Tue Jun 18 08:24pm EDT
Jack Hoffman, the 7-year-old cancer survivor who made an inspiring touchdown run at the Nebraska spring game this year earning him more than 8 million views on Youtube, made an appearance at the College World Series on Monday and told the crowd his final chemotherapy session was scheduled for today.
That news was greeted with a roar of applause as fans watched his spring game highlight again on the big screens at a game between Mississippi State and Indiana.
Tue Jun 18 07:25pm EDT
Billion dollar media rights deals and packed stadiums and arenas have protected students at most of the power conference schools from forking over big bucks in student fees for athletics, but their counterparts at schools in lesser conferences haven't been so lucky.
This isn't exactly shocking information, but it's another interesting look at how uneven the playing field is in college athletics and the folly of some of the little guys trying to keep pace. It provides more ammunition for those who say it's time for another division for the schools with the biggest budgets.
Tue Jun 18 04:50pm EDT
When someone says “Linebacker U,” what is the first thing you think of?
Is it Penn State, the traditional answer, with legendary players at the position spanning from Jack Ham to Lavar Arrington to NaVorro Bowman? Or perhaps you’d take a program that’s had a lot of memorable names in the last decade-plus, like Miami (Ray Lewis, Jonathan Vilma) or USC (Clay Matthews, Rey Maualuga).
Would you say UCLA? No? Oh, they’d like you to consider it:
#linebackeru pic.twitter.com/psyVu1hswP
— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) June 17, 2013
Tue Jun 18 03:08pm EDT
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema wants everybody to just slow down for a minute.
Bielema, echoing some of his SEC rivals, according to AL.com is proposing a rule change that would mandate a 15-second substitution period after every first down, allowing coaches to make defensive substitutions. This would severely limit the effectiveness of no-huddle offenses, a trend that is continuing to spread around college football.
His reasoning? The health and safety of players:
“Not to get on the coattails of some of the other coaches, there is a lot of truth that the way offensive philosophies are driven now, there's times where you can't get a defensive substitution in for 8, 10, 12 play drives," Bielema said, according to AL.com. "That has an effect on safety of that student-athlete, especially the bigger defensive linemen, that is really real."
Tue Jun 18 01:20pm EDT
It turns out that Mike Gundy did lift some of the restrictions on Wes Lunt's transfer, but that shouldn't matter.
This should be the case to bring about change, if the NCAA is not too busy screwing up the Miami case to notice that the "student-athletes" it says it protects are being held hostage by some vindictive coaches.
Gundy put significant and unnecessary restrictions on Lunt's transfer from Oklahoma State. It was spiteful to a quarterback who wanted to move on (and did, picking Illinois) and go to a school where he thought he had a better chance to play. That happens.
And Gundy should not be lauded for eventually lifting the restrictions, as reported by Channel1450.com (via PistolsFiringBlog.com). Lunt told Channel1450.com Gundy did so only about a week ago, well after they were put in place in mid-May, and by that time it was too late.
Tue Jun 18 11:57am EDT
The college football offseason is long and arduous, but its end is almost in sight. We’re going to take a look at five games you have to look forward to for every weekend of the season. (This is also a handy guide to decide how to RSVP for any autumn weddings.)
All times are Eastern and all games are played on Saturday unless otherwise noted.
These games take place the weekend of September 7th.
[Related: Week 1's top five college football games to watch]
Florida at Miami (12 p.m., ESPN) – As it currently stands, this is the last scheduled regular season match up between these two teams, who last met in 2008. That should add some extra drama to the proceedings, as Al Golden continues to mold what was an extremely young Hurricane team in 2012. Will Muschamp’s Gators were ahead of schedule last year with 11 wins, and while they have to replace big playmakers like Matt Elam and Sharrif Floyd on defense, they seem to have finally solved the post-Tebow quarterback conundrum with Jeff Driskell. The Miami offense could be elite this year, as they return all five starting linemen, senior quarterback Stephen Morris, most of their productive wide receivers and all-everything tailback Duke Johnson. There will be a lot of youth on the field, but a whooole bunch of talent, per Sunshine State requirements.
Additional note: Heaven help those who attend this game, as I can only imagine how awful it will be sitting in early September afternoon heat. Why isn’t this a night kickoff?!
Tue Jun 18 10:38am EDT
President Barack Obama spoke of a sexual assault issue at the Naval Academy's commissioning ceremony last month, which makes the latest accusation of sexual assault involving Navy football players look even worse.
The academy's superintendent decided to move forward with the sexual assault case to Article 32 proceedings, the Associated Press reported. That hearing will determine if there's evidence to proceed to a court-martial.
A female midshipman said she woke up after a night of drinking with bruises, and found out that three football players she considered friends claimed to have sex with her while she was passed out, the AP said. She claims the incident took place last year in an off-campus house.
Tue Jun 18 09:54am EDT
Rich Rodriguez is your huckleberry.
The Arizona staff got together, dressed up in full old West garb and did a promotional video in an old Western theme for the 2013 season. This is the beauty of the offseason.
Check out the video for "Hard Edge" (we especially like tight ends coach Charlie Ragle showing off his acting chops getting thrown out of a saloon, and the executive producer credit at the end to Rita Rodriguez, Rich Rod's wife):
Mon Jun 17 04:21pm EDT
Wes Lunt is heading home.
The former Oklahoma State quarterback has chosen to transfer to Illinois, deciding on the Illini over Louisville. Lunt hails from Rochester, a 90-minute drive from Illinois’ campus in Champaign.
[Related: Don't praise Mike Gundy for finally doing the right thing]
From ESPN’s Joe Schad:
"I know it's a team game and I can't do it all by myself," Lunt said. "I do hope we can add some more good recruits."
Lunt called Illinois coach Tim Beckman on Monday to inform him of his decision.
"I am OK with how I left Oklahoma State," Lunt said. "God had a plan for me. No hard feelings with Coach (Mike Gundy)."
Mon Jun 17 03:00pm EDT
When you're the best college football program in the nation, how do you improve the experience for your players? Apparently, by adding a waterfall to the locker room.
The news of Alabama's new waterfall got out when quarterback prospect David Cornwell tweeted about it ("That waterfall in Bama's locker room is about to be legit! C'mon who has a waterfall.. No one!" he wrote). And in fairness, Twitter was pretty much invented so people could tweet about football teams installing a waterfall in the locker room, right?
Now here's where we get serious, but only for a second.
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