I've known Keith Dambrot since 7th grade and we played on the same junior high and high school teams. He was and is fiercely competitive and early in his coaching career lost focus on doing the "right" things.

His tenures at Akron as a grad assistant (under Bob Rupert, my old high school coach), Tiffin and Ashland were all tainted by questionable behavior. His biggest offense at CMU, in my opinion, was punching a player on the sidelines of a game at Kent State. I was sitting a couple of rows behind his parents and they were terribly upset by it. Kent fans went crazy, but somehow the incident was never covered by the media.

I've read and seen several interviews of him in recent years and he openly acknowledges that he had lost his way early in his career. He still has the same chip on his shoulder that he had when I first met him in the early 1970s.

Interesting fact: His father played at Duquesne and his uncle was on the NYU team involved in a point shaving scandal.