Only person doing right thing in Arkansas debacle is ... nobody Dec. 17, 2006 By Gregg Doyel CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist They all suck, everyone involved in the football fiasco at Arkansas, where the mommies and daddies are whining and the players are pouting and the coaches are skanks. Did Houston Nutt sell his soul with the hiring of a high school coach? Help me find a winner in this group, because from here, they all look ridiculous. You've got the ambitious high school coach who prostituted his best players to get a job at Arkansas. His name is Gus Malzahn. Instead of polyester shorts, he ought to work the sideline in a pink bucket hat and leopard-fringed pimp suit. You've got the desperate college coach who responded to the pressure of back-to-back losing seasons by hiring Malzahn in a blatant grab for Malzahn's best players. His name is Houston Nutt. He sold his reputation for the price of Malzahn's $150,000 salary. You've got the recruits, silly little boys who let themselves be used by Malzahn and Nutt and then allowed their crybaby parents to contaminate one of the most successful seasons in Arkansas history. Their names are Mitch Mustain, Damian Williams and Ben Cleveland. They have the bodies of gods but the brains of goo. You've got the parents, who showed up uninvited at the Arkansas athletic director's office last week to complain about the direction of the football program -- the same program that has won 10 games and the SEC West title and is preparing to play Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl. The parents' names are irrelevant to you and me, although in Arkansas their names will live forever as examples of self-absorbed parental buffoonery. Which is what you call justice. And then you've got the athletic director, who allowed Nutt to hire Malzahn and sign Malzahn's best players despite the passage in the NCAA rulebook that says package deals are illegal. His name is Frank Broyles. When the parents showed up at his office last week, he opened his door and let inside a needless distraction for his football team. Read the rest of the story
The only people who should be surprised by such an article are those who are myopic enough to think that a 10 win season somehow cures all ills
"You've got the ambitious high school coach who prostituted his best players to get a job at Arkansas. His name is Gus Malzahn. Instead of polyester shorts, he ought to work the sideline in a pink bucket hat and leopard-fringed pimp suit." Does that remind you of Kansas Coach who gave a Truck Driver a job as an Assistant Coach when his son signed with with Kansas. The son led them to the National Championship. Roy Willimas was never criticized in such a manner. I guess the crime depends on who is hiring the whore.
Sit on the bench? "Mustain's mommy went to Broyles although her son has thrown for 853 yards and 10 touchdowns as a freshman. The daddies of Williams and Cleveland joined in the outrage although their kids have 30 catches and spots on the SEC All-Freshman team. (Williams is transferring). There are times when it's OK to complain. This would not be one of them."
You would probably be surprised how many parents still dog coaches even at the college level. Back in the early 80's, a member of the LSU staff called my dad (a high school coach), asking how to deal with a difficult parent of a freshman on the team (who my dad had coached).
This is what makes this whole mess truly disturbing: Mustain's mommy went to Broyles although her son has thrown for 853 yards and 10 touchdowns as a freshman. The daddies of Williams and Cleveland joined in the outrage although their kids have 30 catches and spots on the SEC All-Freshman team. (Williams is transferring). What do they expect? I know they are concernced because of the dominance of the running game (When you have McFadden and Jones, that'll happen) but these people cannot honestly expect them to change the offense for these true freshmen. What the hell is wrong with these parents?
Agreed, these parents are ruining their kids lives for them. Both parents and kids will be ridiculed for years to come.
