Stanford, Cal Suffer Transfer Exodus; Tyranny Update

A great education apparently isn't the lure it used to be for college football players.

Now it's all about money, playing time, and playoff access.

With colleges bidding seven-figure deals and offering a chance to play on potential playoff teams, it's getting harder and harder for schools like Stanford and Cal to stay competitive.

Stanford used to talk, correctly, about the "40-year experience" of playing at one of the top universities in the world, and what it would mean to an athlete's long-term future.

But when Texas or Oklahoma is waving a million dollar offer in your face, kids don't want to think about the next 40 years. They're thinking about tomorrow, that fancy car they want, their families' needs, a chance to compete for the national championship.

I bring this up because a raft of players--good players--from Stanford and Cal entered the transfer portal last week and will be leaving the Bay Area.

Stanford has been particularly hard hit at wide receiver, losing premier prospect Emmett Mosley V (above), who caught 13 passes for 168 yards and 3 TDs to spark his tam's upset win over Louisville, plus Ismael Cisse and Mudia Reuben. Mosley is headed to Texas, Cisse to Arkansas, Reuben to USF and the Cardinal's most accomplished wideout, Elik Ayomanor, is making an early jump to the NFL. 

The Cardinal also lost its best defensive player, edge David Bailey, to Texas Tech, and one of its few good offensive linemen, Jake Maikkula, to Oklahoma.

Cal has been hardest hit in the offensive backfield. Earlier, quarterback Fernando Mendoza reportedly took a $1.5 million deal to transfer to Indiana. Then last week, the Bears lost their entire running back room.

Star Jaydn Ott left for Oklahoma, then was followed the next day by his presumed successor as the starting running back, Jaivian "Jet" Thomas, and teammates Byron Cardwell, Kadarius Calloway and Justin Williams-Thomas.

But Cal isn’t just losing offensive backs. Star tight end Jack Endries, a former walk-on turned two-year starter, also entered the portal and joined Mosley at Texas. Endries caught 91 passes for 1,030 yards and four touchdowns over the last two seasons and has two years of eligibility remaining.

This mass exodus comes in the wake of head coach Justin Wilcox's overhaul of his offensive staff. 

Former running backs coach Aristotle Thompson, who had been with the program for five years, left in February for the same role at Northwestern and was replaced by Julian Griffin from Texas-San Antonio. 

Wilcox also brought aboard a new coordinator, controversial former Boise State and Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin, and another coach with a questionable reputation, Nick Rolovich, who was fired by Washington State for refusing to comply with the state's COVID vaccine mandate, as senior offensive analyst. 

I know Aristotle Thompson a little. His son Lennon, is my grandson Cole's best friend. Thompson is an impressive guy and a good coach. He didn't want to leave Berkeley. But Wilcox wanted to make wholesale changes to his offensive staff, and Aristotle had to find a new job.

Griffin is not Thompson, but the bigger problem may be OC Harsin. The former Boise State and Auburn coach has a reputation for treating people "like dogs", in the words of several of his former Auburn players. 

During his disastrous year-and-a-half as head man at Auburn, over 30 players and both of his coordinators quit. And vaccine denier Rolovich is not the best cultural fit in a place like Berkeley.

Wilcox, who has always struggled with his offense, appears to have blown it pretty bad with these staffing moves.

Cal's new football General Manager, Ron Rivera, and Stanford GM Andrew Luck will have their hands full trying to recruit and retain players in the NIL/portal era.

Just last week, Rivera was talking about how exciting it was to have two top running backs in Ott and Thomas. Now both of them are gone with the wind.

Anyway you look at it, the Bears and Cardinal are floundering.

And, in all likelihood, unless the two schools can build a huge war chest and get some unexpected wins, it's only going to get worse.

Tyranny Update: It's bad enough that Donald Trump's insane tariffs have wiped out trillions of dollars of life savings and retirement portfolios for millions of American families throughout our country.

But now it's clear the presidency is turning into a revenge and grievance tour conducted by a power-drunk madman.

Anyone who stands in the way of Trump's agenda or dares oppose his efforts to remake America into an autocratic regime is a target: law firms, judges, DEI programs, USAID, the FBI, Social Security, the IRS, the media, elite universities, scientific research, student protestors, and immigrants accused--with no proof--of being gang members.

If this is reminding you of 1930s Nazi Germany, you're not alone. Yet only a few members of Trump's party have spoken out, apparently because they fear swift retribution. The legislative branch of our government has become a bad joke.

It might be worth repeating here the famous "they came for" quote from German pastor Martin Niemoller:

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Americans must ask themselves, who's going to be next?

And more importantly, how can we stop Trump's frontal assault on our freedoms and institutions before democracy is destroyed?