Senior Bowl Performances
Despite reports to the contrary, Tim Tebow is not the only participant in the Senior Bowl. Several other players have made in impact over the last few days in Mobile, AL including Oklahoma State CB Perrish Cox.
Cox has displayed world-class talent at times including his performance earlier in the season against UGA’s AJ Green (viewable below). His off-the-field decision-making has been questionable, however, and his postseason workouts (including the Senior Bowl) will determine how early he comes off the board in the draft.
Addition to the Team
Today I am very pleased and excited to announce that we will be adding a new contributor here at 3PC. Due to his primary employer, I am unable to reveal his name at this time, but with sixteen years of experience as a scout and player personnel executive in the NFL he is more than qualified to provide his opinion on football.
Look forward to an upcoming series of articles evaluating the highly regarded prospects for this upcoming NFL draft.
This is an exciting time here at 3PC, and we thank all our loyal readers and hope you’ll find his analysis as interesting as I have over the years.
Expose on the NCAA Scholarship Standards
ESPN’s Outside the Lines has done an excellent expose piece on the NCAA’s scholarship regulations. As it currently stands, NCAA guidelines strictly prohibit scholarships lasting longer than one-year. This means that after any year, any college athlete can be denied future financial assistance for any reason, including poor athletic performance.
This documentary focuses on the player attrition from Kentucky in the wake of John Calipari’s hiring.
Urban’s Diminished Role
Released today, the frantic 911 call preceding Urban Meyer’s hospital visit has shed more light on Meyer’s recent career decision and subsequent reversal. It is obvious from the call, and Urban’s initial reaction to retire, that the health problems are serious. Meyer has lived at intolerably high stress levels for most of his adult life. This is a guy that, as an assistant at Notre Dame, destroyed a film session TV with his remote after watching a lineman miss a block. The fact that he routinely has chest pains at his young age (he’s only 45) is scary. But being rushed to the hospital when your wife finds you unable to wake, lying on the floor, moments after you complained of numbness in one side of your body, is a bona fide death scare, especially for Meyer’s family.
So Urban did the right thing, he decided to leave coaching, to take it easy and spend time with the kids. He had a health scare and he wanted to spend some time at home, after taking Florida from SEC power to National power. The response was overwhelming, the pundits were out in force, and the college football universe was shocked. As Meyer and Florida AD Jeremy Foley watched, SportsCenter decided to air a one-hour special on the Urban Meyer story. The response was titanic, and far greater than anticipated. This began to hurt the program, a program already searching to replace its Defensive Coordinator, and losing (potentially) quite a few top flight NFL draft picks off the defensive side of the ball, not to mention “the greatest leader to ever play” from the offense. Meyer has recruited extremely well to Gainesville in the time that he’s been there and there is no reason to expect the underclassmen won’t perform, but if he was going to walk away from that mess less than 6 weeks from signing day it would have left the program in a tough bind.
I believe that Meyer and Foley then reconsidered their plan, and determined that Meyer would be fit to continue as head coach, but more in the role of General Manager, rather than Head Coach. Meyer would begin to play the Bobby Bowden/Joe Paterno role, closing on big recruits, calling out generally impertinent tidbits on the sidelines, and answering media inquiries while the assistant coaches handle the day-to-day coaching of the football team. It is obvious that Meyer needs to tone down his on-the-job intensity a few ratchets, but can the super-competitive Meyer ever be satisfied turning over the keys to Ferrari he built? Especially the first time he sees a game, or even a call, he didn’t like? If Florida expects this transition to go smoothly, they need to bring in a very good defensive coordinator hire, a self-motivated hard working individual who Meyer will trust with his program. The only problem is, that guy just got hired at Louisville to be their HC and he’s not coming back to Florida for anything short of the head job. Same goes for Dan Mullen, who had an excellent first season at MSU, and is putting together an impressive recruiting class.
He’s already made his run at Bud Foster from Virginia Tech, who turned him down. Look for Meyer to go after more accomplished defensive coordinators who have been in the running for HC gigs at lesser schools. Brent Venables of OU would be an ideal choice and it will be interesting to see if UF will pull out its SEC pursestrings for this hire, which, for the record must be an absolute home-run.
Mike Leach Walks the Plank
According to numerous sources, Mike Leach has been handed his termination papers in the wake of the Adam James controversy. For those not familiar, James has accused Leach of locking him in a confined space twice over the span of a few days. This was a stunningly quick fall from the top for Leach, a coach who had been linked to so many job offerings last offseason that he was given a five year deal worth over 2.5m annually. What really happened to Adam James and is it really worth firing the most successful coach in TTU history?
Texas Tech will not hire a coach who can be as successful as Mike Leach. Lubbock, TX is a desert devoid of all hope and life; a recruiting nightmare for a college coach. Leach took an innovative system, coupled with a Big 12 membership and turned Texas Tech into an outside contender for the National Championship in 2008. If you were interested in the success and maintenance of the TTU football program, wouldn’t you take some time to investigate these claims before dismissing the greatest coach in your program’s history? There are several factors at work driving Leach’s immediate dismissal. Firstly, Leach and AD Gerald Myers have never gotten along, reportedly as far back as 2001 when Leach’s parking spot was reassigned to Bobby Knight. This has festered over the years and has turned into a full-blown feud. The second reason for the immediacy of the firing is the $800,000 bonus due Leach if he were the coach of the Red Raiders tomorrow. To me it seems like TTU made a rash decision based on short-sighted economics and personal feelings, without weighing the positives that Mike Leach has brought to the university.
If I were a fan of the Red Raiders, I would implore the President of the University to take a closer look at this situation. While it seems apparent that one of these men must go, perhaps the wrong one has been shown the door. Mike Leach has earned the right to remain the coach, until these accusations are proven to be more than that. Even if they are, Leach deserves some type of punishment, but it is a rash overreaction to fire the man. Amid the media turmoil, don’t be surprised if Leach sits out a season or two, while the controversy dies down. During his downtime, the Juris Doctorate holder can begin the courtroom battle with the university over the proper compensation due to him. In a couple of years, some new BCS caliber team will be happy to have the captain of the pirate ship patrolling their sidelines.