Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/181992
in the trenches andrew owens Coaches Association and [executive director] Grant Teaff, who generally makes us coaches aware of issues such that we saw this past weekend, and I was not aware of that. That kind of hit me as a bit of a surprise. So I'll do some more research on it." When Irish players were made available to the media the previous day, four days after the APU movement became a blip on college football's radar, none of the players asked about it by Blue & Gold Illustrated had any inkling of All Players United. "I'm not sure how I feel about that," senior captain TJ Jones said after the All Players United mission was explained to him. "The NCAA's been around a lot longer than the players who put APU on their tape. "I think the players mean well by doing it, but at the same time they have to realize these rules have been put in place for years and they'll be set in place years after they're playing and learn the good with the bad. "You can't try to pin all the players in the NCAA against the NCAA when they're giving you the opportunity to play this game." Jones added that the fairness of the NCAA is rarely discussed. "In general we don't talk much about the NCAA in our locker room," he said. Junior starting safety Matthias Farley was also unaware of the movement and said it would be difficult for him to comment much on an issue he had not yet researched. "I think it's a worthy cause to an extent, but I haven't heard anything," he said. Judging by those remarks, it's unlikely to see any Fighting Irish players sporting the initials on their gear anytime soon. Georgia Tech quarterback Vad Lee omitted the initials from his athletic tape during a game against Virginia Tech Sept. 26, five days after he and Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter both featured APU on their gear. Although most coaches are likely to forbid their players privately from getting involved, Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald publicly criticized his starting signal-caller for making the decision to get involved. "We have a platform here in the program that we've had for six years: a leadership council for dialogue on things," Fitzgerald told CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd. "We meet every Monday. The last question I ask the guys, 'Is there anything to know that I don't know?' and that didn't come up. "I told him I was disappointed in him, not that he believes in the cause and not that he was taking a role in that but … what we try to do collectively is team focused." The NCAA's actions and its own name have become toxic during the past few years, and this movement — even if it's only a temporary one — is another threat to the structure of the organization. Ten years ago a player would have had little public favor had he supported such a cause, but the tides are shifting across the country. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com