[Vision2020] Erickson Missing Integrity Gene

Sun Dec 10 11:03:50 PST 2006

My sentiments, EXACTLY!!!!

My one big wish for Erickson is that he take the good-for-nothing players he 
brought with him.  Mayhap then it'd open up slots for players - REAL players 
- willing to be coached and play the game like it was intended.  Besides, 
Erickson and his thugs deserve one another.

J  :]

>From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
>To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>, "Idaho Vandals" 
><vandal at uidaho.edu>
>Subject: [Vision2020] Erickson Missing Integrity Gene
>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 07:13:19 -0800
>
> >From today's (December 10, 2006) Spokesman Review -
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Erickson missing integrity gene
>John Blanchette
>The Spokesman-Review
>December 10, 2006
>
>Dennis happens.
>
>I hereby copyright this phrase and transfer ownership to the University of
>Idaho, which should launch production immediately to emblazon it on bumper
>stickers, T-shirts, mugs, hats, stadium blankets, key chains, beer snuggies
>and anything else that can be peddled to the suckers in the seats. I mean,
>to the masses.
>
>Not just in black and gold, either. There's a market on any number of
>campuses.
>
>And with the windfall profits, the Vandals can pay for a new football
>stadium, a new basketball arena and have enough left over to hire the next
>guy who'll treat them like dirt.
>
>Dennis happens.
>
>Sometimes he happens good - two national titles and a couple of programs
>resurrected. Sometimes he's utterly devastating - betrayal and probation 
>are
>the words that come to mind. But Dennis Erickson always happens and he
>always will - somewhere.
>
>Now that somewhere is Arizona State. But where next?
>
>Will-Coach-for-Ego-Food University?
>
>In any case, that isn't Idaho's problem anymore, though Erickson certainly
>leaves others.
>
>Until Erickson told Idaho athletic director Rob Spear early Saturday 
>evening
>that he was indeed accepting an offer to become the head football coach at
>ASU, a handful of Vandals may have held out hope that he'd grow a 
>conscience
>at the last second and stay. But why? Just by flirting with the Sun Devils,
>Erickson did more to undo the excitement and goodwill his hiring in Moscow
>generated 10 months ago - 10 months! - than any foot-dragging the 
>university
>may be doing on a facilities plan.
>
>Actually, we knew it was a done deal before Spear did. We had a reliable
>source - Erickson, who told one of our reporters that it wasn't.
>
>Lucy is never going to yank the football away as Charlie Brown tries to 
>kick
>it, either.
>
>Now, we're all grown-ups here, and surely we can comprehend the many
>rationalizations that will ferry Erickson to Tempe. This is no Chip Hilton
>tale, but instead the real - OK, surreal - world of college athletics, in
>which character and decency are punchlines often as not and 
>disingenuousness
>is something to be cultivated.
>
>Still, this might be a record.
>
>Actually, it is for Erickson. For those of you old enough to reference the
>Wyoming interlude between his first stay at Idaho and his drive-by at
>Washington State, that lasted 13 months.
>
>Dennis wasn't at Idaho long enough this time to get a W-2 stub.
>
>It's silly to rail about college coaches being soulless mercenaries when
>such behavior is encouraged and rewarded. It's instructive that the 
>supposed
>runner-up in the Sun Devil sweepstakes was none other than Erickson's old
>Everett chum Mike Price, who after his Alabama disgrace three years ago
>couldn't get hired to cook grits at a Waffle House until UTEP made a leap 
>of
>faith. Now apparently Price feels he's paid that debt in full - and to be
>fair, yes, three seasons is far more reasonable than 304 days. But if Price
>was truly the ultimate stand-up guy he's always portrayed as, he'd stand up
>and tell any suitors, "Thanks, but I have my team."
>
>But these guys are different. They're wired for winning, and not just on 
>the
>scoreboard but at the pay window. Erickson may not need the money - though
>his 49ers buyout runs out after next year - but he apparently does need the
>fix. After all, one of the things that makes him attractive - to Idaho and
>ASU - is the fact that he won those two national titles at Miami.
>
>Did we have any reason to think he didn't want to win more?
>
>No, Erickson is simply equipped with this odd gene. Unfortunately, he also
>seems to be missing an integrity gland.
>
>How else could he be entertaining recruits on campus with a straight face
>Saturday while negotiating his leave-taking? How could he, barely a week
>ago, blast some of his players for lack of commitment? Good lord, the man
>told Spear, when the Idaho job was floated to him, "I'll take you to the
>next level."
>
>Well, yeah. If he meant kicking the Vandals from the car to the curb, I
>guess that is the next level.
>
>Spear said last February he would have been excoriated as the "dumbest A.D.
>in the country" if he hadn't hired Erickson, and he's probably right.
>Likewise, Vandal supporters had no choice but to get jazzed over what
>Erickson's return could mean - even if hope unleashed meant obvious risk.
>Yes, anybody thinking Erickson would never leave let their naivete get the
>best of them, but surely they had reason to believe it wouldn't be in 10
>months. Surely he owed Idaho more than that - for giving him his head
>coaching start in the first place, and taking him back when he was looking
>at a second year of nobody wanting him.
>
>Surely he wouldn't hurt Idaho, right?
>
>Well, he has. He has reinforced the toxic cynicism that surrounds Idaho's
>athletic struggles. He has given the better recruits the Vandals 
>desperately
>need a signal that the school cannot hang on to a coach or a vision. He has
>given donors an excuse to stop caring and keep their checkbooks in their
>holsters.
>
>And, of course, it's just not his fault. He's a victim. If these darned
>other jobs wouldn't open up and these A.D.s wouldn't throw themselves at
>him, he wouldn't have to say, "Hello, I must be going" all the time. It's
>simply out of his control.
>
>"There are times in life and we all face it," he said 10 months ago, when
>asked about Larry Brownish proclivities, "when things just happen."
>
>Just like Dennis happens.
>
>Once again.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>Take care, Vandals.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Vandalville, Idaho
>UI '96
>
>Came a tribe from the north brave and bold . . .
>
>"Here We Have Idaho"
>http://www.tomandrodna.com/HWHI.mp3
>
>"I-D-A-H-O Idaho Idaho Go Go Go"
>http://www.tomandrodna.com/Vandals.mp3
>
>
>
>
>
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