National Signing Day has been a time for celebration in Tallahassee, South Bend and Westwood. Game day, however, has not.
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.
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.
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.
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- David Shaw did not even wait for the first question at Saturday night's postgame news conference before beginning his stump speech.
The glow from the Golden Dome still is wonderfully blinding on bright days. Touchdown Jesus, the nickname of the skyscraper-sized mural on the side of the Hesburgh Library, continues to inspire with its version of Jesus stretching his arms high and wide as a football referee signaling for a touchdown.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- If this is what a night game is at Michigan Stadium, let there be another one next week, next month and next year.
It was a calm Tuesday morning. Summer had just about seeped into fall. The financial markets were relatively stable. The United States, as it had been for the better part of nearly three decades, was at peace. Then, at 8:46 a.m., a hijacked plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, followed less than 20 minutes later by another hijacked airliner that plowed into the South Tower. A third plane smacked into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a fourth was headed for either the White House or the Capitol. After passengers subdued the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, it crashed in a Pennsylvania field. By the end of the day, nearly 3,000 Americans were dead.
We've reached a landmark moment in this offseason. Perhaps it's a sign of fatigue over certain beaten-to-death topics, or perhaps it's a sign that the season is getting closer. Whatever the case, thanks to your questions, I'm pleased to present the first 100 percent NCAA-scandal free Mailbag of 2011.
Every year around this time someone asks the following, admittedly intriguing question, which inevitably sets me up to look like an idiot by midseason. I swear I don't throw darts to come up with the answer -- though that may well be a more accurate method.
It's 2011, and everything about college football moves faster now, from the offenses to the recruiting calendar to the media cycle. (One notable exception: NCAA investigations.) In that spirit, the Mailbag is making the earliest debut of its nine-year history this week, for two reasons. One, I'm getting married May 29, at which point I plan to vanish for a month, so I figured we'd squeeze a few more editions in beforehand. And two -- most college football fans want to read about college football no matter what time of year. Duh.
The words have been uttered countless times over the past two decades, and each time they've proven premature. They elicit hope from a fan base desperate to reclaim its now-distant glory and groans from every other fan base in the country.
NEW YORK -- Notre Dame and Army are never again going to hook up for the kind of games that made their rivalry, more than 50 years ago, the biggest in the country. Times have changed and both teams long ago fell from the upper echelons of college football. Nevertheless, there was a tangible feeling of history in the air when the teams met at chilly Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. How else to explain the sellout crowd of 54,251 that saw the Fighting Irish thump the Black Knights 27-3? Neither team entered the game ranked among the top 25. Their combined record was 11-9. The only thing at stake was Notre Dame's eligibility for a bowl game (Army qualified last week). And yet people came anyway.
DISCLAIMER: This column is about Notre Dame football, but it is NOT about Declan Sullivan, the student who died last week when high winds knocked over the scissor lift he was standing on as he filmed practice. I spent a lot of time this past week thinking about Sullivan. I feel awful for his family, of course, and I also feel outrage. I have a columnist's instinct to blame somebody. And somebody probably DOES deserve blame -- perhaps coach Brian Kelly, perhaps others, perhaps a lot of people. But accusing somebody of causing a death is so serious, and there are so many unknowns right now, that I'm just not comfortable pointing a finger -- and I'm not comfortable absolving anybody either. I just hope his parents get answers. They deserve that much.
Growing up, I was fascinated by the exotic creatures other kids took for granted in their homes: I've never owned a pet, known a grandfather or had a big sister. But I got over these deprivations. As an adult, the only living thing I still pine for -- one gone lacking my whole life -- is a college football team.
College football breakout stars in the SI Vault
BYU fashions itself the Notre Dame of the West, a church-affiliated institution with a national following. In search of greater exposure for its global television network, BYUtv, it's reportedly prepared to ditch the Mountain West to become a football independent. A national brand wants to play a national schedule.
As a longtime observer of -- and former participant in -- preseason rankings, it's a great mystery how certain teams seem to garner a universally agreed-upon spot in the preseason hierarchy as early as January.
For the next month, the attention of the draft world will be on college campuses across the nation as general managers, coaches and scouts attend pro days. (For a full schedule, click here.) Many of the players working out had disappointing performances at the combine in Indianapolis and must make the most of their pro-day opportunity. Here are a dozen such prospects.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Dispatches from Day 3 of the NFL's Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium ...
As he stood on the field at Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium last April, Brian Kelly explained his recruiting philosophy. At Grand Valley State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati, Kelly had to zero in on the players the big boys didn't want. At one point in the conversation, these words passed his lips.
1. The Statue of Liberty play; Jan. 1, 2007. The final down of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl was the American Dream rolled into one play from scrimmage. Using a play (the Statue of Liberty) mastered by millions of boys in their backyards, David (Boise State) scored on a two-point conversion to slay Goliath (Oklahoma) in overtime. The running back who scored the conversion (Ian Johnson) then ran down the sideline and proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend (Chrissy Popadics). Johnson and Popadics wed that July, and they have lived happily ever after. The fairy-tale ending also changed college football. Boise's win, which followed Utah's Fiesta Bowl-crash after the 2004 season, earned immeasurable respect for the sport's mid-majors and brought them one step closer to a legitimate shot to compete for the national title.
Hopefully, Mardy Gilyard will forgive Brian Kelly someday. The Cincinnati receiver and the former Cincinnati coach did a lot for one another, and their relationship shouldn't end with Gilyard seething over Kelly's decision to take the Notre Dame job.
This time, Notre Dame got its man.
You never win at a place like the University of Cincinnati. Not entirely.
Go ahead. Make your fat jokes. Mock the man's ego. Say that Charlie Weis deserved what he got, that he came in like a lion and went out like a lamb chop, fresh meat for any decent team he played.
As of this writing, there are three BCS-conference schools (including Notre Dame) with coaching openings, with a fourth, Kansas, widely expected to join the list soon. A look at potential candidates for each job:
As Notre Dame begins yet another search (its fourth this decade) for yet another coach in its never-ending quest to wake up the echoes for longer than a year or two, potential candidates should take a hard look at Charlie Weis' failed tenure.
Football Insiders: Check out Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback.
Analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler had a fascinating argument during ESPN's College GameDay on Saturday morning. Herbstreit complained about the constant blather about Notre Dame, saying the Fighting Irish don't deserve all the attention they get because they haven't been relevant on the national scene since 1993.
As they trudged off the field following a dispiriting, hard-to-fathom loss to Syracuse in last season's Senior Day home finale, Notre Dame players were pelted with snowballs.
Notre Dame may have its own provision in the BCS selection process and an attractive fallback in the Gator Bowl, but the independent Irish don't have a whole lot of other bowl options when they fall short of those games.
Quarterbacks have won eight of the last nine Heisman Trophies, and while that string of domination could continue this year with either Colt McCoy or Tim Tebow, The Watch is high on running backs. Backs fill the top three spots, and six of the top 10 and have been prominent on this list all season.
The highlight came the second month of the first season when Charlie Weis' Fighting Irish almost ended USC's 27-game winning streak on a postcard-perfect afternoon in South Bend.
Controversial replay calls have become uncomfortably common this college football season. The latest may have cost Charlie Weis his job.
Football Insiders: Check out Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback.
Thoughts, observations and helpful suggestions as the college football season hurtles toward the BCS apocalypse ...
Notre Dame is a program that prides itself on tradition. Under Charlie Weis, the Irish have developed a new one: Losing at home to Navy.
The 10 storylines to watch this Saturday:
Maybe when giants roamed the north central Indiana landscape, when Knute Rockne or Ara Parseghian coached at Notre Dame, a four-point victory over Boston College would not have occasioned much celebrating on the Irish campus.
• Will BYU spoil TCU's bowl bid? There are a few things you should know about TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes: He used to be a great running back, he's since blossomed into the nation's best collegiate defensive end, and he tends to hunt BYU QB Max Hall like a man possessed. Last season, TCU spoiled BYU's BCS bid, and Hughes' four sacks and persistent disruption were a big reason why. This year, the roles have reversed. The Frogs head to Provo ranked eighth in the BCS standings, and the Cougars hope to spoil those bowl dreams. TCU needs this win to remain neck-and-neck with Boise State in the BCS conversation, and deploying Hughes and the rest of a speedy, athletic defensive front is the best way to set up Hall for a repeat of his seven-sack, two-pick performance from 2008.
Each week, SI.com's Richard Deitsch will report on newsmakers from the world of TV, radio and the Web.
Sure enough, Notre Dame was the lead story Saturday. Just not for either of the reasons we assumed.
• Will Oklahoma thwart Texas once again? This year's Red River Rivalry won't carry the significance we thought it would when Texas and Oklahoma began the season ranked Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. But it's still got plenty of sizzle, especially for a Texas team that likely can't afford a loss. The Longhorns have done little to impress so far this season and face this bleak reality: If they don't beat Oklahoma, they won't get another chance to prove themselves against a marquee opponent. Last year, the 'Horns left their fate to the system, and we all know how that ended. But, already, things are very different now than in 2008. Injuries and subpar play have pushed the Bradford-McCoy subplot to the back burner. This game's no longer about Heisman campaigns (though if McCoy stands a chance, he needs to start dazzling, and soon) and unlikely friendships; it's about survival, which means defense will be key. So while this one could easily come down to a Jordan Shipley shake-and-shimmy,
Football Insiders: Check out Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez watched his freshman quarterback bop toward the bus Saturday morning, seemingly without a care in the world. Suddenly, Tate Forcier stopped cold.
This article appears in the Sports Illustrated Presents 75th Anniversary of the Heisman Trophy issue.
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