Notes From the Margins v5
August 5th, 2008 by Jason Roberts
Week Five of this column brings the start of fall camps for college football programs across the country and plenty of newsworthy items to fill-up the minds of even the most prodigious fantasy owners in the game today . . .
This edition, we find that Connecticut loses a star on its defensive line without ever getting a down of football out of him, Wisconsin searches for Mr. Consistency at the quarterback position, Wyoming gets a former Crimson Tider, Arizona State gets a Wildcat in Sun Devil’s clothing, and Rick Nueheisel continues to try to convince us that he can make a leader out of Ben Olsen yet.
Big XII
Oklahoma State Cowboys
Looking for a backup to Mr. Robinson
From the Tulsa World for Thursday, July 31, 2008 – When it comes to questions regarding the starting quarterback position at Oklahoma State in 2008, an easy answer is provided in the form of junior Zac Robinson.
But as World sports journalist Bill Haisten writes recently, there is some concern regarding the naming of a backup quarterback for Robinson, especially considering the starter’s history with taking hard hits and being forced to the sidelines as a result of injury.
That being said, OSU will be focusing its efforts during fall camp to identify a solid #2 behind Robinson, reviewing options arising from a tandem of redshirts, freshman Brandon Weeden and third-year sophomore Alex Cate.
Following spring practices in April, Cate seemed a slight favorite ahead of Weeden, this because, as Gundy told reporters earlier in the year, “he has experience in the offense”; Cate, however, struggled during the spring, serving as the starting quarterback for the White team in the Cowboys final scrimmage and hitting only 12-of-28 for 82 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and being sacked four times. Weeden, in the meantime, played for three possessions in the spring game behind Robinson on the Orange team, going 7-of-13 for 54 total yards passing.
Big East
Connecticut Huskies
Miller to leave UConn
The website Courant.comincludes in its Wednesday, July 30, 2008 edition the following information on redshirt freshman defensive tackle Jarrell Miller – regarded as one of the most highly prized recruits ever to be landed by the University of Connecticut football program.
Miller has announced that he will be leaving the Huskies’ without ever having played a down of collegiate football due to “personal reasons.” A former Parade All-American linebacker from Highland Springs (Virginia) in 2005, Miller played in that year’s Army High School All-American Bowl and was named his squad’s MVP. Miller also originally signed to North Carolina in 2006 but left before practices began, enrolling instead at Fork Union Military Academy.
Reopening himself to returning to the Division I level the next year, schools such as South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee took serious looks at the young defensive tackle; Miller, however, ended up starting 2007 with Connecticut, and hoped to play last season. Unfortunately, the NCAA ruled him ineligible to play due to his connection with North Carolina, but Miller excelled on the Huskies’ scout team and was moved from linebacker to defensive end at the start of this year’s spring practice.
Big Ten
Michigan State Spartans
A long lost Cousins, no more
From the Detroit Free-Press from Sunday, July 27, 2008 – With redshirt freshman Nick Foles having left Michigan State to head to the University of Arizona and Connor Dixon no longer with the team since the end of spring practice, backup duties at the quarterback position will now fall to redshirt freshman Kirk Cousins.
Cousins, who surprised many in the Spartans’ annual spring game by leading the Green team to a win over the White team headed by starting quarterback Brian Hoyer, is regarded by head coach Mark Dantonio as having “really matured physically as a player” since his arrival in 2007. Dantonio notes that he currently has no plans to start the redshirt in 2008 but acknowledges that Cousins will play an influential role on the scout team.
In the meantime, the Free-Press claims that Dantonio may be shopping around for a JUCO transfer to add depth at the position, but should be solid now that Keith Nichol has come in from Oklahoma and freshman Andrew Maxwell joins the team in fall.
Wisconsin Badgers
Looking for Mr. Consistency
Discussing the state of the quarterback position for the University of Wisconsin in an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel dated Tuesday, July 28, 2008, sportswriter Jeff Potrykus writes, “UW’s staff is looking for Mr. Consistency, and the contenders for the starting job know it.”
Currently junior Dustin Sherer is the #2 quarterback for the Badgers behind Allan Evridge heading into fall camp. Plans are currently to have Sherer and Evridge battle it out for the starting role over the first two weeks of camp, and then have a solid starter named for the remainder of fall practice. At this point, however, it is pertinent to point out that according to head coach Bret Bielema, Evridge is “the man to beat.”
Evridge, readers may recall, has the advantage in terms of game-time experience, having played sparingly in 2006 while still a quarterback at Kansas State and in 2007 where he passed for 66 yards on 12 attempts with the Badgers.
MAC
Central Michigan Chippewas
Trying to the fit the part at CMU
From the pen of sportswriter Drew Ellis of the Mount Pleasant paper, The Morning Sun, comes a detailed article dated Friday, August 1, 2008, on a few important position battles to keep an eye on following the start fall camp for the Central Michigan Chippewas this past Friday morning.
Among a long list of positions highlighted, Ellis spends a good portion of his piece on the tailback position, where both Ontario Sneed and Justin Hoskins return after serious injuries sustained in 2007. The team also appears likely to look to “a strong freshman class” headlined by Jahleel Addae in order to add additional depth.
Also examined by Ellis is the wide receiver position, where CMU is solid at the one and two position (Antonio Brown and Bryan Anderson), but will have coaches taking a hard look at Taylor Bradley, Jean Pitts, and Joe Bockheim for the third starting receiver spot. This position opens up following the departure of Kito Poblah to Stephen F. Austin University.
MWC
San Diego State Aztecs
SDSU and a local time shortage
From the San Diego Union-Tribune for Saturday, July 26, 2008 – The San Diego State Aztecs will be holding shorter practices the first week of fall camp this year – exactly one hour less, according to Union-Tribune writer Brent Schrotenboer.
Apparently, the SDSU coaching staff held an extra 15-minute walkthrough session last year that put them in violation of the NCAA’s rules on excessive athletic practices.
The end result of such an oversight? Approximately 12 minutes less a day spent in practice over the first five days for the school’s football team. Not so bad, particularly after one realizes that it was five years ago, back in 2003, that the NCAA slapped SDSU with a two-year probationary period because of what it saw as a lack of monitoring of “impermissible off-season activities.”
At the same time, however, what remains disconcerting is that this most recent self-imposed punishment by the Aztecs’ football program is but one of at least five other minor infractions the NCAA has asked SDSU to address in the last year.
Wyoming Cowboys
The Farmer in the (Wyoming) Dell
From the Laramie Boomerang for Friday, July 25, 2008 – The Wyoming Cowboys football team got a pleasant surprise earlier this week when it discovered that former Alabama Crimson Tide redshirt wideout and defensive back, Tarence Farmer, had decided to transfer to the University of Wyoming effective this fall.
NCAA rules regarding transfers necessitates that Farmer sit out the 2008 season, but school officials have acknowledged that he will immediately go on the roster of scholarship players at Wyoming and will practice with the team when it opens fall camp on August 3rd.
As to what may have triggered the move for Farmer, sports editor Bob Hammond writes that the youngster was just one of many Crimson Tide players who, in the wake of one of the best recruiting classes in the country for 2008 committing to Alabama, found it necessary to seek playing elsewhere in order to avoid being buried on the team’s depth chart.
Originally listed as a defensive back in his freshman year, Farmer switched to wide receiver this past spring, where he caught two passes for 40 yards during team scrimmages. Interesting side note as well, the 6’0″, 195 pound receiver just happens to be the younger brother of former Arizona Wildcats running back, Clarence Farmer.
Pac-10
Arizona State Sun Devils
A Wildcat in Sun Devils’ clothing
From the Tuscon Citizen, dated Saturday, July 26, 2008 – Anthony Gimino of the Citizen writes that in 2008, look for the Arizona State Sun Devils to host a face on defense quite familiar to none other than their in-state rivals, the Arizona Wildcats. Playing on the defensive side of the ball this year will be former walk-on at Arizona, David Bertrand.
Bertrand, who spent two seasons with the Wildcats as a defensive end, arrived in head coach Dennis Erickson’s office last year requesting the opportunity to walk-on and play for the Sun Devils instead; Erickson, who states in the article, “I hadn’t seen that one before,” provided the young man with the opportunity to play on the scout team in 2007, then opened up competition for a starting role on the defensive line during spring practice.
The ASU coaching staff was impressed with Bertrand’s playing abilities, especially how strong he was; and though Erickson states the defensive end will not start in 2008, there are plans to “use him in situations” that will get Bertrand out on the field and gathering experience.
Bertrand will have, including this season, two years of eligibility playing and will contribute to one of the Pac-10′s best defensive fronts, while his former school, Arizona, looks to break in all new starters.
Oregon Ducks
It’s in the Maehl
From the Paradise, California-based paper Paradise Post for Saturday, July 26, 2008 – There’s a potential sleeper lurking on the offensive side of the ball for the Oregon Ducks at the wide receiver position.
Fantasy owners may want to investigate for the upcoming 2008 season the all-purpose yardage specialist, sophomore Jeff Maehl, who, expected to redshirt in 2007, ended up being involved on the offensive, defensive, and special teams areas for Mike Bellotti’s squad. In total, Maehl, as article author Jeff Larson writes, played in 13 games last season, accrued 34 yards rushing on three attempts, 118 yards receiving on nine catches, and scored a touchdown in the Ducks’ annual Civil War game against Oregon State. But the stats don’t stop there; on defense, he recorded 14 tackles playing as a defensive back.
Maehl’s contribution in 2007 didn’t go unnoticed, with Bellotti telling reporters at this past week’s Pac-10 media conference that the sophomore will “start at our inside receiver position” due to his “versatile range and tremendous hands.”
The coach admits that Maehl still “needs to work on his route running,” an aspect of his game that the wideout claims to have been working on over the summer. But with the level of athleticism and understanding Maehl brings to the football field, there seems little doubt that Maehl will have a tremendous impact on the Ducks’ offense in 2008 that fantasy owners can easily come to appreciate.
Stanford Cardinal
A dead even heat at Stanford
From the San Francisco Chronicle, dated July 29, 2008 – To hear a trio of Chronicle reporters tell it this past Tuesday, head coach for the Stanford Cardinal, Jim Harbaugh, was hardly distraught over not having named a starter at the quarterback position at the end of this past spring’s scrimmages.
Instead, he tells the Chronicle he wants to take his time with the selection, making sure he has a full understanding of each candidate competing for the starting role at quarterback and getting a true feel for who might be best at leading the Cardinal offense in the 2008 season.
As it stands heading into fall camp, Harbaugh expresses that in his mind, junior Tavita Pritchard and sophomore Alex Loukas are “dead even” with each other – this even though Pritchard started seven games last season. Still, don’t count out Michigan transfer Jason Forcier quite yet either; Forcier struggled with injuries during the spring, but “looks in great shape” and ready to battle for the starting role come fall camp, Harbaugh notes.
UCLA Bruins
The spirit of leadership at UCLA – or the current lack thereof
From the pages of the San Bernardino paper The Sun for Thursday, July 24, 2008 – Speaking on senior quarterback Ben Olsen and his role as the likely starter for the UCLA Bruins in 2008, new head coach Rick Neuheisel had the following to say to reporters covering last week’s Pac-10 media conference: “For Ben to go where he wants to go, for us to go with him, he has to win the players over. That’ll be interesting if he can do that. I’m hoping, and that’s what we’re going to start with in earnest; how to do it.”
Olsen has been frequently criticized for not being the type of leader a struggling team like the Bruins requires to make it through the latest transition for a program that has struggled to regain its composure out in the Pac-10 Conference.
Throughout spring training, it was clear Neuheisel felt that Patrick Cowan would be the better fit for where he believes UCLA needs to go. However, with Cowan going down with a season-ending injury to his knee, and transfer Kevin Craft not progressing as quickly as hoped in spring scrimmages, the Bruins are left to ean heavily on Olsen to transform himself into something – at least to this point – he has not proven himself capable of being out on football field thus far – a tried and true, tested leader.
Sun Belt
Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks
Zacharie tops in Sun Belt
From the pages of the Monroe, Louisiana paper The News-Star for Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – For fantasy owners looking for a lesser-known standout at the tight end position, the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks may just be the place to end the search.
News-Star reporter Paul Letlow (re)introduces readers to one of the Sun Belt Conference’s elite players at tight end in an article on senior Zeek Zacharie. A 6’3, 242 pound athlete that originally played football at Southeastern Louisiana and Southern University, Zacharie was recognized last week as a preseason All-Sun Belt selection. That he was honored as he was is of little surprise, particularly considering that the tight end has since joining the team as a sophomore caught 66 passes for 842 yards and eight touchdowns.
Last year, Zacharie struggled a bit at the start of the season, as fellow tight end Mitch Doyle, ULM’s primary blocking tight end, went down with an injury in the second game of 2007. Once the situation with Doyle was addressed, however, Zacharie put together a junior campaign that saw him catch 32 catches for 413 yards in the Warhawks’ final eight games of the season (interesting side note: ULM went 6-2 in those games). Such a finish to the year provided Zacharie the opportunity to finish tenth nationally among tight ends and third overall in the conference.
WAC
San Jose State Spartans
A garden of Eden in San Jose?
From the San Francisco Chronicle for July 29, 2008 – According to writers at the Chronicle, the player to watch in relation to the race for the starting quarterback position at San Jose State is not whom most suspect it to be – Kevin Riley, a transfer from Jeff Tedford’s California Bears squad.
Instead, the article suggests keeping an eye on junior Myles Eden, playing backup to former Spartans quarterback Adam Trafalis. Although he had limited success throwing the ball, he brings elusiveness as a scrambler into the equation as a dual threat-type passer. Last season, playing in just five contests, Eden was impressive, averaging 5.3 yards-per-attempt rushing.
Notes Toomey, Eden is “significantly ahead” of the other quarterbacks heading into fall camp and is a likely go at starter – that is, assuming that Riley doesn’t play to perfection in August, this after having missed the majority of spring practice with a foot injury.
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