Carol Slezak, Chicago Sun-Times: Terrific piece on the NCAA's findings from the "Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics." In other words, a bunch of hogwash. Thanks to reader Dan for sending this.Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Busy day in Lubbock. The Texas Tech staff, feeling their team was ripped off in the loss to Texas, sent a videotape of controversial calls to the Big 12. Then three players were arrested in connection with a residential burglary. Thanks to the Midwest Correspondent.
Jake Schaller, Colorado Springs Gazette: Tempers are flaring among the brave fighting men of the Air Force football team.
Jeff D'Alessio, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The best one-loss team? Former coaches say it won't be the loser of the West Virginia-Louisville game (registration).
Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: Indiana might be one win from becoming bowl eligible, but the Hoosiers still can't draw flies (subscription, so story is in comments).
Tom Mulhern, Wisconsin State Journal: Penn State's Joe Paterno nixed a Wisconsin suggestion to play Saturday's game at night because "we had to come home and play the next week [against Temple]."
Ryan Finley, Arizona Daily Star: Pacific 10 notebook. Oregon State's stunning victory over USC might be an indication that other teams in the conference are catching up with the Trojans.
Jim Masilak, Commercial Appeal: Conference USA notebook. East Carolina, under Skip Holtz, has taken a giant step back to respectability (registration).
Scott Rabalais, Baton Rouge Advocate: If two plays had been different, Louisiana State might be 8-0 instead of 6-2.
1 comment:
10-31-06
The Hlist
Mike Hlas
Cedar Rapids Gazette
FIRST DOWNS
1. Magic Number: 1: Indiana is one victory from its first bowl invitation since 1993. The Hoosiers improved to 5-4 with their 46-21 win over Michigan State.
The homecoming gathering of 36,444 was Indiana’s largest of the year.
‘‘I bet there’s a whole bunch of people out there who are saying, ‘I told you we were supposed to go to that game,’ ’’ Hoeppner said.
‘‘We may not have reached our attendance goal, but we reached our spirit goal, and that’s probably more important because that’s contagious.’’
2. Leave it to Beavers: Oregon State’s Beavers beat USC for the second time in 38 years with its 33-31 triumph in Corvallis.
So much for the Trojans’ 27 game winning streak in the Pacific 10 Conference.
‘‘It was ordained before I was born,’’ Beavers split end Sammie Stroughter said. ‘‘The Lord had this day written already.’’
So why did they have to go ahead and play the game? Oh yeah, for the gate receipts.
3. Owls See Light: The Temple Owls shed their 20-game losing streak with a 28-14 win over Bowling Green, which had beaten the Owls by scores of 70-16 and 707 the previous two seasons.
‘‘Aw, man, Coach was crying.
Other people were crying. It was something else,’’ Temple senior linebacker Ryan Gore said. ‘‘Everybody was ecstatic. That’s the way a locker room is supposed to be. I’m tired of coming in here with heads hanging down. It was overdue.’’
The Owls had been outscored, 351-71, in their first eight games.
Now they own a longer winning streak than USC, Nebraska, Georgia or Miami.
‘‘It’s really big, in terms of the way we’re perceived now,’’ first-year Temple Coach Al Golden said, ‘‘but I don’t think they’ll be shutting down North Broad Street just yet.’’
4. Golden Buckeye: At halftime of the Minnesota-Ohio State game, golf legend/OSU graduate Jack Nicklaus became just the fifth nonband member to ever dot the ‘‘i’’ in Script Ohio.
The others included comedian Bob Hope and OSU football coach Woody Hayes.
Nicklaus wore a ‘‘block O’’ hat like Hayes wore.
‘‘I had to have my Woody hat,’’ the Golden Bear said. ‘‘Absolutely. I was a great fan of Woody’s.
‘‘I’m always an emotional guy and this is an emotional day. Ohio State means so much to my life and I’m always interested in what’s going on here. It means so much to me, the fans, everything.’’
FUMBLES
1. North Goes South: Big 12 North co-leaders Missouri and Nebraska didn’t act like title-material when Oklahoma beat Mizzou, 26-10, and Nebraska fell at Oklahoma State, 41-29.
Nebraska leads its all-time series with the Cowboys, 36-4-1. But Oklahoma State has won the last two.
‘‘Our goals are still intact,’’ said Nebraska Coach Bill Callahan.
Like what, getting a bid to the Insight Bowl?
Missouri showed that it had built a 7-1 record by beating no one of significance.
‘‘We’ve been playing well,’’ Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said, ‘’so I don’t know why this would be surprising.’’
2. Shut Down and Out: Purdue used to win games. Which always required scoring points.
‘‘We have an accuracy problem (in the passing game),’’ rued Purdue Coach Joe Tiller after a 120 loss to Penn State.
‘‘If we’re going to throw the football at Purdue, we need to put the ball on the (receiver’s) body. It’s that simple. If we can’t, we might as well run wishbone or something.’’
Minnesota put up a zero at Ohio State, while allowing a 44. The Gophers hadn’t been blanked since their 31-0 loss to Iowa in 1997, Glen Mason’s first year as their coach.
‘‘We knew we had some obstacles to overcome,’’ Mason said about this year’s team, 0-5 in the Big Ten. ‘‘Anyone who knew what we had coming back, they knew we had some obstacles. But it hasn’t quite unfolded like . . . Well, I thought it would be a little better.’’
3. His Own Private Idaho: Once upon a time, Dennis Erickson was somebody. After coaching Idaho from 1982-85, he went to Wyoming and Washington State before coaching Miami to two national titles. It was on to the Seattle Seahawks, Oregon State and the San Francisco 49ers.
Now, Erickson is back at Idaho.
Which is fresh off a 68-10 loss at Hawaii.
‘‘If I knew what was going on, it wouldn’t have happened,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t have an answer for 68-10. If someone does, please let me in on it.’’
4. Overkill: If you haven’t heard John Mellencamp’s ‘‘This is Our Country,’’ you haven’t watched a major sporting event on television lately. Snippets of the song, used in commercials to hawk Chevrolet trucks, air about 39 times per game.
Mellencamp was asked to sing the song prior to the Michigan State-Indiana game to bolster attendance. It didn’t work, perhaps because few people in Bloomington haven’t seen the Indiana rocker over and over.
The only sellout, in fact, is Mellencamp. His reason: ‘‘They’re not gonna play me on Top 40 radio ever again,’’ Mellencamp said. ‘‘MTV doesn’t even play videos anymore. How do you get it out there and . . . stay relevant?
‘‘This is what (artists) are going to have to do if they’re not 21 years old and they want people to hear their music.’’
The Hlist likes Mellencamp, and U2 (shilled for Apple) and Bob Dylan (shilled for Victoria’s Secret) a lot, but wants to know this: When do these artists ever have enough cash?
FROM THE PAPERS
‘‘It would be wrong to call this the worst defeat in SDSU history. Because the Mustangs were better than the Aztecs. And certainly far, far better coached.’’ — Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune on Chuck Long- coached San Diego State losing to I-AA Cal Poly, 16-14.
FINAL WORD
‘‘It’s definitely weird.’’ — USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, after his team’s 33-31 loss to Oregon State, just the second defeat in the junior’s career.
Mike.Hlas@gazettecommunications.com
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