Collins, a sophomore linebacker, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old at a post-prom party in a May 2004 incident in Texarkana, Texas. A jury recommended five years probation.
"Coach Mike Gundy met today with Chris Collins to discuss the situation,” Strathe said in a statement.
"During the meeting coach Gundy informed Chris he would no longer be a member of the football team and the university supports coach Gundy's decision.
"Because of the way Chris has conducted himself since coming to OSU, we will honor his athletic scholarship so he can continue his education at OSU if he is so inclined.”
Earlier in the day, at his weekly press conference, Gundy was asked if he was comfortable with OSU's background research on Collins before the Cowboys signed him in February 2006.
"Me personally, yes,” Gundy said. "I'm trying to do the best I can without really going back to that now. There's just some things we can talk about, some things we can't. Mainly because of Chris.”
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Do you honestly think that any living human being hasn't got one moment in time that they wish they could have back? I feel compelled to tell you a little story! I witnessed in high school a young man, not very big mind you, who used to walk around a corner and be beat upon every day by a gang of boys who all did whatever the gang leader instructed them to do! The reason they did this was because he was different and didn't fit in, didn't want to fit in with those who would hurt others, smoke cigarettes and who all wore the same attire. So everyday this young boy would go to class on the verge of tears with a stiff upper lip and bruises all up and down his arms. We'll call the boy Jesus! Well one day Jesus went to class with his new watch his parents had just given him for Christmas. A watch that he appreciated so much because it was from his parents whom he loved very much although they were poor. Probably why he treasured the trinquet so dearly. So as the boys began their daily pounding of Jesus, the biggest one of all broke the boys watch with his fist. So Jesus didn't want to be Jesus anymore and with all his might he punched the huge boy in the eye and knocked him to the floor. The others just watched in disbelief. Jesus ran as fast as he could into the boys bathroom. By this time the huge boy was back to his feet with a shiner as big as if he'd been struck by a 90 mph fastball. So Jesus turned to fight once more afraid for his mortal life. The big boy raised a fist and stopped! He looked at Jesus and asked "why did you do that"? Jesus just broke down in tears for you see, it wasn't a proud moment for Jesus. He didn't want to hit anybody anymore than he wanted to be hit. Jesus and the boy found their way to the office of a scornful vice-principal who began to lecture them both about the consequences of fighting in school. The boy was cool, calm and collected while Jesus, unaccustomed to being in trouble, could hardly speak as he was so shaken by what had happened. The boys got no more than a strong lecture and a slap on the wrist and returned to class. Ironically, the boy was in Jesus next class also. Jesus never got hit after that and if he was never accepted, he could at least be respected. At the end of the day Jesus looked above and thanked the Heavenly Father that he wasn't obliterated. Then he prayed! "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do; but especially forgive me, for I did".
Douglas you moron I don't condone what Chris Collins or his partners in crime did! It was filthy, nasty and criminal. All's I said was that Hannah Montana looks 18! We have a real problem in society with parents allowing their young daughters to wear make-up and dress inappropriately and sending them out without parental supervision. Yeah these guys were pathetic, but the parents of this child make me want to puke! If you're ashamed to call yourself an OSU alum, it's not because of this misfortunate occurrence, more likely it's because you're a redneck hillbilly sooner!
I think that the OSU administration should not be blamed the blame belongs on Mike Gundy and he refuses to admitt
it. He should apolagize to the OSU fans for his mistake of giving a scholarship to Collins .
Fans making these redneck jokes trying to shift blame
on another university that didn't sign Collins wouldn't care .
You might be a hillbilly redneck sooner if the tail-gate party starts at midnight while you smoke the ribs that were marinated in beer the night before!
I just read a small excerpt in this mornings Daily Oklahoman that says that UCO is looking to replace a QB and a linebacker to go along with their All-American running back! Now if that doesn't look like a recipe for Bobby Reid and Chris Collis I don't know what does!
I'm still not really sure how this became an OU/OSU issue. I don't know if it's relevant to ask, "what would Stoops do?" This isn't an OU situation. Along the same line of thinking, I don't think it's necessary to attack OSU as an institution because of this one incident. Can someone tell me how attacking the legitimacy of our agriculture program fits into this discussion?
I thought so. osu folks just hold your heads up and scream in anguish "Barry!!!!!" of "Billy!!!" like in star trek 2 when ol' boy screamed "Kahn!!!!!" in anguish.
Even if Hannah Montana looks 18 it doesn't justify gang-raping her when she is passed out from alcohol, leaving her blood all over the mattress, leaving her half-naked, passed out, and soaked in urine and vomit in a yard a block from her house. Does it?
Mary, you are whack. People like you trying to justify and rationalize this brutal rape make me ashamed to be an OSU fan. If this kid had worn crimson you would be screaming at the injustice at the top of your lungs.
Why do OSU fans think that most of OU fans are bandwagon fans?? Yes, most OU fans never went to school at OU. That doesn't mean that they are bandwagon fans. I know a lot of people who were born and raised an OU fan but never stepped foot on the campus unless they are going to a game. You have to remember that OU is a "national" program when it comes to football. What I mean by that is OU has fans all over the country, fans that have adored OU since the Wilkinson days. OSU, on the other hand, will only have fans who actually went to school there. Unfortunately, because OSU has been mediocre for so long, they will never have the fan base that OU has. Anyway, I'm rambling on here, just wanted to know why you always here OSU fans saying that OU fans are bandwagon fans.
Roy..Uuuuuh.....I think you need to get back on your meds...The "empty seats" are under construction. In other words, it's just concrete. Now I understand that OU isn't an math and sciences school, but even think most sooner fans wouldn't sit in an area under construction..But perhaps you would. Which says quite a lot. ;)
Good one Mary...calling the OU fans rednecks. From a fan base to a school that provides animal husbandry. But what does ABC see when they pan the OSU stadium? I'll tell you what...empty seats. Maybe the Athletic Department should give tickets away to generate more interest and possibly give the appearance of a legitimate fan base? Just a thought…
Yeah Craig is right! Three fourths of OU's fan base never took a credit course at OU! I've seen ABC pan the stadium seats with there cameras and honestly, well I think Callahan said it better than I can!
Mike in Katy, Texas cracks me up. I'm glad that OSU is adding 20K seats too. The only problem I have is that fact that when OSU starts to have consistent gridiron success, the band wagon sooner fans will take off their crimson in favor of orange. If the bandwagon fans at OU were wiped off planet earth, would OU have more than 20,000 fans? I remember back when OU tried to follow OSU's lead in hiring an African-American coach and the fans scattered like chickens fleeing Bobby Reid's mother looking for a meal for Bobby.;)
Pardon me, I thought this was The Oklahoman. I suppose you condone sex for 12 yr olds if it involves a football player. Your lunatic rage clearly displays serious emotional imbalance. I suppose you were one of the poor cry baby losers throwing water bottles and trash at the WINNERS with righteous declarations of sanctimonious flair. Mary, your buttons are so easy to press its not worth it anymore. BTW, that coach MAKES a lot of money for the University by WINNING - try the concept sometime.
Oh here we go again, if I only had a nickel for everytime I hear the three step program! You Gooners get a life and stay out of OSU bulletin boards! You have no business being in here harassing Chris Collins, Mike Gundy, OSU or it's fans! You get a life! You sure pay your head coach an awful lot of money just to play a game! I don't think all the professors there make as much together as what he makes alone! But then he deserves it, doesn't he? After all...it's just a game!
First thing - at least we go to BIG BOWL GAMES, not the toilet bowls. Secondly, try focusing on YOUR TEAMS FAILURES instead of blaming them on everybody else. Finally - get a life, its only a football game.
You're darn right I'm one of those who cheers when 0U is behind on the scoreboard! Me and 39,000 other fans! I don't think anyone in the Big XII likes 0U because all they do is lie, cheat and steal! I was ecstatic when Colorado beat 0U! 0U was huffin' and puffin' in the thin air and just couldn't finish! Whomever they play in a bowl this year, they'll disappoint just like they always do!
I think maybe T. Boone University should have spent money on a huge video screen to show the OU games on instead of adding more seats... they will never fill it except when the Sooners come to town. It's apparent to me that OSU fans are way more concerned with OU than they are with the halloween clad pokes.
Wow, Mary....I didn't know O'Connell's was "taken down." I was just there this past weekend. And no, I doubt anyone would be leaving the stadium even if OSU goes up by 4 touchdowns, seeing how OSU has a tendency to allow teams to comeback and win. Remember Texas?
Truth Seeker, Oklahoma City - Nov 13, 2007 5:11 PM
Jackie, Pat, et al-
It is very clear to me that Mary is one of those unfortunate fans in Oklahoma that, if given the option of only one outcome between OSU winning or OU losing, would choose the latter every time. I do not understand how this kind of illogical thought pattern sustains itself in Stillwater, but it certainly does. If you have never seen this, just tune in to a game at the only East-West stadium in Div I on game day, and listen for the loudest cheer (if you can hear over the canned music that insults their band)...it will be for an announcement that OU is behind or has lost! Never fails. Mary, you give the many good OSU fans a bad name with your inane rhetoric. By, the way, his name is Dusty, not Dust, and he was never even charged with any crime, much less convicted. Read sometime, or did you get the Dexter Manley degree at T-Bone State? Let me know how that second fiddle sounds, would you?
Well I'm sure the stadium will be full at least until half-time when OSU visits Norman! At least until half-time when OSU goes ahead by four touchdowns and O'Connells...oh that's right, they took O'Connells down, didn't they!
Attempted murder? Dvoracek wasn't even charged with a crime. One drunk beating up another doesn't compare with raping a 12 year old girl. You really live in another world, don't you Mary.
Serious question for you Mary. I know OSU is the greatest and all but why can't that fill up that 45,000 seat stadium? They had 39,000 people there last Sat. night for a huge game. Are all OSU fans like you and more concerned with what OU is doing so they stayed home to watch the OU vs. Baylor game?
Mary, last night you said you were through with this subject. You should have stuck with that decision. Someone told you to stop posting and showing your ignorance. You should have taken that advice. And as long as the OU football program is ranked in the top ten in the nation, as it has been for years, I don't think you can say they are "second fiddle". Where is OSU ranked? Oh, they aren't! Mary, just stop. You don't care about Chris Collins, you just want to bash OU.
Chris should have gone to Nebraska! They could have used him and he never would have been thrown into the middle of a pith'n contest between two state universities!
Dusty Dvoracek's scholarship may have been revoked but I bet he had a lucrative position at Big Red Sports where he was required to clock in five days a week!
To all you Gooners! Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll fire Gundy over this and we'll actually get someone who can coach and who can represent the University with a cool head and address the media appropriately, albeit I doubt we'll receive the same respect from the staff writers at the Daily Oklahoman regardless since just to get to this forum you have to close an advertisement for the University of Oklahoma! I bet the Oklahoman made them an offer they couldn't refuse! It was bedlam before it's going to be a blood bath for now on! Gooners just can't take being second fiddle in this state! Let me get out the violin!!!
I don't know did they revoke Dusty Dvoracek's scholarship after his attempted murder? I guess when he was reinstated he paid his own way, didn't he? I forgot about that!
I know I'm going to get hammered for even asking this question, I don't know any of the details of the case, but......what exactly was a 12 year old doing at an after prom party???
He still has a scholarship, but he doesn't have to work for it.If they really want to fair, they should give his scholarship to the 12-year-old girl that was raped.
Mary, are those two words your usual response when someone has made a well-expressed, valid statement for which you have no legitimate argument? I'd be very interested to know exactly what you believe to be invalid with Kevin's statement. If the school offers to fund Collin's education with a taxpayer supported scholarship, should they do the same for other convicted rapist? I think not. If it's wrong for others, it's wrong for him!
I'm sure Gundy's has had his butt in the ringer over this with Mike Holder and Marlene Strathe. His "thorough investigation" didn't include at any time contact with the Texarkana Police Department nor the Bowie County DA's office. They had all the grissly facts about Collins in this case but Gundy never made any contact with them. He took a chance and got his butt burned badly.
Actually, I believe that the kid should still be on the team. With this thing up in the air, Mike should have never extended a scholarship. I am not saying that the kid's actions are acceptable, but Mike knew this was pending and still extended a scholarship. Now that it all comes to light, the kid is left on the outside looking in. Mike deserves a large part of the blame here for this situation. Mike was just happy to have another kid that could play ball. It didn't matter that he had this case pending. He used this kid and hung out to dry when things heated up. So much for sticking up for the young men that you bring to Stillwater. You did your little rant showing support for your now second string QB. This kid here really did need your backing since you brought into the program knowing his situation. I am sure the school came in and said he had to go. The only reason that he was offered to remain on scholarship was because the administration knows that more than likely the kid will transfer to play ball some where else. What a joke.
Don't you think one of those walk-on players at OSU that's "doing everything right" and practicing hard would appreciate this full scholarship Collins is getting?
This is beyond reprehensible! In Mike's own,famous ranting words, "Are you kidding me?" Maybe Jenni should "go after someone who isn't doing everything right". How can any rational person approve of this "student athlete" receiving continued financial support from OSU? Mary from OKC, how is banking on Collins leaving voluntarily in any way the "right thing" from the University. You are darn right it isn't OU... they expel their felons, and pull their scholarships. Self fixing? Way to take a stand, OSU. Ridiculous, and embarrasing for the entire state, unfortunately. If they catch the current rapist on campus, does he get a scholarship? What an idiotic hypocrisy that is being espoused with this decision. Pitiful.
I don't think there is any question OSU did the right thing and is doing the right thing! This problem is self fixing because by the end of the semester Chris Collins will be enrolled somewhere else to play football! After all, this is not 0U!
I am in no shape or form saying not to give Collins a second chance. I am saying you don't give a convicted felon and sex offender a full scholarship worth tens of thousands of dollars. Just think of the new public relations campaign - OSU: FREE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CONVICTED FELONS AND SEX OFFENDERS
If it is determined the perpetrator in the current OSU rape investigation is an OSU student, will he be offered the same opportunity to remain in school as this football player who plead guilty to the rape of a 12 year-old child?
I think this is probably the last rehabilitation case that Oklahoma State will admit on athletic scholarship. My guess, Strathe stepped in and put the hammer on the athletic department. And it is about time! Oklahoma State University is an academic institution, not a minor league system for professional athletics.
NN, Tulsa, everything I stated earlier comes from testimony given in court, under oath by the officers who investigated the crime. Read the accounts in the Texarkana Gazette. It isn't hateful to state facts, and those are the *facts*.
I'm proud of Gundy and OSU for handling this in a responsible manner and not pandering to the knee jerk media and public. I hope everyone involved can move forward in the best way possible now.
Collins staying on athletic scholarship is fitting, because as long as he's there that is one scholarship that Gundy won't be able to use to help the team. It is, in effect, probation and a fitting punishment for Gundy compromising his morals to bring Collins to Stillwater in the first place.
You guys posting hateful comments are saying extreme things that are pretty misinformed. Of course, there are two sides to every story, but you guys have gone off the deep end. Collins was a teenage HS Junior when this happened. He thought the girl was 16. He wasn't trolling for kids. If that was the case do you think he would have got probation??? Also, state funds DO NOT go toward athletic scholarships. The Tulsa World was prudent enough to publish this in an article. Athletic department funds, earned through ticket sales and donations go for athletic scholarships. Don't worry, your taxes have nothing to do with Collins scholarship. Who would want him to earn a degree and become a productive member of society anyway. Let's make sure he has no chance at life!!!
All the parents of young girls in Stillwater must be thrilled by the news that a convicted sex offender will be on scholarship and living there. And for those who say that he's turned his life around and is now a shining example of manhood, I ask this: would you let him babysit your teenage daughter? Another question as the OSU officials and coaches run for cover is how are they going to cover their butts if this guy commits another assault while on campus? That's a bigtime lawsuit.
All the parents of young girls in Stillwater must be thrilled by the news that a convicted sex offender will be on scholarship and living there. And for those who say that he's turned his life around and is now a shining example of manhood, I ask this: would you let him babysit your teenage daughter? Another question as the OSU officials and coaches run for cover is how are they going to cover their butts if this guy commits another assault while on campus? That's a bigtime lawsuit.
offering the kid the opportunity to continue to pursue his education is standard boilerplate language. If someone has been in your program at any time at all, you offer this to them as an appeasal, fully knowing that they probably will not return or they will choose to go elsewhere. It is just the PC thing to do in any situation where someone was already enrolled and had good grades and good attendance and such.
Isn't this wonderful! You help gang-bang a twelve year old girl getting her so drunk she vomits and urninates in the bed and leave her bloody; you lie to Gundy (and if Gundy wasn't lied to he's a fool for taking Collins)for 3+ years; your convicted as a felon for aggravated sexual assault and recommended for five years of probation with possible registration as a sex offender; your dismissed from the OSU football team for your transgressions; YET you get a full ride scholarship (worth tens of thousands of dollars) including tuition, lodging, books, and meals without having to play anymore football or do anything to keep your scholarship. WHAT A DEAL!!! This has become a bigger aggie joke as the days go by. lol Think of the thousands of students who abide by the law yet have to take out student loans and work two jobs to get through college. Wouldn't they like to have a deal like this?
I'm so glad state funds are being used to educate a convicted felon when there are so many non-felons who would love to attend college but can't afford to do so. That's a good use of taxpayer funds.
Mike -- Thanks for your sensitivity to the welfare of this young man! We are glad you invited Chris to become a Cowboy. I know his life is different because of his time at OSU. Thanks Mike and OSU Staff.
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Leave a comment. Log in below or sign up (it's free).Editor's note: It is not our intent to offer comments on crime or fatality stories.
it. He should apolagize to the OSU fans for his mistake of giving a scholarship to Collins .
Fans making these redneck jokes trying to shift blame
on another university that didn't sign Collins wouldn't care .
Mary, you are whack. People like you trying to justify and rationalize this brutal rape make me ashamed to be an OSU fan. If this kid had worn crimson you would be screaming at the injustice at the top of your lungs.
It is very clear to me that Mary is one of those unfortunate fans in Oklahoma that, if given the option of only one outcome between OSU winning or OU losing, would choose the latter every time. I do not understand how this kind of illogical thought pattern sustains itself in Stillwater, but it certainly does. If you have never seen this, just tune in to a game at the only East-West stadium in Div I on game day, and listen for the loudest cheer (if you can hear over the canned music that insults their band)...it will be for an announcement that OU is behind or has lost! Never fails. Mary, you give the many good OSU fans a bad name with your inane rhetoric. By, the way, his name is Dusty, not Dust, and he was never even charged with any crime, much less convicted. Read sometime, or did you get the Dexter Manley degree at T-Bone State? Let me know how that second fiddle sounds, would you?