Sims' H.S. Coach Changes His Tune

First, Phillip Sim’s former high school coach though this:

“If it’s a close competition between an in-state guy and an out-of-state guy, the in-state guy is getting the job,” Morgan told the paper. “Phillip was in a situation where I thought he was the better quarterback, but he was the out-of-state guy. That’s just the way it works in college.”

“McCarron still has two years of eligibility,” Morgan told the Pilot. “If it was the case where he was a senior and Phillip had to sit one more year and then have two years, he wouldn’t leave. Let’s face it; they did win the national championship. So you’re not going to bench the quarterback who won the national title. And (Sims) doesn’t want to sit because he feels he’s just as good. So he has to go somewhere where he can play.”

Upon further reflection, now he thinks this:

“Phillip was happy (at Alabama), but family issues had arisen that made it better for him to come home,” Oscar Smith coach Richard Morgan said.

The new thoughts could be the result of this:

Sims has to sit out a year due to transfer rules, but will petition the NCAA to waive the waiting period, saying he is transferring to be closer to home because of a family situation.

It should be interesting to see how the NCAA handles this, given Sims’ high-profile and all of the public speculation and comments.  But related to a waivers being granted due to family problems, I don’t really get it.  If you have a personal situation that you want to be close to, does it make sense to be eligible to play?  Wouldn’t you want the freedom to take care of or help with personal matters?  And wouldn’t playing in football games (and the related travel, etc.), take you away from the personal matters when you should be there helping?

In Sims’ case, if he was to become the starting quarterback for Virginia, wouldn’t preparing for the games, practicing and being a student be the equivalent of a full-time job or more?  It just makes me wonder where all of the free time will be so that personal matters can be attended to.

On the other hand, perhaps taking care of personal matters is best done by playing as soon as you can with hopes on jumping to the NFL as soon as possible.

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