0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/27/2016
The Baylor scandal and its abhorrent, sickening actions — made worse by the fact that they happened in the years after the Penn State story broke — are still being sorted out. If you are reading columns on the Baylor story from writers across the country, you are likely encountering words to this effect: “Hopefully, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Punishment is a very thorny subject — as a matter of morality, sure, but more fundamentally as an effective deterrent to future bad behavior. Punishment is always difficult to confront for human beings because the need to feel emotionally satisfied about the past and the need to create a safer future are not one and […]
FILE – In this Aug. 5, 2014, file photo,Baylor University President Ken Starr, left, jokes with head football coach Art Briles, right, on the first day of NCAA college football practice in Waco, Texas. Baylor University’s board of regents says it will fire Briles and re-assign Starr in response to questions about its handling of sexual assault complaints against players. The university said in a statement Thursday, May 26, 2016, that it had suspended Briles “with intent to terminate.” Starr will leave the position of president on May 31, but the school says he will serve as chancellor. (Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Punishment is red meat, and football is our comfort food, but procedure is the green salad of college sports. It’s not as sexy or as enjoyable to talk about, but it forms the basis of how we can create an environment in which less wrongdoing occurs. Procedure — if crafted creatively and effectively — enables […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/26/2016
Ed Warinner is a box of chocolates. The recent years of his coaching career show that you don’t know what’s next for this immensely gifted line coach and play caller. However, chocolates of any kind are delicious. Things usually turn out sweet for Warinner. Beyond the walls of The Ohio State University, the biggest curveball […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/6/2016
Yes, the Big 12’s latest consideration of expansion might be the result of political pressure applied by David Boren and the University of Oklahoma. TSS columnist Allen Kenney touched on this and other tension points in a helpful Big 12 primer, so no one’s pretending that school politics — coupled with the erosion of Texas’s […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/5/2016
Kevin Sumlin was quickly headed on the path to coaching stardom four years ago — at least, that’s the appearance he gave when Texas A&M curb-stomped Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. The Aggies blended high-end talent with noticeable coaching acumen in that 2012 season. Sumlin’s arrival from the University of Houston could not have begun […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/3/2016
Phil Snow hadn’t tasted a college football season so deliciously urgent in 19 years. At the age of 59, a football lifer realized he could still throw his fastball. * Phil Snow shares an historical connection with the coordinator he faced in last year’s inaugural AAC Championship Game, Major Applewhite of Houston. Both Snow and […]
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Editor’s Note: This brief profile of Major Applewhite begins an offseason series in which we’ll introduce you to various FBS coordinators, mostly in the Power 5 conferences. We’ll also spend time examining the crop of coordinators as a whole, and we’ll spend a part of the offseason exploring the careers of various non-coordinator assistant coaches […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/29/2016
Ole Miss and Baylor endured hard times on the gridiron for decades. When you live in places that care about being good at football — Ole Miss used to be a superpower under Johnny Vaught in the 1950s and 1960s; the state of Texas will never not care about football, and Baylor tasted some Cotton […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/27/2016
The college hoops coaching carousel has almost run its course. Of the 48 transitions at Division I programs in this spin of the carousel, 46 have been finalized. As of 1 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, April 27, only two open jobs remain: Delaware in the Colonial and Northern Colorado in the Big Sky. We’ve […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/26/2016
Sylvia Hatchell might not be an innocent figure. She and her women’s basketball program at the University of North Carolina might deserve the punishments which likely await in the future. Nevertheless, after the NCAA’s release of its amended notice of allegations on Monday, it is hard to escape the idea that Hatchell and UNC women’s […]
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The stories emerging about Baylor football are the latest in a series of reports. That dry statement is intended to convey the following point: Stories might be released in the present moment, but the actual events they point to cover the past few years. In other words, it’s not as though this most recent story […]
TUCSON, AZ – JANUARY 04: Head coach Herb Sendek of the Arizona State Sun Devils reacts on the bench during the first half of the college basketball game against the Arizona Wildcats at McKale Center on January 4, 2015 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/25/2016
The college basketball coaching carousel — 48 changes, 45 slots filled as of Monday afternoon — hasn’t entirely stopped spinning. Yet, when Tubby Smith left Texas Tech, a few extra go-rounds became part of this annual April affair. With three slots left to be filled, a few final facts and figures can’t yet be tabulated. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/24/2016
The new college basketball head coaching class is still being filled — five of the 48 changed jobs this offseason remain vacant — but one can already say that the largest group of first-year coaches in Division I men’s basketball consists of those who will take over programs for the very first time in their […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/22/2016
In our latest review of the college basketball coaching carousel — such a broad topic requires multiple examinations — we consider the new balance of power among the conferences. No, nothing earth-shaking occurred in the latest cycle of upward moves, downward moves, and relocations of all kinds. However, this isn’t a static landscape, either, and […]
