UPDATE: English apologizes: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

The Big Ragu · Aug 10, 2010

mustangj17 said:

Lester Bangs said:

The Big Ragu said:

Lester, The NCAA has been slow in seeing black head coaches, as we all know, but in the case of Ron English, I am not sure it's fair to say he was dropped into the coaching ghetto. English was a relatively young guy who was establishing a rep as an excellent defensive coach, but he was only a coordinator for 2 or 3 years at Michigan and then Louisville, after Lloyd Carr got the axe. He probably needed another few years as a coordinator before being ready for an HC job, but he made it clear he was out there looking for a HC job and basically took the coaching ghetto job because better schools thought he still needed some time.

You can argue that he figured that blacks weren't getting lots of chances, so he was better off making his own chances, but if you look at the NCAA right now, it is clearly making strides, especially this year, with Mike London getting the job at Virginia, Turner Gill moving up to the Kansas job and Charlie Strong at Louisville. None of those are coaching ghetto jobs. They are all BCS schools. Then you have some other hires, like Ruffin McNeil at East Carolina and Willie Taggart at Western Kentucky (ghetto job, but Taggart had a long history with WKU when it was a I-AA powerhous). I realize change is happening at a snail's pace, but those were all pretty positive hires, and I believe the number of black head coaches in the FBS is now in double digits.
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Fair enough and I agree that schools are dropping the focus on black and white and worrying about the only color that really matters: green.

But I do feel like English is being treated very unfairly here andf if you were to survey his two scholarship classes, wonder how many kids are from single-parent homes. My guess is, representation is adequate because it almost has to be. If you limit your recruiting to kids from intact families these days, you'll have very small classes.

On the coaching ghetto comment, I remain steamed about DeWayne Walker starting out at NMSU while Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin are grabbing up Pac-10 and SEC jobs. I know, I know ... it's more complicated than that, but still ... (and anybody who cites Lane Kiffin's time with the Raiders as a qualifying factor for him getting the Tennessee job is nuts. )
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Excellent defensive coach? Well he had a pretty solid 2006 season where they demolished Vanderbilt and went through the Big Ten like a knife through butter (until OSU). But that's all negated when your team loses to Appalachian State the next year and follows that loss up by letting Oregon hang 48 on ya. After that, it was obvious he was a mediocre coach.
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Obvious? In his two years as DC at Michigan, they had one of the best run defenses in the nation, and even though a solid group of players was there at the time and might have excelled under a lot of coaches, these were the numbers:

2006 (English’s first year as DC at Michigan): 10th total defense, 268.31 yards per game, 15th scoring defense, 15.9 points per game

2007 (English’s second year as DC at Michigan ): 24th total defense, 335.69 yards per game, 23rd scoring defense, 21.4 points per game

Those were improvements for Michigan and earned him a rep as a a good defensive coach. If I remember, after Carr got axed, he got a sniff for the HC job at Arkansas because he was well regarded enough. I think the sentiment was that he wasn't ready for an HC job. But it was no accident that Steve Kragelthorpe was impressed enough by his record at Michigan to offer him the DC position at Louisville. He had a rep as an excellent defensive coach. The interest for jobs was certainly there.

WolvEagle · Aug 10, 2010

Bravo to Ron English for apologizing:

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/eastern-michigan-football-coach-ron-english-apologizes-for-addresses-controversial-comments/

WolvEagle · Aug 10, 2010

imjustagirl said:

Baron Scicluna said:

imjustagirl said:

Devil's advocate, and I've skimmed this thread, so I might have missed it.

Say I get married and have a kid (god help us all). We live in Cleveland. He REALLY wants to go play at a certain school in Florida, but that school limits its recruiting to a four-state perimeter. Does everyone get upset when the school excludes my kid, when it's no more his fault where he lives than it is the child of a single parent household that he's in that situation?

God, I don't even feel like I explained that properly, but I'm watching Bachelor Pad. Schools limit their recruiting decisions all the time on arbitrary things.
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In terms of geography, I would think a big reason that schools limit recruiting to certain areas would be travel costs to send coaches further out than the four-state perimeter that you mentioned. Instead of flying them all over the place, they have them drive, or fly short distances.

Plus, they may figure a kid might not want to go to school so far away from home. Hence, the school limits their recruiting area.
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I understand why. But I'm just saying, it's no more or less the kid's fault where he lives than how many parents he has. And no one bitches about that decision in recruiting.
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IJAG - Thanks for agreeing with me. The kid doesn't choose his or her circumstances.

JC · Aug 10, 2010

WolvEagle said:

imjustagirl said:

Baron Scicluna said:

imjustagirl said:

Devil's advocate, and I've skimmed this thread, so I might have missed it.

Say I get married and have a kid (god help us all). We live in Cleveland. He REALLY wants to go play at a certain school in Florida, but that school limits its recruiting to a four-state perimeter. Does everyone get upset when the school excludes my kid, when it's no more his fault where he lives than it is the child of a single parent household that he's in that situation?

God, I don't even feel like I explained that properly, but I'm watching Bachelor Pad. Schools limit their recruiting decisions all the time on arbitrary things.
Click to expand...

In terms of geography, I would think a big reason that schools limit recruiting to certain areas would be travel costs to send coaches further out than the four-state perimeter that you mentioned. Instead of flying them all over the place, they have them drive, or fly short distances.

Plus, they may figure a kid might not want to go to school so far away from home. Hence, the school limits their recruiting area.
Click to expand...

I understand why. But I'm just saying, it's no more or less the kid's fault where he lives than how many parents he has. And no one bitches about that decision in recruiting.
Click to expand...

IJAG - Thanks for agreeing with me. The kid doesn't choose his or her circumstances.
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and a College scholarship is not a god given right.

WolvEagle · Aug 10, 2010

JC said:

WolvEagle said:

imjustagirl said:

Baron Scicluna said:

imjustagirl said:

Devil's advocate, and I've skimmed this thread, so I might have missed it.

Say I get married and have a kid (god help us all). We live in Cleveland. He REALLY wants to go play at a certain school in Florida, but that school limits its recruiting to a four-state perimeter. Does everyone get upset when the school excludes my kid, when it's no more his fault where he lives than it is the child of a single parent household that he's in that situation?

God, I don't even feel like I explained that properly, but I'm watching Bachelor Pad. Schools limit their recruiting decisions all the time on arbitrary things.
Click to expand...

In terms of geography, I would think a big reason that schools limit recruiting to certain areas would be travel costs to send coaches further out than the four-state perimeter that you mentioned. Instead of flying them all over the place, they have them drive, or fly short distances.

Plus, they may figure a kid might not want to go to school so far away from home. Hence, the school limits their recruiting area.
Click to expand...

I understand why. But I'm just saying, it's no more or less the kid's fault where he lives than how many parents he has. And no one bitches about that decision in recruiting.
Click to expand...

IJAG - Thanks for agreeing with me. The kid doesn't choose his or her circumstances.
Click to expand...

and a College scholarship is not a god given right.
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No, it isn't.

Just don't discriminate against someone because they're in a situation not of their choosing. That's all I'm saying.

RickStain · Aug 10, 2010

Almost any reason you could have for not giving a kid a scholarship would not be of their choosing.

WolvEagle · Aug 14, 2010

In the interest of fairness, Ron English wrote a letter to the editor to AnnArbor.com. He said his quote was taken out of context.

http://www.annarbor.com/news/opinion/quotes-were-taken-out-of-context-on-single-parenting/

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UPDATE: English apologizes: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

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UPDATE: English apologizes: EMU's Ron English offends single mothers

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