In 1953 I was in a history class at Ole Miss with one of Coach Johnny Vaught’s linemen.
I liked the professor, who seemed to take a liking to me — maybe because history was among my favorite subjects, and I paid attention and took notes in class.
The football player apparently was not concentrating as much on history as most of us in the class, and one day the professor asked him if he was a “redshirt,” one of those who practiced against the varsity but was held out of games to preserve a year of eligibility while the player developed and improved his skills.
“Yes, sir,” was the polite reply. “Well, you stand a good chance of redshirting in this class if you don’t start improving,” the prof said.
What sparks this bit of irrelevant history is a new rule on redshirts taking effect in college football this year, as well as other news related to the sport that many of us enjoy in the fall.
It is that time of year when official practices for the fall season have begun, and coaches will be figuring out whom to redshirt and whom to play — at least for those for whom the decision hasn’t already been made.
What’s different this year is that coaches can allow a player to participate in actual games in a limited capacity and still redshirt.
Under a new NCAA rule, players will now be allowed to play in up to four games and still qualify for a redshirt season, keeping four years of eligibility. In the past, playing just one game could cost a player an entire season of eligibility.
Coaches say the change will provide needed roster depth, improve player development and avoid difficult choices on whether to insert a promising freshman in a game if a starter at a key position goes down to injury.
The rule change is being met with accolades by both players and coaches. In effect, it gives players a chance to participate in actual games for five years, provided they play in no more than four games during one of them. Many of the best ones, of course, will turn professional a year or two before their fifth year.
Something else that’s new this year in some states, including Mississippi, is that you can legally bet on college and professional ballgames, provided you lay down the bet at a casino.
Actually, it has been fairly easy to place bets on football games for years if you knew the local bookie, and those most interested in such gambling usually got to know him.
It was illegal, but I don’t recall anyone in the localities where I reported being arrested for it.
I wonder if legal sports betting — especially if it eventually becomes possible to place bets online as some predict will happen — will put local bookies out of business.
Here in Oxford, where Ole Miss players reported to fall camp a few days ago, there may not be as much excitement about the prospects for this season as there has been in many other years, given the fact that the NCAA has not ruled on the university’s appeal and the Rebels remain under a bowl ban this season.
But there’s certainly a lot less angst than this time last year, when head coach Hugh Freeze had just been fired and it was still not known exactly what penalties the football program would sustain from NCAA rules violations.
Now sports columnists are writing about Ohio State coach Urban Meyer instead of Freeze. Meyer has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is under way on how much he knew about the domestic abuse allegations one of his longtime assistants is facing.
In another bit of coaching news, former Baylor Coach Art Briles, who was fired in 2016 amid a sexual assault scandal involving several of his players, is reported to have finally landed another job: coaching what is said to be an American football team in Italy.
Big time coaches get paid a lot — probably too much when compared to history professors. But when things go wrong on their watch, be it losing too much or a scandal, they don’t get redshirts. They get fired.
Taking all the good and the bad about college football into consideration, I’m still one of those who is ready for the games to begin.
