College football fans don't want to hear this, but it's true: College football players care a lot less about the teams they play for than their fans do.
Not that the kids don't care at all. They do care.
But not as much as most of the people who pay the big money to sit in the stands week after week, season after season. And certainly not as much as the people who buy all the hats and T-shirts and posters and pictures and live and die on the outcome of a game.
That wasn't always true, of course. There was a time when the highest goal a young man could have was to grow up to play college football. And for some, that's still true.
But that was before TV put multiple games into our homes every weekend, before the NFL invaded every corner of the nation, before the marketing gurus convinced our athletic youth that it is indeed "all about the money."
Go ahead. Ask any coach in the Southeastern Conference. They'll tell you that what kids are interested in now is how quickly they can play, in order to see how quickly they can get to the NFL - also called " the next level."
College coaches these days can all share stories of the kids they sign who show up expecting to play and play right away.
"We had a player a few years ago, a highly recruited player, and in the middle of the season he was really down," said LSU coach Nick Saban. "I asked him what was wrong and he said that he came because he expected to play early, and he wasn't. He was third team, and I asked him which of the players ahead of him did he think he was better than. He admitted he wasn't better than any of them. So I said, 'You're third team, and you're not as good as the players ahead of you on the depth chart, so what's the problem?'
"The problem is, I came here expecting to play early, and I'm not."
That would be a cute story, except that the end result is all to often than the players start looking to go somewhere else, where they think they can play, rather than wait it out until they get better.
And why are they in such a hurry to play right away?
"It's because of the guys coming out early in the NBA and the NFL," Saban said. "Remember when a kid's high school career ended after the mid-summer all-star game? Now, guys are leaving high school as soon as possible to enhance their career to get to the next level sooner. And that's not a good thing."
Tennessee Coach Philip Fulmer, when pressed, hints that thoughts of quickly getting to the "next level" by some players were part of the problems the Volunteers faced last year in what went from a season of national championship expectations to a disappointing - by Tennessee standards - 8-5 record.
"We had a bit of selfishness and a lack of discipline," Fulmer said. "Selfishness can be different issues. Sometimes it's outward, sometimes it's inward and not noticed as much because it's just players not doing the little things.
"Our 2001 team (which went 11-2) had great leadership and a quality in the upper class that held everyone else accountable. When they left, it left some people who might have had pro football on their mind more than Tennessee football."
It is a dilemma that coaches face every year. They want to recruit the best players, which means recruiting players who are likely to be NFL-caliber players. To do that they have to sell the numbers of how many of their former players are in the NFL, the implication being that if a young man comes to that team he has a better chance of getting to the NFL.
And yet once on campus, the coach has to somehow put that players' NFL mentality in check and get him thinking about the team.
"And it's difficult," Fulmer said. "There are people out there, agents working angles. And you always hear about all the dollars that come with playing pro ball. Many of these kids have dreamed of playing pro ball, and as it gets closer, it gets to be pressure on them to make it.
"It's amazing how dumb you get, as a coach. When a kid first gets there, he'll listen to you and believe in what you are saying. But then they get to the point where they think everybody else is giving them better advice than (the coach). It's difficult."
It's not that the players are all mercenaries. But the truth is that given the chance to play pro ball, the vast majority of them would turn their backs on their college teams in a minute.
And why not? Given the money the schools are making, that their coaches are making, that everyone else seems to be making off of the game they play, it's hard to blame a kid for leaving - even when he makes a bad decision (which, according to the NFL Players Association, an estimated two-thirds of them do).
The game has become something of a monster that we're all responsible for creating.
That doesn't mean it isn't fun. It just means we shouldn't be surprised when, occasionally, the monster takes a bite out of the hands that feed it.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/other_sports/article/0,1406,KNS_304_2157694,00.html
Not that the kids don't care at all. They do care.
But not as much as most of the people who pay the big money to sit in the stands week after week, season after season. And certainly not as much as the people who buy all the hats and T-shirts and posters and pictures and live and die on the outcome of a game.
That wasn't always true, of course. There was a time when the highest goal a young man could have was to grow up to play college football. And for some, that's still true.
But that was before TV put multiple games into our homes every weekend, before the NFL invaded every corner of the nation, before the marketing gurus convinced our athletic youth that it is indeed "all about the money."
Go ahead. Ask any coach in the Southeastern Conference. They'll tell you that what kids are interested in now is how quickly they can play, in order to see how quickly they can get to the NFL - also called " the next level."
College coaches these days can all share stories of the kids they sign who show up expecting to play and play right away.
"We had a player a few years ago, a highly recruited player, and in the middle of the season he was really down," said LSU coach Nick Saban. "I asked him what was wrong and he said that he came because he expected to play early, and he wasn't. He was third team, and I asked him which of the players ahead of him did he think he was better than. He admitted he wasn't better than any of them. So I said, 'You're third team, and you're not as good as the players ahead of you on the depth chart, so what's the problem?'
"The problem is, I came here expecting to play early, and I'm not."
That would be a cute story, except that the end result is all to often than the players start looking to go somewhere else, where they think they can play, rather than wait it out until they get better.
And why are they in such a hurry to play right away?
"It's because of the guys coming out early in the NBA and the NFL," Saban said. "Remember when a kid's high school career ended after the mid-summer all-star game? Now, guys are leaving high school as soon as possible to enhance their career to get to the next level sooner. And that's not a good thing."
Tennessee Coach Philip Fulmer, when pressed, hints that thoughts of quickly getting to the "next level" by some players were part of the problems the Volunteers faced last year in what went from a season of national championship expectations to a disappointing - by Tennessee standards - 8-5 record.
"We had a bit of selfishness and a lack of discipline," Fulmer said. "Selfishness can be different issues. Sometimes it's outward, sometimes it's inward and not noticed as much because it's just players not doing the little things.
"Our 2001 team (which went 11-2) had great leadership and a quality in the upper class that held everyone else accountable. When they left, it left some people who might have had pro football on their mind more than Tennessee football."
It is a dilemma that coaches face every year. They want to recruit the best players, which means recruiting players who are likely to be NFL-caliber players. To do that they have to sell the numbers of how many of their former players are in the NFL, the implication being that if a young man comes to that team he has a better chance of getting to the NFL.
And yet once on campus, the coach has to somehow put that players' NFL mentality in check and get him thinking about the team.
"And it's difficult," Fulmer said. "There are people out there, agents working angles. And you always hear about all the dollars that come with playing pro ball. Many of these kids have dreamed of playing pro ball, and as it gets closer, it gets to be pressure on them to make it.
"It's amazing how dumb you get, as a coach. When a kid first gets there, he'll listen to you and believe in what you are saying. But then they get to the point where they think everybody else is giving them better advice than (the coach). It's difficult."
It's not that the players are all mercenaries. But the truth is that given the chance to play pro ball, the vast majority of them would turn their backs on their college teams in a minute.
And why not? Given the money the schools are making, that their coaches are making, that everyone else seems to be making off of the game they play, it's hard to blame a kid for leaving - even when he makes a bad decision (which, according to the NFL Players Association, an estimated two-thirds of them do).
The game has become something of a monster that we're all responsible for creating.
That doesn't mean it isn't fun. It just means we shouldn't be surprised when, occasionally, the monster takes a bite out of the hands that feed it.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/other_sports/article/0,1406,KNS_304_2157694,00.html
