Filed under: Florida State
Miami policeman John Wyche is committed to keeping residential streets clean of bad guys. Wyche is also committed to keeping residential trash cans and commercial garbage dumpsters clean of hazardous bacteria and fungi.
Both can be dirty jobs but, hey, somebody’s got to do them, right?
Wyche, a former collegiate and professional football player, loves both his jobs.
Filed under: Florida State
Sammie Smith has zero complaints. He’s enjoying each and every day and looking forward to, as he describes his second chance at life, bigger and better things.
Smith, now 43 and 25 years removed from his record-setting rushing performances at Florida State, is remarried with a young son and living in Mount Dora, Fla. His daughter from his first marriage is a registered nurse in Orlando following her studies at Florida A&M.
Smith continues to dabble in real estate, just waiting, like many in that business, for the housing market to rebound.
Filed under: Brewers, Spring Training
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Remember Mike Engelberg from the 1976 movie, “The Bad News Bears”?
Engelberg was the Bears’ portly, unathletic and volatile catcher, the kid who ate candy bars at practice and cussed at his coach. Charlie Greene Jr., the veteran field coordinator and catching instructor for the Milwaukee Brewers, likes to joke about the Engelberg characterization when he works with both amateur and professional players.
“They put Engelberg back there, but to me catching is a very athletic position,” Greene told FanHouse.
“Catching is the most under-taught position in the whole game and you handle the ball the most. I am trying to tell guys in baseball you are spending all this money, millions of dollars on all these pitchers, and you have some kid back there who doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s going to hurt the pitcher’s development.”
Filed under: Recruiting
National Signing Day is one of the most anticipated days on the sports calendar.
The country’s top prep football players enjoyed their day in the spotlight a week ago, many making dramatic announcements on national television or in front of excited family and friends. Programs such as national champion Auburn, Alabama, Florida State and Texas were applauded by analysts for landing some of the nation’s best players.
Scott Anderson, however, realizes there are plenty of skilled players who soar under big schools’ radars and might be a better fit on a smaller stage. And the veteran high school coach is determined to help match those players with schools that are anxious to fill out rosters with talent overlooked from last Wednesday’s National Signing Day.
Filed under: Alabama
Luther Davis doesn’t mind the “early to bed, early to rise” routine. Or the oatmeal for breakfast, five hard boiled eggs for lunch and chicken salad for dinner. Or the grueling six-days-a-week training sessions in the shadow of Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World.
Davis, a four-year performer along the defensive line at the University of Alabama, treats each day as an opportunity, not a hurdle, as he works to improve his NFL Draft stock.
“It’s all good positive energy,” Davis told FanHouse.
Filed under: Florida, Prospects
Mike Pouncey figures he talks by telephone to identical twin brother Maurkice four to five times a day. That hasn’t changed this week, even if Mike has been in Orlando training in preparation for the NFL Combine later this month, while Maurkice has been a big story at the Super Bowl in Texas.
The good news is the Pounceys will update each other in person Friday.
That’s when Mike is scheduled to arrive in Dallas. And, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and their anxious fans, Mike should learn if Maurkice has any chance to play for the Steelers in Sunday’s showdown against the Green Bay Packers.
Maurkice suffered a high left ankle sprain two weeks ago in the Steelers’ AFC Championship Game victory and has been sidelined. Pouncey, who earned a Pro Bowl selection at center in his rookie season, has said he won’t play in the game if he can’t practice by Friday.
“He’s feeling good, but it’s been up and down and I know he’s trying to get back healthy,” Mike told FanHouse.
“I am hopeful he can play. It’s going to be great to see him.”
The Pounceys were inseparable since birth before they made separate –and very different — decisions last season. Maurkice, who won the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center as a junior, announced he was leaving the University of Florida early for the NFL. Mike, however, announced he planned to remain UF for his senior season.
Filed under: Florida State, ACC, Recruiting, Prospects
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State might have beaten state rivals Florida and Miami on both the field and recruiting trail, but Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher isn’t one to gloat — at least publicly. In fact, it’s not even certain if Fisher, who can spin yarns at a mile-a-minute pace, exhaled during Wednesday’s National Signing Day.
The ink was barely dry on Fisher’s nationally acclaimed class and it appeared his focus had already shifted.
“I hope that we evaluated well,” Fisher said Wednesday afternoon, explaining his three-tier approach to success.
“It’s recruiting, player development and coaching. We got the ones we wanted. Now, we have to develop players, and then we have to get them on the field and put them in position to make plays and coach them so they can perform between those white lines and in that stadium. These are the guys we wanted, and we feel very good. Now we go into player development. Then we will go into coaching when they get here.”
Fisher proved in his first season that his formula works. The Seminoles won 10 games for the first time since 2003, clinched the ACC Atlantic Division title and put a bow on the package with a Chick-fil-A Bowl win over South Carolina.
Filed under: Wake Forest, ACC, Florida State
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Wake Forest quietly filed into its locker room Tuesday night. The door that shut behind the Demon Deacons didn’t open for nearly 25 minutes. While an occasional raised voice was heard, the conversation between coach Jeff Bzdelik and his team was a mixture of constructive criticism and honesty.
Wake Forest certainly has its challenges this season, but it doesn’t change the obvious: the Atlantic Coast Conference is a big boys’ league.
“He let us know our mistakes out there,” Wake Forest guard C.J. Harris said. “He told us if we would have cut out those (mistakes), we would have had a great chance to win this game.”
Instead, the Deacons were far from perfect in their 85-61 defeat to Florida State before a home crowd of 9,729 here at the Tucker Center. Wake Forest’s maturation process continued and, unfortunately for the Demon Deacons, it also meant another somber dose of reality.
Wake Forest (8-14 overall, 1-6 ACC) started off well but eventually succumbed to familiar miscues. The Deacons, looking to build on Saturday’s victory at Virginia that provided needed positive reinforcement for a young team, instead tumbled into the Atlantic Coast Conference basement with Miami.
“Absolutely, we felt like we took a couple steps back from our last game (against Virginia),” Harris explained in even tones. “It’s definitely frustrating anytime you lose, but we felt like we beat ourselves out there because of a lot of careless mistakes on our part.”
Filed under: Bowl Games, Division II
Saturday’s Under Armour Senior Bowl will feature many of the nation’s top senior college football players in a North-against-South format.
Fans will certainly recognize established talents and their schools, such as quarterbacks Jake Locker of Washington and Greg McElroy of Alabama; offensive lineman Gabe Carimi of Wisconsin and defensive end Ryan Kerrigan of Purdue.
Quick, have you ever heard of Brandon Fusco? Or Slippery Rock University?
“I never really pictured myself being here, but I worked hard through my senior season to be here, so I am very excited about the opportunity and very blessed by the opportunity,” Fusco told the media earlier this week.
Fusco was one of three small-school players from Division II teams invited to play in the 62nd annual Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
The other two players are Southern Arkansas defensive lineman Cedric Thornton and receiver Edmund Gates from Abilene Christian. Gates was injured in practice and won’t play.
Filed under: General CFB Insanity
Mike Flynt smiled when he heard Herschel Walker wants back into the National Football League. Walker, now 48 years old, says he’s 100 percent certain he can help a team. As in right now. Preferably for his home state Atlanta Falcons.
Sure, this might be as different as apples and oranges, night and day, white and gray brain matter. Yet, Flynt, of course, knows about comebacks and physical fitness.
Flynt returned for his senior football season at Division III Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, in 2007 — at the age of 59.
Flynt, an accomplished college strength and conditioning coach, stepped back in time to become the oldest player in college football history. Flynt played in five games and proved that age is only a number. He’s in great health and spirits at age 63 in his hometown of Franklin, Tenn. He’s been married for 38 years to Eileen with three children and three grandchildren.
Flynt’s a big fan of Walker, too.
“Like everything else Herschel has accomplished athletically and taken on throughout his life, he has pretty much excelled at it,” Flynt told FanHouse Tuesday.
