Dick Yarbrough
Athletics Director Vaughn Williams says the school will have to find a conference to play in as well as hire a coaching staff and, of course, recruit some football players.
(There should be more than enough in Cobb County to get them started.)
In the spirit of helpfulness, I would suggest that Mr. Williams might want to locate a few tutors as well on the outside chance that one or two of the scholar-athletes may be — shall we say — academically short an axon or two and may think that Aurora Borealis is a cornerback for the New York Jets. Just saying.
To show the strong local support for the program, Fifth Third Bank has purchased naming rights to the stadium for $5 million. I am sure that is a financial relief for the athletic department, but I am glad the University of Georgia Bulldogs play their games at a place called Sanford Stadium, where we talk about getting our opponents “between the hedges.” Somehow, having the Fighting Owls get their opponents “between the ATM machines and the drive-through windows” just doesn’t seem to carry the same level of intimidation.
It will be interesting to see how football does at KSU. Most everything else there seems to work well. Kennesaw State is the Georgia’s third-largest university with a top-notch business school, an excellent music and arts program, an outstanding health and human services college, up-to-date facilities, a good guy, Dr. Dan Papp, heading up the place and one of my heroes, Dr. Betty Siegel, who preceded Papp as president and really got things rolling.
I have a couple of Kennesaw State Owls in the family. Both the Woman Who Shares My Name and my daughter-in-law are graduates of the university’s nursing program. To date, neither has shown much excitement about football coming to the campus. My daughter-in-law is much more interested in her grandson, Cameron, than she is in a spread formation. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
As for the Woman Who Shares My Name, she would rather talk about the health benefits of broccoli (an insidious habit I suspect she may have picked up while getting her degree at KSU) than the advantages of a 3-4 Defense.
Watching a football game with her is a trying experience. She doesn’t know anything about football.
I, on the other hand, am an expert in all phases of the sport. But this doesn’t stop her from making uninformed and unsolicited comments during a game. For example, if the Georgia Bulldogs lose the ball on a fumble inside the other team’s 20-yard line, I will gravely intone that the game is lost and that it could perhaps even impact our season.
She will reply something to the effect that the fumble was no big deal because the other team is going to give the ball right back to us. As I am in the middle of trying to patiently explain to her that the game of football doesn’t work like that and that she should be better versed on the subject before she says such things, the opposing quarterback generally throws an interception on the next play that our guys return for a touchdown. I hate it when she does that.
There is a likely chance I won’t be asked for my opinion on who gets the job as head football coach but if I were them, I would stay away from Timothy Chandler, Ph.D., a physical education major from Kent State University. You may remember that this guy almost became provost at KSU until someone — alas, not the search committee — discovered he had co-authored a paper with another academician — also a P.E. major — about looking at the world through a “Marxist lens.” (Karl’s, not Harpo’s.)
Timothy Chandler, Ph.D., said things like “While the United States has the most sophisticated propaganda apparatus ever assembled, it is also the most violent nation-state in history” and “All dominate-subordinate relationships are to be challenged.” Can you imagine a football coach saying stuff like that? That sounds pretty sissy for a P.E. major, let alone a coach. I’m glad he isn’t provost at Kennesaw State and I hope he isn’t a candidate for football coach. Let him go coach at Hanoi High.
There are a lot of things to be done yet before toe meets ball, but I am excited about seeing the Kennesaw State Owls take the field in 2015 at Fifth Third Stadium and I wish them the best. To paraphrase those Great Americans who make up the Bulldog Nation: “Go Owls! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!”
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at yarb2400@bellsouth.net or P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
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Forget about Georgia Bulldog football. Don't compare the two programs, because they aren't anything alike. If you do want to talk about them, why not write another column about an overpaid coaching staff, tutors, drop outs, arrests....all that good stuff. Don't forget to include the excitement over 2nd and 3rd place finishes.....you know, the equivalent of a participation trophy. I almost forgot.....the National Championship! You know, the one that happened long before any of the current students were even born. My guess is that Kennesaw State will win a NCAA championship long before UGA sniffs another one. Thanks!
I have a favor to ask that I think you are well informed to address. Could you please write a column on the benefits of a college having a football team and also other sports? I have been debating many friends & associates who do not see the need and are only talking about the students having to pay an extra $100 per semester in student activity fees and the fact that few students will ever attend a football game.