It was just one little line on a press release on Friday, “Idaho State football coach Mike Kramer has announced that wide receivers coach Craig Stutzmann has resigned as wide receivers coach effective immediately.”

    Wow.

    Imagine that, the guy has been on the job for six months and he already is bailing on the program.

    Or is he?

    Reached by telephone on Friday, all Kramer would say is that “I don’t have any comment on it.”

    A whole lot of things are at work here.

    First, police records indicate that a Craig Stutzmann was arrested on May 11 and charged with driving under the influence. Stutzmann since pleaded not guilty and the next hearing is scheduled for July 25.

    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. We have a football coach in Kramer who is trying to show that his program at Idaho State will be run with the highest integrity. We get it. We not only get it, we applaud coach Kramer for pulling out all the stops to make sure everyone representing the university is toeing the line.

    All that said, this kind of situation should send up a red flag as well.

    You see, this appears to be a pretty cut-and-dried deal. Assistant gets arrested, everyone has been warned, out the door you go. There is no reason not to come clean and tell the public what the heck has transpired.

    And yet, we get a short press release saying that this assistant, who just got the job, and who is facing an embarrassing and turbulent period in his life, has resigned.

    “I appreciate Craig's hard work during his time in Pocatello and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors," Kramer said in the release.

    Bullhunky.

    Experience in these matters lends me to believe that Stutzmann was told, “Sorry, kid, we like you, but we just can’t afford this kind of bad pub. Here’s your resignation.”

    You know what? That’s totally OK.

    Now I could be completely off base (believe it or not it wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong), but it’s hard to know what’s going on when a state university is not forthcoming about matters which are public record.

    There is no reason for these kind of matters to be hush-hush situations. All it does is cause those who follow the program to speculate ... usually concocting the worst possible scenarios.

    Plus, the taxpayers certainly deserve better when their money is being spent and yet they have no right to information.

    Now, in some ways, Stutzmann is taking it on the chin here. First of all, he still has a trial upcoming so his guilt or innocence has yet to be determined. This could be a big misunderstanding that has cost him his job. And even if he is guilty of this misdemeanor, there are many places which would have possibly just suspended him or delivered some other kind of punishment.

    That being said, I agree that ISU can’t afford to be lenient. Stutzmann knew taking the job that the program was under the microscope.

    Again, good for coach Kramer that he is going to be a hard case. “We will live our life emblematic of the way we conduct our program,” he said Friday night. “Down the center.”

    ISU Athletic Director Jeff Tingey, reached by telephone during his vacation on Friday night, said he didn’t want to comment on Stutzmann’s situation, but he did say that coach Kramer’s rules include the fact that “no public drinking will be tolerated and no drinking and driving will be tolerated.”

    The community can be proud of those kind of rules and that kind of hard line. Just don’t leave us in the dark with these in-house secrets that have us wondering, “What won’t we be told next?”