Columnist and former OSU walk-on Barry Tramel with story on newsok.com - VERRRRY

ENLIGHTENING......(excerpt)
Full story in link.....

THIS is what should be in headlines in all the media.....

"Oklahoma State: Tales from a Les Miles walkon"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published: September 11, 2013 by Berry Tramel 27

30249551.I received an email today from Russ Cornelius, who was an OSU walkon from Dickson during the Les Miles era. Or at least tried to be. He had a fascinating take on the Sports Illustrated report, and I thought it was worth sharing. Great insight.
“Full disclosure about me: I walked on to the OSU football team as a wide receiver in the spring of 2002. I went through spring workouts and then spring football. At the end of the spring I had a meeting with Coach Miles during which he congratulated me for making the team. Two weeks before the season started, he cut me. No hard feelings, OSU was stacked at wide receiver and needed the roster spot. He told me to come back the following spring, which I did, and the exact same thing happened again. That was it. I was a practice dummy who never played a down. But I was present in the locker room and I knew who every player was. I was as much a member of the team as anyone during that time.
“Now let me stand up for Les Miles for a second. The Les Miles who led me on and cut me twice. In the team meeting room inside Gallagher-Iba Arena, we had a sign that had our goals for the year. No. 1: 100 percent graduation rate. No. 2: National Championship. No. 3: Big 12 Championship. In meetings, he would say things like ‘be sure you are going to class, some of you need to get your grades up and I know finals are this week, make sure you are making time to prepare for that.’ He also yelled at the whole team and gave a speech about setting an example when some players got in trouble with campus police for stealing bikes. I honestly believe he cared about our academics and our character.

“And let me fill you on another little secret: you want all of this to keep happening. You read that right. You want athletes to continue to get special treatment in academics because you are a sports fan and you want the best product on the field. This is America! Entertain me! You want your team to have the best players and let’s be honest, the best players aren’t always that smart. If you take away the academic special treatment from college sports, you get Princeton vs Harvard every Saturday. That might be fine for some, but it’s not Bedlam. You won’t get Alabama vs A&M or Michigan vs Ohio State. You get some superstar athletes that are fun to watch that never touch the field. Without academic special treatment, some college sports die. Again, I’m sorry to be the one to break this to you if the truth shocks you. Take all the time you need.

“Sex. This is one that really should be left alone, again because of The Fact. Athletes get special treatment from the opposite sex. This has nothing to do with the school. It’s life.

“Here’s what I know about Orange Pride. They give recruits a tour of campus and put bags of candy in lockers. That’s it. That’s not all they do, I’m sure, but that’s all I ever saw them do. The girls that I encountered were fans of sports, that’s why they joined the club. They weren’t hired by the coaching staff to have sex with recruits and players. Now, some of you may be familiar with Jersey Chasers and some may not, so I’ll fill you in. Jersey Chasers are girls that pride themselves on spending 1×1 time with athletes. It is entirely possible that a few Jersey Chasers used the Orange Pride program as a vehicle to gain access to players. That probably has happened. It’s entirely possible that some girl just developed a crush on a player and they had a relationship. It’s also entirely possible that we are talking about college kids having sex. Gasp. The program doesn’t enlist women to have sex with players because they don’t need to. That takes care of itself. Again, I’m so sorry. College kids have sex with each other and it’s probably easier for some athletes, if that’s what they want.

“At the end of the day, I question what we’ve really uncovered here. The answer: college kids acting like college kids. Most play by the rules and do the right thing, some don’t. Read the article again and replace OSU with any subset of students (ex: a fraternity) and it would be true. Replace football with almost any other sport and it would be true. Replace OSU with any other school and it would be true. I really hope that most people who read this learned absolutely nothing. ”


LINK