The hypocrisy of college athletics. You know it's true

     We are hypocrites when it comes to college athletics.
     We love the entertainment, the excitement. We especially love when our teams win. We don't love the other teams, the officials, replays/reviews, TV timeouts.
     But we know there is cheating in college athletics. Lots of it, especially in bigtime football and basketball. And we can easily excuse it.
     Of course, it happens. Always has, and -- unfortunately -- always will because ... people are people, and people are greedy. Human nature, and all that.
     Not even the mighty NCAA has enough clout to keep big money out of college athletics. In fact, it welcomes the millions the TV networks and the athletic wear/shoe companies pour into the college coffers.
     So what those of us who love college athletics, and have for a long, long time must recognize: It is a world of hypocrites. A big, often dirty business.
     You know darned well that many of these college "student-athletes" are not there for the "student" part, at all.
     There are there because it is a necessary stop to "the next level." You can book that, although "book" is a mostly foreign word to many of these kids.      
     You know that there is money flowing to athletes, all underneath the surface, of course. You know that this is particularly true of the "major" powers -- football and basketball -- and that they have their ways of getting this done (so that the NCAA can't touch them).
     You know there are payments -- money, clothes, food ... whatever -- far above the NCAA-approved stipends, and it has been that way forever.  
     (Ask me, and I can give you the name of a dozen athletes -- football and basketball -- from Louisiana tied to the above-the-norm scholarships and involved -- in their time -- to recruiting bidding wars. And that's dating to the 1950s to the present. We'll get to the present soon.)
     One more aside, though: We were told -- no basis of fact -- that a prominent LSU running back of recent vintage, now in the NFL, where he was a very high draft pick, was worth a $200,000 payment to his family. You can guess his name and hometown (it is a big, easy answer), but I suspect you know. I trust the source of that rumor.
     OK, other "cheating" methods: Impermissible phone calls or recruiting visits by coaches; changing entrance-exam test scores, or having someone take tests for the athletes; athletes taking "crip" courses, and not even having to show up for classes; athletes being given favorable grades for work done poorly or not done at all. (Hello, North Carolina.)
     We could go and on, but you have the idea.
     Hypocrisy in so many ways.
     It is too broad a subject -- we have not even touched on the idea that athletes should be paid for the use of their images in advertising or for promotion. 
     About paying athletes above they are receiving now: My opinion -- where do you draw the line? How many sports and scholarship athletes does this include? Yes, the "major" schools can afford it, but what about the mid-majors (yes, I am thinking of Louisiana Tech). 
     Isn't a free scholarship for one to five years enough? Yes, I am old-school about this.
---
      Let's narrow the focus of this piece: college basketball.
      Specifically the investigation, the rumors/reports, and the  subsequent corruption trial concluded a little more than a week ago.
      To be more narrowly focused: LSU's coach and program. And a strange interloper named Christian Dawkins.

How many of these players (and the coach) will be in the picture
for LSU basketball next season? (photo by (Photo: Jonathan Mailhes)

      We have seen Will Wade's case discussed, cussed (and praised) ad nauseum the past couple of months. Who knows where the program stands?
       We know, after Wade's postseason suspension and subsequent reinstatement, that four or five frontline players (heck, we lost count) from LSU's regular-season SEC championship team -- Wade's crowning achievement in just two seasons with the program -- want to go pro. Maybe they'll make the NBA, maybe not, and maybe some will come back to LSU after all.
       We know, too, from social-media reaction, that many of the LSU faithful don't believe Wade did much wrong, or at least it is not proven that he did.
       Their view is that he did nothing more than what the "sainted" coaches at Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, UNLV and dozens of other basketball powers over six-seven decades have done (and hidden well enough that they are in the NCAA's "untouchable" range). 
      Nevertheless, there's a lot of smoke there ... or maybe just hot air.
     Which brings us to Dawkins, who was among the 10 men charged with wrongdoing in this "scandal." Four of those were assistant basketball coaches -- you probably know one, Chuck Person (Auburn); they all took plea deals.
      The recent trial ended with guilty verdicts for two men. Dawkins is one.
     Here is how Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples described him in an article on college basketball's "black market" last week: 
     One low-level hustler: Christian Dawkins, truly the man at the center of the investigation, was a runner for agent Andy Miller. Dawkins was convicted Wednesday [May 8] of bribery for paying assistant coaches to influence players with regard to their agent selection. Dawkins also was convicted of fraud following an October trial.
    As anyone following LSU's travails knows, Dawkins is the voice on the other end of the phone tied to the Tigers.
     Again, from Staples' story (and many earlier similar reports): "Somewhere, there's audio of LSU coach Will Wade talking about a "strong-ass offer" to a middleman representing Javonte Smart, who was the Tigers' sixth man this past season.
     (That, of course, led to Wade's suspension when he refused to meet with LSU officials about the rumor.)
     Another audio played in court: Ex-Arizona assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson (another guilty-plea case) claiming that Wade had a $300,000 deal for forward Naz Reid. 
     (Not confirmed, folks, but a helluva claim. Naz pointedly denies it happened.)
     Let me interject a thought: Seems that Javonte Smart, from Scotlandville (right outside Baton Rouge), a three-time Louisiana "Player of the Year," would have been a natural recruit for LSU, one who would not/should not have required a payment. But the word was that Smart, already the father of a baby, and his family needed the money.
     Reid was the 6-11 center from Asbury Park, N.J., a force inside with long-range shooting ability, too; raw and often unpolished, but a big talent.
     Makes more sense that LSU would need extra incentive to sign the big kid from up north rather than the 6-4 guard from closeby.
      As a friend pointed out, maybe some other school would have been willing to spend, say, $300,000 for Naz Reid -- or Javonte Smart. It happens, or so we keep hearing.
      Not saying that's what happened at LSU. I don't know, and neither do you. 
      LSU faithful are writing that Dawkins and Richardson -- guilty already -- are talking to save their butts. Maybe. But that smoke surrounding Will Wade and LSU smells a bit.
     Another opinion (shared by many), and thinking of Naz Reid (and many other potential pros): One-and-done is a bad deal for college basketball.
    True, we get to see some great talent -- for one season. But it just ramps up the recruiting bidding wars for these kids who obviously appear ready for the NBA out of high school. 
     Hard to judge the kids' maturity and how they would fit into the NBA at age 18. Plus, how they would handle the big money -- even bigger than the colleges pay -- at that young age. 
      Good news: The NBA and its players' union, which forced the one-and-done plan (it wasn't the NCAA's idea), are showing signs of doing away with it soon. That will work.
---
     Interesting to see the reactions of some of my friends to the article by SI's Staples we posted last week that basically said little or nothing will come of this college basketball "scandal." (See my friends' comments below.)
     Here is how Staples summed it up: "Today, we know what the millions of our tax dollars they [FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office] spent on the investigation netted: A fart in a stiff wind."
     Going to post some of my friends' reactions below, and will tell you that it sparked an exchange between two ex-Louisiana head basketball coaches (and friends), LSU's Dale Brown and Centenary's Tommy Canterbury.
     And if you know much about Dale Brown, you know that he has been critical of the NCAA for four-plus decades -- and has offered many suggested for improving the NCAA oversight and, with it, college athletics.
    (If you want the full copy of Dale's "messages" for the NCAA -- ones he has mailed out and made public repeatedly
over the years -- let me know, and I will send them to you.)
---
      So maybe it passes, and Wade continues at LSU, with or without Naz Reid, Tremont Waters, Skylar Mays, Javonte Smart, Emmitt Williams. Or the new LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and other LSU officials decide they need a new start, a new coach.
     If you think nothing happened, and basketball players with Louisiana ties, haven't been "bought" or "rewarded," here are some names for you to consider: Jackie Moreland, Cotton Nash, Barrie Haynie, Elvin Hayes, Marvin Winkler, Elvin Ivory, Charlie Bishop, Mike Green, Andy Knowles, Jim Jenkins, Dwight Lamar, Roy Ebron, Louis Dunbar, Robert Parish, Poo Welch, Edmond Lawrence, Joe Dumars, Mike Sanders, Benny Anders, and who knows how many others.
    That's just basketball, people. Football? Just think about it.    
     And, look, I do not want to be "holier than thou," but it is not how I want college athletics to be. Yet it is part of the hypocrisy. What is true -- money aside -- is we enjoy watching these players and these teams.  
--- 
Staples' SI story: https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/05/09/ncaa-trial-fbi-bribery-corruption-mark-emmert?utm_campaign=si-extra&utm_source=si.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SI%20Extra%20-%20USE%20THIS%20-%20List

Excuses, whining are for ... losers

     OK, observations on the LSU-Texas A&M football game that was quite the spectacle Saturday night. Hey, we have nothing else to do, and it seems to be quite the talk on Facebook. So ...
     First, two quick thoughts: (1) A&M deserved to win; (2) LSU did not deserve to lose. 
     (Yeah, that's confusing. But I am conflicted.)   
     Make all the excuses you want, place all the blame -- on officiating, on the highly paid defensive coordinator -- and whine forever. Not into that personally.

LSU linebacker Devin White (40), from Springhill was outstanding in
this game,  as he has been all season, but he and his teammates
 could not keep their grip on A&M QB Kellen Mond or the victory. 

     (Well, I do have one "excuse" for LSU, but it is more an analysis/explanation. Stay tuned.)
     LSU fans are upset -- mad? crazy? -- and you could say rightfully so. They feel robbed -- by the officials -- and I could make a case for that.
     But a fact: The final result ain't changing. And, frankly, the whining/excuse-making is tiring. Give A&M credit for not giving up, for making play after play after play, and for having lots of luck.
     Give the LSU kids credit -- despite some odds -- for never giving up, for proving that this is a football team that has given all it for most of this season. It is not a great team, but it is a darned competitive one.
     Aggies fans are elated and, gosh, they needed this victory ... because they are Aggies. 
     Look, I root for LSU -- and Louisiana Tech -- in every instance. I also have a bunch of friends with A&M ties, some good longtime friends, and it is a wonderful university (as almost all universities/colleges are). The tradition there is outstanding ... and some of the traditions are, well, weird.
     Sorry, Aggies, not about to apologize for feeling that way. You are proud of your place; we just shake our heads.
     Oh, heck, back to the football game. Posted this on Facebook, and will repeat it here: 
     A helluva football game. Great win for Aggies, no shame for Tigers. Both teams fought their hearts out. (more below)
---
     There were several debatable calls in the final minute of regulation and in the overtimes. Officiating is what it is -- never going to be perfect.
     But here is a fact: LSU had a dozen chances to end this game. Could not do it. One play in any of those situations -- offensively or defensively -- would have done it. 
     Starting with the 3rd-and-4 play when a first down -- with A&M out of timeouts -- would have clinched it at the 2-minute mark. The Tigers' play call was too predictable, too conservative -- a run to the right by QB Joe Burrow -- and easily stopped. Forced a punt.
     (I think Steve Ensminger has done a really nice job with play-calling all season, and in his stint two years ago, too. But not a perfect job.)

A&M's Kellen Mond (11) made so many big plays late in this game.
 (Associated Press photo by David J. Phillip)

     On the Aggies' tying drive at the end of regulation, LSU's defense gave up pass completions of 12 yards (on 3rd-and-10), 13, 20 (on 4th-and-18), 22 and then the crushing 19-yard TD (after the disputed 0:01 put back on the clock).
     Five plays made by A&M QB Kellen Mond and his corps of receivers, who got better and better as the game wore on.
(And it did wear on.)
     In the overtimes, the Aggies -- especially Mond, scrambling away from LSU's attempted defensive pressure -- had gains of 12, 9, 17, 25 (TD pass), 10, 21, 13, a tying PAT pass, and a 4th-and-6 tying TD pass (and spectacular, one-handed catch by Kendrick Rogers -- the play of the game, in my opinion).
      No way to win a game defensively.
     Yes, a couple of very tough calls went against LSU -- the targeting/ejection call, and the last pass interference against  Shreveport's Greedy Williams. (Greedy can play, and he's going to be a first-round NFL draft pick. But he did get beat on the 1-second-remaining tying TD pass.)
     But, darned it, here's a couple of defensive points for the LSU defense: 
     (1) Aggies ran 6 plays inside the LSU 4 during the overtimes, did not score; that is a heroic effort; 
     (2) LSU played this game without five defensive starters (a linebacker, a down lineman, two cornerbacks, the free safety) -- all hurt, a couple out for the season. Then the starting middle linebacker is ejected in overtime. 
     So, you have the fifth-through-seventh best defensive backs on the team on the field for most of the game. And little depth or experience to replace them. (And this is my excuse for LSU; you don't have to buy it.)
     Those kids played their butts off. You want to blame the defensive coordinator, who is one of the nation's best (and highest paid), you do so. I won't.
     As for blaming the officials or the replay official, it is too easy, too convenient. Yes, I question putting the one second back on the clock -- that's what Coach O and the LSU staff were furious about afterward -- and I thought A&M's nine-man line of scrimmage was pretty obvious before the spike play (think it is a 5-yard penalty, but no clock runoff). But that's life in athletics, folks.
     It was A&M's great fortune that a screwup, Mond fumbling the snap, picking it up and then throwing a deflected pass that was intercepted, became a giant break when his knee touched the ground as he picked up the fumble. Think the replay was clear on that.
     Another fumble, the muffed punt return by LSU, recovered by A&M in the third quarter was a real momentum-breaker at the time for LSU. After the Tigers' defense, not too stout in the first half, had settled in and forced two Aggies' punts, that fumble hurt and gave A&M a short field (29 yards) for a tying-breaking touchdown.
     Practically forgotten in all the overtime drama.
 ---    
     The rest of my original postgame Facebook post: There is a reason why for years I have said and written that overtime is BS. Coaches do not have to "go for it" at the end of games, they can settle for another OT. Jimbo took the easy way out twice, Coach O once. No guts. Some games should just be ties.
     John James Marshall will vouch for this: Since 1985, I have written and said -- repeatedly -- that overtime is unnecessary for regular-season high school and college football. Playoffs, yes, there has to be a way (if the old first downs or penetrations method was unacceptable).
     It is a long and separate argument (and blogs), and one of my friends (Jimmy Manasseh put a proposal on Facebook today that I like) ... but back to Saturday's game.
     Jimbo Fisher could have made the decision at the end of regulation, when it was 31-30, LSU, to have his team go for a two-point PAT -- win or lose, right there. But he chose the tying PAT kick, and even refused an offside penalty on LSU that would have put the ball at the 1 1/2-yard-line on a retry.
     Worked out for Jimbo and A&M, but it was a chicken-spit way out. 
     At the end of the second overtime, LSU scored and was one point behind. Coach O chose to go for the tying PAT kick (and a third overtime). He could have had the Tigers go for two -- win or lose, right there. Nope. Chicken-spit way out.(Hey, Paul Dietzel would have gone for two.)
     These head coaches are paid millions a year to make those tough calls. But the rules, at the end of regulation and the first two OTs, give them an easy out -- a "no guts" out. Make the so-tired kids play some more overtime(s). 
     Yes, it is great theater. What happened in this game, the tremendous do-it-or-lose scenarios, was riveting. (Of course, I did not watch; I refuse to watch the OTs in college or high school football, my own statement of protest. No guts.)
---
     One more angle on A&M-LSU football, the sentiment that it was not a rivalry. How stupid and short-sighted a thought.
     The Bryan Eagle web site headline: "Texas A&M needs to beat LSU to help the series become a rivalry." Heard that in the pregame comment on TV, too.
      In memory of John David Crow, Ken Beck and Richard Gay -- North Louisiana football fans will remember -- A&M-LSU long has been a rivalry, always will be. The on-field games have been going for more than a century; the recruiting battle is fierce in many areas -- especially around  Houston.
     So what if LSU had won the previous seven games? Never easy, always competitive. Think it wasn't a rivalry when A&M won six out of seven in the 1990s, five in a row from 1991-95. Think that Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2010 season (LSU, 41-24) wasn't tough?
     Think that A&M did not kind of resent playing 16 times in a row in Baton Rouge -- and rarely ever won? Think that one of those rare Aggies' victories, 20-18 in 1970, on a 78-yard pass from Lex James to Bucky McElroy with 13 seconds remaining, wasn't devastating for LSU?  
      Look, Alabama has beaten LSU eight times in a row, and Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant beat his former player and then-LSU coach Charlie McClendon 14 out of 16 (the only Tigers' wins were in 1969 and '70), but -- darn it -- it is still a rivalry. And it was when LSU beat Bama seven out of eight starting in 2000 (Nick Saban's first season as LSU coach).
      Too many "not a rivalry" experts out there. Too many fans second-guessing everything that didn't go their way.   
      LSU fans should be proud of this season's team. Stop complaining. Yes, a 9-3 regular season could have/should have been 10-2. Still, these Tigers were a pleasant surprise,  fought hard and achieved a great deal, and -- my opinion, again -- deserve a New Year's Day bowl game. 
        I have gone overtime in this blog, several overtimes. I should gave gone for a two-point PAT much sooner.

Thinking, writing about college football

     Let's take a timeout and cover some college football thoughts ...
     No, let's not take a timeout. We'll take the penalty.
     We will get to a number of quick thoughts in a moment, but first ...
     I don't pretend to be a football whiz, would not pass an Xs-and-Os test. But game-management strategy is something we can all second-guess. And I am real good at second-guessing two pieces of strategy.
     Those who have heard me rail for a lot of years know that two of my major pet peeves about college football (also high school football and the NFL) are:
     (1) Taking timeouts when the play clock runs down;
     (2) Settling for the tying PAT kick near the end of games instead of "going for it" -- trying for the winning (or losing) two-point PAT.
     About the "automatic" timeout calls ... you see them almost every game. Play call is slow coming to the quarterback or a team is slow getting lined up, QB looks at the defense and makes play-call adjustments, play clock is winding down toward :00, QB turns to referee and signals time out ... or frantic head coach runs toward the nearby official and -- PO'd -- calls the timeout.
     It is just a reflex action ... timeout.
     And almost always, here is my reaction: That is so stupid!
     My logic: The 5-yard delay-of-game penalty is not nearly as harmful as wasting one of the team's three timeouts per half. Take the damn penalty.
     Heck, yes, there are exceptions: A 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short play, especially in the other team's end of the field, a crucial late-game down, maybe near the end of the first half with a timeout or two remaining.
     But most of the time ... automatic call ... stupid.
     We have seen the best of coaches do it, repeatedly. Tom Landry was the best of coaches. If I saw his QBs -- Meredith, Staubach, Morton, Danny White -- do it once, I saw it dozens of times. Wasted timeouts.

Arkansas head coach Chad Morris: Two "burned"
timeouts in the second half against LSU did not
 help his team's chances.

     It really came to mind last Saturday in Arkansas-LSU. Twice in the second half, Arkansas simply wasted timeouts with play-clock-winding-down reaction calls. First time with a 3rd-and-9 at the LSU 42 with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter; second time with a 4th-and-10 at the LSU 11 with 12:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.
     Both times, really, taking a 5-yard delay penalty would not have hurt the Razorbacks at all. 
      In fact, after the second one, they hit a touchdown pass. They could have done that about as easily from the LSU 16, and saved the timeout.
     They could have used those two burned timeouts in the game's final five minutes. Arkansas fought hard, but I never got the feeling that it was going to win that game. But it might have a better shot with two more late-game clock stoppages.
     And how times over the years have we seen LSU waste its timeouts on similar stupid calls? (Les Miles and staff were known for their clock-mismanagement gaffes.)
     Those timeouts should be treated like gold. They are so valuable. Protect them almost like you would your kids.
     OK, second point: Playing to win at the end of a game. So many coaches take the easy way out; have the extra point kicked and tie the game, so settling for overtime or -- if it is in overtime already -- another OT period.
     So, bless the coaches who "go for it." Over the years, we have not seen it often. Because the coaches -- in Jerry Byrd language -- have no guts. 
     But in recent weeks, we have seen three gutty go-for-the-win calls: It worked for Dana Holgorsen and West Virginia at Texas; it did not work for Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State at Oklahoma, nor for Tim Lester and Western Michigan (in overtime) against Ball State on Tuesday night.
     I am not enamored by Holgorsen or Gundy (or many college football head coaches these days), but props to them for those calls.        
---
     Other matters ...
     Have I seen a better college football team than Alabama this season? I have not.
     The season is not over. Can any team can beat Alabama? Good luck. But Clemson (which was fortunate to beat Bama in the CFP title game two years ago) and Georgia (which came so close last season) have a shot. Maybe Notre Dame does ... but I doubt it.
     Keep thinking this, though -- in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports department, Oklahoma's 2003 team was being declared "the greatest ever" for most of that season ... until that rout by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl national-championship loss to ... LSU, coached by Nick Saban.
     Five more national championships later, Saban has his best team ever. As son-in-law observed during Bama's stifling victory against LSU a couple of weeks ago, Bama is taking the fun out of college football ... except for Bama fans.
     We don't have to like it, but more power to them. So Alabama fans are a bit spoiled. Can you blame them?
---
     It is a little more than a week away, but LSU's game at Texas A&M -- always a great rivalry -- is going to be large. A major bowl game will be at stake for the Tigers. Beat the Aggies, and they almost certainly will be 10-2 and in a New Year's Six game. Lose, and it will a nice bowl game, but not a "major."
     It has been a surprisingly successful season for LSU, better than most could have anticipated. Do not think the Tigers are especially a top-six team -- too many lapses, too sporadic, especially an offensive line that some quarters can't block or protect the passer, and a secondary that is talented but spends too much time woofing at opponents and showing off.
     But victories against three Top-10 ranked teams at the time is impressive. We know now that Miami and Auburn were not anywhere as good as they seemed then, but Georgia is, and that victory was LSU's finest game this season.
     If LSU somehow loses to 1-10 Rice this Saturday, forget all this.        
---
     Closing thought (for now): Like so many people, I believe the College Football Playoff field should be eight teams instead of four, three games for the title instead of two.
     Always going to be a debate over the final four (or eight) teams. But why not make it automatic for the champions of the Power-Five conferences (Big Ten, Atlantic Coast, Pac-12, Big 12, SEC) and the other three best -- chosen by committee -- among independents and other "major/mid-major" conferences (hello, Notre Dame and Central Florida).
     Too much football? Sure. One option would be to (gasp!) eliminate the conference championship games, but they are so popular (and such money makers).
     It would be easier to eliminate one week of the regular season -- we have gone from 10 to 11 to 12 games for most teams. And a thought here is that for the "majors," it would be easy to knock off one non-conference game, especially those total mismatches against non-majors.
     Consider this week: Alabama vs. The Citadel. Are you kidding? (I am not a bettor, but how many points would you give here? Start with 50? 60? 70?)
     Just look at some other SEC "matchups" this week: LSU vs. Rice, Kentucky vs. Middle Tennessee, Georgia vs. UMass, Auburn vs. Liberty, South Carolina vs. Chattanooga. Not too challenging, is it?
      There is one good one, though: Alabama-Birmingham at Texas A&M. UAB is one of college football's best stories, from oblivion to Conference-USA West champs and title game, from out-of-business to 9-1 in two seasons.
      The Aggies, who have the resources to give new coach Jimbo Fisher a billion dollars or so on a 10-year contract, can afford to present UAB a big payday. Under my proposal, one less "money" game a year for the majors would be eliminated.
      Anyway, might have to peek at the A&M-UAB game. But if those head coaches burn a timeout or two, I will flip out ... and flip channels. 
                     

It must have been a darned good game ...

     Some quick thoughts on college football ...
     • First, Louisiana Tech at LSU ...
     Confession: I did not watch the game. Too many mixed emotions. As I have said often (and written twice in recent weeks), love both schools, never want either one to lose.
     So I just let them play, and saved myself the agony of watching and not having my heart racing.

LSU could not pile up the score on Louisiana Tech
(Getty Images photo)

     Checked on the score twice -- once right before halftime (LSU, 24-7) and once when I knew the game was done (LSU, 38-21 ... and, obviously, it was much closer than that).     Do not think LSU is the fifth- or sixth-best team in the country right now, not based on its inconsistent play in each of its four games (victories) this season -- play well for one or two quarters, mediocre in one or two quarters.
     The Tigers got some great breaks -- bounces of the ball, missed officiating calls -- against Tech. This I know from reading about the game, talking to a good source about it, and watching highlights on YouTube and the LSU web site.
     Figured the Bulldogs would give them a fight. Tech's program is solid, its teams are fun to watch, and LSU -- more often than not -- plays to the level of its opponent. 
     Yes, the Tigers more than did that in two impressive victories against Miami and Auburn, and although the final score against Southeastern Louisiana was 31-0, it was an extremely tepid second-half showing by LSU.
     Still can't see better than an 8-4 or 9-3 record for LSU -- not on same level with Alabama and Georgia certainly, and a tough SEC West road ahead. 
     Tigers have too many offensive-line issues, and secondary is shaky, especially if the defensive front seven can't get more pressure on the passer than it did against Tech.
     Tech should compete well in Conference USA, but next Saturday's test at North Texas will tell a lot. UNT might be the conference's best team this season.
      Finally, glad Tech made a good showing at LSU. Did not want (or expect) a blowout loss, and that $1.3 million payday softens the effects of a loss. 
      (Oh, and it will be Tech at LSU in men's basketball in a couple of months. That will not be as heart-rendering for me.)
      • Texas much deserved the victory against TCU. But to declare the Longhorns' program "back" among the elite is premature. Let's see (1) how UT does against Oklahoma a few weeks from now and (2) how it fares when it comes to Fort Worth to face TCU next year.
     • I rarely pay attention to the poll rankings, don't even look at preseason predictions and do not think they are important until the sixth or seventh week of the season. And, remember, it is just a bunch of sports media and/or coaches doing the rankings. Everyone has an opinion, and you know what the saying is about opinions.
     That said, this Alabama team is so much better than anyone else in the country, it deserves a battlefield promotion ... to the NFL. 
     • What makes college football so great is the big underdog -- especially, the mid-majors --  beating the "majors." So, giant-killer Troy beating LSU last year and Nebraska this season, Old Dominion knocking off Virginia Tech yesterday, North Texas routing Arkansas, Fresno State routing UCLA,  and this "almost" shocker yesterday -- Army taking Oklahoma to overtime. 
     Maybe in the 1940s, Army beating OU would have been routine. In the 1950s, it would have been a great matchup. Since then, those programs have not been in the same hemisphere. 
     So, again, great for college football. Not so great if you are on the losing end (hello LSU, Arkansas, Nebraska, UCLA).     
     • We have railed often about how overbearing college football head coaches can be, how they are given god-like treatment. Two items -- and two of my favorite targets in this regard, Nick Saban and Gary Patterson -- caught my attention today.
      Saban, closing his media session yesterday after his team's romp past Texas A&M, said "... I would appreciate it if you would sort of look at some of the things we didn't do so well ..."
      That is part of his "rat poison" theme, which he loves to use to keep his players grounded and motivated. Yes, the rest of the country feels so badly for those less-than-perfect Alabama players. 
      Let's see ...  53 points per game, average winning margin 41 points per game. So many things wrong.
      Ridiculous, preacher Saban.
      TCU down 15 points, 2:44 remaining, 4th-and-4 at its 38 ... Patterson had his team punt the football away to Texas.
       Punt? Needing two scores? What were the Frogs' chances after they punted?
     Asked about his "strategy" afterward, Patterson said he had two timeouts remaining and he was hoping for his defense to stop Texas, get the ball back and score quickly, then recover an onside kick.
      "... I don't play to lose," he said. "I don't play to get through it, but I had two [timeouts]. ... I know how to manage games. It wasn't that play that got us beat. I can promise you that. And you had a backup quarterback in the game."
     Excuse me, but that is BS. He waved a white flag, that's all. 
      Yes, he can manage games (162-59 record in 18-plus seasons) and I often have said that Patterson and his staff do as good a job as any school in the country. 
      But, sorry, this was a mistake. Heaven forbid a coach making $4.75 million -- base salary -- a year admit a mistake. Coach P (for paranoia) will not do that.
       • The other side: Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz, about a 4th-and-1 play -- a quarterback sneak -- that did not work late in the game at LSU (the Tigers piled it up and stopped it short).
     "I'm upset with myself on the fourth-down call I made," Holtz said. "Not the decision to go for it, but the call. I should have called a timeout. It was a dumb call. I want to put our players in a position to succeed, and I don't think I gave our guys the best to do that [on that play."
    A dumb call. Got that, Gary Patterson?

The book on LSU's No. 20: Billy Cannon

     Finally, after a delay of three years or 10 months (take your pick), I read the book on Billy Cannon ... and I enjoyed it; I would recommend it to longtime LSU fans.
     As Jerry Byrd Sr. would have said: What took you so long?
     OK, I had two other lengthy reads I wanted to finish -- The Right Stuff (by Thomas Wolfe) and The Best and The Brightest (by David Halberstam), plus my other writing/research projects, a major move in our lives, and just everyday things to do.
     How is that for an explanation/escuses?
     Knew I would like reading about Billy Cannon because -- like most anyone who jumped on the LSU football bandwagon in 1958 -- he was a hero beyond compare.
     A Facebook friend from Shreveport -- Richard Thompson (Fair Park High 1967 graduate) -- sent me the book, and I thank him. I am grateful.
     Not long after the book was published, in 2015, I looked for it here (in Fort Worth bookstores). No luck. Billy Cannon is not a hero in Texas. 
     Never had a chance to look for it, or neglected to do so,  on visits to Shreveport. My bad.
      Anyway, Richard Thompson to the rescue. The book came in the mail ... and sat here for 10 months. Meanwhile, Billy Cannon left us (died May 20 at age 80).

The LSU sports information web site cover page in late May 2018.

      Many know the gist of Cannon's life: high school superstar at Istrouma (Baton Rouge), state champion running back in football, and in the 100-yard dash and shot put, and -- yes -- reputation as "a thug," LSU All-American and Heisman Trophy winner, the legendary 89-yard punt return on Halloween Night 1959 against Ole Miss, 10-year pro football career, then a career in dentistry (first as an  orthodonist, especially for children), the ill-fated counterfeiting involvement, conviction and prison term, and then the long rehabilitation, the two decades as dentist at the Angola State Prison, and the reunion with the LSU community and re-establishment as the state's biggest football star of all time.
      What a life. What a story. 
      And before I read the book came Cannon's death and the many, many tributes to him. 
      So last week was my time to read the book, and it took only 3-4 days (some 225 pages). I was that interested.
      Appropriate that Richard be the one to send it. He is more responsible than anyone for the book being written, except for Cannon himself and the author (Charles N. deGravelles).
      Here is why (excerpts from the book's prologue):
      In spite of Cannon's well-known reticence, one man refused to give up on the idea of a Billy Cannon biography. Richard Thompson remembers how, after LSU's 1958 national championship season, Cannon visited his middle school in Shreveport. For Thompson and his fellow students, Cannon was a celebrity of the caliber of Elvis. Thompson got to shake the hand of his hero. He never forgot the moment.
     Thompson spent much of his career in Louisiana government, including as an undersecretary in the Department of Corrections and Public Safety. He worked closely with Burl Cain. For years, he and Cain approached Cannon about a book -- and met rejection -- again and again. Last year, in 2014, Thompson's persistence was finally rewarded when Cannon agreed to a book -- with one stipulation. The biography had to include the innovative improvements Warden Cain had instituted at the Angola Prison -- changes that Billy Cannon had personally witnessed and of which he was a part. ...
     Thompson mentioned a little-known writer who was differerent from others; in addition to experience as a journalist and writer, he had been a volunteer chaplain at Louisiana State Penitentiary, generally known as Angola, for 25 years, three of those as a spiritual advisor for a death-row inmate.
---               
     So that is how deGravelles was picked as the writer, and the book's acknowledgments begin with, "Thanks to Richard Thompson for initiating and putting the pieces of this project together and for support along the way." 
     My opinion: deGravelles did a fine job of research, and of putting the words, the story, together.
     The book does not hide from the flawed character that Cannon was, from his early days and his family's poor, hardscrabble existence in rural Mississippi, to his emergence in athletics and a sometimes prima donna, hard-to-handle attitude, his off-the-field gang-like status, his college recruiting tales, pro football adventures and, well, his money-making schemes.
     Billy often was not one to play by the rules.
     Easy to perceive that the several references to Cannon's selling of LSU football game tickets he collected came from Billy himself. Let's say, it was a quite lucrative venture for him, from his high school days through his LSU career.
     And obviously, he also did quite well financially in the summer jobs provided for him by LSU boosters. 
     If I have a quibble, it is that there is a read-between-the-lines element of the "incentives" for a superstar player of his caliber. No doubt, he and the Cannon family were provided "anything you need,"  as promised by the car dealer who sealed Billy's commitment to attend LSU.
      Based on what I have read or heard about the college  recruiting inducements for gifted, prominent North Louisiana athletes in the same era -- John David Crow (Springhill) and Kenneth Beck (Minden) in football, Jackie Moreland (Minden) in basketball -- you can assume Cannon was in that same realm.
---
      There are multiple North Louisiana ties to Cannon mentioned in the book, most prominently eight reference to Tommy Davis.
      Crow, the Heisman Trophy winner (at Texas A&M) two years before Cannon, is on pages 3 and 10. 
      Two Northwestern State athletes, Charley Hennigan (wide receiver from Minden) and Charlie Tolar (running back from Natchitoches), were Cannon's teammates with the Houston Oilers in the brand-new American Football League (1960-63), league champs the first two years and overtime losers in the third year.
      Cannon's final high school game, the 1955 state championship against Fair Park in Shreveport, is covered in a lengthy paragraph on page 76. 
     When he died in May, I posted two clippings from that game. Had about two dozen people tell me they were at State Fair Stadium that night.
      It was a 40-6 Istrouma romp in which Fair Park, like many other teams, hardly could tackle Cannon. He ran 16 times for 169 yards and his third touchdown was an 83-yard pass play (referenced in the book) with which he ran the last 60 yards. And he finished the season with a state-record 229 points.
     Speaking of Fair Park ... back to Tommy Davis.
     He was Cannon's teammate at LSU in 1958, a fullback and, more importantly, the Tigers' superb punter and placekicker, a huge factor in the perfect season.
       Davis was the star player on Fair Park's 1952 team, the only one in school history to win the state championship. My opinion (and that of many others), he was Shreveport's most accomplished football player of the 1950s and early 1960s.
       After two years at LSU and a U.S. Army (and service football) stint, he was back at LSU for a crucial role in the 1958 national championship. He was part of the all-offense Go (short for Gold) team, which alternated with the all-defense Chinese Bandits in that era of platoon substitution.
     But it was his kicking that is remembered by those who know -- two late-game winning kicks (a field goal in a 10-7 victory against Florida, the winning PAT to edge Mississippi State 7-6), and his punting. As book notes, "many considered [him] the best collegiate kicker in the country ..."
     In the mid-1960s, Cannon -- by then a tight end with the Oakland Raiders -- and Davis, a rare pro punter and placekicking specialist for the San Francisco 49ers who twice made the Pro Bowl -- renewed their friendship in the Bay Area. After his decade in the NFL, Davis' career punting average was the second-best ever behind Sammy Baugh.
      One more North Louisiana tie: Murrell "Boots" Garland, who struck up a friendship with Cannon on a track/field trip in 1957 and as the dorm proctor at Broussard Hall, LSU's athletic dorm, where he and Billy spent hours being pals. As  the book notes, he was "garrulous and funny" like Billy, and just as much of a storyteller, upbeat and full of mischief. A character who, for example, played Pistol Pete Maravich's high school coach in a movie. 
      Boots was from Shreveport, a Byrd High and LSU graduate, and early in his long, winding coaching career was George Nattin Jr.'s assistant in basketball at Bossier High (1962-64).
      He would become almost legendary -- Boots would laugh and agree -- as a track and field coach. His 1969 Baton Rouge High team won a state championship; he was head coach at LSU one year, and a longtime assistant there, known primarily as a "speed coach." His speciality was working with athletes in any sport, any level -- high school, college, pros -- to improve their running techniques and maximize their "speed" abilities. 
     Billy Cannon would not have needed help in that department. But of all his buddies, Boots Garland -- as the book makes clear -- was the most involved in his rehab after prison, a frequent visitor to Cannon's dentist office at Angola and eventually the go-between contact for Billy's return to involvement with LSU football. 
     Boots, who died in January 2016, played an important role in Cannon's later life. Good for him. 
---       
     On the book's next-to-last page, there is a paragraph about the (LSU-themed periodical) Tiger Rag's 2010 list of "The Top 150 Most Influential People in LSU Athletics History." No. 1 on that list? Is there any doubt?

Richard Thompson and wife Blanca at the
recent LSU-Southeastern Louisiana game at
Tiger Stadium (he is an SLU graduate).

      Richard Thompson now lives in Baton Rouge and in Puerto Rico (home of his wife Blanca). "I go back and forth; I have business in both places," he said. And, yes, they were in Puerto Rico a year when it was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
     We'll leave the last word on the book to him because he said he sat in on 40 hours of interviews with Cannon and Charles deGravelles.
     "Billy was a hood, even at our Fair Park standards," Richard wrote me. "It would have been a bad influence on anyone back then.
     "After he served his time [in prison], his fake self-esteem went from 110 to zero. All the bad things he did as a young man, he made up with goodness in his later life. Working on inmates at Angola was not for his paycheck, but it was his redemption."
     If you read the book, you will appreciate that.
     In the end, he was -- as LSU radio announcer J.C. Politz said at the end of the 89-yard punt return on Halloween Night 1959, a legendary and best-ever LSU football memory -- "Billy Cannon. Great All-American." 

So how important is football to you?

     Posed the question to my Facebook/e-mail friends Wednesday: Is football still as important to you as it ever was? Do you still live/die with your teams?
     Received several good answers, and will post them at the bottom of this blog piece.
     Timing this with this week's explosion of college football games, the full schedule, although we had a smattering of games last week (because it begins earlier each year).
     Here was my comment Wednesday: For some of us, interest has declined greatly, almost totally in the NFL (and for me, personally, it has nothing to do with the national anthem). Just don't like how much of our attention the NFL receives now.
     With my question, I attached an article by Tim Layden (Sports Illustrated writer) from a week ago, his perspective on what football means -- or should mean -- to our society today. (Link -- a long link -- posted below.)
     Not here to tell anyone what to think -- same as politics -- but what follows is my view on football today. 
     I still love it; I still care. The nervous feeling which hits a few weeks before every LSU season is there again. And I want Louisiana Tech to do well, always have. 
      (And what if LSU plays Louisiana Tech? That is going to happen again Sept. 22. That's a tough one.)
     Want "my teams" in several sports -- Yankees, Cowboys, Netherlands soccer, LSU, La. Tech -- to win big. The competitive streak in me has not faded. When it does ... uh-oh.
      I am sure that is it for you, too. We all feel better when our team wins. 
      We make it personal. Can't help it. Know damn well that what I think or say -- or yell -- is not going to make a bit of difference. But we get into it. Vow to be calmer, but then they start playing and ...
      It is the off-the-field crap that is so bothersome to me. And all the money coaches and NFL players make (and as an aside, I do not think college players should be paid more -- too many loopholes. Isn't a free college education enough?).
      Money makes the football world go 'round. 
      The seemingly increasing brutal nature of the game, the fatal injuries, the brain drain, the sexual assaults, "bullying" coaches, recruiting "verbal commitments" and National Signing Day and everyday analysis, speculation, Internet "talk" sites ... January through December.
      One big gripe: The over-emphasis on anything college football and NFL head coaches say or do. We treat them like gods. They're not. 
      Same for NFL owners. Please don't pay attention to what Jerry "Blabs" Jones says (that was a blog piece several ago).
      Personally I watch or read very little of what any head coach has to say. And when they lecture the media, as some are prone to do (Saban, Patterson) or act sanctimoniously (Urban Meyer, Hugh Freeze, the late Joe Paterno), it is beyond irritating.
      OK, enough of that. Here's the good part: Watching the games.
      Love it still -- at least college football. I, for one, don't like the high-scoring, wild offensive slugfests. Give me some defense and kicking game, please. But the game itself is still entertainment -- and competition -- for me.
      Probably watched fewer games last year -- not even LSU, live -- than ever before. Watched about 10 minutes of one NFL game (Cowboys). That was more than enough.
      Just don't want to spend hours and hours tied to the TV these days. Watched one game live (Louisiana Tech's bowl game, vs. SMU, in Frisco).
      The wife wants nothing to do with football, period. Does not want to hear my commentary, that's for sure. So recording games and watching them -- silently -- hours later when she's asleep is the better option.
      There are other TVs in the facility where we live. So I will be headed there Saturday -- and Sunday night.
      Looked at the TV game schedule for this week, noted the times and set up the recorder. There are teams I want to see, mostly in the SEC (the main interest for many of my friends, too).
      For instance, I will check on the Tennessee Vols because I know son-in-law cares ... a lot. And that matchup with West Virginia should be a good one.   
     (As for Alabama, no thank you. But I have to admit -- if LSU's program was as successful as Alabama has been, especially the last decade, would I care more for college football than I do now? Honest answer: yes.)
      So, the game I care most about -- LSU vs. Miami -- will be played in our neighborhood Sunday night. Our son and our nephew will be there at JerryWorld; I will watch on TV ... anxiously. I do care.
       As for LSU vs. Louisiana Tech in a few weeks, I will be rooting for the winner. That should satisfy all my friends who say I am a frontrunner.
       Have a nice season. It is important enough to me that I  will try to watch ... for a while, anyway.
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https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/08/23/football-player-safety-jordan-mcnair-death-maryland-urban-meyer-zach-smith-ohio-state-punishment?utm_campaign=si-extra&utm_source=si.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2018082413PM&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22g%2fuGJg%2f6MqPr9L%2fN%2beR2ew%3d%3d%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22SI%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22SI_EXT_D84683FA-9C1F-4D44-99C4-043367C843CF%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2299057493%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22861658%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22SI_EXTRA%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%22%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22CAN%22%7d