CURIOUS INDEX, 1/20/08

Actually, I’m pretty sure that Pryor was referring to the fact that it was like 4 friggin’ degrees all weekend.

I just don’t think Tebow gets enough exposure. And as tired as I’m sure all non-Gator fans are of him, you should try being a non-Gator fan living in Jacksonville. The man-crushes are many and deep.

Also, shouldn’t Urban get a slimy nickname? Urban Legend and the like seem kind of tame. Urban Liar rhymes, but it isn’t very creative. Any suggestions?

They’re burning Love Seats now in Morgantown. Perfect, for MLK day and all…

UGA already had 2 arrests..update the board!

Didn’t Calvin Magee stand behind Rodriguez in AA at the presser announcing his hire on Dec. 17? Why would WVU consider him for anything?

Unbelievable…just looking forward to the upcoming publications…“What Would Tebow Do?” and “The World According To Tebow”, and visual media, “The Tebow Show”, soon to be syndicated…all proceeds to be placed in a blind trust in order to maintain amateur status, of course.

Orson, what about commentary on the national broadcast of Tebow doing the Gator Chomp on College Gameday with someone else’s hands??? Never mind…I guess I just did.

1. - I think Orson said arrests for alcohol related offenses either don’t count in The Fulmer Cup standings, or don’t count very much.

As for Paul Johnson at Tech…do you think Tech new coming in that he wasn’t going to change his system, or did he “fake the pitch” on them?

Orson, you have no excuse for not attending GT games now. Heck, I hope you’ve already made a donation out of thanks to the university for bringing the triple option back to the BCS.

#7, considering that Johnson has been telling anyone who would listen for years that he wasn’t going to change his system and that it would work at the highest level, no one should be surprised.

Why Calvin Magee was not considered at WVU as a head coach: Shout Out to Ivan Maisel submitted by Scolap21
24 hours ago | 0 comments | Email to a Friend Not because of racial bias because alll there starters excluding the O-line are African american. So why would there be racial bias at WVU if many of the players are African American. If they were racist than they would not even look at three quarters of the players they recruited.

Magee was not considered as a coach because he left with Rodriguez already. The only reason they did not try to take him back is WVU was angry that he left with coach rod. If Ivan Maisel thinks WVU is racist take in consideration there is hardly any African coaches in the NCAA. Maybe the whole NCAAF staff the racist one?

God I love me some option.

So two players were arrested for an alcohol related charge, which I assume to be underage drinking. Are these arrests common everywhere, or is Athens way overzealous in sniffing these nefarious crimes out? I know it wasn’t a problem when I was in Statesboro. Drunk 18-20 year olds were everywhere and never arrested.

Urban Meyer being “variably forthcoming” with recruits is like the “hundred dollar handshake” at Alabama

that’s just what happens in CFB

I always thought it was a myth (the handshake) until I made friends with a player in college….and he giggled like a schoolgirl talking about the “chump change” handed to him at any and every alum meet… he said one guy spilled about 20 C-notes out of his pocket one day and got “some help” picking them up… ended up putting about 5-6 back in his pocket

and you wonder how D-mac got those spiffy 20’s (22’s?)

Published: January 20, 2008 11:11 pm

Rodriguez saga only getting worse

By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian

MORGANTOWN — MORGANTOWN — Last week, as the dirt from the divorce between Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia University turned to mud, which naturally progressed into a whole lot of mud-slinging, the former Mountaineer coach went public and accused the powers that be at the school and in the state of conducting “a smear campaign” against him.

But who is smearing who? Or is it whom is smearing who, or it is whom is smearing whom, or who is smearing whom?

It’s beginning to look a whole lot like the Rodriguez camp is wielding the knife and West Virginia – the school and the state – are just so much peanut butter and not as Rodriguez would have you believe.

The latest shot was fired, by former WVU offensive coordinator Calvin Magee with the not-so-subtle touch of his and Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown, in an article appearing Sunday in what is becoming Brown’s own personal public relations vehicle, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Last week Rodriguez charged there were “falsehoods, inaccuracies and innuendo” coming out of West Virginia. Now “Team Rodriguez” has decided it is time to play “the race card.”

In Magee’s eyes, he was passed over as a real candidate for the head coaching job that went to his fellow assistant, Bill Stewart, because of the color of his skin, according to the story in the P-G.

Right! That was it. Sure. We all should have known it was a racial thing.

It couldn’t have had anything to do with Magee getting on a chartered jet with Rodriguez and defensive backfield coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Gibson to fly to Michigan the day after Rodriguez was announced as that school’s new coach.

No, this show of support for Rodriguez, leading to the assumption that Magee was signed, sealed and delivered as a Michigan assistant, didn’t matter at all.

As WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong said incredulously Sunday after having been made aware of the article, “[Calvin Magee] virtually pulled himself out of consideration when he went up there.”

The assumption Magee was leaving WVU was so strong that the Michigan papers wrote that his presence at the press conference signaled the imminent firing of the incumbent offensive coordinator and the Ann Arbor News’ coverage of the introductory press conference took it a step further:

“Rodriguez also introduced offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Calvin Magee and secondary coach and recruiting coordinator Tony Gibson, who are coming with him from West Virginia.”

That was the first straw – and the last – as far as any candidacy Magee had for the coaching job.

But Brown saw it differently. To him it wasn’t quite so black and white. In fact, to him it was only white as he charged West Virginia’s athletic department with “racial discrimination and harassment”, according to the article.

Then Brown had this rather farfetched tale to tell the P-G to back up his charge.

“Calvin was in discussions with this West Virginia University administrator, and Calvin kind of politely asked him, ‘Do you think I have a shot [at becoming the next Mountaineers head coach]?’ The administrator said, ‘No you don’t,’ and pointed to his skin. That’s why Calvin got on the plane.”

Let’s see, who do you suppose “this West Virginia University administrator” could be? Pastilong? He says not. President Mike Garrison? Hardly.

It is kind of hard to guess, considering how many administrators there are in the athletic department, from facilities to ticket sales, from promotions to finance. You can rest assured fewer than 5 percent of the administrators in the department had any knowledge of the workings of the search, especially before it started, which was when this alleged conversation took place.

Pastilong completely denies that the color of Magee’s skin had anything to do with the search or the selection of a new coach.

“We make every effort to select the best possible person,” Pastilong said. “We make every effort to work with the Office of Social Justice in our hires. We are conscious of diversification and at the end of the day want to select the best person possible.”

And that person probably never was Calvin Magee. He has no head coaching experience and, working as offensive coordinator under Rich Rodriguez doesn’t exactly free you up to make too many important decisions. In fact, Rodriguez once mentioned in a press conference that there are times during games when he turns off the headset that connects him to Magee, wanting to run the offense totally by himself.”

What’s more, the decline this past year by 2007 All-American Steve Slaton, who was Magee’s prime pupil as running backs coach, certainly didn’t help Magee’s cause any. Slaton gained 1,128 yards as a freshman, 1,744 as a sophomore and 1,053 as a junior.

No one can say at present that selecting Stewart was the right choice, any more than anyone could say Rodriguez was the right choice when he was chosen or after his first season resulted in a 3-8 record.

What you can say is WVU has history on its side in WVU in picking football coaches. It has hired only four – not counting Stewart – since 1970. Two of those coaches – Bobby Bowden and Don Nehlen – are in the College Football Hall of Fame and a third, Frank Cignetti, should go in for the job he did at Indiana, Pa., coaching 20 years and compiling a 182-50 record with 15 post-season wins and two national championship game appearances after leaving WVU when his coaching tenure was cut short by a bout with cancer.

Rodriguez would seem to be on a Hall of Fame path, too, if he can just figure out which hat to wear on his bust.

#1, i think it was a comment on UM tail.

http://thebigeleventh.blogspot.com/

Athens police are interesting because as a general rule, they don’t care what you do as long as nobody else complains. Then there’s this 1 in 50 shot that the cop will decide to be a complete and total a-hole. Whatever the two Georgia kids did, there’s a strong possibility they already did it 49 other times and they just picked the wrong time to do it again.

[After reading specifics]
Oh, one of them was a DUI. Athens cops like going after DUIs and expired tags. I think they like it because it doesn’t involve getting out of the car much.

Thankfully someone is shedding light on Meyer and his recruiting tactics. Now, all of the Division I coaches who don’t negatively recruit, stretch the truth about playing time and other programs, create “campus tour guides” comprised solely of smoking hot coeds, look the other way then recruits visit strip clubs and house parties with players, and generally tell young 18-year old boys anything they can think of to get them to sign can FINALLY get back to recruiting with class and integrity.

Wait…who does that leave left? Oh….never mind….

I love a good “everybody does it” argument.

I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work. You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

Drinking in Athens?

I’m shocked, SHOCKED!

I wasn’t worries so much about the underage drinking, but I assumed the dui would warrant points. +1 for richt saying they would be held out for the big game against GA southern. That’s what the early games are for I guess.

I wonder how this will affect florida’s secondary in a few months when they’re opening with HI and a system qb in place.

Yes! Thanks to the hires of Paul Johnson and Bo Pelini, the Cro-Magnon option offense will make its triumphant return to major college football.

Looks like UCLA did indeed hire Norm Chow to be it’s offensive coordinator.

16 – Biggus Ruckus and/or Rival will be along shortly to assure you that the “AAC,” or “ACC,” cops, and cops in general, are out to get Georgia students, ESPECIALLY football players, and the only reason Georgia football players get busted for these “ticky tack,” that one is mine as I think they are BS, violations is because Athens cops don’t take care of Georgia’s players.

Conversely, waving at OOC, the STUDENT BODY President of SOUTH CARO F’ing LINA was just busted for public drunkeness and resisting arrest in 5 Points.

That one deserves a siren, if anything does.

As for Urban, sorry but he is a dirty, dirty liar when it comes to recruits.

However, file recruiting under the category of making sausages and laws, you really don’t care how it gets done, so long as it gets done, and the NCAA is not showing up at your doorstep.

@ RODWHOCARES:

Thanks for posting the whole article as it makes it easier to make this point: the article/column is pretty bad.

Leave aside for a second the fact that, by appearing with RR on the podium, Magee took himself out of consideration for the HC job. If he didn’t know that, and in talking to someone who he (Magee) thought to be knowledgeable about the hiring process, /came to believe/ that his race was a factor, then that’s pretty bad. Hertzel’s argument that the exchange didn’t happen can be summed up thusly: NAW MAN, THAT AIN’T HAPPEN!
At any rate, simply dismissing Magee for “playing the race card” is idiotic at best. There’s no “playing” of a “card” when you honestly believe you may have been discriminated against.

Finally, your argument that the demographics of the WVU football team’s players supports the assertion that there’s no bias in the hiring of coaches actually cuts the other way: if the majority of your workers/players for the past 20-30 years has been of a given race, and less than 5% of the management/coaches of that workforce is of that race, you’ve actually got /excellent/ circumstantial evidence of discrimination.

I hope the exchange didn’t happen, and I suspect that it did happen but that the person talking to Magee didn’t know what he was talking about. At any rate, the RR-UM-WVU situation is ugly enough without getting breathlessly indignant before working through the facts.

#21, in a few years when TOB and PJ’s pwnge of UNC is apparent, please remember you could have hired either coach.

Binge drinking and Athens go together like Fridays and bunda; Wednesdays and Mustaches; Vespas and David Pollack; Waffle House and 2am; Date rape and frat mixers; Arthritis & English Bulldogs; drunk girls and stilletos…

Coop,

I’ve already been by, though in this case one of the arrests was a DUI, which is dangerous and deserving of punishment.

Also, how drunk must one be in public before they get arrested? Because I’ve been pretty fucking drunk publicly without it happening.

Really, isn’t Arkansas now the preeminent SEC school in terms of athletic dept. dysfunctions ? You haven’t seen anyone at Bama going through the coach’s cell phone records – yet.

1. - Nick Saban doesn’t have time for Cell Phones.

Exile, Calvin Magee APPEARED NEXT TO RODRIGUEZ AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE IN ANN ARBOR, and was announced as a UM coach. It’s not that hard to see why he wouldn’t have been considered for ANY future coaching jobs at WVU. He jumped on that plane, dropped napalm, and BURNED THAT BRIDGE. ARRRGGGHH! This racism charge is utter horseshit.

“Urban is a dirty, dirty liar when it comes to recruiting.”

Please list examples. I am very interested in hearing the spin you put on this. And also what team is it that you root for. I’m sure your coach is a saint.

Oooohhhh, dirty recruiting talk always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. On second thought, maybe that’s gas.

I am shocked that the Ga guys haven’t read the whole story on the arrests because the UA drinking one is a hoot. Supposedly the poor kid was so drunk he thought he was waving down a taxi instead of basically throwing himself in front of a moving cop car. Now, gentlemen, that just isn’t too smart. Althouh I would like to give him full credit for at least attempting to do the right thing at the end of the night. As far as the DUI arrest, that is much more serious, and inexcusable in my eyes. There are way too many people these players can call rather than get behind the wheel while intoxicated.

As far as suspending them for a game against GaSouthern, well you would also be happy to know that plenty of players have also been suspended against the likes of first game opponents Clemson, Boise State, and Oklahoma State.

Biggus: Nickname Alert/Threadjack -

Joshua Milton Blahyi, one of Liberia’s most notorious rebel commanders, has returned from exile to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.

His self-bestowed nickname?

GENERAL BUCK NAKED!

(because he was fond of charging into battle wearing nothing but combat boots, to terrify the shit out of his opponents)

I used to think Tebow was only half a fag. Well, the other half just showed up.

NRBQ,

Was this general perhaps a short, bald, chubby fellow who spent a lot of time in coffee shops with his comedian friend?

SL55,

Were I you, I would start by looking at the above link regarding Urbie’s tactics. There are links in that obviously biased fellow’s page, so it isn’t just sour grapes.

But, honestly, not a day goes by that another article about Meyer and his recruiting practices does not pop up. Multiple kids have already come forth this year regarding the BS is attempting to sell to them.

And, he is getting much, much, much more heat for his successes than what Bobby Bowden, Mack Brown, Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, and, now, Charlie Weis & Mark Richt have ever received.

Why is that?

And, yes, Tommy Bowden is a saint. He is not a great, or even very good coach, unfortunately, but he keeps Clemson’s drawers clean, which is more than I can say for some of his predecessors.

Conversely, again, I don’t care how a coach does his job, regarding recruiting, as long as the NCAA does not show up to investigate.

So, more power to Urban. However, the shine is starting to come of off Urban’s practices.

I love me some triple option.

Somebody get the lawyaz.

If you drink and drive they arrest your ass, as they should.

But if you’re too drunk to drive and try to walk home, they arrest your ass.

What’s an underaged drinker to do? Where’s the ACLU when you need them?