Cato
- Thread starter Greenbloodedstill
- Start date
Bring him back here as an assistant coach. Maybe his enthusiasm would rub off on some of our lethargics...
You can't give him an athletic scholarship - his eligibility expired two years ago.
You could give him an academic scholarship, but I get the feeling his transcripts have been sealed by Elven magic, and buried under a cursed sarcophagus on a back lot at Camden Park, never to be opened.
You could give him an academic scholarship, but I get the feeling his transcripts have been sealed by Elven magic, and buried under a cursed sarcophagus on a back lot at Camden Park, never to be opened.
being the actually guy...he can go on scholarship as a student coach, it's fairly common, we give scholarships to some trainers, managers, video crew, etc.
Yep. There are many options for him (like a Pell Grant). It doesn't have to be tied to monies from the AD. Or combination of the two. Now that he is out of football, unless he has a huge income, he can get various monies, especially that he has kids to support.
They're provided financial aid not scholarships. Scholarships are for academic achievement not wrapping ankles or recording practice.
scholarships are awarded for more than academic achievement, but okay. it's been years ago now, but as a former manager i know all the paperwork i had to sign every semester said "scholarship" on it.
but you do you, guy.
So Cato was given 4-5 years of free education (I don't know if he redshirted) during which he didn't even bother graduating and some of you are wanting to give him more free class time to get a degree? That doesn't seem fair to the millions of kids that pay for their education (some working at the same time) and manage to graduate.
Insert a Tyrone Biggums "Got any more of them scholarships?" meme.
Insert a Tyrone Biggums "Got any more of them scholarships?" meme.
it wouldn't be free, I would guess he would have to do some work. Break down film, draw up play cards for the scout team etc. I don't know where the NCAA stands on Student ass'ts right now, but lots of guys got their start that way.
marshallmark
Silver Buffalo
Kind of unfair. He only was here 3 1/2 years (did not red-shirt, and spent his 8th semester working out to get ready for NFL/CFL possibilities). Heck, it took me 5+ years to graduate and I didn't have the D-1 athletics constraints on my time -- just a part time job and a few girlfriends (not necessarily at the same time)
not really, choose to give up has last free semester, short sighted on his part, plus he had 3 yrs of summer school, plenty of time.
so he should've not tried to pursue a pro career, gone to mini-camp with the browns, etc? and sure he had 3 years of summer school, but he was also limited to just 12 hours every fall semester.
either way, ANY kid graduating in 3.5/4 years is almost impossible these days. practically no one does it, but sure lets pile on cato for not being able to graduate in 3.5 years.
At least he went to class and made progress toward his degree, unlike a certain Pharma CEO who went to WVU grad school and got hers via daddy.
The scholarship/financial aid discussion is interesting. But I think the bigger problem with the debate is whether Rakeem Cato is a good candidate to be a college coach. Being a good player doesn't automatically make one a good coach. Even being a leader - which Cato was while at Marshall - isn't enough. Personality, social skills, work ethic, ability to work with others, willingness to continue learning are all requirements. At the heart of coaching is the ability to teach. Without the desire and ability to teach, a coach will always be limited in their success.
they tend to keep a lot of football players at 12 hours, especially someone like the qb, in the fall to make sure they can commit enough time to football. then some of them will take 18 in the spring or summer classes. depends on the kid though really.
Why being someone back that thought he was bigger than the team, especially towards the end, to help coach?
Aleksa Nikolic could hardly speak English and yet he was able to play division 1 basketball and graduate in 3 years. There are quite a few athletes that graduate in 3 years and a ton in 4. As was said above, all those guys have 3 years of summer school available to them as well.
i believe what you're looking for is "exception to the rule."
No argument there. That was an insult to anyone that has earned a college degree.
Ott Elmore is another. So that's 2 exceptions off one Marshall team.
Justin Johnson from WKU also comes to mind very quickly
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* ot
again, they're the exception to the rule. hell, just like 1/3 of ALL college students graduate in 4 years. not counting the fact that cato had a severe stutter that would've hindered his learning ability and most likely a learning disability, he was on pace to graduate on time before going off to chase his pro career.
edit to add: ot is a bad example for your case, he's definitely the exception. he's a well above average student, likely acquired numerous college credit hours at schs. then went on to fuma for post-grad and likely acquired 30-40 hours of college credit in his year at fuma as part of the early college scholars program they offer there.
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I don't know how to find these numbers, but it would be interesting to see the graduation rates for football players who stay in school for their full eligibility. The truth is, the graduation rates are lower mostly due to athletes who don't finish playing, either through dropout, transfer, or leaving early for the NFL. If they stay in school, credits are usually not an issue.
Personal experience: I know that all but one of the seniors that were in the same academic year as my older son at PSU, and were still in school, graduated with him in 3 1/2 years. The lone player who didn't graduate early was only because of a single class he needed that was only offered in the spring, which he picked up and earned his degree in 4 years. My son then played his final season, picking up a second major in the process. At Marshall, Jordan could graduate this December (3 1/2 years) but may choose to spread out his required classes because he wants to start working on his Master's, and even postponing his degree requirements he will finish in the spring (4 years).
yeah, penn state recently has definitely been well above the national average in the ncaa's graduation rate for football players (actually, as an athletic department as a whole).
the ncaa tracks graduation rates based on student athletes graduating within six years of initial enrollment. i'd guess the average fbs graduation rate is in the low 70s. graduating in six years isn't exceptional, to stay eligible for your entire career you have to be on pace to graduate with your eligibility tied to pace towards degree.
graduating in 3 years or 3.5 years at a place like marshall is definitely the exception, not the rule. some of the kids we take (not talking anyone specific) have to spend that first summer/fall taking the basic courses to get up to speed to even have a shot at "traditional" college courses. without prying too much, did your sons benefit from taking college credit/ap courses in high school? i know a ton of kids these days leave high school with a semester/semester and a half worth of college credits. i'm guessing a lot of the kids we bring in for football don't have that, unfortunately. i think a long ass time ago, even i managed to start marshall with 18 credit hours based on work in high school.
here's an interesting ap article from last year: http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ootball-men-basketball-lag-degrees-study-says
OT good to hear about your sons. FWIW I love the way your sons played/play, battle their asses off!! I watched DD a lot while at PSU, one tough competitor who seemed to handle everything with class!!
No, neither of my boys had a single AP credit entering college. By their sophomore years in high school it was a forgone conclusion that they would end up playing football somewhere. That meant a redshirt year (which both of them wanted) along with four more, not to mention every summer session. I told them they would have plenty of time to earn a degree, and then left it up to them if they wanted to carry any credits with them from high school. They were both good students but neither opted to pick up any AP credits.
Nice of you to say. I'm obviously very proud of my boys, both on and off the field.
thanks for sharing! it's obviously a strawman, but so many kids i personally know of these days are graduating with so much college credit. it's pretty crazy, but considering the prices of college these days smart.
Cato is one the best QB's in Marshall history, but he was also the victim of a pretty awful childhood that left him with significant social adjustment issues.
The fact he left Marshall without a degree - on the heels of all those rags-to-riches feel-good pieces in the media that implied he was being saved by a college education - seemed to indicate to me that the program maybe wasn't as concerned with Cato the person as they were with Cato the QB.
The fact he left Marshall without a degree - on the heels of all those rags-to-riches feel-good pieces in the media that implied he was being saved by a college education - seemed to indicate to me that the program maybe wasn't as concerned with Cato the person as they were with Cato the QB.
From what I have heard Cato the person was part of the problem
