When I initially did the “Lessons in SMU Hate” feature the other day, it was really just because I hadn’t posted anything in a while and ridiculing SMU happens to be a passion of mine, so it seemed like a no brainer. In fact, ridiculing things about Dallas culture in general is a natural activity of mine – and yes, I realize the inherent irony here considering Dallas is also the place where I live, but hey, my job is here and I’ve got mouths to feed – so establishing this as an off-season recurring post really goes hand in hand with my personality. I just didn’t expect Lesson #2 to arrive so soon.
Enter Clifton Murphy.
For those of you who don’t follow recruiting religiously – and, if you don’t, what is it that you do with your workday, exactly? – Clifton Murphy is a 6-5, 230 pound defensive end recruit from Little Elm (where?) and is the newest commit for the 2010 recruiting class.
Except not exactly.
For you see, TCU Is young Clifton’s dream school and sometimes you have to make sacrifices to achieve your dreams. Until yesterday, Clifton was an SMU commit, and had also been mulling over offers from New Mexico State and conference rival Colorado State. But he just couldn’t get the Frog fever out of his head. Unfortunately for Clifton, the current recruiting class isn’t looking for any defensive end prospects. So – and this is where it gets totally gut punching for the Ponies – Murphy, desperately wanting to be a Horned Frog, made a compromise: He would still come to TCU, but as a greyshirt. What this means is that Murphy, who is graduating from high school this year, will choose to wait and enroll at TCU next January, and thus become a part of the 2011 class, which still has plenty of availability.
Basically what Murphy has done is turned down the chance to be a guaranteed scholarship athlete next fall at SMU and will voluntarily attend Junior College during his first semester so that he can be a Horned Frog. Personally, cash rules everything around me, and having an immediately guaranteed scholarship to another program – read: no junior college – would likely be a big selling point, but, you see, Clifton possesses something we all have deep inside of us, and in droves.
Clifton has SMU hate. He’s basically saying, “Hey SMU, thanks for the interest, but I’m so not interested in your program, I’d rather pay for my schooling next semester, at a junior college no less, so that I DON’T have to come play for you.” He’s basically telling June Jones thanks, but how could I trust my future to a man who wears Hawaiian shirts on the sideline? He’s basically saying he’d rather at least wait until he gets to the pros to develop a raging drug addiction. Conference USA? More like Conference Poo-SA. Most of all, though, he’s personifying the fact that TCU is and will continue to be taken more seriously than SMU and that even with the two million dollar man, the Ponies still have a long way to go before they’re eligible for "big time college football program" status. You can buy a coach and you can buy your players, but you can’t buy a winning tradition.
Clifton may not have the hate that drives Texas Hammer to open palm slap a man in the middle of a crowded restaurant on his birthday simply because he went to SMU, but the fact that he’s passing up a guaranteed scholarship this year just so he can play for the Frogs next year should let us all know who our favorite TCU player will be during the 2011 season.
And that's today's lesson in SMU Hate.
2 comments:
Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is TCU giving SMU a serious recruiting bitch slap. Suck it, June.
Rock on Clifton! I admire that in a man.
Swimming at TCU years ago, we hated those pompous bastards from SMU. When they came to Ft. Worth for a dual meet, we posted signs in the toilet stalls in the visitor's locker room that said "Congratulations, you've just given birth to an SMU Mustang." Only a moral victory, I'll admit, but satisfying nonetheless.
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