Locker Room: Recruiting, honors, Cougars; College transfer situation pretty much a circus

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said this week there should be no waiver policy for any athlete that transfers to another NCAA member school. Bowlsby said all athletes should be required to sit out a year after transferring. Bowlsby believes as I do that making the next step is not what collegiate athletics should be about. Decisions should be about what is best for collegiate sport, not the wishes of individual desires, and he says there should be no exceptions.

If you are a college football or basketball fan and have paid any attention to the transfer portal stuff, it is apparent that an extremely liberal decision-making process has turned the transfer situation into a circus.

Example. Of the last four recruited classes in college football less than 50 percent of the quarterbacks remain at the college that was their original choice. That smacks of a free agent system and there’s nothing collegiate about that. Just think if you are a Virginia Tech or Virginia fan, statistics tell you that it’s just as likely that the quarterbacks recruited in the upcoming 2020 class are as likely to leave and go somewhere else as stay. That makes the NFL free agent system pale in comparison.

Bowlsby was speaking on the Commissioners’ Panel along with the commissioners of the SEC (Greg Stanley) and ACC commish John Swofford. Wofford said that Bowlsby’s idea is academically accurate in every way. But he didn’t like the idea of not being able to take individual circumstances into consideration. There is the problem. The system trying to be all things to all people. That creates chaos, and it’s just not possible. Bowlsby is correct.

Speaking of Transfers:

Bryce Watts, a Virginia Tech defensive back who started 12 games last season as a sophomore and who made 29 tackles, had an interception, and a team leading seven pass breakups, has transferred to North Carolina. Watts even worked with the starting secondary during spring practice. He has applied for a special consideration, I have no idea what that is, to see if he can play for the Tar Heels this coming season.

ACC on a Roll:

Football recruiting is going very well for the ACC so far for the 2020 class. Notre Dame, although it does not compete for the league title, should be included in the mix since it plays five ACC opponents each season. Clemson has the number one class in the nation at this point and it will be a major surprise if it doesn’t remain that way. The margin may even widen. Miami made a nice hit with a four-star offensive tackle and has moved to fourth nationally. Notre Dame is seventh, Carolina continues to show great improvement and is ninth, and Florida State is 10th, making it five of the top 10 for the conference. Georgia Tech is 16th, and NC-State 18th, and that’s seven of the top 18!

Hall of Famers:

Back in the 80s and 90s I traveled the country with Virginia Tech for football and basketball. The Sports Information Director at that time at Tech was Wendy Wiesand. A heckuva guy. He was a great help to a rookie sports reporter, and very professional. Nobody was more important than anybody else. There was no cheerleading in the Tech press box. One Saturday I watched as Weisand threw a visiting reporter out of the press box.

His assistant was a young fellow named Dave Smith. Dave took Wiesand’s place after retirement and he was a carbon copy. Nothing changed. Dave Smith and I became good friends. He is as loyal a Hokie as can ever be found. And he was a friend to all us sports writers even if he didn’t last the last column. Dave is about to be inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame. I congratulate him. He is most deserving. Next to Jerry Claiborne, and Frank Beamer, he is my favorite Hokie ever.

Anthony Poindexter is also about to be inducted into the UVa Hall of Fame. There aren’t very many better football players ever to play for the Cavaliers than Jefferson Forest’s Poindexter, a simply devastating defensive back.

The late George Welsh, likely the best football coach in the history of UVa said it best when he described Poindexter. “Anthony was created to be a great football player. He had size, speed, great instincts, and no concern for his body, or anyone else’s he hit either.”

Cougars Headed to Ferrum:

The Pulaski County football team will journey down to Rocky Mount and Ferrum College for the second straight June. It will be a semi-contact three-day camp against very good competition next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Cougar head coach Stephen James felt like the camp was a valuable experience last year, and no doubt much will be learned again this time. Two opponents designated for scrimmage action will be Lord Botetourt and Dinwiddie.

The next major events for Pulaski County football following summer workouts will be the Saturday, August 17th “Harvey’s Touchdown Classic,” and a confrontation with Radford the following Friday, both of which will take place in Dobson Stadium.

A Few Odds and Ends:

Le’Veon Bell, of Steeler fame, apparently had two girl friends at the same time. Or maybe they stumbled onto each other at the same time. Hard to figure out. But Bell was at the gym working out. When he returned home both the women were gone and so was half a million bucks in jewelry. There could be a lesson there. … Basketball has become a game about a three-point shot and a dunk. Coaches even get mad these days when a player takes a shot worth only two points that isn’t a dunk. They have decided to move the three-point line back a bit over an inch. Will that change the game, or make anything different? No, move it back two feet! … SEC schools Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, and Mississippi State have decided there will be no beer or wine sold in general seating areas of their home games. That means there will likely be fewer drunk people ruining the game for other fans. A good decision. … Michael Jordan has made an outstanding contribution to his old high school. Jordan attended Laney High in Wilmington, North Carolina. Last week he donated $1 million to Laney High, 50 percent of which would goes to athletics, and 50 percent to school projects. Outstanding. A tidbit. Jordan is obviously of Carolina fame, and most believe is the greatest basketball player of all time. I subscribe to that. But just think about this for a second and what it means. When Jordan was a sophomore at Laney High, he was cut from the varsity team.

By DAN CALLAHAN, The Patriot