News and Notes from around college football for May 22, 2006
Bowden, Paterno, Heisman Winners Lead 2006 Division I-A Class of College Football Hall of Famers
Coaches Bobby Bowden (Florida State) and Joe Paterno (Penn State), the two winningest coaches in Division I-A history, former Heisman Trophy winners Mike Rozier (Nebraska) and Charlie Ward (Florida State), and first-year eligibles Bruce Smith (Virginia Tech) and Emmitt Smith (Florida) led a star-studded class of Division I-A legends to earn induction into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, the National Football Foundation announced last Tuesday. Rounding out the class of 15 to be inducted at the National Football Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner on December 5 in New York City are Bobby Anderson (Colorado), Bennie Blades (Miami (Fla.)), Carl Eller (Minnesota), Steve Emtman (Washington), Thomas Everett (Baylor), Chad Hennings (Air Force), Chip Kell (Tennessee), Mike Phipps (Purdue) and Jeff Siemon (Stanford). Hennings, B. Smith and Ward spoke at press conference announcing the class last Tuesday in New York, and help comprise a class that includes three Outland Trophy winners (Emtman, Hennings, B. Smith); two Maxwell Award winners (Rozier, Ward); two Jim Thorpe Award winners (Blades, Everett); winners of the Lombardi Award (Emtman), Davey O’Brien Award (Ward) and Johnny Unitas Award (Ward); and the first two Hall of Fame inductees who played in the 1990s (Emtman, Ward). Following induction, this group will be permanently enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., in the summer of 2007. “You never set out to win honors or awards,” said Hennings at the press conference. “You set you to be the be the best teammate that you can be, and that’s where I would like to recognize the teammates that I played with at the Air Force Academy.”
College Football Hall of Famer Dan Ross Dies
Northeastern University great Dan Ross, Dan Ross, a tight end who led the nation in receiving in 1978, died Tuesday night at his home in New Hampshire. He was 49. A 2004 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Ross still holds the school records for receptions in a season (68) and in a career (217). Following his record-setting senior season, Ross earned recognition as the Bulger Lowe (Outstanding Player) and Harry Agganis (Outstanding Senior) Award winner, both for football players in New England. The school retired his #84 immediately following his final game. Ross parlayed his success in college into a productive career in the NFL and USFL, and still holds a share of the record for most receptions in a Super Bowl (11) while a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.
ABC Enters Prime-Time with Full Slate of Saturday Night Games in 2006
ABC will re-enter the primetime television football foray next year with a full slate of 8 p.m. EST starts for 12 weeks this coming season. The network, which is surrendering its coverage of the NFL’s Monday Night Football to ESPN starting this year, will put Brent Musburger alongside Bob Davie in the primetime booth starting September 2, with occasional commentating from Kirk Herbstreit, analyst on ESPN College GameDay. The schedule begins with a showdown in Atlanta between Georgia Tech and Notre Dame and also includes games such as Ohio State-Texas (Sept. 9), Oregon-California (Oct. 7), Michigan-Penn State (Oct. 14) and Notre Dame-USC (Nov. 25).
Two-Minute Drill
The May 22 edition of USA Today profiled the success of the National Football Foundation’s Play It Smart program, which sends 80 percent of its participants on to college. Launched in 1998, Play It Smart places academic coaches on high school football teams to help at-risk student-athletes. The article featured the program’s impact on USC’s Dwayne Jarrett, who participated in the program at New Brunswick High School in New Jersey. The article and a sidebar can be found on page 12C.
Chuck Bennis, a two-time All-America guard from the University of Illinois, died last Sunday at the age of 95… Former Tennessee Tech football coach Jim Ragland, a two-time Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, died Tuesday. The school has already established a scholarships fund in his honor for the TTU football program… Former Cincinnati and Virginia head coach George Blackburn, who coached the Bearcats for six seasons from 1955-60 and the Cavaliers from 1965-70, died in Ohio at the age of 93…
Michigan approved a $226 million stadium renovation, which will add luxury boxes and club seats by the 2010 season. Kansas announced plans to build a new, $31 million football complex with construction planned to start next summer… Cincinnati just opened their new, $109 million Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village, which includes a center for many of the school’s athletics facilities… Iowa State has already set a new school record for the most number of season football ticket sales in a single year… Florida and Georgia hope to remove all references to the billing of their annual rivalry game as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party…
Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach will be the guest speaker at the NFF’s Touchdown Club of Houston chapter banquet on June 8… George O’Leary and his Central Florida Golden Knight football staff will talk football during the 2006 UCF Women’s Football Clinic on June 3… Sports Business Journal featured a one-on-one interview with Michigan athletics director Bill Martin in its May 8-14 issue… Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione spoke to the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium about integrity in recruiting last Wednesday… Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White announced last Tuesday that the team will start scheduling games at neutral sites beginning in 2009…
1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie (Boston College) announced his retirement from professional football following 21 seasons… Current NFF Chairman and 1992 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Ron Johnson (Michigan) had the football field at Northwestern High School in Detroit, his alma mater, named in his honor last week… Former Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum spoke at the scholar-athlete banquet for the Greater Austin chapter of the National Football Foundation last week… The NCAA News recently ran a feature article on Central State University assistant coach Henderson Mosley for his invitation to a boy with cerebral palsy to visit practices and the impact felt on the newly restarted football team at the school… AFCA announced it will campaign the NCAA to add a fifth year of eligibility for all Division I football players… The Atlantic Coast Conference celebrated a record 51 NFL draft selections from league teams and its best-ever television year during its annual meetings in Florida last week…
Central Arkansas named John Thompson, former head football coach at East Carolina, as their new athletics director… Marshall hired Phil Ratliff, a former All-America offensive lineman for the Thundering Herd, as their new tight ends coach…
Schedule Spotlight: The Big 12
Team – Date – First Opponent (Home/Away)
Baylor – September 2 – TCU (H)
Colorado – September 2 – Montana State (H)
Iowa State – August 31 – Toledo (H)
Kansas – September 2 - Northwestern State (H)
Kansas State – September 2 – Illinois State (H)
Missouri – September 2 – Murry State (H)
Nebraska – September 2 – Louisiana Tech (H)
Oklahoma – September 2 – Alabama-Birmingham (H)
Oklahoma State – September 2 – Missouri State (H)
Texas – September 2 – North Texas (H)
Texas A&M – September 2 – Citadel (H)
Texas Tech – September 2 – SMU (H)
