Fifteen, 20 years ago, I ran into OU softball coach Michelle Thomas; she was somewhat harried. Thomas had just come from a goofy conversation with a parent of one of her players.
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Meddling parents on the college softball scene? No way, I said.
Way, said Thomas. And not just in softball. Baseball, track, tennis, hoops, football. Not even Barry Switzer, she said, was immune to stage parents. Only difference, Switzer had a battalion of lieutenants to run interference from such nonsense.
Which brings us to Mitch Mustain, the Arkansas quarterback flash who is fleeing the Ozarks and reportedly considering a visit to the crimson campus.
Bob Stoops should get out of town before the airport closes for snow. Drop his cell phone in a drawer and pull it out when Mustain has landed in another port. Don't touch this quarterback with a 10-foot crossbar.
Mustain might be a good kid, and there's probably plenty of blame to go around for all the crazy stuff happening in the hills, but parental intervention has no place in college football. Or any other kind, for that matter, when it comes to football
Parents of the Springdale trio — Arkansas freshmen who joined coach Gus Malzahn in jumping from high school to the Razorbacks — have turned Fayetteville into a firestorm.
The parents of Mustain, tight end Ben Cleveland and flanker Damian Williams expressed alarm over "the direction of the program” in a December meeting with athletic director Frank Broyles. They spoke of dismay over the lack of passing in Arkansas' offense. They issued statements in which they all agreed the head coach should have the final say on football matters, which was mighty darn big of them. Mustain, in a book on Springdale's 2005 football team, ripped Arkansas coach Houston Nutt.
This isn't little league. Isn't YMCA ball. Isn't even Springdale High School, not that parents should ever have a say in whether the hometown team runs off tackle or tries a Boise State flea flicker.
This is big-boy football. It has no place for parents dismayed because Little Johnny isn't throwing or catching enough passes.
For crying out loud, how far will this madness go?
Rick Cleveland, father of Ben, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "we would never have committed here knowing that this was the offense, because we know our boys wouldn't be happy.”
Happiness should be winning football. Happiness should be the best Arkansas season since 1977, when the Hogs went 11-1 and won the Orange Bowl. These Razorbacks won the SEC West, a much stouter achievement than Arkansas' 1995 and 2002 division title, since LSU and Auburn now are top-10 teams.
Does Stoops want to step into this mess? Bad enough when parents gripe about playing time. Now they're griping about style of play?
These guys were freshmen. Time was, no coach, much less athletic director, would listen to the complaints of a yearling. Do your job, try hard and maybe patience would pay off.
That was then. This is now. Now 10-year-olds play 100 baseball games in a summer, and football players change high schools the way they change their shirts, and 13-year-olds have personal trainers in every sport from hoops to golf.
Now, parents raise children to believe they are the center of the universe. Now, parents assault youth-league umpires and demand playing time for their precious angel and treat an 11-year-old ballgame like it's Game 7 of Red Sox-Yankees.
Mitch Mustain a Sooner? Sounds like a package deal. No thanks.
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Report: Mustain visits TU; Oklahoma still an option 01/19/2007 NORMAN — Where former Arkansas quarterback Mitch Mustain might end up is uncertain. To varying degrees, Oklahoma and Tulsa appear to remain options. An...
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