Sports

Team loyalty disappears from college athletics

By Emanuel Johnson GVL Sports Editor
1/24/2010

When Chuck Martin left Grand Valley State University to take a defensive back coaching position at Notre Dame University, I was a little perplexed. I'd thought he'd at least nab a spot as defensive coordinator, especially since he was leaving a head coaching spot.

But Chuck's departure from GVSU didn't bother me. When he left, he had already won two national titles and ensured the program would not be in a state of chaos without him. He had been here for six years -- it was time for him to move on.

Brian Kelly's departure from the University of Cincinnati, however, was the most disgusting display of betrayal and self-centralism that I've ever seen out of ... pretty much anyone.

He brought that program from the depths of mediocrity and turned it into one of the elite powers in the NCAA. This past season, the Bearcats went undefeated under Kelly's leadership -- had it not been for other teams having similar success, the Bearcats would have been in the national title game.

But rather than stay put and forge a dynasty out of Cincinnati, Kelly decided to chuck up the deuce and hightail it to Notre Dame for a bigger paycheck. He turned his back on the players and the program that helped build him up as a head coach.

Kelly didn't even have the decency to coach the team in its bowl game against the University of Florida, which the Bearcats ended up losing 51-24. I mean, he might as well have just thrown up a middle finger to the players and the fans on his way out the door.

And I know that I'm supposed to bow down and praise Kelly's every action because he's in the GVSU hall of fame and he helped turn the Lakers into a powerhouse program, but I can't condone that type selfishness.

I was never a big Notre Dame fan to begin with, but I hope they don't win a single game next season. Sorry, Chuck.

Kelly is the biggest portion of a recent trend that saw coaches trading in the promises they made to their players and to their fans for a bigger paycheck.

Lane Kiffin left the University of Tennessee after one successful season for the prestige of coaching at the University of Southern California. The only reason the USC job was available was because Pete Carroll decided the sanctions the Trojans faced were too much for him (and, yes, he left because of the sanctions, not for the NFL opportunity).

It's as if coaches are afraid to be successful in their own right -- they have to piggyback off of the success of previous coaches at prestigious universities.

But coaches aren't the only one's guilty of disloyalty in college athletics. Some players turn their backs on great situations for the money they'll receive at the professional level.

Take Derrick Rose for example. Rose came two made free throws away from sealing up a national championship in his first year at the University of Memphis. Two free throws. I'd think that if you came that close, you'd almost have to come back to finish the job. But rather than giving Memphis just one more year, he left for the NBA.

I recognize these are business decisions on the part of people trying to make more money, but there's something to be said for the individual who casts money aside to help give back to the people that made him.

sports@lanthorn.com

Comments: