College football offseason thread

It’s also Penn state under Paterno, which is bigger than PSU under Franklin or Bill O’Brien.

 

Deaths under past coaching staffs are no less infuriating, but ...

 

Fair enough TM

 

Aaron O'Neal died at Missouri in 2005. Gary Pinkel is gone, but his replacement, Barry Odom, and a few other current assistant coaches were on staff at that time.

 

Does FCS count? A kid died at Maine last month.

University of Maine football player dies after collapsing at practice

I've noticed most football deaths don't seem to be from playing the game itself but rather from training to play the game.
What's up with that?

 

Deaths like the one in Maine usually (but not always) stem from an undiagnosed heart condition in an otherwise healthy young man.

 

1) Most practices are in the heat of the day.
2) Everybody is exerting pretty regularly in practice. In a game, only 10% of the total roster is exerting at any given moment.
3) Therefore, all training staff can notice anyone who is in peril.
4) The culture of the sport is absurd. Some of the most strenuous workouts are months away from a real game. Macho toughness matters above all.

 

Some of the most strenuous workouts are given months away from a real game specifically to drive away players the coaching staff no longer want around, so that their roster space and/or scholarship can be given to someone the coaching staff has decided is more in line with the program.

 

Precisely. I’d really hate to be on a team at the time of a coaching change.

 

As I understand it (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the NCAA recently changed rules so that scholarships could not be taken away for athletic reasons. I remember more than a few threads on here where we discussed that sort of thing, that a kid just wasn't as good as the staff thought he was when they were recruiting him and they needed the scholarship for another player or when a new coach came in and a kid didn't fit into their plans, they could just cut him loose with the one-year renewable scholarships. If the NCAA has changed the rules so coaches can't do that anymore, could that be a reason why we're seeing what happened in Maryland? The coach can't take the kid's scholarship but he can make life miserable enough that he quits, sort of like what they tried to do to Robbie Benson in One on One.
They find a way to make the coaches less dickish and the coaches find other ways to be dicks.

 

When I am President of the United States (God forbid!!!), it's simple. Universities can take money from he federal government or they can give athletic scholarships. There's no third way.

 

Am I right that the workouts they do are way above and beyond what's needed to safely and effectively play football?