Everybody knows by now that Calvin Smith has transferred from New Mexico to Purdue. Smith's road to UNM is actually more circuitous than just Florida to Purdue via Albuquerque.
Smith verballed to Lane Kiffin and Tennessee during his Senior year in high school, decommitted when Kiffin decided to go to USC, then went to UNM. Before deciding on the Vols, he had offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Mississippi, Purdue, Notre Dame, Arkansas and others.
Out of high school, we wanted to go some place where he'd get playing time and would make an impact right away. Before committing to UT, he talked about how he liked UND, Florida and FSU quite a bit. But, Florida got two DT commits and I don't know what happened to FSU, UND and others, but the offers were probably filled by other recruits. UNM's Mike Locksly was able to sell the idea of instant playing time to Smith, and UNM's coach lived up to his promise.
As a 6'4" 270 lb. true Freshman, Smith played in all 12 games and had 13 tackles, one a sack. Being a part of UNM's rotation right away surprised no one...signing at UNM surprised everyone...and he shocked a lot of people again by transferring to Purdue.
There's a lot of ways to look at this- You could be cautiously optimistic just because you don't really understand why he's at Purdue. A good answer might be that he'll have two fellow Hialeah teammates in God's country next season...more than anyone else. Or maybe, he's just a guy that likes to do things differently.
Twitter and the message boards has some dancing in the street just because this plays like bolstering next year's recruiting class...and he'll have a year to be around the team, practice and learn.
I lean toward being a bit more cynical just because this one doesn't make a ton of sense to me. He was never really high on Purdue coming out of high school...but unlike Marve, who went through visits again prior to his transfer, the Smith thing just kind of happened.
My opinion matters little at this point, because he's a Boiler now. So obviously, I hope he thrives at Purdue and am glad he's on campus. In high school, he was a prolific pass-rushing tackle- Think Mike Neal more than KK Short.
Boilers on BTN
Joe Tiller will be working for the BTN this fall and I'm looking forward to it. If you ever had the chance to hear the Ol' Purdue Coach talk outside of a press conference, you know how entertaining he could be. I'm pretty sure that his combo of knowledge of the game and storytelling ability will make him an enjoyable person to listen to on the network...Plus, it's never bad to have another Boiler there.
I had the chance to talk to Rosevelt Colvin last week and he told me that he will be on the BTN more than last fall as well...if you got a chance to see him in studio in 2010, you could see he was already better than some of the guys on the panels as he was comfortable in front of the camera and came off as smart without being smug. His increased role should be good for everybody involved.
Matty's Magic
Painter is in China coaching the US team in the World University Games. His squad won in an exhibition v. a professional Chinese team and begins official play tomorrow. His assistant coaches are two of the best in the college game; Cuonzo Martin and Brad Stevens.
Matty's coaching a few players he coached against in the last few years- MSU's Draymond Green, Bama's JaMychal Green and Mbakwe from Minny.
Wilson Goes Off
IU's Coach Wilson, who was one of the stars of the B1G media day a few weeks ago saw a different side of the media yesterday on Fox Sports Radio's Zakk & Jack Show.
I've heard Wilson has a pretty bad temper from IU students who have gotten the business end of the guy...but I really liked his appearance on this crappy show.
I don't listen to the show regularly...because it stinks. But I've listened enough to know that Trudeau comes off as a complete bag and Zakk seems to be a blowhard whose voice is pretty tough to stomach. Prior to putting Wilson on the air, they both were making fun of IU...which might be OK on a different day, but isn't very smart business right before you welcome their coach onto the show. You can hear it here.
Wilson probably could have showed a bit more discipline in the way he handled it, but he wasn't that out of line...the clowns who get paid to talk on the radio for a living were though.
A lot of Purdue fans were saying Wilson was out of line via Twitter and on the message boards, but let's be honest for a moment- if this happened to Hope, wouldn't you want him to defend himself and his program and be at least a little pissed? I would.
11 comments:
Wilson was out of line? That sounds like a knee-jerk reaction to the news to me. Granted, I read this post before I'd heard about the issue, so maybe I was already biased, but from what I did read, I think the coach's reactions were totally appropriate.
He's already going into a hostile environment (most talk radio is just about mocking people and provocation anyway), and then the intro is "Ha ha, I remember that you guys sucked." How would Trudeau have reacted if Wilson's first comment had been "That's right, Jack, I remember that season. Let's talk about the Rose Bowl ... you guys really got your asses kicked, didn't you?"
Hell yes, I'd want Coach Hope to lash out after something like that, and I'm glad to see another coach doing the same thing.
"Don't pick fights with someone who buys ink by the barrel."
As much as I'm on Wilson's side on this one, and that's as a Purdue fan who hates to give IU any credit *ever*, I think it might not be the smartest thing in the world.
These guys are on the radio 15 hours a week to jab at Wilson to their hearts' content from now on. Wilson will be focusing on what he's supposed to be doing -- coaching IU, and doesn't have the time or the platform to defend his name. It seems that he's probably just poisoned the local media in the nearest large metro against him. You can make enemies when you're a coach -- if you win. If you don't, you're in some trouble.
Probably would have been smarter for him to just keep his mouth shut, and then be inexplicably "too busy" for any future interview requests from these guys. Then, if he turns IU into a winning program, he can embarrass them by explaining at some later date why he's never on their program.
I don't know, Brad. Even us on a Purdue site are talking about his appearance and we surely wouldn't be if he hadn't gotten snippy... when your program is where IU's has been lately, I think this kind of press is good. Gets people's attention and maybe, just maybe, gets some pride increase and some chests puffed up.
I don't like it when coaches taunt fans... but taunting low-level, bad-at-their-job radio phonies? Go for it. In fact, we need more of this, given how bad most radio guys are.
As for Joe T getting on the BTN, I wonder if he'll relaunch his Twitter feed. That stuff was entertaining.
With Zakk's nasal voice and Wilson's hoarse, gruff delivery, I thought I was listening to an episode of Sesame Street at first... with angry puppets
Speaking objectively and not as a Purdue fan, I am a little jealous that IU got this guy. I know as Purdue fans, we don't want to give credit to IU for anything. But this was a great hire. Wilson knows how to win, playing in 7 BCS games and 3 NC. It also seems like he knows how to recruit with the signing of Gunner Kiel. I know we are supposed to stand by our program, and Danny Hope (at least for one more year), but I think all Purdue fans would rather have a coach with that resume instead of a 35-22 record at a d2 school. And let's be honest, if CMP or Danny were listening to Purdue get ripped on the radio, every Boilermaker fan would expect them to defend our school. So to say Wilson is out of line is kind of ridiculous.
Seriously? Wilson acted like a doucebag. They were giving IU a hard time, but they were playful about it. I thought it was a great platform for Wilson to come out and be proud of IU, be playful, and give hope to a dead program.
Instead, he sounded bitter and unable to take a joke. If Hope ever did this, I'd want him fired. This was not representative of a university.
After listening to it, I think it's a non-issue blown way out. I think Wilson over-reacted to some pretty lame jokes, but I do understand him standing up for his program. He's going to win over his players and fans by standing up for the program. As many have said, I think Zakk and Jack should have used a little more sense in joking on the crappiness of IU football prior to their Coach coming on. For them to be surprised at the reaction they got from Wilson is pretty dumb. All in all, it was really much ado about nothing.
What I do find funny that Jack talking about his kids going to IU and being disgusted by that fact after their interview with Wilson. Are they going to IU based on the football program and Kevin Wilson or going there to get an education. What an idiot.
Patrick, I like what you're saying a lot- I kinda agree, it's really not a huge deal...but the calm before the season lends itself to things being blown out of proportion a bit. I've listened to it three times now...each time Trudeau sounds like more of a child to me.
I am totally with Wilson on this one. Those hosts are total dicks - the epitome of blowhard sports media.
You trash a guy's program in your into, then are "shocked" when is angry at you treating him like a fool? Then, you pull the ultimate brave man move and hang up on him, then spend the next 5 minutes repeating how "shocked" you are and telling listeners how college football "really is."
Give me a break.
Go back and listen to this. All they said prior to the interview was that IU has a tough time as of late, and Trudeau joked about how his team killed IU when he played them. That was all! Wilsom completely over-reacted. I will say that after the interview they went too far and that is what most people are commenting on. I don't like the show at all, but Wilson was the one that was out of line in the beginning.
I'm just surprised at the sensitivity of IU's head football coach. They threw in a small joke about not hearing the fight song played very often due to IU's lack of scoring and Wilson chose to be a jerk for the rest of the interview because of it. I don't care for the way the hosts continued to rant about it for the next few minutes, but it doesn't surprise me because their job is entertainment. The real surprise to me is a head football coach who clearly doesn't have very thick skin. To me, Wilson came off as annoyed, bitter and lacking emotional intelligence. But again, I'm a Purdue fan :)
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