Diamond in the Rough Discovered in Football Hotbed
The Montana Grizzlies’ super-sized recruiting class started off on in a big way back in May.
It was nothing official, to hear Matt and Ben Hulse tell it. But it was still a big deal for the 265-pound Matt, who was just beginning his football career, and his father, a former small-college basketball player.
McNeese Signs 20 Players to Scholarships
McNeese State head football coach Matt Viator announced the signing of 20 athletes to scholarships Wednesday, noting that it was an outstanding recruiting class for the Cowboys.
“I think that this class is a very talented one,” he said, “and I am very excited about this class.”
Viator said that this year the Cowboys beat more teams out of the Sun Belt, Conference USA and Big West on players than ever before.
Rebs' Cunningham Goes D-I
Tascosa’s Jason Cunningham will fly off into the wild blue yonder next year to play Division I football.
Tascosa’s Cunningham knows all too well about the recruiting process.
“It’s a crazy deal,” Cunnigham said. “I wasn’t sure anything was going to happen. I had talked to several schools, but last week I visited Montana State and it all worked out.”
Football Goal Bonded Soldiers
The USA Today details the story of a soldier who used McNeese State’s undefeated run through the regular season to get through his tour in Iraq.
Kenrick Cormier would come back exhausted from 10-hour patrols in Iraq — and begin working out in the gym. Other soldiers thought he was crazy, all except one.
Cormier (pronounced corm-YAY) and Joey Stutson had a lot in common as former high school football players from Louisiana.
“We were talking one night, and when I told Joey I wanted to play at McNeese State he just looked at me funny,” Cormier says. “He said, ‘You won’t believe it, but I’m thinking of playing at LSU.’ From there we just kind of worked out together all the time.”
Former FCSers Owens and Romo Lead NFC Comeback in NFL Pro Bowl
HONOLULU – They could have played this Pro Bowl on the beach with flag football rules. All of which was to the liking of Terrell Owens and Adrian Peterson.
Making up for early sloppiness, Owens caught two touchdowns passes, including a 6-yarder from Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia for the winning points in the NFC’s comeback 42-30 victory over the AFC on Sunday.
Born to be wild: Jared Allen has tried to tone it down, but there are limits
Jared Allen has run with the bulls in Pamplona, jumped out of an airplane and tried “a bunch of other dumb stuff” because he figures, well, life was meant to be lived. And just wait until you hear his wild boar story.
He has an ever-changing to-do list - “Hey, I keep adding stuff” - of things the former South Bay football star wants to accomplish.
LeZotte will take road to next level
There is one nearly complete sentence among a bunch of numbers in his NFL Draft Scout snapshot, and it says everything you need to know about Tony LeZotte’s makeup. “Has played through torn hamstring, strained hip flexor, partially dislocated shoulder, bruised biceps, sports hernia.”
It should be noted that in spite of all that – plus the broken wrist that forced him to wear a cast most of his senior year – LeZotte started every single game of the 50 James Madison played during his four seasons there. He finished his career as the school’s all-time leading tackler among defensive backs and sixth overall.
Opponents hard to come by for the mighty Mountaineers
ASHEVILLE — The cost of success is going up for the Appalachian State football program.
A shocking upset at No. 5 Michigan and a third straight Football Championship Subdivision national championship were the bookends to a 13-2 season in 2007 for the Mountaineers, but those accomplishments have made Jay Sutton’s job much more challenging.
Alabama State able to get help in the trenches
On the Division I-AA level, recruiting is all about meeting needs. You don’t have the glitz and glamour of top-ranked recruiting classes and five-star players. You don’t have 12 analysts measuring your recruits’ 40-yard dash times or fans clamoring about you missing out on the sure superstar.
Instead, it’s all about meeting needs and possibly finding a few overlooked gems. But mostly, it’s about meeting needs. Especially in Alabama State’s case.
College Coaches Live Nomadic Lives
Respected Express-Times columnist Ed Laubach talks about the new darling of the NFL Giants’ coaching staff in Steve Spagnulo, coordinators at the FCS level, and Spagnulo’s link to a little school in Easton, PA.
Bet you can’t name the offensive and defensive coordinators for the football teams at Lafayette and Lehigh.
Two correct answers means you’ve actually been paying attention to the local teams, three would indicate you have too much time on your hands and all four (or five) tells me you really need to get a life. It gets tricky because one coordinator left last week for Richmond.
Holy Cross Hall of Fame Will Induct Five
The Crusaders’ list includes two former football players and one former football coach.
Holy Cross will induct five individuals into its Athletic Hall of Fame this year. The honorees are Ronnie Cote (1956), Pete Kimener (1967), Anna Kinne Patel (2000), David Stecchi (1959) and Mark Duffner (honorary). The inductees will be formally introduced at the Varsity Club’s athletic dinner on Saturday, May 3, at the Hogan Campus Center.
'Pards assistant goes to Richmond
Lafayette offensive coordinator Faragalli takes job with Spiders.
The Lafayette football program found itself caught in a Spiders’ web recently.
But, not for long.
Coach Frank Tavani wasn’t surprised when longtime offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Faragalli left to take a similar position with the Richmond Spiders.
Lafayette's Padilla Preparing for Next Level
Lafayette All-America tackle Jesse Padilla turned 22 on Friday.
The celebration was tempered only slightly by the news Saturday he was not going to be the first Leopard to be invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.
Padilla had been cautiously optimistic about his chances since he had risen from No. 55 to No. 40 with a bullet in the nfldraftscout.com rankings. Thirty-three offensive tackles wound up being invited.
Colgate's Longtime DC Goes to FBS Rutgers
As a result of Darren Rizzi’s move to Rhode Island, Rutgers’ Greg Schiano taps Colgate to fill his vacancy.
Rutgers added two assistant coaches yesterday, filling out Greg Schiano’s staff after the Scarlet Knights lost two assistants at the end of the 2007 season.
Ed Pinkham will be a defensive assistant and Chris Rippon will serve ss special teams coordinator, filling two spots that were vacated when former associate head coach and special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi left to become the head coach at Rhode Island and running backs coach Craig Ver Steeg left to become an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens.
Diversity Rule Goes to College
The Washington Post writes that Division I Football adopts the NFL hiring practice to ensure that minority candidates are being considered.
A version of the minority-interviewing rule that was the catalyst for the NFL to diversify its head coaching ranks has been adopted by major college football.
A written policy stipulating that any division I-A football program with a head coaching vacancy will interview at least one minority candidate was sent just more than three weeks ago to athletic directors at the 120 schools. The two-page document details what it calls “acceptable standards” regarding diversity in interviewing and hiring practices, and was distributed by the Division I-A Athletic Directors’ Association.
