Maryland AD Anderson preparing to make cuts

By Stan "The Fan" Charles
CSNbaltimore.com

A University of Maryland commission has reached its findings on making significant cuts to athletic programs, and the responsibility has been passed along to athletic director Kevin Anderson, who in turn has put the cuts in the hands of university president Wallace Loh.

Loh will ultimately make the call, but Anderson knows he is the face of the hard changes about to befall several athletic programs at College Park. Among those named to be eliminated: men's tennis, men's track and field (indoor, outdoor and cross country), men's and women’s swimming and diving, women's water polo and women's acrobatics and tumbling.

The report contains information that puts Maryland at or near the bottom in per-athlete spent at $67,000. By comparison, Florida State comes in at close to double that ($118,000). The report cites the time period starting in 2006, and says that there were “declines in revenues in a number of areas including football and basketball, as well as fundraising.” At the same time, the report says that the cost of scholarships and other expenses has risen.

However, AD Kevin Anderson makes it clear “I want to make one thing clear,” Anderson said in a letter to supporters. “I do not want to cut a single program. I have devoted my professional life to building athletic programs and to enhance the student athlete experience.”
He added that no final decisions have been made to this point, but said he had notified the coaches and athletes in each of the sports in the Commission’s report.

Anderson’s predecessor, Debbie Yow, now the AD at NC State, had long resisted making cuts. But, as Anderson said: “I was brought to Maryland to lead, and I am prepared to make the hard decisions necessary to make Maryland athletics a model department with respect to academic, competitive and financial success and stability.”

The receipt of the report was followed in short order by a letter from Anderson to the Corporate Sponsors and Friends of the Athletics programs, in which he spells out some of these findings.

President Loh will now take into account these recommendations from the Commission, further input and suggestions by Anderson and the leaders of these programs that are on the chopping block. Anderson says that he expects these hard choices will be made over the next couple weeks.

The release of these findings continues what has been a bumpy ride for Anderson at College Park. After relieving football coach Ralph Friedgen of his duties and making his first signature hire in Randy Edsall, Anderson was hit by the sudden retirement of Gary Williams in late spring.

Williams’ departure followed sophomore center Jordan Williams’ decision to turn professional. In both instances, Anderson briefly flirted with more marquis names such as Mike Leach in football and Sean Miller in basketball. In both cases, Anderson opted for solid citizens who perhaps would command less in salary than the more highly celebrated choices.

These proposed changes have not come out of thin air. The Commission has been working on its task since last July. That means that their mission had to have been in discussion from the time Anderson was being interviewed for his job at Maryland.

The issues that have caused the need for such a remarkable facelift to Maryland athletics are part and parcel of an economy that continues to be wildly inconsistent and undependable. In that type of climate, the only certainty is trying to find comfort in cost certainty.

NFL Picks: Week 10

By Stan “The Fan” Charles
CSNbaltimore.com

Picking the winners (winners in bold)

Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati

Denver @ Kansas City

Houston @ Tampa

Tennessee @ Carolina

Washington @ Miami

New Orleans @ Atlanta

Detroit @ Chicago

St. Louis @ Cleveland

Buffalo @ Dallas

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis

Arizona @ Philadelphia

Baltimore @ Seattle

New England @ NY Jets

NY Giants @ San Francisco

Minnesota @ Green Bay



Against the spread

Baltimore -6 1/2 @ Seattle
The Ravens have twice gone on the road versus teams they were expected to beat and lost. Having seen that Jacksonville game, and then the first half against the Cardinals it looked like we were watching the season unravel. It didn't, as the team has put together six very strong quarters in pulling out wins versus Arizona and Pittsburgh. That reprieve, combined with how bad the Seahawks have been at scoring points, should lead to a two-touchdown win in the Seahawks' nest.

Prediction: Ravens 24, Seahawks 6


Detroit @ Chicago -3

The Lions head to the Windy City to play a surprising, albeit on-again, off-again Bears squad. After back-to-back home stumbles versus San Francisco and Atlanta, the Lions demolished the Broncos at home and then had a week off to rest and refresh. The Lions are playing motivated football every single week, and they now have first meaningful November game in a dozen years. Chicago RB Matt Forte won't be able to muster much against stout Lions' D.

Prediction: Lions 20, Bears 15


Washington @ Miami - 4

The Redskins resemble the senior citizen lady on TV's Life Alert commercial who has "fallen and can't get up.” That'll happen to a team when the current QBs are John Beck and Rex Grossman. Meanwhile, Miami under Tony Sporano has been fighting hard and finally broke through with a monster win in Kansas City. This week, they play a team in Washington that will struggle mightily.

Prediction: Dolphins 23, Redskins  13


Pittsburgh - 3 1/2 @ Cincinnati

If the Steelers were coming off a win, they might have gone into the Queen City with swelled heads. But, the Ravens saw to that not being a factor this week. The combination of the Steelers knowing this is do-or-die time, and the Bengals perhaps being a little too young to handle this moment, should prove more than enough for a victory that tops this spread.

Prediction: Steelers 20, Bengals 13

Record

Last week
Winners: 8-6
Against the spread: 3-2

Season
Winners: 89-39
Against the spread: 25-15-4

Penn State scandal: It’s shocking that it’s shocking

By Stan “The Fan” Charles
CSNBaltimore.com
 
During his 1933 inaugural address, with the country reeling from the Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to calm a nervous nation with the words: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

The latest news out of the now not-so-aptly named Happy Valley, Pa., regarding sexual abuse charges involving minors against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has me thinking about Roosevelt’s famous line. The only thing shocking about these charges against the 67-year-old Sandusky is that anyone is shocked anymore.

The inevitable questions that will swirl around the Nittany Lions’ athletic department and campus will focus on what did Joe Paterno know and when did he know it? Of course, that is at the crux of anything that becomes as much about the cover-up as the act itself.

Let’s not kid ourselves, just as President Richard Nixon’s ultimate crime, the one worthy of bringing him down, was the cover-up. And that’s what is really at the heart of the charges. The strong scent of a cover-up has already cost two men their jobs at Penn State – now former athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz.

The focus on Curley and Schuluz’s behavior does nothing to take the heat off of longtime head coach Joe Paterno or school president Graham Spanier. Nor should all the inquisitions on campus take the heat off Sandusky, the man indicted on the actual charges.

This scribe has only the “truth” dog in this hunt, and I certainly make no pretense to know what went on in the locker rooms or showers at Penn State. Nor do I make any clear claims to know what Sandusky did to children under his care in The Second Mile program he worked with until 2008, when he came to the directors of the program and told them he was being investigated for these crimes against children. Sandusky has had no involvement in the program since 2008.

What smacks of the reality of this sad, sordid story is that there is the smell of what too often happens with criminal or aberrant behavior in many places in our society. Penn State didn’t know what to do with someone who we suspect or have heard innuendos about? Don’t report him, don’t fire him … just move him out of your world and enable him to be someone else’s problem.
 
Sandusky’s own supposed career choice of retirement in 1999 may be the proverbial smoking gun here. After turning down several head coaching jobs elsewhere, including Maryland in 1991, Sandusky just 55 years of age surprised everyone by retiring. He cited his increasing devotion to the Second Mile program.

At that time, how could Sandusky have possibly foreseen Paterno coaching well into his mid-80s? So, why would someone of his stature have walked away at such a young age? Is it possible, that these charges that are just now coming to a head close to a decade after many of them supposedly occurred were more or less known about in the inner sanctums of the athletic department at Happy Valley?

Just as an exercise in my own edification and perception, I Googled the phrase "priest child molesters reassigned," and up comes many a story on the topic, here is but one example.

A less appalling, but similar dynamic was present in the early days of MLB’s cocaine problem back in the mid-'80s. Those of us in the media, as well as fans, often wondered why certain average major league performers seemed to just disappear. Teams and their executives not knowing how to deal with the issue, quietly just swept the problem under the rug.

If you were a Steve Howe, a Dave Parker or a Willie Wilson, you soldiered on as the league just kept their fingers crossed the issue would go away.

While the problem of cocaine in baseball eventually subsided, this terrible issue of adult predators wherever vulnerable children dwell shows no sign of decreasing.

Only Paterno and the sports hierarchy at Penn State know what they knew and when they knew it. In the case of Paterno, there is no question he is one of the greatest college football coaches of our time, but now when his name is mentioned, there will be a stain associated with it. Whether it is as deserved as the accolades he gets, we may never know. But, it will be there, nonetheless.