"Steveo's Salvos" - February 12, 2007 Edition

"Salvos" is presented as the editorial content of CollegeFootballFan.com focusing on current issues surrounding college football and news about some of the teams on the CFF schedule this year.  Originally from a newsletter, this web site, CollegeFootballFan.com, has evolved. 

2007 Unfolding  - We're weighing our options to see our final five 1A teams play in 2007 to make our Goal, and it may not be easy.  First, we await the announcement of the WAC schedule which is supposed to be announced during the second week of this month (is the week of the 12th considered the 2nd or the 3rd?).  Once we know when Idaho plays at Nevada-Reno, we can start stirring the pot.  Surprisingly, Bob Prince at Kansas State is not following in his predecessor Bill Snyder's shoes.  He's not scheduling non-conference pushovers.  His Wildcats open at Auburn this year.   Ironically, we thought we would open the season with KSU at Fresno to see our pal Frankie out there, but we saw that game get moved to Sept. 22.  Surprise, surprise!  We may go see our friends the Murrens at Auburn instead.  However, the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State ticket may be hard to come by.  We're told to wait and see.  We may have to option and work on the KSU at OK State game instead which wouldn't be a bad match-up.  If we go that route, that'll leave us with only OU remaining.  We have a couple of ideas, but we won't start planning until we know when to head to Reno.

The Unbeatens -  We didn't see the one remaining undefeated 1A team standing at the end of 2007.   As a matter of fact, we saw Boise one year too early when they got drubbed by Georgia in the 2005 opener, 47-14.  However, we got to see the winningest, undefeated team in the country when we saw Mt. Union win their ninth D-3 National Championship over Wisconsin-Whitewater in the Stagg Bowl.  The Purple Raiders finished their season 15-0!  Not only do they have a good shot for their tenth ring in 2007 as many key starters return from this year's championship squad, but by the looks of the team picture in the D-3 Championship program, Head Coach Larry Kehres looks like he has about 200 players at the school ready to compete to start for next year's edition.  That's quite a harvest for a D-3 school. We also had the opportunity to see one of only two winless 1A schools play as well when we saw Florida International lose to Maryland, 14-10, on their way to an 0-12 season.

Head to head competition - We were wrong in the one bowl game played between two teams we saw play in 2006.  Utah defeated Tulsa in the Fort Worth Armed Services Bowl, 25-13.  More amazingly, the offensive star of the game was All-American free safety Eric Weddle, who stepped in at QB late in the game to move the offense and preserve the victory.  We can't wait to see where he ends up in the pros and what position he will play.

Coaching carousel - We saw Darrel Dickey as a lame duck coach when we saw North Texas lose to FAU, 17-16 last season.  His replacement is Todd Dodge, former Texas QB and well respected Texas HS football coach who amassed a 96-11 record at Carroll HS in Southlake, TX.  Florida International rightfully canned Don Strock after a pathetic 0-12 season and replaced him with Mario Cristobal, former offensive line coach of Miami, the same team FIU battled with in that infamous bench-clearing brawl last season.  We saw Bobby Petrino lose his only game of 2006 in that historic 28-25 loss to Rutgers before he departed to the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL.  A lot of people wish him luck with Michael Vick.  Petrino is replaced by Steve Kragthorpe of Tulsa who we saw play twice last season at Navy and at SMU.  Kragthorpe was replaced by Todd Graham, his former defensive coordinator at Tulsa, who took a one-year hiatus to Rice where he coached the Owls to a 7-6 record and their first bowl game in 45 years!  We saw Air Force waste Army this year 43-7, and both head coaches are now gone.  Fisher DeBerry was replaced by Troy Calhoun after 23 years in Colorado Springs.  Calhoun, a USAFA grad, comes from the Houston Texans with plenty of NFL experience. Bobby Ross, who coached the San Diego Chargers to a Super Bowl, stepped down after three years at Army, handing the reigns to his offensive line coach Stan Brock who within a week fired the offensive coordinator, Bobby's son Kevin!  So much for coaches we saw on the sidelines last year.  Rob Akey, former defensive coordinator at Washington State, crossed the eastern border of that state to become head coach of Idaho, who we plan to see at Nevada-Reno this season.  Akey replaces Dennis Erickson who left his alma mater after one year to set up shop at Arizona State.   Stay tuned for "As the Coaches Turn!"

Bowl Winners and Losers - After seeing 24 games in 2007, among the 23 1-A teams we saw play, eleven went to bowl games and overall went 5-6 with Utah beating Tulsa, two bowl teams we saw go head to head in a bowl game.  Rutgers, Penn State, Louisville, and Maryland came up winners with Utah.  UCLA, Navy, Purdue, Tennessee, and Michigan all fell.  The Big East went 5-0.  Look for them to pick up a couple more formidable bowl agreements in the next few years.  We don't think West Virginia, Louisville, and Rutgers are going away any time soon.  Watch out for South Florida and a resurgent Pitt as well.

Get in line -  We put our dibbs in early and now we wait for our Rutgers 2007 season tickets.  RU is waiting for its season ticket holders to claim any additional tickets before they issue new ones.  We hope to be on the list since we've purchased Scarlet Knight tickets for single games in the past.  We're not exactly jumping on the bandwagon, but RU is competitive and six of their eight home games should be pretty good - Navy, Maryland, Cincinnati (revenge match), South Florida, West Virginia, and Pitt.  All but Pitt went to a bowl game last year.  We're splitting up four tickets among four of us so we can exchange seats for games we can't make.  We have one seat left if anyone is interested.  Buffalo, Navy, and USF are all weekday night games.  Why RU thinks Norfolk State is a good game to play makes no sense.  That's one we might throw away.  They'd be better off playing Temple!  RU also plays Army at West Point on a Friday night.  To the victors go the spoils though. The 11-2 Knights play their first five games at home.

Army Slate - The Black Knight home schedule isn't too exciting this year - Rhode Island, Temple, Tulane, Rutgers and Tulsa.  After last year's embarrassment against "rival" Air Force, we still think Army owes everyone there a ticket! The Irish come east for a home game in 2009, the same year the Cadets play at Ohio State in a home and home series.  We heard that that was something Woody Hayes refused to do - schedule an academy team.

Three-peat - Did anyone note that the three national champions of 2006 in 1AA, Division II, and Division III all repeated after 2005?  Appalachian State, Grand Valley State, and Mt. Union come around again for their own individual versions of three-peat in 2007.  If they do, do we call in a nine-peat?

Dog-gone! -  In our first MEAC game last year, we saw South Carolina State's Bulldogs fall in a close one to Delaware State, 10-9.  We hope the Dogs aren't biting off more than they can chew in 2007 as they show up on not one but two 1-A schedules.  SC State will visit Air Force and Steve Spurrier's South Carolina Game Cocks.  

Princeton Honors - The Tigers captured several honors as we got to see them win four games on their way to the Ivy League co-championship including the win over co-titlist Yale, 34-31.  QB Jeff Terrell captured the Asa Bushnell Award as the Ivy League Player of the Year.  The senior threw for 2,445 yards and 17 TDs for his team which never led by more than 14 points on their way to a 9-1 season.  Terrell also ran for four TDs including the memorable one we saw in the OT win over Penn which became the ESPN Play of the Day!  WR Brendan Circle, one of his favorite targets averaged 83.5 yards per game.  We saw him shine with his two TDs versus Penn, the winning TD catch against Harvard, and 178 yards, 2 TDs, and a two-point conversion against Yale.  We saw JJ Artis, CB, a make a diving INT against Brown for one of three on the year.  He was a unanimous choice among coaches who would not throw his way.  S Tim Strickland led the nation with 17 pass defenses. Despite key losses on offense, we think PU's defensive front and some players ready to step up on offense, particularly all-purpose man Bill Foran, will make the Tigers formidable once again in 2007.

Lehigh Valley Lighting - With new lights in place at Fisher Field, Lafayette College announces three night games for its home schedule next season which offers us future double header opportunities with Lehigh only several miles away.  One interesting opportunity next year is on September 22 when the Mountain Hawks host VMI in the afternoon, and their rival Leopards host Princeton in the evening.  We'll find a good bar some place in between!