The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Beer and wings for thought

Commentary

Not long after I started at the Daily Egyptian, I learned the power of the pen. After writing a column bashing the football team, I unassumingly walked into my journalism class a couple minutes late and heard people talking about how they were going to bury someone upside down on the 50-yard line.

The only open seat was next to that guy, so I sat down. My journalism professor so nicely pointed out to the obviously upset fellow student that I was the one who bashed the football team.

That upset football player turned out to be Jeff Morton, who had quite a few words to say to me.

As stupid as it was to lambaste the football team just a couple weeks after I was hired, the resurgence of the program has made me wish I'd never written that. Unlike most of his predecessors, Jerry Kill can coach football, and now maybe SIU can be a basketball school with a decent football program.

Just don't let those leeches in Champaign hire him to revitalize their decrepit football program.

But even after enraging the entire football program, I didn't learn my lesson.

Last spring, I wrote a column suggesting that the cheerleaders actually lead cheers. That led to my receiving a thinly veiled threat from one of the male cheerleaders a few days later. While I didn't enjoy that, at least I know someone actually reads this drivel.

I still haven't seen cheerleaders attempting to involve the crowd in games, but maybe with their new coach they'll come around sometime this basketball season to actually do what they're there to do.

Regardless of whether the cheerleaders are semi-competent at something other than acrobatics, I'd like to remind you of the importance of taking your time in college.

If I had graduated in four years, I'd have missed some great moments in SIU sports.

Like Kent Williams leading the Salukis back from six points down last season at Southwest Missouri State in the land of B.A.S.S. Pro Shops.

Or the NCAA tournament second-round game two seasons ago when SIU overcame a huge deficit to shock Georgia and make the Sweet 16.

Or the football team's comeback at Western Kentucky last month, a game where the WKU mascot wanted to fight me after I informed him of his suckiness from the third row of the bleachers.

But one thing I wouldn't have missed had I graduated was all those women's basketball games. In her three years of occupying an office just feet from our very talented men's basketball coaches, Lori Opp has apparently learned nothing.

After seeing the success the men's team has had redshirting players, Opp has decided she knows better. With seven newcomers, some of whom barely make it into games, Opp has decided her players will see more improvement playing a few minutes a game than sitting out and working on their game in practice.

The importance of keeping her players around for the summer has also apparently not rubbed off.

The football and men's basketball teams have kept players in Carbondale for the summer with great results. The SIU women's basketball team had two players in Carbondale this summer, and the Salukis are now 0-4.

But other than that one example of poor play, Paul Kowalczyk deserves our thanks for rescuing our beloved Saluki Athletic Department from mediocrity and giving fans something we can be proud of once again.

And I'd like to thank beer and wings for giving me the fuel I need to continue writing long and rambling columns.