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Show Thursday, December 8, 2005 ™DAITY UTAH CHRONICLE Game Guide 4 The last dance Football's seniors get ready to say goodbye Chris Bellamy Chronicle Asst. Sports Editor This is it. For several key members of the U football team, the Emerald Bowl will not only close out the season, but their careers as well. Twenty-seven seniors will say goodbye in San Francisco, including some of the biggest names on the team—Quinton Ganther, Steve Fiiita, Jesse Boone, Travis LaTendresse and Spencer Toone, to name just a few. For Ganther, the site of his final collegiate game is doubly important considering he grew up in Richmond, just a few minutes outside of San Francisco. He says "about 120" friends and family members will be attending the Emerald Bowl, making it an especially memorable goingaway party. "It means a lot to me. It's even better that I get to play in front of a home crowd, all my family and friends will be there, so I'll go out on the right note," Ganther said. "It's going to be great. It's exciting. I told everyone about it, and I think they're more excited than I (am)." Among several other key seniors, Ganther has had a huge role this season considering the glut of youth up and down the team's roster. U head coach Kyle Whittingham said that his seniors' leadership has been instrumental in the team's ability to rebound from the highs and lows of the 2005 season and in developing a mature squad for next year. "It's been very important. We had three-game skid earlier this year that included that fiasco at Colorado State...a lot of teams would have folded their tents right then and there and just gone through the motions the rest of the season," Whittingham said. "But credit (goes) to our seniors and our captains...(for rallying) the troops." Ganther said that his role as a leader extended past football obligations into off-field responsibilities as well. "Some of the guys were new; it's But U head coach Kyle Whittingham has seen who is on the horizon for his team, and he fully expects the leadership of his current senior class to rub off on everyone else. "No question—that's how it happens. There's a batch of leaders that are coming up—Eric Weddle, Casey •Evans, Brian Johnson, Brian Hernandez, Tavo Tupola," Whittingham said. "There are a number of players who are going to step up and be excellent leaders." Weddle, who was named the MWC's Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week, has been making the transition into a leadership role all season long. His play speaks for itself, but he has also become a more vocal leader both on and off the field. "It's been a transition this year, just trying to take over as a leader for the defense and trying to step up more," Weddle said. All season long, Ute players and coaches have talked about "sending the seniors out right," and after a thrilling victory over BYU in Provo, an upset against a highly touted team like Georgia Tech would be icing on the cake. "It's huge. Going against a great team like Georgia Tech, it's a huge opponent that we're excited for. (The seniors) deserve it," Weddle said. In the mind of Whittingham, the seniors accomplished their most important goal in the win over the Cou. gars and just getftfijfto*a bowl game. While winning^.is on everyone's mind, he said he was happy to at least see his seniors get where they wanted to be. "Getting to the bowl game was the biggest plus, giving them the opportunity to get in postseason play. Now it's important that we play well," Whittingham said. "We've got to go Ute senior Quinton Ganther escapes past BYU linebacker Justin Luettgerodt during Utah's 41-34 win over the Cougars Nov. out there and play great football, and 19. Ganther will play his last collegiate game In the Dec. 29 Emerald Bowl, and will do so in front of a hometown crowd. if we come away with a victory, then their first time away from home— But every season, on every col- once the season is over. For the Utes, that's even more of a bonus for those they call me when they need things, lege football team nationwide, the some of their most proven players seniors. c.hellamy@ Sometimes you need somebody to seniors whom the team has relied will be done with Utah football once chronicle.utah.edu talk to," Ganther said. on so heavily are forced to move on the final whistle blows Dec. 29. Forget the grades if the schools get paid It shouldn't matter how college football players do academically You know what I've noticed lately? A lot of big-time college football players are doing poorly in school! It's horrific. Somebody, please, anybody, release a study illustrating how the NFL's farm system doesn't tend to produce a lot of college graduates. Oh, thank goodness for the NCAA. Of this year's bowl teams, 41 percent fall short of the NCAA's new academic standards, according to a study released on Monday. Almost everyone seems to agree that this is a terrible thing. Honestly, I'm not convinced. What are these academically troubled college football players trying to do with their lives? I mean, it's no coincidence that the NCAA's "Academic Progress Rate" finds that 90 percent of Division-I programs across all sports meet standards, while bowlbound college football programs consistently fall short. Football players at competitive schools—unlike, say, tennis players at San Jose State—usually come to college expecting to play professionally in the future. Many of them are focused on academics as well, but very few potential career fields offer sevenfigure signing bonuses right out of college. (Well, maybe computer science, but who . « i e j 2005 Free and open to the public Diabetes Specialty Center 3793 South State St. 1 7 - 8:30 PM Dec. 14 Diabetes Medications Simplified Denice Small, PharmD Please contact the Utah Diabetes Center for more information: (801) 581-7761 www.utahd.iabetescenter.org University Health Care Utah Diabetes Center Matthew Piper the hell wants to do that?) Most bowl-bound players were such standouts in their hometowns that friends and family positively assured them pro football was a valid possibility. Understandably, many of those players try to live up to those expectations. So what happens when they fail? Well, they shed a few tears when nobody's looking and move on. That's no different from what happens when a biology major drops out of college. If a player's sole intent in coming to school is to focus on football, it's not anybody's right to mandate a "fall-back option." After all, careless disregard for reality is what going for your dreams is all about. Attempting a career in professional sports is like playing roulette and betting everything on 15. That might not be very responsible, but nobody's making gamblers take classes in between rolls, either. And for some players, it's not such a huge gamble, anyway. Do you think Reggie Bush is taking careful notes in calculus class right now? Sure, his career could end at any time, but he's probably working on his game, which has a likely probability of netting him more next year than he would make with an MBA over the course of his lifetime. Forget what football will do for the players, and look what the players do for their schools. According to Richard Lapchick, the Central Florida professor who conducted the NCAA's study, "The key (to improvement) is admitting students who are qualified to be in that school." Everyone who plays for USC should score a 1300 on the SATs? Pete Carroll probably wouldn't score a 1300 on the SATs. Should he fire himself? Of course not. Football makes millions for these schools, so don't tell me players shouldn't be entitled to scholarships just because you aren't. Your tuition costs less because of those players. At least if your school is competitive, it does. The only way for schools to remain competitive is to recruit the best possible players, regardless of whether they're potential Rhodes Scholars. No matter what schools do, there's still going to be the same pool of players at the end of the day. Should Miami suffer in recruiting wars because it has a respectable academic program? What about Salt Lake Community College? With a little restructuring, SLCC could be a D-I powerhouse. It sounds absurd, but meeting academic standards can really only have a negative effect for a program. Listen, I understand that the chances of college football players reaching the NFL are slim. But there are only three possible reasons that they would exhibit sub-par academic performance, and I submit that all of these reasons are acceptable from the school's standpoint. 1. A player came to a major school for the sole purpose of playing football and devotes all of his time to that pursuit, sacrificing academics. *What do you want the Ute football team to be doing right now? Studying for finals or studying for Georgia Tech? If Travis LaTendresse avoids an attempted ankle tackle from a Utah State defender during the Utes' 31-7 victory Sept. 10. players are at least working hard at something, who are we to tell them what to strive for? 2. A player came to a major school for the sole purpose of playing football but couldn't cut it with the team and is an imminent dropout. *OK, so this guy needs to do something if he isn't playing football—but that's hardly for us to decide. The only reason we have to complain is the player's lack of performance on the field. He. didn't come to school for school, he came Spencer Toone brings down BYU tailback Ronnie Brown. to school for football, and he failed at his subject matter. 3. A player came to school with the intent of balancing academics and football (as a good boy should) but couldn't cut it in class. *You can't fault a college for bringing these guys in. Taking a chance on them is border^ line charitable. If the schools axen't really at fault, and the players aren't really at fault, then why don't we start examining the system as a whole? The real problem here is that so many athletes are willing to take such a huge risk to begin with—a problem that stems from a number of societal considerations that are hardly under the control of the NCAA. I don't offer any solutions, but I would suggest reserving these "studies" for a topic to which they are relevant. Ac : cept the reality that college football and academics are two separate worlds. Nonetheless, I don't blame you, Professor Lipchick. At least you did something to bring attention to Central Florida. After all, your footr ball team hasn't ever been to a bowl game. m.piper@ chronicle.utah.edu |