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Don Hansen's Football Gazette Blog of information, comments, notes, and tidebits on Small College Football. NCAA 1-AA & Mid Major, Division II & Mid Major, Division III, NAIA, and NCCAA

Thursday, September 14, 2006

News and Notes From Around College Football for September 11, 2006

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame News Release www.footballfoundation.com Monday’s Chalktalk

Bowden Bowl VIII

The Bowden Bowl between Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, a 2006 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, and his son, Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden, is set for its eighth bout this Saturday in Tallahassee, Fla.
The eighth meeting between father and son - the first series of its type in Division I-A football history between a patriarch and his offspring - finds the elder Bowden with a 5-2 edge. Bobby Bowden currently touts a 288-75-4 record in his 31st season at FSU and 361-107-4 overall record during his 41st college campaign, which also includes stints at Samford (then Howard
College) and West Virginia before his tenure began at FSU in 1976. Tommy Bowden has amassed a 71-38 record as of his 10th year as a head coach after starting at Tulane before arriving at Clemson. The first game between the father-son duo also was the closest - a 17-14 win by the ‘Noles at Clemson in 1999. At least one of the two teams has been ranked nationally in each of the eight Bowden Bowls, including the No. 10 ranked 2006 Seminoles.

Aftermath of Ohio State-Texas Battle for No. 1

Ohio State is now 3-0 in No.1 versus No. 2 match-ups…The Buckeyes win gives No. 1 ranked teams a 22-13-2 all-time record in No 1 vs. No. 2 match-ups…A number of Texas streaks ended on Saturday night, including their 21 game winning streak, 16 game home-win streak, Mack Brown’ s 72 game win streak when the Longhorns out rush their opponent, and defensive coordinator Gene Chizik’s personal 29-game win streak…The game drew a Memorial Stadium record crowd of 89,422…Among the celebrities in attendance were Lance Armstrong,
2006 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Emmitt Smith, Lebron James, former Buckeye great Eddie George, and actors Matthew McConaghey and Jake Gyllenhaal. Armstrong participated in pre-game ceremonies, acting as an honorary captain during the coin toss…Ohio State LB James Laurinaitis is the son of Joseph Laurinaitis, better known as professional wrestler “Animal,”
one-half of the “Road Warriors” legendary tag team… United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, owes fellow Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, Blue Bell ice cream after losing a friendly wager on the outcome of Saturday night’s game… The Buckeyes are the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week…Ohio State’s win ties them with West Virginia for the nation’s second longest winning streak at nine. The nation’s longest streak belongs to TCU with 12 wins a row.


Two-Minute Drill

Erk Russell, who led Georgia's "Junkyard Dawg" defense under Vince Dooley and then built a small-college powerhouse of his own at Georgia Southern, died Sept. 8, in Statesboro, Ga. He was 80. Russell came to prominence during 17 years as Georgia's defensive coordinator from 1964-80 under College Football Hall of Fame coach Vince Dooley. Over 2,000 friends and fans attended a special memorial service at Statesboro’s Paulson Stadium for the late coach on Sept. 9.

Seven games this weekend will feature match-ups between ranked teams. They
include: No. 19 Nebraska at No. 2 USC; No. 13 Michigan at No. 3 Notre Dame; No. 7 LSU at No. 4 Auburn; No.6 Florida at No. 17 Tennessee; No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 18 Oregon; No. 15 Miami at No. 12 Louisville; and No. 22 Texas Tech at No. 20 TCU…. NCAA Division I-A football opening games in 2006 ran 17 minutes shorter than the 2005 season lid lifters, averaging 3:20 compared to their 2006 counterparts, which ran 3:03…. OL Baker Steinkuhler, son of former Nebraska All-American Dean Steinkuhler, has committed to the Cornhuskers…

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine addressed the Rutgers team following their victory over Illinois, the governor’s alma mater… Texas A&M saw a return of the all walk-on kickoff team late in their win vs. Louisiana-Lafayette… New Hampshire gave Division I-AA its’ 4th victory over an I-A opponent, when they upset Northwestern… Houston Quarterback Kevin Kolb became the school’s all-time leading passer… A commemorative coin, featuring Notre Dame’s seven Heisman trophy winners, was used for the coin flip prior to the Irish-Penn State game… The LSU Tigers have a nine-game winning streak against Pacific-10 Conference teams after downing Arizona… Tennessee retired the uniform numbers of four student-athletes who died in service during World War II prior to the Sept. 9 UT-Air Force game. The honored veterans were Bill Nowling, Willis Tucker, Rudy Klarer, and Clyde Fuson… Super Freshmen
Quarterbacks: Arkansas's Mitch Mustain was 9-17-111 yards passing in his first start, while Georgia's Matthew Stafford was 8-19-171-3 INT in the Bulldogs win over South Carolina…. Mustain’s first start versus Utah State drew 69,491, or 7,000 more than the average Razorback home non-conference game with exceptions for Texas and USC… The Penn sprint football team beat the Alumni team 13-8 at Franklin Field on Sept. 9…

Michigan extended its record against MAC opponents to 21-0 all-time… Virginia Tech has gone 9-0 in ACC road games since joining the conference in 2004… Oklahoma State has won 13 straight non-conference regular season games… Appalachian State has a 19-game home winning streak… For the first time in 30 years, Georgia Tech returned two interceptions for touchdowns in a single game during their bout with Samford… Lightning and weather delays effected games at BYU, Kentucky, and Michigan… Texas Tech wore red pants for the first time since 1991… Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, will have to visit Lubbock and dine on Rocky Mountain oysters, thanks to losing a friendly wager with fellow State Senator Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock as the Red Raiders beat the Miners in El Paso… North Texas’s home win over SMU produced the third largest crowd in school history, 25,231… Washington coach Tyrone Willingham invited former Oklahoma Sooner and College Football Hall of Famer Jim Owens to be a “guest coach” for the Sept. 9 Oklahoma-Washington game in Norman, but Owens declined for health reasons.
Owens, 79, starred for the 1946-49 Sooners and coached the Huskies from
1957-74 and guided them to three Rose Bowl appearances.

Georgetown DE Alex Buzbee will wear No. 35 for the Hoyas this season.
Former Hoya Joe Eacobacci, who died during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center while working for the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, wore the number from 1993 -1995. Each season the Eacobacci Family selects a member of the squad to wear the number in honor of Joe.

Stanford will open the new Stanford Stadium this week against Navy. Pre-game ceremonies will include a U.S. Navy jet flyover, special entrance by Navy Leap Frog Teams and a ribbon-cutting ceremony by former Cardinal greats… Boise State celebrates the 20th Anniversary of its Blue Turf, aka Smurf Turf, on Sept. 13… The first phase of improvements for the Cotton Bowl in Dallas include a $5 million Daktronics scoreboard that will be ready for the October 7 Texas-Oklahoma game… HNTB will design renovations for the Orange Bowl in Miami and Iowa State's Jack Trice Stadium. With a targeted-2010 completion, the $35 million Jack Trice Stadium renovation includes 24 suites, enclosing and adding seats to the south end zone, and an expansion of the club suite section… Minnesota will break ground on their $248 million TCF Bank Stadium on Sept. 30… Texas State has erected a memorial to former Coach David Miller, who passed away last February… California-Davis will move into a new on-campus stadium in 2007 - the first year it is eligible for the I-AA playoffs.

Florida State's 13-10 victory over Miami on Sept. 4 earned honors as ESPN's most-viewed college football game ever. The Labor Day game, carried on ESPN and ESPN2, drew an average of 6.33 million households… Former USC and UNLV head coach John Robinson will be a spotter for John Madden during NBC's 2006 NFL coverage…The Sept. 9 Georgia-South Carolina game was one of 25 games that ESPN will simulcast on ESPN cell phones… Fox Sports Net Arizona and Arizona State extended their partnership with a new long-term agreement, which includes exclusive rights to all event and ancillary programming for Sun Devil Football… CBS is considering streaming its SEC national game of the week as part of CSTV's online football packages… 2006 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Joe Paterno of Penn State was featured on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Sept. 7 as part of Couric's debut week… Fox Sports Net Bay Area’s coverage of Navy-Stanford will feature former Stanford greats coach Bill Walsh and Jim Plunkett, a 1990 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, as color analysts… Florida head coach Urban Meyer spent two days shooting tape and photos for Nike ads in Los Angeles and quipped that he said two words during his 20-plus hours in front of the camera.

College Sporting News and I-AA.org announced a new poll for coaches, the CSN Coaches Poll…Walt Disney World extended the title sponsorship of the Florida Classic, featuring Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M. The game played annually in Orlando is hosted by Florida Citrus Sports… Hofstra unveiled new home uniforms produced and manufactured by Riddell Corp… Florida and Georgia administrators are taking extra steps to guarantee safety and security at the annual UF-UGA tussle in Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 28. The measures include a “Student Safe Zone” to prevent incidents before and after the contest… Minnesota has established new criteria to allow more Golden Gopher fans to attend the Nov. 18 game against Iowa in Minneapolis. In recent years Iowa fans have purchased large blocks of tickets for the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy game when it was played at Minnesota… Coaches at Idaho and Washington State favor discontinuing the long-standing series… Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, former Kansas All-American quarterback Bobby Douglass, former Tennessee State and Chicago Bear Richard Dent and retired Big Ten official Tom Quinn will be inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame on September 14.


Old Dominion has hired former Navy and Virginia coach George Welsh, a 2004 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, and former North Carolina State coach Dick Sheridan, to serve as consultants as the Monarchs prepare to reinstate a football program for the 2009 season…Texas State named Ingrid Sobrino Bobcat Athletic Foundation Coordinator… Miami (Ohio) announced that Anthony Azama, who spent eight years with Florida Citrus Sports, will serve as the athletics department’s director of marketing.

Editors’ Notes

With this release, Bo Carter, a veteran of over 35 years in college media relations, becomes the first official correspondent for the NFF's Chalktalk, which was launched this past February. Carter will also assist with the NFF's "This Week in College Football", which is released each week during the season. Carter currently serves as the director of public relations for the Texas Collegiate League. Previously, he served as the sports information director/historian for the Big 12 Conference from 1996-2006. A native of Sheffield, Ala., he graduated from Vanderbilt in 1974 and earned induction into College Sports Information Directors (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame in July 2005 after an illustrious career in media relations. His other jobs include reporter for the Tennessean, sports information director at Mississippi State, and assistant commissioner for media relations with the Southwest Conference.

Please email news@footballfoundation.com to submit an item for the NFF’s “Monday Chalk talk”. Thanks!

With 120 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy; the Draddy Trophy presented by HealthSouth and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings. NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, and the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College (Mass.), the NFL-NFF Coaching Academy, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.

For more information, please visit www.footballfoundation.com

NFF Contacts:

Phil Marwill, director of communications 1-800-486-1865, ext. 118

Bo Carter, correspondent

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