Doing it Right

ODU does it again!


More than a year before the Old Dominion University football team was resurrected, I starting writing about how excited we should be about this event.

ODU's inaugural season of 2009 turned out better than expected.

The team went 9-2 and sold out every game at home months in advance.

The school created an instant campus atmosphere enjoyed by current students and alumni alike.

And ODU showed everyone that a bad economy or lack of Heisman candidates is no excuse. Planned properly, there is NO REASON why a school can't reap huge benefits from football at the FCS level.

Jeez, people by the millions are watching cruddy reality shows starring botoxed and tattooed freaks... why schools can't coax Americans to have a good time at a real football game is beyond me.

ODU proved it can be done.

And in a very fitting development, ODU has just announced that it is accepting two transfers from the failed Hofstra program that shut down two weeks ago.

One of the players was Ronnie Cameron, an academic all-conference player who is alos a 6"2 278-pound defensive tackle. It's possible the Ivies lost one here.

The other is defensive end Deron Mayo, Mayo, who attended nearby, (to ODU), Hampton's Kecoughtan High, had 48 tackles and 11-1/2 tackles for losses last season at Hofstra.

Mayo's older brother Jerod plays linebacker for the New England Patriots, while his younger brother Derek Mayo is a linebacker at U. Richmond.

Those players will now learn first-hand that anything is possible when you act creatively and work hard.

Now that's a lesson worth the cost of college tuition.

(That's to Bruce Wood for alerting me to the ODU transfer news)


PENN Dumps Miller

ODU does it right, and it seems like Penn basketball doesn't.

The Quakers have fired the once-highly regarded Coach Glen Miller before even midseason.

I can still remember the angry cries when Penn hired Miller away from Brown, where he was making great strides with that program.

But the fans at Penn, who have been used to basketball greatness year after year for generations, quickly turned on him.

Jerome Allen, a great Quaker player in the mid 1990's, takes over as interim coach.