Les Miles thanks fans and coaching staff
Two days after thumping Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide 24-21, Les Miles said he has never seen such a wild scene in Tiger Stadium. Miles congratulated and thanked his coaching staff for a job well done.
"I can tell you that Tiger Stadium may have never been as exciting as it was Saturday afternoon. I can tell you that there were several times that the crowd was instrumental in cheering on its team. When that game ended and that stadium did not leave, I promise you it will be one of those memories I will have for some time.”
“I think I am fortunate to represent a quality group of men that have character and will fight you for victory. Those coaches prepared an excellent game plan, and the offensive staff came together at halftime and took advantage of some things they needed to see in the game. John Chavis and the defensive staff did a magnificent job with a very talented Alabama offense."
It seems as though the Tigers are now playing for their head coach and the opportunity for a 1-loss season. LSU finishes with ULM, Ole Miss, and at Arkansas.
If you haven't been to Tiger Stadium....GO :
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Akey: You better get your bleep button ready if you...
Nevada racked up 844 total yards in the 63-17 win over Idaho.
Today, Idaho head coach Robb Akey said, "You better get your bleep button ready if you want to talk about that one."
Not only did Colin Kaepernick complete 20-30 passes for 5 touchdowns, but Nevada had three players rush for over 100 yards. The Wolf Pack ran 91 plays, tallied 38 first downs, and averaged 9.3 yards per play. Kaepernick summed it up pretty well by saying, “When you go 96 yards in 46 seconds, that demoralizes a defense.”
Following the game, Akey said, “I'm glad I don't have to see him (Kaepernick) again. I told him that too.''
At 4-5, Idaho is still bowl eligible. Unfortunately, Boise State comes to town this week. The Vandals will finish at Fresno State and against San Jose State.
East Carolina AD embarrassed, mentions Utah & Texas shellackings
East Carolina took it on the chin, 76-35, to Navy on Saturday. Today, ECU athletic director Terry Holland posted a message on the ECU official site:
Saturday's defeat to Navy by the score of 76-35 is one of those disappointing losses that is forever a part of ECU's football history. No one was more embarrassed and more intent to use that loss as motivation to build a great football program than the coaches and players who fought that battle.
As is the case every Saturday in today's game, there were other proud programs experiencing similar agony. Texas down 39-0 at Kansas State and No. 6 Utah behind 40-0 at home in a showdown game with TCU come to mind first.
If anyone had told us before the season that this team would be 5-4 with three regular season games remaining, most sane Pirates would have exuberantly accepted such an offer. Furthermore, if told that the wins would include a nationally-televised shootout with Tulsa, a gutsy comeback at Southern Miss and a heart-stopping overtime win over N.C. State, we would have been even more elated.
This is a reminder that the team and the Pirate Nation cannot be distracted from the task at hand by the loss to Navy or any other adversity we may face.
We have come this far by pulling on the same oar and the rough seas ahead will require our very best team effort.
East Carolina is 5-4 and finishes at UAB (Thurs), at Rice, and SMU.
A disappointed Mack Brown talks about what is ahead for Longhorns
During Monday's press conference, a disappointed Mack Brown stressed the Longhorns (4-5) will not quit.
(on negative press from media) “The coaches have to handle that adversity and win at the same time. You can’t get down. You can’t point fingers. You have to go back to work. You stay upbeat. You stay demanding.”
“You gotta be upbeat and positive with 18-22 year olds when they don’t have much positive going.”
“The players actually played hard against Kansas State, which is hard to believe considering the way the game turned out.”
(on the horrible field position) “The entire team is responsible for that and the coaches as well.”
“We gave ourselves absolutely no chance to win the game. We lost all phases in the kicking game. We kick off to the number 1 kick-off return team in the country, they return it 63 yards. Two plays later, they hand it off to the guy we talked about all week, and he scores. Offensively, you have 5 turnovers, you give yourself no chance to win.”
“We’re sitting here minus 12 in turnovers, the teams that play for the national championship will be around +20.”
(on Oklahoma State) “What Dana (Holgorsen) has done is brought what they did at Texas Tech, cut the split, run the ball better, and that receiver is every bit as good as (Dez Bryant).”
"Still trying to win those 8 eight. We're going to fight our guts out."
"I've told the guys that we've handled winning with class, and now we have to handle losing with class."
Top 3 teams in BCS share something really important for coaches
Not only are Oregon, Auburn, and TCU ranked in at the top of BCS standings, but they are also 3 of 24 programs that kept their entire coaching staff intact during the off-season.
Here are the 24 programs that did not make any coaching staff changes during last off-season: TCU, Auburn, Oregon, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, San Diego State, Missouri, Iowa, Baylor, Penn State, Northwestern, Iowa, Maryland, SMU, Clemson, Army, Texas, Oregon State, BYU, Boston College, Washington, UAB, Wake Forest, and ULL.
About hiring his assistants, we recall Gene Chizik saying, "I asked the coaches that I interviewed, 'How can I make this (job) the best job in the country for you?'" Seems pretty smart to us!
The off-season is almost here. We will have you covered for all the latest coaching job information. Remember, to follow us on twitter @footballscoop
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Washington AD blasts University of Oregon
Washington AD Scott Woodward blasted the University of Oregon during the Washington radio pre-game show.
Woodward said, “It’s not really where we want to be … because it’s an embarrassment what their (Oregon) academic institution is, and what’s happened to them as far as their state funding has gone. In my mind it’s a wonderful athletic facility but they’ve watched it at the expense of the university go really down.”
“The athletic facility is impressive. The fans at Oregon should get down on their hands and knees at night to Phil Knight and pray to him because this is an incredible facility he’s built.”
“You watch how far they’ve [Oregon] dropped because of their state funding. And it’s a message for us too. Our state needs to get its act together because we can’t continue to progress without investment in our institution. But we’re doing extremely well and we’re very proud of that fact.”
Washington lost 53-16 to the Ducks. The Huskies are 3-6 on the season and host UCLA this Saturday. UW is on the road the final two weeks of the season… at Cal and at Washington State.
UPDATE: Woodward clarified his remarks late this morning by writing, "I have a great respect for the Universityof Oregon both as an institution and an athletic program. As a life-longadvocate for public funding in higher education, I have seen firsthand the effectsof public funding on many institutions, including the University of Washington.My remarks were intended as a commentary on the powerful impact that a statecan have on an institution’s academic standing. The University of Oregonis a great example of the struggles which can accompany a university when statefunding decreases, but UO is certainly not the only institution suffering.”
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Come on, Fitz. Great player, but "war daddy?"
Following a 35-21 loss at Penn State, Northwestern head Pat Fitzgerald (35) described his quarterback Dan Persa as a “war daddy.”
Against Penn State, Persa completed 16-25 passes for 201 yards and rushed for another 109 yards. On the season, he has completed a remarkable 73% of passes this season with 13 touchdowns / 3 INT. Persa is averaging 251 passing yards per game and 52 yard per game rushing.
Fitzgerald said, "I thought Danny did everything in his power to help us win the football game. He's a war daddy and he gives everything he's got on every play."
War daddy?
Even ESPN’s Colin Cowherd, who is on record as saying, “Pat Fitzgerald might be the single best college football coach in America,” would probably tell Fitz to slow down on this one.
Persa is one heckuva player. He's worthy of all Big Ten honors. But "war daddy?"
As Chicago Tribune writer Teddy Greenstein points out, “For those who had never heard the expression, here's a summary from UrbanDictionary.com: "A term used to describe a particularly impressive football player, mostly offensive lineman of substantial girth. Originated in the deep south and used primarily by Southern football coaches."
“War daddy” is usually used in sentence such as, “See dat boy, he a big ol' hoss, a bonafide war daddy!”
In order, our top “war daddys” would include Nick Fairley, Drake Nevis, Adrian Clayborn, Marcell Dareus, Da’Quan Bowers, Jerrell Powe, and Von Miller.
Urban sends message to Gator fans, Mike Riley wonders "Who are we?"
Urban Meyer send message to Gator fans, Florida host South Carolina on Saturday: "I've never really done this, but I want to make this the most intense stadium in the history of Florida football this Saturday. This is for the SEC Championship.”
"Get there early. I want everybody to wear blue — head to toe — including our players."
Nick Saban talks about LSU: "They're very quick up front. One of our goals up front was not to get a lot of negative plays. ...They did that. We did not run the ball effectively enough or consistently enough to stay ahead of the sticks. ...We became a little bit one dimensional."
Chizik not pleased with punters or punt return game: "To me, I'm not very happy with our punters, period. As long as they're sporadic in what we're doing, it's always open. I don't feel like we've improved in that area in awhile."
"We've got to be more effective catching the football...we've got to get more yards. We also dropped a ball (Carr), and that's unacceptable."
Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson says A&M punched them in the mouth: "You'd like to think if you're a good football team you can punch them off (the ball) and with good backs, your fullback or tailback, punch it in. They physically got after us and won the game right there."
Oregon State coach Mike Riley on if he will take up controversial call to give UCLA 1 second to allow 51-yard FG attempt at the end of game: “There wouldn’t be any satisfaction in any of that. It was just a decision the guy made in the booth, that’s basically the only response that I would get back. We’ve got many other issues (to deal with).’’
“Who are we? You know? That’s the question that’s still out there.’’
