Oregon has a wealth of young quarterbacks at its disposal for next season, and for good reason. We all saw how problematic a thin depth chart at quarterback can be when injuries mount late in a season.
Quarterback is the most important position on a football team, especially a college football team, and even more so in the offensive-minded Pacific-10 Conference.
That’s what makes the decision of new Washington State head coach Paul Wulff to release blue-chip quarterback prospect Calvin Schmidtke from his agreement to play football this fall for the Cougars all the more impressive.
Schmidtke was the crown jewel of the 25-man signing class that was the first of the Wulff era at Washington State. He threw for 2,724 yards and 37 touchdowns at Lakes High School and was rated as one of the top prep football players in the state of Washington.
But the Washington State football team was penalized eight scholarships recently for failing to meet the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate standards over the past four years. Several Cougar football players have been in trouble with the law in recent years as well, and Wulff was hired to clean up the program.
That’s why, when Schmidtke was arrested recently in Pierce County for investigation in a variety of traffic and controlled substance violations, Wulff really had no choice. Or did he?
You see, we have had our own problem child recently in the Oregon program, the talented but troubled wide receiver Derrick Jones. Despite repeatedly running afoul of local law enforcement, albeit mostly for traffic violations and neglect of associated filings, he has never been formally released from the team.
Yes, Jones is talented and yes, the infractions have been minor, but some semblance of a stand should have been taken by the coaching staff at some point.
The problem has seemingly solved itself now, with Jones not presently enrolled in classes and his future with the team uncertain, according to coach Mike Bellotti at spring camp, but I would have preferred to see some action taken by the staff rather than let the situation run its course. Still, Bellotti has not said that Jones is off the team, only that he is currently not enrolled in school.
Better to show the team what you will do to players who don’t toe the line then let them just come and go as they please, as Jones seems to have done.
Even more recently – this week in fact – an Oregon recruit was arrested, and the reaction from the program has been far from swift and decisive. Dewitt Stuckey, a 6-foot, 220-pound linebacker from Lincoln High School in Stockton, Calif. was arrested Tuesday in connection with a brawl at a fast-food restaurant and charged with two felony counts: battery with serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury.
According to the Register-Guard, an Oregon compliance official said a criminal conviction would not be grounds for terminating a letter of intent. Were Stuckey’s legal issues to keep him from attending the first day of classes in the fall, however, Oregon would no longer be bound to honor the terms of the letter.
Again, Bellotti might escape possible long-term effects if the situation takes care of itself. I, for one, would like a little more assurance that he is safeguarding the program with a firm hand rather than sitting back and letting the chips fall where they may.
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