Wednesday marks Coach Beamers 60th birthday. Boy do I hope none of our players decides to shoplift a gift for him. We have a couple of wide receivers who haven't been suspended for a game yet. I just hope they aren't feeling left out. Of course petty theft isn't something our boys are known for. We get DUIs, mouth off to police and break windows on vehicles. Maybe I shouldn't dwell on such things...but it isn't like there are any recent stats I would prefer to mention. Two but-whoopings and 6 personal fouls so far this year. So much for the effectiveness of
fining players a portion of their bowl stipend for such fouls. Aaron Rouse is up to 3 personal fouls all by himself. What happens when his fines exceed the stipend? Does he need to hold up a McDonalds and start paying out of pocket?
So just how bad are we doing? The four teams we beat so far this year have 6 wins between them (3 of those wins belong to the Cincinatti Bearcats). Our next 4 opponents have 19 wins between them. Then we face 6-1 Wake Forrest. (And oh what a sad year it will be if we loose to the Demon-Decons!) All kinds of proud "trends" are ending. For some time Frank has held claim to being the 3rd Most Winning Active coach. Last weekend Jim Tressel tied him for that mark. With the way Ohio State is playing we can expect Tressel to pass us with our next loss. We hadn't lost an ACC road game since joining the conference...until last Thursday. We had also posted 11 straight Thursday night wins on ESPN. We've dropped from the rankings in both the AP and the USA Today coaches poll. We aren't included in the BCS rankings either--and Tulsa and Rutgers are listed.
So who is to blame? Is it the "
757" for giving us players with a week work ethic and a penchant for getting into trouble? Is it the 4 new coaches on our staff? Maybe Bryan Stinespring for our lack of offense? Or whomever continues to play "consistent passer" Sean Glennon at QB instead of using "very athletic but with off field issues" Ike Whitacker? (Though rumor is
Ike is getting more reps in practice this week...so maybe a change is in the works.) Spin the wheel and take your pick.
Me, I'm blaming
Daryl Tapp. For years we've been hearing about and seeing that blasted lunch pail our defense passes around to reward work ethic. Tapp kept it for most of the last two years...so what did he do after getting drafted? He took it out to Seattle where it probably sets in his locker. We have 25 former players who are active on current NFL rosters and as far as I know Tapp is the first one who thought it would be "ok" to take that lunch pail with him. I don't care the Foster gave it to him. It was a bad move and Daryl should rectify it. Sure, we got a replacement tin can....but it obviously lacks the mojo the previous one had. So please Daryl, for the love of God, fed-ex that lunch pail back to Frank with a birthday card. I think we need it.