Friday, May 2, 2008

RP out, integrity in

It took long enough, but WAFB, ESPN and the infallible internet message boards are reporting that returning starting qb Ryan Perrilloux has been kicked off the team for "not fulfilling his responsibilities as a student-athlete at LSU" according to Coach Miles. I welcome this news and add that I wonder what took so long.

I have nothing against RP personally. He's a stud of a player. But I have found out, with my own eyes in some cases (academics) or from first hand accounts (The Farce at the Vars-ity, you make it rhyme, I can't! Chimes doesn't work great either)the behaviour that convinced me he should've been shown the door.

Mr. Pittman over at Geaux Tuscaloosa has expressed so eloquently what many Tiger fans say. He's never been in serious trouble with the law. He's supposedly fulfilled his obligations as a student. We'll have a heck of a time winning with out him. The drop off at qb after him is obvious. The on the field stuff is true. The academic and law situations not so much.

The fact of the matter is LSU has bent over backwards, contorted itself, and did other unnatural acts to keep RP on campus and on the team. And keep in mind, this came at serious risk of degrading morale for the rest of the team who wondered why they had to abide by a different set of rules while RP had his own, more lenient set. It was and is past time for LSU to show Perrilloux the door.

One must consider, from the outside looking in, the maelstrom surrounding RP was putting LSU in a very poor light. It was getting to be a laughingstock among others. Other fans have rightfully questioned our pride and integrity. That's exactly what this is about for me. As an alumnus and season ticket holder, tolerance of Ryan's behaviour was contemptible and not what LSU is about for me. Lots of Tiger fans cried about how many losses this might bring. It's not about that. It's about having some character and dignity in how you go about your business.

Ahead, the Tigers head into a rough '08 with Lee and Hatch at qb. It was a wise move for Miles to give them all of the snaps in the spring. I wanted them starting vis a vis the departure of RP anyway. The schedule is a mother, I didn't expect a great deal from this season, except to compete strongly for the West and to go to Atlanta. As talented as LSU is, I still see this as a completely realistic goal. Then, the Tigers can head into a favorable 2009 season with a solid, salty team.

Lastly, it's sad that a kid like RP, who admittedly isn't coming from a great and prosperous background squander this opportunity. All he had to do was captain LSU to a solid '08, declare for the NFL and get rich. It's hard to understand how someone can be so hardheaded as to continually screw up like this. I wish him well. But he really blew it.

4 comments:

  1. Good stuff, man.
    RP can now go on and lead Montana State or whoever to a Division II championship or something like that I guess.

    Nice use of the word "maelstrom" - you may want to link dictionary.com next time and save some people (like me) the time of looking it up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joshua--I agree completely. I remember when you told me about his grades last spring. And to your credit, you've been wanting RP gone for a LONG time (before it was cool, even!).

    It is a shame, but the good of the team has to be first.

    Oh, and as for me, the law is good. I'm in Opelousas now, living in Lafayette. And it's all good, brotha.

    ReplyDelete
  3. double k
    Preciate the kind words and linkeroo. From now on, I guess I might have to link the word to a definition entry maybe.

    rcr
    yes, the good of the team and institution has to come first. glad to hear everything is aight over there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Double K Please, as a Florida fan relocatedc via scholarship to the Treasure State (MT), I can tell you Montana State can't take RP, they just had the most freaktacluar scandal in college football (seriously, if they were D-1A it would have been the main topic on Sportscenter for like a week), between 3 to a half dozen players were using their scholarship money to set up a drug ring (importation from Canada, etc.) taking RP would just make that even more crazy (or possibly given his past expertise, help them go underground).

    ReplyDelete

Don't be rude. Or I will delete your comment. Questions?