Here's a little food for thought to help you get over the hump:
- It has been a while since I've seen a team in the Tri-County South Conference that had a chance to make serious noise in the WPIAL Class A playoffs. However, Beth-Center has that chance.
I watched the Bulldogs dismantle Monessen, 46-0, last week and I came away very impressed with B-C's overall team speed, strength and skill.
The Colts blew a 24 to 14 lead to the Kansas City Chiefs. The team that gets the #1 overall pick will likely get Andrew Luck.
There were 2 once in a generation quarterback prospects prior to Andrew Luck. Those signal callers were John Elway and Peyton Manning.
The Colts traded Elway hoping for a King’s Ransom in return because Elway did not want to play for the Colts. That didn’t work out and the Baltimore Colts ended up relocating to Indianapolis. This may have influenced the original Cleveland Browns to relocate becoming the Baltimore Ravens.
Pam Ward's run in the chronicles that bear her name is temporarily halted this week as she's away on WNBA duty. That opens the door for Gary Danielson, Matt Millen, and Craig James to catch up in the standings. It should be an awesome day of college football, which follows the Australian Football Grand Final that I'm sure you were all up watching till the wee hours of the morning. Leave us with all the best and most awful quotes you hear throughout this football Saturday and we'll put it to a vote on Monday.
I’m known as Mr. Sleeper around this college fantasy football compound. This is partially because I have a tendency to doze off during our conference calls. But it is also because I have a knack for picking fantasy sleepers. Michael Crabtree, DeMarco Murray, Mikel LeShoure, Isaiah Pead and Bobby Rainey are all players that I stuck my neck out for in the preseason, well before they became household names. I also loved Case Keenum before his battle with Blake Joseph a few years back. Of course, we won’t mention the number of times I’ve deemed a player can’t-miss only to see the guy eventually go all Harry Houdini and disappear.
With his 401-135-3 career record, will 2011 by JoePa's last at Penn State?
IsOklahomathe team to beat in 2011? How willOhioState andMichiganreact to new head coaches? Can a senior win the Heisman Trophy for the first time in five years? As always, there’s no shortage of tantalizing questions, storylines and subplots on the minds of college football fans as the 2011 season rapidly approaches.
Today, though, we're highlighting some of the less obvious "story line" games, not including annual rivalry games and the blatantly obvious great non-conference matchups. These are not necessarily the best games of the season (though some will be important on a national scale), but these are games interesting for the back stories or the personalities involved in addition to the action on the field.
Bill Beckner Jr. is the Valley News Dispatch sports editor and can be reached at 724-224-2696 or via e-mail.
San Francisco 49ers linebacker and special teams ace Scott McKillop never had to sit out a year to rehab a sports injury — not in peewee football, not in little league, not in a decade-plus of wrestling.
Ryan Mallett is a big, strong, accurate QB. Photo courtesy fantasycollegeblitz.com.
The Dolphins will have some tough decisions to make in the draft and not having a veteran QB available to them in free agency means that Chad Henne will start the 2011 season (training camp) as the starter regardless of what happens with the labor issue. Now many felt early on that the Dolphins would forgo a quarterback in this years draft because of the uncertainty surrounding the HC and GM.. .Tony Sparano and Jeff Ireland respectively. Owner Stephen Ross, the owner who is not People’s “Most Beautiful Woman in the World (J.Lo), told his staff to plan for the future. A sign they are safe for at least another year or more.
The player most commonly attached to the Buffalo Bills' No. 3 overall draft pick is Texas A&M outside linebacker Von Miller.
The logic is easy to see, because Miller is a dynamic pass rusher worthy of top-five consideration, and the Bills desperately need to upgrade their woeful defensive front. What might not be as easy to see would be his exact role in the Bills' defense.
PITTSBURGH -- Keith Patterson was a senior at East Central University in Oklahoma when his teammate and roommate, Todd Graham, pulled him out of his dorm room one day. Graham told him they were going to see the team's defensive coordinator.
When they got there, Graham started listing all the things the defense needed to change and all the position switches the coach should make.
This post is part of a continuing series in which we break down 13 2011 NFL Draft prospects - our Baker's Dozen - that should interest the Buffalo Bills. Keep up to date on our Baker's Dozen series here.
The Buffalo Bills transitioned to a 3-4 defense in 2010. The lack of personnel to fit the scheme forced Chan Gailey and defensive coordinator George Edwards to play more 4-3 defense as the year wore on. While GM Buddy Nix will continue to draft personnel for the 3-4 defense, Gailey has said that the team will run a multiple front defense. The hiring of Dave Wannstedt, historically a 4-3 coach, reinforces the point. I expect Buffalo to run three to four variations of their defense. Here's how Wisconsin defensive end J.J. Watt would fit in.
. With 1:23 left, Thompson corralled a 21-yard pass from quarterback A.J. Feeley for a dramatic game-winning touchdown.
When his feet left the ground, Miami's abysmal season was highlighted by Ricky Williams' unexpected retirement and head coach Dave Wannstedt's resignation nine games into the season.
The college football world is full of great coaching, great tradition, customs, fan bases, rivalries and a whole lot more. High school players wake up on Saturdays to watch their favorite college teams and dream of playing college football. Saturdays in the fall are special, and no matter where your favorite school is playing and when, you're watching and also rooting for the rival school to lose.
This past year, a record number of underclassmen declared for the NFL draft, as 56 players left college with eligibility remaining. Obviously, some are prepared and ready for the jump, but some left for other reasons. With college football head-coaching jobs becoming a revolving door, did the players take their head coach leaving as a sign for them to jump ship as well, or did they leave for other reasons? In the first installment of the Draft Dose series, we take a look at several underclassmen who left school after their coach departed:
AIKEN, S.C. -- Every day begins with William Perry needing help out of bed. Usually, it's 10 a.m. before he even gives it a try, and to support his 400 pounds, he shuffles to the living room on two legs that barely work and his sturdy black cane.
Once he sits down, he and his chair are in a long-term relationship. He doesn't move, except to go to the bathroom, and the concerning part is that he has no desire to move. A home gym is just 20 feet away from him, but he mostly scowls at it from a safe distance. A walking path is only 40 feet away, but he mostly hisses at it from the comfort of his seat.
"Here today gone today!" Those famous words were said by comedian Chris Rock during his comedy routine in describing the music industry. However, the same can be said for coaches in the NFL and in the college game.
You have two seasons of winning seven or more games plus a bowl victory, but your next season you go 5-7 and miss a bowl game. Well, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split ya!
The announcement was met with about as much fanfare as the first 11-win season in school history.
But here’s how important Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon returning to Oklahoma State — and not declaring for the NFL — is to the 2011 college football season: the Cowboys are now a legitimate national championship contender.
Iowa kicked running back Adam Robinson off the team Monday, just a week after he was arrested for marijuana possession.
Robinson was charged Dec. 27 in Des Moines. He was already suspended for Iowa's win over Missouri in the Insight Bowl for failing to comply with team policies.
Ridley to play in Cotton Bowl, source says • A source familiar with LSU running back Stevan Ridley's eligibility status says the Tigers' leading rusher has been cleared to play against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Friday night.
Randy Edsall's enthusiasm over the prospect of becoming Maryland's football coach was a big reason he got hired for the job.
That, and his ability to win.
Edsall, who enjoyed unprecedented success during his 12 seasons at Connecticut, beat out former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach and several other applicants in a search that began immediately after Ralph Friedgen was fired on Dec. 20.
Rarely has a football conference undergone as much coaching upheaval as the Big East. Once the home to powerhouse names like Rich Rodriguez, Brian Kelly, Bobby Petrino and Jim Leavitt, unprecedented coaching turnover has reshaped the conference's football fortunes.
With Connecticut losing Randy Edsall to Maryland and Pittsburgh having terminated alum Dave Wannstedt only to turn around and fire his replacement Mike Haywood, a quarter of the league's coaching jobs are now vacant just a year after three new coaches were brought in. West Virginia 's Bill Stewart is the second-most tenured coach with three years on his resume but he, too, will be gone to make way for Dana Holgorsen following the 2011 season.
