Tennessee Titans RB Coach Kennedy Pola to be USC’s offensive coordinator.
OK, deep breath.
In the midst of all of this drama, there is still a Football team that is only 37 days away from kicking off its 2010 season. And now that the dust seems to finally be settling, what will emerge from Los Angeles could be one of the better USC teams in recent history.
The Trojans bring back one of the Top 2 underclassman QBs in the country in Sophomore Matt Barkley (Andrew Luck of Stanford is the other). Barkley had his ups and downs in 2009, but when all was said and done, he did manage to throw for 2,735 yards and 15 TDs. He had a solid completion percentage (60%), however his interception total was a bit high (14). Multiple injuries kept him from playing at key moments during the year and held him out of one of the biggest upsets of the season when Washington beat USC in late September. Barkley has got to show a great deal of maturation in his decision making. A 15 to 14 TD-Int ratio is a formula for disaster with the upcoming Trojans schedule.
As usual, there is no lack of talent returning at the Offensive skill positions. The RB position is stacked. Allen Bradford and CJ Gable highlight the returning upperclassmen. Bradford had a surprisingly successful year (668 yards and 8 TDs) in 2009 as the 3rd string RB coming on strong after Stafon Johnson’s throat injury. Gable is a former 4-star recruit who has been buried on the depth chart, but has the talent to be a superstar. Adding a touch of flair to the backfield is the True Freshman that has Trojan fans everywhere seeing shades of Reggie Bush. Dillon Baxter is sure to get touches this fall and expect him to make the biggest Freshman impact of anyone in the Pac-10. Also, Senior FB Stanley Havili is in my opinion, the best and most versatile FB in America.
At WR, the Trojans return a formidable bunch. Ronald Johnson, David Ausberry, and Brice Butler are the 3 starters. All 3 are All-conference capable and they should provide Barkley with the best WR corps on the West Coast. The offensive line will have to replace 2 starters but as always, this is the most consistent position on the USC team. The TE position is one of concern, but #1 TE recruit Xavier Grimble is expected to make an immediate impact.
The defensive Front 7 for USC is one of the Top 3 in the country. Led by DT Jurrell Casey and LBs Michael Morgan and Malcolm Smith, the Trojans have a plethora of experience up front. Sophomore LB Devon Kennard is on pace to earn playing time as coaches are calling him “the most athletic kid on our team”. The secondary is the place to keep an eye on. All 4 starters need to be replaced. CB Shareece Wright was slated to start in 2009, but was ruled academically ineligible. He’ll get his chance this year along with TJ Bryant and TJ McDonald. The key for the Trojan defense lies with new Defensive Coordinator, Monte Kiffin. His wizardry led the Tampa Bay Bucs to having one of the best defenses in the NFL in the 1990s and early 2000s. His understanding of the game leads me to believe that the Trojans will have the best defense in the conference and one of the best in the Nation.
While the offseason distractions would possibly be a reason for concern going into this season, the schedule provides a reason for optimism. The USC schedule sets up wonderfully. In the first 4 weeks, the Trojans face Hawaii, Virginia, Minnesota, and Washington State. Translation, they play a non-BCS conference team, the worst team in the ACC, the worst team in the Big Ten, and the worst team in the Pac-10 to start the year. The Trojan Train should be churning on all cylinders when they embark on the tough middle section of their schedule where they face 4 Pac-10 Bowl teams. The annual rivalry game with Notre Dame should provide fireworks as both coaches will be in their first seasons.
Although the Trojans cant go to a Bowl Game (due to sanctions), I expect them to have a record that might cause some controversy amongst AP Pollsters (i.e. they might be flirting with an undefeated season).
Key Returning Players:
QB Matt Barkley
RB Allen Bradford
WR Ronald Johnson
C Kristofer O’Dowd
DT Jurrell Casey
LB Malcolm Smith
LB Chris Gallipo
LB Michael Morgan
Key Games:
Oct 2 - Washington
Oct 9 - @ Stanford
Oct 16 - Cal
Oct 30 - Oregon
Nov 13 - @ Arizona
Nov 27 - Notre Dame
Dec 4 - @ UCLA
Showing posts with label NCAA Sanctions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCAA Sanctions. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?
Imagine being a 17 year-old kid and your parents bring you into a room and say the following:
“Son, because your Older brother (who is now 26 years old) broke our rules 6 years ago, you will be punished for his transgressions. You will not be allowed to attend a single School dance for the next 2 years. You will get no allowance. And you will have to give back every little league trophy that you won between the ages of 11 and 15.”
Sound crazy? Well, substitute “Bowl Games” for “School Dances”, “scholarships” for “Allowance” and “wins and national Championships” for “little league trophies” and you’ll have EXACTLY what the NCAA recently told the USC Trojans.
Unfair, huh? I agree. Is this the right way to handle situations like this that arise in College Athletics? Absolutely not. But instead of just telling you why it’s wrong, I’ll also sprinkle in a few ways to fix it.
As my aforementioned metaphor illustrates, it is completely unjust to punish the 2010 and 2011 USC Trojans for illegal activities of the 2004 and 2005 USC Trojans. Sure it’s the same program, but literally EVERYBODY from that 2004/2005 team is gone, including most importantly, the head coach Pete Carroll and the main culprit, Reggie Bush. The NCAA is still stuck in it’s mid-20th Century mold, where these practices of just punishing the entire program/university might have made sense. But with the Cash Cow that the NCAA (particularly the World of College Football) has become, this model no longer works.
It has long been said that “the punishment should fit the crime” and the NCAA should take this line and put it to practice. There are 3 easy to implement solutions that will change the way situations like this are handled, and in turn it will reduce the amount of student-athletes that illegally accept extra benefits.
1. The Coach & Athletic Director get fined. The NCAA should implement a fine, not to the University, but to the coach and athletic director of any University found to be guilty of a major violation. These coaches often times do not necessarily think about the welfare of the student-athlete or the welfare of the institution that they represent enough… but if you hit their pockets directly, then I guarantee you would see much fewer “loss of institutional control” violations. In addition, make the fines compounding… i.e. have each successive violation hold a bigger fine for a coach… no matter what. So even if a coach switched schools and goes to another university, he still keeps his “black marks” for his entire career and they continually compound. And even if the coach has retired or moved to the NFL, he would still legally be responsible for paying the fine.
2. Fine the players. It may sound harsh to some… but usually the players are the direct people at fault in these situations. In the USC football example, Reggie Bush was the lone culprit of taking these extra benefits from an agent in 2004 and 2005. So, when athletes enter as freshmen, the NCAA should have them sign a form (similar to the coaches fine) that would require them to pay back every penny of any extra benefit that they may have taken. Furthermore, that form should have a clause that would state “any player that makes it to a professional league who received extra benefits while in school will be subject to a fine larger than that of a normal athlete”.
3. Pay the players. Granted, this one is going to be incredibly difficult to actually organize and implement… but I would venture to say that a large majority of student-athletes that take extra-benefits are those that just want some extra money to do things that other students are doing. As fans, we often view the life of a college football player to be glamorous. But being a former player and having good friends who also played at the collegiate level, the one thing that college athletes do not have is time (to get a job, for example). And it is particularly frustrating to a student-athlete that wants a few extra bucks a week to buy new clothes, take a girl out to a movie, or things of that nature. If players were paid a salary, even on a small scale of a few hundred bucks a week, I think we would see a significant decrease in the amount of kids that think taking extra benefits is the way to go.
I am fully aware that implementing these rules would be extremely difficult, but the NCAA needs a shock treatment in dealing with these types of situations. No American Citizen gets punished for a crime they didn’t commit. The same should apply to the young men of the 2010 and 2011 USC Trojan Football team. They are innocent and should be treated as such.
“Son, because your Older brother (who is now 26 years old) broke our rules 6 years ago, you will be punished for his transgressions. You will not be allowed to attend a single School dance for the next 2 years. You will get no allowance. And you will have to give back every little league trophy that you won between the ages of 11 and 15.”
Sound crazy? Well, substitute “Bowl Games” for “School Dances”, “scholarships” for “Allowance” and “wins and national Championships” for “little league trophies” and you’ll have EXACTLY what the NCAA recently told the USC Trojans.
Unfair, huh? I agree. Is this the right way to handle situations like this that arise in College Athletics? Absolutely not. But instead of just telling you why it’s wrong, I’ll also sprinkle in a few ways to fix it.
As my aforementioned metaphor illustrates, it is completely unjust to punish the 2010 and 2011 USC Trojans for illegal activities of the 2004 and 2005 USC Trojans. Sure it’s the same program, but literally EVERYBODY from that 2004/2005 team is gone, including most importantly, the head coach Pete Carroll and the main culprit, Reggie Bush. The NCAA is still stuck in it’s mid-20th Century mold, where these practices of just punishing the entire program/university might have made sense. But with the Cash Cow that the NCAA (particularly the World of College Football) has become, this model no longer works.
It has long been said that “the punishment should fit the crime” and the NCAA should take this line and put it to practice. There are 3 easy to implement solutions that will change the way situations like this are handled, and in turn it will reduce the amount of student-athletes that illegally accept extra benefits.
1. The Coach & Athletic Director get fined. The NCAA should implement a fine, not to the University, but to the coach and athletic director of any University found to be guilty of a major violation. These coaches often times do not necessarily think about the welfare of the student-athlete or the welfare of the institution that they represent enough… but if you hit their pockets directly, then I guarantee you would see much fewer “loss of institutional control” violations. In addition, make the fines compounding… i.e. have each successive violation hold a bigger fine for a coach… no matter what. So even if a coach switched schools and goes to another university, he still keeps his “black marks” for his entire career and they continually compound. And even if the coach has retired or moved to the NFL, he would still legally be responsible for paying the fine.
2. Fine the players. It may sound harsh to some… but usually the players are the direct people at fault in these situations. In the USC football example, Reggie Bush was the lone culprit of taking these extra benefits from an agent in 2004 and 2005. So, when athletes enter as freshmen, the NCAA should have them sign a form (similar to the coaches fine) that would require them to pay back every penny of any extra benefit that they may have taken. Furthermore, that form should have a clause that would state “any player that makes it to a professional league who received extra benefits while in school will be subject to a fine larger than that of a normal athlete”.
3. Pay the players. Granted, this one is going to be incredibly difficult to actually organize and implement… but I would venture to say that a large majority of student-athletes that take extra-benefits are those that just want some extra money to do things that other students are doing. As fans, we often view the life of a college football player to be glamorous. But being a former player and having good friends who also played at the collegiate level, the one thing that college athletes do not have is time (to get a job, for example). And it is particularly frustrating to a student-athlete that wants a few extra bucks a week to buy new clothes, take a girl out to a movie, or things of that nature. If players were paid a salary, even on a small scale of a few hundred bucks a week, I think we would see a significant decrease in the amount of kids that think taking extra benefits is the way to go.
I am fully aware that implementing these rules would be extremely difficult, but the NCAA needs a shock treatment in dealing with these types of situations. No American Citizen gets punished for a crime they didn’t commit. The same should apply to the young men of the 2010 and 2011 USC Trojan Football team. They are innocent and should be treated as such.
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