FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[D O.C.]

I'm not too sure, but I think I might have majored in that. 

[Gray Fox]

What is a good grade in that course?  What will look good on one's resume?

[cawcdad]

If you get an A in stupidity, does that mean you really failed?

[tmerton]

While perusing the Huffington Post, I read an item about a course offered at Oxy in the Critical Theory and Social Justice program. I looked in the Oxy course catalog and found that indeed it was true.

180. STUPIDITY.

Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny. Stupidity is always the name of the Other, and it is the sign of the feminine. This course in Critical Psychology follows the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and most recently, Avital Ronell, in a philosophical examination of those operations and technologies that we conduct in order to render ourselves uncomprehending. Stupidity, which has been evicted from the philosophical premises and dumbed down by psychometric psychology, has returned in the postmodern discourse against Nation, Self, and Truth and makes itself felt in political life ranging from the presidency to Beevis and Butthead. This course examines stupidity.

The course is taught by G. Elmer Griffin, who teaches courses on stupidity, rastafari and the African diaspora, whiteness, critical blackness, clinical psychology, and Freud.

Oh, by the way, Dr. Griffin, it's Beavis and Butt-Head, not Beevis and Butthead.

God almighty, this is my alma mater.

You were very gracious in defeat..although it was hard for you. I give you credit.

Not as hard as it was just now to find out that Oxy offers a class called Stupidity.

OxyBob

A+ find and post, OB. 

[OxyBob]

Article about Cal Lutheran, from the Ventura County Star:

CLU begins work on goal

The goal is simplicity itself. Accomplishing it is something else again.

And so, as the Cal Lutheran football team took the field Saturday for the first practice of its 2009 season, the team was clearly aware of its purpose, and how much work it will take to achieve it.

"Usually, we kind of do the John Wooden goal pyramid," said third-year head coach Ben McEnroe, after CLU wrapped up the first of its five "acclimation" practices to open fall camp.

"We've got a one-sentence goal this year, and that's to win the SCIAC championship — to win it outright."

The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title — and the automatic berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs that comes with it — has been tantalizingly close but just out of reach in McEnroe's first two seasons. In 2007, the Kingsmen were 5-4 overall, 5-1 in the conference and shared the title, but lost the playoff berth on a tiebreaker. Last year, they were 7-2, 5-1 and finished second — good enough to hold out hope for an at-large berth in the playoffs, but not quite good enough to get one.
...

Recalled Jericho Toilolo, the senior quarterback returning for his third year as the starter: "We saw ourselves (as No. 33), and they only take 32 in the playoffs. So for all of us returners who were sitting there Sunday morning" — when the NCAA pairings came out and CLU was excluded — "we have to find a way. It hurt sitting there last year getting that call from the coaches.

"We've got to find a way to beat Oxy and Redlands in the same year. We haven't done that."

Toward that end, McEnroe felt the team he welcomed on Saturday was the "most athletic team I've ever had at Cal Lutheran," although the former Kingsmen player and assistant coach quickly amended that to the "most athletic team I've ever seen up at Cal Lutheran. If we lined up and ran a 'Superstars' competition of some sort, we'd be pretty good."

The job now is to harness that ability for football, and the Kingsmen are optimistic that can be done.

"I feel like we're going to be better than last year," said Roland Jenkins, a returning second-team all-conference pick at linebacker. "We're a lot quicker. We've got a lot of returners, a lot of all-conference guys coming back."

Still, more than half of the 125 players on hand are newcomers, be they freshmen or transfers, which means the 50 returnees will have to play significant leadership roles.
...

Antoine Adams, the leading rusher a year ago with 475 yards in seven games, said the veterans have a responsibility to "show an example — play fast, play hard and try to compete. We're just trying to show the freshmen how to practice."

Added Toilolo: "We've got to take them under our wing, and have the returners step up as leaders — teach these guys the playbook, how we practice, and understanding there's a difference between the way you practice in high school and the way you practice here. There's a lot more tempo here."

While McEnroe was specifically unhappy with the tempo of the opening practice, he was confident his veterans could address those needs.

"We've got real strong senior leadership," he said. "I feel great about that group. They're so bought in and committed to what we're doing. They just need to be a little bit more assertive, and maybe in their downtime, talk to the guys about what the expectations are."

It helps, McEnroe believes, that most of the newcomers arrive from successful programs and have their own expectations to win.

"As far as our mission and our purpose," he said, "our new guys understand that. We've brought in a lot of guys who won state championships or played in state bowl games in California and Arizona. We've got guys who know how to get it done."

Preparations will follow a very specific, NCAA-mandated pattern. Saturday's practice was the first of two with helmets with no pads. Those will be followed by two days with helmets, shorts and shoulder pads, followed by a final acclimation practice with full gear before two-a-day practices are allowed. Even then, the team can only alternate single and two-a-day practices.

Under those rules, McEnroe will try to accomplish everything he can before school starts Sept. 2. The season opens 10 days later at Willamette.

"We've got about a week and a half," he said, "and we've got to get as much done as we can before all the distractions get here."

OxyBob

[snoop dawg]

I saw the posts about LR and thought I would say to DAW and FTP that I can understand your feelings of withdrawal.  Sounds like LR has his head on straight and knows what he is doing.  i am sure he thought it all out before he made his decision.  Football is a very difficult year round sport that can burn out a kid or his body.

I have learned that kids go to JC's for all kinds of reasons besides lack of grades, such as MONEY, needing another year to mature physically and mentally, bounce backs from colleges for both academic and athletic reasons. 

I think that the kids who either start there, or bounce back have a much tougher road to haul than the ones that are either accepted into a SCIAC school academically or with the help of athletic.  Rather than be critical of a JC student SCIAC school or a for giving them a chance I think the school should be applauded.  Obviously the JC kids coming into any SCIAC  school as an athlete must qualify academically.  I think they deserve the chance to better themselves.



By the way, CLU  got a transfer LB from Trinity College on the east coast that will really help them on defense.  I think he was all league there.  He chose CLU over Oxy or Chapman.

Good luck to all the SCIAC teams.

[SCIAC Fan]

Some kids go to JC because Dan Selway and Steve Smith are playing ahead of them.

Is the transfer from Trinity to CLU Matt Allen who played at Oaks Christian HS in Westlake? If it is then why not say that rather than pretending that you're John Clayton with some kind of inside scoop. Heck you're friends with Matt Allen's dad aren't you?

Good luck to all the Western State Conference teams.

[Gray Fox]

The CLU roster posted doesn't show Matt Allen.  Nor does it show any JC transfers, if there are any.

It does show a player from Flower Mound, Texas, a town where many of my friends live.

[snoop dawg]

Yes, it is Matt Allen.  Yes, I am friends with his dad.  And, SCIAC  fan you can think whatever you want, your opinion is irrelevant.

Just thought I'd give DAW and FTP a compliment and state my observation on the JC situation.

Matt Allen is a very good football player and he is a great addition for CLU.  I wish him the best, he is a great kid.  He may not be on the roster yet but he will play there and I would guess contribute immediately.

[DutchFan2004]

Happy Football season.

My friend OB let me know the question came up about LR. Alas, LR is done with Football. For the first time in 12 years, Lucy and I are not getting ready to watch him play. He is still going to the school(and loves the school) and doing track, but his gridiron days are through. He decided he has had enough...well, his body has anyway.

To keep his football fix going, he is the DL coach for the freshman team at his old high school and assistant OL coach on Varsity on fridays. With his school and work, he will coach as his schedule permits. He bleeds the Black and Red of Troy.

It is bittersweet for us, becuase we love watching him play so much, but we are proud of him for making the decision he felt strong about. We have already dusted off our Troy gear for fridays. He is a great kid and we love him.

Of course we fully support the Poets and their coaching staff and hope for big improvements this season.

GO POETS!!!

====================================================

I Second what FTP is saying above.  Although every day he practiced and Played I worried about him on that field.  As a mom everytime he got hit or hit someone I cringed but I loved to watch him play.(and for those of you who know me you probably could hear me screaming before you saw me!!)    It's truly going to be an adjustment for us not to see him play but as FTB said we are so proud of him and the decisions he has made.(besides we still get to see him, just as a coach instead of a player now!!)   I wish all your teams much success this year and may the boys stay healthy.  Thanks for making FTB and I feel so welcomed when we first joined..  As always we are still big poets fans, and will be checking this board too... (So play nice boys!!)

Lucy

Catching up on the news.  I know it will be hard not to see your son out there.  It will be my second year of not having a son play football at some level somewhere.  It does get easier with time but you will still miss it.  Sounds like he has his goals in life and knows what he wants.  You have to be proud of him for making the best decision for himself.  Good luck to him and good luck on your retirement from being a parent of a player.  I still catch as many games as I can of my beloved Dutch.  I think I will always do that. 

[OxyBob]

The CLU roster posted doesn't show Matt Allen.  Nor does it show any JC transfers, if there are any.

SCIAC Fan is correct. Matt Allen is no secret. Here's an article about him which appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

Small Wonder

By Chris Dufresne, Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. — Meet young Matt Allen, America's winning-streak crasher.

He won his last 31 high school games as a member of Oaks Christian in Westlake Village -- recording eight solo tackles in last year's Southern Section Division XI title game -- and was in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4 when Texas halted USC's march at 34.

USC's setback sent the streak down the laundry chute to Trinity, a small liberal arts college that started playing football in 1877.

Allen was so excited that USC came up short, he bought a long-sleeved Texas sweatshirt.

No wonder.

Allen is sitting in his head coach's office as he tells this story over the noise of squash balls being whacked into adjacent walls.

Allen is now a freshman linebacker

"I wouldn't know how to deal with it," Allen jokes about the prospect of losing.

Allen remembers distinctly the day he received his first recruiting letter from Trinity.

"Dad, throw it away," Allen says he told his father.

Jimmy Clausen, Allen's teammate at Oaks Christian, has committed to Notre Dame. Tailback Marc Tyler, son of Wendell, is headed to USC.

Even Bill Redell, Allen's high school coach, questioned Allen's application decision.

Allen was not a major-college prospect, but what was wrong with UC Davis?

"He kept saying, 'Are you sure?' " Allen says. "He didn't want to let it go. I said, 'Trust me, I've found this school.' I like the feeling I get when I'm here. I knew this was kind of like the place for me. And it's good football."

That's if you consider good one losing season since 1979 and a 502-337-42 record since the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.

It would be a tough adjustment, though, going from a machine-like high school program to a think tank.

Trinity is everything you'd expect at Division III -- and less. Schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) are limited to eight games a season and are not allowed to compete in the NCAA Division III playoffs.

At Miami, winning eight games probably gets Larry Coker fired.

At Trinity, it caps a fourth consecutive perfect season.
...

Allen's coach is 35-year-old Jeff Devanney, in his first year after taking over for Chuck Priore, who got a nice pay bump to become coach at Stony Brook.

Devanney's background is defense, but Allen's defensive coordinator in high school was Clay Matthews, a 19-year NFL veteran.

And you want me, Coach Devanney, to shed a blocker how[?]

"I've got to pick up what they want me to do," Allen says. "I can't still be holding on."

And how many kids go to college to escape the pressures of high school football?

"The training, the time you put in, it's just so much," he said of Oaks Christian. "I also wanted to have kind of a life outside football. And I can really do it here, with the short schedule."

"The Streak" is important at Trinity, but so is context.

"We're 1-0, we have a one-game winning streak," Devanney says.

Football can't even claim the longest winning streak on campus. That distinction belongs to men's squash, which has won an NCAA-record 144 consecutive matches.

Football is important -- from 9 a.m. until about 5.

Devanney and his staff attack game week the way a lot of coaches do.

Devanney says "frickin' " a lot as he directs his laser pointer to the chalkboard and barks out possible formations -- Shark, Doom, Nest, Jokers.

Williams and Trinity first played each other in 1884. Williams is the last to defeat Trinity, in the second game of 2002. Last year, Trinity led Williams 34-0 at halftime in a blowout.

"I'm sure they're excited about the chance to get back at us," Devanney says.

An assistant interrupts the Wednesday morning meeting to address the pregame meal for the two-hour bus trip to Williams.

"Ninety sandwiches?" Devanney responds, "That ought to be enough. And they're going to throw in the chips too? Awesome."

Football is important.

"If I go 2-6, I'll quit," Devanney says. "You won't need to fire me."

He also says, "I would lose my job quicker if my kids started being jerks on campus than if we lose a football game."

A former Trinity player, Devanney doesn't pine for prime time. He once spent a year on George O'Leary's staff at Georgia Tech, learned a lot, but had a craving to get back home.

Back to a lyrical land of no scholarships, no off-campus visits to recruits, no fending off agents and dinner after practice with his wife and two daughters.

Meanwhile, elsewhere

"The University of Oklahoma president goes berserk because the officials made a bad call" in the Oklahoma-Oregon game, Devanney says. "College presidents shouldn't be worried about that. That's ridiculous."

OxyBob

[Gray Fox]

Pomona has no JC transfers that I can find.

There are three players from Texas and two from New Jersey.

[OxyBob]

CLU item from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Whither Matt O'Brien

In case you were wondering ...

Casa Grande quarterback/safety Matt O'Brien, the Sonoma County League Player of the Year in 2008, is playing at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. O'Brien received a 90 percent financial aid scholarship to Cal Lutheran, a Division III school which went 7-2 last year and has had six straight winning seasons. O'Brien will play wide receiver as a freshman and will move to quarterback as a sophomore, according to Casa Grande coach Trent Herzog.

Article about Redlands from the Redlands Daily Facts:

Bulldogs get after it

The University of Redlands football team broke the final huddle of Thursday's practice with a little more excitement than usual.

After two-and-a-half grueling hours under an August sun that pushed temperatures into triple digits, the Bulldogs still had enough energy to hoot and holler after head coach Mike Maynard announced the Friday morning practice had been canceled.

"It's not something we do very often, but from what I saw today, the guys were putting a lot of effort into practice and I thought they deserved it," said Maynard about his impromptu decision.

There can be no higher compliment a coach can bestow upon his team after a practice, especially the first one in full pads.

After reporting to camp on Saturday and spending the last four days working through helmets and shoulder pads, Redlands took the field Thursday in full gear and got after it.

Despite the heat - which was overwhelming at times and had the Bulldogs huddled around water bottle carriers throughout the afternoon - Maynard and his coaching staff witnessed an excited and intense practice that brought a smile to their faces.
...

Following work in individual position groups, the Bulldogs pulled off another first Thursday as they had their offensive and defensive units face off against one another.

"We'd been having our third-string defense running offense for us and they'd been having their third-string offense running defense for them," said senior co-captain and defensive back Jared Fink. "So to be able to have the ones and twos go up against one another just brought a different tempo to the practice."

That tempo increased throughout the practices, as the Bulldogs focused on putting hits on one another while keeping everyone upright and on their feet.

"Getting into pads for the first time is always fun, but you worry about young men getting hurt," Maynard said. "Our strength and conditioning has proven to be really successful in what we do in the spring and summer and we've had almost no injuries, but you still worry."

"You don't want the freak accident, where someone dives and hits a knee. So we've really coached hard to stay up and practice safely. You can practice football in a violent and aggressive manner without being wild and out of control."

Maynard said the introduction of full pads, the heads-up play between the offense and defense and the position battles made for a high-intensity practice.

With only three weeks of practice before the first game of the season - Sept. 12 at home against East Texas Baptist - the Bulldogs must get up to speed quickly.

"It's really tough on the freshmen to cram everything in in three weeks," said senior co-captain and quarterback Dan Selway. "The returners have the advantage of spring ball and working during the summer, but the freshmen sometimes have a hard time at first."

"But it's exciting. Every day there is more intensity, because we're one step closer to the first game. And I felt like today, the first day in pads, it was awesome. So hopefully we can continue to build on this."

OxyBob

[Gray Fox]

Chapman does not have any JC players.  There are two from Texas.

[cawcdad]

Any of the Oxy faithful going to make their way north to the beautiful Bay Area to get away from the smoke and watch some football?