No college immune from bad behavior

MeanGreen61 · August 10, 2006

Article from the MUTS board.

By GREG POGUE

pogue@dnj.com

At what point does a university assume responsibility for the actions of its recruited student-athletes?

Imagine trying to ensure that 200-plus young men and women always make the right decision. It's not going to happen, no matter how hard they try.

Case in point is every university in the country. Not one is immune. And every coach and administrator dread that late-night call.

A year ago Christmas, Vanderbilt football coach Bobby Johnson got it. Popular running back Kwane Doster — a fine student and even finer person — had been shot dead during a visit to his hometown of Tampa, Fla. Imagine how much agonizing Johnson has done since that fateful night?

MTSU men's basketball coach Kermit Davis got "the call" a year ago October when three of his players were cut during a fight at a local private club. Again, the wrong place at the wrong time crossed paths. Yet, those who know Davis know how tight a ship he runs.

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer has gotten plenty of those "calls" the past few years. Did one of college football's winningest active coaches all of a sudden loosen the grip? His detractors would say most definitely, although he has been swift to mete out punishment this summer when players ran afoul of the law.

Not a rookie to college coaching, but going through the process of being head coach nonetheless, first-year MTSU football coach Rick Stockstill had two players arrested last month on two charges, the most troublesome being a gun possession charge that is still being investigated.

From the Air Force Academy to Georgia to Southern Cal to all points here and there, young people making wrong decisions swipes all demographics. It might well be labeled an epidemic, if only we wanted to follow what is being labeled as a downward spiral.

Many correctly blame NCAA recruiting restrictions that have limited coaches' access to those upon whom their jobs ultimately depend. Evaluation time causes more coaches to take chances on marginal student-athletes. Then again, coaches also take chances on those who can run fast and jump high and, seemingly, lift tall buildings — or, more succinctly, their programs — in a single bound.

Even the time student-athletes players spend with their coaches once they arrive at school — especially during summer months when they are expected to be on campus but working out on their own — has been severely limited. You know what they say about idle hands.

Rightfully or otherwise, athletic programs will be judged by the student-athletes they not only recruit, but the young men and women they mold. That's the nature of the beast of modern-day college athletics.

Consistency seems the best way to get a student-athlete's attention, meaning no one is immune to quick and stern discipline when they mess up. Then again, that has to be balanced with allowing a person the opportunity to make a mistake just once.

Originally published August 10, 2006

Edited August 10, 2006 by MeanGreen61