Longhorn Lesson
Texas coach Mack Brown sent a text message congratulating defensive end Brian Robison after he won the discus and shot put at the Big 12 Conference track championships. Freshman tailback Jamaal Charles also won the 100 meters.
That means the Longhorn football team scored 30 points at the meet and demonstrated multi-sport athletes can thrive and football teams can still win national titles. That’s been almost non-existent the past five years at USC, unless the player is not even on the depth chart (former quarterback Billy Hart and baseball) or playing a sport that does not interfere with spring practice (Gregg Guenther, basketball).
Other players, like linebacker Oscar Lua, were supposed to play baseball but never did. And the last time a meaningful player ran track was around the time Paul Hackett was the coach. Reggie Bush was supposed to run track but never did.
Perhaps sprinter/wide receiver Jamere Holland, who is too fast to deny a track career, will start a new trend of multi-sport athletes when he arrives next year.
ARE YOU SERIOUS???
What kind of research are you doing???
What about:
Kareem Kelly
Marcell Allmond
Darrell Rideaux
All post Hacket football and track stars!
Don't tell me Will Harris was trying out for the basketball team?
I think to call Kareem Kelly, Marcell Allmond and Darrell Rideaux football stars is a stretch. They were all "fine", but calling them "football stars", that's kind of like calling Miller High Life the "Champagne of Beers"...yeah it tastes decent and it'll get you drunk, but if I want to enjoy a beer I'm going for a Newcastle every time.
When Kareem Kelly was our #1 receiver, our other receivers included guys like Windrell Hayes and R.Jay Soward, not exactly NFL guys. By the time he was a senior, he was our third option as a receiver, clearly behind Mike Williams and Keary Colbert, NFL types. Those guys were stars at SC.
Marcell Allmond had an extremely dissappointing senior year and didn't play in the NFL.Darrell Rideaux was a nice player and but he only had 2 picks in 4 years, definitely not a star.
Not one of those 3 guys played a down in the NFL, and only one of them got drafted. I think our esteemed author's point was our superstars, the Reggie Bush's of the world, are only playing football.
Scott....this is great and all but I dont necessarily see the point. Who cares about two-sport stars? Honestly, I dont. We dont have a trophy on display at Heritage Hall for # of two-sports athletes.
The only reason why this would be an issue is if Carroll is pressuring kids (like Lua) not to pursue other sports.
So... King,
I guess you, and our "esteemed author" assume that both defensive end Brian Robison and tailback Jamaal Charles are going to go on and have stellar NFL careers... huh?
by the way, another name left off of our "esteemed author's" list is Sultan McCullough.
I'm well aware of McCullough, Allmond, Rideaux and Kelly. The actual truth is all of these athletes arrived as football-track athletes in the Hackett era and their participation in track was tolerated under the new regime. Their roles actually diminished in track after the coaching change, with Allmond being a prime example. Although many felt that was his best sport, he eventually gave up track altogether, something that would have been unheard of his freshman year.
Sultan sucked too. If he came in now he'd be a DB.
Perhaps King of L.A. can point to where the word "star" or a synonymous term appears in the author's original post. The closest would be "meaningful player" and surely no rational, reasonably intelligent individual would even attempt to argue that McCullough, Kelly, Rideaux and Allmond (all starters and major contributors on quality Trojan football teams) would not meet that description.
As for the subject itself, it's midly interesting; and the author's retort to aaron's point is well-taken, although, in my opinion, it should have been included in the original post.
Why do I get the feeling the first time a meaningful contributor to the football team gets injured running track or playing baseball and isn't available for the season Scott will be writing stories about how this key player will be missed, SC is vulnerable, coach never should have let him play, etc.
Scott is right on this one. Look at the 1970s (Anthony Davis and Marvin Cobb, to name two) and the 1980s (Jack Del Rio and Rodney Peete). We're losing enough of these guys to hurt other sports besides football. Let's hope we become more open-minded.
Track is a weird sport. To be really good you have to avoid what in football might be minor, playable injuries. Track also causes some injuries. Are you willing to lose kids? Do you feel you have interchangeable athletes or special kids who develop skills over long term.
If I was going to be really honest-honest I would warn that it encourages juicing. Steroids biggest benefit is to recovery and allowing a person to train harder and longer.