February 10, 2012
C.J. Mizell….(Cougs it)…Kicked off Team
February 8, 2012
Memphis to Big East???
Memphis is the latest school to sign up for a spot in the new Big East
A person familiar with the decision says Memphis is joining the Big East. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was pending.
Memphis Athletic director R.C. Johnson said the school is holding a conference call followed by a news conference Wednesday to discuss the university’s athletic affiliation.
The Tigers will join the league for the 2013-14 season and compete in all sports, becoming the fourth Conference USA team to move to the Big East in the last two months, along with Houston, Central Florida and SMU.
CBSSports.com first reported Memphis was on the verge of joining the Big East.
The Big East is trying to replace basketball powers Syracuse and Pittsburgh and West Virginia, and create a football league with at least 12 teams.
Syracuse and Pittsburgh are leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference and West Virginia is headed to the Big 12.
Along with previously adding in December three CUSA schools, Boise State and San Diego State agreed to join the Big East in football only in 2013.
Last month, the Big East announced Navy will become a football-only member in 2015.
When West Virginia, Syracuse and Pitt are leaving is still up in the air. West Virginia has sued the Big East in an effort to join the Big 12 in 2012. The Big East filed a countersuit trying to force WVU to abide by the conference’s bylaws, which require a 27-month notification period for schools to depart.
Big East Commissioner John Marinatto has said the league intends to hold West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse until the summer of 2014.
January 31, 2012
Who has the #1 Recruiting Class in College Football???
January 22, 2012
From Ducks to Bucs?
Oregon’s Chip Kelly is finalizing a deal to become the new coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Times reported Sunday, citing a source…Oregon’s head coach for the past three years, Kelly reportedly met with the Bucs last week and both sides were hopeful a deal could be reached within the next day or two.
Kelly, 48, won the conference title in all three seasons at Oregon, also reaching three straight BCS bowl games including the BCS National Championship in 2011.
Three weeks ago, he guided the Ducks to their first Rose Bowl victory in 95 years, defeating Wisconsin 45-38.
January 21, 2012
Joe Paterno…passes away at 85
Joe Paterno, the iconic former Penn State football coach whose legend was tarnished when he was fired in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, has died, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 85.…Doctors had said Saturday that Paterno’s condition had become ”serious” in recent days after he experienced complications from lung cancer.
“His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled,” the Paterno family said in a statement Sunday. “He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been.
“His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community.
“He has been many things in his life — a soldier, scholar, mentor, coach, friend and father. To my mother, he was and is her soul mate, and the last several weeks have shown the strength of their love. To his children and grandchildren he is a shining example of how to live a good, decent and honest life, a standard to which we aspire.”
The winningest major-college football coach of all time with 409 victories and two national titles, Paterno was diagnosed shortly after Penn State’s Board of Trustees ousted him Nov. 9 following the child sex-abuse charges against Sandusky, his former assistant.
The firing marked the stunning end of Paterno’s 61-year career at Penn State — 46 of them as head coach.
January 11, 2012
RG3….Ready to go Pro..but where will he go?
Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III plans to declare for the NFL draft….Griffin is expected to be a top-five pick and could go as high as second overall with teams such as Cleveland, Miami, Washington and Seattle likely considering a trade to move up in the draft order and acquire his services The young man, who is listed at 6-foot-2, carries broad shoulders and unlimited confidence. Griffin believes he can take qualities from all of the elite quarterbacks in today’s game and mold them into his own.
“I try to take bits and pieces from everybody’s game,” he said recently. “The one thing Cam Newton does is play with a lot of excitement and a lot of confidence. You’ve got Peyton Manning with his play action and the fast pace that he plays with, and Tom Brady stands tall in the pocket. You just take all those things and add them. You do it differently and make it your own thing.”
As impressive as his stat-line from 2011 is (72.4 percent completions, 4,293 yards, 37 touchdowns and just six interceptions with a passer rating of 189.5), Griffin also turned around a dormant Baylor program and helped create a new culture that can’t be overlooked.
“It’s been great,” Griffin said last month of his time in Waco, Texas. “I was here when we didn’t have all the nice facilities and we were a 4-8 football team, but to see us grow the way we have to become a 9-3 football team and to have an opportunity to win 10 games for the first time since the ’80s, it’s huge and whenever you can take something and build it from the ground up, it looks really good.”
Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is certainly a safe pick for this year’s NFL draft and all accounts show that he will be the No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft by the Indianapolis Colts. As fantastic of a prospect as Luck is, some NFL scouts feel that Griffin could have an even higher upside.
January 10, 2012
Alabama ….National Champs??
The Crimson Tide romped to another BCS championship against top-ranked LSU with a smothering defensive performance Monday night, a numbing barrage of field goals and even a long-overdue trip to the end zone. Final score: 21-0.
No. 2 Alabama posted the first shutout in the 14-year history of the BCS, relying on Jeremy Shelley’s right leg for most of the points – he made a bowl record-tying five field goals – and letting its defense do the rest. It was the Tide’s second BCS title in three years.
”That was the message before the game: to finish,” coach Nick Saban said. ”In fact, it was how bad do you want to finish? We certainly didn’t play a perfect game, we got a field goal blocked, we couldn’t find the end zone for a long time, but we just kept playing.”
While only crimson-clad fans will remember this as a thing of beauty, Alabama (12-1) erased any doubts that it deserved to be in the title game over another one-loss team like Oklahoma State or Stanford.
Then again, one of those teams might have actually scored a touchdown before Alabama finally did, with 4:36 left in the game, long after fans may have flipped to something more entertaining than a one-sided kicking contest. Amazingly, these Southeastern Conference powerhouses played twice in a span of about two months, and never came that close to one of those things that’s worth six points – you know, touchdowns – until Trent Richardson broke off a 34-yard run with 4:36 remaining.
It only took 115 minutes, 34 seconds, plus an overtime period in their first meeting….LSU (13-1) had beaten eight ranked teams – including Alabama in early November – to establish itself as the clear No. 1 going into the bowls, but the Tigers crossed midfield only once in the sequel to the Game of the Century in Tuscaloosa. Instead of putting up a ”Godfather II,” this one was more akin to ”Speed 2.”
The Tigers were outgained 384-92 in total yards, managed a puny five first downs and didn’t cross the 50 until there were just 8 minutes left. From there, they went back, back, back – the last gasp ending appropriately with beleaguered quarterback Jordan Jefferson getting the ball knocked from his hand before he could even get off a fourth-and-forever pass.
The BCS title belongs to Saban, who is carving out quite a legacy of his own at the school that still worships Bear Bryant as if he just retired yesterday. The Associated Press likely will follow suit by bestowing the title on the Tide when its poll comes out early Tuesday, given the dominance of Alabama’s performance.
January 9, 2012
Who ya Got?
After a bowl season full of offensive shootouts, LSU coach Les Miles says to expect some ”big boy football” when his top-ranked Tigers take on No. 2 Alabama in BCS title game Monday night…..Miles and Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban each had their final news conferences before the championship on Sunday morning, and posed for photos with the crystal BCS trophy.
Miles says that he expects the game to be ”big boy football. And I’d expect it to be very, very physical.”
The two SEC teams met on Nov. 5, with LSU pulling out a 9-6 overtime win.
Saban says he’s telling players to focus on the opportunity in front of them, not the pressure. His Crimson Tide won the national championship two years ago, beating Texas.
January 5, 2012
Let the Playoffs Begin!!!
January 3, 2012
Huskies look to the SEC for new Defense
Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon have accepted jobs on Washington coach Steve Sarkisian’s staff, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.
The person told The Associated Press about the departures on condition of anonymity because the moves have not been announced by either school. The moves come two days after Sarkisian fired defensive coordinator Nick Holt, linebackers coach Mike Cox and safeties coach Jeff Mills…Wilcox is expected to replace Holt, who was fired on Saturday, just two days after Washington gave up 777 total yards and 67 points against Baylor in the Alamo Bowl. It was the most yards allowed in school history and second-most points surrendered.
Washington officials had no comment on Monday morning.
Wilcox and Sirmon are the latest in a string of departures from Tennessee, which is still struggling to rebuild after back-to-back coaching turnovers following the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Wide receivers coach Charlie Baggett and tight ends and special teams coach Eric Russell also have left the staff of Volunteers coach Derek Dooley.
Wilcox’s defense was one of the bright spots in a disappointing 5-7 season for Tennessee. The Vols allowed 340.5 yards and 22.6 points per game, ranking them among the top 35 teams in the nation in both categories.
Wilcox, 35, was set to earn $700,000 at Tennessee in 2012. He and Sirmon were teammates and roommates Oregon, though Wilcox first made a name for himself in four seasons as defensive coordinator at Boise State, where his players lead the Western Athletic Conference in total defense and scoring defense from 2006-2009 and compiled a 49-4 overall record.
Sirmon, 34, a veteran NFL linebacker, spent the 2010 season as a graduate assistant for the Vols and was promoted to linebackers coach for 2011. He was set to earn $175,000 in 2012.
The pair will be stepping in to lead a defense with ongoing troubles. The Huskies gave up 65 points, 446 yards rushing and 615 total yards to Stanford this season, then another 40 points and 426 yards to Southern California. Even when the Huskies held Oregon to under 400 total yards, it came in a 34-17 defeat….Only four times in 13 games this season did Washington hold an opponent under 400 total yards, and just 11 times in Holt’s 38 games in charge of the Huskies defense. Washington’s 2011 defense set school records for most points allowed, total touchdowns, yards passing allowed and total yards allowed.
Holt’s firing came almost three years to the day after he was introduced as the defensive answer to Washington’s woes. He was wooed from Southern California by a contract that trumped that of some other head coaches in the conference and the autonomy to run the defense as he wanted.
