If there were anyone I wouldn’t want to have been last week, it would have been a college head coach.
The beginning of the week started with stories of Iowa State’s men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy and his late-night parties with college students after his team lost games in Manhattan, Kan. and Columbia, Mo. Iowa State suspended him with pay and is expected to fire him this week.
Later in the week, reports emerged concerning Alabama football coach Mike Price and an excursion he had to a topless bar while in Florida for a pro-am golf tournament. Price, who was hired by Alabama from Washington State in December, spent hundreds of dollars at the bar, and the next morning a woman from the establishment ordered one of everything from a hotel room-service menu and charged it to Price’s hotel bill. Price got his walking papers Saturday despite never coaching a game for the Crimson Tide.
It’s hard to argue with Iowa State’s decision to get rid of Eustachy, but Alabama may have been a little too quick on pulling the trigger.
For Eustachy, his party-crasher persona has become legendary – the only problem is that it’s become legendary around schools other than his own. What was the university to think when the pictures of 47-year-old Eustachy holding a beer and kissing young college women on the cheek? Sure, it might not be technically wrong, but what kind of message is Eustachy’s team supposed to get when its coach is out partying with members of a team that just beat the Cyclones? Eustachy needs to find treatment, but more important, he needs to find another job.
Unlike Eustachy, Price kept his bar experience in the off-season, not while his team was in the middle of the conference schedule. According to the bar’s owner, Price was a “perfect gentleman” and was just having a good time at the bar. Simply put, Price was just looking for something to do in Florida, and he happened to pick a topless bar – something that is neither illegal nor as frowned upon as Eustachy’s college parties.
I know I’m skating around the issue of the woman in Price’s hotel, but it has yet to be proven that the woman was in Price’s hotel room. The bar owner said that Price did not leave with anyone, and hotel officials have not said that the room service was supposed to be sent to Price’s room.
Coaches are expected to be the leaders of young athletes and set good examples for them, but does that mean every college coach has to become a squeaky-clean shut-in with no life? It’s almost as if college administrators want their coaches to do nothing but go to the office, sit, review film, run practice and then go home. That’s unreasonable, and any coach will tell you he’d go insane if that’s all he was allowed to do.
Price made a mistake, and he’ll be the first to admit it. At the press conference Saturday, Price was apologetic and defiant in talking to the room full of reporters and fans. He continued to ask Alabama president Robert Witt for forgiveness and a second chance.
“To the university and the entire ‘Bama Nation, I admit making mistakes and at time inappropriate behavior, but I also ask for your forgiveness,” a tearful Price said.
“I don’t think the punishment fits the crime,” Price later added. “I think President Witt is making a mistake. He’s not breaking the law, but he’s making an error in judgment.”
I have no doubt that Price will have an easy time finding a new job. He just shouldn’t have to after one mistake.
Matt Duval is a junior in journalism and The Lantern sports editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
