Real Deal College Football Discussion... no homers please

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dre, there's an article in my paper today about Council:

Council's story begs 2nd look at 2nd chances


You know it's not going to be a fun story when the word "Uzi" is in the first sentence.

University of Louisville senior cornerback Rod Council is in jail, charged with armed robbery after allegedly robbing a North Carolina gas station with a weapon that resembled a 9 mm Uzi. U of L coach Steve Kragthorpe promptly kicked him off the team.

I spent yesterday trying to put together what I know about Council, what people close to the program and some close to him know about him.

Because though Council wasn't a model citizen -- he had transgressions that received in-house punishment over the past several years -- he also has never, in my years of experience with him, exhibited anything like the personality of someone who would brandish a gun at a convenience store clerk.

Council isn't stupid. He's alleged to have done something incredibly stupid, but talk to him and you realize he's an intelligent guy. He has been on the athletic director's honor roll.

Coaches apparently knew he had some off-the-field worries, between his family at home in a bad part of Charlotte, N.C., and being the father of a child.
He acknowledged in a Courier-Journal profile before this season that he had struggled to keep his mind on football but said he had overcome that problem.

"Whatever is going on in my outside life, I have to leave it outside and come to work every day," he said. "I think I'm on the right path now."
Good record until recently
That wasn't the path he took this week.

Council had been given permission to leave school because of a family matter but had not returned by his appointed date when the news of his arrest broke yesterday. None of Council's family members, nor his high school coach, could be reached yesterday.

Council had run into trouble this past season. He was the Cards' top cornerback on the field but was suspended before a key game at South Florida when he missed two practices without explanation.

So what to make of this?

Clearly, U of L's "second-chance" recruiting is showing its down side. Council had lost a Virginia Tech scholarship offer for felony theft charges his senior year of high school. He completed a diversion program, and U of L took him.

Until Willie A. Williams was arrested on a marijuana charge earlier this year, U of L had put together a fairly impressive record of second-chance successes.

Certainly if the player graduates and goes on to have success, the practice has some merit. Want to rip U of L for taking Council? Fine. But don't then celebrate the achievements of second-chance recipients like Deion Branch and others.
Changing the culture
Maybe there was a time when the program needed to do that to be competitive. But given where the profile of the program has come, there's little need to rely on second-chance guys anymore. And Kragthorpe's recruiting seems to reflect that.

That marks a change in the way things are done. Which leads to a second conclusion: It's becoming evident that the program not only underwent a transition in coaches this season but a transition in culture. With each incident, another piece of Kragthorpe's puzzling "off-the-field issues" discussion comes into view. Though the picture still isn't clear enough.

There seems to have been an unmistakable element that just couldn't operate properly under a new disciplinary system. Still, Council had gotten encouraging feedback from the NFL Draft Advisory Board this year. He had a future in football. If that wasn't enough to guide his behavior, then no amount of coaching was.

Council's alleged actions were not only dumb, but desperate. These things are not a game. It's a rare and sad case on the sports page where you won't find a single winner.
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Rod.....
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Come on bruh.....One year away from the league.....

What the hell was he doing in Asheville anyways????

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Waste of talent...
 
[h1]Myriad causes for Florida State's demise[/h1]By Tom Dienhart - SportingNews


There isn't just one source of blame for Florida State's fall from greatness. A closer look reveals widespread problems, both on and off the field, have plagued the program.

Scrapes and scandals hit FSU

When it comes to infamy, Florida State is famous. The lowlights:

• An agent sponsored a shopping spree at a Foot Locker for several players in 1993, prompting then-Florida coach Steve Spurrier to dub FSU "Free Shoes University."

• Kicker Sebastian Janikowski was known for barroom brawls and other off-field escapades in the late-1990s.

• Wideout Peter Warrick went on a deep-discount shopping binge in 1999 that prompted Bobby Bowden to say he was "praying for a misdemeanor."

• In 2002, quarterback Adrian McPherson, who was being investigated on gambling and theft charges, was dismissed from the team.

But the academic scandal that surfaced before last year's Music City Bowl is the mother of all misdeeds under Bowden. Stupid off-field behavior is one thing. The soiling of a school's academic integrity is another.

And the timing couldn't have been worse. FSU wrapped up its second consecutive 7-6 season by playing in the bowl without 36 of its players-some of whom were suspended as the school investigated improprieties in online testing for a music history course. The scandal involved athletes from multiple sports and brought unprecedented shame on the university.

"That online class stuff scares me to death," says one ACC head coach. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of security and guidelines to it. If you get an overzealous tutor and a lot of people involved, I could see where you could have problems."

Florida State concluded the investigation in February with the help of a consulting firm. The result: a self-imposed probation of two years, a cut in scholarships, more suspensions (several football players will sit out the first three games next season) and a reshuffled athletic department.

And the NCAA still is sniffing around, which means more penalties could be coming.

How FSU missed the Mark

December 26, 2000.

That was the day Georgia hired Florida State offensive coordinator Mark Richt as its head coach. That's also the day the Seminoles' vaunted football program began to decay.

The Seminoles capped that 2000 season by playing in the BCS championship game against Oklahoma, FSU's third straight shot at a national title. Florida State hasn't been back to the big game since.

Coincidence? No.

"Losing Richt hurt," says former FSU running back Lorenzo Booker. "We may have been running the same plays, but the offense wasn't called the same. When and why you call a play matters."

Bobby Bowden hasn't been actively involved in the offense since turning it over to Richt in 1994. In seven years running the offense, Richt molded two Heisman winners (Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke) and a high-powered attack that five times ranked among the top five scoring offenses in the nation.

Now? Florida State's offense ranked 80th last season with 369.4 yards per game, and it scored just 32 touchdowns. During Bowden's tenure at FSU, only two Seminoles teams have scored fewer-the 1981 (31) and 1976 (26) teams. And the 1976 team played just 11 games.

"They have two problems," says an ACC head coach. "They can't control the ball, and they lack big-play ability."

The son also rises Ÿ and falls

It was a disaster.

There's no other way to describe Florida State coach Bobby Bowden's decision to make son Jeff his offensive coordinator in 2001 after Mark Richt departed for Georgia.

"You're losing and coming into meetings hearing how it's your fault," says former FSU running back Lorenzo Booker. "But I always wondered, 'What are the coaches doing to get better?' It's a two-way street. We felt it was us losing the games, not the coaches.

"It was like they had no part in any of it. It was like they had no accountability. It was like Jeff Bowden was untouchable. It was like no one on the staff could criticize him. The defense always did its job. The guys on defense would get mad at us. But after a while, they understood."

Once the losses started to mount (four in 2001, five in 2002), the Seminoles lost their swagger. And, even worse: Opponents stopped fearing Florida State.

"I always thought it was an awkward situation to have Jeff coach receivers and be the coordinator," says current FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford. "When we were off meeting with our position coach, Jeff was with the receivers. He then had to get information from our quarterbacks coach after the offense got back together."

As the offense floundered, the pressure mounted on Bobby Bowden to do something about his son-like get rid of him. It finally happened after the 2006 season, when Jeff quelled the storm by resigning-with a $500,000 buyout in hand. Florida State grabbed highly regarded LSU coordinator Jimbo Fisher to run the offense, but his fast and furious scheming yielded minimal results in his first season at Florida State.

"I'll tell you what we need," says Bobby Bowden. "We need a star. We need a Warrick Dunn, a Chris Weinke, a Derrick Brooks. We have started evaluating players better and like our chances."

Instability under center

For so long, Florida State had a solid system with its quarterbacks: Sign the guy, sit him for a few seasons and make him the starter after he learns the position. The system began to thrive with Peter Tom Willis and continued with the likes of Casey Weldon, Charlie Ward, Danny Kanell, Thad Busby and Chris Weinke.

Then came freshman Chris Rix in 2001-Bobby Bowden's son Jeff's first year as offensive coordinator. Rix was not ready to start physically, and he wasn't ready mentally. But he started anyway. And then he became the face of the Seminoles' struggles.

After that, Florida State's tidy quarterbacking system was thrown into disarray because it misjudged some recruits and didn't land others. Quarterback hopefuls like Adrian McPherson, Wyatt Sexton and Xavier Lee couldn't make the grade. Drew Weatherford, the 2007 starter, is back this season, but the Seminoles are still searching for stability at a position that will be wide-open again this spring.

"They haven't had a quarterback," says an ACC head coach. "I think that has been their biggest problem."
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since this thread is for last season, Yall want me to go head and make a 2008 NCAA Spring Football/Summer Workout thread?
 
Originally Posted by Jwill JR

looks like pryor will make his decision sometime this week.. there was a article in the Columbus dispatch that said it was down to two teams but it did not say which two.. I honestly its down to tOSU and Penn St... I think we see him sign this week as a buckeye.

some articles... by the way his bball team won the state championship

http://pennstate.scout.com/2/737795.html


http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...n_16.ART_ART_03-16-08_C2_8H9LJ9U.html?sid=101
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Yeah...

And dude also got in a fight....
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since this thread is for last season, Yall want me to go head and make a 2008 NCAA Spring Football/Summer Workout thread?

Might me a good idea Gunna....
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:"is he gone hoop in college? "



not sure... this kid changes his mind alot.. but the lastest has been that he wants to focus on football...
 
well looks like penn st was never really a fav. of pryor, probable wanted to go visit and meet with the staff, since his dad wanted psu to be in the picture...rivals is saying he will pick between tOSU and Meechigan, but most ppl are saying they would be shocked if he did not choose to be a Buckeyes.~
 
Originally Posted by after h0urs

Originally Posted by dreClark

scUM Scrimmage....

Marve looking pretty good out there....

Jacory 'nem
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Yeah, Marve looks pretty good. Maybe the U will be better than people think?
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I'll say this much, rarely have there been cases where a player has struggled in practice, and really never showed any real progression through-outthe years in practice, and then went on to ballout in the real deal games.

Kyle Wright could never throw a simple 10 yard out in practice. He held the ball too long, and made slow reads in practice, and he displayed happy feet thepocket as soon as the pocket showed any resemblance of collapsing early. And damn sure enough, in the games...Kyle Wright could never throw a 10 yard out, heldthe ball too long, and had happy feet in the pocket.

Kirby Freeman never displayed any type of short and immediate passing game, couldn't throw an accurate forward pass to save his life. And he threw two,three picks a game a pratice. And damn sure enough, in the games, Freeman had no short and immediate passing game, couldn't throw a forward pass(1 FORFOUTEEN!) and he throw multiple interceptions a game.

Marve was straight slinging the ball out there, and hitting dudes right in there hands, and in stride(unfortuatly for himthere was way too many drops).

I was out there, and while you never want to take too much much from spring practice/scrimmage, he was impressive out there(as was Jacory).
 
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