D1 College Football News

October 23 , 2006

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

Purdue’s Mike Phipps to be Honored This Weekend
Legendary Big Ten quarterback Mike Phipps, a 2006 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, will be honored this weekend with an On- Campus Salute as the Boilermakers take on Penn State.

Phipps, a 1969 Big Ten MVP and unanimous All- America selection, finished second in the 1969 Heisman voting and is the first quarterback ever to beat Notre Dame in three consecutive years. He was also a First Team Academic All-America selection and received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

2006 Draddy Semifinalists Announced
Selected as the best and the brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) has announced the 148 semifinalists for the 2006 Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and the candidates for the 2006 National Scholar-Athlete Awards.

With a 3.51 average GPA and majors such as biochemistry and zoology, the group includes 70 student-athletes who have earned all-conference recognition on the field and 94 captains. Nominees hail from all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, including a record 64 contenders from Division I- A.

The finalists will be announced on Oct. 26, and the Draddy winner will be revealed at the 49th NFF Awards Dinner on Dec. 5 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. For the complete list of the 148 semifinalists and the candidates’ group for the NFF Scholar-Athlete Awards, please click here.

Two-Minute Drill
Both Harvard and Princeton were 5- 0 for the first time since 1922 going into last weekend’s match-up. Twin brothers Andrew Berry (Harvard) and Adam Berry (Princeton) lined up against one another as the Tigers edged the Crimson to stay atop the Ivy League... Brothers Jason Pritchard (James Madison) and Blair Pritchard (William and Mary) also faced off against each other last weekend in 31-17 homecoming victory for the Dukes... The New Mexico State- Hawai'i clash last week matched the top two passing offense teams nationally with a combined 854.3 passing yards, 69 completions and 99 attempts each outing... Albany's Homecoming and Family Weekend featured Touchdown Tailgate, T- shirts for the first 1,000 fans attending and a fireworks’ display... Missouri defeated Kansas State for the first time since 1992. The Tigers (7-1) are off to their best start since 1969... Tulsa has won 13 of its last 15 games (dating back to Oct. 1, 2005), and has had its best start since 1982... New Mexico’s comeback to down Utah from a 21-point deficit (24- 3) tied for the biggest turnaround in Lobos’ school history... Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn became the 32nd quarterback in Division I- A history to reach 10,000 career passing yards. The Fighting Irish’s last second victory over UCLA was only the third time in their storied history that they had won a game in the last thirty seconds... Rutgers is 7-0 for the first time since 1976. The Scarlet Knights’ Ray Rice is the first player in school history to compile four 200-yard games after downing Pittsburgh last weekend.

Springfield (Mass.) QB Chris Sharpe ran for seven touchdowns, one shy of a Division III record, in a victory against St. John Fisher (N.Y.)... Virginia has beaten North Carolina 13 straight times in Charlottesville... University of San Diego has won 14 in a row... Houston QB Kevin Kolb became the 10th player in NCAA history to compile more than 12,000 yards... Baylor's three conference wins are the Bears’ most since the joining the Big 12 in 1996... Michigan State staged the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history by rallying from 35 points down in the third quarter to beat Northwestern 41-38... Wesleyan University honored its 1966 Little Three Championship team during it homecoming game against archrival Amherst last weekend... Northern Iowa snapped Youngstown State’s 11-game home winning streak... Florida will be playing its 10th Top 25 opponent since Sept. 2005 when the Gators tangle with Georgia Saturday in Jacksonville... Southern California (30 consecutive) and Appalachian State (22 in a row) hold the current longest home winning streaks in NCAA Division I-A and I-AA, respectively... QBs Jared Zabransky (Boise State) and John Stocco (Wisconsin) are 1-2 nationally in wins by starting quarterbacks since 2004. Zabransky has 28, and Stocco has 26... Kentucky quarterback Andre’ Woodson currently holds the Southeastern Conference record for best interception ratio in league history for a minimum of 400 pass attempts. He has thrown 11 interceptions in 556 pass attempts - a ratio of one pickoff for every 50.5 passes... Rice WR Jarrett Dillard has caught touchdown passes in nine consecutive games – a school record... Missouri freshman QB Chase Daniel raised his eight-game season TD total to 19, which breaks the MU single-season TD record of 18 by Terry McMillan in 1969.

Navy SB Eddie Martin is the latest nominee for the FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award to be announced at the end of the 2006 season... Former Stephen F. Austin kicker Mark Moseley was honored by the Lone Star Conference as a selection to its 75th Anniversary Team... Twelve senior student-athletes have been selected as semifinalists for the 2006 Rotary Lombardi Award. Four finalists will be announced Nov. 7 with a presentation in Houston, Texas, Dec. 6. A committee of over 400 college football coaches, writers, broadcasters and previous finalists participate in a three-tiered balloting process... Former Virginia Tech QB Will Furrer was inducted into Fork Union’s Sports Hall of Fame... Ohio State QB Troy Smith and OL T.J. Downing highlight the College Football News.com Midseason All- America team... The Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, Inc. (DACO) has announced the 10 semifinalists for Butkus Award. Three finalists will be announced via a national teleconference on Nov. 9. The winner will be announced Dec. 9 in Orlando... Former Virginia QB Don Majkowski was recently inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

Wheaties will feature a Lonestar Showdown box, honoring the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. The match-up, dating back to 1894, is the first to be highlighted on the cereal box. The two schools will host a charity golf tournament together the Monday prior to their game on Nov. 24, which will benefit the charitable purposes of the NFF’s Houston Touchdown Club Chapter... Elon inducted six members of the 35th class of its Sports Hall of Fame last week, and three were football student-athletes Rod Clark, Tony DeMatteo and Ernie Tootoo... Former Virginia star and current Chicago Bears running back Thomas Q. Jones participated in a special recognition ceremony of the Jones family during Family Weekend at U.Va. last weekend. The event featured the announcement of a gift from Jones to the university... According to nonpartisan polls, former USC wide receiver Lynn Swann trails Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell by 19 points in his bid to become governor of Pennsylvania... Syracuse Director of Athletics Dr. Daryl Gross is giving the athletics development program a new identity - The Orange Club will re-brand the Orange Pack, which was founded in 1974 and includes more than 5,400 members. The Orange Club membership also includes a new benefits system for the athletics department donors. Syracuse also promoted Reggie Terry to associate athletics director for football operations... The University of Oklahoma Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is a finalist for the 2007 College PRISM Awards, which recognizes athletic organizations that demonstrate Professional Results and Innovation in Sport Management (PRISM)... N.C. State and South Carolina have agreed to play a two- game series starting in 2008. ESPN will televise both games.

Because of the overwhelming ticket demand for Rutgers’ Nov. 9 home game against Louisville, the school will allow students to view the game from the hill at the open end of the stadium and will bring in portable bleachers for the band to sit in... Michigan released plans to renovate the “Big House,” including an elevated concourse, a new press box and private suites. The project is estimated at $226 million.

The Big Ten Network announced its first board of directors to oversee Big Ten TV set to launch in Aug. 2007. The board includes Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany, Fox Sports Networks COO Randy Freer, former PNC Banc Vice Chairman Edward Junker III, President of Fox Sports Networks Bob Thompson and New York Mets Chairman and CEO Fred Wilpon... Vanderbilt and CSTV Networks will re-launch vucommodores.com, the official website of the Commodores... Last weekend, ESPN Classic premiered “NCAA On Campus,” which highlights the accomplishments of NCAA student-athletes and news... Wingate aired its game last Saturday with Newberry via streaming on the internet site www.redzonemedia.com... Georgia head coach Mark Richt is featured in the MGM release (initially produced independently by Sherwood Baptist Church and Sherwood Christian Academy in Albany, Ga.) “Facing the Giants.”

The Charlottesville (Va.) Chapter of the National Football Foundation sponsored ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit at a “Let’s Talk Football” forum on Oct. 18.

Former Washington running back Ernie Steele died at age 89.