Big Ten football is slow getting up to speed
We were sitting in the sauna at the Monroe YMCA, four guys offering suggestions on why Big Ten football teams had such a lousy bowl record.
Someone said the conference is at a disadvantage because its regular season ends before Thanksgiving and there is no Big Ten championship game.
Someone pointed out that the conference has trouble recruiting speedy southern players because of its geographic location and long winters.
Someone reminded everyone that the conference never gets to play a home bowl game. Is it fair that Southern Cal plays in the Rose Bowl almost every year?
Our discussion was held before the Fiesta Bowl and the national championship game.
After watching Texas-Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl and Florida-Oklahoma in the title game, the need for speed in the Big Ten seems greater than ever.
College football is changing and the Big Ten has been slow to adapt. It isn't keeping up with the nation's elite programs. It needs to recruit more quarterbacks like Colt McCoy of Texas and Tim Tebow of Florida.
McCoy can run or throw. He has the nimble feet of a wide receiver, plus a hair-trigger passing arm.
Tebow runs like a fullback, has the leadership qualities of a charismatic preacher and is a better than average passer.
No quarterback in the Big Ten can match the qualities of either player.
Ohio State freshman Terrelle Pryor is a nice building block, but the Big Ten needs to recruit more quarterbacks with an emphasis on speed. The old, drop-back pocket passer is so 1990s in today's college game.
The Big Ten went 1-6 in bowl games this season. The only winner was Iowa , which blitzed South Carolina 31-10. That doesn't give the conference much to brag about since South Carolina was outscored 118-30 in its last three games.
Penn State , Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Minnesota all lost bowl games.
Penn State , the Big Ten co-champion, fell behind Southern Cal 31-7 in the first half.
Wisconsin looked like a wet noodle when it whimped out against Florida State 42-13.
Minnesota finished the season with a five-game losing streak. It lost by three touchdowns to Kansas, which brought a nothing-special 8-5 record to the Insight Bowl.
Here's a little insight for the Big Ten. Take a look at what Pryor can do and make him the start of a trend toward more mobile quarterbacks.
Pryor is a true freshman. He is just 19 years old. He is one of those rare athletes who glides away from tacklers even though it doesn't look like he's running that fast. He's already a game-changer. When his passing ability and game decisions improve, he will be a Heisman trophy candidate.
The spread and no-huddle offenses are going to shape college football in the next decade. The emphasis is on speed, with sprinters at wide receiver and bullet passers at quarterback. The Big Ten needs to get in step with the times and recruit accordingly.
We know Rich Rodriguez wants to take Michigan in that direction. What about some of the other coaches?
monroenews.com
Tebow asks for NFL Draft advice
FORT LAUDERDALE - Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said Friday he has submitted paperwork to the NFL's draft advisory committee to find out his potential draft position should he decide to leave school after this season.
And that's pretty much all the thought the junior from Jacksonville is giving the issue until after the BCS national championship game against Oklahoma on Jan. 8.
"I'm not even worried about it," Tebow said shortly after the Gators (12-1) landed in south Florida. "I'm excited to be here in Miami and I'm ready to go play the Sooners."
That's not Tebow avoiding the issue, coach Urban Meyer said. Tebow hasn't made up his mind and will not waste time thinking about it because all he's thinking about is Oklahoma, Meyer said.
"We spoke briefly about it and said we're going to revisit it after the bowl game," Meyer said. "Other than that, we've been visiting with nothing other than Oklahoma.
"A lot of times you hear people say, 'I'm going to make this decision after the bowl game,' and it's been made two months ago. There's been no decision made. His father looks at me and we talk about Oklahoma."
Several draft experts - notably Mel Kiper Jr., and ESPN.com's Todd McShay, the director of college football scouting for Scouts, Inc. - have said Tebow is likely a third-round pick. They have questions about his ability to read defenses, his footwork, his delivery, and his ability to take snaps under center, rather than from the shotgun formation, which Florida uses exclusively.
McShay ranks Tebow sixth on his list of top underclassman quarterbacks behind Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Georgia's Matt Stafford, Southern Cal's Mark Sanchez, Ball State's Nate Davis and Kansas State's Josh Freeman.
Kiper doesn't list Tebow among his top five underclassman quarterbacks, either.
So far, Freeman is the only one that has said he's leaving early.
Tebow said he knows he has work to do to become an NFL quarterback. His doubters, though, are fueling his drive.
"I hear that [he's not an NFL quarterback] and I like that. I use that as motivation," said Tebow, who has thrown for 2,515 yards, 28 touchdowns and only two interceptions and rushed for 564 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. "When people said I couldn't throw in college I tried to use that as motivation. Maybe if I change the way I played a little bit maybe they'd look at me a little different if I just threw the ball and didn't run, didn't hit people, didn't get excited. Maybe they'd look at me a little differently.
"I believe in myself and have confidence that hopefully one day I can play at the next level. That's always been my goal since I was a little kid, to play in the NFL."
(c) Copyright The Florida Times-Union
Paterno unsure whether he'll coach at Rose Bowl from sideline
ANAHEIM, Calif. - The biggest question in the run up to the Rose Bowl remains unanswered.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno still hasn't decided whether he will coach from the sideline or the press box during the Nittany Lions' game against Southern California on New Year's Day. Paterno acknowledged that he is taking medication to prevent blood-clotting, a concern after surgery.
"The biggest thing is that I don't want to be a distraction or have people worry about me," said Paterno, Penn State's head coach since 1966. "The other question is standing for 3 1/2 hours. I want to be careful."
Paterno, who has 383 coaching victories, walked to the Disneyland podium without a cane but with somewhat restricted movement 5 weeks after his hip-replacement surgery. Paterno, 82, confirmed that he has signed the 3-year contract extension. He didn't say for certain that all of his assistants also received contract extensions, but doesn't expect many changes on the staff.
"They would have been taken care of whether I stayed or not," Paterno said. "I have an obligation to my staff. The staff did a heckuva job."
The Nittany Lions, who were 11-1 during the regular season and won the Big Ten crown, did not practice yesterday before the trip to Disneyland. Paterno said he gave the team the day off because he thought they could use a second straight day away from practice.
"We're playing a great team and we want to be ready to play as well as we can," said Paterno, who added that at previous bowls he might have two practices a day. The team is practicing at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., about 15 minutes east of downtown Los Angeles and a 45-minute ride from the Nittany Lions headquarters. "We want to come out here and have fun. Being at Disneyland would have the kids on their feet all day, and I want them to have some bounce in their step."
The Nittany Lions' last Rose Bowl appearance was in 1995, when they defeated Oregon, 38-20. Penn State made its first-ever postseason appearance in the 1923 Rose Bowl, losing to Southern Cal, 14-3. USC coach Pete Carroll noted that 1923 game in his remarks, claiming there was an altercation between the coaches at halftime of that game.
"The coaches duked it out at halftime of that game," Carroll claimed. "I know coach Paterno and Penn State will come out to fight, but I don't think we'll use fists."
Carroll expressed his respect for Paterno, saying he first became aware of Penn State when it was known as "Linebacker University." Carroll, who has guided the Trojans to four consecutive Rose Bowls, said he was more concerned with the upcoming game than whether he would coach until he was 82.
"He's an idol and he personifies college football," Carroll said. "The amazing thing isn't that he has won so many games, but how he survives the losses. Because that is the sort of thing that coaches have a hard time with."
Center and co-captain A.Q. Shipley said he wasn't surprised by Paterno agreeing to stay for 3 more years.
"Coach just continues to amaze he," said Shipley, a senior.
The game figures to be a defensive struggle, as USC has the top defenses in college football. The Trojans posted three shutouts, and allowed only three points in three other contests. Only two opponents scored more than 10 points against USC, one of which was Oregon State. The Beavers handed USC a 27-21 defeat, keeping the 11-1 Trojans from an undefeated season and possible shot at the BCS championship.
"I'm always looking for a low-scoring game on our end because I'm a defensive coach," said Carroll, who noted that Penn State has a great defense that is balanced and shows no obvious weaknesses.
Paterno said he couldn't pick out a part of the USC defense that he would single out as stronger than another.
"They are as good a defense as we have faced," Paterno said. "You name a part of the game on defense, and they are good."
philly.com
1988 Holiday Bowl rewind: Remembering the rout 20 years later
Oklahoma State coach Pat Jones remembers a news conference held a few days before the 1988 Holiday Bowl in San Diego.
Teams were instructed to bring three players for interviews. Jones brought Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders, first-team All-American wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes and quarterback Mike Gundy, who would go on to become the all-time leading passer in Big Eight history.
Wyoming countered with running back Dabby Dawson, quarterback Randy Welniak and WAC defensive player of the year Pat Rabold.
"Dykes was bigger than the WAC defensive player of the year," Jones said. "I've been at those type of events when you look across the way and think, 'If that's the best-looking kids they've got, we're going to beat their brains out.' "
This was one of those times, and the OSU Cowboys beat the Wyoming Cowboys 62-14 at what was then Jack Murphy Stadium (now Qualcomm).
"I don't know if I thought we could beat them that decisively," Jones recalled, "but I didn't think there was any way they could beat us."
OSU had 698 total yards, 34 first downs, averaged 8.7 yards per play, went 9-for-11 on third down conversions and never punted.
Sanders finished with 222 yards rushing and five touchdowns and didn't play in the fourth quarter.
He had averaged 298 yards rushing in his previous five games behind the blocking of tackles Mike Wolfe and Byron Woodard, guards Chris Stanley and Jason Kidder and center John Boisvert, a group affectionately known as the "War Pigs."
"We weren't looking past them," Cowboys senior cornerback Melvin Gilliam said of Wyoming, "but we had played much tougher teams, we thought. I didn't think Wyoming was as good as we were. We had played them the year before. We went up there and kind of ran through them (35-29). We didn't think the WAC was very good, compared to the Big Eight."
Freshman defensive lineman Stacey Satterwhite found the experience particularly pleasing.
"It ended up being a great game because so much trash was talked by the other side," Satterwhite said. "They were pretty cocky. They thought they had something. I'm glad we beat the dog out of 'em. I don't even remember sitting on the bench one time during the game. Of course, with Barry on the field, it's hard not to watch a game."
Wyoming came in with an 11-1 record, the lone loss being 34-10 at Houston, and had been ranked as high at No. 10 in The Associated Press poll. OSU was ranked No. 12 at the time.
Now the head coach at his alma mater, Gundy smiled as he reflected.
"We felt like we were considerably faster than them, which held to be true," said Gundy, a member of the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame along with Sanders. "They did a great job with what they had, but they'd still be trying to tackle Barry right now, to this day."
OSU outscored Wyoming 45-7 in the second half.
In the first half, Gundy was 11-for-12 passing for 137 yards.
"I still give Hart Lee a hard time about that," Gundy said. "The one (incompletion) was a drop that hit him right in the chest, so it could have been 100 percent in the first half. Of course, Hart Lee's response to that was, 'You're lucky you have me anyway.' There's some truth to that."
On Dec. 30, it will be 20 years ago to the day that OSU last appeared in the Holiday Bowl.
It's also the last time the Cowboys had a 10-win season.
OSU (9-3) will take on Oregon (9-3) is what sets up to be an offensive explosion between two statistically matched teams.
(c)2008 Produced by NewsOK.com
JSU much improved, but Grambling still SWAC king
No doubt, Rick Comegy has greatly improved Jackson State's football fortunes in his three seasons in the Capital J-town.
Comegy has guided JSU to the SWAC Championship game two times in three years and won it once. Nevertheless, Comegy didn't have to look far Saturday to see the imposing black and gold roadblock that stands in the way of his taking JSU to the next level.
For now, Grambling State University remains the undisputed King of the SWAC.
It's not even close.
Who could argue that point after the G-Men dominated the Tigers 41-9 here on a cool, but pleasant Saturday afternoon at Legion Field?
Grambling not only avenged a 42-31 loss to JSU in last year's championship, the G-Men won the SWAC title for the fifth time in the 10 years the league has staged a championship game.
No other SWAC team has won more than two.
Grambling - the school of Eddie Robinson, Doug Williams, Buck Buchanan, Willie Brown, Willie Davis and so many more of the sport's legends - keeps on winning, no matter who calls the shots.
Rod Broadway became the third Grambling coach in nine years to lead the G-Men to victory in the SWAC title game. For all his success at JSU, Comegy's record against Grambling now stands at 1-4.
Achilles had his heel; Comegy has Grambling.
"They've got a lot of great football history just like we do," Comegy said. "They were clearly better than we were today and I hurt for our kids."
Not much suspense
Grambling had defeated Jackson State 14-5 back in September at Grambling. In that one, JSU was driving toward what might have been the winning score when G-man Bruna' Foster intercepted a pass and took it the distance for a game-clinching touchdown with just seconds to play.
There was no such suspense this day.
Things started badly for JSU when Grambling's Lance Castleberry stripped the ball away from JSU's promising freshman running back Darius Bolela on the Tigers' first possession. Grambling immediately converted that turnover into a score and a 6-0 lead. (The extra point was blocked, but not much else marred Grambling's day.)
We knew coming in that Jackson State would need to win the turnover battle, plus make a play or two in the kicking game, to beat a superior Grambling team.
Neither happened. In fact, just the opposite did.
Grambling (11-2) took advantage of five Tiger turnovers and gave JSU the ball only twice.
"You can't win championships turning the ball over like that," Comegy said. "We gave them way too much help."
What's more, Grambling's David Stuckman returned the first kickoff of his college career for a 91-yard third-quarter touchdown.
"That kickoff return was a killer," Comegy would say. "We thought we had a little something going and then - bam! - they return that kick."
JSU had cut Grambling's 13-0 first-half lead to 13-3 on Eric Perri's line drive, 42-yard field goal early in the third quarter. But while JSU's band was still playing in celebration of the 3-pointer, Stuckman raced through JSU defenders to tack on six more for the Tigers from Louisiana and take away any momentum the JSU Tigers might have gained.
From there, the G-Men dominated, save for backup quarterback Michael Mosley's 56-yard pass to Carlos Everett for JSU's only touchdown.
Grambling fans celebrated with gusto when Kenneth Anio intercepted Mosley's pass and returned it 87 yards for the game's final score with just over three minutes remaining.
As the final seconds ticked down, one Jackson State assistant coach told players, "Take your medicine. We just got our butts whipped. Go shake hands with them and be humble. They whipped you good."
Easy choice
Grambling's scrambling quarterback Greg Dillon appropriately was voted the game's most outstanding offensive player. He completed 13 of 19 passes, including three for touchdowns, and constantly danced away from the JSU pass rush, one of the Tigers' main strengths.
"This victory means more because we remember what they did to us in this same stadium last year," Dillon said.
Defensive end Christi Anthony, who had three tackles for losses and two sacks, was voted the outstanding defensive player. Anthony was part of a Grambling defensive line that dominated a Jackson State offensive front decimated by injuries. The Tigers rushed for only 56 yards and Grambling recorded three sacks.
As his players trudged into the losers' locker room with mostly downcast looks, Comegy talked about the future.
"We've got an awful lot of players coming back," he said. "We're a young team and I know there's a bright future ahead for this football program."
Perhaps, but a quick scan of the Grambling two-deep depth chart shows only seven seniors among the top 44 players.
The G-men aren't going anywhere.
clarionledger.com
Vikings: Schantz picked for All-Star game
Raise your hand if you've ever heard of the Texas vs. The Nation All-Star Challenge.
For those with hands down, it's a college football game for seniors, featuring players who are originally from Texas or who played college ball in Texas against top players from graduating seniors from across the country.
Why should anybody in Portland care? Because Portland State linebacker Andy Schantz has been named to the Nation squad for the third annual Challenge on Jan. 31 at the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
For Schantz, who led the Vikings with 115 tackles, including 15 tackles for loss, this is an opportunity for the 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker to show some NFL scouts what he can do in an all-star setting.
There were 20 players for last year's game that got invitations to the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
And, if you're wondering, Team Nation was the first game 24-21, and the Team Texas won last year's game 41-14.
For more information, check out the Challenge's website at: http://texasvsthenation.cstv.com/
(c) 2008 Oregon Live LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Quartet of champs shows PSU's strength
With roses in hand, the Penn State football team left Beaver Stadium two Saturdays ago as champions of the Big Ten for the second time in four years.
The men of the gridiron weren't the only ones to capture conference crowns this fall, though. A trio of women's teams -- field hockey, volleyball and soccer -- have all won Big Ten titles in the past month, as well.
These four squads not only represent an impressive run for Penn State sports, but also the culmination of the careers of a dominant class of student-athletes. In fall 2005, the freshman season for this year's crop of seniors, each team of Nittany Lions won a Big Ten championship. Now, they're ending their time in Happy Valley just as they started it.
There's a lot of praise to go around. This sort of sports supremacy doesn't come easily. Obviously, the athletes deserve to be lauded for their ability and desire. This class of football players revived a struggling Penn State program, while volleyball proved to be the top team in the country after winning the national championship last year.
The coaches also need to be recognized. A certain bespectacled octogenarian gets a lot of well-deserved attention for his work, but Erica Walsh (soccer), Russ Rose (volleyball) and Char Morett (field hockey) have all molded their teams into Big Ten behemoths. Women's volleyball has won six straight conference championships and women's soccer has captured a staggering 11 consecutive titles.
Tim Curley, Penn State director of athletics, may receive some negative attention during the down years for the football and basketball teams, but his overall job in creating such an impressive group of teams goes largely unheralded nationally. Susan Delaney-Scheetz, associate athletic director and senior women's administrator, should also be commended given the outstanding success of the women's programs.
Curley has also been fairly progressive in some of his hirings, choosing Coquese Washington, a black woman, to replace the embattled Rene Portland and giving the reigns of both the men's and women's track and cross country teams to Beth Alford-Sullivan.
The field hockey and women's soccer teams have since been eliminated from their respective national tournaments, but postseason play for football and women's volleyball still remains.
The football team will be playing in the Rose Bowl, probably the most recognizable bowl outside the national championship game, and volleyball will once again be expected to go far in the national tournament.
The seniors on these teams may be leaving Penn State soon, but they will have left an indelible mark on their respective teams that will hopefully carry on to later generations.
Copyright (c) 2008 Collegian Inc
|
