The college football offseason always seems to last, in the immortal words of Sandlot’s Squints, “FOR-EV-ER.” But this summer has put LSU in the biggest pickle it has been in for a long time, and it can’t end soon enough.
This summer started off with a bang when the NCAA levied sanctions against the Tigers for violations committed by former wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy, who gave improper benefits to former player Akiem Hicks. Even though Hicks never played in a game for the Bayou Bengals, the actions were considered a major violation — the first of Les Miles’ tenure.
Soon after the sanctions came more allegations of improprieties, this time involving rogue recruiting service provider Willie Lyles. LSU admitted to paying Lyles $6,000 for recruiting tapes. Though it’s not a violation in itself, it put LSU in more hot water. Lyles was recently outed as having taken upwards of $25,000 from Oregon for extra help landing recruits.
Though as of now nothing has come of the Lyle’s connection, it gave LSU more negative press.
As if that weren’t enough, later in the summer newly hired offensive coordinator Steve Kragthorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The diagnosis forced Kragthorpe to resign from his offensive coordinator post before ever coaching a game in Baton Rouge. While Kragthorpe will still be on staff to work with the quarterbacks, his void at coordinator will make for an adjustment period from his style of game calling to new offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa’s.
Then, just days before he was scheduled to be one of the Tigers’ speakers at SEC Media Days, junior wide receiver Russell Shepard’s eligibility came into question due to a potentially illegal housing issue. The issue doesn’t seem to have much depth and appears to be all but settled. Shepard was never ruled ineligible, but he was a hot topic of discussion at SEC media days.
And finally, when football seemed just out of our grasp, the Shady’s brawl ensued. Football was so close we could taste it, and it was snatched away, only to be filled with lawyers and police jargon.
But LSU is not the only program looking to survive the ugly storm that was this summer.
Speaking of storms, the Miami Hurricanes are currently sitting in hotter water — no pun intended — with allegations from convicted Ponzi schemer Nevin Shapiro that he gave money, threw parties and hired prostitutes for 72 players over an eight-year span.
The Miami allegations have sparked debate about possibly bringing back the use of the death penalty, under which a program is completely shut down for a set amount of time. Such a penalty has not been used since the Southern Methodist University football team was shut down for the 1987 and 1988 seasons due to out of control boosters.
Ohio State is also licking its wounds after the offseason, having fired head coach Jim Tressel and losing star quarterback Terrelle Pryor because of a tattoo for memorabilia scandal in which the players received free tattoos in return for signing Buckeye football trinkets. Tressel found himself in the dog house because he knew this infraction was occurring before the beginning of the 2010 season and blatantly ignored it for fear his players would be ruled ineligible for the whole year.
The mind-numbing negative news continued with allegations of Alabama players signing helmets, jerseys, etc., to a local clothing store, West Virginia promoting coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen to head coach despite rampant rumors of his disorderly conduct in a local casino and Oregon players being pulled over in a car driving 118 mph that had the pungent smell of marijuana.
In nine days, these stories will still be of major importance, but they will finally be on the back burner in the minds of most fans.
In nine days we will begin talking more about personnel and dumb coaching decisions.
In nine days, we will finally have football.
Rob Landry is a 23-year-old mass communication senior from Mandeville. Follow him on Twitter @RobLandry85.
 
 
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Contact Rob Landry at [email protected]