Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Reporters' Notebooks

Eric Boynton, Spartanburg Herald-Journal: The NCAA says Clemson cornerback Ray Ray McElrathbey will be allowed to receive help in raising his 11-year-old brother.

A.J. Carr, Raleigh News & Observer: The ACC says game over, even though a photo appeared to show that Akron failed to score on the last play of the game against North Carolina State (registration).

Marlon W. Morgan, Commercial Appeal: Mississippi is one of six teams ranked 100th or lower in offense and defense.

Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: How did college football exist for so long without overtimes to settle ties? (subscription, so story is in comments).

Andy Staples, Tampa Tribune: Ten things you need to know about the Florida-Tennessee rivalry.

Mike Kern, Philadelphia Daily News: What you might have missed from the second week of the season.

Chip Scoggins, Minneapolis Star Tribune: No decision has been made regarding the Oct. 7 Penn State-Minnesota game, which might have to be moved to Oct. 5 or Nov. 25.

George Schroeder, Oklahoman: Nike founder Phil Knight helped build Oregon athletics to a level Oklahoma State hopes to pass (registration).

Jerry Hill, Waco Tribune: The Big 12 is in for a rough weekend. Several league teams face stern tests on the road.

Suzanne Halliburton, Austin American-Statesman: Texas is trying to figure out what went wrong against Ohio State (registration).

Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News: Two Texas players who were suspended have been reinstated to the team.

Scott Wolf, L.A. Daily News: A former USC player and current administrative advisor has moved into an apartment complex where several players live to make sure there are no problems this season.

Scripps Howard News Service: How about this? New Hampshire, which beat Northwestern, is ranked sixth in this week's Matthews/Scripps Howard computer rankings.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

THE HLIST

Mike Hlas
Cedar Rapids Gazette

FIRST DOWNS

1. OT is OK: How did college football exist for so long without overtimes to settle ties?

Seven Division I-A games were resolved in overtime Saturday. Without OT, the Iowa State-Iowa game would be a meeting of 1-0-1 teams.

That would just be wrong.

After Boston College blocked a Clemson PAT attempt in the second OT of their Big East game, the Golden Eagles tied the game with a touchdown.

Ryan Ohliger made the game-winning PAT for a 34-33 win over the Tigers.

''I don't think in 10 years I've been a head coach I've ever had one come down to an extra point,'' Clemson Coach Tommy Bowden said.

Were it not for overtime, he still wouldn't have.

By the way, BC beat Clemson in OT last year, too.

2. South Rises Again: The Southeastern Conference plays a little football. This week: No. 6 LSU is at No. 3 Auburn and No. 7 Florida visits No. 13 Tennessee.

When did Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville start thinking about the LSU game during his Tigers' 340 breeze over Mississippi State?

''Oh, about 14-0,'' Tuberville confessed.

After LSU crushed Arizona, 45-3, running back Jacob Hester seemed to think his team will handle Auburn.

''They're a good team,'' Hester said, ''but I think we can be physical with them and run the ball. But our passing game is so good, why would you want to run the ball?''

3. Lone Star Stars: Texas got lassoed by Ohio State and no longer has the longest I-A win streak.
But the streak-leader is still a Texas team.

No. 20 TCU will put its 12-win streak at stake at home Saturday against No. 22 Texas Tech, fresh off a 38-35 overtime win at Texas-El Paso.

The Tech-TCU game has been sold out for two months.

The Tech UTEP game was a sellout, a rarity in El Paso.
Tech beat UTEP on a 49-yard Alex Trlica field goal. He had missed two fourth-quarter field goal tries.

''I guess (it was) a little bit like say, Babe Ruth strikes out three times in a row,'' said Tech Coach

Mike Leach. ''It makes it all the more likely he'll hit it the next time, right?''

4. Yo, Adrian!: Montana State got $275,000 to play at Colorado last week. The I-AA Bobcats stunned the Big 12's Buffaloes, 19-10.

Saturday, Division II Chadron State received $40,000 from MontanaState for making the nine-hour bus trip from western Nebraska to Bozeman. The Eagles will use the cash to help pay for their new uniforms.

Chadron State Coach Bill O'Boyle had his team watch ''Hoosiers,'' ''Gladiator,'' and all five ''Rocky'' films on the ride to Montana. His guys responded with a 35-24 upset.

''This game was a slap in the face,'' Montana State Coach Mike Kramer said.

Or a Rocky Balboa uppercut.

FUMBLES

1. Beleaguered League: Ohio State is the cream. What's beneath the Buckeyes in the Big Ten isn't all palatable.
Northwestern got throttled at home by I-AA New Hampshire. Indiana rallied to nip Ball State. Iowa and Purdue were pushed to overtime by Syracuse and Miami (Ohio), respectively. Minnesota got walloped at California.

And Penn State didn't give Notre Dame a game.

''Obviously, we stunk it up,'' Illinois Coach Ron Zook said after his team's 33-0 loss at Rutgers. ''We were probably as bad as we could be in every phase.'' Between home games against Iowa State and Ohio State, Iowa plays at Illinois. The Hlist would call it the Hawkeyes' bye week
had it not seen how they fared on the road against another lightly regarded orange-blue-and-white team Saturday.

2. Accusing the 'Cuse: Iowa's seven-play goal-line stand in the second overtime against Syracuse was great. The Orange's play-calling and personnel-management were not.

Six rushes from inside the 2-yard line produced zip. Starting tailback Curtis Brinkley, who carried 15 times for 68 yards, wasn't used in the series. Why?

''I really don't know,'' said SU Coach Greg Robinson.
Tony Fiametta, Syracuse's backup fullback, had four fruitless rushes in the series after not carrying the ball through four quarters and the first overtime. There wasn't one quarterback sneak.

Orange offensive coordinator Brian White took no blame.

''They're good calls,'' White said. ''You've got to find ways to get into the end zone.'' Syracuse is at Illinois Saturday.

The Hlist urges you to roar right past Champaign if you're on I-74 that afternoon.

3. No-Game Gamecocks: South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier suffered his first shutout loss since he coached Duke in 1987 when Georgia blanked his Gamecocks, 18-0.

''I can't stand to watch our offense walk up to the line anymore,'' Spurrier said.

''I'm tired of watching them walk around. We're stupid right now. I'm not going to watch this again.'' Umm, maybe the team could use a little coaching.

4. Fired Up: Ohio State's 24-7 win over Texas got the folks back in Columbus a little hot.

Columbus firefighters responded to 45 trash-bin fires and four car fires late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Most were on an edge of the OSU campus.
Note to Iowa and Iowa State students: Leave pyromania to the Buckeyes.

FROM THE PAPERS

''College football and college basketball have absolutely nothing to do with college. The 'student-athletes' are simply cheap labor for multimillion dollar companies. And with that much at stake, a win-at-allcosts mentality is the rule rather than the exception.

''If Larry Coker - 54-10 in his time at Miami with a national title - has one more 9-3 season, he'll be on a raft floating toward Cuba by New Year's Eve.'' - syndicated columnist Norman Chad.

FINAL WORD

''A very good team is coming to our house and wants to steal something that we own . . . a national championship . . . the final whistle will blow and we will be victorious . . . the wannabe thieves will be sent
home hurting, humbled, and with a respect for our character.''

- actor/Texas fan Matthew McConaughey, before the Longhorns fell to Ohio State.

Mike.Hlas@gazettecommunications.com