"Steveo's Salvos" - July, 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. 

Is he kidding?- We're supposed to hear about our Rutgers season ticket application by the end of this month as we hope to see 5 of the 8 home games. Two signs indicate we're in good shape.  RU is still advertising season tickets in the local media which tells us tickets aren't near sold out (PSU sold 93,000 season tickets this year).  Also when inquiring about a group package for a game at Army, we inquired about availability of tickets for the Friday night, Nov. 9, game at home versus Rutgers which is only a 30 minute drive from the Garden State border, or 1-1/2 hour drive from New Brunswick  The guy on the other end laughed, "Sure, we have plenty of those. Why wouldn't we? "  Either this guy hid under a rock after last football season or RU is just hyping the demand.  The biggest ticket issue seems to be that they're moving loyal fans who had good seats for many years out of them for fans who are now willing to pay more for those prime seats!

Hard to believe this - Rumor has it that since the Fighting Irish are having problems scheduling enough games because so many schools now have conference scheduling conflicts, they are discussing a game with nine-time D-3 National Champ, Mt. Union!  Can't imagine that.  ND takes enough heat for playing the three service academies which we think is bull!  How about SEC schools who play nothing but 1AA teams and a few lowly Sun Belts.  High-ranked Arkansas plays Troy, North Texas, Chattanooga, and Florida International.  How come they're not playing Southern Cal for the third year in a row?  ND plays 9 BCS schools.  Another, Navy, will probably go to a bowl.  Among 12 SEC schools combined, they have games against 14 BCS schools outside the conference.

Pro Football Hall of Fame - Took the kids out to Canton, Ohio to visit the Pro HOF after spending a day on the rides at Hershey Park.  It's too far to travel to South Bend for the College HOF, but we'll get there eventually.  With the induction of former USC lineman Bruce Matthews into the Hall this year, USC now leads colleges with the most pro inductees with 11, one ahead of Notre Dame now.  Michigan is third with seven members.  Only eight Heisman Trophy winners have made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Last was Barry Sanders.  We saw one play college ball, Tony Dorsett.  We met another at an autograph session, the late Doak Walker.   More interesting, nine high schools in the country have produced two HOFers each.  One produced three!  Central HS in Superior, WI boasts of Bud Grant, Tuffy Leemans, and Ernie Nevers.  Bronko Nagurski's Hall of Fame Ring could fit three fingers from one hand of most people.  The old uniforms, the hall with all the busts, computerized videos of each members history, and the movie following the Steelers from training camp to Super Bowl two years ago were great to see.  Steeler fans will love the 75th Anniversary of the Steelers exhibit.  We stayed in Alliance, Ohio and checked out D-3 Champ Mt. Union's campus there.  Beautiful!  Stadium has a roof over all the seats.  Bookstore was open, and we bought Purple Raiders shirts.

Tom's still on a roll -  Our friend Tom Ables who is 81 now will follow his Aztecs to Seattle for their opener against Washington State and plans to be on the sideline.  He won't miss any games this year.  The publications aren't too optimistic about his team, but we hope SDSU will get Tom a chance to see a bowl game.  Hey, if Joe Paterno can do it, so can Tom!  Just don't hang as close to the sideline as Joe does, buddy!  In 2008, his Aztecs open in South Bend.

New venues - This year's schedule brings us to several new stadiums as usual.  We will definitely be at Skelly Stadium of Tulsa, T. Boone Pickens of Oklahoma State and Mackay Stadium in Reno.  The new Bright House Networks Stadium at Central Florida looks like a strong possibility as well.  After our Goal is complete, some "want to sees" are at West Virginia, Ohio State, LSU and the LA Coliseum among others.

IF -  If our Goal was completed by now, we'd definitely consider season tickets at 1AA Lehigh.  They always have a solid program, they have a nice stadium, and it's about an hour drive for us.  This year, they have and interesting home schedule, too. It's a relatively inexpensive season ticket too for some good entertainment. They host Colonial Conference opponent Villanova in their opener.  VMI who we've never seen comes in next follow by Harvard.  We saw these two programs in a great struggle a few years ago.  Improve Holy Cross comes calling followed by doormat Georgetown ( no interest to see them).  The hos Lafayette in their 147th meeting, most played rivalry ever, probably for a Patriot League bid for the NCAA tournament.  Following the Mountain Hawks would be fun this year.  We do plan to see them play at Princeton which will be a very good game.

Boring! - We picked up four pre-season publications - Lindy's, Street and Smith's, The Sporting News, and Athlon's.  Well let's just call off the season and proclaim the USC Trojans as No. 1!  LSU, Texas, West Virginia, Michigan, and Wisconsin are listed among the four pubs as top challengers.  We haven't decided who our number one will be yet, but we smell an upset that's going to unravel everything, especially for the Trojans!  Look for our Turkey Special on Thanksgiving Day when sandwiched between games at Cal and the rivalry with UCLA, the Arizona State Sun Devils will pull off the upset of the season in Tempe under wily, old coach Dennis Erickson who takes over there this year.  ASU will not be nice to the Trojans, and will pull off the shocker Oregon State surprised us with last year.  You heard it hear first!

Out with the old - in with the new  - As reported in our May edition of "Salvos" (sorry about skipping June) , everything looks intact to see our five remaining teams in 2007 - Kansas State* at Auburn, Oklahoma* at Tulsa, Texas Tech at Oklahoma State*, and Idaho* at Nevada*.  We made a couple of changes elsewhere though.  We figure that we have to see at least one of the big Rutgers games though some of the biggest games conflict with "must-see" game dates, so we set aside our plan to see Tulsa visit Army as our Big Tailgate to see revamped Pitt visit the Scarlet Knights.  We're supposed to get confirmation of our season ticket acceptance this month (anyone interested in 4 tix versus Norfolk State?).  Our hope is that our friends involved with Pee-wee football will play more Friday nights and that that will open up Saturday November 10 for what we think will be for the Ivy League championship once again - Yale at Princeton!

Big Tailgate Party -  Yale will be at Princeton on Nov. 10 for the supposed Ivy League Championship!  Last year's 34-31 come from behind win for the Tigers' eventual title was a gem!  Yale returns QB Matt Polhemus and the best returning RB in the Ivies, Mike McLeod.  McLeod rushed for 1,364 yards and 19 TDs in the Bulldogs' ten games last year.  Their defense returns 9 of 11 starters.  Princeton's big gap to fill will be at QB which Jeff Terrell played last year as the Ivies' Player of the Year.  We think his replacement will be Bill Foran whom we saw guide PU on a long TD drive last year against Harvard when Terrell was forced to sit out.  Foran seems like a crazy Texan who played hard and well last year no matter where Head Coach Roger Hughes put him.  Leading receiver and co-captain Brendan Circle returns with his 56 catches for 835 yards and 7 TDs.  We think the Princeton offense will be fun to watch once again.  We also look forward to seeing Frosh Michael Crowder of Blountville, TN play for the Tigers on the O-line this year or in the future.  We met Mike and his parents last year at Princeton Stadium when we saw the Tigers beat Penn in 2 OTs, 31-30.  This year's match-up with Yale should be a great backdrop to this year's Big Tailgate Party!

Hmmm? -  We were hoping to pull off a doubleheader on Saturday  Oct. 6 with the Hampton Pirates visiting Princeton for the first time, and working it in with Rutgers' home game against Cincinnati.  We figured one would be early and one would be at night, but Princeton announced an unusual 3:30 home start for this game.  PU rarely steps out of the Patriot League for non-conference competition any more, so we thought this would be a fun game to attend.  They will also host The Citadel in the near future. Whether RU plays the Bearcats at noon or in the evening, the 3:30 Tiger start will make this nearly impossible to see both.  Between the two choices, the RU-UC game would have to take precedence.  The Bearcats upset the Knights last year after the big RU win over Louisville to end the Knights quest for an undefeated season, Big East Championship, and BCS bid.  The Knights should be pumped up for this one, but more interesting to us is the Bearcats' new Coach Brian Kelly and what he will do with the Bearcat program.  He turned Central Michigan into the MAC champ and a bowl team after only three seasons at 19-16 overall, but more than that, he brings along credentials of coaching teams to national championships.  In 2002 and 2003, he started the Division II dynasty at Grand Valley State when he coached them to their first two!  Kelly left, but the Lakers went on to win it all again in 2005 and 2006. Cincinnati built some momentum of their own last year when Mark Dantonio coached them to a 7-5 record before leaving the Bearcats for Michigan State.  Kelly was hired right away to coach them in their bowl win over Western Michigan at the inaugural International Bowl.  There's great optimism for a rising program in Cincinnati.

Mt. Union Bowl - Officially known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, we have to think about heading down to Salem, VA once again next season to see the Purple Raiders win one for their second thumb!  In other words, their tenth D-3 national championship since 1993!  HC Larry Kehres has the returning horses to do it from his 15-0 team that defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater when we went down last year.  The question is who will be their opponent?

Eyes on Texas - Last year, we attended two bowls, Champs and Outback, in Florida.  Our eyes turn to Texas this bowl season to see if we can pull off a tri-fecta among the Alamo, Bell Helicopter Armed Services, and Cotton Bowls.  We'll have seen every team by then and five conferences will be represented.  It will also give us an educational experience as well to see the Alamo.  Last year, we were educated at Gatorland.  We'll look closer as the season unfolds.