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Five-Step Drop: FSU Signs Jimbo Fisher to Lucrative Extension

February 17, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. It didn’t take Jimbo Fisher very long to prove his worth to the Florida State administration. Fisher, who went 10-4 in his first season, signed a five-year, $13.75 million contract which raises his total pay package by just under $1 million per season. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Noles increased Fisher’s buyout from a variable figure of $500,000 to $725,000 to a flat $2 million. Sounds like both parties are in it for the long haul.

2. Apparently you can forget those “Randy Shannon will be Randy Edsall’s defensive coordinator at Maryland” rumors. The Terps have promoted linebackers coach Todd Bradford to the coordinator job, according to ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich. She notes that a report circulating on Wednesday had Shannon, whose Miami contract was bought out after the season, losing at least $1.5 million in buyout money if he took the Maryland job. There are no reports on how much Shannon would have made at Maryland, but you have to figure it was a lot less than $1.5 million. You can’t fault Shannon for making the smart economic decision, particularly since he won’t have trouble finding another job once the buyout is safely in his bank account.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Schlichter Charged

February 15, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. There’s a sad update in the Art Schlichter story we told you about last week. The former Ohio State quarterback was charged Monday with stealing more than $1 million from a Columbus-area woman. Schlichter’s attorney expects federal charges are also forthcoming. The charges relate to Schlichter’s alleged involvement in a ticket-brokering scheme. The Columbus Dispatch has a closer look at the scheme and Schlichter’s role in it. The woman he is accused of stealing from is the widow of an executive for the Wendy’s hamburger chain. She says her decision to help Schlichter “has cost me nearly everything.”

2. As the Horns Turn: Jerry Gray returned to his alma mater, Texas, about a month ago to become Mack Brown’s defensive backs coach. That position came open when longtime Horns assistant Duane Akina left to become Mike Stoops’ defensive coordinator at Arizona. Gray has now left Texas, without even coaching spring practice, to become Mike Munchak’s defensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans. The Horns have already replaced Gray … with Duane Akina. Never has the phrase “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” been more appropriate.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Change of Heart

February 01, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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1. Rutgers has had a change of heart and will allow quarterback Tom Savage to explore a possible transfer to Florida or Miami. Coach Greg Schiano initially refused to allow the sophomore to talk to either school, citing “competitive reasons.” Savage was able to talk the coach into it, however. According to NJ.com, Savage has grandparents in South Florida. That, along with what Schiano called “my relationship with Tom and everything he has meant to the program,” changed the coach’s mind. Savage was a freshman All-American in 2009 but was replaced by Chas Dodd during this past season.

2. The 13 Iowa football players hospitalized for rhabdomyolysis have all been released from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. However, the players will not be able to resume workouts until blood tests establish that their kidneys are functioning at normal levels. Seth Roberts, writing in Iowa’s student newspaper The Daily Iowan, suggests that the image of an out-of-control football program in Iowa City is unfair and inaccurate. “For all we know, this was an unfortunate accident – like when USC tailback Stafon Johnson dropped a weight bar on his neck in 2009,” he writes.

HawkCentral.com has an even-handed look at 13 questions about the rhabdomyolysis incident.

3. Here’s a feel-good story for you, and for once I’m not being sarcastic. Nike has donated $400,000 to Penn State’s library in honor of Joe Paterno’s 400th career win. Paterno and his wife Sue have been long-time supporters of the PSU libraries, to the extent that a section of one of the university’s libraries is named after them. It was a classy move by Nike to give so generously to a cause so obviously important to the Paternos.

4. Former Florida defensive coordinator Chuck Heater has joined Steve Addazio’s Temple staff, where he will serve in the same capacity. Addazio, the former Florida offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer, has recruited a number of former Gator assistants to join him in Philadelphia. That list includes former Florida graduate assistant Justin Frye, who will coach the offensive line, as well as strength coach Frank Piraino, who spent last season at Marshall after coaching the previous five years at Florida.

5. Your quick and certainly incomplete police blotter update: Arkansas wide receiver Lance Ray was arrested Saturday for possession of marijuana and alcohol after somebody smelled marijuana coming from his dorm room. The charges are misdemeanors. No official statements have been made about Ray’s status with the Razorbacks. Iowa State linebacker Matt Tau’fo’ou was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving Saturday morning in Ames. Tau’fo’ou has been in trouble before and has been suspended from the team.

 

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Five-Step Drop: JoePa Traps Bolden

January 07, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Rob Bolden wants to leave Penn State to look for another program in need of a quarterback. He can’t go unless Penn State agrees to release him from his national letter of intent, and Joe Paterno is refusing to do so. CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel says the current scholarship system is unfair and the purgatory Bolden is trapped in points out just how unfair it really is. Penn State apparently isn’t going to use Bolden, so why insist he can’t leave? Football is like love; there’s no use pining over somebody who just doesn’t want to be with you.

2. Thursday, Wisconsin defensive lineman J.J. Watt announced he was going pro. A first-team All-Big Ten selection, Watt made 21 tackles for loss this season, good enough for third in the nation. Watt has a tremendous motor and will probably be haunting Pat Fitzgerald’s dreams for years to come. He started out as a tight end at Central Michigan, but that’s just one of many amazing things in Watt’s backstory. I had no idea he’d been on a reality show. I promise not to hold that against him.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Martinez to Return

January 06, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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Taylor MartinezFanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez will return to the Huskers next season. That may seem surprising given that the freshman seemed to spend a lot of time in Bo Pelini’s doghouse this season and was famously dressed down by him in public during Nebraska’s loss to Texas A&M. It appears Pelini and Martinez have worked out their issues and Martinez now wants to “become a better all-around person, football player and leader.”

2. Pelini, meanwhile, has some explaining to do, according to Lisa Horne of FOXSports.com. Horne reports that, during an on-ship event prior to the Holiday Bowl, the Huskers coach named naval officer Morgan Ryan an honorary captain, gave him a field pass and a jersey, and promised he’d let the Nebraska native call one play during the game. However, according to Horne, Pelini didn’t actually let Ryan call a play. In his postgame press conference, Pelini told Horne, “It was a joke, ma’am,” when asked about the promise. Horne says that Ryan didn’t interpret it as a joke. Nebraska maintains that it was clear Pelini’s offer was “lighthearted.” Horne posted a video, so you can make up your own mind about Pelini’s intent. I’m not sure if he was clearly joking or not.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Rich Rod Still Employed, but for How Long?

January 05, 2011   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Rich Rodriguez was not fired by Michigan. Normally somebody not getting fired wouldn’t be news, but reports during the afternoon from Michigan-based media said that Michigan had let him go. That turned out not to be the case. Other reports said that Jim Harbaugh, widely assumed to be at the top of Michigan’s wish list, wasn’t interested in going to Michigan and was going to stay at Stanford unless he went to the NFL. Harbaugh has been linked to NFL openings in San Francisco, Denver, and Miami, though technically the Dolphins had not fired Tony Sparano as of Tuesday night. San Francisco looks to be a long shot, because it reportedly hired Trent Baalke to be its GM, and Harbaugh is believed not to want to work with Baalke. Or maybe he would work with him. I haven’t been this confused since the middle school cafeteria. Here’s what I’m confident of: Rich Rodriguez either will or will not be the coach of Michigan next season.

2. Les Miles also may or may not be the coach of Michigan next season, but LSU athletic director Joe Alleva says nobody from Michigan has contacted him about interviewing Miles, probably because Rodriguez hasn’t been fired yet. “I don’t know what’s inside the head of the Michigan AD,” Alleva said. “I don’t know what he has in mind. I’m sure he’s got a plan, but I don’t know if that includes Les Miles or not.” As 14,376 people pointed out on Twitter Tuesday, Miles would be a long shot since Michigan Stadium has field turf.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Joe Paterno Is Healthy, Just Ask His Wife

December 28, 2010   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Sue Paterno would like you to know there’s nothing wrong with her husband Joe’s health. In an interview posted on Fight On State, Penn State’s Rivals.com site, Sue Paterno says the rumors about JoePa have no truth to them. “He’s (supposedly) in the hospital when he’s sitting at the table for dinner,” she said. “He wasn’t even near the hospital.” Paterno also said there have been no discussions with the Penn State administration about her husband’s future, while Paterno’s daughter Mary Kay Hort denied the rumors of private planes flying the entire Paterno family to Tampa for the Outback Bowl, which the rumors alleged would be Joe Paterno’s final game.

2. “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” That’s a quote from Voltaire, a great French writer. Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wonders which snowflake of a play was responsible for the avalanche that Wisconsin’s season turned into. “Head coach Bret Bielema’s No. 1 choice occurred on the final play of the first half of the Arizona State game,” he writes. “He still believes Dezmen Southward and Shelton Johnson combining to tackle Kyle Middlebrooks at the UW 1 to prevent a kickoff return for a touchdown was critical.” I was there, among a disbelieving press corps that largely believed Wisconsin’s season would turn out to be nothing special. I was wrong, though I still stand by my assessment of Wisconsin at that time.

 

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Five-Step Drop: So Long, JoePa?

December 24, 2010   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Joe Paterno can’t coach forever. That obvious truth has hovered around him for at least a decade now. But when will he actually hang it up? Atlanta radio host Matt Baxendell has been saying for a while Paterno would retire after the upcoming Outback Bowl. He’s been a lone voice until now, but John Taylor at CollegeFootballTalk.com has been hearing from “multiple sources in and around the athletic department” that Paterno may in fact retire after the bowl game due to “significant health concerns.” Taylor also reports, “Paterno allegedly struggled mightily at the senior banquet at season’s end, with his players supposedly tweeting about their coach being ‘out of it’ and Paterno referencing playing in a ‘Thanksgiving bowl game’.” That doesn’t prove a thing, and CollegeFootballTalk.com is quick to point out, “We are not reporting that Paterno is stepping down/retiring/resigning after the bowl game.” The site goes on to note that these rumors need to be addressed, which they do, and not just by saying that Penn State’s previous non-statements about Paterno’s future are still in effect.

2. The fallout from Ohio State’s player suspensions has some wondering if some or all of the suspended players might opt to enter the NFL draft instead of serving the suspension. Fairly or not, most of that speculation is focusing on Terrelle Pryor. Pete Thamel of The New York Times suggests that Pryor’s NFL future is anything but guaranteed, saying Pryor “is regarded by NFL personnel evaluators as a project on and off the field.” In fact, Thamel quotes longtime NFL scout Dave Razzano as saying, “He needs to grow up” and “I wouldn’t touch him with a 10-foot pole.”

 

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Five-Step Drop: Boise’s Costly Loss

December 22, 2010   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. When Boise State lost to Nevada on Nov. 26, everyone knew the loss cost the Broncos and the WAC a large sum of money. The New York Times stopped to figure out how much: $8 million. “The Rose Bowl, like other Bowl Championship Series games, touts a per-team payout of $17 million,” Times reporter John Branch writes. “For teams like Boise State and others in one of the five conferences without an automatic bid, the payout is $12 million, Benson said. Boise State figured to gain $3 million, the other WAC teams would have split $5 million, and the four other second-tier conferences would have split $4 million.” Branch also notes that Boise State coach Chris Petersen would have earned a $125,000 bonus for making it to a BCS game. If you want to say kicker Kyle Brotzman lost the game for the Broncos, that’s your prerogative, but I’d suggest you read this book, which will change your mind like it did mine when I read it years ago. And if you’re too good to read a 22-year-old book, you deserve to think Brotzman lost the game for BSU.

2. Meanwhile Utah, Boise State’s opponent in the MAACO Bowl, is considering a new social media policy after one of its players turned to Twitter to taunt the Broncos. Utes receiver DeVonte Christopher tweeted, “I can’t wait to get out here wit these Boise State or should I say Girlse State they a bunch of cheerleaders…lol.” Coach Kyle Whittingham said he and Christopher had had “several conversations” about Christopher’s ill-considered tweet. “Girlse?” Seriously? Bet they’ve never heard that before.

 

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Five-Step Drop: Bowl Fighting

December 21, 2010   Mark Hasty   No comments

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FanHouse’s college football staff provides you with a personal quarterback. We do the primary and secondary reads for you so you can properly start your day.

1. Things are getting pretty tense at all these pre-bowl public appearance events. Violence is breaking out all over the place, with a beach dance contest for the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl nearly leading to a fight between Louisville and Southern Mississippi players while complimentary professional massages provided for MAACO Bowl participants Utah and Boise State led to “some pushing and shoving, some dishes broken” at a Las Vegas hotel. There’s no word on what started the trouble in Vegas, but the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s flap started when some Louisville players told Southern Mississippi players their dance skills were a bit lacking. “They started talking trash about us being in Conference USA, (that) we can’t dance … it was stupid. We’ll do our talking on the field,” uttered one Golden Eagle who refused to be identified. “A friendly dance competition and they take it all serious? It’s ridiculous.” Particularly since Louisville left Conference USA a whopping six years ago.

2. Then again, maybe there are reasons why these players get in fights. Berry Tramel of NewsOK.com has a tongue-in-cheek comparison of the respective football histories of Fiesta Bowl opponents Oklahoma and Connecticut. Yeah, there’s just a bit of difference between the two schools, but this is just … wow: “Seven, part I: OU: National football titles. Connecticut: Post-season games, counting two I-AA playoff games and this Fiesta Bowl.”

 

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