An idea for coaches
There’s an old saying about college football coaches. Recruits who are wined and dined and courted, made to feel like the Queen of Sheba, made to feel like their homestead is the epicenter of the universe, get a rude awakening when they hit campus as members of the team.
“Whatever happened to the nice man who was recruiting me?” The athletes suddenly are in boot camp, with a conditioning coach who gets in their grill and lets them know they’ve entered a new world. They are run, they are drilled and they are yelled at. It gets marginally better when practice starts, particularly off the field, but on the gridiron, they are run, they are drilled and they are yelled at.
So here’s what I want to see. I would like coaches to baptize these guys even earlier. Tell the truth on signing day. “Joey Allstate from Southside High School? He’s too fat. He’ll help us if he drops about 20 pounds and learns to skip the cheeseburgers.” Or “Speedy Simpson from Meadow Tech can run like the wind, but he better learn to take a hit. He’s softer than a feather bed.” Or “Bubba Ratcliffe is a risk. He can block and he can tackle and he could jump to the NFL right now, but if he doesn’t learn to read, no way he’s going to make it at our school. He’s dumb as a stump.”
Today, from Mike Gundy and Bob Stoops and every other coach in America, we are going to hear about what an excellent class was signed. The speech is the same every year. We all know it’s not necessarily true, and the coaches know we know it’s not true, and we know the coaches know it’s not true. But they keep saying it and we keep reporting it and the fans keep celebrating it.
This recruiting game is the REAL fantasy football. A little honesty would change that.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Good idea, scare of the lemmings early on, let them sign with another school.
Is there a stat (of course there is!) as to how many recruits ever get to play a down?
When I was recruited into the U. S. Marine Corps back in the mid 70′s. They made it sound like a very nice little summer camp. If i knew the truth before I joined, I wouldn’t have for any amount of money or glory. We wouldn’t have a Marine Corp. But having to endure all the screaming and yelling and being knocked around, blood,sweat & tears litterly for 3 months. I found out that I had become a man and most impotantly a team player because our lives depended on it and I was more than willing to lay down my life for my DI’s. And I think this can apply to football players also. A little yelling isn’t going to hurt them. They need to go through the growing phase.
Well shouldnt this stop with the media 1st- ? Dont report whos visiting where, including all the stats etc. You act like todays media doesnt cater to the very things you complain about coaches for. They have a product they try to sell. Isnt one of your pitches is that the paper covers all sports etc? The papers, media, online service etc are just as much to blame arent they? Bottom line- these are all businesses. Dont believe it? How much do we pay the govener or president of colleges? I doubt if its close what Stoops or even Gundy makes. Is Stoops 3 times as good as Gundy?
Well Tom, yes Stoops is that good. We have a problem starting with Junior High schools on up, we treat these star athletes like prima donna’s and they cannot take the heat when they get to college. They need a crash course about what real life is all about. Parents spoil them, coaches and teachers spoil them, and we need to get all of them off of “steroids”. There is no way that a 6-6″ kid at 310 lbs, is all natural……
Thank you Berry, you got it off your mind and now you and I feel better!!