Time to take a look at recruiting needs for some selected non-AQ schools. Boise State Running back. With Doug Martin and D.J. Harper gone, there is no question the Broncos need some quality players at this position to not only play but add depth. This was already one that had depth issues because of injuries this season — which is why a walk-on running back had the ball late in the game against TCU. Boise State has two commitments from quality prep players in Devan Demas and Jack Fields, both out of Texas.
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Recruiting needs: Non-AQs
Filed under Football by on Jan 26th, 2012. Comment. 
Houston had last Saturday off after easily dispatching Tulane on a Thursday night. Coach Kevin Sumlin was at home watching the end of the wild Texas A&M-Kansas State game when his phone started ringing. Text messages started flying in, too. He had one good guess about what was happening. TCU had beaten Boise State 36-35, opening the way for the Cougars to get an automatic bid into the BCS. “Nobody really calls me a lot on Saturday night, so I figured that’s what happened,” Sumlin said at his news conference this week.
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Houston controls its BCS destiny
Filed under Football, News by on Nov 17th, 2011. Comment.
Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson was the only SEC quarterback named as one of 16 semifinalists for the 2011 Davey O’Brien national quarterback award. Wilson leads the SEC with 2,011 passing yards and has thrown 12 touchdown passes and three interceptions. Given how steady he’s been, it’s a little surprising that LSU senior quarterback Jarrett Lee didn’t make the cut. Lee leads the SEC in pass efficiency and has thrown 13 touchdown passes and only one interception. He’s also completing 63.2 percent of his passes. Here’s a complete list of the 16 semifinalists: Matt Barkley, USC Tajh Boyd, Clemson Kirk Cousins, Michigan State Seth Doege, Texas Tech Robert Griffin III, Baylor Landry Jones, Oklahoma Case Keenum, Houston Andrew Luck, Stanford Kellen Moore, Boise State Keith Price, Washington Denard Robinson, Michigan Ryan Tannehill, Texas A&M Darron Thomas, Oregon Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State Russell Wilson, Wisconsin Tyler Wilson, Arkansas
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Hogs’ Wilson makes O’Brien cut
Filed under Football by on Oct 24th, 2011. Comment.
Here are 10 things I’ll be watching in college football this weekend: 1. Can Wisconsin’s mammoth offensive line handle Michigan State’s aggressive defense? The No. 6 Badgers have one of the country’s biggest offensive lines, with their five starters averaging 322 pounds. The No. 16 Spartans’ starting four defensive linemen have an average weight of 282 pounds, but they’re very aggressive and exceptionally quick. Whichever team controls the line of scrimmage in Saturday night’s game at Spartans Stadium figures to have a big advantage. MSU ranks No. 2 nationally in total defense (186.1 yards per game) and No. 8 in sacks (3.5 per game). 2. Is No. 25 Washington capable of knocking off No. 8 Stanford? The Cardinal will play a ranked opponent for the first time this season in Saturday night’s game at Stanford Stadium. The Huskies are off to their first 3-0 start in Pac-12 play since 1997. Washington quarterback Keith Price has been spectacular, completing 69.4 percent of his passes for 1,466 yards with 21 touchdowns and four interceptions. Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is 5-1 against ranked opponents, and the Cardinal has won 15 games in a row, the longest winning streak in the country. 3. Will USC restore order against Notre Dame? The Fighting Irish knocked off the Trojans 20-16 last season, ending USC’s eight-game winning streak in the series. USC quarterback Matt Barkley missed last year’s game against Notre Dame because of a sprained ankle. He’s coming off a so-so performance in USC’s 30-9 victory over Cal last week, completing 19 of 35 passes for a season-low 195 yards. Notre Dame’s secondary will be tested by receiver Robert Woods , who had only five catches for 36 yards against the Bears. 4. Does No. 20 Auburn have a chance at No. 1 LSU? The Tigers will go into Saturday’s game at Tiger Stadium with a new quarterback, after Auburn coach Gene Chizik benched Barrett Trotter in favor of sophomore Clint Moseley . Moseley, who is more of a running threat than Trotter, provided a spark in the second half of last week’s 17-6 victory over Florida. Chizik can only hope Moseley performs better than the last two quarterbacks who faced LSU’s defense: Florida freshman Jacoby Brissett and Tennessee’s Matt Simms . LSU will probably stack the line of scrimmage to slow down Auburn’s running attack, so Moseley will have to make some throws down the field. 5. Can Tennessee’s defense slow down Alabama’s Trent Richardson
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What to watch in college football: Week 8
Filed under Football by on Oct 20th, 2011. Comment.
The BCS field is muddled. With so many teams sporting perfect records and no playoff to decide a champ, our bloggers take on the ultimate task: making a case for each team with a title shot . Hear ye, hear ye. The Court of Public Opinion, whose estimable judgment greatly helps determine who plays for the BCS championship, is now in session. Wisconsin Badgers , please approach the bench for your inquisition: What gives you the right to play for the national championship, you bunch of cheeseheads? Well, how about sheer and utter dominance? You can’t really ask a team to play better than we have. We’re No. 1 in the nation in scoring offense at more than 50 points a game, and we’re also No. 3 in defense at 9.7 points allowed. We have the No. 7 rushing offense in the country at 257.5 yards per game on the ground, but we’re also averaging 266 yards per game passing the ball even though most of our games are over long before the fourth quarter. We’ve won every game by at least 31 points. We’ve got a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender, if not the top candidate, in quarterback Russell Wilson . He’s an unflappable four-year starter who can hurt you through the air or by running by you. Our best running back, Montee Ball , has 18 total touchdowns. And our offensive line is the biggest, baddest group on the planet. Well, then how do you explain why three of the BCS computer rankings have you no higher than 12th, and one (Massey) has you 17th? Clearly, there’s a glitch in the matrix. Any computer that doesn’t have us ranked among the very best teams in the country should stick to playing Angry Birds. But we know what you’re getting at: our schedule. We’re the first to admit that our nonconference slate wasn’t the toughest. But we had no way of knowing when we lined up our opponents years ago that Oregon State’s program would fall off a cliff. Northern Illinois is better than most people think; we can’t help it if its athletic department decided to make some money off our fans by moving a home game to Soldier Field. Besides, all we can do is play who’s on the docket, and we’ve crushed everyone in our paths without any hiccups. And we steamrolled Nebraska, who was ranked eighth at the time and is No. 13 right now in the BCS standings, 48-17. Our schedule is about to improve, starting with Michigan State this week on the road, plus games at Ohio State and Illinois and a regular-season finale against Penn State before the Big Ten title game. Why shouldn’t we just go with the SEC champ, the Big 12 champ, Stanford or Boise State? The SEC champion absolutely deserves a spot if it goes unbeaten. Can’t argue with the recent history there. But we feel we have just as good a case, if not a better one, than everybody else. Oklahoma is really good, but the Sooners’ best two wins came over Florida State and Texas, whom we feel were vastly overrated. Oklahoma State scores almost as many points as we do but gives up a whole lot more. The Big 12 champ won’t have to worry about a championship game, and besides, haven’t we watched Oklahoma flame out in the BCS title game enough times already? We love the underdog story as much as the next guy because we used to be one, but Boise State’s schedule makes ours look like a murderer’s row. The Pac-12 is too top heavy and not as good as the Big Ten. Wouldn’t you just love to see our corn-fed offensive linemen go against the SEC defensive line freaks
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Wisconsin Badgers make their case
Filed under Football by on Oct 18th, 2011. Comment.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Boise State talked conference this week. Yup, Mountain West Conference. Sure, national headlines may have linked the Broncos to a new home in the Big East. Those were promptly ignored. What was emphasized? Making a statement in their first Mountain West game against Colorado State on Saturday. You could say No. 5 Boise State made a statement. Or you could say Boise State just kept on rolling and did not really have to say much of anything. The Broncos absolutely controlled the Rams from the start of the game, racking up a school-record 742 yards of offense, and getting career days from running back Doug Martin , receiver Tyler Shoemaker and another eye-popping performance from Kellen Moore in a 63-13 win . That marks back-to-back games in which the Broncos executed to near perfection, something that perhaps we have become spoiled watching with Moore in charge. Moore, ever understated, simply said, “Just felt like we were executing like the way it goes in practice. Hopefully that’s the type of stuff we have. If we execute the way we should, those things should be happening.” Moore started the game with 18 straight completions and finished 26-of-30 for 338 yards and four touchdown passes. His .867 completion percentage was the fourth-highest total in school history. But it gets better than that. It was the second time this season he completed more than 80 percent of his passes. He did it in the opener against Georgia, too. If anybody turns their nose at his numbers because of the subpar competition, they simply have not watched Moore play. Coach Chris Petersen said Moore is seeing things well right now, and that might be yet another understatement. When somebody has the experience Moore has, on top of the smarts Moore has, they are bound to succeed. But Moore takes that to another level with the ease in which he directs the offense. Four of his completions went for over 25 yards. His two touchdown passes to Shoemaker covered 52 yards and 62 yards, helping Shoemaker set his career mark with 180 total yards. Moore now has 120 career touchdowns, one away from tying BYU quarterback Ty Detmer for No. 4 on the NCAA list. He also needs one more win to tie the career wins record of 45, set by Colt McCoy at Texas from 2006-09. “I knew the whole week going in, the quarterback’s a good player,” Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild said. “He started out, what did he hit 18 in a row? When I played, I couldn’t have done that on air.” Meanwhile, the run game worked better than it has all season, as Martin got to 200 yards, the first time a Boise State player hit that mark since Ian Johnson had 205 against Nevada in 2007.
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Boise makes statement in first MWC game
Filed under Football by on Oct 16th, 2011. Comment.
TCU made it official Monday night, leaving the Big East without ever playing a game to accept an invitation to join the Big 12 . The news was expected after news broke last week that the Big 12 had extended an invitation to the Horned Frogs. Their departure leaves the Big East with six football playing schools, though the conference said in multiple statements that it would move quickly to fill their ranks. “Although never having competed as a member of the Big East conference, we are disappointed with the news that TCU is joining the Big 12,” commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement. “As noted earlier today, our presidents met via teleconference this morning to focus on the future and have authorized us to engage in formal expansion discussions with additional institutions. We anticipate taking action in the near future.” TCU decided to leave the Mountain West for the Big East last November, and was set to begin play in the league in 2012. But after Pitt and Syracuse left for the ACC, and Texas A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC, an opportunity opened up for the Horned Frogs to play much closer to home in what appears to be a more stable conference. TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said this about departing the Big East: “While this is indeed an incredible day for the Horned Frog Nation, we need to recognize the Mountain West and Big East. The Mountain West has been a great home to TCU, enabling our athletics program to grow and be in position to receive and accept an invitation to join the Big 12. We are also appreciative of the Big East for providing an opportunity for TCU. We have great respect for the leadership of the Big East and all its members. “The Big 12 is a perfect fit for TCU. With our historical ties to Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech, as well as the close proximity to the other league members, we couldn’t be more excited to have the Big 12 as our new home.” The Big East must now look for new members, and raised the possibility Monday of expanding to 12 teams. One that recently came up as a potential football-only member was Boise State. The Boston Globe reported the Broncos were one team that was under consideration, but that appears to be a long-shot. Boise State president Bob Kustra released a statement Monday night that read, “While we are certainly flattered to be mentioned in connection with other conferences, and we hold those leagues in high regard, our current focus is on continuing to build the outstanding athletic programs that have helped make Boise State a popular and compelling national brand. “The landscape of college athletics is exceptionally fluid, and we are continuing to monitor the situation. We are confident that Boise State will be well positioned for future success, and we will evaluate our status with the best interests of the entire university in mind. Boise State’s athletic achievements, academic and research successes, popularity, and vision for future growth make the university an extremely valuable conference partner.” Navy, Air Force and Army have been mentioned as football-only members, while UCF, Temple and East Carolina also have been mentioned.
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TCU leaves for Big 12 as expected
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment.
 12:19 p.m. | Not Tricked Texas offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin (formerly of Boise State) reached into his bag of “tricks” on the UT’s last drive, but the… Source: Official Site of the Oklahoma Sooners
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Archived Blog
Filed under News by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment.
TCU trustees are set to meet Monday and will accept an invitation to join the Big 12 , sources confirmed to ESPNDallas.com. There could be an announcement as early as Monday night. The Big 12 invited TCU to join the conference last Thursday. TCU had been set to join the Big East for the 2012-13 season. But the departure of Texas A&M for the SEC left an opening in the Big 12, one conference leaders felt would be best filled by TCU. The Big East would be left with six football-playing members. Meanwhile, Air Force has reached out to the Missouri Valley and WAC about the potential of placing its other sports should it accept a football-only invitation to the Big East. The Boston Globe reported that the Big East was considering Boise State, Air Force and Navy as football-only members and UCF and Temple as full members.
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TCU to accept Big 12 bid
Filed under Football by on Oct 10th, 2011. Comment.
LSU (40), Alabama (10), Oklahoma (8) and Boise State (1) were the only schools to receive first-place votes. Texas took the biggest tumble of the week, falling from No. 11 to No. 22, while Auburn dropped nine spots to No. 24. Â Baylor was the… Source: NBC Sports
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CFT: Big East targeting Boise State for expansion
Filed under Football, News by on Oct 9th, 2011. Comment.
