The Long Snapper (2/18/10)
at the
Percy Harvin
position in 2010. Color me angry. There is something about continuing to attempt to plug people into the Harvin role that just doesn’t sit right with me, and here’s why: Harvin was a once in a generation athlete. While
Tim Tebow
will go down as one of the greatest to ever play the game, Harvin will go down as one of the most dynamic and explosive, which makes the constant attempts to find a replacement for him unsettling.
Urban Meyer
is famous for changing his offense depending on the athletes he has. The offense under
Chris Leak
was different than it was under Tebow. And both produced National Championships. The offense is expected to be tweaked again to best utilize
John Brantley’s
strengths. But when it comes to Harvin, the coaches can’t seem to let go. Last year,
Andre Debose
was signed and immediately penciled in as the next Harvin. An injury forced him to redshirt and
Brandon James
was given the role. James did a lot of good things during his time as a Gator; playing the Harvin role was not one of them. Now it’ll go to Rainey. With
Jeff Demps
seemingly assuming the starting running back role, coaches want to find ways to get Rainey on the field more. I’m fine with that, but why keep pushing for this Percy position? Harvin is gone and his abilities and talents are gone with him. It’s time to realize he can’t be replaced. Evolve the offense to fit who you have now. It’s worked for Meyer in the past. It’s time to do it again.
Just off posting the highest rushing yard total ever by a Pac-10 freshman, Oregon’s LaMichael James decided “why not get arrested?!? BRILLIANT!” The charges are threefold: assault, strangulation, and…wait for it…menacing. Is there a cooler (if cooler means you were dumb enough to get arrested for something that rarely makes the news) charge than menacing? I think not. Given that anyone can appear menacing, but most likely not get charged with it unless it goes along with assault, strangulation, etc., I’ve done the dirty work and looked it up for you. Menacing typically consists of brandishing (you like the big words, you know you do) a weapon with the intent to harm another. You don’t have to end up touching the person or even verbally threaten them. The interesting part with James is that typically a person isn’t charged with menacing if they end up assaulting someone. The assault charge is usually what they get because they went through with beyond their attempt to just menace you. James ended up winning both daily showcases by getting the two charges. So Florida fans, rest easy, you aren’t the only school sending athletes down the dark path. Then again, Oregon’s troubles shouldn’t make anyone rest easy. Sigh.
Sticking with the Pac-10, here we are talking about vacating wins again. Read what Stewart Mandel has to say about what could possibly become of the Reggie Bush-era USC teams. He seems to think vacating wins will be the most likely punishment, to which I say “YA-A-A-A-AWN!” Yes, the issue involves past players. Yes, the issue involves past coaching staffs (although may I remind you that some of the new coaches were at USC back then as well). Yes, current players probably shouldn’t be punished as extensively for something that occurred before their time. But if Bush and his family truly received hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t there at least a chance someone else along the line received something as well? That’s not to say they did, but shouldn’t the investigation go further than just the individuals at question? Shouldn’t the entire program be looked into? Maybe that’s exactly what’s going on now. Regardless, you can’t erase wins from memory. You can remove them from the record books, but that doesn’t make their occurrence any less real. They happened. I watched a number of them happen. You can’t take those memories away from me. If someone told me today the area soccer championship my team won when I was 10 years old was being taken away because one of the players turned out to not be the right age at the time, I would still clearly remember winning the final game anyway. I’m not sure what the punishment should be for such infractions, but vacating wins is about as pointless as sending a kid to their room when that’s exactly where everything they want to play with is anyway.
I’ve been fortunate enough to never break anything except for the occasional finger or toe. Nothing serious in the broken bones department, but breaking your foot sounds painful and extremely inconvenient. At least with a broken arm, you can still get around reasonably well. With a broken foot, Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett is probably going to be up to a whole lot of nothing for the foreseeable future. Of course, being a quarterback, “broken” and “arm” are two words you don’t want together either. Spring practice is out, but Mallett should be fine when it comes to fall participation. Still, a broken foot can be one of those problems that linger and could cause issues well into the future. The Razorbacks need a healthy Mallett if they hope to do anything productive in the SEC West in 2010.
Future Vanderbilt football player Rajaan Bennett was shot and killed early this morning. It appears as if an altercation occurred with a former boyfriend of Bennett’s mother. Apparently the boyfriend shot and killed Bennett and then killed himself. Bennett was a member of the Rivals250 and rated as the nation’s nineteenth-best running back by the site. Rivals.com had the following to say about Bennett: “[he] is also a smart, high-character kid that will end up being a leader on the football field and in the locker room at the next level.” He was expected to contribute immediately for the Commodores. Rest in peace Rajaan.