Wed Jun 19 03:44pm EDT
I wasn't particularly fond of the parking cops when I was in college. I felt there had to be something better for the police force to do than wait for the moment a meter expired to charge a broke college student with a parking ticket. I would get irrationally angry about it. Most of us have probably been there, in some form or another.
Johnny Manziel was there in the early morning hours on Sunday. He was reportedly angry about a parking ticket. And he sent out a vague tweet about it, saying he couldn't wait to leave College Station. And that tweet, without its proper context, set of another round of criticism of Manziel and whether he's a spoiled brat, superstar who needs to step away from Twitter, the next Maurice Clarett or just a college kid who is being scrutinized too much for basically being a college kid.
Nothing sums up the Johnny Football circus quite like this. His angry (expletive) tweet about how he couldn't wait to leave College Station was just some rage over a parking ticket, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The paper said he was on a fishing trip in Port Aransas and his vehicle in College Station was ticketed, for being parked the wrong way in front of his house and having his windows tinted too dark.
Wed Jun 19 01:34pm EDT
The news on Cal's stadium renovations, and the lack of sales to finance it, must be more than a little disturbing to school officials looking at a huge debt.
A major part of the financing for the $321 million renovations to Memorial Stadium was selling special endowment seats, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. They cost $40,000 to $250,000 and you get to keep them for 40 or 50 years. Great plan, right? Well, sure, until they (rather predictably, given the cost) couldn't sell them all.
According to the Chronicle, Cal officials said they would sell all 2,902 seats by this month, but they're stuck on 1,857. And as the Chronicle also reports, 16 of them were given back to the school this winter.
What's left is an enormous debt, and some at the school rightfully concerned about the fallout.
Wed Jun 19 12:04pm EDT
The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. We’re going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.)
All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Also, this is not the best weekend for football outside of the little game in College Station. You may be able to take time to see some family members or friends…if you want to.
These games take place the weekend of September 14th.
Alabama at Texas A&M (3:30 p.m., CBS) – Your early Game of the Year candidate. You’re all aware of the story: Johnny Manziel and the Aggies went into Tuscaloosa and dealt the Tide their only loss of the 2012 season. (This did not stop an Alabama championship, but it did help Johnny Football win the Heisman.) Both teams will probably be in the top five and this is an early season game whose results will have a serious effect not just on the race for the SEC championship, but also the BCS title. A big question here is how well A&M – which loses left tackle Luke Joeckel (second pick in April’s draft) and center Patrick Lewis (four-year starter) – will protect Manziel from C.J. Mosley and the Bama front seven. Will the Aggies be able to control the Tide for another year, or will AJ McCarron and friends get vengeance? Thinking of how excited Uncle Verne is going to be during this game is getting me even more excited.
Wed Jun 19 11:18am EDT
In news that surprises absolutely no one, John Calipari has put together the No. 1 recruiting class at the University of Kentucky.
Wait, hold on … this says Kentucky has the number one class in football? Is that right? The same Wildcats team that went 2-10 last year?
You bet it is, and here's the proof (Kentucky fans, you might want to print this out for posterity):
Wed Jun 19 09:57am EDT
The legend of Johnny Football almost never came to be, at least at Texas A&M.
Johnny Manziel almost transferred out of Texas A&M after his arrest last year, after he was initially suspended by the school for the entire 2012 season. That very interesting piece of news was broken by the Dallas Morning News, citing an unnamed source. The news comes a few days after Manziel angrily tweeted that he can't wait to leave College Station.
Manziel was charged with disorderly conduct by fighting, failure to identify and having a fake driver's license last summer. The report said A&M decided to suspend him for the entire season, and had Manziel not won his appeal he was going to leave the school, the Dallas Morning News said.
Manziel won the appeal of his suspension, which significantly changed the course of college football history.
Tue Jun 18 08:24pm EDT
Jack Hoffman, the 7-year-old cancer survivor who made an inspiring touchdown run at the Nebraska spring game this year earning him more than 8 million views on Youtube, made an appearance at the College World Series on Monday and told the crowd his final chemotherapy session was scheduled for today.
That news was greeted with a roar of applause as fans watched his spring game highlight again on the big screens at a game between Mississippi State and Indiana.
Tue Jun 18 07:25pm EDT
Billion dollar media rights deals and packed stadiums and arenas have protected students at most of the power conference schools from forking over big bucks in student fees for athletics, but their counterparts at schools in lesser conferences haven't been so lucky.
This isn't exactly shocking information, but it's another interesting look at how uneven the playing field is in college athletics and the folly of some of the little guys trying to keep pace. It provides more ammunition for those who say it's time for another division for the schools with the biggest budgets.
Tue Jun 18 04:50pm EDT
When someone says “Linebacker U,” what is the first thing you think of?
Is it Penn State, the traditional answer, with legendary players at the position spanning from Jack Ham to Lavar Arrington to NaVorro Bowman? Or perhaps you’d take a program that’s had a lot of memorable names in the last decade-plus, like Miami (Ray Lewis, Jonathan Vilma) or USC (Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga).
Would you say UCLA? No? Oh, they’d like you to consider it:
#linebackeru pic.twitter.com/psyVu1hswP
— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) June 17, 2013
Tue Jun 18 03:08pm EDT
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema wants everybody to just slow down for a minute.
Bielema, echoing some of his SEC rivals, according to AL.com is proposing a rule change that would mandate a 15-second substitution period after every first down, allowing coaches to make defensive substitutions. This would severely limit the effectiveness of no-huddle offenses, a trend that is continuing to spread around college football.
His reasoning? The health and safety of players:
“Not to get on the coattails of some of the other coaches, there is a lot of truth that the way offensive philosophies are driven now, there's times where you can't get a defensive substitution in for 8, 10, 12 play drives," Bielema said, according to AL.com. "That has an effect on safety of that student-athlete, especially the bigger defensive linemen, that is really real."
Tue Jun 18 01:20pm EDT
It turns out that Mike Gundy did lift some of the restrictions on Wes Lunt's transfer, but that shouldn't matter.
This should be the case to bring about change, if the NCAA is not too busy screwing up the Miami case to notice that the "student-athletes" it says it protects are being held hostage by some vindictive coaches.
Gundy put significant and unnecessary restrictions on Lunt's transfer from Oklahoma State. It was spiteful to a quarterback who wanted to move on (and did, picking Illinois) and go to a school where he thought he had a better chance to play. That happens.
And Gundy should not be lauded for eventually lifting the restrictions, as reported by Channel1450.com (via PistolsFiringBlog.com). Lunt told Channel1450.com Gundy did so only about a week ago, well after they were put in place in mid-May, and by that time it was too late.
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