Comments on: Football: Martin to Florida

By: Pug

Pug — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:28:24 +0000

What changed? Hippies?

No, the type of kid who plays football changed. Notice any difference between football teams of the 1950′s and 2010?

Football factories, like Florida, now recruit with no intention of even having putting up a facade that the kid is a student. In the South, at Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Alabama and all the rest, few of their recruits ever graduate. They recruit kids to play football knowing they don’t have a chance to compete in the classroom.

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:26:30 +0000

Michigan seems to embrace world class academics and world class athletics. It can be done. They are not mutually exclusive except in the minds of some CAL alumni and some CAL fans. It does seem to be a state of mind that has been prevalent since the 1960′s. 1900-1959 CAL had both excellent academics and athletics, what happened? What changed? Hippies?

By: Juancho

Juancho — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:44:23 +0000

Ricky Martin is an American treasure. I don’t know why it’s acceptable to bash anyone who wants Cal to be a football power. Being a great academic institution, and sporting institution isn’t mutually exclusive. Nobody ever bashes people who want us to have the top engineering in the country. Or the top english program. Or the top math. Or the top micro cell biology. We’re Cal, we should want to be powers in everything. I know it’s harder for us b/c of academic standards, but it’s not reason enough to try to advertise the idea that we can never be a football power.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:11:54 +0000

BTW,There is no “Integrity” in DI football. If you want to compete with integrity, move down to DI-AA or DII and don’t offer scholarships. Play Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. Sorry, but that’s the reality of the college football business.

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:07:16 +0000

Who is Chris Martin? Don’t you mean Ricky Martin? Livin’ La Vida Loca! She Bang, she bang! Hell, lets sign William Hung.

By: LR

LR — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:17:15 +0000

Uh Oh,

I think there’s enough information to put a label on the kid. Lots of comings and goings and a public rift with his HS coach. Sorry, but no HS kid has enough life experience or credibility to have a public rift with a coach. Not one.

And to answer your question, yes, I’m one of those guys. Didn’t really take much effort, either. I guess there’s something wrong with me.

By: Killer

Killer — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:19:26 +0000

If you are fan of Cal (the university, not just the football team) you have to appreciate Tedford. He has made the team competitive while maintaining the university’s reputation. As this recruiting class and the last one bear out, the character of Tedford’s progam will atract the kind of student athletes we want representing the university, and we will be competitve on the playing field as well. Those of you who want a “football” factory may be frustrated, but we do not need to go down that path. Cal is one of the world’s great public universities and Tedford has built a program of players with character who have repesented this university well. G.

By: CaBearsPac12Champs

CaBearsPac12Champs — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:36:40 +0000

Its a loss, but rankings for defensive players aren’t a perfect predictor of success at the college level anyways. Mike Mohammed wasn’t on anyone’s radar 3 years ago. Maybe its all personal reasons as reported, but we’re also not on the field. Florida let Nyan Boateng transfer to us, but that didn’t really have too much of an upside.

By: uh oh.

uh oh. — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:25:53 +0000

Juancho and Larry:
I agree with you. This sucks for Cal. He would have been a great player, it appears! I’m just as pissed as you for what it means on the field. And, yes, I’d like to hear Tedford voice his disappointment, and I imagine he will, in muted tones, at some point.

But like Tedford, I’m not going to bedevil the kid. I’ll give him his right to exercise free will, the same as I’d hope others would give me would I choose to exercise my own free will.
That said, will I root for him to have success at Florida? No. That would just hurt all the more, so F him – that is, Forget him, which I’m sure we’ll all do in short order.

By: thisiscal

thisiscal — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:36:14 +0000

There’s more than meets the eye to this story for sure. My guess is Martin got into some unpublicized trouble and rather than risking exposure to something more severe, has opted to transfer. Why else would he give up significant playing time as a freshman to transfer to another school and have to sit out a year? Perhaps his vulnerability to peer pressure was the real cause behind his decision to play his high school senior year out of state.