The Kansas City Royals are set to take on the St. Louis Cardinals beginning tonight, and I’m a little over a week from closing on the purchase of my first home.
- Pretty certain my closing process is going 100x more swimmingly than it did the last two nights for the Milwaukee Brewers and closer John Axford, who blew two straight saves in KC.
- Last-out comebacks, two nights a row, for the Royals?
- Not even Brayan Peña’s potential base running blunder on first could save the Brewers, who found out Jarrod Dyson is really fast — superhero fast enough to race home, erase Peña’s wide-turning mistake and get a sweep.
- I hate “what ifs,” but what if the Royals don’t inexplicably lose 12 games in a row earlier this year? Say the team is just .500 in that stretch. The current 27-34 record is instead a 33-28 mark.
- Which, at the moment, would be good for a percentage point first-place tie atop the American League Central standings.
- Sigh.
- I don’t expect Kansas State to be near the top of the Big 12 football standings this season.
- Last year was great, but that team just seemed blessed in every sense of the word.
- And, there weren’t problems like senior offensive tackle Manase Foketi going home, saying he wants out of the program.
- K-State, I know you heavily paraded your strict scholarship-release rule about five years ago, but that was to force a group of heralded basketball signees to remain loyal and save your program. That wasn’t this situation.
- If Foketi’s story is true, his own position coach, Charlie Dickey, had no problem telling his senior how much better the line was without him.
- Per KSU policy, scholarship agreements aren’t broken “except for the most compelling of circumstances which place an undue burden on the student athlete.”
- Your coach telling you that you aren’t wanted seems to fit as “undue.”
- Besides, it’s not really a “family” when you force someone to stay.
- He has his degree, let the kid go.
- The absolutely stellar annual Rock Chalk Roundball Classic was held last night in Lawrence.
- Three more local families who have been affected by cancer were shown true support by their KU friends and family.
- If you’ve not gone before, put it on your calendar for next year. You see a collection of basketball talent most places never will, and performances like Keith Langford going off for 47 points in a 111-110 game.
- And, you help save lives.
Yes, he has his degree – that was K-State’s part of the deal. What was Foketi’s? Playing – I don’t know much about scholarships, but that seems like a contract to me.
If they grant him his release, do they get to take the degree back?
I see a couple of things. 1) Based on Foketi’s side, which is what we have, K-State did next to nothing to make him want to stay. Had KSU shown a little more in supporting him, maybe Foketi changes his mind. But, we have the Charlie Dickey reference, which basically says his immediate coach/manager/boss made it clear he wasn’t important and/or wasn’t wanted. Who wants to stay in that environment? Especially when you’re thinking you may want to leave anyways? Also, 2) We don’t know what plans Foketi had pre-injury, meaning he likely planned on being done with KSU by now. He earned his degree, in a normal undergraduate time frame, which now raises a good point by you: should scholarship requirements extend past undergrad? The guy put in his “normal time.” The injury extended that. He wants to leave. Does he have an obligation to extend time that would have never been an issue had he not gotten hurt? I don’t think he does, but then again, I normally side with athletes in these cases because I think schools hold way too much power when it comes to this stuff.
You faulted KSU for not pulling some other incoming freshman’s scholarship to give to Luc, now you expect KSU to give a release to Foketi. Do you have no concept of loyalty or commitment? I, for one, am sure glad Bill Snyder does.
I just have a hard time believing the coaches (who recruited Foketi in the first place, remember) just flat out started telling Foketi they didn’t want him around anymore.
Reading between the lines, it sounds to me like they were unhappy with Foketi’s work ethic, and trying to motivate him to practice better by telling him he couldn’t just expect to come back next year and be the starter when last year’s line did OK without him.
I do think it was a little suspect of Foketi to get KSU to give him that medical reshirt, and who knows how much free medical care, just to leave the next year.
But ultimately I think it makes KSU look bad, so they should probably let him go.
Re: Dickey’s comments, sounds like they’d be motivation for most – a “we’re doing fine, so if you want to play, you have to work” sentiment.
Too, I’d think a player would want to stick around and play out what could be a really good year, take some grad classes and see what happens.
You might be right on Dickey. It’s impossible to know what was actually said, how it was meant, etc. … and, you might be right again about wanting to finish something you had started, which makes me wonder what happened that Foketi thought things were bad enough he flat refused to return.