An open letter to Latwan Anderson…

Another one of those topics which seems pointless to tackle late October – in the middle of a game week with North Carolina on deck, no less. That said, you have to be timely and the story of the day is Latwan Anderson and his decision to bag football at the University of Miami.

As of now, Anderson will stay on to run track, but football has been shelved indefinitely. By not participating this season, Anderson has the ability to transfer without sitting out a year per NCAA rules.

A big reason this is a touchy subject is due to the lack of confirmed information. Anderson has gone the social networking route regarding airing his frustrations, venting away via his Facebook page, which has since been shut down. Over the past few days he’s aired his grievances with the coaching staff, a lack of playing time and other personal woes.

Meanwhile, Randy Shannon and Miami aren’t saying much. Anderson was a football walk-on and a scholarship athlete for track and with it being reported that he hasn’t practiced with the squad in weeks, it’s understandable while no one on the football front cares to comment. It’s new news for the media, but it appears the football folks rectified things weeks back and have their sights set on North Carolina – a program Shannon is 0-3 against and will face this Saturday night at Sun Life Stadium.

Anderson was ranked the 15th best high school player in the country last season but his road to Miami was a bumpy one. Rumors swirled during the recruiting process that Anderson – a product of Glenville, OH – was interested in Ohio State. He once stated he was feeling pressure to commit early and not look elsewhere. Buckeye faithful claim Jim Tressel backed away over grades – as if Ohio State is the Harvard of the Big Ten.

Whatever the case, Anderson started looking at West Virginia, where he could focus on track and football. Come Signing Day, he didn’t put pen to paper and his recruiting options remained open.

Rumors surfaced regarding his mother squashing out a visit to Southern Cal, citing that it was too far from home. Miami then popped up on the radar as there was family in South Florida, and the football / track combination seemed a perfect fit. Anderson eventually signed with ‘The U’ and arrived in Coral Gables on Sunday August 29th — four days before the season opener against Florida A&M.

To date, Anderson never saw any gameday action, which seemed logical considering (1) he’s a true freshman, (2) he missed spring and fall practice, (3) he’s on a track scholarship and (4) the Canes have depth in the secondary, meaning there’s no immediate need for him to see playing time.

For some reason, the athlete who refers to himself a “The Show” disagreed with coaches and according to his online rants, ripped into the staff, the way he’s been treated and has instead boasted about what he and freshman Travis Williams WOULD do IF they were out there strutting their stuff, instead of working tirelessly to earn a spot, patiently waiting their turn.

All of you chest thumping about Anderson having the true heart of a Hurricane and screaming from the rooftops that this is EXACTLY the type of player Miami needs, a quick reminder for you; Anderson quit. He bailed out roughly a month into the season after spending all summer posting about how he was gonna turn heads in the three-oh-five.

The same folks bitching that the Canes ‘quit’ against the Noles a few weeks back are now siding with a kid that’s never played a down for UM and disrespected the coaching staff? (Yes, it’s disrespectful for a teenager to air in-house grievances and ‘family’ business on the World Wide Web. Especially knowing the Twitter fiasco this program faced weeks back.)

For the record, I was rooting for L.A. and felt he was a welcomed addition. Still am and still do. A stellar athlete and a kid not afraid to say what’s on his mind, if channeled properly, could’ve been a good thing for Miami.

Regardless of where Latwan ends up, I’ll pull for him and hold no ill will. He’s a kid and he has a right to change his mind. (I don’t even hold those dimwitted Brown brothers in contempt, though their immaturity and disrespect for the Miami program proved they’re a longer way from the top than they think.)

I originally befriended Anderson on Facebook when he signed with UM. We traded a few notes, I let him know I wanted to do a Q&A when the time was right and I wished him a safe journey south. With his Facebook page no longer live, what was going to be a quick note to the almost-Canes safety turned into this posting. ‘The Show’ seems to be a big multimedia guy, so I’m hoping this piece finds its way back to him.

My first bit of advice – take a deep breath. Self-inflicted or not, it was a crazy recruiting process and 2010 proved to be a more hectic year than expected. You should be in the midst of your freshman year of college, on top of the world and with all the craziness behind you. Instead, it seems the real crazy is just beginning. Not exactly the way you drew it up.

Eighteen years ago I wound up at the University of Alabama. It seemed like an experience, they accepted me and two of my closest buds were headed there, too. I showed up site unseen, fumbled through a summer session and started the fall semester on Monday August 24th, a date no Miamian will forget.

A category-five hurricane derailed my freshman year and started a topsy-turvy collegiate journey that over six years took me back to Miami, out to San Diego, back to Miami and eventually to Gainesville. Not the college experience I originally signed up for, but my stubbornness and unwillingness to heed the advice of my elders held me back in more ways than Andrew’s devastation.

I was eighteen and in my eyes, I knew what I was doing. It was my life. No one else felt what I felt. I respected authority, but not enough to blindly listen to advice. In the end, I was going to do what I felt I needed to do. Period.

It’s an inevitable pitfall of being young and feeling bulletproof. We’re all so focused on our perspective that we don’t even want to hear someone out or look at the other side. Of course life has a way of forcing you to deal with that as you get older.

You get a job, have a boss and are forced to ‘play nice’ with co-workers. You enter into a relationship, get married, deal with in laws and create a family – along the way re-prioritizing to the point where “you” are now last where you used to be first and foremost. The elders you never wanted to respect, you wake up one day and realize that’s who you’ve become, hoping you’ve taken enough wisdom from those who walked the path before you.

Leaving Ohio for Florida – it’s a big step and there’s a process regarding getting acclimated. Athletes have an advantage as they’re instantly welcomed into a new family and have a blueprint to follow. The rest of us roll the dice, bunk up with some random clown and hope for the best.

Either way, we were all leaving home for the first time and for some it’s harder than you’d expect.

Most top flight college athletes obviously came from big time high school programs where they did everything but walk on water, so of course there’s a sense of entitlement and belief that you’re top dog. If you didn’t feel that you deserved to be out there playing instead of the guy ahead of you, then where’s your competitive edge and why even bother playing the game?

While that feeling is normal, the key is to properly channel those emotions and simply put, quitting isn’t the answer. Even if it feels right today, somewhere down the road it’ll challenge your manhood. You’ll always wonder what would happened had you stuck it out.

Cool off. Take an indefinite leave in the wake of all the drama. Regroup. But don’t quit. Reassess the situation in a few months and get through that trying first semester of college – which is hard enough as an 18-year old, let alone a five-star athlete with tremendous pressure, high expectations and a rabid fan base who expects All America status before you’ve even suited up.

I don’t know Coach Shannon but I know what I’ve read and heard as a supporter of this program since he played here decades back. I know he’s a good man, but that can get lost on some kids who aren’t used to his hard-ass ways. He’s stubborn and a stickler for the rules – but his intent is good and whoever plays underneath him will leave this program a better man in four years. He also has a resume that speaks for itself regarding sending defensive talent to the NFL.

None of that makes Miami the perfect fit for ‘The Show’ … but six games into season one, it doesn’t make it imperfect either.

Some of my closest friends and people I eventually grew to look up to, I wanted nothing to do with upon first meeting. That said, once guards were dropped, egos were shelved and I got to know some of these people, decade long friendships were born.

Maybe you and this coaching staff got off on the wrong foot – or maybe you truly are fire and ice, with no chance of ever seeing eye to eye. I don’t know. But I do know that late October after arriving on campus a day before September – that’s not the time to measure the degree of a relationship.

My journey started in Tuscaloosa, wrapped in Gainesville and had I followed a different route, would’ve taken me to Tempe.

The lone regret; forcing my agenda and making things more difficult than they needed to be. Had I heeded some good advice, I’d have made the overall process more productive and less painful.

Last but not least, my two cents regarding what I feel is a lost art regarding redshirting. I’ll steal a line from our own Brian ‘The Beast’ London when I say, if the great Andre Johnson was patient enough to ride the pine his freshman season at the University of Miami, anybody should be.

This year’s Canes are deep in the secondary but come 2011, the landscape is wide open. The job would be yours for the taking and you’d have between now and next fall to bust your ass working towards that goal.

Seems a much better alternative than walking away and spending the next year mired in turmoil as you transfer, set up shop elsewhere, starting this whole chaotic process all over again, with no guarantee a better result.

Best of luck however you play it, L.A. Whatever you choose will inevitably be your intended path.

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