There's a story about Byron Buxton --- you can call him Buck --- that has nothing to do with baseball. It has nothing to do with how fast he runs (he might be the fastest prospect since Bo Jackson). It has nothing to do with how hard he can throw a baseball (his fastball has been clocked at 99 miles per hour). It has nothing to do with how far he hits a baseball (he once hit a ball, in an exhibition, that landed on the top row of the leftfield bleachers at Wrigley Field).
With the draft and free agency having reordered depth charts around the league, it's time to take stock of the positional battles that will be worth watching unfold once training camps open. Here are 10 intriguing depth-chart competitions that warrant our attention this summer:
The book is barely closed on the 2012 NFL Draft, but it's never too early to start thinking ahead. Information is already being processed for next April's event, and it looks as though the early portion of the draft will be well represented by the senior class, with a number of versatile, complete linebackers available in the first round. So as we begin preparation for the 2013 NFL Draft, here's a list of 32 prospects expected to impact the early selections.
NEW YORK -- Musings, observations, and the occasional insight as we review the doings of day two, and rounds two and three, of the NFL Draft Friday night in Radio City Music Hall....
updated: Fri Apr 27 2012 05:36:00
An Alabama football player's father accidentally knocking over the $30,000 crystal BCS trophy and shattering it.
The dramatic, out-of-nowhere rise of Victor Cruz last season is only the latest glaring reminder. When it comes to talent evaluation, the NFL can miss on a grand scale. Not only did the New York Giants' dance-happy, second-year receiver go undrafted as a rookie in 2010, but he also wasn't even thought highly enough to warrant an invite to the league's scouting combine in Indianapolis, a cattle call of an event that annually draws more than 300 NFL prospects to the Midwest.
George Whitfield didn't expect to be in this position -- the go-to-coach for such big-name quarterbacks as Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton and now Andrew Luck.
As Chandler Harnish stood in the lobby of his Indianapolis hotel one day during the NFL Scouting Combine in late February, someone bumped him in the shoulder. Harnish's first thought was how rude. His reaction changed quickly when he turned around.
Penn State University has paid out $5.76 million to the estate of Joe Paterno, its heralded head football coach who lost his job as part of a spiraling sex abuse scandal involving one of his former assistants, a school athletic official said Thursday.
updated: Fri Apr 20 2012 05:34:00
Friends, family and football players pay their respects to former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno.
Several weeks ago, Cedar Cliff (Pa.) High junior Adam Breneman received an email from a fan. Breneman was coming off a season in which he corralled 72 receptions for 1,120 yards and 12 touchdowns, and such messages came with the territory: Like it or not, Breneman had become a quasi celebrity. He was the nation's top-ranked tight end (and No. 22 overall prospect, according to Rivals.com), a premier pass-catcher in an imposing 6-foot-5 frame. His every move was tracked by legions of college football diehards.
By now, the name is so familiar, bordering on ubiquitous. Everybody knows the Robert Griffin story. We've scarcely been able to get enough of it in the months-long buildup to the 2012 NFL Draft.
updated: Fri Apr 13 2012 12:41:00
University of Arkansas terminated coach Bobby Petrino as football coach over "reckless and unacceptable behavior".
Where have you gone Walter Cronkite, and why have you been replaced by the likes of woopig.net?
An assistant football coach at the University of South Alabama in Mobile was found dead at his home, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a coroner said.
After an exhaustive four-week schedule, the pro day workouts are over. NFL scouts, coaches and general managers crisscrossed the country throughout March as prospects tried to improve their draft grade. As always, the workouts have caused some players to rise in the eyes of NFL decision-makers, while others have fallen. One thing's for sure -- a lot has changed since the pro day slate began. Here are 15 players who saw their fortunes change.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott met with recent Stanford players Andrew Luck, Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro on Thursday to get their feedback on various proposals currently being discussed to overhaul college football's postseason. Last week Scott met with current USC players Matt Barkley, Robert Woods, T.J. McDonald and Devon Kennard, and he will do the same with a group of Utah players prior to their April 21 spring game.
For most of the players here, it's probably the first and only time they will step inside an NFL facility.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that last week's announcement of NCAA sanctions against North Carolina, including a one-year postseason bowl ban, would cause several 2013 Tar Heels' commits to rethink their decisions. In theory, it would seem to serve as a deterrent of sorts -- a reason to consider the possibility of playing for another interested program.
At a regional site during the 2008 NCAA tournament, I sat at a table with an assistant basketball coach at a school in a BCS conference. The assistant had been in on some high-profile recruitments, so he understood what goes on at the top of the recruiting food chain.
NASHVILLE -- When it became a certainty in the waning seconds that their 13th-seeded team was going to pull off an upset, the green-clad fans of Bridgestone Arena began a loud and proud chant: "WE ... ARE ... OHIO!"
On page two of the NCAA Committee on Infractions public report in the case of the North Carolina football program, committee members offer some helpful advice to other programs. "This case," committee members wrote, "should serve as a cautionary tale to all institutions to vigilantly monitor the activities of those student-athletes who possess the potential to be top professional prospects."
My alma mater, Northwestern, is on the bubble. You already know this, just as you already know that Northwestern has never been to the NCAA tournament, largely because every sports media outlet seems to be overflowing with Northwestern alums like myself who can't stop talking about it.
Defensive backs took the field Tuesday for the final day of combine workouts. More than a half-dozen NFL prospects cracked the 4.4-second markin the 40 on a day that saw several small school and lesser-known players stand out. Here's the final edition of risers and sliders from the 2012 combine.
National Signing Day has been a time for celebration in Tallahassee, South Bend and Westwood. Game day, however, has not.
I suppose it was inevitable that some people would compare Jeremy Lin to Tim Tebow. This is partly because every sports story these days must be compared to Tebow, as well as every non-sports story, and retroactively, every previous sports story. But it is also because Linsanity has temporarily replaced Tebowmania as the can-you-believe-that story that your mother who doesn't watch sports might bring up in casual conversation. And because Lin appeals to an unusual demographic for an NBA player (Asian-Americans) just as Tebow appeals to an unusual demographic for an NFL player (evangelical Christians).
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Every recruiting class needs a true believer, a prospect so sold on the program to which he has committed that he turns into the best advertisement a coaching staff has to offer. Even in the bleakest of times, the true believer can deliver a coach's message in a manner his fellow recruits understand. And because he believes so fervently, others follow.
Five things to watch for this season in college baseball:
Today is a landmark day at the University of Connecticut, where the school's president, Susan Herbst, announced that she has hired a new athletic director. He is Warde Manuel, a 43-year-old former football player at the University of Michigan who spent the last six years serving as the AD at the University of Buffalo. Manuel replaces not only Jeff Hathaway, who was forced out of the position last summer, but also Paul Pendergast, who had served as an interim AD while Herbst conducted her search.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The recruiting saga for Olney (Md.) Good Counsel wide receiver Stefon Diggs is finally over as he announced his decision on Friday evening in front of media and a raucous crowd at a local pub in College Park on the campus of the University of Maryland.
Now that the dust has settled from Signing Day, the winners of the 2012 recruiting cycle have emerged. And the top classes are deeper than just the big names. Here's a look at which teams fared best, on a position-by-position basis, on offense.
Kansas-Missouri, the so-called "Border War," has been one of the truly special rivalries in college basketball. That's why the Tigers' 74-71 victory on Saturday night felt so bittersweet. Beginning next season, Missouri will compete in the SEC, meaning that Saturday's game was the last scheduled meeting to take place in Columbia. They will play again in Lawrence on Feb. 25, and possibly a third time in the Big 12 tournament. Beyond that, however, the future is uncertain.
IRVINGTON, N.J. -- The Canarias Basketball Academy, a prep school team from Spain's Gran Canaria Island, had many curiosities on display during its tour of the United States this week. A 7-foot-3 center from Slovakia; lesser giants from across the European Union and Great Britain; an Israeli point guard who just committed to Seton Hall; a few Americans studying hoops abroad; and a former U.S. college coach of Peruvian heritage whose shouting on the sideline alternated between English and Spanish. But when the tour stopped at Irvington's Chris Gatling Recreation Center on Tuesday for a game against the postgraduate Robinson School that was attended by six current college assistants, the most curious presence was a member of Canarias' entourage.
INDIANAPOLIS -- There are at least two questions that come to mind when beholding the out-of-nowhere monster season turned in by salsa-dancing second-year Giants receiver Victor Cruz:
Rivals.com offers a quick glance at the BCS leagues as of late afternoon Wednesday. Check back at Rivals.com on Thursday for an in-depth look at each league.
Greg Schiano almost single-handedly lifted Rutgers from the basement of the college football world to a respected program in his 11-year tenure as head coach. His departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday -- less than a week from National Signing Day -- could have a devastating impact on the program that he built.
Since I don't watch anything besides Chuggington, it took nearly a month of the NBA season before I caught a SportsCenter highlight that showed the words WORLD PEACE emblazoned on the back of the former Ron Artest's jersey. One thought immediately came to mind.
During a visit to Clemson in August 2008, I asked then-coach Tommy Bowden why basketball coaches got so much more offended when recruits broke commitments than football coaches did. Bowden laughed, and he explained that most college football coaches understand that a verbal commitment is essentially meaningless until the player signs the National Letter of Intent that forbids other schools from recruiting him.
A year ago this time, with the SEC coming off its fifth straight national championship, my colleague Andy Staples compiled some interesting data that confirmed one of the primary reasons behind the league's recent dominance: The wealth of elite defensive prospects in its backyard. Andy noted that a staggering 43 percent of NFL defensive linemen hailed from a cluster of 10 Southeastern states representing just 22 percent of the general population.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The next chapter in the Peyton Manning saga could take a decidedly defensive turn.
The funeral procession carrying the remains of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno traveled Wednesday past Beaver Stadium, where he paced the sidelines for more than five decades.
Tom Coughlin, the crusty, often vilified, old coach of the New York Giants, is the team's secret weapon -- a coach with a remarkable ability to win unwinnable games against superior foes, and often on the road.
Penn State students, alumni, players and supporters filed past the casket of Joe Paterno on Tuesday, paying their respects to the school's late legendary football coach.
For so long, even as his hair turned from black to salt and pepper, even as several of his limbs were broken and battered when he stepped in the path of fully-geared gladiators nearly seven decades his junior, Joe Paterno seemed indestructible, more icon than man, as immutable as the Nittany Mountains near State College where he made his home for the better part of six decades. But when the end came, it came with such breathtaking suddenness that even non-believers must pause for moment to wonder if it wasn't part of some cosmic script. For the bare bones of Paterno's obituary read thusly:
updated: Sun Jan 22 2012 23:49:00
CNN's Susan Candiotti reports on the sad farewell to a heralded football coach with a tarnished legacy.
Joe Paterno, whose tenure as the most successful coach in major college football history ended abruptly in November amid allegations that he failed to respond forcefully enough to a sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant, died Sunday, his family said. He was 85.
Current and former members of the Penn State football program were among those offering condolences Sunday following the death of legendary ex-head coach Joe Paterno.
The Penn State child sex abuse scandal, centering on allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, includes alleged abuse dating as far back as the 1990s. Sandusky and his attorneys insist he is innocent.
The pace picked up on Wednesday, the final day of practice in pads at the East-West Shrine Game. More of the game plan was implemented for Saturday's contest, as the college players on hand in St Petersburg were put through the rigors of an NFL-type practice regiment. After Tuesday's practice produced some standouts, here are nine more players who put scouts on notice with outstanding performances.
From late November through early January, while most of the college football world was busy debating/analyzing/ruing the LSU-Alabama national title game, 25 FBS schools that came nowhere near contending for that or any other championship last season went about hiring new coaches.
The NFL Draft early-entry list featured one big surprise (Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas) and a big group of juniors who entered the 2011 season as near-locks to leave (Andrew Luck, Justin Blackmon, Trent Richardson). For the next three months, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay and Mike Mayock will examine their every conceivable strength and shortcoming -- right down to what a player's Starbucks order says about his ability to read NFL defenses.
Penn State University President Rodney Erickson tried to distance the school from the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the campus as he spoke to angry alumni Thursday night.
Penn State is paying long-time coach Joe Paterno as if he retired at the end of the season, even though the university relieved him of his coaching duties on November 9, officials announced Thursday.
Like most of you who live and breathe college football, I woke up Tuesday morning feeling sleep-deprived and a little bit depressed. As I wrote Monday night, Alabama's title-game performance was incredibly impressive, but the end-result made for an utterly unsatisfying season. Meanwhile, TV ratings were down for four of the five BCS bowls. Attendance was down across the board. And worst of all, after covering eight quarters and an overtime of Alabama-LSU field-goals, I was stuck in a crowded Superdome tunnel waiting to get on to the field when Trent Richardson finally scored a touchdown.
Now that Alabama and LSU have officially put an end to the college football season, all attention will start turning toward the prospects who are leaving school behind for a chance to play in the NFL and how the draft's first round might go.
As a remarkable number of at-large candidates continue to have "None" as their best win of the season, the big bubble question of the week is ... where have all the good wins gone?
updated: Tue Jan 10 2012 01:23:00
Player whose girlfriend was ripped from his arms and killed during Tuscaloosa tornado, takes the field in BCS Championship.
Alabama exacted revenge and clinched the Bowl Championship Series title on Monday night, besting Louisiana State University 21-0.
The film study is about to begin. The instructor, an SEC assistant coach with a graduate degree in Alabama and LSU football, is sitting at a desk in the back of a dark, windowless room in his school's football offices, his eyes locked onto a projection screen that stretches from floor to ceiling. Holding a laser pointer in one hand and a remote control in the other, he pushes the play button and suddenly it appears: the coach's spliced video from the LSU-Alabama game on Nov. 5, a matchup that will be reprised on Monday night at the Superdome in New Orleans in the BCS national title game.
The new coach of Penn State's embattled football program acknowledged criticism from alumni over his hiring, vowing to work to earn their trust and saluting the team's iconic former head coach Joe Paterno.
Penn State has hired a new permanent coach to head its embattled football program, with the team's quarterback saying that he and other players are "excited" for a "fresh start."
Brent Musburger continues to get high-profile gigs at an age when most of his contemporaries have long since ridden off into the sports broadcasting sunset. At 72, in the middle of his sixth American act (take that, F. Scott Fitzgerald), Musburger will call top-ranked LSU against No. 2 Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game on Monday night (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET). As he enters his fifth decade on the air, Musburger remains a polarizing figure, revered by supporters and jeered by others. But he has never shunned questions about his work or style. SI.com caught up with him this week:
When Monday night finally arrives -- assuming it ever does -- 44 interminable days will have elapsed since Alabama last played a football game. Which begs the question: Has there ever been a more prickly period for fans of a team about to play for the BCS national championship?
How high can they go? That's one of the most frequently asked early bracket questions this year about Murray State and Harvard, both of which are poised to post gaudy records for consideration.
Sports scandals age poorly. What seems everlastingly egregious is quickly forgotten as time applies its rosy hue. Victories and spectacular plays endure, while disturbing events get pushed to a distant corner of memory's basement.
NEW ORLEANS -- Maize and blue confetti littered the Superdome floor Tuesday night when Michigan receiver Junior Hemingway verbalized the prevailing thought within college football's winningest program. "We're back!" Hemingway said. "Michigan's back!"
PASADENA, Calif. -- In the highest-scoring game in Rose Bowl history, in a whiplash-inducing thriller in which momentum seemed to shift by the minute and touchdown drives sometimes lasted a few seconds, we needed someone to tell us the game had actually ended.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- In his corner on the far right side of the Stanford sideline, kicker Jordan Williamson ran through the routine at least a half-dozen times in the moments before he took the field.
Six bowls take place Monday, headlined by the Fiesta Bowl, featuring Andrew Luck and the Cardinal and Justin Blackmon's Oklahoma State. But there are NFL prospects in each of the day's games. Below, a breakdown of the players to watch, as well as a projection as to where they'll be drafted. (*denotes underclassmen)
Below, a breakdown of the players to watch Monday, as well as a projection as to where they'll be drafted. (*denotes underclassmen)
Penn State likely will be playing before more empty seats than full ones when it takes the field for its bowl game on Monday -- just one sign of tougher financial times ahead for one of the nation's richest teams.
LOS ANGELES -- It's a fabled venue where stars like O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Ron Dayne and Vince Young delivered the defining performances of their college careers. On Monday, in the 98th Rose Bowl Game, a pair of accomplished running backs, Wisconsin's Montee Ball and Oregon's LaMichael James, will look to do the same.
updated: Sat Dec 31 2011 06:38:00
One of Jerry Sandusky's attorneys offers a hypothetical answer to why an adult would need to shower with a child.
Even as early as last summer -- when several big name college programs were roiling under allegations of improper gifts, academic fraud and recruiting violations -- sports analysts had dubbed 2011 the year of college sports scandals.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sometimes, if you press your ear to the press box window, you can almost hear thousands of fans across the country scream "Noooooooooooooooo!" as a ball flies through the air. One of those moments took place Thursday evening.
On January 4, 2002, Stephen Orr Spurrier stunned the college football world and left Florida for the NFL. "We didn't win anything," Spurrier told me not long after his stunning decision 10 years ago to take a $5 million-a-year deal to coach the Washington Redskins. "We had nothing to show for it."
Ten bowl games have been played since the last Mailbag, but there's only one I regret not commenting on until now: The Boise State-Arizona State Las Vegas Bowl.
Fresh and fly. Those words turn college football coaches downright giddy as they hit the recruiting trail. And to elicit those words, trendy new uniforms help do the trick.
On New Year's Eve, husband and wife Tripp and Jessica Johnson will be wearing orange and blue and cheering their team in the Chick-fil-A Bowl -- from opposite sides of the stadium.
Bubble Watch is back! And while it's awfully early to make concrete judgments about many individual teams, there are some definitive trends from nonconference play that will significantly shape the real bracket you see in March:
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|