Category: College Football (Page 260 of 296)

Michigan wide receiver Mario Manningham has been suspended for Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan due to “undisclosed team rules.” Nobody really knows what Manningham did, but SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has a theory.

Does doing the worm on the field after your team takes a knee following a much-needed win fit under the “undisclosed team rules” category?

Yeah, it’s funny. But this is the kind of crap that must keep Lloyd Carr up at night.

One of the main arguments in the annual College vs. Pro debate is that every game in college football matters. Lose one game in college football and the season could be over. Lose one game in the NFL and nobody blinks an eye.

Personally, I never bought that argument, because not every game matters in college football. Florida vs. Central Florida doesn’t really matter. Texas vs. Rice doesn’t really matter. Michigan vs. Appalachian State doesn’t really…whoops. Apparently every game does matter in college football and this season is proof of that.

Seven ranked teams were defeated this week, including third ranked Oklahoma (27-24 loss to Colorado), fourth ranked Florida (20-17 loss to Auburn), and seventh ranked Texas (41-21 loss to Kansas State). On top of that, #1 USC was almost upset by unranked Washington and ninth ranked Wisconsin survived a scare by Michigan State.

Weekends like this past one is great for college football. For better or worse, part of the reason the NFL is so popular is because every team has a chance to win each week. Maybe college football is starting to head more in that direction, which only means more upsets and exciting finishes for fans. Of course if you’re a Sooner, Gator or Long Horn fan, you want to punch me in the throat right about now.

SPORTSbyBROOKS.com stumbled upon an article by the San Antonio Express-News, that Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione was sending out a secret e-mail newsletter to select boosters with information about his football team that he was withholding from the media. Franchione was charging a yearly fee of $1,200 to each booster.

The info included injury reports that were not provided to the media along with assessments of players by the A&M coaching staff that were much more candid than what was made available to the public.

Franchione: “I knew it was probably going to be controversial. I certainly didn’t mean for it to be that. When I knew you guys were starting to ask around a bit, I thought, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do this.'”

The money collected was “used to underwrite his personal Web site, coachfran.com.”

Considering players can lose scholarships and receive hefty suspensions for receiving money from boosters, what made Franchione say to himself that this was a good idea? How unfair is it to Aggie fans that he was withholding information from the media so he could stuff it into his secret newsletter to boosters? Fans rely on the media to supply them with information they can’t normally obtain through just watching games, and Franchione completely undermined that whole process. How stupid and selfish.

Did football players learn nothing from Eugene Robinson? For those unaware or have forgotten, Robinson was the Atlanta Falcons safety who in 1998, was arrested by an undercover cop for trying to solicit a prostitute the night before Super Bowl XXXIII.

Apparently Ohio State backup quarterback Antonio Henton didn’t get the memo, because he too was arrested for trying to solicit a prostitute and faces a suspension from the program.

“It’s a great disappointment for our Buckeye football family, and we are very concerned for Antonio,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said in a statement. “We want to help him utilize any available resources, including counseling, to deal with any problems and seek solutions. Antonio is keenly aware of the standard we have for ourselves, and that makes this even more disappointing.

My question is, weren’t there enough horny college girls on campus? Why did this kid have to try and pick up a prostitute to get his rocks off? He’s a quarterback at Ohio State; one would think the guy wouldn’t have a problem picking up chicks. Football players please – if Eugene Robinson taught you anything in life, it was to never try and pick up an undercover policewoman dressed like a prostitute.

When columnist Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman wrote a story criticizing Oklahoma State quarterback Bobby Reid’s toughness, she probably didn’t have the faintest idea that it would cause such a ballistic response from head coach Mike Gundy.

In the article, Carson questioned Reid’s desire to play through injuries and nerves, as well as cited a rumor of him wanting to transfer schools because the competition was too tough at OSU. She also hammered Reid for apparently being hand fed chicken by his mother after a recent game and insinuated that the coaching staff has had enough of his lack of toughness as well.

To the say the absolute very least, Gundy wasn’t too pleased:

And now you know how Gundy feels about your work, Jenni.