We All Prepare Differently

There's still a month and a half to go before America's youth begins to bash each other senseless on Saturday afternoons (and most weeknights, thank you, TV money!) to enhance the glory of old State U., but some young newsmakers have already distinguished themselves over the past few weeks.  It seems to be the year of the O-linemen:  several of them, at different institutions of higher learning, have made the pre-season local law enforcement all star teams in their respective locales, with smacking people around in bars being the favorite-frowned-upon-by-the-law activitiy. 

Blogger extraordinaire Matt Hinton, aka Dr. Saturday, has published his projected worst 12 for the upcoming season, and it includes a lot of our favorites, e.g. Mike Locksley and his New Mexico boys, TwoGun's favorite Breathe for Me Elvis University of Memphis, and the TwoGun Hall of Famer Howard Schnellenberger and the Florida International gridiron gang.  Howard's my fave from the list, as his team is predicted to be extremely bad in a brand new stadium.  New building, ancient leader and poor performance...strike up the band.



Living large and profiting.
It all depends on where
you ply your trade.

 THE Ohio State University has been instructed to vacate all its wins from last year, part of the punishment for the boys selling all their free junk.  The more that happens with this saga, the more I shake my head.  Seems to me that their biggest sin was getting caught, and the coach not tossing them immediately to the wolves.  If you're trying to understand how my viewpoint was formed, start by reading Meat Market, Inside the World of College Football Recruiting.  Selling sweatshirts and stickpins doesn't even register on the offend-o-meter. 

Need more?  Look back to the Gamecocks who were living in a luxury hotel while they were "students" last year. 

So you grumble your wizened old man grumble about how things are going to hell in a handbasket "these days".  Nuh-uh.  The Gipper (the real one, not the one who became President) was a professional gambler and rarely attended classes while establishing his legend at USB-and playing pro games under an assumed name...80 years ago.

Buckle up, boys and girls.  It's going to be another fun ride!