re: South Carolina OL Na'ty Rodgers arrested

quote:

---

Key words. Both referring to arrests being reported AND players actually being arrested for the things they do.

---

All I can say is what I've seen while in student media at USC, a time period that began when Holtz was there, and ended under Spurrier. This idea that The State or Greenville News doesn't pay attention to the arrest reports in hopes of striking gold on a USC player is absolute horseshite. At the Daily Gamecock, we absolutely paid attention to the city and campus police reports, and we used to joke around about which papers' beat writers had already been by the police station for the arrest reports. Arrests were always reported as they came in, and there were informal competitions as to which paper could break the story the fastest.

There was, and has been, a significant difference between the way Holtz disciplined his players, and the way Spurrier has done so. There also has been a significant difference in the quality of person that has been recruited under each regime, with the notable exception of Garcia (who I don't think is a bad person, just a poor decision maker).

I tend to believe that the reason why UGA has a bigger reputation for arrests isn't so much because of the location of the school, or the opportunity to get in trouble, but the relative severity of the crimes when they happen. I don't give a crap about MIPs or jay walking, regardless of the school. But sexual assault (Mett), check fraud (just the other day), weapons charges (Crowell), etc., that's bigger news. And in the last four years, UGA has had arrests that fall into those categories.