Any bad news also adds to a recent deluge of negativity. New head coach Dana Holgorsen’s dismissal from a Morgantown-area casino came just a week before the university gave every snarky commentator in the college football world easy ammunition via a beer sales vote.
The term “Benedict Arnold” was thrown out liberally on Twitter and on fan message boards. Hand wringing and paranoia may be appropriate reactions, but until details are ironed out all we have to go on is ambiguity.
Washaun Ealey can probably empathize with a program hitting a string of bad luck. His own preceded his transferring from Georgia, despite ending 2010 the Dawgs’ top rusher. Ealey will get a fresh start with a program that facilitated one of the more famous, recent such instances as Matthew Elder reports.
Ealey will play for stalwart head coach Jack Crowe at Jacksonville State. You may remember Jax State took in Ryan Perrilloux after his dismissal from the LSU football program. Perrilloux flourished, particularly in the 2009 season when he had a ridiculous 170 quarterback efficiency rating. He was held to what Crowe called in a Nov. 2009 interview “a much higher standard,” which included meeting directly with JSU President William Meehan.
Strictly in football terms, an Ealey-JSU partnership has great mutual benefit. Ealey would return to action without missing a season due to transfer rules, while the Gamecocks add a prolific rusher to the solid passing game. Calvin Middleton has been JSU’s top tailback each of the last two seasons, but totaled just a little over 1100 yards in that time. Ealey surpassed 1500 in the same timeframe at UGa, and has the talent to be JSU’s first 1000-yard rusher since Clay Green in 2006.
The Gamecocks return quarterbacks Marques Ivory and Coty Blancard, both of whom saw significant playing in 2010 and figure to share snaps once again. A two-headed quarterback system working with the dual-pronged rushing attack of Ealey and Middleton would render JSU the favorite to again represent the Ohio Valley in the NCAA Playoffs.