...First the past...as many folks know, I am on facebook(my wife is baffled by the 747 friends, but I digress). I use that facebook tool to present ISU articles and things to different folks, and sometimes these things go viral. For instance I posted the softball poster last year...bam, it went everywhere. I also use facebook to post something kind of goofy every day or so (my links are seriously priceless sometimes...)
However, every now and then I hear from an old friend with some news...such was the case this morning where former KIDK sports anchor Nick Griffiths emailed me on facebook this morning. Nick is in the KC area, and sent over this piece he did on former Bengal Matt Gutierrez...check it out.
Now the present...it's a huge week for ISU soccer...sitting at 1-1 in the conference, they host Northern Arizona today at 4:00 pm (you can listen to it here). Sadly, Davis Field's press box isn't wired, and the university folks that do that want an outrageous sum of money, so no video or live stats. Still, listen in, and folks can email during the broadcast (mercfran@isu.edu), or facebook me...I get all that stuff on my phone. Soccer also hosts Northern Colorado at noon on Saturday in a big game. Of course, if Weber State would actually play on Sunday's like everyone else, we could play on Sunday and unclog that busy Saturday, but I digress.
Of course both football and soccer have free youth clinics today...football at 5:30 and soccer at 6:00 pm.
Also, my day got started today with the Idaho State Journal 10th Annual Business Awards, of which in a weird twist of fate, both Jeff Tingey and myself were finalists in the "Overachievers Under 40" category. While we both didn't win, it sounds cliche but it was truly an honor to be nominated. I sort of felt out of place there, I'm not gonna lie, but it pretty cool. I sat next to Stephanie Palagi of Old town Pocatello, who I've seen in pictures and in news reports, but I'd never seen her in person. So I'm sitting next to her and could never figure out who she was until she went up and presented an award, and I was like "duh....". I'm sure everyone has those moments...that was mine. Anyways, sorry I didn't recognize you Stephanie....
Now to what you guys wanted to read about...the future. Couple of things...yes, we are hosting a press conference today, and it's just for the media. Due to the soccer game I don't know when I can get it up on youtube, but I'll work on it. I might just get the audio out in a hurry to the media, and then figure that other stuff out later. The details of the press conference I can't really get into right now, but it does deal with football.
It has been interesting reading things in my inbox and in other places, and I'll mirror something Brad Bugger stated...I love the passion of ISU fans. They desperately want to win, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Anyways, that's at 3:00 pm, and the news will pop onto the webpage around 3:05 pm or so. Stay tuned for that. Come on out to any or all the events this week....should be something for everyone.
So as many folks know, one of the things I do is scour the net with Google Alerts and things for stuff about Idaho State. Sometimes I find out things from the ISU message board, the Bengal Den (no big shocker there). It was there I was tipped off to this dumb editorial by the Twin Falls Times-News....here it is from Monday...
Please Make it Stop: Send Bengals to Division II
Idaho State University won't do it on its own, so maybe it's time the State Board of Education forcefully suggested that the Bengals aren't a NCAA Division I-caliber athletic program anymore.
The football team, which has lost 45 of its last 59 games, is 0-4 this season and has been outscored 195-42. The men's basketball team has had one winning season in the past 20.
Students - in the form of fees - pick up much of he cost, but the coaches are paid mostly by the taxpayers.
Which means Idahoans are subsidizing arguably the weakest Division I athletic program in the country.
What's the purpose of continuing this? ISU would save money by downsizing (NCAA Division II schools can award up to 36 football scholarships, as opposed to 63 in the Football Championship Subdivision in which the Bengals now compete.) ISU would fit comfortably in either the Colorado-Springs based Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference or the Spokane, Wash.-based Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
ISU has been through six football coaches since the last successful one - Dave Kragthorpe - and four since the school last won a Big Sky Conference men's basketball championship in 1987. None of them have been able to talk enough Division I-quality athletes into spending four years in Pocatello. And the fans have noticed: 6,200 of Holt Arena's 12,000 seats were empty for Idaho State's home opener against Division II Central Washington University. The Bengals lost 33-22.
This is a college sports program quite literally out of its league. It's time for ISU to become big fish in a much smaller pond.
I'm not against a newspaper having an opinion (I am all for free speech, even when it is truly bizarre, like this or this. However, if you are going to offer up an opinion, and print it in a newspaper...well, please, please, please....make it informed. Get ALL the facts straight, and best of all, print the Letter to the Editor that I sent over as well. That's right....three days, no letter printed. Did I call them out on their shoddy journalism and lack of factual information? Maybe. Did I prove the point that they are painting the entire athletic program because of football's recent struggles? Hellz yes I did. And since this is the blog of the department, and since apparently the Times-News isn't interested in running this in a timely manner, here is what I sent them. I kinda like it.
On Tuesday, September 29th, the Twin Falls Times-News published an editorial calling Idaho State University “arguably the weakest Division I athletic program in the country.”The Times-News argued this based on very limited facts, mostly because of the poor record in recent years by the ISU football team, but the Times-News did a terrible job of fact checking, because it would have taken just a few minutes to realize that ISU competes very well in the Big Sky Conference and nationally.
Idaho State has been tremendously successful in many sports of the past few years.For example:
*ISU women’s basketball has won Big Sky Conference titles in 2006 and 2007, and they advanced to the NCAA Tournament or the NIT four times in the past six years , including three All-American and a finalist for the national player of the year in Natalie Doma.
*ISU women’s soccer has won four Big Sky titles in the last eight years, and advanced to the round of 32 in the 2006 NCAA College Cup
*Idaho State track and field won three Big Sky titles in the last five seasons, and they have had national qualifiers in indoor and outdoor track in nearly every season in the 2000s.
*Idaho State men’s basketball has won 25 conference games in the last three years, the best three-year stretch since 1976-78, and ISU has not finished below .500 in conference play under Joe O’Brien.Last year, ISU’s win 72-68 win over Utah came of the #3 ranked team in the RPI, ISU’s highest RPI ranked win ever.The basketball team has also been very competitive despite playing non-conference schedules ranked #7, #14, and #1 in the nation the last three years, taking two nationally ranked teams to overtime, and losing at nationally-ranked Wisconsin by two.
*ISU football has had just three winning seasons in the last 10 years, but the team has sent 14 players to NFL camps, and six of those players have seen action in a regular season NFL game.The last two Super Bowls had former ISU Bengals represented on the rosters (Matt Gutierrez with New England and Pago Togafau with Arizona).The Bengals also had 2003’s National Player of the Year in Jared Allen, who in 2008 became the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, and Jared has generously donated both his time and resources back to Idaho State.
*Over the last five years, Idaho State athletes have spent thousands of hours participating in community events through the P.A.W.S. program (Proud Athletes Working and Serving), including PaintFest, Sacking Hunger with the Idaho Food Bank, the Pocatello Marathon, Wal-Mart’s highway cleanup program, reading to elementary schools, and meeting with children in the Portneuf Diabetes Camp.
*Idaho State softball won 20 games in 2009 in just their third year, and will start play in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference in 2010.
Also, stating that ISU has not had a successful football coach since Dave Kragthorpe is not fair to Jim Koetter, who took ISU to the playoffs in 1983, and to Larry Lewis, who led ISU to a share of the 2002 Big Sky title and is the only coach in school history to lead ISU to back-to-back eight win seasons.
In recent months, private funding and donations have allowed for ISU football to refurbish the entire locker room, to add a high definition video board in Holt Arena, and an electronic display board outside of Holt Arena.Construction will start this winter on Miller Ranch Stadium for softball.Improvements to other ISU athletic facilities are due to be announced in the upcoming months, all through private donations.
While it is true that the Idaho State football team has struggled for the past four years in accurate, the football team has had to also deal with budget holdbacks and playing five guarantee games against FBS teams in the last three years, including games with Oregon State, Arizona State, Oklahoma, and Boise State, in order to help raise funds for the entire department.With just six wins over that time span, to state that the entire ISU athletic department is out of its league is just not accurate, especially when a full-time writer from the Times-News has performed one interview or covered one ISU home event in the last 10 years.
It works for me, and I probably left stuff out. Still it shows what a shallow argument they presented, and honestly, they should cover a game or interview someone here before presenting an opinion like that, but sadly, that's where journalism seems to be heading sometimes. We'll see if they ever print that.
Streaking Soccer!
No, not that type of streaking, but here's a little soccer trivia for you...when was the last time the soccer team lost? Would you believe September 6? ISU has won three straight after taking down rival Utah State 1-0 in Logan, with the Bengals scoring on a corner kick (and Annamarie Hofstetter tying the Big Sky career assist record in the process), and sophomore Bailey Williams getting her first shutout of the season as well. The Bengals also have won four of the last five on the road, which is impressive, especially in light of this stat. From November 5, 2006 to August 21, 2009, ISU went 2-16-4 on the road. Two wins on the road in 1,020 days. and now they have four in the last 37. Just goofy.
Volleyball on the road again...
...which might be good as the team went 0-2 last week in their first home matches, although they played the defending regular season champions and the defending tournament champions. Now they head to the Montanas looking to get back on track, with both matches on Big Sky TV.
Homecoming
No, not the football team playing Eastern....the football team going to Georgia. That's a Homecoming for me, as I lived in Augusta for four years prior to coming to ISU. Interesting side note to going there...when I applied for this job, I had never been to a college football game, so I went with my wife to the Georgia-Kentucky game in the rain in 1997 just so I could say I had at least been in a college stadium. And now I get to go back...sweet.
Ah the road of the crowd. The roar of Arizona State fans giving me grief because I mistakenly put "Wildcats" instead of "Sun Devils" on the website in the little story I do for the weekly game notes...er...Game Notes. Yes a fan called both me, and Jeff Tingey, and yes, I fixed it. While I'd love to blame someone...I just goofed up. Less you think I don't stand up when I screw up, I actually posted apologies at Devils Digest and Sun Devils Message Board. Yeah, I manned up...I'm saying it.
However, just to get you all in the mood for a little pigskin, and a big weekend in general in road athletics (soccer at the Governor's Cup, and volleyball also at Arizona State) here are some good links and stuff.
First of all, checking the local news stations websites should be required viewing. Brad Shellgren and Paul Shahen at KPVI have video from Arizona, Oklahoma, and of course ISU press conferences...Paul was in Tempe....nice. Check out their sportscasts from 8/31 and 9/1. Over at KIFI, there's almost too much video to link to, but check out Alyssa Chin's piece on the offense (the defense and special teams will be up later this week), and there are also good pieces on Coach Z talking about Babe Caccia, and some of the newcomers on the volleyball team.
Nothing new in the Journal today, but Kelvin Ang is working on a huge John Zamberlin piece about his playing career for this weekend, and his last big piece was the Tuiasosopo Niusulu piece which was awesome, so this should be fun. He of course adds to his blog daily.
Now, fun times in Tempe, where Dennis Erickson has suspended "5 or 6" players. The media down in Tempe is scrambling because....well..that's all they said. They didn't say who the five or six are. Nice right? Don't you love big time football? Maybe John Zamberlin should have said in the press conference that one or three guys might not make the trip due to eligibility issues, but not say who they were. That would have been fabulous LOL. The East Valley Tribune, DevilsDigest, and many others are trying to figure out the names. The might need these guys to help figure it out.
Governor's Cup Conundrum Forgive my little rant here, but when you get ready for soccer this week and the Governor's Cup, don't read Boise State's version of the tournament history. It's wrong. Doug Link and I argue about this all the time, but as I've mentioned to him before, I've been here for every single one of these deals. The Governor's Cup is the accumulation of the results between the three Idaho schools. The first three years it was done in a format were one school hosted the other two, so that everyone got to have two home games every third year, since home games for new programs are hard to come by. In 2001, Boise State won the cup, but they don't even acknowledge that, as they said all the games weren't played, but that year our game with Idaho got cancelled and because of a date problem and we couldn't work it back into the schedule, and then 9/11 happened, and whatever.
Then it went for a few years were each team would host one, and travel to the other (ISU, UI, and BSU), and now they are back to the everyone at one site format.
Boise State doesn't recognize one of the ties in which we retained the cup (the original rules of the cup....again, I was a part of this, was whoever had the better record won the cup, and if there was a tie, it was goal differential, then it was goals scored, and it it was tied after that, whoever had possession of the cup retained the cup. That happened with us, and we always state we retained it after a tie.) and BSU even mentions that Seattle was the Idaho Governor's Cup. That can't happen...they ain't a part of Idaho....
So anyways, Doug Link and I have agreed to disagree on this, and they go with their version, and we go with our version. Of course, I think my version is the right version, and BSU thinks there's is correct...either way, a little soccer controversy never hurt anyone, and makes the proceedings more fun. FYI, Boise State won it last year...
Speaking of controversy Getting ready for Oklahoma and Arizona State, I just love dealing with soccer controversy, but here I am again in the middle of it...and poor Annamarie Hofstetter. When is a goal not a goal? Apparently when she scores it. Here's the deal...on Friday, she takes a free kick, which deflects off a defender and into the net. Southern Utah had no SID present....just a student working his first game apparently from what I was told. He didn't know how to score it and credited it to Hofstetter. Great right? Well, they changed it to an own goal after he talked with the referee. Now, all the ref said was that the ball hit the defender and went in, and had it not hit the defender, it would have been saves (Allison and Hof both said the exact same thing) and that it was an own goal. Um....see, that's why refs ref and I do what I do. I have to read the scorer's rulebook....I'm guessing the ref didn't, because that isn't an own goal. It's pretty clear in the scoring section of the rulebook that if a player's shot is deflected into the goal, then the player who shot the ball gets credit for the goal. If a player shoots or passes a ball back into their own net....that's an own goal.
The guy I feel sorry for is Kyle Cottam, who is SUU's SID for soccer, who wasn't there and has to go on here say from his coach (who admitted he didn't have a good look at it) and his student, who doesn't really know soccer. We are awaiting the game film and I'm gonna watch it for myself, and if it's pretty obvious this is scored wrong, I'll have to go over folks head to get this changed. What sucks is poor Annamarie hasn't scored since the second game of her career...she is a senior now. Jon Kasper has my back on this...for now it is staying as an own goal (we had switched it already in the notes for this week figuring this was a no-brainer....boy was I wrong).
I love crap like this...we had this at Boise State in fact in 2006...Jason Erickson was there, and we were playing Idaho and an obvious goal was mistakenly ruled an own goal. We got that one switched pretty quick, but not without some hassle...and here I am three years later with the same thing.
I agonized last year when I credited an own goal against UC Davis, but the ball wasn't going in, and our player tried to clear the ball away and hit it into our net by mistake...that's an own goal. Honestly, soccer should get with the rest of America and credit the goal to the last player to touch it. Maybe I'll try to get that changed.
Well gang, with the release of the football and soccer media guides comes the release of more desktop wallpapers for those two sports. I gotta hand it to Ziggy (Katie Zigars), my assistant, who came up with the design concept that allows the back covers of the guides to double as pretty good wallpapers. We are including eight sizes here, so there should be one for everyone, unless you have a REALLY wide screen, of which we have only two choices...
Ah, growing up, I was always excited at seeing the lockers on You Can't Do That on Television, which was a Canadian sketch comedy show that for some reason was really funny when you were 10, but if you watch an episode on YouTube, you think to yourself....that's dumb. But I digress. Of course, Alannis Morrissette was a member of the cast, and I had a huge crush on her, but anyways...
The reason for that picture is to break the news here first...it'll be on the main site later, but on August 22, Jeff Tingey and most of the administrators will be taking out all of the old crappy metal lockers to make way for a new paint job in the football locker room. Once all that sprucing up is done, it's time for the brand new solid oak lockers as the Bengal Football Locker Dedication Project has been a rousing success! Spudvision! New Locker Room! Holy Schmoly!!!!
Now, while all this happened under Jeff Tingey's watch, Jeff will be the first to direct praise to Donna Hays, who really, really really worked hard with Coach Z, Jared Allen, and Mike Calley, along with a host of others, which the press release will touch on, but honestly, without Donna's hard work, this doesn't happen...tremendous kudos have to go her way on this.
Anyways, it'll be posted later today, but if you read the blog, you get the scoopage!
This Friday blogpost is going to be a veritable hodge-podge of stuff, so let's get to it, shall we?
When 5-for-7 rocks, and when it just sucks. In sports, going 5-for-7 generally is good. If Amorrow Morgan is 5-for-7 shooting, that's awesome. If Megan Miller goes 5-for-7 in a doubleheader, we should probably win both games. If Kyle Blum or Russel Hill go 5-for-7 passing on a drive, ISU is probably gonna score. In all those ways, 5-for-7 rock. So when does 5-for-7 suck? When the Idaho State Journal runs something regarding Keith Goins, Ryan Anchetta-Major, and Travis Anderson's legal troubles five of the last seven days. Really? I understand the first deal (although the headline and positioning was a bit much), and I get the little thing on the editorial page today in a way, but seriously, this isn't a free for all on the athletic department.
The only day there was nothing regarding this information was in Tuesday and Wednesday's paper. Matt Stucki (Pocatello) won four awards last night in the Bennion Awards Banquet, and Michelle Grohs (Salmon) won three .... we honored 37 or so student-athletes. All that got into the paper on that tremendously positive story was a listing of the winners in the agate section. No photo of all of our student-athletes dress in ties and dresses looking great ... just the agate. Hell, let's see who did have a picture in today's sports ... Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Kellis Robinett, Ben Crane (who you ask? he's on the PGA tour), a high school softball pitcher from Malad (name withheld due to NCAA rules), some high school tracksters, and LeBron James.
Now, as I have always stated, I don't write for the paper, and I have a great relationship with Tim, Kelvin, and Kellis, and maybe they have others above them making decisions on things (of which it should be pointed out that most of the incident stuff this week avoided the sports section, save for Kellis' column where he basically has decided ISU's hiring and firing practices ... I'll still buy his lunch next week though), but you would have to think that somewhere a picture could have made it. I will give kudos for running a small second APR story that painted a much truer picture of ISU's APR standing, brings me to my next nugget.
NCAA/APR/LOL/OMG The NCAA loves the APR acronym, but I'll let Dave Hickman of the Charleston Daily Mail describe a great point in his column from yesterday.
"For starters, I'm never really sure what to call it because, apparently, neither is the NCAA. You know it as the APR, but that can refer to either Academic Progress Rate - which seems to be the NCAA's semi-official moniker for the system itself - or Academic Progress Report, which is what the group uses to refer to its yearly account of its findings. And just for kicks and giggles, the folks out there in Indianapolis also sometimes refer to the APP (Academic Performance Program), which seems to be the umbrella under which those APRs (take your pick) fall."
Nice right? Since the APR (take your pick) is here to stay, the NCAA has to do a better job at a couple of things with it.
#1) Retitle the reports. When you go to the NCAA website and get a report, for instance, the one that came out last Wednesday, it is titled "NCAA Division I 2007-2008 Academic Progress Rate Public Report". Well guess what...that's wrong. It's not the 2007-08 APR...it's the four-year rolling score, meaning the correct title is 2004-08. If the report is entitled that, then folks know that the men's basketball score of 897 is spread over two coaches, Doug Oliver and Joe O'Brien, not one. Instead, it looks like Joe is saddled with an 897. O'Brien's score since he's been here? 926, and that includes having to get rid of guys from the previous staff like Tony Jones, and stuff like that (not bagging on the previous staff here, just making a point).
#2) Make the individual year reports available. Why is this not available? Well, each school has an APR officer who has a pass code to gain access to it, but why not the publicity people who have to get the information out? ISU's four-year APR scores are OK, but the single-year scores for this year are higher in 13 of our 15 sports. Why wouldn't the NCAA make that publically available? I get the four-year score, but let's take men's basketball. In Doug Oliver's final year, the score was 827 (43 of a possible 52 points). In Joe O'Brien's first year, the team got 45 of 50 points, a 900 score (Tony Jones hurt here, and then Joe cleaned a few guys out of the program, like Ryan Baumgartner off the top of my head). His score for last year, which was just released, was a 956 (43 of 45), losing a point for Steve Anderson, who transferred out just half-letter grade under the 2.6 GPA mark. The guys had a perfect fall, and so, just for arguements sake, let's say that men's basketball gets 52 of 52 points, a 1000 score. Next year's report will list ISU's score for 2008-09 as 920.
That 920 will get in the commented on potentially as a "lowlight" since it's no at the magical 925 mark .... but is that 920 a representative score? Should a new coach pay for a something that he could not control? Apparently, he has to, but in what I just described, O'Brien's APR for his three-years would be a stellar 952. So O'Brien has his squad performing OVER the national Division I average, yet according to the NCAA and the APR, ISU is below the mark? Denmark? Rotten? I think so....there has got to be a better way to properly showcase the improvements schools make, so that brings me to point number three
#3)Allow waivers to recuse schools that change coaches Now, all of that might look like I'm blaming Doug Oliver and his staff, but to the contrary, Doug announced he was not coming back during in January of the season. Try as he and his staff might, he couldn't control if kids transferred out or went to class in April ... he wasn't here. Anytime there is a coaching change, the APR of either the first season of a new coach, or the last of the old coach will always be down. Look at football. John Zamberlin cleaned out the program, and because of that, he took a huge APR retention hit. But, the program is better off. Now, a few scholarship athletes do something stupid, and he boots three scholarship kids out of the program. Good for him, but bad too, because now his APR takes a hit. He kicks Rashaad Richards off the team. Rashaad is an APR hit. Coaches, who used to have to come to grips with the fact that letting go of a student-athlete might hurt his chances at winning on the field, now are put into a position of having to decide whether or not to clean out a program knowing it could devestate the APR, causing lost scholarships, meaning it's tough to compete, meaning it's hard to win and recruit better kids, and getting into a horrible catch-22.
#4) Actually post accurate information
When you go to ISU's website and click a boxscore, there is an understanding that you are downloading the official, correct stats. Well, guess what. If you pull ISU's 2006-07 APR score off the NCAA's official web site...it ain't right. ISU had a few numbers changed on that report after an audit...some scores went up, some went down. However, if you go to the NCAA website, like all of the nation's media were sent to, the NCAA hasn't fixed the older reports to put the new stats on there. Seems like that would be something to get up there pronto. Hell, I'd like it if they just told the SIDs that the school was audited, because I didn't even think to check the numbers.
Admitting a Gaffe This is sort of a BengalDen response, but some questions arose (legitimate ones I might add) about how the football incidents with the four guys was handled. Let me go with the best political answer I can give here. We tried something a little different. For 11...well, 10 years and 10 months, we have always been pretty quick with things like this in releasing a short statement that "X person has been suspended for a violation of team rules". However, different coaches take different tacts with them, and while I was prepared to let folks know if they asked that they were suspended for a violation of team rules, no one in the media brought it up to me. Why that is, I have no earthly clue, but it wasn't. It was also decided to not release anything about the suspensions until I was asked so as not to throw the folks under the bus so to speak, which is something I have great empathy for, and after nearly 11 years, I decided to alter my own policy stance and try something different. In the end, it was my call.
Suffice to say what can work for a coach somewhere else might not work here, and that is why I regard everything as a learning experience. I was OK with trying something different, but clearly if the Idaho State Journal is going to have something about this incident in the paper in five of the last seven days, we need to go back to the original plan of action.
While these things are discussed with coaches, the bottom line is it comes down to my call, and I went in a different direction with it....hindsight shows it was not the correct decision. We learn (me especially) and move on. I have prided myself since being here of being someone who listens to the fans, and tries to represent ISU as best as possible, and I don't mind answering questions about it. Hope that lends a little insight.
In other news, Matt Stucki needs a pick-up truck Matt picked up four awards last night, and Michelle Grohs three at the Bennion Banquet. There is no funner event for me that the Bennion Banquet, of which I Ihave now MC'ed twice, which is great. After all the hard work during a season, I take great pride in getting to announce season awards and read the accomplishments of the award winners to their peers. Everyone is all dressed to the nines, it's a great meal....fun times.
So when Idaho State defeated Utah back on Saturday night, December 6, when the game ended...I sorta had this blank expression, as if to say "holy crap...we just beat those guys". Everyone was happy, lots of hugs in the locker room, lots of giddy questions from reporters, more giddy answers from the players and coaches, but what I honestly thought about was this...I couldn't wait to go to church. I wanted all those people to pat me on the back...tell me they were there, and say what an awesome game it was. And they did, and it was good. That was a fun day for me.
Now, fast forward to this Sunday ... ummmmm ... I didn't want to go to church at all. I didn't want to hear all the snarky comments, and I didn't want the folks coming up to me saying they felt bad for me. While I would love to question the placement of the headline on Saturday's paper, or the fact that they used "End of the World" type (back when I was in Journalism class, anytime you used gigantic headline size for a story, it was considered "End of the World" type), I can't get mad at the paper. I can only get annoyed the people involved.
I'm writing all of this because I do read the Bengal Den, and I do hear things around town, and my wife hears it, and my kids hear it, and sometimes I think folks think we here at ISU don't mind these types of things when they occur. All I can tell you is my thoughts, both as an ISU employee, and as a resident of Pocatello. Both thoughts are the same ... I'm pissed.
I'm pissed because at ISU, there are about 250-300 student-athletes, and the actions of six student-athletes tarnishes the images of the others that do everything right, the ones that go to school, give back to the community, that want to stay in Pocatello and Southeast Idaho because they genuinely love it here.
I'm pissed because I get roped into it too. I purposely and proudly wore ISU gear on Saturday and Sunday because I am proud of our athletes, and our employees. Anyone working here will get looked at differently because of the last three incidents (even though everything was lumped together on Saturday, those were two separate incidents).
(Quick side note: I had someone come up to me Sunday and say how come this only happens with ISU and not in the high schools. I informed him that it does in fact happen, but they are all minors, so their names can't be in the paper ... remember, my kids went to high school here and know folks at all three ... I hear plenty).
I'm pissed because I want to see out athletes succeed. I want this town to be proud of ISU, and these things happen, and suddenly I hear things like "That's why I wear xxxxx gear instead of ISU". Of course, this stuff happens pretty much everywhere, but I digress.
I hate saying this, because in my position, you get to know these kids, and you learn to like them, but all those things have to be separated. I think the decision in the punishment was right, in that you do something like shoplifting, and you lose the privilege of playing sports and having a scholarship at ISU.
The timing of all this sucks by the way, in that this week is the start of the Bengal Foundation Fund Drive, and the Bennion Awards Banquet. Instead, this will hang like a dark cloud over it to a degree. It's hard to ask folks for money to support our program, to ask folks to spend their hard earned money on a ticket for a football game, to buy the shirts, to wear the hats, when a student-athlete comes out gets arrested for shoplifting, I get it ... it's like a slap in the face to our fans.
But remember too it's a slap in the face to the peers of these kids. Softball had an awesome season....they give back to the community. They go to class, they do the right things, but they are now dragged into this as well. Men's basketball has a great year, but now they are also guilty by association. Also, the football players...there's 80 guys that are doing the right things...they are reading at elementary schools, they are sacking potatoes with the food bank to help the needy, they are helping freshmen move into the dorms, but they also are labeled unfairly.
The football team's entire year of doing good things in our community should be ruined by a few pieces of Samsonite that decided to break the law, and are paying the price for it.
What our fans need to know and understand is that of the six student-athletes in the football program that have slipped up in the last three months, three have been dismissed from the program, scholarship revoked, and are gone. The others were suspended, and are now on probation, meaning they basically can't screw up again. They didn't run wind sprints. They didn't have to write an essay. They all faced a variety of serious punishments (and if you think a suspension isn't serious, think back to last basketball season when Austin Kilpatrick was suspended by coach O'Brien for violating a team rule, and think how long it took him to recover from that), and I think it's safe to say that these incidents are taken seriously by the man in charge in Jeff Tingey.
I haven't touched on Coach Key at all with this, and Cherokee's leave of absence ironically ended the same day that Kelvin called informing me that a person in the community sent him an email about it, along with the other kids (I'm guessing it was not a season ticket holder that emailed him). Key will have to carry this to any other coaching stop he goes to, and now has permanent baggage, so I think for a first offense, albeit a serious one, his punishment works. As a coach, you want to coach, and he couldn't, forcing a big shuffle among the coaches and players.
I will say this ... I personally don't drink (not a religious thing by the why, just a personal choice), and I haven't seen much good come out of it, so it's one of those lost things on me. I don't know Key's circumstances, but I know the statistics of it all. Drunk driving is serious, and you can go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D) to get all the statistics. Hopefully, he learns from it, and I hope the other six learn from their actions as well and become better people. I've made mistakes in my life and learned from them, and I'm sure if you've read this far, you have made them too, and learned from them as well. Any questions or comments can be left here, or you can email me at mercfran@isu.edu as well.
OK, on to other things..... Who the heck is Carmen Harris? Ever play table top sports games? I must confess, I still have a few, like All-Star Baseball, Talking Monday Night Football, and I'm dying to find this one. Someone apparently has their own updated card sets for Statis Pro Basketball with Idaho State's women's team for this year, complete with fake names, although you can figure out folks by the height. Nice.
Brandon Veltri Named Head Coach at Carroll Former Doug Oliver graduate assistant Brandon Veltri is now the head man at Carroll College. This is noteworthy because he was the assistant coach and SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR. Very cool.
Like I said....I've been inspired by our fanatical internet fans....I don't know how to post this stuff to our site yet, but I have a schedule wallpaper (oops, sorry Mr. Gates....Desktop Background) featuring Isaiah Burel, Jaron Taylor, and JD Ponciano (the three top returning receivers) available in the standard sizes (I checked wikipedia!) 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960 and 1600x1200. That's a really small version of what it looks like....right up there...to the upper left.
Until I can figure it out (posting them for instant downloadability), I'm happy to just email them out...just hit me at mercfran@isu.edu, and let me know the resolution you need, and I'll replay back with it. Oh yeah, constructive criticism is encouraged (along with other ideas on folks). Hopefully when we get a soccer and volleyball schedule done and final we can do the same for those guys as well.
Also, in talking with Nick, here is a great little trivia nugget, but Nick told me that in the last five or so years, 15 Idaho kids entered the program as walk-ons and were eventually scholarshipped. That's an amazing stat.
So, I got the softball release up....now to get some football stuff done, but in the meantime, ISU fans can have a virtual athletic update by signing up for the new ISU Twitter Page! It's www.twitter.com/ISUBengals, and you just click the follow link, and basically you get a tweet (not my word, it's what they call it) that has the headline and a link to a full story. Should be a good way to get news updates, and most folks use their cell phones for it (so unlimited text messages would be wise, and I can't imagine not having that anyways...I have three daughters.
Anyways, if you are interested and sign up, feedback is always appreciated.
As for the scoreboard, it gets it's first test Friday at noon at Rainey Park as softball hosts Seattle...come on out! Also, football flip-flopped the next two days (now they are off Thursday and practicing in uppers only on Friday).
By the way, the new MLB.TV? It's unbelievable. Best buy in professional sports....my Marlins in glorious HD. I'm in heaven, and they are 3-0!
There are a few things that the month of February brings....it brings Groundhogs Day (commemorated with Punxsutawney Phil), Valentine's Day (commemorated with hearts and chocolates), and President's Day (sadly commemorated with a Mattress Sale at J.C. Penney's). The other thing February brings is National Signing Day, and for Idaho State, the requisite argument over Idaho athletes.
Now, as I delve into this, I can't really comment on certain things due to NCAA regulations (remember, the Bible gave us 10 commandments, and people struggle with those...the NCAA gives us 440 pages of commandments...you do the math).
Anyways, John Zamberlin signed five Idaho kids to scholarships, upping his total on his tenure to 18. California led the way this year with 12, and then it went Washington with 7, Idaho with 5, Hawai'i, Arizona, and Utah each with 1. The comments I always hear can be broken down into a select few, and I'll go through each of them....
Why don't we sign more Idaho athletes? The answer is we try. I'm not allowed to say who we offered to and who we didn't, but we offered many Idaho athletes....they don't all chose to go to Idaho State. John Zamberlin's summer camp includes so many Idaho High School teams now, and that helps recruiting tremendously, just in the relationship aspect of things. Larry Lewis had a very good commitment to Idaho, and John Zamberlin has taken that vision and expanded it.
If Montana can win with all Montana kids, why can't ISU just get Idaho kids and win with them? This is an apples and oranges argument. First of all, the University of Montana is the largest school in their state in terms of athletics (sorry Bobcat fans). In Idaho, the Bengals are #3, behind Boise State, and then Idaho (sorry Bengal fans). Montana doesn't have to deal with the issues that ISU does in relations to the pecking order in the state. Start adding in the facilities argument, the desire for many Idaho athletes that are LDS to either play in Utah or attend BYU (don't underestimate that), and the fact that last year Idaho State had 29% of the roster as Idahoans is solid.
Compare it this way...in 2008, Boise State and Idaho had 203 roster slots, and a grand total of 28 went to Idaho kids (mostly walk-ons) ... that's just 13.8%. At Idaho State, 23 of 81 roster slots went to Idaho kids, with well over half on scholarship I believe, and that percentage is 28.4%, more than double the other two institutions.
Why so many kids from California? This is easy....according the census.gov, the population of Idaho in July, 2008 was1,523,816 people, spread out over 83574 square miles. The same census pegs California's population at 36,756,666 people, and Washington as 6,549,224 people. Let's stay with California though. Say you wanted to recruit just the Sacramento Area and a 15-mile radius around the city center. According the the census, there are over 2.12 million people in that little area, compared to just 1.5 million in the entire state of Idaho. There are just so many kids in California looking for places to play...it's only natural to go there. Look at it this way combined with the above stat...the population of Idaho represents 0.4% of the entire population of the United States, and yet, the football roster is made up of 28.4% from the state...that's a heck of a ratio for us.
My tax dollars go to ISU, so I want scholarships to go to Idaho kids. Actually, tax dollars (mine included) go to ISU for the programs, but the scholarships are fully raised on donations and contributions to the athletic scholarship fund.
Anyways, all of that is to basically say that John Zamberlin and the football program are going a great job of showcasing the school to in-state kids, and trying to get them to stay at home and play for Idaho State. Sorry if this sounds like something from the high-horse, because really it's not, but I know there has been some internet discussion of this topic, and I thought I could do more justice with a blog-post, plus, my brain is currently fried dealing with softball, so this was a welcome diversion LOL.
Wanna Help? Buy a Locker! The locker dedication project is in full swing....for those of you that read the Journal's piece on Holt Arena (which my name was spelled wrong and I didn't like the articles anyway, because they were basically negative and ill-informed. Really...the only fan they could interview was one who said they don't go to the games because their son doesn't think the team will win? That's your source? The journalism teacher in me bristled....), they mentioned a wooden stand alone locker in the middle of the locker room. This is why it was there. Seriously, you can attach your name to a piece of ISU that will last for a long, long time...your own personal legacy. (NOTE: That web page went live around 10:30 am, and within three hours Donna Hays had several phone calls from ex-players wanting the contribute!) Hey, if you can't afford the $500, five people can join in, and dedicate a locker together as well.
Jay McMillin, Live in Your Living Room If you watched the Altitude game on Sunday (we were traveling back from Greeley so I missed it), but former Portland State Viking Rashad Floyd did the color commentary, and all in all, he held his own. This week with the game at Idaho State, ISU's own Jay McMillin will be the color analyst for the ISU/EWU game, which is at 4:07 pm. Jay's Big Sky knowledge is excellent, and he did a great job on the radio for ISU against Boise State earlier this year, so I think Jay will be a star on Saturday.
Yes, the weather is pretty nasty in Wisconsin, and the winter advisory is for another 6 inches or so, which should impact the crowd, but since we are here, and the officials are here, it's game on tonight against the Badgers. Folks should remember to catch the game on the Big Ten Network (439 on DISH), and also the audio is on XM tonight on XM 198 (the Wisconsin audio anyways).
Some folks know I have a little bit of a man-crush on how Wisconsin athletics does things over there (which is easier to do with the 9,000 some odd people they have working over there), but still, somehow, and I'm not doing it this year, but I've got to incorporate a little GameDay spot into the ISU website...I think it just makes things easier for the fans, no? Here is what I mean...this is what Wisconsin has. Seems simple enough....maybe will bust that out for conference games. My biggest thing is I know I'd want to do it really nice, and I fear I'd screw up the coding. Of course, Wisconsin has an entire internet staff that handles stuff like this, so hey, there you go. And yes, I know Montana does something similar, but again, they have a staff that handles it. Really...they wore THROWBACK uniforms for the Brawl of the Wild...full new uniforms....they bought 80 helmets, 80 jerseys, 80 pants, and 80 socks, and 80 belts for ONE GAME. No, they don't have money issues there huh?
*Side note for the Wisconsin trip....so we had to really hustle to get from one end of the Minneapolis airport to the other to make our connection, so everyone ended up in different bathrooms, and all I could wonder was if I was in the Larry Craig bathroom. Seriously, and then this popped up today...to weird.
*I have to give Matt, an internet fan, credit for this, but someone in Pennsylvania has figured out how Idaho State is the BSC champion, if Montana wins on Friday night. I like his thinking....
*All the snow around reminds me of this....this still is funny after seeing it like 30 times.
MSU's Hysell Leaves a Lasting Memory
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Some might've wondered if Cliff Hysell was a football coach or a rancher.
When they lay the former Montana State football player and coach to rest
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