I'm about 2/3 of the way through my preseason Top 25 at this point. I'll have it all said and done by the end of this week and we'll unveil it starting a week from today.
As of right now I'm dedicating a blurb on each team, highlighting a player and another feature dealing with music. I will do more if you tell me to do more. Throw suggestions at me, but time is of the essence at this point.
On a news-related note, that quarterback E.J. Manuel, who is now the No. 10 player in the country, is holding a press conference on Wednesday. Expect him to verbal his services to Florida State. Jumbo Fisher has to be loving it: Vince Young reincarnated in Tallahassee.
Also, not sure how many heard, but Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, a supreme athlete, will not be suiting up in the heinous unis in Eugene next year. He'll be playing baseball (5th round draft pick) for the Atlanta Braves. A scramble to replace the struggling Andruw Jones (who's in a contract year...but that's for a different blog)? Whatever, the bottom line is that Brady Leaf will be taking the snaps, quarterback controversy over.
I've begun my work on the preseason Top 25. Do preseason rankings mean anything? No, I actually don't like them, but I'll follow suit.
For now, the plan is to unveil it all at once. I want to put in some serious time into this, so I won't give you a timetable on when this will come out (days rather than weeks, though).
If you'd like me to start at 25-20, 19-10, 9-5, 4-1, I can do that. I want to hear the voice of the people. Tell me what I should include in each capsule. Just talk to me. Do it. Seriously, do it.
Indiana University football coach Terry "Hep" Hoeppner lost his bout to a brain tumor and passed away this morning in Bloomington, he was 59.
In just two years, Hoeppner had been instrumental in bringing respect back to the Indiana football team. Although his record was 9-14, the proper steps were being taken to steer the ship in the right direction and make the Hoosiers an athletic program who could tout football and basketball as successful programs. While putting his personnel pieces in place, Hoeppner worked on building a schedule that would get him exposure in his area and the recruiting showed.
His second season in Bloomington brought him wins over Michigan State, Iowa and at Ron Zook's Illinois team.
Hoeppner was loved by his players. Steelers QB, Ben Roethlisberger, who played for Hoeppner at Miami (OH) likened him to a second father. Quite the token of respect, if you ask me. Hoeppner coached the RedHawks for six years, taking the school to two bowl games. He was also an assistant there for nearly two decades.
Condolences to Hoeppner's family and the Indiana program.
I just wanted to talk about fair versus unfair for a second. The one and only exhibit I'll use today is DaQuan Bowers.
Now, I know about 99.5% of you are saying "WHO?" Well, think Gaines Adams minus five years.
But, why fair/unfair?
Coming out of high school I was about 6-feet tall and a lean 175 pounds. I loved football, but at 175 pounds, the only thing I had business tackling was a pizza to gain some more weight. Furthermore, I've never been clocked, but if I had to guess, I could run a 40-yard dash in about 4.75 seconds. This is a total guess, and with the right technique and start, who knows.
However, enough about me, more about DaQuan. The 2008 defensive end prospect out of South Carolina is, get ready for this, 6'4/270/4.7 at 17 years old. I want to know how this is fair. 6/175...6'4/270 and the same speed, if not faster. Frankly, it pisses me off.
Bowers as told Clemson he'll suit up for the Tigers after he finishes his senior year of high school. So he has room to grow, and get faster.
I've probably done it before, but I'll do it again. To quote "Ocean's Twelve": "It just...hurts."
I had been before, so this trip just affirmed my love for New Orleans. If you've never been and you love food and having a good time, you must visit. Eat at the Gumbo Shop on Front Street (right by Jackson Square) and Mother's Restaurant on the corner of Poydras and Tchoupitoulas. Anything on the Gumbo Shop menu is amazing and breakfast at Mother's would be a wise choice.
On to business.
I saw Taryne stopped by the blog and showed some love for all of her fans. Thanks, Taryne!
Now, I have to name my Poet Laureate, but this hasn't been exactly easy.
Stank started us off with a huge bang and took the early lead. But the creativity kept coming with every submission, making the contest quite the success. I want to give thanks to everyone who submitted, this truly was a tough decision.
The winner is Mike Stank for a few reasons. Line one gives us a very poetic feel, as Tom Lee did throughout the course of his Haiku. Stank follows up with a perfect setup line leaving us wondering "Just what is the perfect combination?" And finally, he lays it on us: myself and Ms. Mowatt. Textbook Haikuing (new word?).
Congrats, Mike.
Also, Campus Confidential is the recipient of an award. The Press Club of Long Island named the blog second place in the Online Reporting category. The LI Biz Blog on the Long Island Business News site took first, and it well deserved. Newsday.com won best Website with exploreli.com taking second.
Finally, I heard some very interesting news while I was down in Louisiana and I'll try to confirm it over the next few weeks. I swore I wouldn't say anything because it's in the works, but when I know for sure, I'll give y'all some knowledge.
Enjoy the weekend, we'll get back to college football next week.
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
I'm off to New Orleans for a few days. When I come back next Thursday we're gonna kick the tires and light the fires.
Keep the haikus coming. I'll publish them all and announce a winner when I get back. And WELL DONE to the submissions so far. Gonna be tough to pick a winner.
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
Is this getting out of hand? Probably. But it's a huge hit around the office and I look like a hero, in some weird way. In fact, coworker Emily says I need to rename the blog "Stalker Confidential." Perhaps she's right.
Keep the haikus coming!!
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
Due to the recent (extreme) success of the blog because of my superior writing and reporting skills…check that, two-time national champion pitcher Taryne Mowatt, we'll keep the fun rolling.
Starting now, the blog is hosting its first-ever poetry contest. Every reader is allowed to submit a haiku about Mowatt. The winner will be crowned the 2007 Campus Confidential Poet Lauriat.
A haiku is a Japanese poem consisting of three lines. The first and third lines must be five syllables and the middle must have seven. Here is an example:
Ms. Mowatt, my dear
A national champ, again
We should start dating.
There you have it. Please keep these PG or they will not be posted (I have to manually approve all comments). Do not email your submissions to me. Post them as a comment!
Have fun!
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
Those two words are being typed in Google searches quite often the last few days. The blonde bombshell with the cannon of a right arm is facing off with fellow pitcher's circle dominator Monica Abbott of Tennessee for the college softball world series tonight. If you like strikeouts, tune in to this on ESPN2.
One of my loyal readers wanted to know why girls were logging on and wishing Taryne well. I thought about it for a few minutes. Perhaps this is becoming her fan club? I'm certainly a fan, as made clear in a post a few nights ago. Maybe after she finishes up her softball tournament, I'll talk to her and let her know about her fans' new place of gathering: Campus Confidential.
Maybe I can talk her into flying out to New York and going to a ball game with me. Maybe her boyfriend, C.J. Ziegler of the Arizona baseball team, will take a 32-ounce TPX and mash my face in. Maybe it's worth the risk.
Taryne and I have a lot in common. She's a communications major; I work in the communications business. She wants to be a doctor; I'm not afraid of doctors, I like doctors. Her dad's name is Larry; I'm going to New Orleans this weekend with a guy named Larry who's a long-time friend. She enjoys sleeping; I happen to LOVE sleeping. She enjoys shopping; I like going out and buying nice things for myself as well. The list goes on…
Anywho, I'll end by calling all Taryne Mowatt fans. Let Campus Confidential be your place to rest your hat. Leave a comment and tell Taryne how much you love her. Feel free to check out my extensive work looking into the 2007 football season as well (cheap, I know, but I had to do it).
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
I want to start putting more videos in my posts. Today could be classified as overkill, so I'll watch it in the future, but have a good time.
We're looking at linebackers. I like this year's bunch a lot. Lot of star power below:
Dan Connor, Penn State - This kid is a true truckface. In fact, I'm now incorporating the word truckface into this blog as a staple. Confused? Well, I'll put up a post very soon explaining truckface, just know that it's a good thing.
Connor is a complete beast. I had just gotten into recruiting when I came across his info and I remember thinking, "he can anchor a program for four years." His high school stats? Connor was 56-3 and started in 59 straight games. He finished with 591 carries for 4,531 yards and 77 rushing touchdowns. On defense, Connor amassed 461 tackles, 38 sacks and 19 interceptions. It earned him the No. 6 overall player ranking for 2004.
He's lived up to the billing at Penn State. 274 tackles in three seasons is pretty solid. It'll be interesting to see how he does with Paul Posluszny now in the NFL, maybe he'll get 600 tackles this season…?
Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi, Virginia Tech - When the Hokies recruited 9-11 (Hall is No. 9 and Adibi No. 11) in 2003, you couldn't help but get excited about the future middle of the VT defense. I remember going to watch Adibi at Phoebus High when he was a defensive end and fullback and you knew he was going to excel in college. The duo amassed 210 tackles last season. Hall is a tackling machine (304 in three seasons) and Adibi can pretty much cover anybody coming off the line of scrimmage (see video, I was one of the people in orange). Expect VT's defense to be among the best for a fourth consecutive year because of these guys. Also, because it's my blog, I want to give some love to Corey Gordon, Tech's other linebacker this year. We've been waiting for Gordon's number to be called. No. 13 brings pain.
James Laurinaitis, Ohio State - His father was a member of the Legion of Doom. His mom was a power lifter. His sister plays hockey. His brother is in the Army. Can there be a bigger bruiser family out there? I think not. He's only a junior so you want to say he's the next great Ohio State linebacker, but you can't - he won the Nagurski Award (it goes to the best defensive player in the country). If I were James Laurinaitis, my resume would be seven words "James Laurinaitis: Nagurski Award as a sophomore." Doubt many could match those credentials. Actually, I'd probably add "Judge of the Jordan House Party Hot Body Contest." (See below)
Rey Maualuga and Keith Rivers, USC - I've been thinking long and hard about who will be the Campus Confidential preseason No. 1 and it's going to be hard to deny USC. These two are part of a wrecking crew that can pretty much do whatever they want on a football field. They're here to stay, if they so choose, because both of them are juniors. Throw fellow underclassman Brian Cushing into the mix and you have the best linebacking corps in college. To quote Ocean's 12: "It just…hurts." Want more video? I do.
Bo Ruud, Nebraska - Name award. Bo Ruud. Just say it. I would guess Bo Ruud means "giant pest for other teams on the football field" in Latin. I wouldn't know because I took Spanish, but that's what he is. He tackles, he picks off passes, scoops up fumbles and probably eats concrete while the offense is on the field. On a team that spreads the wealth on defense, Ruud defines consistency. He'll get you 7-8 tackles, force a few mistakes from the QB and probably be involved in a turnover in some form or another. I'm chomping at the bit to see he and Steve Octavien against USC in September out in Lincoln. If you could combine all the big hits in that game into one, it'd probably result in an earthquake.
After watching LeBron shred Detroit single-handedly and Craig Sager ask stupid questions in a great suit, I flipped it over to ESPN and what do I see?
Another beautiful blonde in the pitcher's circle for Arizona. Yeah, everyone knows about Jenny Finch, but I want someone to pass along my info to Taryne Mowatt. Here's a link to a picture of her that's someone's posted. If you're into the whole MySpace thing, go check out her page (she says she's in a relationship, so that ruins my chances for now).
Everyone's going gaga over the pole vaulter from California, so I'll start my own movement.
Update: July 17, 11 p.m. Now that Taryne is America's most popular female athlete, she's on the publicity tour and has said she would do an interview with Campus Confidential. Click here for the latest.
Also, not sure how many heard, but Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, a supreme athlete, will not be suiting up in the heinous unis in Eugene next year. He'll be playing baseball (5th round draft pick) for the Atlanta Braves. A scramble to replace the struggling Andruw Jones (who's in a contract year...but that's for a different blog)? Whatever, the bottom line is that Brady Leaf will be taking the snaps, quarterback controversy over.
Now, I know about 99.5% of you are saying "WHO?" Well, think Gaines Adams minus five years.
I'm off to New Orleans for a few days. When I come back next Thursday we're gonna kick the tires and light the fires.
Due to the recent (extreme) success of the blog because of my superior writing and reporting skills…check that, two-time national champion pitcher Taryne Mowatt, we'll keep the fun rolling.
One of my loyal readers wanted to know why girls were logging on and wishing Taryne well. I thought about it for a few minutes. Perhaps this is becoming her fan club? I'm certainly a fan, as made clear in a 
Dan Connor, Penn State - This kid is a true truckface. In fact, I'm now incorporating the word truckface into this blog as a staple. Confused? Well, I'll put up a post very soon explaining truckface, just know that it's a good thing. 