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Boise State Coach Defends Decision Not to Suspend Hout

09.08.2009 by Matt Loede in Boise State Broncos, Oregon Ducks

Boise State coach Chris Petersen defended his decision not to suspend Byron Hout for his taunting that led to LeGarrette Blount’s punch after the No. 14 Broncos’ victory over Oregon on Thursday.

On a Western Athletic Conference teleconference Monday, Petersen said the defensive end is being disciplined for yelling in Blount’s face and slapping him on the shoulder pad. But Petersen added he believes “we’ve done the right thing” in not suspending him for any games.

“I do think Byron is being disciplined, there is no question about that,” Petersen said. “It was the wrong thing to do to say anything to anybody. … It’s something everybody has learned from, in our program and teams from the outside, to say nothing and just play ball.”

The Broncos have been criticized for not taking stronger action against Hout and were even questioned by Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, who was quoted in the New York Times on Sunday as saying, “It takes two to tango. I was concerned about what I heard the Boise State coach say about how it was going to be handled. I’ll just leave it at that. I’m not going to second-guess anything that that conference decides to do.”

Petersen stood behind the decision.

“We have to do what we feel is right for our kids and our program,” he said.

Hout, a sophomore defensive end approached Blount after the final whistle of the Broncos victory, where Blount and the rest of the Ducks offense was surprisingly bottled up by Boise State in its 19-8 victory.

Hout yelled in Blount’s face and slapped his shoulder pad. Petersen saw Hout and yelled at him and was trying to pull him away when Blount threw a right-handed punch, hitting Hout square in the jaw and sending him to his knees.

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Bradford Hoping to Be Back in 2-4 Weeks

09.08.2009 by Matt Loede in Heisman, Oklahoma Sooners

Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford is not expected to need surgery on his sprained right shoulder and the quarterback could play again for No. 3 Oklahoma in two to four weeks.

“Everyone’s different in how they heal, the soreness, how they handle it and how quickly it dissipates where he can move and be comfortable again throwing the ball,” Stoops said after the Sooners’ practice Monday. “Anywhere from two to four weeks is what we’re anticipating.”

Stoops said the initial evaluations by doctors showed that Bradford did not suffer any damage to his collarbone, rotator cuff or other parts of his shoulder when he sprained his AC joint just before halftime in Oklahoma’s 14-13 loss to No. 20 BYU on Saturday. Those evaluations also did not suggest surgery, although another doctor’s opinion is due in on Tuesday.

“In my mind, that’s completely out. That’s probably a little biased because obviously I want to be out there playing,” Bradford said. “After that opinion does come in, I probably will have to sit down with the coaches and my family one more time just to make sure that getting back out there is the right decision for me.”

Stoops said he expected to make an announcement Tuesday on the status of second-team All-America tight end Jermaine Gresham, who missed the BYU game with cartilage damage in his right knee.

Bradford said he spoke Sunday with New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who had a bruised AC joint during his team’s run to the Super Bowl two years ago. Bradford has been told he has a Grade 3 sprain. He already started rehabbing Sunday, trying to improve the range of motion in his shoulder.

“It does feel a lot better today, not nearly as painful as it was Saturday,” Bradford said. “Hopefully I can keep progressing like this.”

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USC C O’Dowd Practices, Ready to Play at Ohio St.

09.08.2009 by Matt Loede in Ohio State Buckeyes, USC Trojans

Center Kristofer O’Dowd expects to play for No. 4 Southern California in its game at No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday.

O’Dowd practiced with the Trojans on Monday after missing last weekend’s season opener against San Jose State to rest his dislocated kneecap. The junior is considered to be among the nation’s top centers, and is a key component of an already powerful USC offensive line.

O’Dowd says he’s “definitely going to be back for this game,” but coach Pete Carroll says he won’t agree until he sees how O’Dowd does in Tuesday’s practice in pads.

Defensive tackle Averell Spicer practiced with the Trojans after missing the opener with a sprained ankle. Spicer also hopes to play Saturday in Columbus.

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Video of LeGarrette Blount Punching Out a Bosie State Player

09.04.2009 by Matt Loede in Boise State Broncos, Oregon Ducks

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With No Helmets, St. Paul’s Calls Season Opener

08.29.2009 by Matt Loede in St. Paul College

No helmets. No pads. No game.

Two days before St. Paul’s College was supposed to open the 2009 football season, the Tigers canceled Saturday’s contest with West Virginia Wesleyan. The reason, West Virginia Wesleyan athletic director Ken Tyler said Friday, was a lack of equipment.

In an instant, the thrill and anticipation of finally playing fell flat.

“I’m flabbergasted and disappointed for our players,” Tyler said. “They’ve been working really hard. They’ve been peaking and looking forward to kick off the season. It’s a real punch in the gut. Beyond that, I feel it was very unprofessional. We would never, ever even consider doing that.”

Tyler said St. Paul’s AD Leroy Bacote called him with the news Thursday, less than 24 hours before the Wesleyan team was scheduled to travel 341 miles to play the game in South Hill, Va.

Division II St. Paul’s had ordered helmets and pads – but the shipment hadn’t arrived yet.

“He couldn’t guarantee that they would be there in time,” said Tyler, adding that the game would not be rescheduled.

Tyler said he asked Bacote how the team practiced without helmets and pads and was told the players did calisthenics in shorts and T-shirts.

Bacote declined comment Friday when reached at his office.

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Oklahoma Reports Handful of Minor Rules Violations

08.29.2009 by Matt Loede in Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma has reported a handful of minor NCAA rules violations, mostly dealing with what the university describes as inadvertent phone calls or text messages by various coaches.

The Associated Press obtained documents on Friday detailing the secondary violations through an open records request.

The documents indicate head football coach Bob Stoops and assistant football coach Jackie Shipp and assistant women’s basketball coach Stacy Hansmeyer made impermissible calls to one prospect each, while head women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale inadvertently sent a prospect a text message.

Another football prospect received correspondence from Oklahoma that was mailed before Sept. 1 of the prospect’s junior year of high school.

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After 68 Years, Football is Back at Old Dominion

08.29.2009 by Matt Loede in Old Dominion University

After 67 years without it and one season that included all the practices but no games, football is returning to Old Dominion University on Sept. 5.

The Monarchs, who last fielded a football team in 1940, will host Chowan in their opener on Saturday, completing a more than three-year buildup that has been wildly anticipated.

When the school made season tickets available, it got orders for far more than the 14,377 it had to offer and had to convince some buyers to accept lesser packages or fewer tickets. And when it made student tickets available last Monday morning at 10 a.m., students by the hundreds camped out overnight to make sure they got theirs.

Bobby Wilder, who was hired as coach in February 2007 and has been recruiting for two seasons, said the preparation – and the excitement – have been everything he could ask.

“There’s really been no stone left unturned,” Wilder said. “I really think, next Saturday night, regardless of what happens on the football field, will be a memorable night.”

Since the school announced its intention to return to football in May 2006, it has spent about $25 million renovating 74-year-old Foreman Field, building a tower with 24 suites in it in one end zone and installing a large video scoreboard in the other. It spent $17 million to construct a building to house football, women’s lacrosse and field hockey, as well as providing practice fields, and installed an AstroTurf field at the football stadium.

Since the start of practice on Aug. 10, there has been a sense of urgency in the air the mostly urban campus hasn’t had for a long time.

No one can feel it more than the players, who showed up for their first of three intrasquad scrimmages last fall to find 4,000 fans already waiting at the stadium.

This fall, finally, they are working out with games that count awaiting on Saturdays.

“Everybody’s ready to get started and get this show on the road,” said defensive lineman Jason Fuller, a Virginia graduate from Virginia Beach who transferred to Old Dominion with one year of eligibility remaining. He’s one of 23 transfers among 88 players on the roster.

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Hearing set for Oklahoma LB Balogun

08.24.2009 by Matt Loede in Oklahoma Sooners

A Cleveland County judge is expected to weigh in on whether Oklahoma linebacker Mike Balogun should be eligible to play for the third-ranked Sooners this season.

Balogun hopes to prove during a hearing Monday afternoon in Norman that he deserves an injunction that would allow him to play for Oklahoma this season.

Earlier this month, the NCAA decertified the eligibility of the senior middle linebacker after looking into his time spent playing with a semipro football team before he came to Oklahoma.

Balogun filed a lawsuit and was granted a temporary order that allowed him to practice with the Sooners last week. The NCAA will get its first chance to respond to Balogun’s lawsuit during Monday’s hearing.

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Oklahoma State’s Offense in Good Hands w/ Bryant

08.24.2009 by Matt Loede in Oklahoma St. Cowboys

Standing just in front of his All-American wide receiver, Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Gunter Brewer tried to quantify the size of Dez Bryant’s hands.

After a few moments, Brewer found the simplest way was to press his right palm against Bryant’s left and show the receiver had more than a knuckle to spare on his extended digits.

“I don’t know what it was,” Brewer said. “Big? Extra large? Double-X?”

The combination of arguably the nation’s top receiver with playmakers Zac Robinson at quarterback and Kendall Hunter at tailback gives Oklahoma State one of the most potent offenses in the country and has the Cowboys on unfamiliar terrain. For the first time in school history, the ninth-ranked Pokes find themselves in the preseason top 10.

Despite showing hints of what they could do in 2007, it wasn’t until last year that the Cowboys’ combo took on the “Triplets” moniker first carried by Barry Sanders, Hart Lee Dykes and current coach Mike Gundy in Oklahoma State’s high-scoring days of the late 1980s.

Those days have returned with last year’s 40.8-point scoring averaged, the ninth-highest in the country, and a third straight bowl trip – albeit a 42-31 Holiday Bowl loss to Oregon that Bryant hobbled through with a knee that needed surgery weeks later.

“We’re not where we want to be, as far as just getting to a bowl game,” said Bryant, who’s entering his junior season and didn’t have the chance to jump to the NFL like fellow Biletnikoff Award finalists Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin.

“We don’t just want to be at any bowl game. We want to be in a BCS bowl game,” he said. “So, we feel like we’re still fighting to get to that point.”

Bryant bought in long ago to the Cowboys’ potential. When his dreams of going to LSU were dashed, he settled on a comfortable consolation prize in Stillwater – but not until after he’d asked Brewer an important question.

Sitting at his east Texas home, Bryant asked point-blank: “Can we win a national championship?” And Brewer, at the time the Cowboys’ receivers coach, said yes, if he could get enough of the right kind of players.

“I believed them,” Bryant said. “Even though I was hearing kind of the same things (at other schools), just I believed them – just how they was, how their personality was.”

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McCoy, Tebow, Bradford in Unique Heisman Race

08.22.2009 by Matt Loede in texas

In most years, Colt McCoy would be the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

On the field, he is a record-setting quarterback for a Texas team expected to contend for a national championship. Off the field, McCoy is the type of guy fathers want their daughters to marry.

He does missionary work in South America, doesn’t cuss and downs milk instead of soft drinks. In the summers, his West Texas roots beckon him to granddaddy’s farm for hours of backbreaking work baling hay. McCoy and his dad even helped save a man who almost drowned a few years ago.

But 2009 is a unique year in Heisman history.

McCoy is the third wheel in a Heisman race with two quarterbacks who have already won it: Florida’s Tim Tebow (2007) and Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford (2008). This will be first college football season in which the last two Heisman winners are competing.

Add in McCoy, last year’s runner-up ahead of Tebow, and there is another Heisman first: The top three vote-getters from last year all returned for another season of college football.

The challenge for McCoy is to keep up with the tour de force that is Tebow and the video game stats Bradford puts up.

McCoy gets a crack at Bradford when Texas and Oklahoma meet in Dallas on Oct. 17. A possible matchup with Tebow would have to wait until the postseason and long after the trophy has been awarded.

If Tebow or Bradford win it again, they’ll join Ohio State’s Archie Griffin (1974-75) as the only two-time Heisman winners.

McCoy insists he’s not chasing the other two.

“It’s not about me. It’s about Texas,” McCoy said. “It is my senior year, so I want it to be fun. I want it to be special.”

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