D1 College Football News

January 29, 2007

Source: The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Inc.

Two-Minute Drill


Army coach Bobby Ross will announce his resignation this afternoon. Offensive line coach Stan Brock is expected to take Ross’ place at the helm... Brad Wright has been selected as head coach at Texas State... Dennis Parker has been named head coach at Texas Lutheran... Rice named Chuck Driesbach assistant head coach and defensive coordinator... USF promoted Greg Gregory to offensive coordinator... Todd Berry has been named offensive coordinator at UNLV... Central Michigan added offensive coordinator/QBs coach Mike Bajakian to its staff... Marshall named Steve Dunlap defensive coordinator... Jay Norvell accepted the offensive coordinator’s post at UCLA... Minnesota hired Mike Dunbar as offensive coordinator and Everett Withers as defensive coordinator... Lane Kiffin (Fresno State) has been named head coach of the Oakland Raiders. He is the third Fresno State grad to be named head coach in the NFL along with Darryl Rogers at Detroit and Mike Martz with the St. Louis Rams... Texas A&M- Commerce director of athletics Jim Johnson has been chosen as commissioner for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) in Overland Park, Kan... Wyoming named Josh Rebholz associate athletics director for development... Maryland signed atheltics director Debbie Yow to a contract extension through 2013.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is reviewing a feasibility study from NACDA Consulting about the possibility of adding football as a varsity sport, joining fellow Southland Conference competitor Texas-San Antonio as well as UNC-Charlotte in conducting a similar study to add the sport... Duquesne (Pa.) has joined the Northeast Conference as an associate member for football and will be included in conference play during the 2008 season... Syracuse has partnered with New York City’s Steiner Sports Marketing in an effort to promote larger sports merchandise sales and awareness at the university... Wyoming AD Tom Burman has announced a Competitive Excellence Plan to take Cowboy athletics to new levels in 2007 and beyond... North Dakota State and South Dakota State have both been invited to attend Gateway Football Conference league meetings in St. Louis on Feb. 19... Fresno State associate head coach John Baxter will hold his annual Academic Game Plan seminar to the general public on Feb. 3 in Fresno... North Texas head coach Todd Dodge spoke at the 9th annual Dallas-Fort Worth Coaches Clinic this past weekend.

Kansas and Missouri will move their 2007 and ’08 Big 12 Conference games to a neutral site at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City... Colorado and Washington have signed a two-year pact to renew their rivalry with games in 2015 and ’16. The 2015 game marks the 100th anniversary of the teams’ initial meeting in 1915... Texas A&M and Miami (Fla.) have moved their 2007 contest to Thursday, Sept. 20, with an anticipated ESPN national telecast... Wake Forest was designated for a national telecast with Florida State on Thursday, Oct. 11... Louisiana- Monroe and neighbor Grambling are discussing the possibility of a game this fall.

Kansas State will host a novel “insiders” look at 2007 Football Signing Day on Feb. 1, as head coach Ron Prince will answer questions and narrate video clips of each signee at a local hotel in Manhattan, Kan., for the second year in a row... Kentucky’s entire squad was honored for its 8-5 record and bowl win over Clemson during last Sunday’s nationally- televised UK-Tennessee men’s basketball contest in Lexington, Ky... More than half the Amherst football team convened last week to build a home for Habitat for Humanity in Amherst, Mass... Georgia Tech will host a signing jamboree with current student- athletes, the Tech coaching staff, pep band, cheerleaders, and mascot Buzz at the Atlanta Downtown Hilton Wednesday to announce the teams’ 2007 football grants-in-aid... Michigan State fans are invited to attend Spartan Football Signing Day 2007, featuring new coach Mark Dantonio and his coaching staff.

A likeness of 2006 NFF Co-Gold Medal recipient coach Joe Paterno of Penn State will appear on “Super Donuts” and “Super Buns” snack boxes. The Pittsburgh food distributing company selling the items is owned by Penn State All- America RB Franco Harris, and a portion of the profits of sales will go the Paterno Library Endowment Fund... NFF Hall of Famer Roger Staubach of Navy is chairing a civic committee to try to attract Super Bowl XLV to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas... Trustees for the University of Arkansas system fully support athletics director and College Football Hall of Famer Frank Broyles and head coach Houston Nutt.

Al and Shirley Goldfield were honored at halftime of North Texas' basketball game with Middle Tennessee for their $1.5 million donation towards a campaign for a new football stadium for the Mean Green... Army's new 77,000 square foot Foley Athletic Center has opened... Kent State football had three crowds this past season over 20,000, giving the Golden Flashes an average crowd of 17,810, an 185% increase over the 2005 season... Missouri fans showed their support for the environment by recycling 19 tons of trash during the Tiger home games... North Carolina has sold over 3,000 season tickets since Butch Davis was hired as coach... Oklahoma has entered into Phase III of renovations to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Villanova, coached by NFF Philadelphia Chapter president Andy Talley, had nine players named to the Atlantic-10 All-Academic Team... For the second straight year, Tennessee led the SEC in Academic Honor Roll qualifiers with 25, including Draddy Award semifinalist kicker James Wilhoit. The national champion Florida Gators, led by NFF National Scholar-Athlete and Draddy Finalist Chris Leak, finished second with 24 qualifiers... 51 Northern Illinois Huskies achieved 3.0 GPAs or better this past fall, including 2006 Draddy seminfinalist Doug Free... Western Michigan football team has completed over 2,400 hours of community service since last spring... Arizona State long snapper Jason Burke will receive a 2007 postgraduate scholarship from the NFF’s Valley of the Sun Chapter... 2006 NFF Scholar-Athlete Jay Henry received the Ira Errett Rodgers Memorial Award for academic excellence and on-field competitiveness... Spencer Rhodes Coffey, Jr. of Dallas (Texas) Science and Engineering Magnet School has received the $20,000 Davey O’Brien Trophy Scholarship to a college of his choice in 2007-08 for his academic and athletics’ exploits... Maine’s Ron Whitcomb was named Atlantic-10 Football Student-Athlete of the Year.

Meinke Car Care Bowl, featuring Boston College and Navy, experienced a ratings jump of over 160% over the previous year's game... CSTV now reaches 20 million homes nationwide... Athlon Sports announced its Limited Edition Covers promotion, giving fans the chance to see their favorite college team featured on an Athlon Sports College Football cover... Georgia Tech’s Chan Gailey is featured in the new book, “Legacy of Honor: The Values and Influence of America’s Eagle Scouts”... A 64-page full-color book entitled, “Time to Dream: The 2006 ACC Champion Demon Deacons” will soon be released by the Wake Forest Athletic Department... Southern California radio play-by-play man and analyst Pete Arbogast and Paul McDonald, respectively, have been named as two of the three finalists for the 2006 Southern California Sports Broadcaster of the Year... Boston Globe writer Mark Blaudschun was named the 2007 recipient of the Football Writers Association of America’s (FWAA) McGrane Award. The award is presented to an FWAA member who has performed great service to the organization and/or the writing profession.

Twelve standouts will showcase their skills in the ninth annual State Farm College Football All-Star Challenge from Orange Bowl Stadium in Miami, Fla., Saturday on ESPN at 4-6 p.m. (EST). Kirk Herbstreit, one third of the ESPN GameDay team that won the 2006 NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award, leads the broadcast team for the event. The 2007 field includes NFF Scholar-Athlete Chris Leak from Florida... Part of this week's festivities for the inaugural Texas vs. The Nation college all-star game (Saturday Feb. 2 on CSTV) in El Paso includes a Legends of the Game Golf Tournament featuring College Football Hall of Fame members Tony Casillas (Oklahoma), Barry Switzer (Oklahoma), and Randy White (Maryland). Former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum and former Texas Tech coach Spike Dykes are also scheduled to appear. Brian Stokes, a 27-year-old Iraq War vet, will play in the all-star game. The Appalachian State fullback recently received a Purple Heart for injuries received in a roadside bomb attack in 2004.

The estimated direct-impact income of the January 3 Sugar Bowl is an estimated $60-80 million... The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year banquet will take place Feb. 27 in Winston-Salem, N.C., home of Wake Forest and Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Jim Grobe... Yale’s Brandt Hollander was named the school’s 130th football captain... Former Rice Owl Darryl Grant will be inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame.

Rick McCarthy, a 1967 NFF Scholar- Athlete from Yale, unexpectedly passed away on Jan. 20. His son, Yale’s Ed McCarthy, was a 2006 NFF Scholar-Athlete, making the duo the first father and son to both accept the prestigious award... LSU’s Ken Kavanaugh, 90, a 1963 inductee into the NFF College Football Hall of Fame, World War II pilot and 45-year coach and administrator for the NFL’s New York Giants, died in Sarasota, Fla... Kentucky incoming freshman student-athlete John Keye died in a car accident... James Nixon, a former football-track standout at Stephen F. Austin died in Houston.