OVER THE LINE!

Don't really know what to say about this:
Report: West Point football team recruited high school athletes.


The worst of the allegations:

Booster money allocated for the evening was handed across the bar and alcohol came back. Cadets said they ordered "beer towers" containing quarts of the beverage and allowed recruits - high school athletes - to drink their fill.

ok...

Fourteen football recruits arrived at West Point on Jan. 24 and were feted with dinners and tours. They got a trip to the Palisades Mall, 27 miles down the Hudson River from the campus, where they were escorted by members of the football team designated as "cadet hosts" and two "Rabble Rouser" cheerleaders. No West Point officers went on the trip.

o....k...

The ride home was raucous.
"The trip consisted of the (charter) bus driver allowing the music to play very loudly, dancing in the aisles, strobe lights flashing iPhones to reflect the club-like atmosphere"

If that makes any of you blush,I am DEFINITELY not going to tell you what I was doing last night.



I read it first on Deadspin, and it seemed like there was a little bit of sensationalism going on in that article. OK athletes visited campus on official visits, the school paid for the trips, making the visits of the "official" variety. Unless the visits were billed as unofficial visits there is nothing wrong with what West Point administration did.

I don't know if they expect prospects to bring their homework, come up and sit in study halls. Get out of here with that. Army dealt with the situation internally and self reported all the minor recruiting violation.... but "abhorrent"?  That is barely abhorrent to the most uptight teetotaler.


I think it's funny that it's a months old instance of a self reported infraction and it comes from the Colorado Springs fish wrap on the off week before Air Force plays Army. Talk about bringing up old stuff... wow. I can tell you I definitely do not want to empty out the Air Force Academy's closet because some of the stuff going on alongside of that program was absolutely disgusting. IDK, maybe it's just funny timing that it happens to get printed this week - months and months after Army's internal investigation and self reporting to the NCAA.


It's also funny that they tap noted wet blanket Maj. Dwight Mears (ret.) for his opinion.


I'm sure Maj. Mears was eager to pile on any charge against Army's football team. He's spent plenty of time writing negative things about football at West Point. Funny thing is you wouldn't know that from his official West Point biography - OF COURSE he wouldn't put a publication like that on his West Point profile. I don't understand why not, he obviously has opinions about his Alma mater and former employer. If it's fit to  publish in the news, I think he should have updated his profile to reflect what occupied his mind and his time.

Looking a bit further, there may be reasoning behind Maj. Mears' emotional responses against West Point football culture. When the school you attend for all of your postgraduate work is rung up for rampant academic fraud - you might be sensitive to things like athletic privilege at the expense of academic excellence. I must say that compared to the things that went down at UNC-  Army's taking a recruit bowling is very low on my list of both academic and athletic scandals.

They're onto us. I guess they figured out how Army lures recruits to the roster. Time for those  football players to clean up their act and start having some accountability. WHAT A JOKE.


Anyway, I wonder who had the highest bowling score.


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Army 2-5

Another game, another train wreck.

The assessment of Kent's defense as one that might fold by the 4th quarter was trumped by the continuing attrition and resulting patchwork along the offensive line. Starting at the top- the entire first season with new coaches and new schemes would be a learning process for any team. You have so many new faces to the starting lineup and once somebody misses a game or plays himself out, it's a lot like being cast into the wilderness. The upside is that the younger guys and the staff, given time, will become the teams nucleus in a few short years. Right now though, there will be growing pains.

There's just not enough you can say about the sloppy play. The way they're going they need to play perfect football to even get a lead big enough to protect for the 4th quarter. And that's part of it too - it's not like Army hasn't put themselves in the thick of games by the 3rd quarter. It's just late game letdown that continues to haunt the team.


Army is 2-5 but the season's not over. Up next is Air Force. As much as the consistent losing stings,it is very much a game by game season. I encourage you to hold out hope for some hardware. The CIC trophy is very much in play and the preparation for Air Force starts now. As strange as it sounds the chance is there for this to be a special season.

In order for that to happen, Army needs to go learn how to win the game. The team is seeing that they must go out and win 4 quarters, but they are not doing the things necessary to finish football games. Off week this week, with no advantage taken as Air Force is also on a bye week.

In the process of it all, Army made Kent QB Colin Reardon look like an All-American. There is something to be said about wrapping up the ball carrier and keeping the play in front of you, but that is best left for the coaches to say. Army lost pretty bad, and with that comes the albatross...


Army now also receiving votes on ESPN's bottom 10. I said it last week: that's what a loss to Kent State would mean. Interestingly, Army's week 3 foe jumped Army in the Bottom 10 ranking.

There is only one place to go from the Bottom 10. Sometimes the motivation of a rival can snap a team out of the doldrums.

    Kent State, which was averaging 11.8 points through its first six games, turned a six-point third quarter lead into a fourth-quarter laugher. Army was outscored 16-0 in the last 15 minutes and embarrassed 39-17 at Dix Stadium.

You have to admit that is one hell of a doldrum.



The Army/Kent State story, stats and highlights.







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