Being a Missouri alum, what I’m about to do stings a little, but when it comes to people in the same profession, sometimes you have to stick up for those that share your passions.  In this case, I’m talking about Blake Schuster, a Kansas junior and sports writer for the school paper, and Charlie Weis, the Kansas head football coach.

This week, news came out that both Weis and the Kansas Athletics Communications staff were not happy with the student newspaper, the University Daily Kansan, because of an editorial cartoon that was published last Thursday. However, the fact that they were upset did not truly come out until this week when two members of the Athletic Communications staff sat down with the reporter and spoke to him about questions that may go during the team’s media day.  Schuster claims that he interpreted it as a ‘don’t ask any questions. Period.’ type of meeting. The Communications office says it was more of a ‘if you do ask questions, don’t be alarmed if you don’t get a strong tone/response back’ meeting.  Either way it looks bad.

This may not have been an issue whatsoever if Weis hadn’t gone off on Twitter complaining about the cover last week.  Apparently the newspaper is supposed to just report the good and not the bad, even if your team is 1-4, has lost to Rice and Northern Illinois and defeated South Dakota State for their only win this season.  Having worked two years in Missouri’s Media Relations office and it being the two best years of college, I know there has to be some damage control, so I don’t blame the SID’s at all.  This is a non-issue that became an issue once Weis went to Twitter. The old adage ‘if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen’ comes to mind here.  If you’re a Division I head coach, no matter what sport, and your team is struggling, there is going to be criticism.

Weis doing this to a student journalist is different than Steve Spurrier barking at a local reporter/columnist or Mike Gundy giving his “I’m a man, I’m 40” tirade.  Those were professionals. Here, a guy who most likely got the job as more of a publicity hire than for his qualifications picks on a college junior.  Why do I claim it’s a publicity hire? He is known for being an offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, head coach at Notre Dame and offensive coordinator at Florida.  Since he has left, the Patriots offense has kept on rolling. Why? Because they have a top coach and top quarterback. Notre Dame, two years after Weis left, is ranked seventh in the country and undefeated. And five games into a season after Weis was OC at UF, Florida is also undefeated and ranked fourth nationally.  Florida struggled to a 7-6 record last year and its offense wasn’t as strong as it had been in the past.  It can be argued that Weis leaving may have been a GOOD thing for all three programs.

To make matters worse, it has been reported that, despite there being seven more game this season, Weis has already started practicing for NEXT season by not having seniors practice. So a coach who seems to have given up on this season, has led the team to a disgraceful 1-4 start and who made off-season news by how he managed his roster is looking for the media, whether it be student or professional, to be nice and easy on him?

In today’s journalism world, we have journalism professors telling their students to not even go into the journalism field.  Schuster not only decided he wanted to go into journalism but also got involved with the school paper.  The kid asks tough questions.  So does every other reporter.  But you don’t see Weis barking at them do you?  Don’t go crazy because a student paper calls out your team.  Maybe go crazy because your team isn’t playing well, but sounds to me like this kid is heading in the right direction.