A Sea Of Red

LU suspends cornerback
By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
October 19, 2007
Liberty cornerback Kent Hicks has been suspended indefinitely for academic reasons and will not make the trip to Charleston this weekend.

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports

Well now that's a problem.

shocking

what's shocking is that we didn't break this one.

what's happened to our "sources" around here?

good luck to Chuck Duffey- maybe HE can keep his yap shut and just play football

well some on the board get bent out of shape about breaking news...sorry should have called you shorty.

This is a tough one, but I must say that I admire Coach Rocco for making the player's academic success a priority. This is why we call them STUDENT athletes. Hopefully Kent can pull those grades up and get back on the field before the end of the season

No Kent Hicks, Tell me it ain't so!!

We're not alone in the challenges of personnel......

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/232/story/219534.html

Is this really a loss? I've read many posts that called for Hicks to be benched due to his attitude. As poorly as our secondary has performed in past games, maybe having a lesser known athlete in Hick's position will provide a spark- it can't get too much worse!

In my opinion this will be great for Chuck D to go out and prove himself. He'll play with a chip on his shoulder trying to prove he can start over Hicks. Coach said all week that there are numerous positions on defense that are up for a battle right now. This is one of them.

My experience with Duffey is that he has a great attitude. And Hicks was only 7th on the team in tackles (out of 11 starters), so that doesn't sound very high to me. Look for Duffey to get keep his nose clean and NOT get any any unsportsman-like flags thrown at him.

As a professor, it has to impress you that a coach is standing up for academics, right? That sounds like a dumb question, but I'm sure you've seen athletes not do much in the classroom and still play.

Super, I've been here for 22 years, and this is the first time that I can recall a coach disciplining a student-athlete at mid-semester: yes, it really makes me admire Coach Rocco and his support staff. Here's the quote that I really like:

Rocco said, "In order for him to be able to succeed, I need to buy some time for him [Hicks] to do nothing but (concentrate on school). So that what he's been doing all week. Nothing but academics."

That shows me that Rocco really cares about the student AND his academics.

WWRDD?

No this is not a shocking development to many on here but it can hopefully be resolved in the coming weeks. For all of his temperament issues that he is tryting to overcome, he is still a great athlete and losing him is not a positive no matter what some posters may feel.

As for why this was not posted earlier, we are dealing with a kid's grades.

Cider Jim wrote:Super, I've been here for 22 years, and this is the first time that I can recall a coach disciplining a student-athlete at mid-semester: yes, it really makes me admire Coach Rocco and his support staff. Here's the quote that I really like:

Rocco said, "In order for him to be able to succeed, I need to buy some time for him [Hicks] to do nothing but (concentrate on school). So that what he's been doing all week. Nothing but academics."

That shows me that Rocco really cares about the student AND his academics.

That's what I wanted to know. It's one thing to look at it from my perspective as a student, but to see the professor side of it is something I've never seen before.

And I attribute Rocco's perspective from all the years he spent at UVa, where they emphasize academics but still have a good football team, right Smoothy?
+ = (from a professor's perspective)

Cider Jim wrote:And I attribute Rocco's perspective from all the years he spent at UVa, where they emphasize academics but still have a good football team, right Smoothy?
+ = (from a professor's perspective)

I will add the obvious, from a professor's perspective...

some would argue differently cider about UVA's football program, but for the most part they have been fairly successful and maintained good academic standards. im glad coach rocco did this. it really helps to establish our credibility as an athletic program and an academic institution.

Notice the "academic lab" pic in the FOC: http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm? ... 9&TeamID=9
Let's hope our suspended CB spends more time there so he can soon be back on playing field.

Cider Jim wrote:Super, I've been here for 22 years, and this is the first time that I can recall a coach disciplining a student-athlete at mid-semester: yes, it really makes me admire Coach Rocco and his support staff. Here's the quote that I really like:

Rocco said, "In order for him to be able to succeed, I need to buy some time for him [Hicks] to do nothing but (concentrate on school). So that what he's been doing all week. Nothing but academics."

That shows me that Rocco really cares about the student AND his academics.

Its happened before....Phil Ward comes to mind i believe. Took him over a month to get this grades straight before he was reinstated to the basketball team.

Rocket, but did that happen mid-semester?

Rocketfan wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:Super, I've been here for 22 years, and this is the first time that I can recall a coach disciplining a student-athlete at mid-semester: yes, it really makes me admire Coach Rocco and his support staff. Here's the quote that I really like:

Rocco said, "In order for him to be able to succeed, I need to buy some time for him [Hicks] to do nothing but (concentrate on school). So that what he's been doing all week. Nothing but academics."

That shows me that Rocco really cares about the student AND his academics.

Its happened before....Phil Ward comes to mind i believe. Took him over a month to get this grades straight before he was reinstated to the basketball team.

Actually, that's not necessarily the case. It's not that he got his grades straight -- in fact, just the opposite -- the coaches found a loophole. Instead of getting his grades straight, the coaches enrolled him in a few distance learning courses. Because the due date in those classes was so far in the future (like March 15th, or something), he didn't have to actually turn work in until after the basketball season ended -- and thus had an A average in the class until then -- which boosted his GPA.

Not saying that this is going to happen to this football player, just wanted to throw out that anecdote.

Cider Jim wrote:Rocket, but did that happen mid-semester?

and yes, it did happen mid-semester.