Former fan thinks loyalty, discipline are causes for concern

FAN VACATES- Former die-hard UNA football fan, Keith Collier decides to vacate his 18-year season tickets. Collier explains his concerns on the state of the program and his reasons behind vacating his long held tickets.

Former fan thinks loyalty, discipline are causes for concern.
By Josh Bogus
534 Words

FLORENCE - Florence native and University of North Alabama alumni, Keith Collier

vacated his football season tickets that were held for eighteen years. Mr. Collier cites Coach Terry Bowden’s allowance of supposedly undisciplined, and disloyal transfer student athletes as main reason for vacating tickets.
The University of North Alabama football program is now home to 49 transfer student athletes. 30 of the 49 transfers have transfered to UNA from Division 1 programs. There are 103 three players on the University’s roster, making transfers roughly 50 percent of the players.
Many students and members of the younger generation are excited about the number of transfers and the possibility of success that they may bring. The older generation however, may fear that there is a character and loyalty issue among the players.
“They [the transfer athletes] have no loyalty, no ties to the area or the University” says Collier, “They just come in to play a year or two, get what they want, and leave.”
What many may see as a loyalty issue can also be seen in Coach Bowden. Bowden applied for head coaching jobs at The University of Southern Florida and West Virginia University among many others. Collier believes that Bowden is only at The University of North Alabama to use the program as a stepping stone, rebuild his coaching prestige and move on to a job at a bigger school.
Collier also notes that the number of transfer athletes make it unfair for local recruits to play. “You have kids who grow up wanting to wear purple, they just get passed over for a transfer” UNA’s roster currently includes only five players from Lauderdale County.
One of those five players from Lauderdale County is Caleb Carbine, a freshman from Florence High School. Carbine takes a different stance on the issue than Collier.
“By the time camp is over, the best players are playing.” says Carbine “Whether its a big time D-1 transfer or a guy who just started his career here.”
Carbine also says that he sees know difference between UNA and a much bigger program like Auburn. Carbine’s point is reinforced by the fact that two major South Eastern Conference programs, Auburn and Ole Miss have starting quarterbacks that were released by Florida and Oregon. Many programs accept transfers with past troubles.
UNA being mentioned as a big-time program may be hard to accept for long time fans like Collier. “It may be worth it for a places like Auburn to take bad transfers and win, but not here” fumes Collier.
However, fans like Collier may have no choice in the matter of UNA being a big-time program with the University looking to move up a division and take on opponents like Oklahoma and Alabama.
Collier closed his remarks by saying “As an alumni and an 18-year season ticket holder, I’ve sat through many losing seasons. I’d rather us loose with character than win with bad players.”
Collier and Carbine’s opposing opinions could simply be written off as a difference of youth and age, but the results will be seen in the coming years in the form of on-field performance and off-field behavior.
Josh Bogus is a student at UNA majoring in sports management.