Lache Seastrunk rumored to seek transfer

Some people will work. Some simply will not.

The line is from a song in a 1992 movie, “Bob Roberts,” and the meaning has been turned around in 19 years. What Tim Robbins meant as satire is now the playbook of the country, with the steady decline of the working class and the rise of talk radio and The Tea Party.

Applied to athletes, it suggests that faced with adversity, some athletes will work harder. Others seek a transfer to a school with a less imposing depth chart.

Justin Hopkins of Duck Territory is reporting this morning that former 5-star, 5th-string running back Lache Seastrunk has requested his release from the University of Oregon and intends to seek a transfer, probably to Baylor, much closer to his Temple, Texas hometown. Though no official announcement has been made, Seastrunk was not at practice this morning, and he’s been visibly frustrated by the prospect of sitting the bench for another year. Earlier this week he told the Statesman-Journal’s Gary Horowitz, “God’s gonna open a door for me.” The door, apparently, was a Google Map to Waco, Texas. The Baylor Bears were 7-6 last year, 4-4 in the Big 12. Their leading rusher,Jay Finley, who had 1115 yards last season, is now with the Cincinnati Bengals. Quarterback Robert Griffin is a senior in 2012, so coach Art Briles will be looking for a new star and a new workhorse, and a quick little tailback with 10.5 speed in the 100, a Texas kid, might be a perfect fit.

Seastrunk has to sit out a year, but it’s still an improvement for him. Temple is 36.2 miles from Waco, but the distance between Lache and the top of the Oregon depth chart was between three years and never. Mired behind Doak Walker award winner LaMichael James and dynamic 1B back Kenjon Barner, the 5-11, 190-pound speed burner grew even more discouraged this fall camp as newcomers De’Anthony Thomas and Tra Carson passed him for practice reps, Thomas for his great broken-field running ability, Carson with his 227-pound straight-ahead style. Although he’d shown progress in the first two weeks of fall workouts, Seastrunk still had a tendency to dance in the backfield or bounce everything outside, a style at odds with running back coach Gary Campbell’s one-cut-and-go philosophy.

Seastrunk probably needs a change of scenery for an additional reason. Oregon’s been a lonely place for him. A deeply spiritual young man, he never developed much of a support system in Eugene, and he needed one after being mired all off season in the Willie Lyles recruiting scandal. Having done nothing wrong, he was mentioned in every headline in a battle of adults, the victim of a tabloid smear war in the blogosphere and mainstream press. Seastrunk didn’t get $25,000. He didn’t send bogus scouting reports or act as a representative or agent of a school. But in every headline, tweet and lead, it was his name that came first. He can take a year to work on his schoolwork, the weight room, the Baylor playbook and his game, and in August of 2012 he can be just Lache again, with a chance to carry the ball.

If there’s anything to criticize here, it’s that Seastrunk quit on his teammates. In January he moped to a reporter from Auburn just days before the National Championship. He waited until fall to make his decision, after seeing the competition outperform him in camp. It’s an understandable choice, but a disappointing one.