Keys to the Big Games
Week Five, Oct. 1---college fotball ---
Michigan vs. Michigan State---college fotball ---

By John Harris---college fotball ---

a. The Anti-De Milo – Drew Stanton comes to the line of scrimmage against Michigan. He surveys the scene. He doesn’t even look at the Michigan defense. He just looks to the right and sees Matt Trannon, stud power forward and even better WR. Next to him is Jerramy Scott. Then, Stanton looks the other way and spies Kyle Brown, the Spartans’ leading receiver. Next to him is Terry Love. Stanton looks at the play clock and smiles, knowing that he has the best foursome of receivers in the Big Ten. Boy, what a great set of hands. No kidding, Drew. It’s almost like getting the variety cereal pack, if you want Frosted Flakes, have at it. Special K, get the milk. Not many QBs have this type of opportunity to throw to four guys that are so talented. Brown is perhaps the most dangerous of the foursome, and he has shown that he can turn a four yard catch into forty four and a TD. He’s also going to see the ball in the return game, so when he has to rest after a long return, the wide receiver production doesn’t fall off at all. Trannon is the guy that could be the best of the bunch by the end of the year. The 6’4” and 227 pound uber-receiver seems to be a completely different receiver than in prior years. Maybe it was the time he spent with the MSU basketball team on their Final Four run, maybe it’s just reaching his full potential, but whatever it is, Trannon has found it. And, you know what, MSU’s entire WR corps has found it. Against an average Michigan secondary, don’t be surprised to see each of the four WR have solid performances on Saturday.---college fotball ---
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b. Finish the Deal – Flash back to last October, Ann Arbor, Michigan – first half of the Michigan/MSU game. In what should have been a precursor for Michigan’s late season defensive fall, MSU QB Drew Stanton, finally healthy, is tearing Michigan a new one. They can’t stop him throwing. They can’t stop him running. Until…Stanton is fallen on by a Michigan defender. His night is over, and after succumbing to a 17 point lead late in the fourth quarter, so was Michigan State. Stanton’s performance had such a good news/bad news quality to it. You could see how great this offense was when he was in there, but now he was on the shelf for a few weeks. Well, fast forward to October 2005, Stanton is healthy. His team is healthy. And, they’re looking to close the deal…finally. That’s going to be a key in this game. Last year, they couldn’t do it without Stanton, and Drew couldn’t finish with his arm in a sling. What have the two – Stanton and the MSU team – learned about themselves in one year’s time? That they’re pretty dadgum good, especially when #5 is in command. There’s no secret that Michigan has struggled mightily with versatile, dual threat QBs, and they didn’t stop Stanton last year. Expect Michigan State to continue with the QB counters and QB runs that make this offense so difficult to stop. Let’s just hope that Stanton finishes this game, unlike last year.---college fotball ---
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c. Someone, please, get the ball to Mr. Breaston before it’s too late – Okay, someone needs to help out a bit. Answer the following. Steve Breaston doesn’t get the ball because…? Someone help fill in the blanks. This same thing happened last year with Breaston. He never got the ball. He wasn’t fully healthy last year, and by the time that he was, the Wolverines offense went up another notch when they got him back 100%. Shoot, in the Rose Bowl, Breaston and Braylon Edwards went toe-to-toe with Vince Young all night long. Texas couldn’t tackle Breaston, and he was electric all night long. But, where is that this year? Against Wisconsin, he touched the ball one time on offense. ONE?!?!? What? Are you kidding me? Was Wisconsin’s defense that good? Against EMU, he had only two touches – two receptions. Is he hurt again? Someone has to clarify because this is one of the most dangerous players in college football, and the Michigan coaching staff can’t get him the ball more than three times in the last two games? That’s weird, frustrating and just not right. Jason Avant is the go-to receiver, okay, fine, but with Mike Hart on the bench, you don’t think that giving the ball to Breaston on a reverse or the old Florida reverse (where he goes in motion and takes a handoff from Chad Henne as he sprints to the perimeter) would put some pressure on a defense? If he’s not catching the ball well, hand it to him. If that’s not it, then what the heck is it? Teams that win find ways to get the ball to their best offensive players. Avant is the #1 guy. Mario Manningham is a very good secondary threat, but think how good they both could be if Breaston could and would get the ball in space, to open up the field by his presence later. Sorry, diatribe is over. Wait…GET HIM THE BALL! Okay, now it is.---college fotball ---
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Conclusion – Since the loss of Mike Hart in the Notre Dame game, the Michigan offense just doesn’t put fear into defenses like they did in the Rose Bowl. Breaston, okay, that horse is already beaten to death. Michigan QB Chad Henne doesn’t have the sophomore jinx, but he isn’t improving like the Michigan staff would have hoped. On the other hand, the Spartans don’t think the Cincinnati Bengals can stop them. They’re flying high with confidence and unless Ohio State’s defense shows up to shut them down on Saturday, they’ll continue to roll up points. If Drew stays healthy, it might not be this close. Michigan State – 31 vs. Michigan – 23---college fotball ---
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Perspective Piece
Ohio State - Penn State, Oct. 8
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By Matthew Zemek---college football---
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Saturday night’s tilt between Ohio State and Penn State has a delicious and irresistible emotional feel to it. Buckeyes-Nittany Lions is the kind of game a sportswriter loves to contemplate. It has a texture and flavor that is not just appealing, but even endearing. There’s a sweetness to the subtext of this game that warms the heart, and makes one appreciate college football ten thousand times more than any other sport on the planet.---college football---
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OSU-PSU is an ultimate, prototypical kind of college football game, and I emphasize college here.
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College, after all, is where you learn about yourself, grow up, and become a real man. College is where you get an education, and for education to be relevant, you can’t just study textbooks or notes; you need to learn by experience, having your baptism by fire in so many aspects of life that you were either shielded from by your parents, or which Mom and Dad did for you.---college football---
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Saturday night, Penn State’s precocious freshmen will get a real college education at the hands of the Ohio State Buckeyes’ defense.---college football---
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No, this does not mean that Ohio State will run the Nittany Lions into the ground; the above comment is not meant to convey that idea. It simply indicates that these young Penn State talents will learn a lot about how to conduct themselves and make in-game adjustments—physically, tactically and emotionally—against a veteran defense that is the best in all of college football. The extent to which Derrick Williams and the other young Lion pups can make these changes in midstream will largely determine Penn State’s fate. If you can outfox Nate Salley or Donte Whitner, and minimize the impact of Heisman-worthy linebacker A.J. Hawk (who should cry bloody murder if he doesn’t get a plane ticket to New York this December; surely, he deserves that much), you can then proclaim to the world that your college education is paying big dividends.
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Adding to the emotional sweetness of Saturday night’s battle, which is just as much a “big event” as it is a mere game, is the presence of the Old Master on the sideline, watching over the progress of his too-young-to-know-better freshmen forces.---college football---
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Yes, this heartstring-tugging extravaganza, a Hallmark kind of football game if there ever was one, is made complete by the presence of Joe Paterno, defying time and staying young at heart to lead a resurrected Penn State program unbeaten into battle against the behemoth from Columbus. College football soars with joy and crackles with extra excitement whenever an iconic figure graces a spotlight game, and with PSU rebounding to battle the Buckeyes in a game that’s significant for both teams—and more instructively, significant for the same reasons (a Big Ten title)—you have JoePa back where he belongs: on the sidelines in a big-time game. The fact that he’s entering this contest with a rare youth movement in Happy Valley only adds to the sizzle of this high-stakes tilt.---college football---
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Everything that’s good and right about college football, everything that’s magical and endearing about this treasured sport, will be on display when the legendary coach and his teenage talents face the mighty colossus from central Ohio, loaded with linebackers every bit as good as anyone Paterno himself cranked out at the original “Linebacker U.”---college football---
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Youth and skill. Old age and treachery. The established power and a resurgent one. An established icon—Paterno—against a potential icon in the making in Jim Tressel, who—just like JoePa—loves old-school sweaters, button-down shirts, and ties.---college football---
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The imagery, the cross-generational appeal, and the meaning of a real college education all make Bucks-Lions a game that sings with romance, beauty and magic.---college football---
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Let’s hope the action on the field can match the delicious storylines that give this contest its rare, timeless and endearingly sweet texture.---college football---

Husson handles long road trip well
Eagles traveled by bus to Southern Virginia only to have game cancelled

The Husson College football team rolled out of Bangor at 8 p.m. Thursday bound for Buena Vista, Va., and Saturday's football game against Southern Virginia University. - College Football -

Coach Gabby Price and the Eagles arrived back in Bangor at 5 a.m. Sunday - after approximately 1,666 miles and 27 hours on the bus - without having played their game.

Poor turf conditions at the municipal field used by SVU and torrential rains that swamped other fields in the area meant no facility was available for the game. It was canceled Saturday morning.

"The players were extremely disappointed," Price said Monday. "Football players practice to play. They want to play football." - College Football -

The game will not be rescheduled and Price indicated Husson has fulfilled its responsibility as part of a home-and-home series with SVU, which played in Bangor last season.

It was at 10 p.m. Friday that Price was awakened by a telephone call asking him to contact Southern Virginia athletic director Tom Longenecker, who explained the dilemma.

"I said, 'Tom, what are you talking about?'" Price said. - College Football -

Longenecker indicated he would continue looking for an alternate location to play the game, but was not successful.

A press release on the SVU Web site that said, in part, "After several exhaustive hours, telephone calls and meetings late Friday night and early Saturday morning, Longenecker arrived at the decision [to cancel], one that was the result of heavy rainfall the past 48 hours in the southern part of the state of Virginia..."

Price said the field SVU uses had previously experienced problems related to a fungus. He expected school officials might have done some preliminary research to find an alternate field, regardless of the rainy conditions.

"[Saturday morning Longenecker] said, 'what do you want from us?" Price recalled. "I said, 'obviously, we want to play the game." - College Football -

SVU wouldn't play Sunday because of religious considerations (it is a Mormon school) and Price said the Eagles weren't willing to wait around until Monday to play.

Price is proud of the way the Husson contingent handled the disappointment while having to endure such a long road trip.

"Our young men were just terrific all the way through it. They handled themselves tremendously," he said. - College Football -

Husson had hoped to build some momentum coming off its 62-18 victory over Mount Ida on Oct. 1.

"Our kids were really excited. There was a really positive vibe," Price said.

Price had promised his players a day off from practice Monday, so the Eagles will this afternoon begin preparing for Saturday's 1 p.m. home game against the State University of New York's MaritimeCollege. - College Football -

"We have great confidence in our young people. They have great resiliency," Price said.



UMaine football seeks to regroup

The University of Maine football team looks to regroup, physically and mentally, in the wake of Saturday's 38-2 loss at then-No. 5 James Madison. - College Football -

Coach Jack Cosgrove's 2-3 Black Bears were outplayed, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines, while dropping to 0-2 in Atlantic 10 play.

"We got a dose of reality," Cosgrove said.

While UMaine may have begun the season with aspirations of challenging for the conference title, it now must face the realization it is playing for more short-range goals.

"Win the next game," is how Bears quarterback Ron Whitcomb described how the team will respond to Saturday's loss. "Winning cures losing. That's what we're going to do."

The Bears continue to lack consistency offensively as they try to rebuild a line that includes three first-time starters - one freshman, a redshirt freshman and a sophomore.

UMaine's inability to run the ball consistently has placed more pressure on Whitcomb and the passing attack. And Whitcomb hasn't had much time to throw the ball against fast, aggressive defenses like that of James Madison. - College Football -

A handful of penalties also further slowed UMaine.

"They called good plays, it's just that their interior offensive line, they weren't getting any push," said JMU defensive tackle Frank Cobbs.

The Bears haven't scored a touchdown in six straight quarters of A-10 play dating back to the Richmond contest. - College Football -

The Bears also are dealing with a few injuries from Saturday's game. Starting defensive end Pat McCrossan missed most of the second half after suffering a shoulder injury in the first half, while starting offensive tackle Ryan Bird hurt his knee and ankle on the last play of the game.

Their playing status won't be known until later this week.

For now, UMaine can do nothing more than look ahead to Saturday's game against Hofstra at Hempstead, N.Y. - College Football -

"We've got to practice well, prepare well," Cosgrove said. "We've got to ante up and get on the road and play another A-10 game. The best thing we can do to cure what ails us is win afootball game."

BangorDailyNews.com

College football notebook: Former Montana coach dies

By Seattle Times news services

Jack Swarthout, a former Montana coach and athletic director, has died.

Mr. Swarthout, who had been battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma in recent years, died Saturday in Olympia. He was 85. - - College Football - -

Mr. Swarthout coached the Grizzlies from 1967 to 1975 and guided Montana to back-to-back 10-0 regular seasons in 1969 and 1970. Both teams lost in the Camellia Bowl, which crowned the small-college national champion.

"He was one of the classiest people I've known in my life," said Pat Dodson, an assistant coach during Mr. Swarthout's tenure. "He was a greatfootball mind. He surrounded himself with outstanding people. He's one of the greatest coaches that the Grizzlies ever had."

Mr. Swarthout's final visit to Missoula came last November, when he was honored during a halftime celebration. - - College Football - -

His coaching career began at Hoquiam High School in the late 1940s and finished at Capital High School of Olympia in 1992, when he coached the school's ninth-grade team.

He also was an assistant at Washington and Texas, along with his tenure at Montana.

"All of us lost a father in Jack; he meant a lot to all of us," said Robin Peters, a star defensive back for the Grizzlies from 1968 to 1971. "A lot of us are the way we are because of Jack."
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Before Mr. Swarthout took over, the Grizzlies had just two winning seasons in the previous 21 years. He finished 51-41, ranking second behind Don Read in career wins. A former Grizzlies player from 1939 to 1941, Mr. Swarthout guided Montana to its first Big Sky Conference title in 1969. - - College Football - -

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

HD stands for heavy-duty TV use during fall Sundays

ALEX L. GOLDFAYN
Published September 24, 2005

On "football Sunday," David Welles and about 10 of his buddies gather at his house to watch NFL games. All of them.

Welles has a six-pack of high-definition televisions set up so he or his friends can catch every snap. - NFL Football -

Welles is a fantasy football junkie. He has been playing for four years and this year he and his friends are competing for $4,500 in prize money. As with most dedicated players, Welles must know how the players on his fantasy team are doing at all times.

Of the six TVs, Welles has "two 42-inch plasmas, a 26-inch LCD and two 20-inch LCDs on what we call the viewing wall. There's another small LCD on the table in front playing the DirecTV screen that shows footage from every game going on so we know to switch the channel [on the other TVs] if something happens."

If a game gets too emotional and Welles or his friends want to watch in privacy, there's a TV on the deck and another one downstairs.

"It's an obsession," he said. "Every Sunday, all my friends are here. And it's not like guys talking together--everyone is watching a different a game and they're all screaming and yelling. There's an obsessive amount of football being watched." - NFL Football -

Welles' league uses the fantasy football tool on CBS SportsLine (www.sportsline.com/fantasy). There are various options for leagues at different price-points, from free to about $500. For example, individuals can buy in for $15 per season, join a league filled with people they do not know and use the site's features the entire football year.

If you're like Welles and have a group of friends that want to play together, you can create a league and make your own rules. Welles' group paid $500 (or about $50 per player) for their league. - NFL Football -

In fantasy football, players are current NFL players and are drafted among fantasy teams. Team owners get points for things the real players do on the field each week. In Welles' Haulers Pigskin League, touchdowns are worth six points and quarterbacks who throw for more than 300 yards get 10 points. Four points are awarded for every 25 yards rushing or receiving, and one point for every reception.

SportsLine, and the other fantasy leagues on Web sites like Yahoo and ESPN (both of which offer free leagues; SportsLine only offers fee-based leagues), tracks this information for your team.

Welles watches games with his laptop open to monitor the teams in his league in real time as the action happens on the field. He knows how he's doing at all times. - NFL Football -

And on those awful football Sundays that he's away from his TV wall and laptop?

He tracks the action on his BlackBerry wireless device, which receives the information directly from SportsLine.

"I got my lineup at all times and it sends me a text message when something happens with my guys. I'm not having to search for my players. It knows my teams and my players, and it even gives me tips." - NFL Football -

What happens to all those televisions when it's not "football Sunday"?

They come down, and, with just three televisions, Welles' house is a bit more like the rest of ours.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

Battle lines drawn at Suwannee River

Tania Deluzuriaga and Steve Elling
Sentinel Staff Writer

EN ROUTE TO TALLAHASSEE -- The sign on the east bank of the Suwannee River outside of Branford reads: "Entering Lafayette County." It could just as well read: "Entering Florida State Country." - College Football -

Like the Suwannee itself, which winds its way from the Okefenokee Swamp south to the Gulf of Mexico, the geographic border between fans from Florida and Florida State is a vague line that meanders somewhere through the country separating Gainesville and Tallahassee.
In terms of where the figurative battle lines have been drawn, the tannin-tainted waters of the dear old Suwannee are about same colors you'd get if you combined garnet and gold plus blue and orange. The long brown smudge is the Mason-Dixon line between rival parties of the state's most popular universities.

"That's it right there," said Nell Lewis, 74, pointing toward the river.

Lewis should know. For the past 35 years she's catered to both sets of fans at her restaurant on the banks of the Suwannee, and even her children are evenly divided on which team reigns supreme.

Tooling along U.S. Highway 27 toward Tallahassee after watching Florida's Saturday night victory over Wyoming, the venerable river celebrated in composer Stephen Foster's 1851 tune, "Old Folks at Home," now seems famous for separating the two enemy camps.

Some folks have claimed for years that the city of Live Oak, located just south of Interstate 10, or perhaps even Lake City were where the territorial lines were drawn. We decided to use a more scientific approach. - College Football -

"This sounds like a geography question," said Chad Allen, an FSU graduate student. "I'm a geography major, so you're probably talking to the right guy."

The Continental Divide it isn't. Branford is located roughly 50 miles from Gainesville and 90 from the state capital, though with respect to the latter, there's little more than critters and varmints along the way.

Sunday morning Allen and some fellow students were getting ready to tube down the Ichetucknee River, which eventually feeds into the Suwannee. They were awful close to enemy ground.

"My mom's side of the family lives in Live Oak and it's pretty much split right down the middle," said Peter Predmore, an FSU student from Clermont. - College Football -

As they tossed the football around in the parking lot at Ichetucknee Springs State Park, a shirtless, grizzly bear-sized man in a Gators hat watched them suspiciously.

In this region, there's often some blurring of the lines. For instance, Predmore's live-in girlfriend Vanessa Ross graduated from UF and now attends law school at FSU.

"When we play Miami, I'll root for Florida State," she said, referring to tonight's big season opener between the two ACC rivals. "But then, I'm a bad Gator, I'll wear an FSU shirt."

Out in the Panhandle, competition between fans of the two schools can get creative. Gordon Fulwood, a policeman from High Springs, roams the hinterlands seeking to strengthen Florida's foothold. A few years back he pulled over a car full of FSU students after Florida had won the annual face-off between the schools. - College Football -

He threatened to write the driver a speeding ticket if he didn't verbally acknowledge the Gators' superiority.

"I tortured him a little bit," Fulwood said. "But he said the Gators were his favorite team to get out of a ticket. He knew what part of the state he was in."

He and his brother Stan were barbecuing on the east bank of the Suwannee on Sunday, looking across the water and cracking jokes. - College Football -

"We understand the IQ of the population drops about 40 points once you get in that area," Gordon said, pointing across the river.

It didn't take a genius to understand that FSU's opener tonight was being watched by friends and foes alike. The Seminoles have lost six in a row to the Hurricanes, a streak that started after FSU's 1999 national championship season. That seems like eons ago to some students.

Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel

Katrina shakes up college football openers

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU postponed its scheduled football game Saturday night against North Texas because of Hurricane Katrina.

"The events of Monday and this morning have made it clear that this is not the time to play a football game," LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said Tuesday. "This is a dire situation that rivals any in the history of our state, and our priorities are on participating in recovery efforts." LSU has canceled classes until Sept. 6. - College Football -

"The scope of this tragedy is becoming more evident as time passes, and LSU's focus is on assisting in the recovery effort of our state," LSU chancellor Sean O'Keefe said. "LSU is a primary evacuation site and we are not going to conduct any activities that could deter from our mission of assisting in the recovery mission."

LSU's Carl Maddox Field House is being used a Special Needs Shelter, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center has been designated as a triage unit for medical emergencies, and the Bernie Moore Track will be used as a helicopter landing site.

The school hoped to announce the date for the postponed game in the next two to three days. LSU is ranked fifth in the country. - College Football -

Also, the Tulane-Southern Mississippi game scheduled for Sunday in Hattiesburg, Miss., has been moved to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

"We have been in contact with the administrators for both universities and we all agree that the focus of our attention should be on the continued safety of the student-athletes, coaches and the lives of those affected by this storm," Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said. "Playing afootball game is not our highest priority at this time."

Tulane's football and women's soccer teams fled New Orleans on Sunday, making a 9½-hour bus ride to Jackson, Miss. They've been practicing at Jackson State.

In other changes, Nicholls State's game at Utah State on Saturday has been canceled. Nicholls State is located in Thibodaux, La. - College Football -

Also, Southern University's game Saturday at McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., has been canceled, and Jacksonville's game Thursday night at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., has been postponed indefinitely.

© Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.