F**k You, Everett Withers

What more infuriating way to wake up than this:

“When you have as many schools in this state as we have, and the recruiting base gets watered down a bit, I think the kids in this state need to know the flagship school in this state,” Withers said.

“They need to know it academically. If you look at our graduation rates, as opposed to our opponent’s this week, graduation rates for athletics, for football, you’ll see a difference. … If you look at the educational environment here, I think you’ll see a difference.”

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/11/03/1614878/withers-spices-rivalry.html#ixzz1cdOo0pSK

Bask in the chutzpah, as does J.P. Giglio, in Withers’ complete failure to notice how strange it sounds to say such nonsense while the Holes await NCAA punishment for (among countless other things) blatant academic fraud. In that sense, doesn’t it seem like a 75% graduation rate is absurdly low? A full quarter of the team can’t graduate, despite having “athlete friendly” majors and rampant cheating that those same “athlete friendly” professors and administrators are more than happy to ignore. Then again, you wouldn’t expect someone stupid enough to give Butch Davis a game ball (essentially rubbing his ass in Holden Thorp’s face, despite theoretically wanting his interim tag removed) to be very self-aware.

As I’ve noted many times before, I received my undergraduate degree in engineering from NC State (3.6 GPA, four years with no summer classes) and my law degree from UNC. Without question, my engineering coursework was more difficult than law school. I don’t remember any of my “Public Ivy” undergrad colleagues saying that. You see, for all its other myriad faults and stumbles, NC State is true to its land grant heritage. We give people a chance to succeed. But nobody holds your hand. If you want to stay drunk 5 nights a week, or blow off homework and studying…your ass doesn’t graduate. Now your spot is open for somebody else to have a chance. Simple as that. What’s more fair, or egalitarian than that? You don’t coast your way through NC State, even if you don’t sign up for our more challenging majors.

It’s that smug, self-satisfied, rampant sense of meritless entitlement (naturally, Withers didn’t even go to UNC, in best Wal-Marter fashion) that makes us Wolfpackers hate UNC so much. It makes me ache for Saturday to get here already. Yeah, our program is in the shitter right now. But the season isn’t over, because we still have the chance to send Withers’ dumb ass into the unemployment line with the same winning percentage in our rivalry as his moronic, dirty, faux-Indian mentor. And we won’t do it with cheap shots, punches, or other unsportsmanlike bullshit. We will just line up and kick their asses back to the Orange County line. Again.

* As always, this screed is with apologies to the decent Hole graduates out there, several of whom having already expressed their disgust at Davis’ chicanery and the clownish Withers aftermath. One such individual went so far as to say a Wolfpack win would have a silver lining to him, ensuring that Withers gets tossed out on his ear immediately after the season.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

NCS Football UNC Scandal

35 Responses to F**k You, Everett Withers

  1. swedish 11/03/2011 at 6:33 AM #

    In their position academic comments by him are just plain dumb. However, the trash talk can keep coming. That’s a healthy rivalry.

  2. Pack78 11/03/2011 at 6:39 AM #

    “It’s that smug, self-satisfied, rampant sense of MERITLESS entitlement (naturally, Withers didn’t even go to UNC, in best Wal-Marter fashion) that makes us Wolfpackers hate UNC so much.”

    Well said, BJD-Wal-Mart Withers is an idiot and a perfect fit for the academic facade that is unx…

  3. JohnGalt78 11/03/2011 at 6:50 AM #

    Wit-less is indeed a perfect fit! What a dumbass. I hope they keep him.

  4. logarithm 11/03/2011 at 6:52 AM #

    I haven’t read the original article and I can’t read every one that mentions his comments but I hope a good fraction of them reference the same pot, kettle, black line of thinking you mention here. They should not be allowed to sweep their unprecedented scandal under the rug and continue espousing this idea that they’re better than everyone because they are who they are.

  5. Hungwolf 11/03/2011 at 6:52 AM #

    Withers should be reminded his school was just in Indy to answer for academic misconduct/fraud. Those degrees obtained by football players should come with a footnote!

    And I have no problem referring to UNC as the flagship school, they lead the state in NCAA violations hands down!

  6. PacknSack 11/03/2011 at 6:53 AM #

    As infuriating as this is, they do graduate 75% as opposed to our 56%. A major-by-major breakdown was not given, but he is accurate.

  7. BloggerEsquire 11/03/2011 at 6:56 AM #

    With all due respect to BJD95, thank you, Everett Withers, for painting the divide between North Carolina State and UNC in such succinct fashion. Having chosen my own rooting interests, your statement (and its defenders) make it that much more clear who is on the other side, and what they represent.

  8. BJD95 11/03/2011 at 6:58 AM #

    In the “Wild West” days, NC State and UNC each had (well known) functional illiterates on their revenue sports rosters. UNC gave theirs degrees, NC State did not.

    That explains the 75% vs. 56%. I will take our honest 56% over the “Carolina Way” 75% any day of the week.

  9. PackMan97 11/03/2011 at 7:18 AM #

    I agree 110% with Withers, I do see a difference academically.

    I see one school that boasts a very high graduation rate for athletes. Athletes who coming into college had shown very poor academic performance. I see that school graduates their athletes at almost the same clip they graduate undergrads and I wonder, how are they able to do that?

    I dig deeper and I see more differences academically. I see one school in which 82% of ALL grades are A’s or B’s, indicating that all students even the bad ones aren’t being challenged. I see the other school does not behave this way. (http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/grade-inflation-at-unc-chapel-hill)

    I see one school in which there are 600-700 classes (IIRC, can’t source it) in which EVERY student recieved an A. I see the other school in which there are around 70 classes in which this happened.

    I see one school who has the football coach hire a tutor who cheats for football players, I see one school that doesn’t.

    I see one school in which a freshman football player that barely qualified is allowed to take a 400 level course during his first summer school session and passes and then in the fall takes remedial English. A 400 level class that is supposed to challenge a Jr or Sr, not a barely literate freshman! I see that at this school, this isn’t uncommon for athletes. I do not see this at the other school.

    At one school I see that a player plagiarizes all but 61 words of a 20 pageterm paper and the professor does not notice. The academic support in the football program does not notice. I see he gets called a cheat for getting help on the footnotes. The honor court does not notice. The player sues the NCAA and his lawyer (a UNC grad) does not notice and UNC-CH lawyers do not notice. I see fans of the other school point this out shortly after having the paper made public. I see that no investigation is started to see how pervasive this problem is.

    Oh yes Coach Withers, I definitely notice a difference academically and I hope the parents of any student athlete considering either school notices the difference.

  10. Rochester 11/03/2011 at 7:25 AM #

    Q: Isn’t that absurdly high 75% rate measuring the “student”-athletes who arrove on campus before Bitch Davis? So those would be Bunting’s guys, right? I’ll be curious to see what they have to do to keep those numbers up for the Davis classes, considering so many of them have publicly flunked out or been kicked out. BMFD is the gift that’s going to keep giving for another five years or so as those rates plummet until all his gang-bangers are off the six-year rolls.

  11. st8family 11/03/2011 at 7:46 AM #

    Dwight Jones could BARELY graduate from NC public high schools and he will have a degree from UNC.

  12. Pack78 11/03/2011 at 7:52 AM #

    Jones also could not get accepted at Clemson and could not finish at Hargrave or a KS JuCo; still waiting to hear that he is struggling academically at unx…

  13. 1990alum 11/03/2011 at 7:58 AM #

    Does anyone have the then Chancellor Larry Monteith quotes (probably 1991 or 1992) about State’s graduation rates? It was as straight up as you will ever see. He said something like “it would be easy to select only the very best students and then make it very easy for them to graduate. We are the people’s university. students get their shot and some don’t make it. But they had their chance.”

  14. wolfbuff 11/03/2011 at 8:10 AM #

    2 money lines in this blog:

    “It’s that smug, self-satisfied, rampant sense of meritless entitlement (naturally, Withers didn’t even go to UNC, in best Wal-Marter fashion) that makes us Wolfpackers hate UNC so much.”

    and

    “we still have the chance to send Withers’ dumb ass into the unemployment line with the same winning percentage in our rivalry as his moronic, dirty, faux-Indian mentor.”

    F Withers indeed. Even if the Holes win on Saturday, he has shown his ass to be as clueless as the rest of the administrators over there.

  15. Tedmag 11/03/2011 at 8:18 AM #

    I was State undergrad ’95 and UNC law too and the reality is that they are both great schools. I can’t understand why their coach is running his mouth

  16. patientwuf 11/03/2011 at 8:22 AM #

    Arrogance(THE CAROLINA WAY) 101 taught every semester at UNCHEAT. Now the coaches are required to take it.

    Thanks for stoking the fire Withers our football team needs it right now. Send us more motivation-PLEASE!!

    GO PACK!! Can’t wait for Saturday.

  17. BJD95 11/03/2011 at 8:22 AM #

    I’m every bit as fired up as I was last year after Coples’ blatant out of bounds cheap shot on RW. It merited an ejection and/or a suspension. Naturally, not a peep from our good soldier “Johnny.”

  18. itskinseyboo 11/03/2011 at 8:29 AM #

    BJD, I’d ask you to marry me if I weren’t already married. I love you for this post.

    I wasn’t even excited for the game until I heard what Withers said last night. Now… well, I hope we rip their heads off. Go State!

  19. Paramarine 11/03/2011 at 8:34 AM #

    Let’s not forget Hakeem Nicks’ Wonderlic test result: http://www.tarheeltimes.com/article17148.aspx

    Barely literate, but somehow managed to remain academically eligible at UNC.

  20. wufpup76 11/03/2011 at 8:36 AM #

    Smug Alert!

    Chapel Hill is the East Coast leader in ‘Smug’.

    If the smug from Withers’ comments merges with the natural smug coming out of Chapel Hill then … Chapel Hill will disappear completely up it’s own a**hole.

  21. Texpack 11/03/2011 at 8:46 AM #

    What level of dumba$$ do you have to achieve to assert the academic superiority of an institution that set up a system to facilitate academic fraud by their athletes? This is the equivalent of Stalin boasting of the superior human rights record of the USSR. Hopefully this will pour some more fuel on the fire for the Pack this Saturday. Unbelievable.

  22. WV Wolf 11/03/2011 at 9:17 AM #

    Well said BJD.

    Withers thinks it’s so much better to have the word “the” in front of the school name, that doesn’t matter when there is an “L” after the name. Or 4 of them.

  23. Ed89 11/03/2011 at 9:25 AM #

    After reading the article, I still can’t believe it. Dumb ass is actually too much of a compliment.

    Great post, BJD. Man, I hope this fires our players up.

  24. PackManSJP 11/03/2011 at 9:32 AM #

    TOB has to win on Saturday or he will never live down losing to an obvious dumba$$ like that.

  25. redcanine 11/03/2011 at 9:43 AM #

    Graduation rates? Please.

    I knew a guy from my high school who could barely read. In fact, I’m not if sure he even could. He attended UNC on a football scholarship, graduated, and played in the NFL for several years.

    Would the proud UNC alum elect him to debate a typical State student? Hell no. Graduation rates do not necessarily correlate into intellectual superiority.

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