Both of the programs I've been involved with have had their share of, ah...problem kids.
At Penn State, they were the few. They were the odd ones who didn't really fit in. They either got with the program, left - by executive decision or of their own accord, or learned to play a role that made them less conspicuous. Overall, the team was a group of young men you could be proud of.
At Marshall, I'm sorry to say, it was different. I won't go so far as to say that the delinquents, miscreants, gangsters, and thieves were the majority. But there were definitely enough of them that they didn't feel out of place on the team. They had their own clique; they had their own influence; they had voting rights.
It's been difficult, as a parent, to think of my son being grouped in with the descriptions of Marshall eras I've been reading in this post. When I read - in other posts - the generalizations about college football players as drug-dealing, gun-toting partiers with little interest in the classroom. Getting paid by boosters while someone takes their exams for them. Yeah, I'm sure all that happens. It wasn't my son's experience at Marshall, though he still gets a lot of guilt-by-association.
But know that even at Marshall - a place I've called the wild, wild west of college football - those of the nefarious persuasion are still the minority. There are too many of them here, but the inmates haven't completely taken over the asylum...yet. I haven't liked that character has been a back-burner consideration in my son's time at Marshall...and before, apparently. I am hopeful that the new regime will push integrity to the forefront.
