• Welcome to Green Bay Packers NFL Football Forum & Community!
    Packer Forum is one of the largest online communities for the Green Bay Packers.

    You are currently viewing our community forums as a guest user.

    Sign Up or

    Having an account grants you additional privileges, such as creating and participating in discussions. Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member! Furthermore, we hide most of the ads once you register as a member!

Matt Patchan Transferring

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Well, this is as good a place as any:
Matt Patchan's has found that "Medical Redshirt"/SIXTH-year-of-eligibility deal that he'll use immediately, to either "follow Urban Meyer to Ohio State" or (get this) join Addazio at Boston College...You gotta know Meyer, "Mr. Honor and Loyalty", won't "waste space on a crip" unless (1) he has PLENTY of room AND there's some advantageous angle he's been apprised of, or (2) has strong reassurance that Patchan is in magically good health--whereas The Dive Master and BC are likely willing and desperate (I mean, they hired The Dazzler, fer cryin' out loud!) enough to take ANY chance to get their hands on even perennial damaged goods that at least ONCE was "coveted 4-star-material"...
Let me get this straight: We patiently stand by this kid thru thick and thin--almost entirely "THIN"--for FIVE YEARS, keep renewing his scholarship through it all, and at the first sign of a crack-in-the-dark-clouds, wherein he is finally healthy AND the NCAA grants him an extra, or SIXTH "medical-year" of eligibility, and he immediately skips out on us?!! The only reason I think he MIGHT in fact be heading for tOSU is that this has the odor and greasy fingerprints of the sleazy, practiced and well-rationalized "reverse-loyalty" and zero-honor of an Urban Meyer-move all OVER it...Meanwhile, the idea that his fall-back position is Boston College, under the circumstances makes you wonder if part of his medical history involves too many big hits-to-the-head.
You can bet our Head Coach's view of these issues played a large part in us letting him go quietly and unfettered now. We've managed without him, and I am SURE that our plans along the OL already assumed that Patchan, one way or another (ie. whether he were granted such a special dispensation or NOT--one that our doctors, trainers and coaches helped him apply for, supporting and guiding him through the process, btw: that's the behind-the-scenes-word from Athletic Dept. mutterings), was unlikely to be counted on in any event--BUT still: even if no honor, no loyalty, and no judgment count as great reasons for not WANTING him, it remains one more slap-in-the-face. Do WE stand by the NEXT one who may be taking-what-he-can-get, until he thinks he's gotten all he could and that someone else can offer him more?
I hope so: at least as long as "the next one" doesn't have such close ties to a previous regime whom we by then KNOW are slime...Because that is who and what we are dealing with here--as opposed to the kind of determined, hard-driving kid who keeps working and staying upbeat and a good-teammate through-it-all, and DESERVES "one more chance"--with the team and program he loves, and who stood by HIM. These folks, on-the-other-hand all deserve each other: WE just need to be a little more careful about subsidizing their growth. Evidently, after our experience with The Liar in those last months and weeks of HIS tenure here, we should have more carefully sterilized our environment before now.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Patchan has to leave the SEC, because it has closed the loophole allowing sixth year medical redshirts, starting this year. Patchan has nowhere to go, but to a former coach in B1G or Big East.

Matt Patchan did a lot for the Gators. He switched to DL when injuries plagued the defense, then moved back home to offense. He just had dumb luck with injuries.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Um, he COULD have STAYED, E-. No: One is faced with choices in this life--and seldom is "right" and/or "wrong" less "clouded" than here...Sorry: I respect your opinion AND "effort-at-fairness", Gator, but I refuse to make, or accept, excuses for this kind of sh*t.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Not true. He could not have stayed. Patchan's football career is over in the SEC. Those are the rules. He graduated this month, and he has no playing time in 2012 for NFL scouts to evaluate. He can play a sixth year in any B1G or Big East team, or any team outside of SEC or Pac-12. No team will take a chance on an oft-injured player, other than a former OL coach or head coach. Sounds right by me. Otherwise, he takes his diploma with a degree in sports science and does what?
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Not true. He could not have stayed. Patchan's football career is over in the SEC. Those are the rules. He graduated this month, and he has no playing time in 2012 for NFL scouts to evaluate. He can play a sixth year in any B1G or Big East team, or any team outside of SEC or Pac-12. No team will take a chance on an oft-injured player, other than a former OL coach or head coach. Sounds right by me. Otherwise, he takes his diploma with a degree in sports science and does what?
If that is the case, then I am wrong and I retract MOST of my complaint...I have re-read some of the articles AND the actual ruling again, and while the articles themselves don't mention this, (ie. your insistence that he HAD to not only leave US but the SEC to get this 6th year of eligibility), the actual ruling neither makes it clear nor CONTRADICTS your point/interpretation...Honestly, E-, yours is the ONLY one that outright INSISTS that this is the proper interpretation...Indeed, the very fact that the news coverage has been that UF "released Patchan" to go elsewhere (AND grouped him together with Saunders' leaving), and that Muschamp has "approved it", would SEEM to indicate that he still had eligibility HERE--in fact, seems to only makes sense IF he COULD have stayed but didn't want to and we permitted his leaving...
Certainly I could be excused, over all, for getting that impression (...Moreover, I will have to find the Ohio State-themed news-piece where they happily BRAGGED about "Meyer quietly putting this bug in Patchan's ear" with an eye towards "picking him up if he passes physical later", thereby "grabbing another of his loyal talent" back from the Gators, even going so far as to smirking about him doing a certain amount of that "while he still had an office in Gator headquarters" (!!!)...It REALLY pissed me OFF at the time). Nonetheless, as I say, if it DOES turn out that you are correct and that I simply jumped to the wrong conclusion based on both MY information, and yes, my resentment of Meyer, the-fool-at-BC, and ANYONE who would BY CHOICE turn their back on us so easily (such as would be the case if I were RIGHT about Patchan), then I wrongly jumped to that conclusion and I would feel badly and apologize for my mistake...BUT for now that is conditional upon learning for sure if this IS the case.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Let us assume Patchan could stay at Florida. He would not break into the starting line up. He was recruited in 2008 as a zone blocker in Meyer's offense. Muschamp wants his offensive line to be man-handlers, not space eaters. Patchan gets hurt every time he tries to wrestle a defensive lineman.

He is a good kid, but he needs to move on if he wants to continue playing football. On top of that, we need 25 scholarships to be available for 25 verbal commitments in 2013.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
OK--Whole different argument--one that I could accept completely OUTSIDE the less-honorable aspects of the larger context, and, now that you put it in THOSE terms, one that is easy to walk away from less emotionally even so. Certainly Muschamp and Co. "letting go" once again with quiet dignity does fit with both that reality and their way of handling "mutually beneficial partings", REGARDLESS of any less-than-glamorous over- and undertones that may also be involved. I just get tired of the "tainted underbelly" aspects of this whole process--and obviously I am hair-trigger when it comes to our former-coaches' (especially Meyers') meddling in our affairs. However, as long as I leave that out of it and see it in the way you expressed it above, amounting to another "good for both parties" situation (and LITTLE of the "never mind that he's a loser" aspects of other such exits, for eg. like with Saunders--at the same time ignoring the possibilities of the aforementioned "meddling", and not poke and prod at it all too closely), it immediately begins not only to bother me less, but actually to seem like a good idea. Funny how that works: It IS a matter of taking the same information and looking at it all another way, stressing certain aspects and either downplaying or ignoring completely some others in order to get there, but I can accept the practical and realistic aspects of doing just that, now that I look at it that way.
Bottom line: The moment I drop the self-righteous "We're being abused by someone we stood by, and it might well have involved the encouragement of Coach X", and instead turn to the reasoning, "We really can't use him, we wouldn't normally abandon him, but since this is what HE wants and needs, and it turns out better for US in several ways ANYWAY", well, what is my BEEF, really, right?
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
I will play devil's advocate. Give Matt Patchan to Urban Meyer. So what? He plays a couple downs at tOSU and gets injured again when they play a large team such as Wisconsin or Penn State. Big deal.

Just because we are just now in recent years getting visibility into where second and third string players transfer to it does not mean that all of a sudden Ohio State is poaching Florida talent. Nebraska squashed Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl using a QB from the state of Florida, a kid that the Gators recruited as WR or CB. The Louisville football team has a few former Gator players and former Gator verbal commitments. North Alabama usually has a couple former Gator troublemakers, and an occasional former second stringer that "was mysteriously injured in his redshirt junior year".

The fact is that we NEED players like Matt Patchan--those who served us well, but leave on good terms to make room for another scholarship. He is a good kid. He stayed out of trouble. He switched from offense to defense and back. He practiced hard. He got injured a lot, and that sucks. He was not healthy enough or adaptive enough to survive this new system, so he needs to go elsewhere, anywhere, to make room for incoming talent. If Shariff Floyd, Matt Elam, or Jordan Reed do not enter the NFL draft, we need another good kid like Patchan to leave. When they leave, we should not get upset about where they go, especially if they go to a team not on our schedule. Even the Suckeyes.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
In honor of Matt Patchan's service to the Florida Gators, here is his [bio].
CAREER:
Has seen action in 27 games, with eight starts during his tenure as a Gator…Made 11 appearances as a true freshman on the defensive line, but switched back to the offensive line during the spring of 2009.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Word is ("situation has been clarified...", according to "sources close to him") he's going to be joining The Dazzling Dive Master at BC--which makes more sense: While Meyer would likely have "flirted with him" just in CASE he came up "fully recovered" (AND looked to be finally hitting the promise he once showed when Meyer originally recruited him), that "either/or" we heard about anything short of "near certainty" was likely to land him at BC instead.
That being the situation, I accept your point--but we are really making two separate arguments. The "mutual benefit/right up front" thing is fine, even admirable--but nothing you can say will henceforth convince me that this is how Urban MEYER either thinks or operates: THAT much we've had all too well-proven, even rubbed in our FACES. I know honor and loyalty are mainly a thing of the past--true for some men AND programs more than others--I'm just proud of and glad that we now have a coach that DOESN'T just "talk" it. It's good it works out for us AND Matt, then, but you KNOW that Coach would have kept him and lived with the consequences if that were NOT the case and Matt wanted to STAY--and you must ALSO sense, as I do, that you will NOT find THIS Head Coach whispering in the ear of a former-recruit from his Texas-days in a parallel situation, "just in case". See what I'm saying? OK, fine--I'll drop it.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
I did a quick comparison of Ohio State's past few years of recruiting, and did not notice any discernable change in the number of recruits out of the state of Florida. In 2013, he has one 4* DE and a 2* K. In 2012, one 3* WR. In 2011, there is the infamous Ryan Shazier, a 4* LB that decommitted from Florida at the last minute, plus two 3*. In 2010, one 4* WR. In 2009, tOSU raided the state of Florida with three 4* players. In 2002, tOSU's national championship year, they only had one kid from Florida--Santonio Holmes. In 2003, they had one Florida kid as well. That tells me that tOSU will snag between 1 and 3 recruits from Florida each year, and that Urban Meyer has not increased the number of Florida kids poached.

High school kids that came from decent homes will tend to stay close to home. High school kids from troubled homes can be lured away to elite college football programs, e.g. Percy Harvin. Elite college football programs with national appeal can draw top athletes from out of state, e.g. Chris Leak from North Carolina and Rex Grossman from Indiana. There is no exact science to recruiting.

Have some faith in the Florida brand, and in Muschamp's recruiting strategy. He is winning the state of Florida. He cannot win them all, but he is winning where it counts. Look at Antonio Morrison. He was lured here from Illinois! That says a lot about Florida's national appeal.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Escambia94, :
"Interesting...", to the 1st paragraph,
"Agreed.", to the 2nd,
and "Hoo-rah and Carry On!" to the 3rd and last
(...only because "Airborne!", "Rangers Lead the Way!", etc. don't really fit here).
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
20,339
Messages
90,513
Members
1,226
Latest member
GeorgeDuema
Top