Maine's Jovan Belcher Gets Lots of Yardage out of Challenge
Maine standout shines as linebacker.
Jovan Belcher played his last game in a University of Maine uniform back on Nov. 21.
Ever since, he has been training for the opportunity to earn a spot on a National Football League roster.
Saturday afternoon, the Football Championship Subdivision consensus All-American was back on the field with his best chance yet to showcase his skills in front of NFL scouts and a national TV audience.
Special Qualities are Morey's Draw
TAMPA - Even with one Super Bowl ring and a Pro Bowl berth on his résumé, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver/special teams ace Sean Morey still had a chip on his shoulder when he took the field for the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLIII last night at Raymond James Stadium.
“I don’t think you ever really lose it. There’s always a chip on your shoulder,” said the Marshfield native and former Marshfield High star, who began his NFL career with the Patriots in 1999, but didn’t stick in the league until 2003, with stops in NFL Europe, furniture delivery, dock building, and a fishing boat in between.
ODU Has Special Selling Points
The Monarchs turn the heads of local recruits with powerful arguments since everything is new.
Bobby Wilder is seven months away from seeing his words become reality.
Wilder, whose Old Dominion football team begins its first season of I-AA play Sept. 5, has a unique pitch to present to high school players considering ODU, which last fielded a football team in 1940. He used it in signing 79 members of a redshirt class last season, and the recruits ODU inks in 2009 won’t have to imagine the scenario he describes through a year of practicing and scrimmaging like those players did.
Winstom-Salem State Requests Fee Raise to Play in Division I
Winston-Salem State University’s move to Division I athletics could be hitting the wall.
Chancellor Donald Reaves of WSSU asked the UNC board of governors to approve an increase in student-athletics fees at a meeting in January, said Joni Worthington, a vice president of communications for the UNC system.
Worthington also said that Erskine Bowles, the UNC president, sent a letter to board members recommending against the increase.
The 32-member board will vote on Reaves’ request and others from other UNC system schools Feb. 13, but without the additional fees, WSSU might not be able to afford to stay on course.
Richmond Adds Tutt, Stewart To Staff
Stacy Tutt joins the staff as an assistant coach; Chris Stewart to director of strength and conditioning.
University of Richmond head football coach Mike London has announced the addition of two new members of his staff – assistant coach Stacy Tutt and director of strength and conditioning Chris Stewart. Tutt played quarterback for the Spiders and two years in the NFL as a fullback, while Stewart has been on the University of Tennessee staff for the last 11 years.
Military Classic of the South Returns in 2011
The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute athletics departments have agreed to bring back the “Military Classic of the South.” The agreement, released on Tuesday by both schools, is for their teams to meet on the gridiron for six years, three in Charleston and three in Lexington, alternating seasons with the first at Johnson Hagood Stadium in 2011.
2008 Great West Fall All-Academic Honors Announced
The Great West Conference has awarded Academic All-Conference honors since the league began with just football members in 2004, but in this first year as an all-sport league, those individuals who compete in leaguesponsored sports are going to be added to the list, commissioner Ed Grom said today as fall sports honorees are released today.
Alabama State Attempts to Put Minds at Ease about Probation
Few people know more about NCAA rules than Alabama State head coach Reggie Barlow.
And, oh, how he wishes he knew much less.
During his two years as Hornets head coach, Barlow has picked up a career’s worth of compliance and enforcement knowledge, as he’s guided the football program through the longest NCAA investigation in history.
While neither he nor any of his coaches or players were directly involved in any rules violations, Barlow was still forced to get neck deep in the process in order to quell any costly misconceptions that could damage the program.
Jackson State's Johnson Hopes Speed Improves NFL Draft Position
Domonique Johnson knows exactly what can earn him a big payday playing in the National Football League — speed.
After a solid performance at last week’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., the La Marque grad and Jackson State defensive back is preparing for the NFL combine later this month.
“My height (6-foot-2) and my 40- (yard dash) time is going to help set me apart,” Johnson said. “That is what I am counting on.”
Recruiting Services Bring Colleges New View
RALEIGH - Last month, a high school coach was describing one of his players to Kent McLeod, Duke’s director of football relations.
McLeod stopped the coach mid-pitch.
“I’ve got film on him,” McLeod said he told the coach.
Surprised, the coach told McLeod he had never mailed any game film to Duke, McLeod recalled. There was no need for the coach’s clips, however, because word was spreading on the player through a highly sophisticated – and lucrative – system of disseminating recruiting information.
Super Son Day: Morey Story has Roots on South Shore
Proud dad of Cardinals’ Sean Morey has his own Brockton football roots.
More than 4 1/2 decades after he ran his last play out of the old Wing-T at Brockton High, Dennis Morey’s former coach can still see him breaking free.
“I can still see him running around,” former Brockton High School head football coach Mario DiMarzo said last weekend. “Dennis had great speed and was very mobile, very agile. He moved around pretty good. It was tough to get him down.”
Time has proven it’s tough to keep the youngest of Dennis and Pat Morey’s four children down.
“The harder you work, the luckier you get,” Dennis Morey said in summarizing the football career path his son has followed from his days growing up in Marshfield. “Sean has a passion for the game.”
Just As Mom Said, Hightower Is Here
TAMPA - As time passed during the 2008 NFL draft, Tim Hightower’s heart felt all the more heavy.
He looked into his parents’ eyes with sorrow.
“I felt like I let them down,” he recalled. “I felt like a failure.”
He had made a promise.
“I told my mother in the fourth grade that I would play professional football,” he said. “I told her I would make history. I was a young kid, but for some reason I spoke it and I felt it.”
A&T's Lee: We're Selling a Brand-New Era
GREENSBORO – Alonzo Lee’s first two weeks as N.C. A&T’s new head coach have been anything but quiet.
Lee was introduced Jan. 16 and immediately met with recruits and current players while trying to fill out the rest of his coaching staff. Between meeting with recruits and trying to find a house in Greensboro, Lee sat down with the News & Record to talk about myriad issues surrounding Aggie football, next week’s national signing day, A&T’s recruiting budget and how long he thinks it will take to turn around a program that has lost 36 of its last 39 games:
High School Coaches Tread Fine Line in Recruiting
Most seek to offer advice without trying to influence player’s decision.
When it comes to recruiting, nothing surprises longtime Pelion coach Ben Freeman.
But every once in a while, he hears of a coach being more influential in a player’s college decision than he needed to be.
Signing with a college program isn’t as easy as it appears for high school seniors in any sport. For football in the South, however, a great many people hang on a recruit’s every word in the weeks leading up to National Signing Day. Everyone, including teammates and coaches, provides input on the recruit’s decision.
Delaware Names Offensive Coordinator
Jim Hofher, a veteran of 28 seasons as a head coach and assistant at both NCAA Division I levels of college football, has been named offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Delaware, Blue Hen head coach K.C. Keeler announced Monday afternoon.
