Cheap Toledo Tricks

What to make of this:

"Tulane football coach Bob Toledo kicked his team out of practice Wednesday because he was displeased with its performance.Tulane football coach Bob Toledo is doing about everything he can to get the attention of his under-performing team and its 0-2 season start. The latest -- just minutes ago, he tossed the team out of practice because he was unhappy with the Green Wave's effort and performance.

"They didn't want to be out there and they weren't performing so I had to do something," Toledo said. "Actually what I was going to do is I was going to start practice over, I was so mad, but all my coaches were leaving and going recruiting. So the next best thing was to get them off the field. If they don't want to practice, get them off the field."

It all feels pretty calculated to me. Not exactly disingenuous- I mean, we are dealing with kids who might really believe coach is real mad.

First, Tulane could be hanging its head a bit after being blown out twice in a row largely through no fault of its own: Tulsa and BYU being three, four TDs better no matter how well Tulane played. The Wave has a bye week this Saturday- so the practice time isn’t particularly precious. If you wanted to get their attention while maybe getting them away from football for a day or two, this is about as good a time and place as any.

Second, you want a stunt like this to result in a win- and while it is by no means a lock, if there is a winnable game on the schedule it has to be this tilt with McNeese following a week off to get ready, right?

It is a card you can play once or twice every four years- seems to be as good a time as any. And since I tend to think they will beat McNeese, if this helps them build a little momentum, fine.

It is also worth a shot because traditional coaching things: developing quarterbacks, picking coaches, playing the right guys from day one (a line-up shake-up seem to be in the works)- just don't seem to be working for Toledo for three years now.

I doubt these sort of emotional stunts work that often- but you never know: collective punishment followed by group success has been used to build men for a long time.