That escalated quickly. In one moment you're stepping off an aircraft after enjoying a satisfying road win by your team, the next moment you are caught up in a whirlwind of bad publicity, political outrage, and even calls for your job.

That was last week for the University of Louisiana Head Football Coach Mark Hudspeth. There was a supposed "private" locker room video that was released to social media. There were the early morning comments of coach Hud that outraged and inflamed the situation even more. There was the backlash against both, the video and the comments. Now, there appears to be the lesson learned and the attempt to move forward by Coach Hudspeth, UL Football, and the University.

This obviously does not reflect our entire team, coaches and program. I do take full responsibility of the actions in the locker room and did a poor job of ensuring that a healthy environment was promoted there.

The words of Coach Hudspeth as reported by the Louisiana Radio Network.

An apology and explanation were certainly warranted in this case. However, those are just words unless they are backed up by action. Coach Hudspeth outlined the changes that will result as a result of this particular incident.

One is that the players’ music will now be played by our video department in the common areas, they will no longer have the ability to play the music through their phones although we are not taking away their privilege to listen to whatever music they’d like through their headphones.

As Coach Hudspeth explained in his comments that experience is a tough teacher. The lessons learned from mistakes are often the hardest to accept but usually the most meaningful. Coach "Hud" has indicated that this experience will, in fact, be a growing and learning experience for his squad.

The Coach announced plans for his team to participate in 1-thousand hours of community service. In those hours the players will make a visit to every middle school and high school campus in the Acadiana area.

To talk to their players so hopefully we can keep them from maybe making a similar mistake one day. So we want to talk to them about some things we have learned from this and hopefully we can take to them, such as the importance of your image, the importance of representing your school, your family name, the dos and don’ts of social media.

Will one thousand hours be enough to earn back the goodwill and respect of the community? Will one thousand hours be enough to teach these young men about responsibility for their actions? Will one thousand hours be enough to erase the damage done by less than one minute of video?  Only time and you will be the judge of that.

 

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