College News & Notes by BookMaker

News & Notes



Listen. Can you hear it? The barking of signals, the shrill bleat of whistles, the cracking of pads.

It’s college football season. Campuses are energized again with the contained nuclear meltdown that is fall training camp and it won’t be long before our Saturdays will be blessed with the bounty of a new season.

It’s been a long summer of speculation and roster rumination, but finally, you can start to see what the teams might look like when they take the field in Week 1.

Earlier in the summer, you could ignore the so-called news on college football wires because the season was still months away. But this time of year, the news really starts to matter. So here’s your preseason installment of College Cram Session, where we’ll look at the news surrounding various teams and what it will mean when the season kicks off in two weeks time.

Panthers in the pits

If you’re the kind of person that likes to chant, “Penn State sucks” at football games, regardless of who’s playing, then you’re probably just about ready to stick your head in a blast furnace. Things aren’t going so well in Steeltown and the news just keeps getting worse.

Not only did the NFL snatch up the Pittsburgh Panthers’ three best players from last year’s team (quarterback Tyler Palko, linebacker H.B. Blades and cornerback Darrelle Revis), but the team that finished 2-5 in Big East play will have a hard time improving on that mark if their luck doesn’t take a turn for the better.

The brightest light coming out of Pittsburgh this season was big-time freshman quarterback Pat Bostick, but a shadow was cast over campus when the high school phenomenon left Panthers camp for “personal reasons.” Bostick has since returned, but missing the first nine practices won’t help the youngster’s chances of making an immediate impact. And whoever ends up starting at quarterback will have to make do without the guy who was expected to be the prime target. Star wide receiver Derek Kinder blew out his knee in practice and will be out for the entire season.

And wait, that’s not all the bad news. Apparently coach Dave Wannstedt was enraged with the play of his special teams this week after numerous snaps were fumbled, field goals were blocked and punts were shanked. "I was very disappointed with our special teams. What happened today is inexcusable," the coach said.

Maybe later for Sooners

It could be another slow start for the Oklahoma Sooners this year if they don’t find their offensive triggerman soon. Word out of Norman is that the coaching staff is no closer to choosing a starting quarterback than they were at the end of last season.

Three candidates are currently vying for the job: junior Joey Halzle, redshirt freshman Sam Bradford and true freshman Keith Nichol. It could take a number of regular season games before the final decision is made, so expect to see coach Bob Stoops shuffling his QBs in the opening games against North Texas and then Miami.

However, none of these guys have any real experience and even though the Sooners were faced with a quarterback emergency last year when Rhett Bomar was booted from the team, at least they had a capable replacement in Paul Thomson. This year, it could be even uglier in the early going. The defense is good and the running game should survive without Adrian Peterson, but bettors might want to look to the under without a capable signal caller under center.

Thunder and Lightning

In 2005, the USC Trojans piled up rushing yards with the “thunder and lightning” tailback combination of Reggie Bush and LenDale White. It might sound like a stretch, but the Texas A&M Aggies coaching staff have been watching film of the ’05 Trojans and are planning on recreating that kind of backfield magic with their own tag-team tailbacks, Jorvorskie Lane and Mike Goodson.

"Nobody in the country can stop us," Lane was quoted as saying in the Dallas Morning News. "That's how I feel about our offense."

The big guy might have a point there. There are other teams in the country that have good one-two punches, but none have a true up-the-gut steamroller like Lane combined with a legitimate open-field burner like Goodson. Last year the two combined to give the Aggies the eighth best rushing attack in the country (206.8 yards per game) and if they can bring a little bit of the Hollywood magic to the Big 12 South, they could tear up the conference this year – especially with some suspect defenses in that neck of the woods.

O-line issues on Georgia's mind

The Georgia Bulldogs offense could get out of the gates in low gear this season. There are many problems with the offensive line, mainly due to a lack of experienced players.

Mentally, O-line is one of the most demanding positions on the field and with four true or redshirt freshmen playing on the first unit, it’s no wonder that the offense was incapable of going anywhere in the first scrimmage of camp last week.

"We had a big discussion as a team about having a lot of missed assignments," offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said. "Not knowing what to do is hindering our effort. We are not playing hard. A lot of it has to do with the youth. There are freshmen everywhere. [But] you can't make excuses. They are going to play."

The situation will improve somewhat when senior Chester Adams returns from a minor ankle injury, but the Bulldogs still have only eight scholarship offensive linemen to work with. This could be an issue that may frustrate Georgia backers throughout the season.

Golden boy in Bears camp

The California Golden Bears already have one superstar wide receiver in DeSean Jackson, the No. 1 rated receiver in the nation who used his incredible jets to rack up more than 1,000 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns last year. But judging by the whispers out of training camp, there could be another deep threat in the Cal offensive arsenal this season.

Freshman receiver Michael Calvin made some spectacular catches against first-string defenders that got the attention of the veterans and coaches. He made back-to-back highlight reel catches at one point and followed it up with a diving catch on the sideline that inspired Jackson to sprint down the field to congratulate him. Coach Jeff Tedford praised the 6-foot-3, 193-pound true freshman after the practice, which indicates he could become a significant part of the Bears offense this year.

That’s pretty scary for the rest of the Pac-10 considering Cal put up 252 yards per game through the air last year and they’re already stacked at almost every offensive position.