The consensus here (I've been reading a while) seems to be the opposite, and it puzzles me.

To me, the most telling aspect of this mess are the words of Mills' high school coach. He didn't so much throw Mills under the bus, as he nudged him in front of it. Stating that Mills can be a bit disorderly, in the face of his dismissal, says a lot about the kids personality and his penchant for horseplay. His former coach made no attempt to take up for Mills, in any way. That is highly unusual.

Gillispies handling of the situation did not bother me in the least. Some coaches would have made Mills take a bus back to campus, instead of letting him fly with the rest of the team.

Did he curse him? Don't know , don't care. Did he give him a chance to explain? Don't know, don't care.

Would I have handled the situation in the same way? Probably not. I would have let the kid down easy, but maybe Clyde has put up with more than we know from Ollie, and his frustration got the best of him.

I get a sneaking feeling this is not the first time Mills has pissed off Gillispie, though. I  get the sense that this was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Even if that isn't true, Gillispie has stated publicly that walk-ons are on a day-to-day "contract". If coach feels Mills laughing on the bench while one of his comrades lays on the floor in obvious pain constitutes a "fireable" offense, then so be it.

Tipton reporting this in the manner that he did, didn't really bother me either. He gave Gillispie an opportunity to expound upon the situation, but Clyde decided he didn't have much to say. As a reporter, Tipton couldn't allow Gillispies relative silence to preclude him from writing the story.

Most of us have seen the movie "All the Presidents Men". Just because the reporters in the movie get "no comments" or denials from the people involved, doesn't mean they don't print their story. Tipton had enough for a column, so he ran with it.

Negative or not, Tipton is not paid to cheerlead UK. His job is to report, and give the occassional opinion. If one doesn't like his style or content, don't read him.

All in all this is a very minor blip on the screen, in my eyes. Gillispies a hard-ass...tell me something I don't know. As long as he lives within the rules of society, and doesn't embarrass the University, I'll leave it up to him on how to best mete out punishment to his team.

Now, lets beat the hell out of the Razorbacks.

In fact, people actively seek it out.  Look at everest climbers, who voluntarily seek a life-threatening test of their willpower and toughness, just to see if they can do it.  Inevitably, they come out transformed.

Also, on the athletic front, consider Gym Jones, where the cast of the movie 300 trained.  Similar tactics are employed there: no coddling, and pushing people to their very limit.  You just don't get that buff with 30 minutes per day on your Chuck Norris total gym.

A more extreme example is the gyoja, or spiritual athlete of Japan.  They're Buddhists who undertake a ritual that is essentially running 1 marathon per day - for 100 days.  And there's no bailing out either, the gyoja travels with a rope and a knife, by which they are expected to commit ritual suicide by hanging or by blade if they don't succeed at their run.

If they succeed at the 100 day run, there is even a more extreme 1000-day run that involves a 7 day period of food, water, and sleep deprivation, after which they resume with 2 marathons per day.

Pretty extreme?  But you can't really expect to achieve enlightenment sitting in your computer chair posting blog comments, after all!  8')

Here's an interesting article about it:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/holly.html

So maybe a little cursing with the intent of improving toughness, character, body and spirit isn't that extreme, or more than the players can handle.  You don't get to be Acie Law by being coddled either, apparently.

The allusion to All the President's Men is unavailing to this situation.  In that instance, Woodward and Bernstein had reliable sources.  Those sources were unnamed at first, but the writers at least informed the readers that there were unnamed sources for their allegations.

Clyde liked his fire and grit, and did what most coaches wouldn't have; give him an opportunity to suit up for UK, something many players would give their left arm to do.

Mills screws up the opportunity and blames the coach. Grow up. It's like blaming a cop for giving you a speeding ticket.

He should be apologizing for being a distraction, not bad-mouthing the man who went above and beyond to allow him such a cherished opportunity.

He's upset about being yelled at, well isn't that too bad.

Typical entitlement attitude. The only thing he is entitled to is the opportunity to remove Clydes shoe from his ass on the way out the door.

My advice: transfer to Illinois.