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CFF’s Season of 2007: A Year of Comebacks

     The Florida Gators claimed the NCAA 1-A 2006 National Championship after they unseated Ohio State from the top position they held since the beginning of the 2006 season when they clubbed the Buckeyes, 41-14, on the last day of the season, but we doubt anyone can challenge CollegeFootballFan.com 2006 season in terms of the excitement of games we experienced this season. This season was personal record-breaker for us as we traveled across the country to witness 24 college football games at four different levels.  On the way to adding nine new teams to Our Goal to see every 1-A team play at least once, we saw many well-played games with conference championship implications or competitive games played by two teams with nothing but pride on the line.  We watched eleven teams finished ranked in their respective final polls.  We got to see fifteen new teams and attended eleven new venues. We also saw great action played by teams in places that we’ve become all too familiar with. We saw a resurgence of college football’s original rivals, as well as a recovery by the games’ oldest coach!  We saw a national championship game played by a team who finished the season undefeated!  We also saw a team play that never won a game this year.  We attended bowl games for the first time in years.  We attended divisional play-off games, and still dream of the day when the 1-A championship will truly be decided on the field of play as well.  We saw two games decided in OT.  We also saw one “rivalry” decided before the second quarter was over.  We saw conference championships decided on the field. We saw upsets! More than anything, we saw some of the greatest comebacks we have ever seen in some key games!  We met other fans and made some new friends along the way.  2006 affirmed our belief that there is no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the fall, or even a weekday or weekend night now for that matter!  Check out our Archives page for our Game Reviews from throughout the season.  In the off-season, you can read our updated Steveo’s Salvos to keep up on our latest views of the greatest sport on earth, and check out our 2007 Schedule as we plan to finally achieve our Goal to have seen all 119 teams play by the end of 2007!  Along with the five teams remaining to be seen, plans will include other games of great interest.  The following is a summary of CollegeFootballFan.com's fantastic, 2006 season!

     Our season started off with two new teams to be added to The Goal right off the bat as we traveled all the way out to California to see San Diego State (#106) host UTEP (#107) on a Thursday night.  Hope sprung eternal as the Aztecs were playing under new Head Coach Chuck Long, former Oklahoma offensive coordinator.  UTEP countered with QB Jordan Palmer, brother of Heisman winner Carson.  The Miners took a commanding lead before Aztec QB Dan Mougey replaced the injured starter for SDSU to challenge UTEP in a valiant comeback, but the Miners triumphed, 34-27.  Both teams fell way short of seasonal expectations with sub-.500 records.  For us, the real star of the evening was our friend and host Tom Ables, who is San Diego State’s #1 fan who was attending his 645th Aztec game that night.  When last contacted, Tom still hasn’t missed a game!

    As a bonus in California on Saturday, we saw Utah visit UCLA for our third trip to the Rose Bowl.  The Bruins dominated the Utes with QB Ben Olsen at the helm to come up with a 31-10 win for the home team.  Chris, Jill (UCLA alum), Emily, and Nick Koreivo joined us for what was the kids’ first UCLA game.  Both teams went on to post-season play as the Ute’s Safety Eric Weddle posted All America honors. The versatile Weddle played both ways in the Utes’ bowl win over Tulsa, a team we added and saw play twice in 2006 as well.

     With an invitation from Dave Plati, SID at Colorado, my wife, St. Laurie, and I got to enjoy the CU campus at Boulder before we traveled to Invesco Field to see the Buffs battle in-state rival Colorado State.  Before the game we were invited down to the sideline to visit Ralphie the Buffalo and her handlers.  After halftime, CFF was interviewed by Ann Marie of CSTV before the camera to talk a little about the Goal.  We saw a competitive game as the Rams won a close 14-10 game.  New Head Coach Dan Hawkins lost for the second year in a row with CFF attendance since we’d seen his Boise team destroyed by Georgia the year before in Athens. We hope to see the coach build a new offensive scheme at Colorado like the one he left behind at Boise.  The Buffs finished the season at 2-10 while the Rams struggled at 4-8.  We added both to The Goal at #108 and #109.

      We saved the air mileage the following weekend as we drove about 40 miles to see a 1AA game between Penn of the Ivy League and the host Lafayette Leopards of the Patriot League.  The Ivies dominated the Patriots in non-conference games all season as the Quakers did in this one by winning their opener over 2-0 Lafayette, 21-11.  RB Joe Sandberg impressed with 166 rushing yards and 2 TDs at Lafayette’s newly renovated Fisher Field.  Penn finished the season in the middle of the Ivies at 5-5, but the 6-6 record by Lafayette not only earned them the Patriot League title outright, they made it to the 1AA playoffs where they were quickly and not surprisingly ousted by UMass.

     For the second time ever, we did a convenient Navy/Maryland “double-header”.  This time we added two more teams to The Goal!  Before the game, we got to visit all the new monuments at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium since our last visit before the renovations in 2002.  We added Tulsa as our 110^th team toward Our Goal when the Golden Hurricanes tied the score at 17-17 with over 6 minutes to play in regulation. History was made as the score was the same as time expired to put Navy in its first OT game ever.  It was a short-lived one, however, as TU QB Paul completed two consecutive passes finishing with a TD to Donnie Johnson.  Navy QB Brian Hampton made it even quicker with his longest pass of the day for a 25-yard TD to OJ Washington for Navy’s answer.  However, Tulsa DB Nick Graham finished the game for good when he blocked Navy’s PAT for a 24-23 win by the visitors.  We didn’t stick around too long because we had to get over to Maryland’s Byrd Stadium continue our drive to Our Goal! We look forward to visiting Annapolis for a long weekend in the not too distant future.

     The excitement at Navy-Marine Corps was totally contradicted at Byrd as we saw two seemingly disinterested teams play football this evening.  Maryland seemed to be sleepwalking against hapless Florida International, whom we added as our 111^th team.  In this “puntfest”, an 89-yard TD pass to TE Sam Smith and a 52-yard run to set up a FG kept the Panthers in a close game at 14-10.    As bad a game as it was, FIU actually had a chance to win this game on its final drive, but the ineptitude of using the clock by FIU was evident as time expired with the Panthers finishing at the Terp nine with: 01 left.  The shocker of this ineptitude to us was that Head Coach Don Strock, a long-time Miami Dolphin QB, seemed to have no idea how to manage the clock for a final score. Wasn't he paying attention in Miami?  Not only is he a former Miami Dolphin QB, he’s also now a former Head Coach at FIU. They fired him before the end of the season as the Panthers were one of two winless 1A teams, Duke being the other.  His coaching skills and lack of control later evident in the brawl against Miami U were probably good reasons to let him go.  Hopefully, we will see FIU play again when it has a real coach!  Lethargic Maryland would pop up on our slate again as they finished the regular season at 8-4.

     The following weekend, we went to our old haunts in State College to see 79-year old Joe Paterno teach new Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald, 31 years old, a lesson.  Fitzgerald replaced Wildcat mentor Randy Walker after the sudden death of the respected Coach in the spring.  We’d seen Fitzgerald perform against PSU on the field ten years earlier against the Lions when he wrangled individual post season honors as a top-tackling LB for Northwestern.  The Lions posted a 33-7 win over NU, but the offense was exposed as the Lions moved the ball adeptly up the 20-yard line, but would struggle beyond that.  Despite RB Tony Hunt’s 137 yards and 3 TDs, a balanced PSU offense would have scored a lot more.  The stellar defense played as expected.  NU finished the season at 4-8.  GGA Frank Lorito was disappointed not to find premium cigars in the parking lot as he had a few years earlier.

     We dipped down into D-2 the following week for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference game between Bloomsburg and West Chester.  GGA Rich Williams and I anticipated seeing a great performance by Bloomsburg All-America RB Jamar Brittingham who did score his 58^th career TD and ran for a “quiet” 108 yards.  Instead, we came away impressed by two other things we witnessed from our makeshift seats from a converted scorer's table at the baseball field atop the hill adjacent to Redman Stadium.  First was the “spirit” of the Bloomsburg students who packet the 6,000 seat stadium for Homecoming.  Second was the poise of Frosh QB Dan Latorre who threw for 273 yards and 2 TDs in the 30-27 win for Bloomsburg.  Two late WCSU TDs made this game close in the end.  The with the PSAC championship, the BU Huskies would make it all the way to the D2 Semi-finals where they lost to NW Missouri and finished 12-2 on the season.  West Chester would make the playoffs as well and lose in the second round to these same Huskies at the same venue.  The Rams finished at 9-4.  

     The following Friday night, a lot of traffic was fought around the Princeton campus to see the Tigers host defending Ivy co-champ Brown.  On the other hand, veteran, Brown QB Joe DiGiacomo was forced to play in a lot of traffic as the Tiger defensive front dominated the games with sacks and hurries limiting him to 71 passing yards this evening.  DE Tom Methvin was outstanding with six tackles, four for losses, three sacks, and three pass deflections. QB Jeff Terrell threw two TD passes in Q3 broke a 3-3 tie on a night when the temps dipped into the 30s.  PU won, 17-3, to move on to 5-0.  For PU’s sake, GGA Charlie Roberts and I left hoping the rest of the Tiger team and the PU fans would show a little more enthusiasm the following week when 5-0 Harvard would come to visit Princeton Stadium.

     The next day, were primed to see undefeated Michigan walk into the Lions’ den known as Beaver Stadium where we envisioned a repeat of the Lions performance from the year before when Ohio State showed up under the same conditions and left with their first loss.   GGA Alex Koreivo, a potential, future Penn Stater was hoping to see Michigan leave under the same conditions.  As we had seen against Northwestern two weeks earlier, the PSU offense was just not up for the Michigan defensive challenge.  QB Anthony Morrelli was sacked seven times.  Chad Henne fired a TD pass in the first half.  Kevin Kelly could only convert a FG in the waning seconds of Q2 for the Lions.  RB Mike Hart scored in the second half on a one-yard run, and PSU got nothing going offensively until 3^rd string QB Paul Ciancola hit Tony Hunt with a 43-yard TD on a screen.  Michigan won 17-10 in front of the second largest crowd ever at Beaver Stadium to extend its seven-game win streak over PSU.  Unlike Ohio State a year earlier, Michigan left State College in much better shape than when they arrived.  With a loss by Florida and USC’s close win over Arizona State, the Wolverine’s vaulted to #2.  U of M would fall finally in its season finale to Ohio State, but both would fall heavily in their respective bowls to expose the lack of competition in the Big Ten.  PSU would get invited to the Outback Bowl and CFF.com would unexpectedly follow.

     Our original plans to add SMU to our Goal with their game at East Carolina fell through this weekend, but we had no fear as the Mustangs happened to fall into place for us with a game planned later in the season.  Princeton fans were a little more animated when we returned to Princeton Stadium the following Saturday afternoon as both squads entered this Ancient Eight rivalry with 5-0 records for the first time since 1922.  It was a seesaw battle of sorts as Harvard took a 28-24 lead late in the third period.  A diving interception by PU LB Luke Steckel set up Jeff Terrell’s 28-yard TD pass to WR Brendan Circle to retake the lead for Princeton, 31-28, with 4:37 remaining.  The PU lead was preserved with not one but with two INTs by DB Kevin Kelleher, named the game’s MVP.  Princeton’s undefeated record remained intact as they stayed tied for first in the Ivy League with 5-1 Yale who was also 3-0 among the Ivy. Harvard’s RB Clifton Dawson was held to 64 yards (3 TDs) having average 197 yards on the ground in three previous contests against the Tigers.

     Our first “triple-header” weekend ever was on tap the following Saturday and Sunday as we took advantage of two 1AA schools at home in a day/night double-header in the great state of Delaware and the first ever Sunday night game to be played at Rutgers for ESPN prime time.  GGA Steve Ciesla ventured with us to see Delaware host Towson in a display of offensive prowess as the teams combined for over 1,000 yards of offense.  Towson QB Sean Schaefer took advantage of loose UD coverage as he tossed for five TD passes among his 435 yards to lead the Tigers, the final team of 1AA’s Atlantic Ten Conference we had left to see, to a 49-35 triumph.  Blue Hen QB Joe Flacco was 32 of 51 for 341 yards, but unlike Schaefer he threw for a couple of INTs.  After the game, we met up with former Juniata classmate Jeff Hermann whose son Jon was the starting center as a Soph for Delaware. 

    After the game in Newark, we next traveled to Dover, DE for not only our first ever Delaware State game, but also for our first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game as the Hornets hosted the Bulldogs from South Carolina State.  It was the complete opposite of the day’s opener.  On an evening marked by cold, blustery, gusting winds whipping through the stadium, we watched a defensive struggle as LB Russell Reeves came up with some big hits among his 16 tackles for the Hornets.  SC State held a 9-7 lead in the final period before reverses to Shaheer McBride and Emmanuel Marc put the Hornets into Bulldog territory for a 30-yard FG by Josh Brite with 10:59 left.  The Hornet defense stung the Bulldogs two more times thwarting late game drives to hold the Bulldogs as time expired for a 10-9 win.  We were entertained at halftime by DSU’s “Approaching Storm”, and were invited to a tailgate by several DSU fans parked next to us.  The winds were so strong and gusty that Styrofoam plates were cracking in our hands.  The Hornets were upset at the end of the season by Howard to finish at 8-3, one game behind conference champ Hampton who made it to the 1AA playoffs.  SC State, alma mater of Giant LB Harry Carson, finished with a record of 7-4.

     The next evening, we traveled to New Brunswick, NJ, “the birthplace of college football”, to see an unbelievable 8-0 Rutgers host the UConn Huskies in a Sunday night game for ESPN.  Rutgers offense was sharp on its first series of the game when QB Mike Teel completed four passes and Ray Rice took it in for a quick 7-0 RU lead.  But, from then on it was the defense that pulled the Knights through despite UConn RB Donald Brown’s 2 TDs and 199 yards.  DE Jamaal Westerman caused a fumble that was recovered by DB Manny Collins in the end zone, and his blocked punt in Q4 was recovered for another six in the end zone by LB Quintero Frierson for the final score in Rutgers 24-13 win to remain ranked #12 in the nation.  UConn would finish overall at 4-8 and last in the Big East.  For RU, it would be the school’s best season ever.

     The following Friday, we took our only trip to West Point in what we thought would be an interesting game with Army supposedly on the upswing under Bobby Ross and Air Force on the decline in what is the third game in round-robin play for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.  Security is tight at Michie Stadium as it took us twenty minutes to wait to be frisked by military security at the gate.  We didn’t run into this at Annapolis!  Army drove to the one-foot line on its first possession where Frosh QB Carson Williams mishandled the snap.  It was scooped up by USAF LB Adam Zanotti who returned it 99 yards for a TD.  In the second period, Army miscues on kickoffs, including a safety, and turnovers led to Air Force scores.  RB Chad Hall ran 16 times for 93 yards to help Air Force to a 43-0 HALFTIME lead.  GGA John Maartens and I left early in Q4 on a cold night feeling that Army owed us our ticket money back.  Some “rivalry” – 43-7 was the final!

     The next day made up for a little of the previous night's disappointment.  Ivy RIVALS Princeton and Penn played to a 24-24 regulation tie as Penn overcame a 24-10 deficit entering the final period to tie the score with: 37 remaining.  In the first OT, a muffed snap hindered Penn’s scoring threat.  Princeton’s FG attempt on their possession was blocked by Penn.  In the second OT, Penn thought they had RB Rob Teresco stopped a the goal line on fourth down, but on what became ESPN’s #1 Play of the Day, he wheeled and pitched back to QB Jeff Terrell who took the ball and ran it around right end for a TD.  The extra point was good.  On the very next play, Penn QB Rob Irwin fired a 25-yard TD pass to Matt Carre.  The snap on the extra point was mishandled by holder Matt Reinhart once again before he was stopped at the two.  The muffed extra-point was a disappointing ending, yet welcome one as far as CFF.com was concerned.  GGA Eric Koreivo had a Pee Wee football game of his own that evening and we had to leave after that play had the game continued any way.  Princeton had been upset the previous week by Cornell to set their Ivy League mark to 4-1.  5-0 Yale was next, and CFF planned to head to New Haven for the championship of the Ivy League that next Saturday.  However, another conference championship was on the line before we would head up to New England.

     Undefeated #3 Louisville was coming to “the birthplace” on Thursday night to face undefeated #12 Rutgers for first place in the Big East as well as a boost in the national rankings.  Louisville looked in control holding a 25-7 lead with 6:34 left in the second period.  Ray Rice rushed for his second RU TD among his 122 yards.  Mike Teel and some young receivers got the Scarlet into the end zone to close the gap.  Jeremy Ito’s foot tied the score with a straight and true kick from 46 yards away.  RBs Brian Leonard and Ray Rice got RU back into FG position once again on its final possession.  Louisville’s DE jumped offsides on Ito’s first attempt that missed, but from 5 yards closer, Ito’s kick was true once again from 31 to take a 28-25 lead with :13 left.  A sack of LU’s QB Brain Brohm on the final play ignited a Scarlet celebration at Rutgers Stadium as the Scarlet Knights would vault to their highest ranking ever, #6, in 137 years of RU football.  GGA Frank Scarpa was happy that his alma mater had something to be proud of in their long effort to finally reach a high status.  A letdown ten days later was a step back for RU, however, when they fell to Cincinnati to end the undefeated part of the season.  They won against Syracuse before losing in a very close game at West Virginia to lose their legitimate opportunity to get to a BCS Bowl.  They settled for a bid in the new Texas Bowl instead, where RU won its first bowl game ever in a defeat of Kansas State to finish their season ranked #12 with a final record of 11-2.

    Rutgers' counterpart in that first game to start it all was also in a battle for its conference championship two days after RU’s historic triumph over Louisville.  Princeton traveled to the Yale Bowl, and CFF pursued them for our first visit there in 21 years.  We were not disappointed in the action here either as the Tigers storyline followed the Knights’ very closely.  Yale led Princeton 28-14 in the third period before the Tigers’ QB Jeff Terrell threw a 16-yard TD pass to Brendan Circle who had 173 yards receiving that day.  A missed Tiger two-point conversion and a Yale FG put the Bulldogs up, 31-20 with 10:52 left.  But another scoring pass to Circle and Terrell’s fifth of the day on a 57-yard bomb to Brian Brigham put the Tigers in the lead with 7:36 remaining.  With a two-point conversion good this time, the defense held Yale down as it had all during the second half to finalize the score 31-28 in favor of the Tigers.  It truly was a championship game as wins for both teams in their season finales over Dartmouth by Princeton and over Harvard by Yale gave them both a share of the Ivy League.  It’s too bad that the champs can’t have a play-off or possibly participate in the 1AA playoffs.  PU finished the season at 9-1 while Yale was 8-2 overall.  It was fun attending this game with GGA Charlie Roberts who rooted hard for the Elis in their loss.  He reminisced about Yale games he had attended with his grandfather who lived close to the Yale Bowl when he was young.  CFF rooted for Princeton with its Jersey roots.

     We got back on track to pursue The Goal the following weekend as we traveled to Texas for our Texas Two-step where we would see two games to add three new teams toward the Goal!  We partied with a group of young SMU alum on The Boulevard before the game between visiting Tulsa and SMU in Dallas.  The Mustangs became our 112^th team toward our Goal.  Like Princeton and Rutgers before them, the Ponies came back to win in impressive style.   Tulsa, who we added earlier at Navy this season, took a 24-7 lead into halftime.  SMU‘s defense would hold them to only 80 yards the entire second half.  In the meantime, Frosh QB Justin Willis led the Ponies back both rushing and passing for 283 yards.  His six yard run on an option play set up by two previous runs gave SMU its first lead in Q4, and a 19-yard lateral to WR Blake Warren made the final score, 34-24.  The Ponies regretfully lost to Rice the following week in their finale to finish 6-6 to miss a chance for its first bowl bid since 1984 and the “Death Penalty”.  Tulsa, 8-4, would fall to Utah in the Armed Services Bowl in Fort Worth.  We would like to have stayed to party after the game with new friends from the Mustang Club, but CFF.com once again had to be on the move to pursue The Goal.

     We heard the final cheers from the SMU faithful as we approached our rental car to head north of Dallas to Denton to see our two final teams to be added toward The Goal this season.  The two last teams we needed to see from the Sun Belt would be at Fouts Field to play in our nightcap.  North Texas State would play its last of two games under ousted coach Darrel Dickey and the Florida Atlantic Owls would play for venerable Coach Howard Schellenberger.  RB Evan Robertson would run for 203 yards for the Mean Green of NTSU, and opened the scoring with a short run, NTSU’s only TD of the night.  A field goal, an INT returned for a TD, and a TD run right before the end of the first half by Charles Pierre who countered with 116 rushing yards gave FAU all the scoring it needed in the first half.  S Taheem Acevedo came up with 2 INTs, one in the end zone and one on the final North Texas drive of the game held the Mean Green in check as they settled for three Denis Hopovac FGs to finalize the FAU win, 17-16.  The best part of this game by far was watching the North Texas Dance Team.  FAU ended the season at 5-7 and NTSU at 3-9.  We added our total toward the Goal to get to 114, and this was the best way to do it as we had to see neither team play as cannon fodder for better programs.  We saw two lesser teams at least compete on fairly equal terms.  Our Texas Two-step was worth the trip!

     Play-off season got underway while we were in Texas.  On Thanksgiving weekend, we took a two-hour trip with GGA Steve Ciesla and his daughter Alyssa, now a freshman at Wilkes University, to see the 12-0 Colonels host perennial D-3 power Rowan in a second round play-off game.  Alyssa had to work at the stand for the game any way as part of her obligation to raise funds for the softball team there.  The game was hard-fought on a slippery, thawing field as the teams entered the final period tied 7-7.  The home team took a 14-7 lead next on RB Tim Andreopoulos’s second TD of the day.  Rowan QB Mike Orihel snuck it over from the one with three minutes remaining, but the PAT snap was mishandled and Wilkes held a 14-13 lead.  On Wilkes’s very next play from scrimmage, the snap was mishandled and Rowan recovered at the Wilkes 22-yard line.  With 1:03 left, Orihel went in from two and a two point conversion gave the Profs a 21-14 win.  Wilkes was 12-1 and finished D-3 ranked #14.  Rowan got clobbered the next week by St. John Fischer and finished 9-4 ranked #12.  We LOVE college football play-offs!

     As a matter of fact, we love them so much, we decided to kill two birds with one stone two weeks later.  We always wanted to see Mt. Union play and we always wanted to go to the Stagg Bowl to see the NCAA D-3 national championship.  So GGA, Eric Koreivo, finished with his own Pee Wee season, and I ventured to Salem, VA to see 14-0 Mt. Union defend its 2005 NCAA Championship against the same team that challenged them the year before, 14-0 Wisconsin-Whitewater.  On an unseasonably warm December afternoon, we saw the MU Purple Raiders go for their ninth title under HC Larry Kehres.  The Warhawks challenged the defending champs as they trailed only 14-13 when the half ended.  But, led by QB Greg Micheli who came off the bench to throw for three TDs and run for another, and sparked by a blocked punt returned by LB Matt Rees for 42 yards in the third period, the Purple Raiders could not be stopped on their way to a 35-16 victory to finish the season ranked #1 in D-3 with a 15-0 record.  The Warhawks fell in behind at #2 to the dynasty from Alliance, Ohio.  With many key players returning, The Mount is sure to be in the hunt for that ring on their tenth finger next season.  

     “Dad, why don’t we go to a bowl game this year?” Eric asked me during the season.  He didn’t have to ask me twice as we made this a Christmas present, and if I was going to travel any distance to see one, I was going to have to see at least two.  So we flew to Florida on an inexpensive flight and stayed with family living in the area who enjoyed having us.  Our first stop was Orlando and the Champs Sports Bowl.  What a disappointment!  Maryland showed up.  We feared that they would be as lethargic as they were against FIU.  They weren’t, but Purdue was!  How this team won eight games was hard to fathom.  Maybe a trip to Orlando couldn’t compare to their regular season finale in Hawaii where they also lost.  QB Sam Hollenbach’s passing and RB Lance Balls ground game gave the Terps a 21-0 lead in the first half.  Purdue finally scored in the last minute of the first half with five Curtis Painter completions during the drive.  Were the Boilermakers going to show us another great comeback in this game?  No.  UMD came up with a FG in the third period and Purdue didn’t seem to realize that there was a football game going on.  We left early in the final period disappointed that we had seen what was the worst of five bowl games played that particular day.  Maryland finished 9-4, Purdue 8-5.  Gatorland in Orlando was more entertaining the next day than this game was!

     Our Jan. 1 Bowl game made up for the Champs Bowl in excitement.  PSU Blue and White and Tennessee Vol Orange filled Raymond James Stadium in Tampa for the Outback Bowl.  We saw Joe Paterno sitting in the press box across from us coaching from above while recovering from his serious leg injury.  The Lions and Vols played to a 10-10 tie in the first half.  The second half literally started with a bang as PSU S Anthony Scirrotto clobbered WR Jayson Swain to squash a big gain for the Vols.  As it had all season, PSU’s defense played as expected led by Scirrotto who had an INT as well as two big pass break-ups.  But the PSU offense played even unexpectedly better.  Tony Hunt ran for 159 yards, and Anthony Morelli was competent spreading passes among receivers to at least control the clock and keep UT’s offense off the field.  In Q4 with the score still knotted, LB Sean Lee forced a fumble and CB Tony Davis returned it 88 yards for a TD.  Kevin Kelly finished a later offensive drive with a FG in a game stopped my more play reviews than we had ever seen before!  The Lions won 20-10 as both teams finished at 9-4 to be ranked #24 and #25 in the AP poll respectively.

    2006 was another great football season for CFF.com!  We look forward to 2007 to not only get to finally achieve our Goal, but to see the best at all levels for college football excitement!