First college annual hits newsstands

by | May 28, 2008 | College Football

The Georgia Bulldogs will win the 2008 NCAA National Championship and Bulldogs running back Knowshon Moreno will become the second consecutive sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy if you believe Lindy’s College Football 2008 Preview.

Yes, I stopped at the local grocery store this afternoon for a couple quick items and left with my first preseason annual publication of the year. (more…)

What college sports should be

by | Mar 9, 2008 | College Football

When I saw the headline “Bowden says McElrathbey has left Clemson” on ESPN.com this afternoon I started racking my brain. The name rang a bell but I just couldn’t place it.

Was it from a mock draft? Was it from one of the “student athletes arrested” headlines that pop up from time to time?

Then I started reading the story and it hit me. I’d seen him featured on ESPN Gameday a couple years ago. Ray Ray McElrathbey is a running back for the Clemson Tigers. He missed 2007 with a knee injury and played in 13 games as a special teamer in 2006. But he’s more well-known for having taken custody of his younger brother Fahmarr two years ago due to his mother’s drug addiction.

Now McElrathbey, a junior from Atlanta, was leaving the team to get his studies in order so he can graduate in August. Coach Tommy Bowden told ESPN McElrathbey might transfer somewhere else where he can play more or go directly to graduate school.

It took a lot of work for McElrathbey to make it this far. Clemson applied for a waiver from the NCAA that allowed the school to set up a trust fund to cover the brothers’ living expenses – and raise $100,000 to help them out. The NCAA also allowed coaches and families to provide Fahmarr with rides to and from school.

And the elder McElrathbey has had his issues too. He was suspended for at least four practices in spring 2007, according to ESPN, because of academic concerns. But the sociology student made the fall semester honor roll while taking 21 hours of classes.

It appears as though Bowden may have hastened the departure by not renewing McElrathbey’s scholarship. “We’re pretty good at running back right now,” Bowden told the Charleston Post and Courier, while not confirming or denying the accusation.

If that is the case, then shame on Bowden. McElrathbey deserved the chance to finish out his football career.

That said, the school gave McElrathbey a fantastic opportunity and he appears to have taken that ball and run with it quite well. Best of luck to him no matter what his next stop might be. He proved himself a stand-up person taking over as his brother’s chief caregiver. And he pulled himself up by the bootstraps from a tough situation, used college football as an opportunity to better himself, and appears well on his way toward a solid future. Well done, young man. Zoneblitz applauds you.

12-year-old denied coaching job, settles for autograph

by | Mar 8, 2008 | College Football

Who can’t get a kick out of this story. Joshua Irizarry has been a West Virginia football fan since he was 4 and now 12, he’s apparently pretty clever at tricking his opponents in local sandlot games. When Rich Rodriguez left the Mountaineers program for Michigan, Irizarry thought he’d apply for the job.

While WVU President Mike Garrison ultimately chose Bill Stewart to man the head coaching position, he expressed admiration for Irizarry’s spunk. “The lawyer side of me appreciated the arguments he used for why he should be considered for the job,” he told the Associated Press. “The father side of me recognized a young man with a lot of determination and ambition.”

Irizarry, who lives 500 miles away from campus in Southington, Conn., was excited to receive his consolation prize, a written response from Garrison and an autograph from Mountaineer running back Noel Devine.

Good luck to Irizarry in pursuing future coaching ambitions and kudos to Garrison for showing that administrative side of the game still has a human side.