COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Time to look back on a high-scoring first half… Turning point: After throwing interceptions on his first two drives, SMU benched Kyle Padron , who threw for over 3,800 yards last season, in favor of senior J.J. McDermott . The Mustangs inched closer with a pair of touchdown drives after Padron’s benching, but A&M’s offense looks unstoppable and very balanced so far. Stat of the half: Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has completed 11 of 13 passes for 141 yards. Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael have combined for four touchdowns and 95 yards on 19 carries. A&M’s offense is rolling and as advertised in its opener. Best player in the half: Texas A&M’s defensive line. It’s struggled to defend the run (SMU’s Zach Line has 108 yards and a score on 15 carries), but the Aggies are getting lots of pressure up front and already have four sacks, equaling their top total in any game in 2010. Tony Jerod-Eddie already has two sacks. Second guessing: Down 14-7 late in the first quarter, SMU elected to try an onside kick, but the short kick failed miserably, hitting the kicker’s foot twice and going only a couple yards. For the third consecutive drive to begin the game, Texas A&M began with the ball in SMU territory. What Texas A&M needs to do: Relax, and feed the Mustangs a steady diet of Gray and Michael. Turnovers are the only way the Aggies lose at this point, so hold on to the ball. The offensive line has been very good so far for the Aggies, and they’ll need to impose their will (Just like Texas!) in the second half.
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Halftime analysis: Texas A&M 33, SMU 14
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When Jordan arrives on campus as a freshman, the only other kicker on scholarship probably will be Will Russ, who will be… Source: Austin American-Statesman
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Coppell kicker Jordan becomes 18th football pledge for 2012
Filed under Football, News by on Jun 28th, 2011. Comment.
We’re finally at the end of our position rankings and we’ll finish up with special teams. This group does a lot more than people think and teams are starting to put their best athletes out here. Kickers and punters don’t get a lot of respect in the athletic department, but they are crucial assets to teams. Let’s see how the SEC special-teams units stack up: 1. Georgia: It would be hard to find another special-teams unit better than the one in Athens. The Bulldogs return the dependable Blair Walsh at kicker, who kicked a league-high 20 field goals on 23 attempts (87 percent). Punter Drew Butler averaged 44.5 yards on 50 punts, with 19 landing inside the 20-yard line. Georgia also has a talented returning duo in Brandon Boykin and Branden Smith. Boykin is the school’s all-time leader in kick return yards and averaged 24.3 yards per return with a touchdown in 2010. Smith only returned 10 punts last year, but is dynamic in space. 2. Arkansas: Joe Adams might be one of the most fun guys to watch in the return game. He was fifth in the nation, averaging 15.6 yards per return last year, and is one of the shiftiest returners out there. He also had a touchdown. Dennis Johnson is back from injury and when he was healthy, he was one of the best kicker returners in the league. In the kicking game, sophomore Zach Hocker had an impressive freshman year where he connected on 16 of 19 field goals, with seven from 40 or better. Punter Dylan Breeding averaged 42.5 yards per kick and pinned 18 inside the 20. 3. Alabama: Trent Richardson not only heads the Tide’s offense, but he’s extremely dangerous as a kick returner. He averaged 26.4 yards per return and had a touchdown last year. Marquis Maze , who grabbed 21 punt returns last year, has great speed to break one at any time. Alabama actually returns two kickers in Jeremy Shelley and Cade Foster. Shelley handled kicks with the 40-yard range, while Foster had long distance duty. The job at punter hasn’t been settled, with Cody Mandell and Jay Williams battling it out. 4. Florida: Caleb Sturgis is finally healthy after suffering a back injury last season. He was solid from farther out as a freshman, but struggled to stay consistent closer to the end zone. Ray Guy winner Chas Henry is gone, but freshman Kyle Christy enrolled early and immediately took over punting duties, launching a punt 55 yards in the spring game. Andre Debose was named the nation’s top kick returner by the College Football Performance Awards in 2010 after returning two kicks for touchdowns and Chris Rainey could be the slipperiest punt returner in the SEC. Florida also has been the best punt/kick blocking team around the last few years. 5. Ole Miss: Place-kicker Bryson Rose made 16 of 18 kicks last year and should be just as solid and might have to come up with even more kicks this fall. His kicking partner, punter Tyler Campbell, had a nation-leading 46.4 yards per punt average in 2010. He launched 19 punts over 50 yards and five of 60 or more yards. Jeff Scott was solid on kick returns, but Ole Miss’ staff will look to junior college transfer Philander Moore for kick and punt returns. Last season at Blinn (Texas) College, Moore had 811 total return yards and six touchdowns. 6. Vanderbilt: Kicker Ryan Fowler and punter Richard Kent return in 2011. Fowler was solid as a freshman, but took a few steps backward in 2010 kicking 8-of-13 and missing all of his kicks from beyond 35 yards. Carey Spear, who handled kickoffs last season, could push Fowler. Kent had one of the strongest and most durable legs in the country last season, leading the nation with 84 punts and averaged 41.8 yards per kick. Twenty-seven of them were downed inside the 20. Vanderbilt did, however, have four punts blocked
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SEC position rankings: Special teams
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Texas A&M Aggies The class Signees: 22 (three from junior college, five enrolled early) Top prospects: Kicker Taylor Bertolet will likely spend a year behind starter Randy Bullock, and two signing-day steals are at the top of the list of possible future stars in Tim DeRuyter’s defense. 6-foot-5, 230-pound Brandon Alexander is the nation’s No. 32 defensive end, but the Aggies fully intend on using him as a linebacker. He picked the Aggies over the rival Longhorns the morning of signing day. Cornerback Floyd Raven also picked Texas A&M over Ole Miss on signing day as well, despite a letter of intent mixup. Needs met: Bertolet answers a big need for the Aggies in 2012, as the nation’s No. 2 kicker. Don’t be surprised if Alexander gets some early playing time to help replace Von Miller and Michael Hodges, two of the team’s top defenders and linebackers who exhausted their eligibility after the 2010 season. Shaun Ward , a Florida native, is also a top linebacking prospect who could help early. Analysis: Texas A&M had to make a late push for what looked like a mediocre class early on. In early July, the Aggies had just seven commits (10th in the Big 12) and its best prospect was the nation’s No. 53 athlete, Jonathon Henderson . But Mike Sherman made a late push and signed 10 recruits with the same or better recruiting grade from ESPNU and help give the Aggies a class that ranks in the middle of the Big 12. It’s not a class that wows, but it’s one that should be able to continue some of the momentum that Texas A&M established in the 2010 season. ESPN recruiting grade: B-minus
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Texas A&M recruiting analysis
Filed under Football by on Feb 3rd, 2011. Comment.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas A&M’s defense has already made one big play, intercepting a pass deep in its own territory to end an LSU threat. But it gave up a big play, too, allowing a 42-yard deep ball over the middle from Jordan Jefferson to Terrence Toliver that cut the Aggies lead to 10-7. Tolliver beat his man, and it cost the Aggies, but two other mistakes could have cost them further. Fortunately for Texas A&M, neither did. Texas A&M’s Coryell Judie intercepted a pass on the opening drive, but only after the Aggies extended LSU’s drive with a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt, though the punter did bobble the snap. On the Aggies last drive, which ended in a missed field goal, Tyrann Mathieu blitzed and hit Ryan Tannehill without being blocked, forcing a fumble. Right tackle Jake Matthews whiffed on the block, but recovered the fumble, allowing the Aggies to keep possession. The Aggies have looked like the better team after the first quarter, but more mistakes like those could catch up to them. Eliminate them and prevent another big play like the Tigers’ pass, and the Aggies, who have run the ball well early, should be in good position to spring the mild upset.
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Aggies dodge two mistakes, burned by one
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Best offensive player: Brandon Weeden , QB, Oklahoma State. Weeden completed a school-record 34 passes for a school-record 435 yards, pacing an offense that moved the ball for a school-record 725 total yards. Maybe you didn’t notice, but not a lot of guys have had a day like that this year. Best defensive player: Michael Hodges, LB, Texas A&M. Hodges was everywhere against Oklahoma, making 19 stops and a pair of sacks in the Aggies upset win that landed them in the top 25. Eight of his tackles were solo, too. Honorable mention: Tie, Tysyn Hartman, S, Kansas State and Ty Zimmerman, S, Kansas State . I’ll spare you the wordplay on this one, but this pair of safeties both picked off Texas quarterback Garrett Gilbert twice and racked up 93 yards of interception return yardage. Best team performance: Oklahoma State. No competition here. The Cowboys dominated a good Baylor team on both sides of the ball and never let the Bears seriously threaten to win, scoring the game’s first 34 points. Best offensive freshman: James Sims , RB, Kansas. Sims rushed for 123 yards on 20 carries, but most importantly, his three of his fourth touchdowns came in the fourth quarter, helping Kansas complete its miracle comeback against Colorado. Best defensive freshman: Tre Walker, LB, Kansas State. Walker made 11 tackles in the win over Texas to lead the Wildcats defense in stops. Classiest gesture: Taylor Potts , QB, Texas Tech . After leading a Texas Tech comeback, Potts eschewed postgame interviews to make this speech to the media about what the team’s jerseys on Saturday meant to him. Best play: Justin Blackmon , WR, Oklahoma State. The only way Baylor was going to come back and beat Oklahoma State was with a big start to the second half. Blackmon was the one who got it, and last I checked, he didn’t play for Baylor. The Cowboys faked a screen play and Weeden pitched to Blackmon, who raced down the left sideline for a 69-yard touchdown that put Oklahoma State up 31-0 seconds into the third quarter. Honorable mention: James Sims’ game-winning 28-yard run in the final minute against Colorado. Honorable mention: Any of Texas A&M’s three goal-line stands. Best play II: Josh Cherry, K, Kansas State. Cherry had his extra point attempt on Kansas State’s final touchdown blocked, but the kicker scooped up the ball and took it into the end zone for a two-point conversion. Worst play: Daniel Kuehl, P, Iowa State . I’m sure Kuehl’s effort on the game’s final play was his best try, but if anyone did that in a game with friends at the park, they wouldn’t live it down for decades. Worst quarter: Colorado’s fourth quarter. It started off innocently enough, with a touchdown on the first play to go up 45-17. By now, you probably know the rest . It wasn’t very good. Best game: Nebraska 31, Iowa State 30 (OT). The wind and Nebraska’s quarterback injuries were big equalizers for the Cyclones, but Iowa State rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime, and nearly pulled off the play of the year in the Big 12 with Paul Rhoads’ fake extra point attempt for the win.
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Big 12 weekend review: Week 10
Filed under Football by on Nov 8th, 2010. Comment.
EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon rolled UCLA 60-13 on Thursday in the Ducks’ most complete performance of the year. How the game was won : Oregon won with too much of everything — too much talent, speed, power, offense, defense, rushing, passing. And yellow. Turning point : UCLA drove to Oregon’s 30-yard line on its opening drive, but Richard Brehaut tossed an interception to Ducks safety John Boyett. Then the Ducks quickly drove 90 yards for a TD. Things sorta went the Ducks way thereafter (yes, we typed that same thing at halftime. It’s not like there was a new “turning point” after the break). Stat of the game : Oregon outgained the Bruins 582 to 286. Player of the game : Oregon QB Darron Thomas completed 22 of 31 passes for 308 yards with three TDs and no interceptions. He also rushed for 48 yards. The first-year starter’s TD-INT ratio is now 17:5. Not too shabby. Unsung heroes of the game : The Ducks defense turned in a four-quarters performance and receiver Jeff Maehl caught eight passes for 107 yards and a TD. What it means : It means Oregon, ranked No. 1 in both polls and No. 2 in the BCS standings, continues to be a national title contender. Some folks will dismiss pounding UCLA, but there’s no erasing the fact that the Bruins won big at Texas. This was more about how good Oregon is than UCLA’s deficiencies (though there certainly are some of those). As for the Bruins, they’ve now been blown out in consecutive Pac-10 games. That’s not a good thing. They face another test of their resiliency. Record performance : Oregon broke the school scoring record for eight games. But here’s the kicker: The Ducks have only played seven games! They’ve scored 386 points this year. The previous record for eight games was 350 in 2007. Oh, by the way, 60 points is the most Oregon has ever scored against UCLA. And this also was the Ducks biggest margin of victory in the series.
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Instant analysis: Oregon 60, UCLA 13
Filed under Football by on Oct 22nd, 2010. Comment.
13-9. Jeremy Ito. 48 straight points. Some losses are so painful that the mere mention of a name, phrase or score instantly brings back horrible memories. Today, as part of ESPN.com’s House of Pain series, I’m going to list my nominees for the most painful loss in school history for each Big East team. CINCINNATI: For years, Cincinnati wasn’t good enough to have many painful losses. But one sticks out: Ty King returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown with 19 seconds left as rival Miami (Ohio) beat the Bearcats 23-16 in 1995. CONNECTICUT: The 2009 season was full of heartache for the Huskies. No game hurt more than the loss to Rutgers. UConn had seemingly won the game in the final minute, but the Scarlet Knights scored on an 81-yard pass from Tom Savage to Tim Brown to ruin the Huskies’ first home game since Jasper Howard’ death. LOUISVILLE: Cardinals fans still rue the 2006 loss to Rutgers that kept their team from a possible BCS title game appearance. Louisville led 25-7 in the first half but would not score again. Ito drilled the 28-yard game winner with 17 seconds left after William Gay jumped offside on the kicker’s first, missed attempt. PITTSBURGH: Pitt has never had a more talented team than the 1981 edition. The Panthers were undefeated and ranked No. 1 when they took a 14-0 lead over Penn State in the season finale. But the Nittany Lions then scored the final 48 points in a loss that still perplexes Pittsburgh fans. RUTGERS: The Scarlet Knights just had to beat a Pat White-less West Virginia in the 2006 season finale to claim the Big East’s BCS bid. Instead, backup Jarrett Brown led the Mountaineers to a 41-39, triple-overtime win that sent Rutgers to the Texas Bowl. SOUTH FLORIDA: Bulls fans were beside themselves when the young program climbed to No. 2 in the polls in October 2007. It all came crashing down on a Thursday night in Piscataway, N.J., when Rutgers dashed South Florida’s dream season with a 30-27 win, aided by a fake field goal for a touchdown. SYRACUSE: The eighth-ranked Orange had a chance to knock off No. 1 Miami in 1992 for a Sugar Bowl berth. They trailed 16-10 and were threatening to score, but tight end Chris Gedney was tackled 2 yards short of the end zone as time expired. WEST VIRGINIA: Do we even need to explain? West Virginia fans were booking their tickets to the BCS title game before the 2007 season finale. One problem: Pitt — which entered the game with a 4-7 record — pulled off a shocking 13-9 upset in Morgantown that changed the course of both programs. Which losses are the most painful for you? Remember to send me your comments and memories to this link . I’ll highlight the best entries in a post on Friday.
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Most painful losses for Big East teams
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We’re counting down this week through the top 50 most-painful losses in the history of college football. Some programs will make multiple appearances. Some will make none. But every program has a loss that makes fans clench their fists thinking about it. Here are game’s with strong cases to be the most painful in each Big 12 team’s history. Baylor — 27-24 loss to UNLV in 1999 Not much competition here. Baylor had the ball on the UNLV 8-yard line and needed to kneel to win. But it ran a play and UNLV linebacker Tyler Brickell slapped a fumble loose and cornerback Kevin Thomas scooped and scored from 100 yards out in the game’s final second to beat the Bears in Waco. Baylor also lost to Boston College the week before on a missed extra point in overtime. Colorado — 21-6 loss to Notre Dame in 1990 Orange Bowl The game was scoreless at halftime, but the Buffaloes gave up a pair of third-quarter touchdowns. Colorado got to within 14-6, but the Fighting Irish used a seven-plus minute touchdown drive in the fourth quarter to take the bowl of oranges back to South Bend. Iowa State — 17-14 loss to Missouri in 2004 You read about this one earlier this week: The Cyclones were denied a berth in the Big 12 title game by the Tigers, who capitalized on the Cyclones’ walk-on kicker Bret Culberson missing a 24-yard field goal to win the game. An interception in the end zone sent Colorado to the Big 12 title game after Missouri opened the scoring in overtime with a 25-yard field goal. Kansas — 15-14 loss to Penn State in the 1968 Orange Bowl This game came in at No. 38 on our list. Penn State coach Joe Paterno went for two points and the win after a late touchdown, but Kansas annulled an incomplete pass — by defending it with 12 men. The Nittany Lions punched in a win on the next play from just outside the end zone. Kansas State — 36-33 loss to Texas A&M in the 1998 Big 12 championship game Wildcats coach Bill Snyder carries the title of one of the best coaches never to win a national championship. This game, No
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Every Big 12 team’s most-painful loss
Filed under Football by on Aug 5th, 2010. Comment.
