Everett Withers Can Kiss My Red Ass

Every once in a while, some egregious statement is made that cannot be ignored. Today is such a day. In an article that I read in the USA Today online edition, the interim varsity football coach of the Tarheels, one Everett Withers, made some rather controversial statements regarding his personal opinion on the importance of the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

First of all, he referred to UNC-Ch as the "flagship" university. I am not making this up. Please read the article yourself. Second, he made specific mention that UNC-Ch has a higher graduation rate for its players than NC State. Let's examine these two claims in turn.

For my analysis, I am going to make the assumption that Withers is referring to the Football program at UNC-Ch and all my comments are based upon that. I am also going to make my personal bias rather clear. I am a graduate of NC State and have a knee jerk reaction to statements like this. I also have a huge superiority complex regarding UNC-Ch.

Let's make one thing crystal clear. UNC-Ch is not the flagship university in the grand state of North Carolina. Not way, no how. Too many people base their opinions regarding the status of a University on how successful the sports teams are. In this case, I am not sure what the hell Wither's point is. Is the UNC-Ch football program inherently more successful than NC State? Hell No. Butch Davis has had his ass handed to him by Tom O'Brien on a regular basis. In fairness, Butch Davis has his own set of problems and I am not going to pile on him here. Let's just say that in no way is this statement remotely true. These are basketball schools and suggesting that one of them is a state football powerhouse is ill advised. For the record, here is Withers quote in its entirety:

"When you have as many schools in this state as we have, and the recruiting base gets watered down a bit, I think the kids in this state need to know the flagship school in this state. They need to know it academically. If you look at our graduation rates, as opposed to our opponent’s this week (N.C. State), graduation rates for athletics, football, you’ll see a difference. ... If you look at the educational environment here, I think you’ll see a difference."

Not all of the people at UNC-Ch have scrambled eggs for brains. The UNC-Ch Chancellor issued an immediate apology to the NC State Chancellor regarding this inflammatory statement and I think this is a clear sign that UNC-Ch is stepping back from the coach on this issue.

The second issue here is the statement that UNC-Ch is academically superior to NC State. This is the issue that really burns my ass. This issue came up when I was in school and seems not to have dissipated. The claim in those days was that UNC-Ch graduated players and NC State did not. Was NC State's graduation rate deplorable? Yes it was. The reason was that NC State made little consideration for its players and kids that were essentially academically ineligible to attend the University were thrown to the wolves. On the other hand, UNC graduated its players with degrees that were eyebrow raising. Example, Michael Jordan, that favorite of UNC-Ch basketball fans the world over, was granted a degree in Geography. Let's get real. UNC-Ch should be embarrassed to even have a degree program like that. Handing out sham degrees does not make you better, it makes you look like a fool.

In a move that I applaud, Tom O'Brien, the head football coach at NC State did not take the high road and he did not let thise misplaced bravado stand unchallenged. Here is O'Brien's response:

"Here is a guy that’s on a football staff that ends up in Indianapolis (at a Committee on Infractions hearing to determine the Tar Heels’ penalties) ... If you take three things that you can’t do in college football, you have an agent on your staff. You’re paying your players. And you have academic fraud. That’s a triple play as far as the NCAA goes. So I don’t know that he has anything to talk about or they have anything to talk about. If that’s what people want in their flagship university in North Carolina, then so be it."

"At our school, A number one, all classes have a syllabus, Our guys go to school. They're not given grades, and they graduate. It's a little tougher here, if you have to go to school and you're expected to have a syllabus and go to class."

Couldn't have said it better, Tom. 

Source Articles:

• USA Today
• Boston Herald