Texas Football Fumbles, McCoy Recovers

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Just as any University of Texas student would tell you, the football team isn’t doing so hot--DISLIKE! Just take a walk around the university’s forty acres and you’ll notice some glum faces. With a record of 4 wins and 5 losses posted for the season, students and fans are trying to find other ways to spend their Saturdays. Also, as the current Longhorns continue to perform poorly and overall morale fades, it is natural for fans to wonder about the great players of the past. The player I’d say most are thinking about is Colt McCoy, last year’s superstar quarterback.

As much as we wish he could be back playing for us, McCoy has moved on to bigger and better things.  As the 85^th pick in the NFL draft, McCoy is now playing for the Cleveland Browns and is really making an impact--LIKE!

Now, McCoy didn’t join the Browns with the expectation of being the starting quarterback straight off the bat. He had some veteran players ahead of him. However--some Texas fans may say as luck might have it--Browns quarterbacks Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace became injured in the past few weeks giving McCoy the opportunity to get in the game and show his stuff!

From his three recent starts, McCoy posts a 2-1 record. Among those three games, McCoy has led the Browns to a win over the New Orleans Saints, the defending Super Bowl champions, and the New England Patriots, who had the best record in the league up until that game.

Browns Head Coach Eric Mangini has been quoted saying that whoever gives the Browns the best chance to win will be quarterback. From what I can tell, that’s Colt McCoy. Even if the veteran quarterbacks become healthy and are released to play in the next few weeks, McCoy needs to continue to play.

In his recent games, McCoy completed 46 of 60 passes with a completion percentage of 67.7, the highest among all the other Browns quarterbacks. Also, he has not thrown an interception in his past two games.

But of course McCoy has great accuracy. We already knew that! In his four college years his completion percentage remained above 70. What IS so impressive is that he is excelling in different areas of the game as well. Currently, he has the highest yards per attempt average of any of the Browns quarterbacks at 7.8 yards per attempt.

So even though this rookie was thrusted into a challenging environment, he has performed better than expected and is, what I think, deserving of the starting position and should continue to be even once Delhomme and Wallace are released to play.

“The kid is a winner and knows how to lead. You don’t just lose that when you turn professional,” said Fred Greetham, a reporter for the Browns.

I bet I speak for a lot of other Texas fans when I say keep it up Colt! You're all we have to root for lately!

Tragedy at Notre Dame

As I’m sure many of you have already heard from the news, something very tragic happened last week.  On Wednesday, Oct. 27, the Notre Dame football team met for practice as usual; however, on this day, practice wouldn’t end with an encouraging team huddle or high fives.  Instead, it would end with a horrific disaster, and one that should have been avoided.

On the previous day, the football team was forced to move practice to a indoor location because winds were exceeding 50 mph.  Head Coach Brian Kelly hates moving practice indoors which is possibly why on Wednesday, when winds were just as high, Kelly pushed for practice to resume back outside among the inclement weather.  Later, a weather report would show that the winds on Wednesday afternoon blew around 45 mph with gusts around 53 mph.

So as the football team took their position on the field, Declan Sullivan took his place in the 50 ft high scissor lift to film the practice.  Sullivan was a junior at the university and part of football’s video team working closely with the coaches and players to meet their film needs. Sullivan had filmed from the scissor lift many times before and was comfortable with the idea, but this day was different.

As the winds gusted, Sullivan reportedly tweeted the following from high up in the lift:

“Holy [f-ck]. Holy [f-ck]. This is terrifying.”

45 minutes later, the scissor lift blew over taking Sullivan down with it. Sullivan was rushed to the hospital, but died there.

Having read many blogs about this story, majority of people are furious with the Notre Dame coaching staff.  Owning that type of equipment should mean that you are aware of its safety issues and should very well know that it is never to be used in high winds.  In fact, it is suggested to not use them, and especially not put a person up in one, if winds exceed 25 mph.

A 20-year-old boy is not going to refuse to do his job and tell his superiors that he is scared.  The coaches should have better realized the situation, told the boy to do his best filming from the ground on that day, and not took the risk.

What also seems to be upsetting bloggers a lot is that practice resumed the following day as normally scheduled.  This boy risked his life to film the football team’s practice and lost it. I feel that if a player on the team had died practice definitely would have been cancelled out of respect.

Since the incident, media has portrayed a lot of rage towards Kelly and has laid sole responsibility on his lap. Currently, an investigation is underway.  Forbes predicts that the incident could cost the university nearly $30 million dollars if found guilty of negligence. 

For now, the Sullivan Family wishes to be left out of the investigation while they mourn the lost of their son.  They appreciate all the prayers and thoughts from the university’s students and administration. 

Without a doubt, I very much DISLIKE this story.  It's extremely sad and should never have happened.  My heart breaks for his family.