It must be the off
season. Instead of looking forward to this Saturday's game we fans live
in fear of what the arrest reports in the morning news will tell us.
Lloyds recently posted an article re Jamar Hornsby of the Florida Gators. Great job Jamar-you go from being a relative unknown in the sporting world to being despised around the country. We read about USC's OJ Mayo being purchased for his year of college ball. This is basically the type of news we will live with throughout the summer.
Notre Dame's Charlie Weis spoke a few weeks back to a group of alumni and supporters in Gettysburg, Pa. Being a staunch disliker of Charlie
I visited a couple of articles about the comments he made to the group
as there was a hint of controversy surrounding those comments. Try as I
might I couldn't find fault with what he said. What people tried to
make a deal of was his quote, "I could get hoodlums and thugs and win
tomorrow, I won't do it that way." I guess in this politically correct
world some tried to portray Weis as being racist for such remarks. Hell, Charlie
may be racist for all I know, but there isn't a dam thing wrong with
what he said about the type of team he is trying to build.
All of the above has
caused me to pause-is there a correlation between success on the field
and the number of guns in the locker room? Will the Miami Hurricanes flop because of their coach imposed no gun rule?
With these burning
questions on my mind, and since I feel like not doing shit at work, I
have consulted and will share with you the famous (or imfamous) Fulmer
Cup standings as compiled by our friends at EDSBS (Every Day should Be
Saturday). Updated through May 12 we give you the 2008 Fulmer Cup
standings by rank with # of points:
2008 Scoreboard, May 12thAlso check out the all-time scoreboard, the 2006 scoreboard, and the 2007 scoreboard.
| Rank |
School |
Points |
+/- |
Details |
Per EDSBS we give you the 2007 Fulmer Cup results:
2007 FULMER CUP STANDINGS
This is the Fulmer Cup scoreboard for the 2007 offseason. The Fulmer Cup is run by EDSBS
Per EDSBS we give you the 2006 Fulmer Cup standings:
Fulmer Cup 2006
This is the Fulmer Cup scoreboard for the 2006 offseason. The Fulmer Cup is run by EDSBS
So, what does this tell you? Is Charlie
right? Are "hoodlums and thugs" winning? I guess now is the time for a
caveat-if this author was a real journalist he would do some kind of
statistical comparison, and look behind the numbers to see which
athletes are getting busted and the like. But, let us remember the pay
scale here at DeathRattle along with the old adage-you get what you pay for. So I didn't do any of that stuff. If you want to, be my guest!
The first thing that jumps out at me in reviewing these three lists is how well the Illinois Fighting Illini under Coach Ron Zook has done in the Fulmer Cup. On the field they went 2 and 10 in 2006 while going to the Rose Bowl last year. Is it possible Charlie was referring to the Zookster when he made the comments he made?
How about those Missouri Tigers? Last year they surprised the hell out of us with their on field performance before the BCS people screwed the Tigers. Now, also out of the blue, said Tigers have a commanding lead in the 2008 Fulmer Cup standings. Does this portend great things to come for the Tigers?
One has to pause this analysis for a minute and question the actions of Coach UrbanMeyer of the University of Florida. Coach-how the hell to you ever expect to capture the Fulmer Cup if you keep dismissing the Ronnie Wilson's and the Jamar Hornsby's
before they have a chance to wreak serious mayhem? You are doing half
the job. You are successfully recruiting these student athletes, but
then you are letting guns and stolen credit cards to get in the way.
Aren't you the same guy who unsuspended your best defensive tackle last
year for the crunch time part of your schedule? If you would just
follow your own precedent you could dominate the Fulmer Cup. Its there,
you can do it!
Penn State. What can be said? If JoPa
is going to let his legacy be tarnished by the conduct of some of his
players, then those players need to win more games. I mean you really
do have to wonder what is going on. Did JoPa always have these types of players and could they just get away with things in State College, or has something changed?
Other teams not getting their monies worth would be the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and the Boilermakers of Purdue. Thugs they seem to have. Wins they do not.
The West Virginia
ratio of wins to losses seems to have gotten better as their arrest
record rises. Each new football season brings with it pressing
questions. With a new staff installed for the Mountaineers, will their climb to the top of the Fulmer Cup be derailed. Will Coach Rodriguez's Fulmer Cup success follow him to the University of Michigan? Speaking of West Virginia how about the Fulmer Cup performance of the Marshall Thundering Herd taking the Cup in 2006. That must have been a team effort.
A moment to consider the plight of Tennessee's Phil Fulmer. Consistent Cup performance by the Volunteers
year in and year out. The Coach just can't seem to get them to the top
of the mountain. Coach, you need to finish in your recruiting. A couple
of more ‘thugs" and you will get to the crest of Rocky Top.
So, is Charlie right? He must not be getting the correct thugs because Notre Dame is performing miserably in the Fulmer Cup standings. I guess you could say the IrishNotre Dame doesn't turn this on the field performance around the Irish faithful will be begging for thugs soon enough and a coach to go with them.
performance in the Fulmer Cup mirrors their performance on the field. If
So do you need "thugs"
to win? I don't know if you need them to win, but it seems reasonable
while viewing the Fulmer Cup stuff that some teams have, shall we say,
lowered their standards in an effort to become more competitive on the
field. Maybe a short cut to reviving a program?
But you do have to take a look at some teams you do not see on the lists. Yeah, I know Reggie Bush is on trial, but you don't see Pete Carroll's University of SouthernCalifornia Trogans on the lists. Although no one, including but not limited to ESPN, will ever forget Maurice Clarett. Clarett not withstanding, you do not see The Ohio StateBuckeyes performing nearly as well in the Fulmer Cup as they have performed on the field. I believe it is fair to say Coach Tressel has figured out how to accomplish what Charlie Weis wants to accomplish. That said, all you Buckeye
fans should seriously knock on wood that our boys adhere to the
‘nothing good happens after10PM" motto. Could the recruitment of Terrelle Pryor signal the Buckeyes renewed effort to ascend in the Cup standings? That type of sentiment has filled the airwaves since the Pryor commitment to the Buckeyes-from this corner seen as sour grapes from jilted lovers. We shall see.
This author, a serious college football fan, has had some fun with the EDSBS FulmerCup.
We don't know what any of this means, but one thing we are pretty sure
it means is, we will root like hell on Saturdays for our teams, but
certainly would not want our daughters to date some of our Saturday
stars. This is apparently our world. Pick your idols carefully. And,
you, and I, should never forget as we poke fun at our rivals for their
off field transgressions, that we are just one bad Friday night from
being on the receiving end of the wonderful publicity that characters
like JamarHornsby can bring to our team.
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