Video: All Access tour of Penn State's impressive weight room
Excellent tour of the new Penn State weight room here, led by director of strength and conditioning Craig Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald has put some nice touches on the new facility, including our personal favorite which is the addition of jerseys to hang from to do core and grip work. As he explains, "we're grabbing jerseys on the field, we're going to be grabbing jerseys here."
This facility has all you'd ever need in a weight room from TV screens showing the workout, to competition boards and a solid music setup, and for some added motivaiton, Bill O'Brien's quotes also litter the walls of the facility.
Enjoy this one.
Three and Out - The true genius of Bill Belichick
1. Trumpets sounded, confetti dropped and alarms blared yesterday as Tim Tebow and the New England Patriots became an item. But beyond the hoopla, I couldn't help but think about what this says about the man behind the move, Bill Belichick. Hailing from the defensive side of the ball, Belichick's early New England teams won with a defense-first, conservative style. More than a decade later, the Belichick-led Patriots are still winning, but in a completely different style. Whether it's studying Chip Kelly's up-tempo system or taking a chance on everyone's favorite back-up quarterback, the league's most successful coach never stops looking for ways to evolve.
2. Wrapping up our stat study from Friday's Three and Out, we'll take a look at the longest losing streaks in each conference heading into the 2013 season. They are: Southern Miss (Conference USA), 12; Kansas (Big 12), 11; Illinois (Big Ten), 9; Akron (MAC), 9; Colorado (Pac-12), 8; New Mexico (Mountain West), 6; Maryland (ACC), 6; South Florida and Rutgers (American), 3; Arkansas (SEC), 3; Troy (Sun Belt), 2. Additionally, newly-independent New Mexico State rides an 11-game losing streak into the fall.
3. Indiana made the College World Series on Saturday for the first time in program history. It was also the first time a Big Ten program reached Omaha since 1984. Until the Hoosiers breakthrough, the outlook for Big Ten baseball was so bad that Jim Delany visited Omaha in an effort to move the season back a month to give northern squads a chance. With the Big Ten's place in the college baseball pecking order properly framed, one has to think Indiana's accomplishment would rank up there with a Sun Belt team making the Sugar Bowl.
Photo: Is this the best camp shirt out there?
With summer officially here, the summer camp circuit for college coaches begins.
With that in mind, we noticed this shirt from Mark Richt's football camp making the rounds on Twitter, and we got to thinking that this has got to be one of the most creative camp t-shirts out there.
If you've seen another great t-shirt idea at a camp. we'd love to see it and share it with everyone.
Possible new bowl sites include Ireland, Dubai and....Little Rock?
After a century of the tail wagging the dog, FBS conferences are finally taking control of the postseason process. While the five power conferences handle the upper-level bowl games (see: the College Football Playoff, the SEC and Big 12 taking control of the Sugar Bowl, etc.), the five mid-majors are looking to do the same for their postseason package.
A byproduct of the major conferences' seizure of the bowl selection process has turned into more "BCS vs. BCS" games than ever. Instead of being left in the cold, the "Group of Five" leagues - the American, Conference USA, Mountain West, MAC and Sun Belt - are looking to start their own bowls.
According to ESPN's Brett McMurphy, those five conferences are evaluating nine sites for the possibility of holding new bowl games: Miami, Orlando, Boca Raton, Fla., Montgomery, Ala., Little Rock, Ark., Los Angeles, Dubai, Ireland and either Toronto or Nassau, the Bahamas. Um, Little Rock? Yes, the capital of Arkansas could host a game between Conference USA and the Sun Belt at War Memorial Stadium. The Orlando and Boca Raton games would be played on the campuses of Central Florida and Florida Atlantic, while the Miami bowl would be played at Marlins Park.
"To their credit, (smaller conference) commissioners are saying enough," Football Bowl Association executive director Wright Waters told AL.com. "Enough with my teams getting left at home and my teams being the fill-ins when you have bowls that sign contracts with no expectation of actually having a team there."
With as many as 22 bowl games could exclusively pit power conference teams against each other, credit the Group of Five for looking for new avenues to reward deserving teams rather than see, for example, an 8-4 third-place team left in the cold.
Though, with options as varied as the Bahamas and Montgomery, Ala., reward may be a relative term.
Video: Dave Doeren joins the bass fishing team
After his first "Dare Coach D" session with the softball team, this episode with the NC State bass fishing team seems more like a vacation than a challenge.
Much like the last episode, Doeren waits until the very end to get on the board when he finally hooks a small fish.
Our guess is that this will be the easiest and most enjoyable, of the "Dare Coach D" events for Doeren.
Put together a video like this to highlight your program's tradition
La Mirada HS (CA) is home to a rich football tradition and always seems to have a roster of college caliber players, and people that have been a part of the program in the past describe it as a "special place".
In this video, past players and coaches talk about what playing and coaching at La Mirada HS meant to them, and many of the guys weigh in on the mark that the program has made on them long after they've taken their last snap, or called their last play.
Not only is this video well put together, but it's also something that any staff can do by gathering up a handful of players who had once put on the jersey and getting them to talk about what it meant to them.
This is some powerful stuff.
Video: Wisconsin players help to make a kid's dream come true
Gary Andersen and a few of his Wisconsin players were able to make a huge impact in the life of a 14 year old boy named Darien, who is living with a rare disease called Histiocytosis X.
Because of the debilitating disease, Darien spends most of his time in his room, so as part of the Make A Wish program, Darien got his room made over by a handful of the Badger players and also got to take a player led tour of the football facilities where he also got a personal visit with coach Andersen.
While Darien and his family were taking the facility tour, players were wrapping up their construction on his room for the big reveal, and this video shows it all.
This one will definitely give you chills at points throughout the video. You can tell the players enjoyed being able to pitch in and make a difference, and it's an experience that Darien will remember the rest of his life.
28 (yes, 28) athletic directors named AD of the Year
Have you ever been to a wedding with a dozen bridesmaids and a dozen groomsmen standing on each side of the bride and groom? If so, you may have an idea of what Under Armour was going for with its Athletic Director of the Year awards, which were announced Monday.
A total of 28 winners across seven divisions were announced at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) annual meetings in Orlando. With the way the divisions were split, a total of 12 Division I athletic directors (split between FBS, FCS and Division I-AAA) walked away with a claim to being D1's top athletic director.
Here are the winners.
FBS
Jeff Compher - Northern Illinois
John Currie - Kansas State
Jeff Long - Arkansas
Kevin White - Duke
FCS
Bill Chavis - Eastern Washington
Bruce McCutcheon - Lafayette
Mario Moccia - Southern Illinois
Mark Wilson - Tennessee Tech
Division I-AAA (non-football schools)
Charles Brown - Maryland-Baltimore County
Janet Cone - North Carolina-Asheville
Ken Kavanaugh - Florida Gulf Coast
John Stanley - Evansville
Division II
Pennie Parker - Rollins College
Tim Selgo - Grand Valley State
Scott Wiegandt - Bellarmine University
Sue Wiley - University of Indianapolis
Division III
Al Bean - Southern Maine
Ed Farrington - Western Connecticut State
Howard Patterson - Texas-Tyler
Margie Strait - St. Lawrence University
NAIA/Other 4-year universities
Greg Feris - Wayland Baptist University
Mike McCutchen - Freed-Hardeman University
Meg Schebler - Ashford University
Bob Wilson - Vanguard University
Junior/Community Colleges
Ron Case - Gloucester Community College
Jim Forkum - Santa Rose Junior College
Randy Strange - Hutchinson Community College
Troy Tucker - Northampton Community College
