TCU "stoned"-frogs and Linsanity cont.

Well this is kind of old but I still thought it was interesting.  A few weeks ago the Big 12 and new member TCU had a bit of a problem on their hands.  There was a drug bust on campus that had 17 students arrested and 4 of those players were on the TCU football team.  During the 6 month investigation the suspects were caught selling marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, and perscription drugs.  One of the players, Tanner Brock, had originally told an undercover cop that 60 players should have failed a surprise drug test and that he had failed it for sure.  Later it was revealed that only 5 players tested positive for large amounts of marijuana. There were 11 other players that had trace amounts but were within the margin of error for the test.

This probably couldn't have come at a worse time for TCU.  With their departure from the Mountain West to the Big 12 they wanted a squeaky clean record.  Now that may have been tarnished.  With Gary Patterson viewed as one of the best college football coaches, leading TCU to a 2 BCS bowls, and then getting them into the coveted "big boy league" of the Big 12 things were looking good.  Now they seem to be falling apart at the seems.  Not only has it hurt their public image it's starting to hurt their recruiting too.  Well on February 1st this year (national signing day) Coach Patterson ordered a drug test after a recruit decided not to sign with them because the recruit had heard of rampant drug use there.

Committing Lin-sanity to the Lin-sane asylum

This is Lin-sane, Lin-sanity, Lin-sational.

He is the man of the hour.  Jeremy Lin with no shortage of nicknames (The Lin-anator, Super Lin-tendo, Lin-credible, Lin-derella man, Linfluenza, and Lin-sanity) has become a sports icon.

Going from a D- League player to getting cut by two NBA teams to now becoming a sports superstar that has taken the USA (and part of Canada) by storm.  Two weeks ago Jeremy Lin was still sleeping on his brother's couch because he didn't know how long he'd be with the New York Knicks.

Jeremy Lin was born in Palo Alto, California and later went and played his college ball at the Harvard University.  He graduated with an degree in economics and is now a starting point guard in the NBA.  You don't have to have a degree in economics to know that pays the big bucks.  Well actually Lin is making a very modest salary right now of only $762,195 this year.  If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on that going up after this season.

So why is Lin getting so much attention.  Is it because he outplayed Kobe "The Black Mamba" Bryant?  He schooled Ricky Rubio?  Maybe it was because he went beast mode and clutched the game winning shot against the Toronto Raptors?  If you ask Floyd Mayweather why he's getting so much attention he'll tell you its because he's asian.  He tweeted this a couple of nights ago.

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise"


Yeah that may be part of it Floyd, but did you know that Jeremy Lin is the only player since the NBA-ABA merger to score the most points in his first 5 starts?  It could also be the Cinderella/Under dog story that everyone loves to hear about.  A kid coming out of high school with no scholarship offers, walks onto his college team, goes undrafted in the NBA and now is starting and dominating.  It's Lin-credible!

So why is Lin getting so much attention?  Well it's because of the media!  It seems like recently the media wants a "media darling" so that they can write stories about.  Do any of you remember Jimmer-mania?  Now the only time that we here about Jimmer is when he's not playing.  How about more recently (even though Jimmer-mania  was only like a year ago) Tebow-mania?  Because of Tebow-mania we now have this wonderful song by DJ Steve Porter.

 

How will Lin turn out?  That is a good question.  If we look at the past "media darlings" recently  they haven't been that great.  Jimmer has had a  horrific rookie year with glimpses of his former greatness.  Tebow's quarterback numbers were  probably worse than some offensive linemen's if they tried it.  He completed less than 50% of his passes for the year and going 12 TD's to 6 INT's. That's bad.....

There is a reason that so many overnight sensations are just that, overnight sensations.  It's because they can't sustain it for a long time to become one of the greats (Elway, Young, Montana, Jordan, Bryant, Etc.).  Now Lin has played lights out the last 7 games leading the Knicks back up to a .500 record, but we'll see if he can keep the flow up once Carmelo Anthony returns back to the starting line up with him.  Only time will tell.

Oh yeah, Lin likes to just be called Jeremy.

Tuesday's With Bryan

Well most of you know that my favorite sport is college football.  If you know that then you also probably know that I'm also a fan of the BYU Cougars too.  Well this past week I was able to catch up with Bryan Kehl who was a former cougar.  Here is his bio from the BYU website to all of his stats.  He is revered in the eyes of many cougar fans as one of the best to play at BYU.  It was a great honor and privilege of mine to catch up with one of my heroes.  After his time at BYU Bryan went on and was drafted by the New York Giants in the 2008 NFL draft going in the 4th round.  He played with them for 2 seasons before being released by them in his third.  He would be picked up by the St. Louis Rams where he has found a comfortable home for now and hopefully for a long time.

I was able to catch up with the 4 year NFL pro and talk to him about his recruitment process and how things have changed.  I asked him about his recruitment process and what teams tried to recruit him.  He told me that the only teams that really showed any interest were the University of Utah, Harvard, and BYU, but that BYU was the only one that he ever really wanted to go to.  I asked him how things have changed over the years for recruiting with the implementing of social media.  Bryan told me that its changed it a ton.  The biggest thing is that it gives kids a lot more exposure in getting their film out to coaches.  It was harder for kids like him to get noticed by some of the big name programs, the local ones heard about him but not some of the bigger ones.  The internet age has changed how coaches and players do the recruiting process.  It makes it possible for more schools to see you but if you're not careful (i.e. Facebook and Twitter comments) they can also hurt you really fast.

When asked about the rules that the Rams have for using social media he referred me to the NFL policy which states:

"The growth of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has created important new ways for the NFL and clubs to communicate and connect with fans.  The NFL has been at the forefront of the use of new media and will continue to emphasize innovative and appropriate use of these new forms of communication."

"League policy allows for the use of social media or networking sites (including Twitter and Facebook) by players, coaches and football operations personnel up to 90 minutes before kickoff and after the game following media interviews.

The use of these sites by these individuals is not permitted during the game, including halftime.  No updates are permitted to be posted by the individual himself or anyone representing him during this prohibited time on his personal Twitter, Facebook or any other social media account."

Bryan summed it up by saying "Just be smart with it, don't put anything offensive out there for people to read."


I guess that being in the NFL is just like every other job.  You have to be careful with what you post on  the internet or it could get you fired.

Warm Up Those Fax Machines

Well today is the day.

Today is Christmas for college coaches and recruiting sites around the nation.  What am I talking about?

It's National Signing Day!!

For those of you who don't know what today is here is a little recap.  Throughout the year football coaches recruit players to come and play for their college.  A player may have one scholarship offer too booku scholarship offers.  Either way once today hits they make a decision on where they'll be playing their college football next year.  Now during the recruiting season a player can "commit" to a school meaning that he tells the coaches he'll sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) to play there next year, but until he signs that LOI he can go play anywhere he wants.  Some kids commit and then decommit and then commit to another school 1, 2, and even 3 times during this whole process.  A letter of intent is basically the equivalent of a professional athlete signing a contract. The recruits then fax in the signed letters to the coaches and it makes it official.  Recruiting experts will give an athlete anywhere from 1 to 5 stars.  One being able to walk and being able to utter a sensible sentence at the same time, and 5 for being gifted with extreme athleticism and very talented at their position.  Now these experts are always right.  Who can argue with an inexact science?  There are so many factors that go into how a recruit will turn out.  Like injuries, school, home sickness, etc.  You're better off looking into a crystal ball sometimes then trying to predict what a recruit will do 4 years down the line for your program.

Now why has today turned into such a special day?  Well because some people view today as a day of foreshadowing for the things to come.  Many believe that if you get the best recruiting class then you have the best chance to win the national championship.  Although the last time that the team that had the number one recruiting class won the national championship was back in 2006 with the Florida Gators.  Many coaches say that they put little to no weight in the recruiting rankings and that they focus more on the types of players that best fit their system.  So why then does today turn into such a big day?  Well that easy, it's one word.  Us.  We make it a big day.  It's all about supply and demand.  "We" the fan want another thing to brag about.  We tell ourselves "Okay, so we didn't win the National Championship (or the conference) but its okay because we beat our (insert rival here) in recruiting".

If you have ESPNU there is no use in looking for basketball games or highlights at all today.  It's been taken over by National Signing Day, They've had coverage going since about 9 A.M. Eastern time on recruits choosing their schools.  Who knew that high school gyms or living rooms could be changed into press conference rooms so fast.  The lights, cameras, reporters, and all of the attention can all be very alluring for some of these kids that just want some attention.  In 2008 one kid got a little too wrapped up in the whole idea of being recruited.  His name was Kevin Hart and he always wanted to play college football.  So with news crews, T.V. cameras, and reporters there he made his decision.  He was going to play college football at the University of California!  Everyone was ecstatic for him.  This was a dream come true for him.  There was just one little problem for him.  No, it wasn't grades.  It was that Cal had never offered him a scholarship to play there.  It was a hoax and everyone bit hook, line, and sinker.  Kevin later issued a public apology to everyone about the hoax and the mayhem that he had caused.  Recently Kevin did sign an actual letter of intent to play for Missouri Western State.  To read an update on his story you can check out this link on ESPN.

All in all today is a media frenzy of these high school athletes who have done what? Nothing, really.... Sure a lot of them are great kids and are active in helping out their communities but all in all they haven't really done anything to garner this much attention besides being athletic.  So what do you get with the media crowning you as having the best recruiting class of the year?  Just bragging rights for that year.  No extra points in the polls, no free 'W' in the win column, just bragging rights.  So how will this recruiting class turn out for your favorite team?  Well I guess we'll have to check back in a couple of years and see how these recruits turned out.