Different coasts bring different reactions. Compare the responses from Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen and USC coach Pete Carroll to off-field problems.
Friedgen suspended three players for a game following a fight in a College Park, Maryland, bar on Tuesday morning. He also suspended another player for a game for underage drinking.
Meanwhile, Carroll played freshman linebacker Rey Maualuga against Stanford last Saturday after Maualuga was arrested for punching another student at a Halloween party.
"It was probably one of the more difficult things I've done since I've been here," said Friedgen, who conducted his own investigation and interviewed several players and witnesses. "I took some time and some deliberation in making my decision.
"Some of them weren't very popular with our players, but I did what I felt like had to be done. The message has to be sent that this type of action will not be tolerated."
Perhaps most surprisingly, Friedgen suspended the players even though two of them indicated they would press charges of their own and were acting in self-defense.
"I tell my players they're special people, whether they like it or not," Friedgen said. "There's a lot of things they get that the normal student doesn't have. ... But they have to be responsible for their actions.
"They're not just responsible to themselves. They represent the University of Maryland, they represent our football team and they also represent themselves and their families. They need to act accordingly."
That's a harsher reaction than Carroll, who said he considers every incident "case-by-case" and bristled at criticism he was too lenient on Maualuga.
"I'm not worried about it. People have opinions and can think anything they want," Carroll said. "I can't wait and see what everyone else will say. We did what we think we think is the right thing and I don't have any reservations.
"There's no question he stepped out of character so we have to help him. We went through it the way that we do it. We considered all the circumstances and how remorseful the guy was."
Friedgen's suspensions could hurt the Terrapins (4-4) who need two more victories to be bowl eligible.
Whether you agree with Friedgen or Carroll's approach probably depends on whether you are a USC or Maryland fan. Or perhaps in Southern California whether you are an anti-USC fan.
Allegiances tend to guide fans' thinking more than any sense of fairness or right-and-wrong.
DIVISION I-A ROUNDUP
Four years of frustration flowed out of every heavy hit and every pinpoint pass when Fresno State finally ended Boise State's domination of the Bulldogs and the entire Western Athletic Conference.
Paul Pinegar passed for 307 yards and hit Paul Williams for two long touchdowns, and the 20th-ranked Bulldogs decisively snapped Boise State's 31-game conference winning streak with a 27-7 victory Thursday night.
Williams scored on a 98-yard play, while Wendell Mathis ran for 121 yards and a score for Fresno State (8-1, 6-0 WAC) in its first victory over the three-time defending league champions since Boise State joined the conference in 2001 and promptly began the longest perfect run in WAC history.
The Bulldogs' blowout win was years in the making: They controlled the ball for more than 40 minutes, racked up 513 yards and shut out Boise State (7-3, 5-1) after Jeff Carpenter's 67-yard TD run in the opening seconds.
Fresno State won for the 14th time in 15 games since losing to the Broncos last season. Bulldog Stadium's sellout crowd, which cheered through a steady rain for the first three quarters, roared when coaches Pat Hill and Dan Hawkins hugged at midfield after a scoreless second half.
Jared Zabransky was 15-of-32 for 190 yards with two interceptions for Boise State, which finally ran out of offensive ingenuity after winning every WAC game since a loss to Louisiana Tech on Nov. 3, 2001.
Boise State lost just two of its first 37 games in league play, but Zabransky's error-prone unit never resembled the sublime offensive teams of past years in this cold, unfriendly stadium.
The schools have dominated the WAC since Boise State joined, going a combined 64-12. Though two tough conference games remain for a school accustomed to midseason letdowns, Fresno State finally is in prime position for its first outright WAC title in Hill's tenure.
Hill made no attempt to minimize the meeting's importance, calling it the biggest game at Bulldog Stadium in his nine seasons. Hill has been haunted by Boise State since 2001, when the Broncos beat then-No. 8 Fresno State 35-30 to end the Bulldogs' unbeaten season and Bowl Championship Series aspirations.
"They came in and took something from us, and we've never got it back," Hill said on Saturday.
That simmering anxiety might have been one reason Carpenter turned a simple trap play into a 67-yard score on the second play from scrimmage, just 47 seconds after the opening kickoff. But Fresno State calmly replied with a 74-yard scoring drive, including a clutch third-down pass by Pinegar and a 15-yard TD run by Mathis.
Pinegar, who became Fresno State's career leader in touchdown passes while going 22-of-36, decisively outplayed Zabransky.
Longhorns quarterback Vince Young is among those upset over Kansas coach Mark Mangino's inflammatory comments following last year's 27-23 victory over the Jayhawks.
"Normally I give credit to our opponents," Mangino said. "But I'm not going to do that today because our kids outplayed them. They should've won the game, they deserved to win and it just didn't work out."
"The [issue] to me is how they disrespected us last year, saying that they outcoached us and outplayed us," Young told a group of Texas reporters. "It's fresh in my mind now. I'm going to make sure I tell the guys this whole week what they said. That kind of upset me. I know it upset the other guys, and I know it upset our coaches."
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Safety Joe Sturdivant of SMU recorded 10 tackles, broke up two passes, intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble and made a tackle for a loss in a 27-7 victory over Rice.
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