NCAA Football FanHouse

Blanket Coverage: For Pete's Sake

John Walters — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:33:00 EST

Filed under: Arizona State, Cincinnati, Florida, Louisville, New Mexico State, Ohio State, Oregon, Temple, Texas

Halloween in Eugene began with Oregon coach Chip Kelly disguised as the Duck mascot and ended with USC masquerading as Cal. Pete Carroll's Trojans are not exactly immune from defeat in the Beaver State (0-4 since 2006) but they never lose to a fellow highly ranked Pac-10 foe and they most certainly never get waxed.

That's Jeff Tedford's domain.

Hands continue to wring in the Southland -- the Orange County Register declared that "USC's complete dominance of the league, a dominance unmatched in conference history, is over" -- but I believe that Pete Carroll, much like Michael Myers, will haunt the Pac-10 for many Halloweens to come.

Also, I'd like to suggest a more salient reason for Troy's desultory play of late, one that has nothing to do with the freshman QB, the eight defensive starters lost, or the two new coordinators: jet lag (and that's not a Mark Sanchez reference).

This Saturday, the Trojans will fly to Phoenix to face Arizona State in neighboring Tempe, which will mark their sixth flight of the season. No school among the top dozen in the BCS rankings (USC is No. 12) will play six of its first nine games away from home. And only Boise State, primarily because the Broncos visited Hawaii on October 24, has accrued more frequent-flier mileage.

The Trojans are lax because of LAX. They've covered more miles than Les Miles. They've made two across-three-time-zones treks already (Ohio State and Notre Dame), which equals the total of the other 11 top-12 schools combined (Cincinnati at Oregon State and Boise State at Ohio State).

Below is a table ranking the top 12 in terms of mileage covered, with their actual BCS rankings in parentheses. Distances were rounded off to the nearest hundred miles:

1) Boise State (7)......................................13,400 miles

2) USC (12).............................................11,700

3) Cincinnati (5).........................................9,200

4) TCU (6)................................................8,200

5) LSU (5)................................................5,600

6) Texas (2)..............................................4,900

7) Florida (1).............................................3,800

8 (Tie) Iowa..............................................2,800

Georgia Tech....................................2,800

10) Oregon...............................................2,700

11) Alabama............................................1,800

12) Penn State.........................................1,300

Granted, it's not as if the Trojans were traveling by sleeper car back to South Bend. On the other hand, I'm beginning to wonder if safety Taylor Mays begins pep talks with, "This is your captain speaking."

Maybe Carroll's greatest nemesis may not be the swiftly surging Ducks. Maybe it's his athletic director.

THE ZACH ATTACK
He has only been the starter for 2½ games, but Cincinnati quarterback Zach Collaros has been outstanding in leading the No. 5 Bearcats to victories against South Florida, Louisville and Syracuse. Since taking over for injured starter Tony Pike, Collaros has completed 75 percent of his passes (47-of-63) for 749 yards and nine touchdown passes versus just one interception. That's the same TD-to-INT ratio that Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame, second in the nation in passing efficiency, has.

Asked when Pike, who himself is currently seventh in the nation in passing efficiency, would play again on Monday, Bearcat coach Brian Kelly offered, "It's hard to say."

STEIN SHINES
Louisville, led by 5-8 walk-on quarterback Will Stein, beat Arkansas State, 21-13. Stein had last seen game action at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium as a local high school senior when he led Trinity to a defeat of St. Xavier in front of 37, 550 fans. Saturday's attendance at the same venue was 21,497.

TRUE BROMANCE
I cannot decide whether Riley Cooper is the Jordan Shipley of the SEC or whether Shipley is the Cooper of the Big 12. Cooper is the Gator wideout with the Head & Shoulders mane who is not only Tim Tebow's primary target, he's also his roommate.

Shipley is the childhood best friend and roommate of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy. He is also the Longhorn quarterback's favorite target. All four are straight out of "Friday Night Lights" (it's Jason Street and Tim Riggins come to life). Should Florida and Texas meet in Pasadena for the BCS championship, it'll be a question of whether Brent Musberger utters the term "bromance" during the broadcast or if he'll just refer to them as "pardners."

HMMMMMMM
Ohio State beat New Mexico State 45-0. The spread in Vegas was 44. If only everyone worked as diligently as oddsmakers.

TEMPLE IN NEED OF WORSHIPPERS?
Congrats to Temple for beating Navy. In earning their sixth straight victory, the Owls also became bowl-eligible for the first time since 1979. And so it would seem that their next home game would be an ideally opportune time for the fans in Philadelphia, and not just the Cos, to show their pride.

There's just one small problem. Temple's next home game, versus Miami of Ohio at Lincoln Financial Field, is Thursday night. That also happens to be the scheduled date for Game 7 of the World Series between the Phillies and the New York Yankees ... if necessary.

Blanket Coverage: For Pete's Sake originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:33:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Mexico State Introduces Snack Attack Offense

Clay Travis — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: New Mexico State, WAC, Fans, General CFB Insanity

It's come to this.

Due to the recession and a subsequent budget crunch, New Mexico State's football team is requesting that fans donate snacks to the team. That's not a joke, not a point of satire meant to illustrate the difference between playing at a Big Six conference and being a member of the WAC. Nope, that's the unvarnished truth.

According to the AP, "New Mexico State's budget-conscious football staff distributed an e-mail this week asking fans to donate after-practice or late-night snacks for hungry players." Why are they doing this? To help close a $1.5 million budget gap. That's an awful lot of snacks.

So far players have received peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watermelons, and, wait for it, trail mix from helpful fans. Hopefully, the donated snack fuel will help players finish games with more staying power. Last year's team was 3-9 overall, and a woeful 1-7 in the WAC. And that was back when the football team could afford snacks! Is this the sign of the college football apocalypse? I think so. But it doesn't have to be a lasting sign. We at FanHouse can also help the football team save money. Here's how.

As a preliminary point, more ridicule. I understand that tough times call for tough measures, but how much money can snacks really cost the football team? $30,000 a year, maybe? Maybe. So they only have to eliminate 50 other identical spending issues and the budget issue is fixed. This is the rough equivalent of a family deciding they're going to make the mortgage payment from now on by cutting out toilet paper.

And so, they've made the program look ridiculous.

You don't think a coach recruiting against New Mexico State might mention this, do you?

Coach: "Aw sure, you can head out to New Mexico State. But, lemme tell you something, they can't even afford to feed their players. They got fans giving them snacks." I can see a mother shaking her head right now, "Child, please," she'll say, "You're not going to be an Aggie. They can't even feed you."

And she'll be right.

Not to mention, do I even need to say it, you're trusting random fans to feed your football team. In this day and age when some people are completely crazy, is this really smart? Granted the result could be funny -- After all, how long could it be until a fraternity at New Mexico puts the pledge class up to loading snacks with ex-lax and delivering it to the Aggies? -- but it could also be scary. What if a crazy fan put something dangerous in the food? What if someone made pot brownies and the entire team violated the next drug testing? (This would be a convenient excuse for some guys.) It's just a dumb decision, one that doesn't even sound good in theory. This will now end the part of the column where I spend 15 seconds demonstrating why New Mexico State officials are idiots.

After all, I don't want to give the impression that I'm not sympathetic to the plight faced by the team. A life without snacks? What is this, Red China? Russia in the midst of the German invasion? Plainly, a football player divided from his snacks cannot stand.

Or tackle.

So here are nine other revenue saving measures that New Mexico State can adopt to tighten up the finances without requiring fans to provide snacks.

1. Make shoulder pads out of recycled Coke cans.

Lots of schools get pennies back on their soda dollars. Why not get shoulder pads instead? Sure, the pads would be brittle and break. But then when New Mexico State's quarterback gets sacked for the 19th time at Ohio State, he can have a legitimate excuse not to come back in.

2. Bring back Pistol Pete and auction off his pistol advertisement to the NRA or a gun manufacturer.

Proving that they are as adept at mascot imagery as they are at snack-wrangling, New Mexico State introduced a sideline mascot named Pistol Pete. Only a few years later they replaced his pistol with a lasso. And changed Pistol Pete's name to simply ... Pete.

3. Give up football and focus on men's basketball.

New Mexico state has had four winning seasons in the past 40 years. During that time they've won a single conference title, in 1978.

What would really be missing?

4. Based on my strong knowledge of Spanish, I believe Las Cruces is Spanish for "The Crosses."

The city's name owes its history to Roman times. While he was still hanging on the cross, Jesus was asked where he would least like to return to life.

"Las Cruces, New Mexico," He said.

Leading to a great fundraising idea. We already have Jump Rope for Heart. I bring you the newest fundraising craze: Who Can Carry a Cross the Longest in a New Mexico Desert?

5. Current Aggie fight song:

"Aggies, oh Aggies
We'll win this game or know the reason why!
And when we win this game
We'll buy a keg of booze"

Revised Aggie fight song:

"Aggies, oh Aggies
We'll win this game or know the reason why!
And when we win this game
We'll buy a keg of

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Latest College Football Photos

Louisville's Lincoln Carr, front, puts down a board to get ammo across without touching the yellow parts of the course during an Army leadership development exercise Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

FR75213AP

Latest College Football Images

Louisville's Lincoln Carr, front, puts down a board to get ammo across without touching the yellow parts of the course during an Army leadership development exercise for the Louisville football team Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Louisville football players Victor Anderson, back, and Anthony Conner try to get the dummy across the obstacle during a leadership development course at Fort Knox, Ky., Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Louisville football players Daniel Brown, front, and Andrew Robinson try to get a dummy across an obstacle course called "Cate's Culvert" during a leadership development course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox, Ky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Fort Knox army base in Kentucky. Members of the Louisville football team took part in an Army leadership development course. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Ft. Knox Army Base in Kentucky. Members of the Louisville football team took part in an Army leadership development course. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Staff Sgt. Dennis Kovalchick, center, gives instructions to the Louisville football team before a relay race course Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, at Ft. Knox Army Base in Kentucky. (AP Photo/Patti Longmire)

Boston College quarterback David Shinskie, center, takes part in practice during NCAA college football media day, Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

In this Oct. 25, 2008 photo provided by the University of Miami, Miami Hurricanes football player Chris Hayes (49) hugs his mother Kathie after Miami's win over Wake Forest. Hayes, a walk-on college football player gets word that his father, without warning, has taken his own life. He leaves the team to be at his mother's side for the funeral, is summoned back for game day so he can suit up for the first time, gets lost on the way to the stadium, is sent onto the field for the final play and is carried off atop his teammates' shoulders. (AP Photo/University of Miami, JC Ridley)

Photo provided by University of Miami, shows Miami football player Chris Hayes (49) is carried off the field after the Hurricanes defeated Wake Forest Oct. 25, 2008 in Coral Gables, Fla. The low point in Hayes' life came on the previous Monday, when he got the phone call that his dad had committed suicide. The high point of this Miami walk-on's life came five days later when his team carried off the field. (AP Photo/University of Miami, JC Ridley)

6. Replace football coaches with chemical engineering professors.

Wait, this already happened in 2008?

Per Wikipedia: "The former quarterback Charley Johnson, who was then a chemial engineering professor at New Mexico State, was appointed as interim head coach during the search for a replacement."

7. Auction off the Aggies nickname to a corporation.

The only thing lamer than one school being nicknamed the Aggies is more than one school being nicknamed the Aggies.

Do you see how awesome this nickname is? It's short for agriculture! And agriculture is the 14 billionth coolest word in the English language. Right between photosynthesis and caterwaul.

What's even worse than this? Your top rival, New Mexico, is the lobos, which is perhaps the coolest nickname on the planet.

8. In a surprise move, double the recruiting budget for football. Emblazoned at the top of the page on all recruiting literature will be this phrase, "New Mexico State: We are actually in America."

Beneath that in smaller print, "You can drink the water (but you have to bring your own snacks)!"

9. Bring back Nazi POWs and have them work on farms growing snacks for the football team.

Some people have forgotten that Las Cruces put Nazi POWs to work on farms during World War II. Why did they ever allow these people to leave? The absolute least they could do for, after causing the death of tens of millions of people, is provide snacks for a hungry WAC football team.

10. New Mexico State plays at Ohio State on Halloween.

So the Aggies are already auctioning off football games to help fill the athletic department coffers.

Talk about two programs passing in the night. I think Ohio State football owns Nabisco and Kellogg. Meanwhile, the Aggies are begging their fans for half-eaten packages of wheat thins.

If every Ohio State student doesn't come dressed as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or other snack food, I've lost even more respect for Ohio State.

New Mexico State Introduces Snack Attack Offense originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lane Kiffin Kiss and Make Up Week

Brian Grummell — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:14:00 EST

Filed under: Florida State, New Mexico State, Sun Belt, Tennessee, Conference USA, Mountain West

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

You Can't Be Bad All of the Time -- First-year Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has built up a tremendous amount of antagonism this offseason. There's nobody to blame but himself, of course, but sometimes you have to give the Devil his due. For all his transgressions, try not to read too much into the story that Tennessee has been witness to 11 player departures. Wherever possible in college athletics, you want to look out for the best interest of the athletes but healthy, successful coaching transitions at big-time football programs almost require a good dose of roster turnover. Whether he's handled it right is up for debate but the raw numbers themselves should not be an indictment of Kiffin.

I would actually be more worried for Kiffin if after spring ball there was little player movement to be found. Any time you change from one executive to another, the remaining personnel aren't always going to be a good fit for the program, either athletically or temperamentally. The more unhappy folk that walk away, the less division there is later on as a roster is built with people who are willing to buy in. That is a good thing and gives the folks who wouldn't have a shot or might cause trouble a chance at peace elsewhere.

We Apologize In Advance -- Anyway, that's my modest peace offering, but if you're the Knoxville News, you put together a story about the Kiffin family, the struggles of their move, and put a video on the internet for all to see what a nice couple they are. Smooch smooch, please don't get mad at us when you get spanked by Florida and our columnists are up in arms criticizing you a few months from now coach, in other words. (Via Dr. Saturday)

Oh No, A Poll! -- BCS bashers everywhere, cover your eyes, its the attack of polls, ohmygodsoscary how dare those things invade our game, must defend self with ridiculous snark and over the top bashing. Right?

ESPN's Tim Griffin found a cool composite of preseason polls with a 'heavy Southern bent' at LSUFootball.net. The top three's fairly predictable with Florida, Texas and Oklahoma. Alabama's recovered from that beatdown against Utah to a healthy five spot and Oklahoma State is all the way up there at No. 6. Personally I think Ole Miss is vastly overrated at No. 10, that is fool's gold right there.

Progress -- USA Today digs into college football coaching data to find a rise in the number of minority head coaches and coordinators but is still unimpressed. The Black Coaches Association also has its say. Telling quote from first-year New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker:

Having seen both sides, Walker says NFL teams are "more proactive and more open-minded" about minority head coaches and the hiring process is straightforward - "if the GM and the owner like you, they hire you." Colleges, he says, have more "political" concerns - "it's not just the AD and the president at the BCS schools, there are other factors."

Nevertheless, he says, coaches "almost have to be in the game from the college standpoint to get a college head coaching position."

And that's unlikely to ever change given how the money structure works in college athletics.

University presidents and athletic directors are charged not only with hiring someone who will put butts in the seats like an NFL owner or general manager, but hiring someone who can connect with big dollar donors who provide the major funds that help fund new facilities, stadium expansions, and so on. Hopefully that is something those interested in improving the lot of minority coaches are considering and working on, finding ways to systematically connect with what is most likely a largely white, wealthy, older group of people who have tremendous financial power at these programs.

As I've said repeatedly I think the most efficient and most rewarding path for minority coaches will be to flood the coordinator ranks which is something that appears to be accelerating the last few years. The vast majority of college head coaches are hired after stints as either offensive or defensive coordinators in the college ranks. The more we see minority names pop up as hotshot coordinators, the more difficult it is to ignore them in the hiring process as fans debate their merits and put pressure on a university to hire their favorite before a rival program scoops them up.

Overtime, Ball on the 25

-- A second bowl game is set for Las Vegas this year, the Maaco Bowl to be played on December 22nd. The Mountain West champion or first choice will be pitted against the fourth or fifth selection from the Pac-10. This is a horrible arrangement for the Pac-10 but should shut up the Mountain West fairness brigade if they find themselves regularly losing this thing. (Via CollegeFootballTalk)

-- Florida State President T.K. Wetherell is never at a loss for words. This week he's done the unusual in criticizing the disciplinary skills of receiver coach Lawrence Dawsey. Wow. (Via The Wiz of Odds)

-- Georgia is bringing the hammer down on two players, suspending them for multiple games for team rule violations.

-- ESPN's Graham Watson is fighting the good fight, publishing in-depth post spring breakdowns of Sun Belt and Conference USA programs. Do dig into those if you have the time.

Lane Kiffin Kiss and Make Up Week originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Mon, 11 May 2009 14:14:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DeWayne Walker Has Lingo Problems

Brian Cook — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:47:00 EST

Filed under: New Mexico State, UNC, Recruiting

After last year's oversigning kerfuffle it's gotten to the point where people are emailing me the various malfeasances of coaches in search of hot young things with the expectation head will asplode to the entertainment of all.

Doctor Saturday might end up a little disappointed with this post, then, as he forwards along this shockingly frank admission from new New Mexico State coach DeWayne Walker:

"My strategy is to oversign," Walker said.

You... what you? What?

"And what that means is that if you have 18 scholarships, you sign 23 guys and out of that, those five extra scholarships are high school kids. So, if I sign 23, those five high school kids will have to sit out one semester."

Oh. DeWayne, we need to talk about how you phrase these things: Walker's talking about grayshirting a bunch of guys, which is a semi-common practice when schools jut run out of slot but still want a recruit or three (or, in one spectacularly weird recruiting year for Oregon State, eleven). As long as the players in question commit and sign with the full knowledge they're being delayed a semester, it's hard to get perturbed.

Where the asplode comes in is when large numbers of kids are removed from a team for dubious injuries, "encouraged" to transfer, or plain cut in a couple cases. That's breaking an implied covenant -- though athletic scholarships are technically year-to-year, no one commits to a school who says "we'll try you out for a couple years and if you work out, hey, cool" -- in a system that's pretty explotative of college athletes.

Walker doesn't appear to be doing this. In fact, if he was going to do it there'd be no need for the grayshirts. However, there are a couple of huge classes this year that are going to have an extremely unpleasant cram-down phase. North Carolina is the main one, but I'll hold back on that situation until the class is in ink. Then you'll get your aerosol brain matter.

DeWayne Walker Has Lingo Problems originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:47:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DeWayne Walker Becomes Seventh Black Head Coach in Division I Football

Brian Grummell — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:56:00 EST

Filed under: New Mexico State, UCLA, WAC, Coaching

New Mexico State has hired UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker to run its football program, making him the seventh black head coach in college football's top division. Walker's hiring was a few years in the making. The journeyman coordinator arrived nationally after stopping the USC offense cold in a 13-9 UCLA victory that prevented a certain USC appearance in the 2006 BCS Championship Game.

His impact was immediate, flipping one of the nation's worst defenses into a fast and aggressive unit that played tough and could stop the run. Subsequent seasons weren't as successful, but he added chops as a recruiter, bringing in a handful of players who will likely have NFL futures like defensive tackle Brian Price and cornerback Alterraun Verner.

Walker took his time, visiting Las Cruces for a while before accepting the Aggies' offer. His departure was expected, however, and his name has popped up as a central player in this week's man drama kerfuffle between USC and UCLA.

He'll have a tough job ahead of him, reviving a long-dormant program that went 3-9 last year under Hal Mumme. Mumme ran an exciting offense but it wasn't potent enough and he ran into various legal troubles that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Sadly, its still obligatory we mention the limited number of black coaches in D-I football. This year's seven are an improved but still low number. Walker joins Miami of Ohio's Mike Haywood, Ron English at Eastern Michigan and Mike Locksley at New Mexico, all hired for the 2009 seasons. Still standing are Miami Florida's Randy Shannon, Houston's Kevin Sumlin and Buffalo's Turner Gill who all appear relatively safe in their jobs although Shannon had to part ways with offensive coordinator Patrick Nix this week.

DeWayne Walker Becomes Seventh Black Head Coach in Division I Football originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:56:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LSU, SEC Football Goes Navajo on the Radio

Brian Grummell — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:03:00 EST

Filed under: LSU, New Mexico State, Troy, SEC

Unusual find in my Google Alerts inbox today -- Saturday's LSU game against Troy will be broadcast in Navajo. It will be the first SEC football game every broadcast in the Navajo language. (No word yet on whether if the remaining several hundred imperial Japanese listening will be as stumped translating as they were during World War II.)

Cuyler Frank of Albuquerque, N.M., will provide play-by-play description in the Navajo language of the LSU-Troy football game on the radio and on LSUsports.net Saturday night from Tiger Stadium.

Mr. Frank provides play-by-play in Navajo of New Mexico State University football games, and it was there that he met current LSU Chancellor Dr. Michael Martin. When Chancellor Martin came to LSU, Mr. Frank expressed interest in broadcasting an LSU game in Navajo.

Nice gesture by Dr. Martin. It's doubtful this is much of a moneymaking enterprise, especially in tough economic times, but LSU has found a way to utilize its connection to an unusual resource and expanded college football's influence on yet another segment of American culture.

One can't help but embrace hearing "Jarrett Lee throws another pick-six" in more than one language. Plus, there's a decent chance it'll be more understandable to non-native tongues than the assistant coach in The Waterboy.

LSU, SEC Football Goes Navajo on the Radio originally appeared on NCAA Football FanHouse on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:03:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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