Samuel made the wrong choice, and he got burned
It can't feel good to be Tony Samuel today.
But why should it? The Southeast football coach faced the decision Saturday whether to start Houston Lillard after the quarterback's arrest five days earlier, his second since July 4.
Samuel chose to put pride over principle, and Lillard's response? He threw three interceptions, got yanked before halftime and was replaced by a freshman against Missouri State. Southeast went on to lose its third game in a row.
Southeast, by way of Samuel, had an opportunity to tell the community and the team that character matters more than winning a game. But Samuel blew it. The signal that beamed out of Houck Stadium on Saturday is that anything goes in Southeast football, because already, it has.
Lillard, 22, was arrested Monday in Cape Girardeau for failure to appear in court to face charges of public urination, for which he was first arrested July 4. Lillard's excuse: He was so focused on football that he forgot his court date.
Such a flimsy excuse doesn't pass muster in the U.S. legal system, and it wouldn't hold up anywhere else where logic outweighs selfish priorities. But at Southeast, that excuse was enough for Samuel.
Sure, Southeast can counter that they handled the matter internally, the standard line when college athletes go wild and the punishment is a slap on the wrist. And sure, supporters can claim that Lillard is an all-around nice guy who just made a mistake.
But nice guys don't merit a free pass when they break the law, and forcing Lillard to run extra laps after practice doesn't count as punishment for betraying his team with two arrests in a little over three months.
Lillard shouldn't have started Saturday. Period.
And for Samuel, a third-year coach still trying to prove he's the right man to rebuild the Southeast football program, his decision Saturday leaves a lot of doubt.
8 comments:
Lillard was not orginally arrested, he received a ticket.
Give em' hell, Jamie. You and Mark are the only ones that will.
It may have been the wrong decision to start Lillard, in your opinion. Let the coach coach and he will let you write.
carte blanche for the coach, huh?
keep calling them the way you see them, Jamie!!
I completely agree with you Jamie. Semo was going to lose that game whether Lillard was starting or not, so Samuel should have sat him so that way at least he could have some excuse for not winning, again. Semo athletics is becoming stupid and the area is starting to pick up on it. Hint to administrators and coaches: Quit bringing in piece of trash thugs who don't go to class and don't care about getting in trouble and flaunt a victory against a D-II team and piss on public sidewalks and don't show up to court bc they're too wrapped up in a sport. Better yet, get rid of coaches who allow that crap. I'm so tired of hearing about how Samuel is such a good guy and disciplinarian and blah blah blah blah blah. He can't win football games, he recruits thugs, and he allows his players to break the law more than once and not suffer any consequences on the field. Tony Samuel is a joke.
To the anonymous person who said "let the coach coach."
Glady, when he starts, please let me know.
You can't possible defend Samuel on this one. There is no logic behind his decision.
Ozzie, good point. Tony Samuel hasn't proven at all that he can coach. And his players haven't proven that they can play. This just adds up to a bad football program.
Tony will show me he can coach when his teams stop making the same mistakes week in and week out; giving up big plays on special teams, a defense that can't tackle most of the time and an offense that, at times, deliberately looks like it is not trying to score.
http://semoball.com/gallery/092108-semo-mo-state1/
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