10-24-2013, 03:34 PM
Some thoughts...
1) Lefty is right - nothing but excuses. I fell for that crap once when JT replaced TH. No more. Stop the chatter and show me results.
2) Washington - the APR will drop in May 2014. Whether it declines to a level that initiates penalties remains to be seen. I am hopeful (keeping in mind, point #1) that we will see a turnaround beginning in 2015. The math works to UC's disadvantage in 14 and advantage in 15.
3) Garvin- yes, JT was fired, in part, due to academics. Of that, there is no doubt. Many high profile UC alums were really angry about the academic disaster.Â
4) Publius - UC only had one Prop 48 player in the 90's, Russell White. The irony is that White is an incredible success story and a shining example of what is right about college athletics. Entering UC, he was a dyslexic question mark. After, his condition was diagnosed, he fell in love with school (to the detriment of his athletic career), graduated and is doing extremely well now.
5) Farm 93 - first of all, UCLA does not have a balanced athletic budget. The require a subsidy from the University to balance their books (not to the extent that UC does). They graduate more players because they don't take nearly as many academic risks as UC.Â
What is most interesting about this whole discussion is that JT is on record as having said things started going south for him when he got away from recruiting kids that were really qualified for UC. Early in his tenure, UC did well academically (one year they graduated 100% of the footballers). When he started taking short cuts, the academics collapsed and the team record soured.
CoachDykes is on record as saying he will address the mess left by JT. To my earlier point, I'll believe it when I see it but I have heard that he is off to a good start based on the spring and summer results.
1) Lefty is right - nothing but excuses. I fell for that crap once when JT replaced TH. No more. Stop the chatter and show me results.
2) Washington - the APR will drop in May 2014. Whether it declines to a level that initiates penalties remains to be seen. I am hopeful (keeping in mind, point #1) that we will see a turnaround beginning in 2015. The math works to UC's disadvantage in 14 and advantage in 15.
3) Garvin- yes, JT was fired, in part, due to academics. Of that, there is no doubt. Many high profile UC alums were really angry about the academic disaster.Â
4) Publius - UC only had one Prop 48 player in the 90's, Russell White. The irony is that White is an incredible success story and a shining example of what is right about college athletics. Entering UC, he was a dyslexic question mark. After, his condition was diagnosed, he fell in love with school (to the detriment of his athletic career), graduated and is doing extremely well now.
5) Farm 93 - first of all, UCLA does not have a balanced athletic budget. The require a subsidy from the University to balance their books (not to the extent that UC does). They graduate more players because they don't take nearly as many academic risks as UC.Â
What is most interesting about this whole discussion is that JT is on record as having said things started going south for him when he got away from recruiting kids that were really qualified for UC. Early in his tenure, UC did well academically (one year they graduated 100% of the footballers). When he started taking short cuts, the academics collapsed and the team record soured.
CoachDykes is on record as saying he will address the mess left by JT. To my earlier point, I'll believe it when I see it but I have heard that he is off to a good start based on the spring and summer results.