Avoiding College Coaches Gone Wild

After a bitter and acrimonious exit from West Virginia, coach Rich Rodriguez oversaw the worst season in recent memory in Ann Arbor. The Michigan Wolverines managed to win only three games last year, a feat essentially unheard of in modern recorded history.

Fans hoping for improvement and a return to normalcy will apparently have to continue waiting. Multiple players allege Rodriguez and staff regularly violate NCAA rules governing the amount of time student athletes may dedicate to their sports.

If true, that's unacceptable.

Ethics, apparently, are optional in college athletics. No one's perfect. That's understood. But Kelvin Sampson, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Billie Gillispie, Andy Kennedy and numerous others are among those having experienced recent trouble.

That's why I don't understand a bumper sticker I saw Friday evening. Fire Kragthorpe, it read.

Such sentiments are short sighted. I'd much rather build long-term success properly within a program, such as Steve Kragthorpe is attempting here in Louisville, than broker some Faustian pact that brings but temporary success at great cost (as was experienced with Louisville's previous football administration). Make no mistake, if Kragthorpe's detractors succeed in running him off prematurely, as surely they are trying, he'll proceed to build a successful program somewhere else. Let's hope that doesn't happen, as we have a great opportunity to build long-term success here, something not even the Michigans of the world are always capable of managing.

Michael Rubens' The Sheriff of Yrnameer

Every few years I discover a new novel of which I know nothing. Often these titles are authored by writers with whom I'm unfamiliar, too. Occasionally, these works prove intriguing, sufficiently so that I make an impulse buy.

Michael Rubens' The Sheriff of Yrnameer is one such book. I found it on the new fiction table at Barnes & Noble last week. There's but one review printed on the jacket. Stephen Colbert writes, "a science fiction book your grandmother will love--if she's a lustful, violent lady."

That's all I needed. I sat down with a copy on a nearby bench and began reading. I was reminded, almost instantly, of the old school (at least to me) science fiction my brother encouraged me to read in the early '80s. We're talking great stuff, works by Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams and even Philip Jose Farmer.

I couldn't be happier. I certainly recommend Rubens' new novel, especially if you like science fiction similar to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Venus on the Half Shell and Player Piano. While I haven't yet finished the novel, I'm finding it entertaining, creative and just the right amount irreverent.

Three Reasons The Bengals Will Struggle In '09

Call me skeptical, but I'm concerned the Cincinnati Bengals administration and players have lost focus. That's disturbing, especially considering the three previous decades of futility. Other NFL teams (the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles minus the Vick fiasco and Kansas City Chiefs) have made great strides recruiting new talent and fine-tuning operations.

The Bengals?

First, the Bengals exhausted their franchise tag selecting Shane Graham. Graham's a good guy and an outstanding kicker. Don't get me wrong. Kickers and special teams are critical to a team's success. But wasting the franchise tag on a kicker is unusual, to say the least, and unwise, considering the number of offensive and defensive holes the team possesses. After all, you're talking about a franchise that reportedly couldn't even land Vick for more money than the Eagles offered.

Second, the Bengals are horsing around. In this week's preseason game, the stupidity hit a new level. Wide receiver Ocho Cinco (formerly known as Chad Johnson) was tasked with kicking the PAT (and I say THE PAT because the Bengals only managed a single TD). So here you have the ailing eight-year veteran kicker on whom you spent your franchise tag unable to kick a simple extra point and what do you do? You send a legitimate franchise-tag quality player out to risk injury (hamstring pull, torn ACL, whatever) for a senseless PAT in a meaningless game. I don't get it.

Third, this morning I read a headline that QB Carson Palmer's brother (also a team QB) is excited about this year's season. I think that's good. Why's he excited? Jordan Palmer (who I would have hoped spent his summer studying the playbook, working out, strengthening and conditioning his body, etc.) dedicated his time to developing an Apple iPhone application. The purpose? To profile Ocho Cinco photos, thoughts and other crap.

Maybe I'm dejected after so many years of failure, but these don't seem harbingers of greatness.

George Mann's Affinity Bridge Follow Up

After reading the numerous glowing reviews adorning this book's dust jacket, I looked forward to enjoying the new so-called steampunk novel. No sooner was I a chapter or two into reading this book that I stopped to check the reviews on Amazon. Immediately I confirmed others were noting the same concerns as was I: additional editing wouldn't hurt. Some sections run rough, a few passages would benefit from refinement and a few phrases and themes are repeated a little too often (enough with "organizing" the "Earl Grey" tea, "finding purchase" when grasping desperately for an item in one of the too frequent and often exaggerated superhuman fights, dense debilitating fog always at the perfect moment, etc.).

Based on the dust jacket reviews, I was expecting something sensational. I love it when a novel arrests my attention and prompts me to think in new and creative ways, such as was my experience when reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, William Gibson's Neuromancer, or Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I did not have that experience with this book. But then again, that's a tall order.

All that said, Mann develops an interesting story. The characters have some depth. I found myself sticking with the plot, which made the impulse purchase worthwhile. But to enjoy this book I had to set critical thoughts aside and just read the novel as one would a library book at the beach. I chose to let myself just be entertained. In other words, by lowering my expectations (which, it should be noted were set by the lofty recommendations found on the book's jacket), I was able to enjoy Mann's story.

It's clear Mann is setting up a detective series, of which The Affinity Bridge is to be the initial work. The characters show promise, and properly developed, Newbury and Hobbes' future exploits will be worth reading. I just hope a little additional care is taken in preparing future installments before they're released to the printer.