You know what grinds my gears?

The loss of President Ruud and Mike Yurcich.

First, we all know that our University President William Ruud is leaving the construction and cow pastures of Shippensburg for the wide open plains of Northern Iowa University.

For the entire time I have studied here, Ruud has always made me feel safe and welcome.

Not once have we had a hurricane, an avalanche or an invasion from Canada while Ruud has been here.

He brings students in with the mantra of “Ship is It” and for the life of me I do not know how he will be able to create that with Northern Iowa.

Ruud is a very educated man, and will bring a lot of wisdom and care to the students and faculty of Northern Iowa. I am pleased to know I had him as my commander in chief and hope that the next president will be just as personable as the aptly named Ruud.

My only regret is that my only encounter with him was when I ran him down to hand him a program and yelled, “Mr. President.”

Those five seconds were just as memorable as the awkward 20 that followed.

Learning of President Ruud’s leaving almost overshadowed the departure of the offensive coordinator of the football team, Mike Yurcich.

Yurcich is the man who helped lead the Raiders to a perfect 100 regular season and an impressive offensive aerial attack led by quarterback Zach Zulli.

Yurcich is now going to the Midwest to join Oklahoma State University and become the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator.

Anyone who watched the Raiders this past season knew that Yurcich was in line for a new job somewhere.

He possesses all the talents of a top-of-the line coach in football and we are thankful that he brought his talents here for two prolific seasons before taking that spread on the road.

Yurcich is the new coming of Dan Reeves a Norv Turner. He will make offenses explode and help Oklahoma State rack up the points, but this time in front of the whole nation.

It is a sad day when we lose two great individuals who brought so much to Shippensburg University.

Then again I am graduating so I should not be too upset.

In the midst of the construction and the demolition of buildings we see that life changes every single day.

As time goes on and people grow, we realize that we now know that these two men, who helped SU, are now on their way; goodbye Mike Yurcich and President Ruud.

As much as we would have liked them to stay, ship happens.