Tuesday Throwdeeps: Pigskin Recruiting, Linkster +++

That the US Open was still underway, and I hadn’t had an opportunity to write about it yet, did not deter The Professor from scolding me.

“So when are you going to give a shout out to former Cardinal golfer Adam Hadwin?

“He’s leading the US Open for heaven’s sake.”

He had me. I suppose.

Transparency here. As much as I love U of L sports, the golf team has never been on my radar. I had seen somebody mention somewhere that Hadwin was a former Cardinal, and thought, “That”s cool.”

My next thought, and how I responded to Prof, “Well, isn’t there always some guy we’ve never heard of atop the leaderboard after the first day, only to fade into his own parade?”

Which to Hadwin’s credit and doggedness, he did not, finishing T7 at -1.

Under par for an entire US Open. World class.

The Canadien graduated U of L in ’09, joined the PGA in ’15. and has a W stateside in something called the Vaspar Championship, and a pair of PGA victories north of the border.

So, my apologies to Hadwin, The Professor, and anybody else who might have been offended by my failure to acknowledge it sooner.

 * * * * *

Speaking of the long time chastiser of my existence — The Prof as linkster not the pro who sorta tamed the Country Club — he brought up Mike Pratt, mentioning how he’d played a few rounds of golf at the Standard Club with the former UK star and broadcaster.

“He was just a really good guy.”

Which is also the takeaway from my couple of interactions with Pratt in the Media Room before rivalry games. Nice fella.

And, as deep and true as his love was for the Wildcats, he was never dismissive or derisive toward U of L. Which in these contentious times, we could use more of. Both ways.

 * * * * *

I don’t follow recruiting for football the way I do for hoops.

But, oh my, something is obviously happening out at The Schnell, and I’m not really sure what it is.

The Cards are actually getting above the fold* headlines on national sports sites.

“Above the fold.” It’s old newspaper terminology. Look it up.

Five star RB. On top of a trio of four stars from hither and yon. On top of the last class, which was a considerable step up from recent times.

I couldn’t help but laugh at a spate of comments to the news at theathletic.com, the gist of which are, “Big NIL money.”

Who knew?

 * * * * *

OK, get ready for it, here comes my gratuitous, obligatory mention of Exxxx Bxxxx.

Need I spell out his name? Not really.

Anyway, I thought I’d read sometime back that the kid was going to do his reveal on June 20. Perhaps, I made it up, but that’s what I I remember what I remembered.

So, I went searchin’.

Nuttin, honey.

 * * * * *

I ran into a Jurich disciple the other day, an old pal I hadn’t seen in a long while, and about whom I’d forgotten how close he is with the former AD.

Our conversation was so absurd, I am just not comfortable diving into it here. Besides it’s time to get over the whole thing. Truly. Which I must keep reminding myself.

Two things. One was his level of passion about the whole deal, and how TJ was screwed over when terminated, and again during the latest process.

Two, the acolyte professed not to know who actually wrote The Letter. And wondered why I’d possibly care.

So, yeah, I gotta channel my inner Arthur Alexander and better move on.

— c d kaplan

 

4 thoughts on “Tuesday Throwdeeps: Pigskin Recruiting, Linkster +++

  1. As you might expect, my #1 passion is college foots. #2 is golf. I am not sure what is up with our football recruiting but I am not complaining. What’s funny to me is the traditional football powers complaining about our supposed NIL riches. A&M spent how much on NIL?

    I just hope we can hang on to the commits, cause the latest commit, Rueben Owens, looks like a Lamar clone at the RB…can we be so lucky?

    Played one hole with Hadwin when he was at UofL. He, like a lot of golfers, is not large at all…in fact, he looks much larger on tv than in person. Despite his diminutive size, he could really move the ball off the tee. Now, he is regarded as one of the shorter hitters on the PGA tour. The game has changed a lot since he graduated.

    I just hope that the LIV BS doesn’t ruin pro golf because as it stands now the PGA tour is the purest form of professional sports out there. To me, the PGA Commish is correct—the LIV guys are just playing exhibitions. I hope the lack of competition ruins all of their games and they never win anything outside of their own tour.

  2. Many are saying that Adidas gets a lot of credit for our football recruiting successes. Possibly trying to get right with us for the ongoing pain we are suffering from their Bowen debacle ? All this NIL stuff is so secretive. Hopefully, it will bust wide open one of these days. I’m a big Supreme Court fan these days, but they sure screwed the pooch on this one !

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