You Reap What You Sow

Rich Rodriguez, Head Coach for the Michigan Wolverines, was fired on Wednesday. In his three years as Michigan Head Coach, college football's winningest team went 15-22. He was 6-18 against Big Ten opponents and 0-6 against rivals Ohio State and Michigan State. His tenure at Michigan was marred by losses and NCAA violations. It will take Michigan's football program years to fully recover from the damage.

I only have one question. Did Rich Rodriguez ever go to Sunday School? Rich played for WVU when I went to school there. I don't personally know the man, but most of us from that generation went to Sunday School when we were kids. In my case it was CCD, Catholic Sunday school. And, unfortunately for me, it was held on Saturday mornings; so much for Saturday morning cartoons. While many of my friends were watching Scooby Doo, I was learning moral lessons. And one of the easiest ones was this: You reap what you so. I guess Rich skipped Sunday school that day. Perhaps if he didn't , he would not have treated his alma mater the way he did. And he would not be in the embarrassing situation he is in now.

You reap what you so. Mountaineer fans favorite saying right now. They are posting it all over the social media. It's actually an old concept. It's in several spots in the Bible: St. Paul states in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived. For God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap". The concept is also stated in Job 4:8, "As I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble reap the same". Trust me, a priest can go on for hours with this stuff. Buddhists have a similar concept known as Karma. A simple definition is that it is a process of cause and effect. If you do A, B will happen. If you accumulate Bad Karma, bad things will happen. You will reincarnate in a less desirable state. I wonder if there is a less desirable state than being Rich Rodriguez right now? Maybe he'll come back as a slug, but that might even be a step up.

Elbert Hubbard once said, "Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." Every religion seems to have some form of "You reap what you so". So how did Rich Rod miss this lesson? The fact is he didn't. This man was so caught up in himself he probably forgot many of the lessons we are supposed to adhere to every day. He was blinded by pride and greed. Hopefully he is relearning it now. Every Mountaineer fan is happy that he failed, including me, but that actually makes us just as bad as him.

Maybe we can all learn a lesson from Coach Rodriguez and come away better people. Maybe we can all not be so hard on Coach Stewart in his final season. We all know it's going to be a difficult situation for him. Maybe we can not be so consumed in our lust for a national championship that we curse him. Maybe we can send him off in style and be thankful for the the winning seasons he gave us. The man isn't a loser, even though I am guilty of calling him one. He just didn't get the program to the level we wanted. Let's all hope that Rich Rodriguez learned something. And let's hope that by watching him, we all learned something too.

Or we can all end up like this guy:

Who Was The Real Loser on Saturday Night?

With 19 seconds left in the prime time game between UConn and South Florida, UConn kicker Dave Teggart drilled a 52 yard game winning field goal to give the Huskies their first BCS birth. He simultaneously crushed the dreams of every Mountaineer fan in the country. The UConn Huskies sent the Mountaineers to the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 28th to face the NC State Wolfpack. A loss for the Mountaineers who, of course, wanted to represent the Big East in a BCS Bowl.

Who was the biggest loser on Saturday night? It might be the Mountaineers. But let's face facts. If WVU practiced a little better ball control, they would be in a BCS Bowl. Turnovers cost them the Syracuse and UConn games. It might be the Big East itself. The conference is now being represented in the BCS by an 8-4, unranked team. It could be the Fiesta Bowl. They will lose revenue and TV ratings by hosting Oklahoma against unranked OConn.

But in my opinion, the biggest loser was The Orange Bowl.

The Orange Bowl officials were watching the UConn/USF game just as intently as any Mountaineer or UConn fan. They wanted a UConn loss. They needed a UConn loss. They had a shot at a fantastic matchup. A matchup which would fill their stadium, something that hasn't happened in the last few Orange bowls. A matchup that would generate sports show talk. A matchup that would produce great television ratings, and therefore great revenue. They were licking their chops when UConn blew a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter. They were

rooting against that 52 yard field goal attempt with 19 seconds left. But the kick was good, and the Orange Bowl lost. They lost big. They lost a chance to reignite a rivalry. They lost a chance to have WVU and Virginia Tech meet in the Orange Bowl.

It would have been great. WVU and Tech had a great rivalry until Tech moved to the ACC. The two teams haven't played since. The Orange Bowl really lost. With the history the two teams have, the marketing would have written itself. What a shame.

So who was the biggest loser? You decide. The Mountaineers will play in good bowl, but not a great one. That's a loss. The Virginia Tech and West Virginia fans wont see a great bowl game between their schools. That's a loss. The Orange Bowl does get #4 Stanford against #13 Virginia Tech. So that's not a real big loss. You know what, I changed my mind. I know who the biggest loser is. This guy: