Over The Pylon

I can not begin to imagine how grueling fall camp can be. Practices day in, day out, away from home, at school early without time to go to Scotty’s or Carter’s, a virtually empty campus, living in the dorms, etc. At least this year’s Ball State preseason football campers got two fairly impressive visitors.

First on the list was Butler men’s basketball coach Brad Stevens and second was Ball State’s Kelly Packard, who coached last year’s women’s basketball team to a world shocking NCAA Tournament upset of Tennessee. Stevens led Butler to a 30-4 record in 2007-08 and one win in the NCAA Tournament. He followed that with a 26-6 mark and another NCAA appearance last season.

“They’re both winners, and we want winners talking to us about winning,” Parrish said of the invitations to Packard and Stevens in an interview with Doug Zaleski, viewable at the Star Press’s site. “Both had a great message, and it was the same kind of message about what it takes to win.”

Remember guys, there are no rims, nets, or pantsuits on the football field.

Some would say it’s not really applicable to invite coaches from different sports into a locker room to talk about success or winning. I disagree for two reasons. First, success is success. And this Cardinal team along with the women’s basketball team and Butler’s men’s team all faced a season that had the potential to be trying with flying colors. Second, there really isn’t any football coach in the state who I would want these kids taking lessons from. If you invited Purdue’s head coach Danny Hope, there is a great possibility he would recruit the BSU walkons since apparently that’s the best way to a Boiler scholarship. An invite of IU’s Bill Lynch would just be… awkward. Like when you run into your ex-girlfriend with your new really hot girlfriend. That just isn’t fair to Lynch. As for Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis, the state’s budget crisis has certainly limited the available catering options, plus, do we really need to learn how to lose games we shouldn’t?

Kudos to Coach Stan Parrish though for thinking outside the box and getting coaches and speakers in there to potentially motivate this team and these players to grab the MAC by the short hairs. And if he needs any other motivation, point to any preseason magazine who feel the MAC is simply one team named Central Michigan.

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The other big news today is that Red and Black Attack has directed the first installment of the MAC Roundtable. You can check our answers here. Were we hard on Buffalo? Perhaps. But unfortunately for them, they are the team I most despise right now. And until Saturdays begin again, I am a rageaholic without the needed rageahol.

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