Today, All Football Recruiting Classes are Full of Class

 

Every college football program in America got much better this week.

The headlines tell the tales.

Cardinal crop is as deep, talented as any in years — San Francisco Chronicle

Spartans excited about recruiting class — Detroit Free Press

UCLA joins USC among nation’s top recruiting classes — Los Angeles Times

Then I read The Gazette’s Page 1C headline about Iowa’s recruiting. It was stunning and troubling.

Iowa’s recruiting not in the stars

Apparently the Hawkeyes didn’t land a ton of five-star recruits. And that’s just sad.

Not really, of course. It would be tedious to list the many few-star signees that went on to become All-Big Ten players for Iowa in the last decade.

(Les) Miles wins recruiting national championship for LSU — Monroe News-Star

(Jim) Leavitt glowing after USF recruiting haul — Sportingnews.com

(Bo) Pelini’s staff finds rich recruiting soil far from Midlands — Omaha World-Herald

Hard-core Hawkeye fans won’t soon forget the winter of 2005.

Seven of Iowa’s 2005 signees-to-be played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio for high school standouts.

Ryan Bain, Tyler Blum, Jake Christensen, Dan Doering, Tony Moeaki, Dace Richardson, Trey Stross.

Bain and Christensen are no longer with the program. The other five are still Hawkeyes, but have had injury-plagued careers. Maybe one or all of them will have big senior seasons.

Only two members of Iowa’s 2005 recruiting class started for the Hawkeyes at the end of the 2008 season, linebacker Pat Angerer and offensive lineman Kyle Calloway.

When Bettendorf’s Angerer committed to Iowa in August 2004, it rated six paragraphs in The Gazette. That’s no criticism of our coverage. Angerer wasn’t a recruiting “name.”

Angerer had a terrific junior season in ‘08, and figures to be a defensive anchor as a senior.

Calloway wasn’t a nobody in Recruiting World, but he wasn’t one of the 5-star/gold-star guys that had Hawkeye fans frothing at this time four years ago.

Iowa has 19 signees this year. Pick one of those with a shorter bio and fewer stars. Tell your friends this is the guy to watch in a few years.

You’ll eventually look like a football genius.

Lane Kiffin (right): Rage Against the (Gators) Machine

Recruiting doesn’t make everyone look good, though. New Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin certainly rattled some Southeastern Conference cages Thursday.

They do things differently in the football-mad SEC: Tennessee held a “recruiting celebration” at the Knoxville Convention Center, and almost 1,000 fans showed up.

Referring to an alleged recruiting violation by Florida Coach Urban Meyer in pursuit of eventual Tennessee signee Nu’Keese Richardson, Kiffin told the gathering:

“I’m going to turn Florida in right now in front of you. Nu’Keese was here on campus (on his recruiting visit) and his phone kept ringing.

“One of our coaches said, ‘Nu’Keese, who’s that?’ He said, ‘Urban Meyer.’

“Just so you know, when a recruit is on another campus, you can’t call him. I love the fact that Urban had to cheat and still didn’t get him.”

The response of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley:

“There was no rule violation and we have confirmed this with the Southeastern Conference.

“(Kiffin’s) comments not only slandered our coach, but he violated SEC rules by publicly criticizing another coach and institution.”

But not all is unpleasant with the Gators. Meyer signed a receiver from Sanford, Fla., named Andre Debose.

“I don’t want to single any guy out,” Meyer said, “but he is as good as there is. I think he is the best player in America.”

Sometimes, as Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has proved, the most-touted recruits do turn out to be special players.

So tell your friends Debose is the guy to watch in the next two years.

You’ll eventually look like a football genius.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outback Bowl No Ratings Winner

The Outback Bowl was watched on television by a lot of people in Iowa and South Carolina and, uh, uh, uh …

Of the 34 bowl games, the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl ranked 17th in television viewers according to Nielsen, which knows a bit more about ratings than most of us.

The game had 4,093,000 viewers according to http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/sports-wrap-college-football-bowls-over-audiences/. That’s a 10 percent drop from the year before when the Outback’s matchup was Tennessee-Wisconsin.

The TV audience for the Georgia-Michigan State Capital One Bowl, which started two hours after the Outback Bowl, was 10.8 million. But that was a 27 percent drop from its Michigan-Florida pairing of the year before.

These weren’t great matchups for American interests.

Some of the bowls that had more viewers than the Outback, though … hard to believe.

The Emerald Bowl was ninth of the 34 bowls. It was a game between unranked Miami and unranked California. The Wisconsin-Florida State Champs Sports Bowl had the seventh-largest audience, over 7 million viewers on the night of Dec. 27.

Go figure.

The Outback Bowl is a crummy time slot for TV (It begins at 8 a.m. on the West Coast), so you know you’ll never have a huge audience no matter the matchup. It’s a hangover game according to one West Coast friend of the Hlog’s, someone who may have some first-hand knowledge of such things.

So if you think just because you play in a Florida bowl you’ll get a lot of sweet national exposure for recruiting and merchandising, think again. If that bowl is the Outback, anyway.

South Carolina Loses Yet Another Player to Grades

Steve Spurrier has had his share of headaches lately

The following was cut-and-pasted directly from The State, the daily newspaper of Columbia, S.C.:

USC fifth-year linebacker Dustin Lindsey became the third Gamecocks’ player ruled ineligible for the Outback Bowl when the NCAA denied Lindsey’s appeal, sources told The State on Monday.

Lindsey, an Alabama native who failed out of school following the 2005 Independence Bowl before returning the following year, joins strong safety Emanuel Cook and offensive lineman Kyle Nunn. All failed to pass the mandatory six credit hours this semester required by the NCAA to be eligible for a bowl game.

Punter Spencer Lanning is awaiting word on his appeal.

http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/629534.html

Lanning, by the way, is the Gamecocks’ starting punter.

On this subject, a South Carolina faculty member isn’t thrilled with how Gamecocks athletes are being monitored as far as classroom progress. The link:

http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/629742.html

We told you about new Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin’s in-your-face attitude toward South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier.

Kiffin has swiped Spurrier’s quarterbacks coach John Reaves and strength coach Mark Smith, and is talking with bravado in response to Spurrier questioning whether Kiffin had taken the NCAA certification test to recruit before he began wooing players.

Kiffin said he got 39 out of 40 on the test and “I’d like to see what (Spurrier) got.”

Spurrier had his chance to return the fire Sunday and opted for tongue-in-cheek humility.

“I have always passed it,” said Spurrier. “Nah, I know he’s smarter than me. There’s no question about that. I barely graduated from college. I know I’m not the smartest guy out there. No big deal.”

Elsewhere in the Charleston Post and Courier story from which the above quote was borrowed, Spurrier says starting quarterback Stephen Garcia needs “to have that Tim Tebow attitude.”

Spurrier mentioned twice Sunday he’d like to hear Stephen Garcia sound a little more like Florida’s Tim Tebow.

“That ‘nobody’s going to work as hard as I am,’ Spurrier explained. “If Stephen Garcia says that, tap me on the shoulder. He’s got to learn how to work at it himself.”

The Gamecocks’ Outback Bowl game against Iowa will be played in Garcia’s hometown of Tampa. The Gamecocks will practice at Jefferson High, where Garcia starred.

“Really, he should be up to start the bowl game as a redshirt freshman. Not many quarterbacks get to do that,” Spurrier said. “I’m just trying to get him to learn his plays better.”

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/dec/22/kinder_gentler_ball_coach65802/

Both Iowa, South Carolina Not Matching Previous Outback Bowl Ticket Sales

The economy is slowing even Iowa Hawkeye football fans.

Iowa fans bought 18,000 and 20,000 tickets for the school’s Outback appearances against Florida following the 2003 and ’05 regular seasons. This year Iowa has sold 12,700 tickets.

“It’s down a lot,” Iowa ticket director Pam Finke told The State, the daily newspaper of Columbia, S.C.  “We were out of tickets last time.”

It’s slightly less than 500 miles from Columbia to Outback Bowl site Tampa, Fla., but that doesn’t mean South Carolina fans are stampeding to the ticket windows, either.

Carolina fans bought 25,000 and 20,000 tickets, respectively, to watch USC’s Outback Bowl wins over Ohio State after the 2000 and ’01 regular seasons.

As of Friday, USC had sold about 9,000 of its 11,000-ticket allotment for the Outback Bowl, according to Eric Hyman, the school’s athletics director. That includes up to 1,500 seats the athletics department purchased.

“The slowdown has impacted everyone, except maybe Florida and Alabama,” Hyman said.

The link to The State’s story:

http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/628029.html?

Things are tough in Columbia these days. Not everyone in town has the money to go to the Outback Bowl. A lot of people don’t have jobs. This piece from Sunday’s New York Times looks at a city hit hard by hard times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/economy/22columbia.html?_r=1&partner=rss

On another front, new Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin isn’t afraid to steal from Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina football program or take any guff from USC people, including Spurrier himself.

Kiffin hired quarterbacks coach John Reaves from Carolina a couple weeks ago, and landed Gamecocks strength coach Mark Smith last Friday.

The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier reported that even before Kiffin was introduced as Tennessee’s coach, Kiffin and Reaves were working fiercely on the recruiting trail. That included talking to prospects, such as Tampa running back Jarvis Giles, wh had committed to Carolina.

Spurrier openly questioned whether Kiffin had taken his NCAA certification test, required before he could legally recruit. Kiffin said when he was hired that he had in fact taken the test.

“If Steve’s concerned about my test, I got a 39 out of 40,” Kiffin said. “I’d like to see what he got.”

They play for keeps in the SEC.

The link:  http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/dec/21/kiffin_returns_jab65788/

Philip Fulmer Interested in Iowa State? Seems Like a Stretch

Phil Fulmer in happier, 1998 national-title times

 

 

 

 

I’m just spreading unsourced gossip, which isn’t really what they taught me in journalism school.

Then again, I was an English major.

If I were Phil Fulmer, I’d want to recharge for a year after getting fired at Tennessee. Do some living. Spend a little of that buyout money on a good meal or two, some time in the Caribbean, maybe a new wardrobe that doesn’t contain the color orange.

But these coaches are different animals.

There is a rule during college coaching searches, and that rule is outsiders exchange rumors. At least one has to be really wild, and another has to be at least a stretch of the imagination. This one seems like a wild stretch.

Anyway, here’s the link from KXNO-AM: I’m not buying into it one bit. But I link, you decide.

http://kxno.com/pages/pp_cotlar.html

Meanwhile, Fresno State Coach Pat Hill says he’s on no list to be a candidate for another job.

When coaches say that … it could mean anything.

Asked about Iowa State on Wednesday, Hill said  “No, no. I’m not on any list. Let’s talk about the bowl game. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Fresno State is playing Colorado State Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” is more the national reaction to the New Mexico Bowl.

The Fresno Bee item on Hill and ISU:

http://www.fresnobeehive.com/sportsbuzz/2008/12/hill_a_candidate_for_iowa_stat.html

Meanwhile, columnist Jason Whitlock suggests Turner Gill could stand a little more seasoning and proving at Buffalo before he lands a job with a BCS conference school.

I was one who rushed to declare Gill a great fit for Iowa State, but I concede Whitlock makes good points.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/8959530/Gill-needs-to-find-program-that-fits-him

Ex-Hawkeye News: Tyler Smith, Bruce Pearl and Chuck Long

Tyler Smith, the Iowa basketball player for all of one year until Steve Alford left Iowa for New Mexico, had a fine year for an extremely fine Tennessee team last season.

Then he wanted to turn pro.

Then he got worked out and worked on on by an extremely persuasive person. That’s his current coach, Bruce Pearl.

Smith said he thinks he would have been a late first-round NBA draft pick. But mock drafts dropped him steadily into the second round. There’s no guaranteed money there. Pearl convinced him to stay at Tennessee one more season to try to work his way up to higher part of the first round of the 2009 draft.

Smith bought it. He was just named the Southeastern Conference Preseason Player of the Year.

http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2008/oct/22/workout-convinced-smith-to-stay/?partner=RSS

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/oct/23/vol-wants-to-make-mark/

Meanwhile, former Iowa quarterback and assistant coach Chuck Long is at the other end of the spectrum. His team is 1-6 after a 70-7 loss at New Mexico last week.

Nothing provides less confidence than a vote of confidence from an athletic director. Nonetheless, that’s what Long got from his AD, Jeff Schemmel.

Schemmel said Long will be his coach through at least the end of the 2009 season.

“He has done everything as well as any football coach I’ve seen during my 20 years (in collegiate athletics), with the exception of putting wins on the scoreboard,” Schemmel said, “and I believe he’ll do that.”

Long’s career record is 8-23. He inherited a lousy program, and it has remained that way. Long’s team has had a ridiculous number of injuries.

One of the reader comments on the San Diego Union-Tribune story about this didn’t concur with Schemmel.

“I for one would like to know what EXACTLY Long does ‘just as well as any coach’ Schemmel has seen in 20+ years. . . . Give us some specifics to back up the general comment. Otherwise it just seems like a hollow and desperate plea. . . .  From Long’s very first year the marks of a well coached team have been missing (discipline, motivation, preparation, physical health). Sometimes I wonder if Schemmel is in cahoots with the professors who want to abolish the program.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/aztecs/20081022-1551-bn22sdsu.html

The Hlist: Terrelle Pryor is the Man

Opening kickoff

“This was billed as a statement game at Pitt, but the only statement one could decipher afterward was this: ‘We’re not as bad as Iowa.’” — Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

First downs

1. Pryor Engagement: So this is how the Terrelle Pryor era began as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. Four touchdown passes and 66 yards rushing in a 28-10 win over Troy.

“I’ve been making plays all my life,” said the freshman.

But Pryor doesn’t sound like a total braggart.

“I thought I messed up a lot,” he said. “When we sit down in the film room, I’m going to get yelled at a lot. That’s a good thing.”

Even with Illinois’ Juice Williams, Purdue’s Curtis Painter and Penn State’s Darryl Clark, Pryor may already be the Big Ten’s best quarterback.

2. Excess of SEC-cess: The Southeastern Conference plays a little football.

This week in the AP rankings: 3. Georgia, 4. Florida, 5. LSU, 8. Alabama.

Florida mauled conference rival Tennessee in Knoxville, 30-6. Gators head coach Urban Meyer lauded his defensive line coach, someone well-known to Iowans.

“I just look at our D-line and they hung with a very good offensive line,” Meyer said. “Dan McCarney is a special coach. He’s energetic and you see it translating onto the field.”

Vanderbilt (4-0 overall, 2-0 in the SEC) hasn’t had a winning season since 1982. It climbed into the AP poll at No. 21, its first appearance in the rankings since 1984 and second since 1958.

“I think it’s a pretty good reward for a good start,” Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson said of the ranking. “Our guys are pretty smart. They realize it won’t help you win games.”

3. JoePa Can’t Kick: Penn State is 4-0 after a 45-3 drubbing of Temple. The Nittany Lions have beaten the Owls the last 26 times they met.

PSU Coach Joe Paterno watched the second half from the Lions’ coaches’ box in the press box. He hurts. His right leg has been sore since he made an onside kick to close the Thursday practice before his team’s first game. That’s a ritual Paterno had long had, for fun. No more.

The media wanted news about the leg after Saturday’s game.

“I’ve got a bunch of guys out there fighting all kinds of adversity with different lineups, hanging in there together, all right?” Paterno said. “And you’re worried about my leg. Now, if you were a bunch of good-looking girls, I’d feel better about it.”

4. Ball of Fire: Ball State had lost all 43 of its games against teams from the six BCS conferences. Then it won at Indiana, 42-20, to improve to 4-0.

Sadly, Ball State receiver Dante Love’s football career is expected to be over because of the back fracture he suffered in the game. Love entered the game as the nation’s leader with 144.3 receiving yards a game.

The good news is, according to a Ball State spokesman, that Love is expected to be able to live a normal and healthy life after rehabilitation.

Fumbles

1. Peanut Gallery is Nuts: Booing college quarterbacks has become a national phenomenon.

Ohio State senior quarterback Todd Boeckman took just two snaps against Troy in a reserve role. He got loudly booed at Ohio Stadium when his lone pass was incomplete. This was the guy who threw 25 touchdown passes for last year’s Big Ten champions.

“Hey, we’re just kids,” said Buckeyes defensive lineman Lawrence Wilson. “We’re not professionals. There is no way adults should treat us that way.”

Boston College quarterback Chris Crane got jeered in the second quarter in his team’s home game against Central Florida.

“You hate to see that,” said BC Coach Jeff Jagodzinski about the booing. “Especially at home. But I guess it’s all part of (the game).”

Crane proceeded to play very well in the second half, leading the Eagles to 31 points in their 34-7 win.

Presumably, the fans cheered him.

2. Rocky Top Rocked: Losing 30-6 at home to Florida isn’t playing well in Tennessee.

Volunteers Coach Philip Fulmer is 5-12 against Florida. Since winning the 1998 national championship, he’s 20-25 against ranked opponents.

The booing was loud at times in Knoxville on Saturday. “There’s probably not anybody happy with me right now,” Fulmer said.

Jimmy Trodglen of the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle is one unhappy Tennessee sports editor.

“The Vols lack discipline, there’s no leadership on or off the field, play-calling is questionable and Fulmer continues to be outcoached,” Trodglen wrote.

“It’s time for Fulmer to pull onto Cumberland Avenue with his belongings carefully packed and not stop until he reaches his home.”

3. Irish Lapped: Notre Dame got caught with a laptop computer in the coaches’ box during its game at Michigan State.

Irish Coach Charlie Weis said the incident was a matter of an improperly located student manager recording down-and-distance information for game-tape dubbing.

“You’re allowed to do that,” Weis said. “But the one area where you’re not allowed to do that is in a coaching area.”

Michigan State caught the violation during the game, but Spartans Coach Mark Dantonio shrugged it off.

“I’ve never seen a computer or a camera make a tackle, catch a ball or anything,” Dantonio said.

No computer and few Irish defenders slowed MSU back Javon Ringer. He had 39 carries, 201 yards and two touchdowns in MSU’s 23-7 win.

4. Dark Knights: Rutgers was the feel-good story of college football when it went 11-2 in 2006. But the Scarlet Knights are again lousy. They fell to 0-3 for the first time since 1999 after a 23-21 loss to Navy, and looked stupid doing so.

Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel threw a punch at teammate Glen Lee as Teel came off the field late in the game.

“I apologize for losing my cool,” Teel said. “He was telling me to keep my head up and to get off the field. He was doing the right thing and what I did was so totally wrong.”

“It’s just in-house family stuff,” Lee said.

To which Tom Luicci of the Newark Star-Ledger replied, “Maybe if the family is Archie and the rest of the Bunkers.”

OK, the reference is a bit dated.

Final gun

“Call it whatever you want: courage, guts, confidence, arrogance, fearlessness, stones. Doesn’t matter what you call it, only that LSU Coach Les Miles has it.” — John DeShazier, New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Miles’ Tigers used a halfback pass for a TD and recovered an onside kick in the third quarter in their 26-21 win at Auburn.