Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 19:40:00 -0400
From: "Elaine & Morgan Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Brent Veaird's Weekly College FB Roundup
COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP BY BRENT BEAIRD
This week's roundup has a little of everything including draft information, academic
cautions, freshmen qualifying, television schedules, position changes, spring game
reports and much more. Get the month of May started off with the College Football
Roundup.
DRAFT FACTS: The Big Ten led all conferences with 44 players taken in the draft. The
SEC was second with 42 and the Pac-10 was third with 30. The Big East and Big 12 were
tied for fourth with 28 and the ACC was sixth with 25. The SEC had led the nation in
players drafted for six straight years. Ten of 12 SEC teams had players drafted. LSU
led with seven and Arkansas had six. Florida had five and Alabama, Auburn, Georgia,
Ole Miss and Tennessee had four each. USC had three and Kentucky had one.
(SECSports.com)
SPRING ACADEMICS: A player must pass six hours in spring semester in order to be
eligible for the fall. No longer can a player perform poorly in the spring and expect
to get by in the fall by passing summer school. The six-hour rule has been in place
during the fall for bowl games, and has been extended to the spring. It is also
important for a player to be making a certain amount of progress toward his major. A
player has to advance to a certain percentage in order to be eligible. (Volquest.com)
MISSISSIPPI STATE: Bulldog signee Fred Akines, a safety from Clarksdale (Miss.), has
made his ACT score and the necessary grade point average in order to be qualified for
next season. (BulldogBlitz.com)
AUBURN: Sophomore Tim Duckworth, who was unable to dent the depth chart at noseguard,
has moved to the offensive line. He will line up behind junior Troy Reddick. Junior
linebacker Travis Williams will move from will linebacker to mike linebacker. Mike
Harness (6-3, 295), an offensive lineman from Pacelli High in Columbus, Ga., has
verbally committed to the Tigers. His teammates have recently committed to FSU and
Florida. He selected Auburn over Georgia Tech and Florida. (AuburnSports.com)
ALABAMA: Coach Mike Shula said in the post spring teleconference Tuesday that
linebacker Cornelius Wortham, defensive end Todd Bates, running back Tim Castille and
cornerback Ramzee Robinson have shown leadership in the past few months. Shula also
said offensive lineman Wesley Britt should be 100% healthy by the end of June after
recovering from a broken leg he suffered in the Tennessee game. (BamaOnline.com)
GEORGIA: After weeks of student protest, Georgia officials kept the fall break the
week of the Florida vs. Georgia game. The break is scheduled for Oct. 27-28. Some
faculty suggested moving the game to an earlier date in October, but nothing will
happen before 2008 when the contract for the game will be reconsidered. (AJC.com)
Defensive end David Pollack is fine after receiving 32 stitches in the side of his
head after he slipped on some boat stairs. The incident did not cause him to lose time
in preseason workouts. Bulldog reserve safety Olaolu Sanni-Osomo may be out for the
entire 2004 season because of a chronic knee injury. He may have to have cartilage
replacement surgery. Redshirt freshman Thomas Flowers has moved from cornerback to
safety to shore up depth at that position. (UGASports.com)
TENNESSEE: Offensive coordinator Randy Sanders visited last week with quarterback
signee Erik Ainge of Hillsboro, Ore. The coaching staff is serious about giving Ainge
and Brent Schaeffer, the other quarterback signee, a shot battling C. J. Leak and Rick
Clausen for the starting position. (Volquest.com) The Vols have not had a first round
draft pick in the last two years. They had nine first round selections in the previous
five years. Over the past four years, Tennessee has had only two offensive players
taken in the first two rounds of the draft-tailback Travis Henry (2001) and receiver
Donte Stallworth (2002). (Tennessean)
KENTUCKY: The White team beat the Blue team 28-17 in front of 6,000 fans Saturday
afternoon. Keenan Burton returned the opening kickoff 93 yards. Burton had four
catches for 99 yards including a 44-yard catch. Sophomore tailback Arliss Beach rushed
for 49 yards on nine carries. Quarterback Shane Boyd was 9-of-16 for 160 yards and had
a 1-yard touchdown run. Andre Woodson was 7-for-12 for 76 yards. (Lexington
Herald-Leader)
LSU: Quarterback Marcus Randall was 9-of-23 for 131 yards as the White team beat the
Purple team 22-3 in front of a little over 10,000 fans. He threw a 30-yard scoring
pass to Dwayne Bowe. JaMarcus Russell, who played for both teams, was 9-of-21 for 128
yards. Matt Flynn was 12-of-28 for 112 yards and an interception. Corey Webster had
two tackles at cornerback and caught two passes for 50 yards. Bowe had five catches
for 93 yards. Offensive lineman Terrell McGill has been accused of punching a man in
the face early Sunday morning at an apartment complex. David Kency, McGill's accuser,
was not seriously hurt. McGill, a backup last year, is battling Brian Johnson for the
starting job at right guard. This is the first fight involving a LSU football player
since 2001. (TheAdvocate.com)
SOUTH CAROLINA: AD Mike McGee and SEC commissioner Mike Slive went to NCAA
headquarters in Indianapolis last Friday to offer findings from the school's internal
investigation into possible recruiting and academic problems. The school has not
received a preliminary or official letter of inquiry from the NCAA, which began
looking into the program in August 2002. Part of the investigation concerns former
tailback Derek Watson at the time of his transfer to S.C. State in 2002. (The State)
Coach Lou Holtz said in the SEC teleconference Tuesday that Syvelle Newton and
Dondrial Pinkins would both probably play this season. Holtz also said Pinkins was the
starter and Newton was the backup going into fall drills. (GamecockCentral.com)
FLORIDA: It appears ESPN will televise the home game against LSU, Oct. 9. (Orlando
Sentential) Kalvin "Pig" Baker (6-2, 228), a linebacker from Columbus (Ga.) Pacelli,
has verbally committed to the Gators. He runs a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash. Baker
received offers from Georgia Tech, FSU, Maryland, Vanderbilt and Auburn. His coach
Kevin Pettis compared Baker to former Gator Wilbur Marshall. (GatorBait.net)
MARYLAND: Quarterback Joel Statham rebounded from throwing three interceptions in the
first half to completing all five passes in the second half for 94 yards and two
scores to tight end Vernon Davis in the Maryland spring game. Starting tailback Josh
Allen had 60 yards on seven carries. (TerrapinTimes.com)
N. C. STATE: Offensive lineman Brandon Jeffries (6-5, 303) told the Wolfpacker.com
that he is transferring from Tennessee to N. C. State.
VIRGINIA TECH: Marcus Vick helped spur the White team to a 20-0 win over the Maroon
team. Vick was 9-of-17 for 110 yards. Starter Bryan Randall was 7-of-18 for 107 yards
and a pick. The Virginia Tech defense had 11 sacks. (Collegefootballnews.com)
FLORIDA STATE: Freshman signee Xavier Lee has made the necessary grade point average,
ACT score and FCAT tests in order to qualify. Lee also won the state's "Mr. Football"
award. There is an obvious question as to whether or not he would redshirt in his
first year. Matt Dunham (6-2, 233), a running back from Columbus (Ga.) Pacelli, has
committed to the Noles over Florida, Maryland, Auburn and Georgia Tech. For the second
straight year the Seminoles did not have a player taken in the first round of the NFL
draft. The last time this happened was 1987-88. If Green Bay had not selected junior
college receiver Javon Walker with pick No. 20 in 2002, it would have been three
straight years. In comparison, Miami had a record setting six players selected in the
first round. Miami has had 19 first round selections over the past four years. In the
past three years, Miami has had 28 players drafted, while FSU has had 13. Between
1997-2001, FSU had 10 first round selections and 36 total p
layers drafted. (Warchant.com)
VIRGINA: The Cavs received a verbal commitment from Aaron Clark (6-6, 230), a
defensive end/tight end from Lexington (Va.) Rockbridge County. (WagonOnline.com)
BCS MEETING: The annual BCS meeting began Monday and went through Wednesday in
Scottsdale, Arizona. Negotiations for a new TV contract and discussions on a possible
fifth BCS bowl to represent the smaller conferences were items on the agenda. Another
issue was tweaking the formula for selecting teams for the title game. Chairman Mike
Tranghese is trying to get the computers influence reduced. Tranghese said Wednesday
that the computer model would be revealed in June. The BCS commissioners agreed not to
bar a team that did not win its conference title from playing in the title game.
ABC Sports vice president Loren Matthews met with the commissioners of the 11 Division
I-A conferences Tuesday to present various plans using the "five-plus-one" concept,
where the BCS would use five bowls and a national title game a week later. There was
no talk of money and the commissioners did not ask for any estimates. The chairman of
the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, David Frohnmayer, was against the
"five-plus-one" concept saying the game would run over into the middle of January. The
Pac-10 has been against the additional game, but another BCS official said the
presidents of the Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big East conference favor it. The
representatives of the four BCS bowls are against the addition of a fifth bowl, which
would dilute their earnings by 20%. However, ABC's solution to the access for smaller
conferences and the loss of revenue is the "five-plus-one concept". BCS commissioners
do not want a protracted lawsuit from other smaller conferences by not allo
wing a fifth BCS bowl game. The current BCS contract pays about $90 million per year
for the four bowls. A new contract, which would include five bowls, would have to be
worth at least $113 per year for the participating schools to break even. The
commissioners may come back to the presidents and say the additional $23 million for
one game is just not there. If that were the case, the presidents would either go back
to the four-game BCS and make room for the non-BCS conferences or adopt a
"five-plus-one" model for additional revenue. (CBSSportsline.com and ESPN.com)
In two related notes, several commissioners have expressed an interest in getting more
than one network involved in the next contract, hoping it would beef up the package.
Some athletic directors are asking presidents for a 12th regular season game rather
than expand the bowls. (AJC.com)
CITRUS BOWL IN THE MIX FOR THE FIFTH BCS BOWL: The Citrus Bowl needs at least $30-50
million in renovations just to keep it in working order. One of the original bathrooms
built in 1936 is still being used. The Citrus Bowl seats 65,438. Except for the Rose
Bowl that seats 93,000, the other three BCS bowls seat at least 72,000. (Orlando
Sentinel)
THE NCAA has recertified 28 bowl games and will consider the application for three
more games following the 2005 season. The NCAA requires bowl games to maintain an
average attendance of 25,000 or 70% of the seating capacity to remain certified.
NOTRE DAME: The starters dominated the reserves 35-7 in the spring game. Brady Quinn
was 17-of-22 for 263 yards and no interceptions. The offense averaged 10 yards per
play as compared to only four ypp last season. Notre Dame lost games to Michigan
38-0, USC 45-14 and FSU 37-0 last season. Quinn's 1,831 yards set a freshman record
last year. His 332 attempts were the most in Irish history. (SI.com)
OHIO STATE: Tony Pittman, who graduated early from high school to be at spring
practice, rushed for 105 yards in the Scarlet's 13-0 win over the Gray this past
Saturday in front of 45,074 fans. He was considered a long shot to get any playing
time behind Lydell Ross and Maurice Hall. Quarterback Justin Zwick was 16-of-26 for
165 yards. Zwick is slightly ahead of Troy Smith, who was 7-of-15 for 53 yards, for
the quarterback position. Both teams struggled with special teams. Josh Huston was two
of five field goals. Ashton Youboty recovered a fumble and blocked a punt. (SI.com)
Brent Beaird is a sports writer for the Clay County Line. He also writes for
Rivals.com and Samsportsline.com. Brent can be e-mailed at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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