07 November 2008 Morning Headlines

A former LSU football player recently cracked on a Baton Rouge television talk show that undefeated Alabama coach Nick Saban must be winning with Mike Shula’s players. … A closer look reveals that Saban is indeed winning with Shula’s players. There just are not nearly as many or as many quality players left over from the former Alabama coach’s regime as left by Saban. Shula was fired after the 2006 season at Alabama after going 6-7 in his fourth year as coach with a loss to a Mississippi State team that finished 3-9. He was 10-2 the year before and had reached a No. 4 ranking after a 9-0 start before a 16-13 loss in overtime to visiting LSU. But after that 9-0 start, Shula finished was 7-9. Saban was not much better than Shula in his first season as he finished 7-6 in 2007 with four straight losses to end the regular season, including a 21-14 defeat at the hands of Louisiana-Monroe for one of the most embarrassing moments in Alabama football history. But Saban has rebounded in year two with a 9-0 record and No. 1 ranking going into Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. CBS game at No. 15 LSU (6-2). And he has done this with 17 of his 22 starters being Shula signees. But Saban has inherited only nine scholarship seniors from Shula, including six key starters - quarterback John Parker Wilson, center Antoine Caldwell, right guard Marlon Davis, free safety Rashad Johnson, tight end Travis McCall and defensive end Bobby Greenwood. – Shreveport Times

Syracuse coach Greg Robinson, who is 0-3 against Rutgers (and 3-22 in Big East play overall), still enjoys tweaking the Knights and Schiano. After having his team enter the field to “The Sopranos” theme before playing the Knights last year, Robinson played the Rutgers fight song in practice this week. “I know. I saw the same website you saw,” Schiano said. Asked if it was prime bulletin-board material, he simply said “no.” Robinson, whose future at Syracuse remains uncertain, could earn an unprecedented distinction if the Knights win Saturday and he is fired after this season: He would be the first Syracuse coach never to have beaten Rutgers in a series that begin in 1914. Syracuse ranks last in the league in 15 of the 31 major team categories listed by the Big East each week. Rutgers ranks last in three of those categories. – Newark Star-Ledger

In mid-December of 2002, after getting a lot of pub for “turning down” the ‘Bama job, Mike Riley - who was coaching the secondary at NFL New Orleans - arrived at LAX for an interview with former UCLA chancellor Albert Carnesale. He had already spoken several times with UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who was criticized in the media for having his eye on Riley even before Bob Toledo was let go. … Riley told me he really thought he would get that job. “You start to envision yourself (with the job),” he said. “I went through the process and met all of the people in their athletic department and I felt great about it.” Riley had not “turned down” the ‘Bama job, he had asked :’Bama athletic director Mal Moore if his alma mater could wait while he checked out the UCLA opportunity. .. not surprisingly, Moore refused. – Oregonian

The verdict on Charlie Weis’ injured knee is in. And it is a bit of a wreck. Or, more accurately, what a knee might look like after a wreck. “(The doctors) said it’s not even an athletic knee. It’s a trauma knee,” Weis said Thursday night. “Like getting hit by a car. You guys saw it. That’s probably about what it looked like, force-wise.” Aside from his MCL, Weis said, virtually every other crucial part of his knee has been vaporized. The MRI showed numerous holes were key ligaments should be. Thus Weis has begun a 12-week regiment to strengthen his hamstring and quadricep muscles, the step that must be taken before any surgery takes place. And if surgery takes place, Weis said, it would be in early March. Then a six-to-eight month rehabilitation process would follow. – Chicago Tribune

Freshman Richard Samuel likely will be Knowshon Moreno’s backup against Kentucky, supplanting Caleb King. “It’s a close battle,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said Thursday. “Don’t be surprised to see Richard get a snap before Caleb. I don’t think it’s etched in stone right now.” Richt said pass protection is part of the reason for the change. King missed a block in the Florida game that resulted in Matthew Stafford being sacked. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez overcame a dislocated kneecap in training camp and other physical setbacks to enter Saturday’s game against California as the Pacific 10 Conference’s passing efficiency leader. Sanchez, however, turned in perhaps his grittiest performance of the season during practice Thursday after suffering an ankle injury, apparently during warmups. Sanchez missed a few early drills while getting his ankle and foot taped, and then rejoined the workout with his shoe wrapped to the size of a small football. The junior took all of the first-team snaps, but hobbled on rollouts after handoffs, grimaced repeatedly when out of view from teammates and conversed several times with team trainers. Coach Pete Carroll said he was unaware of any problem with the quarterback, who has recently been counseled by offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian to keep his emotions in check while moving from one play to the next. – Los Angeles Times

Despite negotiations that have dragged on for almost a year, San Diego State and the city of San Diego have failed to reach a new long-term agreement for the Aztecs to play football at Qualcomm Stadium. Now the two sides may be forced to work out a short-term, two-game permit that will allow SDSU to finish the season at the city-owned venue. SDSU’s long-term lease to play at the stadium expired at the end of last season. To be able to play its first four home games this season, SDSU signed a short-term permit that expired last week. The sticking points on a long-term deal have been rent and costs. The city has said it has lost money on Aztecs games and doesn’t believe city taxpayers should be responsible for subsidizing SDSU’s football program while it fails to draw fans. SDSU, meanwhile, has been strapped for cash and wants to minimize any rent increase or additional costs. — San Diego Union-Tribune

Washington football coach Tyrone Willingham has said since being let go that he was waiting for a directive from the school on how to proceed in recruiting. That came this week as athletic director Scott Woodward told Willingham and the rest of the coaching staff to carry on as close to normal as possible. To that end, Woodward said letters went out this week to all players who have committed to UW, as well as those who had received offers, that those promises will be honored. Washington has five known commitments, several from players who have said in recent weeks they are wavering. Scout.com lists 28 players with offers. Woodward said the school will make no new offers until a new coaching staff is in place. But he wants the current staff to continue to recruit the players who do have offers. – Seattle Times

Georgia Tech is going to a bowl for the 12th consecutive year, which will tie Georgia for the fourth-longest active streak. At this point, the 7-2 Yellow Jackets could land in any of the nine bowls connected to the ACC. Tech is 22-14 all-time in bowls. – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Days after the election of the country’s first black president, a study shows the number of African American coaches in major college football is the lowest in 15 years. With the recent dismissals of Ty Willingham at Washington and Ron Prince at Kansas State, the number of black head coaches in the 119-school NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision was reduced to four. In 1997, there were eight black head coaches, the most in history. In 1993, there were three. Fifty-five percent of all student athletes are minorities. The report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida polled every major college on the ethnicity of its coaches, athletic directors, presidents, faculty, student athletes and NCAA faculty representatives. – Associated Press

Alabama quarterback Star Jackson has worn a No. 9 jersey in practice this week to represent fellow true freshman Jordan Jefferson at LSU. Tigers quarterback Andrew Hatch is “doubtful” to play against the top-ranked Crimson Tide on Saturday because of a leg injury, according to coach Les Miles. That means seldom-used Jefferson will serve as backup behind redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee. Jefferson — a run-pass threat who led Destrehan High School to a 21-0 record as a prep starter and reportedly runs a 4.6 40 — has appeared in three games this season but thrown only one pass. – Mobile Press-Register

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel knows criticism of his coaching and play-calling is out there, but there has been no sign that he has been affected by it during his sessions with reporters. Tressel acknowledges that he fields “a few” e-mails and hears some criticism, but he obviously knows his coaching position is secure. In fact, he even made it sound as if a high school coach whose team is struggling has to listen to more complaints than he does. “I haven’t been to many high school games,” he said, “but the high school games I’ve been to, you can hear every one of those idiots clearly. And at least in our stadium, what they’re yelling is muffled. And then when we’re not in our stadium, we’re in the film room and I don’t hear a thing, other than a little country western in the background occasionally. “I think the expectations to succeed in every job — whether it’s president, head coach, high school coach, salesperson, whatever — the expectation to succeed at what you do is significant.” Expectations also rise when you earn more than $3 million annually. – Columbus Dispatch

Since leading UTEP to back-to-back 8-4 seasons that ended with bowl bids in his first two years, Price has seen his program fall on hard times. The Miners went 5-7 in 2006 and 4-8 in ‘07, and things have not gotten any better this season. Price offers no excuses for the struggles as UTEP (3-5 overall, 3-2 Conference USA) takes on UL (5-3, 4-0 Sun Belt) at 6 Saturday night in a non-conference game at Cajun Field. – The Adviser

Florida’s A.J. Jones appeared in all 13 games last season, with nine starts, made 36 tackles and was named to the coaches’ All-SEC freshman team. But this season, Jones said, he finally feels comfortable as part of a linebacker corps that has helped the Gators rank fifth in the nation in scoring defense. But it hasn’t come easily. “We could talk a long time about (his transformation),” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “He also struggled in school and had some other issues he was dealing with. He’s a quality guy that’s in a very good program. That means a nutritionist. That means our strength coach. That means our lifestyle department. “He’s really come a long way; not just maturity level and strength, but just as a grown man. I’m very proud of that kind of a story in our program.” In getting to this point, Jones had to transform his mind and body. – St. Petersburg Times

Kent State will have more problems to fret over than just winning football games when the Golden Flashes host mid-week contests to close the 2008 home schedule Nov. 12 and 18. With the 2-7 Flashes hosting 3-6 Temple in the penultimate home game, KSU’s athletic department would have a difficult enough time trying to convince fans to come out to Dix Stadium if the game was played on a normal Saturday afternoon. But Nov. 12 is a Wednesday, and it could be a bitter-cold fall evening when the two struggling teams kickoff at 8 p.m. The Tuesday, Nov. 18, home finale with Northern Illinois is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start. In three home games this season, KSU averaged a respectable 14,630 in attendance. The last game played at Dix Stadium, though, was way back on Oct. 11 when the Flashes still had an outside chance in the Mid-American Conference’s East Division race. Now that the Flashes are 1-4 in conference play and officially playing out the string, KSU officials have to be dreading a repeat of last season when crowds of just 6,439 and 2,687 attended the team’s final two home games. “I don’t fault anybody for not coming to see a team that is not winning,” conceded KSU head coach Doug Martin. “But if you want to see good players, you won’t see a much better football player than Julian Edelman anywhere around here at any level.” – Record Pub

Vanderbilt has made a slow and steady improvement in scoring defense under coach Bobby Johnson. And it has done so with speed. “We made an effort to have more speed on defense the last four years,” Johnson said. “It probably started with that group (that included) Marcus Buggs going down from safety to linebacker - you had more speed at linebacker now. We kicked some linebackers down to defensive end so that gives you more speed. And of course we’ve had some good players.” At 16.5 points through eight contests this season, the Commodores are on pace to finish with an average under 20 per game for the first time since 1997 and to have their best season in that regard since 1968, when they allowed an average of 14.7. All of that will be put to the test Saturday against Florida, a team capable of making quick work of any opponent’s defensive scheme. – Nashville City Paper

USC’s Pete Carroll, who voted for president-elect Barack Obama, held a pre-election mock debate among his players. He started it with a show of hands for Sen. John McCain and Obama. “Then the guys went back and forth,” Carroll said. Then, “it almost got out of hand and I called it off.” – Rocky Mountain News