First Day of College Football: The Fall of the Navy Midshipmen, Penn State, and Misericordia(Even though there's just began)

Greatest Tackle in the History of Mankind

Well this was the first day of the 2012 college football season and instead of talking about all of the action from today I am going to focus on some of the games that meant most to me. As a lifelong fan of the Naval Academy it was heart breaking get destroyed in Ireland against Notre Dame. Oddly it seemed like Navy was the Irish and Notre Dame were the British. Penn State played its first game under new head coach Bill O'Brien and although they started off hot, they were just not able to finish. Meanwhile, the Gettysburg Bullets started their season off on a high note with a score that was just a little lopsided.

Ricky Dobbs

Navy's performance in their 50-10 loss was surprising to me, since my grandfather went their and my Dad went to Penn State but hated Joe Paterno, I always rooted for Navy and I just must have been lucky the past few years. Craig Candeto was the first Navy quarterback that I deeply remembered and that was because of his performance in an Army-Navy game quite a few a years ago and then he was followed by the solid  but not quite Candeto Aaron Polanco, he was the quarterback on some of the more successful Navy teams but it wasn't because of him. After that there was Lamar Owens who had real ability and a real team behind him. He later got in trouble with the law for an unspeakable good, but no one wants to think of one of their child hood idles as a sinner, so I have no problem forgetting about it and just looking at his accomplishments as quarterback. After Lamar there was the Hawaiian that will be known as Kaipo-Noa, who I spent some of the best Saturdays of my childhood idolizing. His back-ups name was Bryant and that is all I remember about him except for that he would come in late in games when Kaipo was tired and do alright, he was such an asset they had him play slotback and even return punts. Ricky Dobbs was next in line and he was the most skilled of the bunch, the one problem was that his team wasn't as good as previous incarnations and coach Paul Johnson left the new coach just wasn't able to do the job.

Craig Candeto

But coaches and quarterbacks weren't the only assets on the Navy teams during those years. Fullbacks such as Kyle Eckel, Adam Ballard, and Eric Kettani were such stalwarts in the backfield that it really helped the quarterback use the option offense to the best of their abilities. Slotbacks like Reggie Campbell and the current senior Gee Gee Greene will always have a place in my heart. I watched them play so many games and I might not remember all of them but I do remember them losing to Notre Dame on a last second field goal even though they blocked the kick. I remember when they sacked Jimmy Claussen for that one win (as well as Ram Vela diving for that tackle). I also remember them beating Mizzouri and losing to Texas Tech. I also remember their first lost to a service academy in 4 years last year (I think it was last year) and I will always remember this game against Notre Dame. They no longer had that swagger about them like they use to, no matter what the score was they would try to kill the ball carrier on each play but it just doesn't look like the same team. The kids use to be hungry and now they are always outmatched. Sure, they were always slower and weaker, but now they don't even look like they compete. Notre Dame may be a good team, but no Navy team I ever loved would lose like that.

Bill O'Brien

Off to Penn State now, since now half of me is a Penn State fan, I didn't get to watch much of the game but I'm sure the score doesn't tell the whole story. Penn State still has heart and talent, they just only have 30 minutes of it. There is no doubt that Penn State's starting 22 is better than Ohio's 22, its just that in football you need about 22 guys on each side of the ball to win the game. PSU just couldn't rotate their defensive line and that ended up hurting them in the second half (almost as much as the fact that their quarterback sucks). This might be a long year for Penn State fans but at least the kids are trying and the school may have gotten the short end of the stick not just on the punishment they were handed but on the people they chose to trust, the same thing could of happened to Bobby Bowden but it didn't.

Off to my true team, the Gettysburg Bullets. The only way to describe going to a Gettysburg College football game is to watch alumni talk about how much money their parents spent to send them there. Seriously, that is what this school is famous for, sure we are all going to have jobs when we graduate because this is a really good school, but everyone here is either upper middle class or upper middle class. Now the game was a blowout because it was Misericordia's first football game ever. I give the kids credit just for going out there every play they were getting stomped on. My floormate/middle linebacker Kodie had a great day (I'm sure kids at Penn State could say they live on the same floor as a football player). The score was 43-0 at halftime which I left at then watched the soccer team win 2-0.

Yes, we have really ugly uniforms

It is now safe to say that I am a Gettysburg fan and a Penn State observer, I don't think that I will be rooting for Navy anymore just because they are not the team that I use to root for. I don't know how Gettysburg season will shape up but now I am a part of that upper middle class G-Burg tradition, so I will root for them the whole way. Penn State will just be interesting to watch and I still think I will root for Navy when they play on the 15th, I just don't think I'll watch them play another game all year.

Simple Idea #5: Make all college sports D-3

From the ridiculous amounts of hours that Division 1 student athletes spend in practice to their lack of academic prowess, there are many reasons why D-1sports should no longer exist. In large schools it is not common for everyone to know everyone but at most ones students are never mixed into student body. At most D-3 schools, student-athletes may room with each other but most of the time they are in the same building as regular students. When students know their athletes, imagine how much more excited the student body would be for each game. Another advantage for the sport itself would be the lack of athletic scholarships. If a coach would want to recruit a poor kid, they would have to make sure it was a poor kid with good grades so that they can give them academic money. Since colleges should be about expanding a kid's horizon and not just a minor league for the NFL or NBA, maybe those leagues should look into another way to develop talent for those not able to afford college. Or maybe the NCAA could loosen up their amateur status and allow for professional teams to pay for a kid's education and allow him to develop in college. Since coaches won't have scholarships they won't be tempted to play scholarship kids over walk ons even if the walk on is better because no one on the team would have a guaranteed spot, making sure each kid works that much harder to reach the next level. Another thing would be that with limited practice time students athletes would be able to focus on their academics instead of being an athlete. If this happens, maybe D-1 athletes will be able to get good jobs out of college, I don't have numbers but from what I've seen on TV, not all of them have great lives. D-3 athletics make both the school and the athletes better, a few weeks ago a saw a picture of a Penn State athlete signing an autograph for a fellow student, maybe that says a lot about both what happened at Penn State and the D-1 Athletics in general.

D-2 Sports are just poor schools who want to play at a D-1 level, no school chooses to be D-2

What should be done with the Penn State Football Program?

  With the NCAA about to hand down punishments on the Penn State Football program, everyone is guessing what types of probation as well as how many scholarships will be taken away. The ideas that you are about to read are not inside information or anything like that, they are just the punishments that I feel fit the crime. Some of these punishments would come from the NCAA or other organizations while others would come from the school itself. 

  Penn State is about to face what could possibly the harshest penalties in the history of college athletics. Some sources have come out to say that they could make the death penalty look lenient. These are just a few sanctions and actions that would make in this situation:

  1. Temporary Removal from Committee on Institutional Cooperation and from the Big Ten Conference 
The two organizations are pretty much one in the same. The Big Ten organizes athletic competitions between Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. The Committee of Institutional Cooperation represents the academic side of each institution as well the University of Chicago, a former member of Big Ten. The reason for the removal is so that the school will take a financial hit while still being able to field competitive athletic teams as well as diminishing the schools resources when it comes to academics. This action will not tarnish the academic reputation or inhibit the ability of graduates to find work, but would rather not allow them to research with other colleges.

  2. Clear all executives that were around during Sandusky era

The Source of all the problems

Although most of the University higher ups have either been fired or have resigned, but for people to think that the board of trustees and the board of regents did not know about the Sandusky allegations is ridiculous. It seems that almost everybody in University Park had an idea about what was going on and the very few people actually came out and said something about it. If this action fires innocent people then that is just an unfortunate situation. People that were in charge of the school at the time and did not do anything to stop Sandusky should not be allowed to continue to work.

  3. Allow football team to only play 3 home games
The point of this rule is to prevent the University of capitalizing on the football teams economic values. The team would be allowed to pick 3 games from their home schedule this year to keep at Beaver Stadium. In addition to only having 3 home games they will not be able to collect any money for away game appearances. This is fairer to the University and its current students than not allowing any home games because players are allowed the joy of playing in front of fellow students and the advantage it creates. Students will also be to take part in the great social activity that is going to Division 1 college football game.

  4. Allow each current Penn State Athlete one free transfer to any school of choosing
One would think that only Penn State football players should be allowed to transfer without sitting out a year since the problem was within the Football program but the whole Athletic Department was involved. If an athlete doesn't feel comfortable competing for a school whose former athletic director permitted a Pedophile to run rampant, they should be allowed to transfer.