CFB AM: Tulane players take strong stance vs. violence towards women

Published Oct. 1, 2014 9:00 a.m. ET

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Teddy Mitrosilis

The most chilling fear about the ugly stretch of domestic violence news the NFL was just dragged through with Ray Rice is, specifically, that it’s just one ugly stretch.

Just a finite period of time we’d all rather forget and will soon enough.

While there has been progress made in the national discourse regarding domestic violence and violence towards women in the last month, how much real progress has been made on the real issue?

Impossible to say.

What we do know is that no significant and lasting change will occur if the conversations simply fade out once the news cycle turns cold, so what the Tulane football program has done is important and vital.

Tulane players recently created a video to take a stand against violence towards women. Numerous players appeared on camera to speak about the issue and to challenge everyone to “take the pledge” to stop violence against women.

Surely, some will mock the players for this, but that’s unimportant. What’s important is continuing to push the message and protect its place at the forefront of social discussions we have every day.

With that in mind, job well done Tulane. Here is the video.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Your latest happy update from Ann Arbor: A fire Dave Brandon rally occurred Tuesday night with almost 1,000 students and supporters gathering to express their displeasure with the athletic director. They chanted “Down with David,” “Fire Brandon” and “Hire Harbaugh.” Here’s what it sounded like:

Then some of the protesters marched to the on-campus home of new Michigan president Mark Schlissel to lead chants in his front yard. There were estimates around the Internet of a “couple hundred” at Schlissel’s house, but this view from the president’s front porch seems like more than that:

It’s sort of strange to see students rally together to go after the AD rather than the failing coach – how many students actually understand the scope of an athletic director’s job? – but that’s what’s happening here. Michigan students cried out about the “absolute mismanagement of this school’s athletic department under Dave Brandon.”

One student even wore an Ohio State sweatshirt to the rally as a form of protest and said he wouldn’t wear Wolverines gear again until Brandon is fired.

In reality, it could be difficult for Michigan to fire Brandon at this time. The university would have to eat $3 million (yes, it’s a school with money, but it’s still three mil) and overcome the fact that Brandon has support from some of Michigan’s power boosters stemming from his ability to raise funds for important projects.  Replacing him now may also put Michigan in a tough spot regarding hiring Hoke’s successor.

On Tuesday, Schlissel followed up Brandon’s statement with one of his own apologizing to Morris and Michigan’s players. "As the leader of our university community, I want to express my extreme disappointment in the events surrounding the handling of an on-field injury to one of our football players," Schlissel said. "Despite having one of the finest levels of team medical expertise in the country, our system failed on Saturday. We did not get this right.”

Meanwhile, Michigan players are relieved they’re going on the road this week to Rutgers and getting out of Ann Arbor.

Last thing before we move on: Joel Klatt’s comments at the beginning of this clip are strong and worth hearing. Klatt says somebody at Michigan needs to lose their job over how Morris was handled, and he’s speaking from an emotional well that’s personal. Klatt’s football career was essentially ended from concussions at Colorado, and he’s “sickened” by how this played out given all we know about concussions and CTE now. He’s right.

2. Some great news appears to be coming Georgia’s way: Barring setbacks, receivers Malcolm Mitchell and Justin Scott-Wesley will return from knee injuries this week to make their 2014 debuts against Vanderbilt. Both WRs were deep threats for UGA last season and they return at a time when the Dawgs rank 77th in the country in passing yards per attempt at 6.8. To me, Georgia seems like the only team in the SEC East that could realistically have a chance of beating the West representative in the league title game. The East has a number of teams that could ruin it for somebody else – South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, potentially Florida – but none of those strike me as equals to Georgia.

3. A Cincinnati staffer was fired after his arrest on a sex abuse charge for allegedly pulling his penis out in a pharmacy and repeatedly putting it on the “backside” of a 73-year-old-woman who was helping him find vitamins.

Um …

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer says QB Braxton Miller, currently sitting out the season with a shoulder injury, is returning to Ohio State in 2015. That might be true, but it’s far too early to present that as fact. I hope it happens, though. It’d be superb for college football and make the Buckeyes a playoff favorite entering next season.

2. Oregon will wear special uniforms on Thursday night against Arizona in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. These are really cool:

3. Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel have a new episode of The Audible out in which they discuss a lot of Brady Hoke and Michigan, and Feldman drops this gem: When Brandon was deciding on Michigan’s current coach, he chose Hoke over … Kevin Sumlin. Ouch. Give the pod a listen as you’re working today – lots on all the great games of Week 6, too.

THREE THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW

1. NC State coach Dave Doeren apologized for accusing Florida State of faking injuries when the two teams played last week. Here’s Doeren’s apology via NC State’s Twitter feed:

2. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs did a really nice thing: He wrote a letter to the Kansas State student newspaper thanking K-State’s AD and student body for their hospitality during Auburn’s recent trip to Manhattan. Nice gesture.

3. A Louisville commit makes a sweet one-handed TD grab in double coverage. Take a look:

LASTLY

* Here’s this week’s hit on The Eric Hasseltine Show in Memphis talking Brady Hoke and Michigan, Ole Miss-Alabama and much more from Week 6. Always a blast to join Eric’s show.

* If you’d like to see the Ohio State strength coach hit one more time – and why wouldn’t you – here’s Jim Ross calling the action.

* Pat Forde runs through some schedules of undefeated teams and ranks them from least to most likely to remain undefeated through October.

* One of my favorite things about writing CFB AM is the interaction with readers, which is why my email is listed at the bottom of each post and the column is intentionally written in a way that’s meant to be conversational and engage. I always encourage you to reach out via email or Twitter.

So to end today, I want to give a shout out to reader Pete ReHill from Stirling, New Jersey, for sending this video along of Iowa State’s band performing a “Lego Show” this past weekend. Pete is a full-time marching band drill designer contracted by ISU to design the show. I asked him to explain what it’s like to design something like this, as I assume most fans don’t have great insight or a full appreciation (I certainly didn’t) for the kind of time that goes into putting together a halftime performance. In Pete’s words:

“Yes the Lego man took me a while to figure out how to design. I practiced just designing the legs and hips and figuring out how to make them move across the field. I found some videos on YouTube of Lego people walking and that was a big help to study. Once I felt like I had the movement down I put in the number of woodwinds & brass that Iowa State was marching and then pieced it all together. Definitely took hours of work to figure it out but the effort was worth it because it looks really cool. Hopefully the kids had fun performing it too.”

Thanks again, Pete. Here’s the video.

Have a great Wednesday, all.

Teddy Mitrosilis is an editor and writer for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.

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