KU football hires new co-defensive coordinator
Bill Miller, former defensive coordinator at Louisville University, has been named linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator of the Kansas University football team, KU announced Saturday.
Miller, who has worked as an assistant at 12 schools in his 31-year coaching career, will assist primary defensive coordinator Clint Bowen.
"Bill is a highly respected defensive coach in college football," Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. "His experience, attention to detail and reputation for coaching an aggressive style of play makes him a great fit for our program. We are excited to have Bill on our staff."
Miller's first order of duty will be helping the Kansas defense bounce back from a rough 2008 season. After finishing 12th nationally in total defense in 2007, the Jayhawks fell to 89th this year, thanks largely to a pass defense that ranked 114th (out of 119) in the nation.
Last season, Miller served as the linebackers coach for a Louisville team that improved significantly from the year before. This offseason, he accepted a job as the team's defensive coordinator before resigning to take the Kansas job.
At Western Michigan in 2007, Miller's defense proved one of the Mid-American Conference's best, leading the league in pass-efficiency defense, ranking second in sacks and fourth in total defense, pass defense and tackles for loss. In addition to Louisville, Miller has served as a defensive coordinator at Nevada, Oklahoma State, Miami, Michigan State, Arizona State and Western Michigan and was an associate head coach and linebackers coach at Florida .
Miller, who graduated from Hutchinson (Kan.) High in 1974 and later played safety at Hutchinson Junior College, cited returning to his home state as a factor in his decision to accept the position at Kansas.
"This is also a great opportunity for me to get back to Kansas be close to my dad who lives in Hutchinson and my brother, who is in Kansas City," Miller said. "... Obviously I am very excited about coming home and being part of the Kansas program. Mark has done a great job with this program, and I am looking forward to being a part of it and helping them as much as I can. I am really looking forward to working with Clint Bowen and Ed Warinner and the other guys that I know on that staff."
Miller's job responsibilities at Kansas are expected to be similar to those held by Bowen in 2007, when the he was a co-defensive coordinator with Bill Young before being promoted following Young's departure for Miami.
Meanwhile, Steve Tovar, who served as the Jayhawks' linebackers coach for two seasons, will be leaving the program to "pursue other opportunities," the university announced Saturday.
The vacancy left by Joe Bob Clements, who served as Kansas' defensive-line coach for one season before leaving to take a job at Kansas State last month, has not yet been filled.
(c)Copyright 2009 The Lawrence Journal-World
BCS title game quarterbacks are style vs. substance
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- After watching NFL quarterbacks as a five-star stud growing up in Jacksonville, Florida's Tim Tebow wanted to one day become a concoction of the greats he admired.
"I try to take attributes from all of them," Tebow said. "Steve Young with his athleticism and how he ran, Steve McNair's toughness, Troy Aikman's accuracy, Peyton Manning's smarts, Tom Brady's leadership."
That's one impressive hybrid. Unfortunately for Tebow, some scouts would rather see him as a mix between Antwaan Randle El and Hines Ward - former college quarterbacks who became successful at different positions.
While Oklahoma's Sam Bradford is the prototypical NFL quarterback in the eyes of many, Tebow could be a third- or fourth-round pick who might be better suited as a tight end or an H-back, some scouts and analysts say.
The two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks haven't decided on whether they'll return to school or declare for the 2009 NFL draft, but they can showcase their pro potential in the Jan. 8 national championship game in Miami.
"He's not a pure pocket passer like a (Georgia's) Matt Stafford," ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said of Tebow. "Can he make all the throws? Can he make all the reads? Can he learn to release the ball quicker? That remains to be seen."
Though Tebow is celebrated as one of college football's all-time best players, not many promise the same for his draft status. Rob Rang, the director of NFLdraftscout.com that has contact with pro scouts and general managers, said Tebow could be a first-round pick but most likely a second- or third-rounder. Kiper and ESPN's Todd McShay say Tebow is likely a second-rounder in a best-case scenario, fourth-rounder in the worst-case scenario.
Sports Illustrated's Peter King has projected Tebow as a first-rounder.
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone tossing Bradford, who won the Heisman last week as a sophomore, out of the top 15 in mock drafts. Some have him rated higher than Stafford, who could become the No. 1 overall pick should he declare for the draft.
Analysts say Bradford has a great arm, a cerebral approach to the position and an ideal quarterback's build at 6 feet 4.
"If he's a top-five guy, he ought to go," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "If he isn't, he'll be a top-five guy in some point in his career. At least that's my belief."
While Bradford might have the throwing motion of an NFL quarterback, his resume of intangibles pales in comparison to that of Tebow, who has screamed his way to the Bowl Championship Series title game with his team resting on his bulky shoulders.
Whether it was a brilliant fourth quarter in the Southeastern Conference title game without Percy Harvin or a chilling postgame promise of excellence after the Ole Miss loss, Tebow is unwilling to compromise for anything less than a win.
Those qualities coupled with his athleticism could make Tebow "the most polarizing figure in the draft," Rang said. His good marks will be contrasted with a slow, awkward arm release and inaccurate passing that NFL cornerbacks would gobble up at first sight and the inability to make reads under center because he's trained in a full-blown spread offense.
"He's either going to make a coach of the year or he's going to call the firing squad," Rang said of Tebow. "There will be no one in the draft like him. And all it takes is for one GM to fall in love with him."
Tebow said he's prepared to do whatever it takes to help an NFL team win, but he hopes that's as a quarterback.
Tebow even playfully sparred with Kiper on the subject on an ESPN radio show recently. When Kiper asked Tebow about his pass-catching ability, alluding to the possibility of becoming the next Frank Wycheck, Tebow quipped that you must have good hands to take snaps from the center.
"He can be that third quarterback in a wildcat formation," Kiper said. "He's great with the ball in his hands and running. He gives you a versatile, all-around guy."
The tight-end argument has followed Tebow all his life, but his heart lies under center.
Maybe if I change the way I played a little bit they'd look at me a little different," Tebow said. "If I just threw the ball and didn't run, didn't hit people, didn't get excited, maybe they’d look at me a little differently. I just use that as motivation."
Tebow's work ethic will never be questioned, but McShay said the detractors will be difficult for teams to ignore. An awkward throwing motion is something "scouts are scared to death of," McShay said, and it's also difficult to tweak drastically.
"If you're going to use a first-round draft choice on a quarterback, he should have all of those qualities," McShay said. "Tebow is questionable in some of those areas."
The decision for Tebow to stay or enter the draft could hinge on numerous factors. The departure of offensive coordinator Dan Mullen to Mississippi State might not help, but if the Gators lose the title game, he might be hungry to try again. Returning for his senior season will allow room to work on his throwing motion and an ability to make reads.
Bradford's decision might be more clear-cut. His stock might never be higher considering the Sooners lose their three top receivers and three starting linemen in 2009.
"If he wants to deal with adversity, go back to school," Kiper said. "If he doesn't play as well, everyone will start nitpicking a little bit. They'll see things negatively next year that they didn't see this year. By then he's regressed. There are no negatives from this year."
(c)2009 The World Publishing Company
ND's Bruton to play in Senior Bowl
MOBILE, Ala. - After wrapping up his collegiate career on Wednesday at the Hawaii Bowl, Notre Dame safety David Bruton will turn his attention to the 2009 Under Armour Senior Bowl.
Bruton has accepted an invitation to the Jan. 24 game, bowl officials announced.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Mobile's Ladd-Peebles Stadium and the game will be televised by the NFL Network.
A two-year starter for the Fighting Irish, Bruton is one of only five players to rank in the top 100 in the country in total tackles (93), solo tackles (57), interceptions (3) and forced fumbles (2). His 93 tackles this season ranks third in school history for defensive backs.
The Miamisburg, Ohio native has made a name for himself this season by coming up with the big play when the Irish needed it most.
His five forced turnovers this season have come inside the Irish 27-yard line, with three coming inside their own 6-yard line. His biggest game of the year came in an overtime loss to Pittsburgh. Against the Panthers Bruton notched a career-high 16 tackles, an interception and a pass break-up.
Tickets for the 2009 Under Armour Senior Bowl are currently available for purchase at the Senior Bowl ticket office (151 Dauphin Street), select Regions Bank locations, online at www.seniorbowl.com or by calling (251) 432-4109.
The Under Armour Senior Bowl is college football's premier pre-draft event, annually featuring the nation's best senior collegiate football stars and top NFL draft prospects on teams coached by NFL coaching staffs. Senior Bowl practices and game week festivities are attended by more than 800 general managers, head coaches, assistant coaches, scouts and other front office personnel from all 32 National Football League teams, making Mobile and the Under Armour Senior Bowl the week-long host to a one-of-a-kind NFL Coaches Convention.
For more information on the 2009 Under Armour Senior Bowl please visit the bowl's website at www.seniorbowl.com.
nilesstar.com
Red Raider Heist
How does a team who has one less loss, who played in a better conference, and had a higher AP and BCS ranking not go to a BCS game in favor of a lesser team in all four of those areas?
Somehow the Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2) received a berth into the BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl instead of a more deserving Texas Tech Red Raiders team.
The reasons without the Fiesta Bowl committee having to admit it that: Ohio State is the more marquee name, that they will travel better, that they have more of a following around the country, and that more viewers will tune in.
This is sad for the great sport of college football but it is something that has been occurring for years now.
What do these up and coming programs have to do in order to make a BCS game? Do they have to go undefeated in order to receive recognition for what was an outstanding season?
Nine of the 10 BCS teams had at least one loss. So why is what the Red Raiders did ignored in an obvious deserving situation?
This is not to take anything away from any of the other BCS teams who gained an automatic bid due to their league arrangements with the BCS games or the Buckeyes as they all had great seasons.
But it is a travesty and one that hopefully in the near future will correct itself due to a playoff system.
Even the NCAA and BCS can't screw that up. Or can they?
(c)2008 OPEN Sports Network, Inc.
Give The People What They Want: Poly Vs. De La Salle
A few coaches have commented to us over the season that, for as great as the State Championship games are, they have served to inject some of the negative aspects of college football into the high school games. Tonight, one of those problems is apparent: having committee voting determine the fate of football teams who have battled and worked for four months. Yet that's the fact of things: there are going to be five games, each pitting a NorCal school against a SoCal school, spread over two days. Three of them don't concern us: the Small Schools Division, Division III, and Division II. But Division I and the Open Division - ah, there's the rub.
For the first time, the CIF has instituted the Open Division championship, in which the flat-out best team from the north, regardless of size and enrollment, will play the flat-out best team from the south. One problem: how do you define "flat-out best"? Take this year, where Poly is 14-0 and now CIF champion of the Pac-5, and Corona-Centennial is 14-0 and now CIF champion of their conference. It's almost 100% certain that Poly and Centennial will both be playing next weekend - the question is who will get the nod for the SoCal Open Division berth, the team recognized as the best in the region.
Well, ten people have to decide and vote, Sunday afternoon. They are the commissioners of the ten CIF sections (Poly is in the Southern Section), and using the following criteria, they will attempt to determine who the "best" team is, between two undefeateds. First, they factor in record, which is moot since they're both 14-0 (this is what cost Poly a shot at State last year since they had one nonleague loss). Then, strength of schedule, factoring in nonleague, league, and playoff wins - this raises an interesting question. Namely, will Lakewood's forfeits (which do represent their official record) have a negative impact on Poly's chances of an Open Division berth? Then, head to head competition and common opponents, neither of which will be a factor here, and a sportsmanship clause that shouldn't come in to play.
In other words, the team that gets to play for the "real" state championship, the Open Division berth, will be either Poly or Centennial, based on which team is seen to have the stronger schedule - obviously, in our opinion, the team that emerged from the Pac-5, defeating the undefeated Tesoro Titans, deserves that nod.
As for their opponent, we don't know nearly enough about the NorCal scene, but De La Salle won their championship game in convincing fashion, 34-10. Everything we read says they're the odds-on favorites to be the NorCal representative in the Open Division game. In other words, it's incredibly likely that at 3:30pm this afternoon, a state championship game between Poly and De La Salle could be announced.
As a journalist and a sports fan, I'm begging the ten commissioners, here, publicly: make it happen.
lbpostsports.com
Knights anxiously await bowl destination
PISCATAWAY - For weeks, Mike Teel refused to acknowledge the bowl possibilities.
Finally, in the aftermath of Rutgers' 63-14 rout of Louisville on Thursday night, the Scarlet Knights' quarterback did just that.
"Now that we're done, we're kind of sitting around waiting," Teel said after throwing for a career-best 447 yards and a school-record seven touchdowns in Rutgers' sixth consecutive victory.
"I have no idea where we're going to go. All I know is we're 7-5 right now, we've dug ourselves out of a huge hole and we're looking forward to going to a bowl somewhere."
While their postseason destination remains unknown, the Scarlet Knights will go somewhere with the distinction of being one of only seven teams in college football history to make a bowl after a 1-5 start.
"I'm just speechless," senior linebacker Kevin Malast said. "Nobody quit on the season, all the senior leadership stepped up and none of the younger guys quit. It would've been easy for the younger guys to quit, because they have another season to play, but they did it for the seniors. And this is the result of all that."
Teel, putting the turnaround in perspective, added, "The way this team stuck together and fought is pretty gratifying."
Though Greg Schiano said he didn't want to reflect on the roller coaster season until his team's bowl destination is formally announced Sunday, the Rutgers coach will do his lobbying to bowl suitors behind closed doors today.
"You try to call people you've built relationships with, explain the things that we believe about Rutgers," Schiano said. "All (the media) that will come to the game, we have the largest media market in the country. It's a good month of exposure for the bowl and the sponsors, so there's a lot of stuff to talk about, not to mention the football team.
"I am proud of our team. I think we'll do a good job representing Rutgers well and representing their bowl well. That's why you have bowl people, they come up to your games and you entertain them and you build relationships with them so that when stuff like this happens, it's not like picking up the phone for the first time."
For now, bowl possibilities include the Motor City Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 26, the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., on Dec. 29, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 27 and the Sun Bowl in El Paso on New Year's Eve.
A pair of Big East games today will help determine Rutgers' destination. Pitt travels to UConn (noon, ESPN) needing a victory to lock up the Sun Bowl. A Pitt loss will make West Virginia's home game (8 p.m., ESPN2) against South Florida important, since the Mountaineers are under consideration for El Paso as well.
If Pitt wins, Rutgers will likely be pegged for the Motor City Bowl or the PapaJohns.com Bowl.
"I think wherever we end up," Schiano said, "it'll be a really great opponent and a great environment. I'm kind of game for just about anything."
Certainly Rutgers improved its case for the Big East's runner-up bowl in El Paso with Thursday's convincing victory before an ESPN national audience. The Scarlet Knights compiled a season-best 671 total yards en route to posting their highest point total since beating Colgate, 68-6, in 1993.
In building a 49-0 halftime lead, Rutgers averaged 15.1 yards per play and finished the first half with 468 total yards of offense.
The showing was impressive enough for Schiano to declare it the "best offensive performance by a team I've been the head coach of - maybe ever that I've been a part of."
Who could argue after the Scarlet Knights scored touchdowns on nine of their first 10 possessions before running out the clock in the red zone late in the fourth quarter.
"This was one of the best offenses I've seen in a while, NFL too," said running back Jourdan Brooks, who led all rushers with 124 yards as Rutgers posted a season-best 224 yards on the ground. "We ran the ball well and we passed it well. We played a total offensive game."
Copyright (c) 2008 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved
Downed by the Ducks, Beavers now root for UCLA
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Their Rose Bowl hopes now out of their hands, the Oregon State Beavers will root for UCLA.
Oregon (9-3, 7-2 Pacific-10 Conference) soundly defeated Oregon State (8-4, 7-2) Saturday in the 112th Civil War, 65-38.
With a win, the Beavers would have been headed to Pasadena on New Year's Day for a rematch against Penn State, which beat them in September.
Oregon State still has a chance to play in its first Rose Bowl since the 1964 season, but it's a slim one. If the Bruins upset No. 5 USC on Saturday, it would set up a three-way tie for the Pac-10 title between the Trojans, Beavers and Ducks. Oregon State would win the complicated tiebreaker.
Should the Trojans beat UCLA, they'll win the Rose Bowl berth. Oregon would probably be headed to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 30. Oregon State would likely be go to the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Dec. 31.
The bowl pairings will be announced Dec. 7.
As a result of their Civil War victory, Oregon moved up three spots in the rankings to No. 16. Oregon State dropped from No. 17 to No. 25.
The Beavers were understandably disappointed about the likelihood of playing in a non-BCS bowl.
"Obviously it's hard to get excited about that when you knew you had something like the (Rose Bowl) possible," quarterback Lyle Moevao said.
The Ducks, meanwhile, were relishing the Civil War.
Last season, Oregon State defeated Oregon 38-31 in double overtime at Autzen Stadium. So Saturday's victory at Reser was payback, with the added twist of all but knocking the Beavers out of the Rose Bowl.
"They came in last year and won a heartbreaker. So we had that on our back all year. It feels just amazing right now," Oregon receiver Jeff Maehl said.
It was the highest scoring game in the Civil War rivalry. The Beavers had never allowed an opponent as many points.
The loss snapped Oregon State's six-game winning streak, and an eight-game streak at Reser.
The Beavers were without freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers, who led the conference in rushing (113.9 yards a game) and was 12th in the nation going into the Civil War.
He injured his shoulder early in Oregon State's 19-17 victory over Arizona and was ruled out of the game despite pleas to coach Mike Riley.
Moevao, who sat out of the game against Arizona because of a shoulder injury, completed 27 of 51 passes for 374 yards and a career-high five touchdowns for the Beavers. He threw two interceptions.
Not having Rodgers, known as Quizz, hurt the Beavers, Moevao said.
"Yeah, I think it would have been a lot different. We knew they were going to key in our flysweep and stack the box when we ran," he said. "It's just unfortunate that they were able to pull it off."
Jeremiah Masoli completed 11 of 17 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns for the Ducks, who were coming off a bye. Jeremiah Johnson ran for 219 yards and a score.
Oregon had 694 yards in total offense, and won despite 15 penalties for 129 yards. The Beavers racked up 463 yards in total offense.
The Ducks, who won in Corvallis for the first time since 1996, now lead the Civil War series 56-46-10.
(c) 2008 KING-TV
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