Leinart's only class: Ballroom Dancing

[Huckleberry]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2143657

And there's not a damn thing wrong with it. I view this as someone with the AP trying to make a story out of a non-story. Congrats to Leinart for taking care of his business and only needing one elective to graduate.

There are thousands of students at every big campus that still need more than one class after 4 years of enrollment. I try not to tease them about not graduating "on time" when I speak to them. :p

[HomerJSimpson]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2143657

And there's not a damn thing wrong with it. I view this as someone with the AP trying to make a story out of a non-story. Congrats to Leinart for taking care of his business and only needing one elective to graduate.

There are thousands of students at every big campus that still need more than one class after 4 years of enrollment. I try not to tease them about not graduating "on time" when I speak to them. :p


I think this just confirms another rumor.

[MikeVic]

I think this just confirms another rumor.

That he's good on his feet?

[Raiders Army]

That dancing helps you win the Heisman?

[Subby]

I think this just confirms another rumor. That you're a doofus?

[MrBug708]

http://www.iekwk.com/images/Leinarthug.jpg

That rumor guys...

[Subby]

http://www.iekwk.com/images/Leinarthug.jpg

That rumor guys...
How does SkyDog know Matt Leinart?

[MrBug708]

I mean, why do you think Mark Sanchez went to SC?

http://www.iekwk.com/images/Gay%20Sanchez.jpg

[HomerJSimpson]

How does SkyDog know Matt Leinart?


And does he think he looks like an inflatable penguin?

[SackAttack]

You guys realize he's enrolled in that class with his girlfriend, right?

/Missouri Tigers fan.

[rkmsuf]

beard

[sovereignstar]

I mean, why do you think Mark Sanchez went to SC?

http://www.iekwk.com/images/Gay%20Sanchez.jpg

Not sure if that pic is worse or the fact that you've got it AND others like it on your webspace. Must be precious enough that you don't want to lose track of them.

[Hurst2112]

Guess that's a class where you can't get somebody to do your homework for you. Course, there is that guy from Seinfeld...

[MrBug708]

I've had numerous run in with Trojans. Just got to be ready...

[Raiders Army]

Not sure if that pic is worse or the fact that you've got it AND others like it on your webspace. Must be precious enough that you don't want to lose track of them.
Whoa!

[Samdari]

And there's not a damn thing wrong with it. I view this as someone with the AP trying to make a story out of a non-story. Congrats to Leinart for taking care of his business and only needing one elective to graduate.

I agree on congrats on Matt Leinart for having graduated.

I don't agree that there is nothing wrong with it. I think students should have to be currently enrolled as full time students to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics. But, the rules allow this, so I don't think this story points out something USC or Leinart are doing wrong, but rather how far away we are from true student athletes competing.

[MikeVick7]

I think this is such a non-story.

[HomerJSimpson]

I agree on congrats on Matt Leinart for having graduated.

I don't agree that there is nothing wrong with it. I think students should have to be currently enrolled as full time students to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics. But, the rules allow this, so I don't think this story points out something USC or Leinart are doing wrong, but rather how far away we are from true student athletes competing.


Everytime I read "student athletes" in the contexts of major college football, it makes me giggle. Naivety is sometimes humorous.

[Raiders Army]

Everytime I read "student athletes" in the contexts of major college football, it makes me giggle. Naivety is sometimes humorous.
Do you giggle like a girl or giggle like a man? I'm not sure I know what the latter sounds like.

[HomerJSimpson]

Do you giggle like a girl or giggle like a man? I'm not sure I know what the latter sounds like.


I giggle like a girl. I'm manly enough to admit it.

[Raiders Army]

I giggle like a girl. I'm manly enough to admit it.
:D

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

During my Freshman year I took classes with a ''few'' UNLV FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL ''STARS.'' I only saw them in those classes three times. They were The first day and2 more times in the semester.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I agree on congrats on Matt Leinart for having graduated.

I don't agree that there is nothing wrong with it. I think students should have to be currently enrolled as full time students to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics. But, the rules allow this, so I don't think this story points out something USC or Leinart are doing wrong, but rather how far away we are from true student athletes competing.
Doal: Totally agree on this one .

[Klinglerware]

I have no problem with this: Leinart already fulfilled his graduation requirements, so if USC offers this as an elective, that's fine with me. A more systemic problem is highlighted in the story below. Long article, so I'll bold the relevant parts:
_______________
Extra Credit

By Ryan Hockensmith
ESPN The Magazine

In the fall of 1999, nearly every program in the country wanted Sammy "The Bull" Maldonado. What coach worth his whistle wouldn't? He was a Parade All-America with 99 touchdowns and a then-state-record 7,581 rushing yards for Harrison (N.Y.) High. He had to sift through 3,000 recruiting letters-all of which still rest in a U.S. Postal Service bin in the family's basement-before narrowing his list to Ohio State and Syracuse.

On a fall Friday morning, Buckeyes coach John Cooper sat down with Sammy's family in their living room. Rafael Maldonado, a street-tough native of Puerto Rico who'd gone from washing cars to owning a chunk of 55 New York City parking garages, didn't pull any punches. "You're getting a very good football player," he said. "But you're also getting a pain in the @#%$."

Cooper belly-laughed; he knew the type. Sammy, a B-student with 960 SATs, was a good kid, if a bit aloof. That didn't deter Cooper. A few weeks later, there was a press conference at Harrison High. Maldonado was going to become a Buckeye.

That fall, Maldonado lugged his first handoff seven yards off tackle for a touchdown against Penn State. He would rush 22 times for 50 yards as a freshman behind senior Derek Combs and junior Jonathan Wells. Buckeye fans chanted for The Bull whenever he saw the field, and even pestered his parents for autographs after games.

But after another loss to Michigan, Ohio State fired Cooper, and Jim Tressel-architect of four national titles at Division I-AA Youngstown State-took over. Within a year, Maldonado would be roadkill, unwanted by the team he played for and unable to play for anyone else.

Despite a solid spring and summer that got him up to No. 2 on the depth chart before that next season, Maldonado was on the sideline when August camp opened. He was asked only to participate in sprints at the end of practice, while Wells, now the starter, and freshman Lydell Ross, one of Tressel's first recruits, shared the running back duties. "I didn't know what I'd done wrong," Maldonado says. "I think Tressel wanted the guys he recruited, not the players who were already there."

Sammy's mother, Nereyda, came to campus in September and videotaped two weeks of her son standing with his arms crossed during all the drills. Then Rafael flew to Columbus for a face-to-face with the coaches. He says when he asked Tressel why his boy wasn't playing, the coach told him Sammy made too many mistakes in practice. Pressed again, Tressel insisted the kid sat because of blunders.

"You're a liar," Rafael shot back. "I've seen two weeks of tape, and Sammy hasn't even put on his helmet."

The Maldonados say that Tressel looked stunned when running backs coach Tim Spencer (now with the Chicago Bears) confirmed that Nereyda had attended practice, and they add that the head coach quickly shuffled them out of his office. Sammy barely spoke with the staff the rest of the season; he finished with 39 carries for 168 yards. "I was just some body," he says, "basically a walk-on." (Ohio State has declined to discuss anything about Maldonado.)

He was at a loss. A superstar talent from a privileged upbringing, Sammy wasn't used to not getting what he wanted. On a bleak February day in 2002, increasingly worried about a son who seemed defeated, Rafael Maldonado called Sammy's cell phone. Sammy had slipped into his own world, most days rarely leaving the couch in his off-campus apartment. He got up in time to watch Jerry Springer at 11, then played video games the rest of the day. Football was a past life. Sammy answered his phone but told his dad he couldn't talk because he was in class. "No you're not," Rafael said. "You're on the couch beside your roommates."

A minute later, Rafael was barging into the apartment. He shut off the PlayStation and chased the other guys out. Then he presented two options to his son: find a D1-AA program, where he could play right away, or transfer to Maryland, where Rafael could try to mine connections with coach Ralph Friedgen, a Harrison native. "I don't know," Sammy told his dad. "You decide."

Rafael asked Cooper, who'd become a family friend since his dismissal, where he should steer Sammy. "Your son is a Division I football player," Cooper said. "Period."

So the Maldonados asked Harrison's coach, Art Troilo Jr., to talk with Friedgen. "He's the best player I've ever had," Troilo told the Maryland coaches. "And a damn good kid." Friedgen wasn't sold. "I have enough headaches," he said to the Maldonados over the phone. "I don't need your son."


Sammy Maldonado has made the most of a second chance at Maryland.


But the family and Troilo kept chipping away. Finally, Friedgen told Sammy he could come to College Park.

Then Maryland got a look at his transcript.

IN SIX academic quarters at Ohio State, Maldonado had earned a decent number of credits (his 57 were the equivalent of about 40 at a semester school). He compiled a 2.3 GPA and had never lost his eligibility. But his coursework included four credits for playing football, three for Tressel's Coaching Football class, 10 for remedial reading, 10 for remedial math and three for Issues Affecting Student Athletes. Six other credits wouldn't transfer because he earned D's in two classes. Maldonado couldn't understand how he had earned only 17 transferable credits in two years. Even today the number pinballs around his head. "What kind of degree can you get from Ohio State if none of your classes count at other colleges?" he asks.

Not much of one, according to The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog. Members of the organization refer to schools like Ohio State as "football factories" that offer soft courses designed to keep players on the field. "The purpose isn't to educate and graduate," says Drake Group associate director David Ridpath. "They're eligibility mills."

Maldonado figured that Friedgen wouldn't even offer a spot once the coach got wind of his transcript. The player needed to crunch the equivalent of 43 semester credits into one year just to become eligible at Maryland. He underestimated Friedgen, but just barely.

When the Maldonados flew to College Park for their first meeting with the skeptical coach, he delivered an ultimatum the family now calls Friedgen's Ten Commandments, establishing the uphill path Sammy had to travel. "We'll take you on a conditional basis," he said. "You have to pay your own way, you will go to class, you will go to study halls and you will get good grades. Do it my way or get lost."

The coach told Sammy he had to get B's in six credits of summer coursework. If he was late, or missed one class or a study hall, there would be no scholarship. Assistant coach Dave Sollazzo, another Harrison native, repositioned his desk to overlook the steps outside Byrd Stadium. Every morning at 7, Maldonado climbed down the 50 steps from the street above, gave a tired wave, then wobbled over to study hall. Sammy got his B's-and his scholarship.

Friedgen was impressed. He had seen his share of transfers over the years, but none with such a barren transcript. "It wasn't his fault," the coach says. "They had him in a bunch of classes that he shouldn't have been in."

Maldonado says the curriculum was not his idea. "Over there, they just put you in classes," he says. "I let them take care of my schedule.

I wish I wouldn't have."

But even after Maldonado worked his soft body and softer academic record into shape, Friedgen still regarded him as little more than a favor. Relegating him to the scout team, the coach decided to make Sammy despise him, to keep The Bull on edge. He made sure Maldonado became well acquainted with Maryland's Dawn Patrol, in which every slip-up, on or off the field, was rewarded with a 6 a.m. exploration of Byrd's lower bowl. "Twenty-eight aisles, 28 steps each," Maldonado moans.

After one unfocused midseason practice, Friedgen called Sammy into his office. "You're not good enough to play here; go to UMass," he said, dropping his eyes to some paperwork on his desk. A seething Maldonado stomped to the doorway before spinning around. "I'm not a I-AA player," he spit out. Friedgen didn't look up. "Talk doesn't go far with me," he said. "Show me, don't tell me."

Maldonado ran hard the next day, and the day after that, and damn near every day since. "I still get mad about it," he says. "I love the guy, but I look at Coach Friedgen and I'm afraid."

That's how Friedgen wants it. Maldonado surged to third on the depth chart, but when he bombed his first round of exams, Friedgen reverted to his drill-sergeant pose, suspending him for two games in the middle of the 2003 season. In the three games after the benching, Maldonado made the most of his 13 carries, rushing for 91 yards. But on the final play of the first quarter against North Carolina, he took a pitch, cut inside and felt his left knee give. He had torn his ACL.

Sammy's parents, worried that their son's confidence would sink again, checked him into a hotel after the surgery and took turns fetching ice and pain-killers. After a few days, Friedgen showed up with his wife, Gloria. She offered home-baked brownies, Sammy's favorite, and some encouraging words. But her bad-cop husband figured this wasn't the time to stop riding The Bull. "I told him he was a baby and he should suck it up," Friedgen says.

Sammy stewed for the rest of the week. The next Monday, though, he hobbled to a morning study hall in the mid-November chill before heading to class and practice in the afternoon.

He kept up with his school work and hammered rehab every day. This past summer he dropped eight pounds-he's down to 227-and opened preseason camp second on the depth chart behind Josh Allen. In the season opener against Northern Illinois, Maldonado churned out 84 yards and scored Maryland's first touchdown of the year. He got his first 100-yard game a week later against Temple. After nine games, he leads the Terps with 486 rushing yards and five scores. Most impressive, he's on target to graduate in May.

Maldonado doesn't need to read the stat sheet to know how far he's come. Walking to the football offices earlier this fall, he heard a bellow from across the street. "Yo, Bull!" He looked over to see a student wave and raise a fist in the air. Sammy was stopped in his tracks. "That felt good," he says. "Showed me people know what I went through."

Friedgen called him into his office the week before the Terps faced No.7 West Virginia in October. "Because I've been ripping you for three years now, I figured I'd tell you how good you've been doing," the coach said. "I want you to be a captain this week." Maldonado could barely speak; after the way that Friedgen always treated him, praise seemed too good to be true. He mumbled a meek "thank you" and began to rise from his chair.

But Friedgen wasn't through. "You gotta promise me one thing," he continued. "I don't want to hear that some NFL agent came in after the season and fed you a line of BS about getting your degree later on. Get it done." Maldonado stalked out, motivated all over again to show his coach what he could do.

Friedgen didn't look up, but he did smile.

[RendeR]

And the saddest part of the story: He was weak enough in his own self that he LET them do that.

He even says he wishes he hadn't.

I won't defend Tressel's scheduling BS, I see it for what it is, but I will not hold anyone responsible for their results in college BEYOND THEMSELVES. Going to college means taking some responsibility. You have to know what you need and get it done, football or no football.

If you're dumb enough to sit through the shit he obviously did, I have no sympathy. Good luck on finishing your degree dude.

[HerRealName]

And here I thought Katzenmoyer would be the Ohio State reference in this thread.

If anyone actually cares about Ohio State, the truth is that times have changed from the Cooper days. Entrance guidelines are the most strict in the Big Ten and several recruits were turned away as a result. Several players will be held out of the first game against Miami (Oh) for academics. They are eligible, just not performing as well as they should. There are many better targets than Ohio State if you want a point fingers.

[illinifan999]

Let me know when they suspend people who are not "performing as well as they should" for the Texas/Michigan game.

[HerRealName]

Some of them may be suspended for Texas, these types of things are not announced to the media. Let me know when any other major university suspends eligible players for academics.

[Tigercat]

This is college athletics. I don't see how you call this a "non-story." Just because he's doing nothing wrong doesn't mean its not a story. The fact that the best player in the nation will have an easier time going off the field than 97% of the players he goes against this year is a story to me.

[saldana]

i graduated in the mid 90's from a small division I-A basketball school, and during my jr and sr years was a sportscaster for the college station, so i was around the team all the time. when 1st semester grades came out, the 2 freshmen suddenly dissapeared, they were both on scholarships, but the coaching staff wouldnt tell me why they werent on the bench during games. so in my capacity as a journalist, i did a little investigation and found out they both went academically ineligible. their gpa's 1.1 and 0.8!!! i dont care how bad the program schedules your classes, you have to be a total moron to get a 0.8....scholar/athletes at most major colleges dont exist any more than snuffaluffagus (who, btw, is smarter than those 2 freshmen)

[JonInMiddleGA]

This is college athletics. I don't see how you call this a "non-story."

It's a "non-story" the same way that "dog bites man" is a non-story; it just ain't all that unusual, except maybe for the higher profile of the particular player involved, and even then I'm not at all sure that it'd be unusual for any number of Heisman candidates. Not sure it isn't, just not sure it is either.

Top-tier college athletes = groups of people who are more employees of the school marketing department than students.

[MrBug708]

And the saddest part of the story: He was weak enough in his own self that he LET them do that.

He even says he wishes he hadn't.

I won't defend Tressel's scheduling BS, I see it for what it is, but I will not hold anyone responsible for their results in college BEYOND THEMSELVES. Going to college means taking some responsibility. You have to know what you need and get it done, football or no football.

If you're dumb enough to sit through the shit he obviously did, I have no sympathy. Good luck on finishing your degree dude.

I totally disagree. You are at a major Div 1 university to play football. Everything is regimented and highly structured and everything for th eplayers is right there. If the coach and the football team's academic advisor tells you to take this class, you are probably going to do it without asking any questions. The kid had a 960 SAT score and a B average. He probably skated by as the HS star in HS and suffered in the long run with it.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Do most college football players actually graduate after 4 years with a real degree (BS and /or BA), and what happens if they dont complete their degree after their palying days are done? Are they tossed out of the dorms like an over used condom?

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Doal: And Why The Hell would you not take advantage of 4 years of free education and let the coaches dictate your future when you know that its a long shot to reach the NFL. Kids these days.

[Galaxy]

This is college athletics. I don't see how you call this a "non-story." Just because he's doing nothing wrong doesn't mean its not a story. The fact that the best player in the nation will have an easier time going off the field than 97% of the players he goes against this year is a story to me.

But he completed his work. It's not really his fault he just had one class short of graduating.

Also, do you think this will help him on the field? Help his footwork?

[Crapshoot]

Shit, calling Ohio State a university that cares is already pushing the bounds - it would be more honest of them to call the players the serfs they are.

[Galaxy]

You guys realize he's enrolled in that class with his girlfriend, right?

/Missouri Tigers fan.

Don't mean anything. I don't think the rumors are true.

[Coop]

Heh, I took Ballroom Dancing in my fall semster..it's a very easy class. Plus it has it's benefits.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Heh, I took Ballroom Dancing in my fall semster..it's a very easy class. Plus it has it's benefits.
Such as.... :confused:

[Abe Sargent]

Such as.... :confused:


A high female:male ratio. Very high.


And an even higher female: straight male ratio.


-Anxiety

[Ryno]

Entrance guidelines are the most strict in the Big Ten

Higher than Northwestern? I find it difficult to believe they are even in the top half.

---

Nice story about Maldanado. Good to see he's turning things around.

[AZSpeechCoach]

If Leinart was not on track to graduate, I'd have a problem. Since he is All-But-Electives away from graduating, I say let him be.

[Samdari]

Everytime I read "student athletes" in the contexts of major college football, it makes me giggle. Naivety is sometimes humorous.

So because they are not, that means they shouldn't be?

I realize the current reality of the situation. That means I should not want it to be different?

[DanGarion]

http://www.iekwk.com/images/Leinarthug.jpg

That rumor guys...
Hey BUG....

http://www.dangarion.com/gallery/albums/misc/ucla_sucks_thumb.jpg