Discipline Needed in Colleges

Recruiting was never more painful than now. Top high school players have academic and disciplinary problems like never before. Coaches must take a more serious look at the talent they seek to build strong football teams.
Players are breaking training in many schools, coast-to-coast. Joe Paterno made some of his players clean out the stadium the next day after a game. Do you discipline a player and hurt your team in the season's homestretch with lucrative bowl bids awaiting the victor?
Johnny Vaught at Ole Miss put one of his best players off the team, and days later addressed the team and told them that only they could reinstate the player. The player apologized to his teammates and then the players took a vote and voted him back on the team. The player helped Ole Miss crush LSU in the famous 1959 rematch in the Sugar Bowl, 21-0, holding Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon to practically minus yardage in the process.
The Rebels had to have the right kind of leadership to do this. They knew how much their teammate meant to the team, but at the same time knew the player was going to have to straighten up and fly right. The player realized he would have to get back on the team, play his final season and get a pro football opportunity which he did for over a dozen years.
The players helped their teammate change his life in the process by wisely giving him a another chance. This was another reason why Johnny Vaught was one of the best college football coaches of all time.
After two great years in 1947 and 1948 Vaught's Rebels slumped and the alumni began to howl. Before the Golden Egg collision with arch-rival Mississippi9 State, the Rebel captain in a pre-game talk told his squad that they needed to win one for the coach. Vaught stood up and said: "Don't win it for me, win it for yourselves." And they did.
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Sylvester Croom will get some Coach of the Year support in his fine turnaround at Mississippi State. Beating Kentucky in Lexington was even sweeter than the win over Auburn on the Plains although beating Tommy Tuberville's Tigers was delicious for the Maroons as well. One more win will put State in the bowl picture. The SEC has eight definite bowl tie-ins. Bowl eligible teams have had to stay home uninvited. This happened to Ole Miss not too long ago.
1948 was even worse. Ole Miss went 8-1 losing only to Tulane, then whacked State in the Golden Egg tussle, 34-7, and then waited for the Cotton Bowl phone to ring. It never did. The Cotton Bowl invited the University of Oregon instead and Ole Miss stayed home. Of course, there were only a handful of bowl games then. To this day it leaves a bitter taste.
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Southern Miss looked pretty bad losing to Central Florida in Hattiesburg,a couple of weeks after losing to Rice in the Hub City. The Golden Eagles must get back in the win column to qualify for a bowl bid. UAB will be waiting in the weeds to top USM in Birmingham this weekend.
Millsaps" loss to Trinity in Jackson was the most bizarre finish in college football with over a dozen laterals in the final seconds leading to a loss for the Majors. It overshadowed the famous California-Stanford game. The only thing missing was the Millsaps band. Whoever set off those victory for Millsaps made the finish even more unbelievable.
Let the November football warfare begin.
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