D1 College Football News

December 18, 2006

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

Two-Minute Drill

New Hampshire QB Ricky Santos captured the I-AA Walter Payton Award... Cal Poly LB Kyle Shotwell earned the I-AA Buck Buchanan Defensive Player of the Year Award... Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore received the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award... San Diego, 11-1 and coached by Jim Harbaugh, gained the 2006 Sports Network Cup as the top mid- major football program... The Harlon Hill Trophy for Division II Player of the Year went to Chadron State RB Danny Woodhead... Rawlings NAIA Player of the Year is St. Francis (Ind.) LB-TE Brian Kurtz... Division III honors included Offensive Player of the Year – Mount Union’s Nate Kmic; Defensive Player of the Year – UW- Whitewater’s Ryan Kleppe; and Coach of the Year – Mount Union’s Larry Kehres... California’s DeSean Jackson won the inaugural Randy Moss Return Man Award to be presented in Houston on Jan. 12, 2007... Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey was chosen as the 2006 FedEx Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award winner... Rutgers’ Greg Schiano won the Walter Camp Football Foundation Coach of the Year honors, as well as Big East Coach of the Year, Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year and Home Depot Coach of the Year laurels... Wake Forest head coach Jim Grob has been named National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News and CBS Sportsline.

2006 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Ed McCarthy of Yale was recently named the winner of the Gridiron Club of Boston’s Nils V. “Swede” Award for outstanding achievement in academics, athletics, sportsmanship and citizenship... LSU’s JaMarcus Russell was named November Alabama Athlete of the Month by the United States Sports Academy... UMass RB Steve Baylark became just the seventh player in NCAA Division I history to have four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons... TE Matt Spaeth became Minnesota’s 50th all-time first team All-America choice when he was named to the Associated Press “dream” team last week... Maryland’s Josh Wilson has been named recipient of the 2006 James E. Tatum Award as the ACC’s top football scholar-athlete... USC’s Sedrick Ellis and Ryan Kalil won the 27th annual Morris Trophy (top offensive and defensive linemen in the Pac-10 Conference). It was the fourth time overall and the first time since 1991 that the award winners were from the same school... Baylor’s Daniel Sepulveda became the Bears’ first consensus All-America since Santana Dotson in 1991.

Head coach Fisher DeBerry has retired after 23 seasons at Air Force. He was the winningest coach in Air Force history and the third- longest tenured coach at one school... Todd Dodge, highly-successful head coach at Southlake Carroll (Texas) HS and former Texas quarterback, has been named head coach at North Texas. His Carroll team has won 47 straight games and will advance to its 5A- record fifth consecutive title game, seeking a third consecutive championship... Miami Dolphins’ tight end coach Derek Dooley was named head coach at Louisiana Tech... Minnesota State, Moorhead named Damon Tomeo its head coach... Sonny Dykes is leaving Texas Tech to become offensive coordinator under head coach Mike Stoops at Arizona... Former Oklahoma head coach and Nebraska assistant John Blake has been named as an assistant on Butch Davis’ new staff at North Carolina. The Tar Heels also hired Charlie Williams as offensive assistant... Heidelberg (Ohio) selected Mike Hallett as head coach while East Texas Baptist tabbed Mark Sartain... Idaho State hired John Zamberlin as its new head coach... Nebraska hired Buddy Wyatt as defensive line coach... Findlay (Ohio) hired Jon Wauford as head coach... Pittsburgh named Buddy Morris its strength and conditioning coach and former NFL offensive lineman Tom Myslinski as assistant strength and conditioning coach... Michael Lucas was named head coach at Southeastern Louisiana... Gannon (Pa.) named Jim Kiernan its new head football coach... San Diego gave Ky Snyder, executive director of athletics and associate vice president for athletics, a three-year contract extension... Rick Mello was named associate commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference... Terry Mohajir was named associate athletics director for external operations at Florida Atlantic... Oregon State hired Mark Massari as senior associate athletic director for external affairs.

In honor of former Northwestern football coach Randy Walker, ribbons with the inscription “RW” and “1954-2006” will be painted on the field at the 73rd Annual Brut Sun Bowl. Walker coached his last game in Sun Bowl Stadium and participated in two Sun Bowls as a coach... Texas Tech introduced the “Send a Soldier” program, enabling students to purchase Insight Bowl tickets for military personnel. Similarly, Alabama officials are encouraging Tide students unable to attend the Independence Bowl to donate their tickets to the military... Kentucky sold out its allotment of 24,000 tickets for the Gaylord Music City Bowl (presented by Bridgestone)... Navy has sold 17,000 tickets to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C... NFF board member and Hall of Famer Archie Manning will be the keynote speaker at the pre-game banquet for the Papajohns.com Bowl... 18 llamas will appear in the Rose Bowl Parade this year. This is the first time in the 118-year history of the parade the animals were allowed to participate.

Mizzou Athletics and the Kansas City Alumni Chapter recently hosted a Sun Bowl pep rally... Over 8,000 tickets were sold by Maryland in the eight business days following the team’s selection to the Champs Sports Bowl... The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl and Kiwanis will sponsor Bowl Family Four Packs for the Dec. 19 game. San Diego-area students in grades K-12 with perfect attendance through November will be entered into a drawing for the packs, which include four game tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and a game program... Over 5,000 tickets to the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl were distributed to military personnel. The bowl will feature the largest display of military hardware ever at a football game, including four helicopters, a coast guard ship and armored security vehicles. The fathers of bowl coaches Steve Kragthorpe (Tulsa) and Kyle Whittingham (Utah) coached together at Brigham Young... Oklahoma State sold all its 12,000 tickets for the Independence Bowl, marking the first time since 1999 an I-Bowl team sold out of its allotment... Tennessee officials announced Saturday a sellout of its Outback Bowl tickets... The LPGA’s Natalie Gulbis will serve as Grand Marshall of the 36th Annual McDowell Fiesta Bowl Parade, and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin will serve as Grand Marshall for the 26th Annual Orlando Citrus Parade... The Fiesta Bowl will hold its Youth Gridiron Day on Dec. 27 with personnel from Boise State and Oklahoma assisting... The Papjohns.com Bowl partnered with the Monday Morning Quarterback Club, supporting the Crippled Children’s Foundation with an initial pledge of $25,000... American Airlines, the official airline of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, is offering discounts to Auburn and Nebraska fans flying to the game... 2006 marks the first time that Houston and Rice appear in a bowl in the same season... Demand for Alamo Bowl tickets has caused prices to soar online at sites like StubHub.com and TicketCity.com. The bowl is working to establish an official resale Web site for tickets.

Former All-America WR Art Monk of Syracuse has been named to his alma mater’s Board of Trustees... Wolverines’ Chad Henne and Jake Long announced plans to stay at Michigan for their senior seasons... New Mexico State is introducing a secondary logo, giving “Pistol Pete” his guns back after complaints from students and fans. It will be used along with the Larry Lasso logo designed over a year ago... Mississippi State may change its 2007 game with LSU to a season –opening Thursday night game to accommodate television... The four Division I schools in Arkansas combined for a 32-15 record in 2006... University of South Dakota regents approved the school’s move to Division I and will begin competition in the 2008-09... Ball State launched its re-designed Web site through a partnership with XOS Technology... Arizona State season ticket prices will be reduced or will stay the same for the 2007 season... Auburn committed $100,000 for the Legacy & Loyalty Scholarship program, benefiting children of former Tiger scholar- athletes.

Members of the Louisville football team will sign autographs tonight at the Trager Indoor Practice Facility... Miami (Fla.) and Florida International will play again in 2007... TCU Chancellor Dr. Victor Boschini presented diplomas during a special assembly in San Diego to the Horned Frogs’ graduating seniors who missed last weekend’s on-campus ceremonies in Fort Worth. Among the graduating honorees was Frogs’ QB Jeff Ballard, who enters the game with a school-record .900 career winning percentage (18-2) as a starter... NC State’s DaJuan and DeAndre Morgan collected items for Toys for Tots outside the RBC Center on Saturday... Former Texas QB Jevan Snead has narrowed down his transfer choices to Ole Miss, TCU and Houston... Longtime Davey O’Brien Award and Doak Walker Award emcee Scott Murray recently held a book signing for Whatever It Takes... Rice’s Todd Graham will assist Texas Tech’s Mike Leach and Kentucky’s Rich Brooks will assist San Jose State’s Dick Tomey in the IntaJuice North South All-Star Classic... The second annual Magnolia Gridiron Classic will take place Saturday in Jackson, Miss... Former Grambling All- America Everson Walls will donate a kidney to his former Cowboys teammate and ex-Ohio State Buckeye Ron Springs... NBC Chairman Dick Ebersol will be the keynote speaker at the 42nd annual NACDA Convention... Airport security would not allow OSU’s Troy Smith to bring his Heisman Trophy on the plane and was forced to ship it back to campus... Three Navy players were selected for leadership positions in Bancroft Hall next semester. Jeremy McGown will serve as Fourth Battalion Commander, Greg Veteto will be Brigade Sergeant Major and Leif Walroth will be 17th Company Commander. Leadership positions were also given to James Koffi and Ian Townsend, student managers for the Navy football team... The NFF’s Indiana Chapter will co-host a Paul Hornung book-signing on Dec. 20. Hornung, who celebrates this year the 50th anniversary of receiving the Heisman, wrote Lombardi and Me: Players, Coaches, and Colleagues Talk About the Man and the Myth... In Sports Illustrated’s Dec. 15 issue commemorating “50 Years of Faces in the Crowd,” several of college’s gridiron greats were mentioned, including: NFF founder General Douglas MacArthur, NFF historian Dan Jenkins and College Football Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw, Herschel Walker and Emmitt Smith.

The Big East Conference managed the highest-rated games of ESPN college football telecasts on a Thursday (Louisville-West Virginia) and a Friday (Connecticut-West Virginia) this season... Cox added ESPNU to its digital tier, giving the sports network approximately 10 million subscribers out of the deal... ESPN’s Jan. 14 airing of the Cornerstone Bancard Hula Bowl marks the first time a college football game in Hawaii will be broadcast in HD.

Minnesota’s new stadium will be paid off three years sooner than originally anticipated after finding that interest costs will be $28.4 million less than projected. The facility will be ready by fall 2009... Texas started $176 million in stadium renovations. Upon completion, over 90,000 Longhorn fans will be able to fit into Darryl K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium... NFF board member and Hall of Fame QB Archie Manning helped Nicholls State get a new $500,000 playing surface courtesy of AstroTurf. Manning was recently hired as the turf company’s spokesman and will hold the third Manning Passing Academy at NSU on July 12. The new field will be renamed in honor of the Manning family after its installation... Plans for the Dallas Cowboys’ new $1 billion stadium were posted on the Web last week. It will feature an 80,000-seat capacity that can expand to 100,000 and the world’s largest retractable roof.

Lamar Hunt, the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs and a sports business visionary, died December 13 at 74 after an eight-year battle with prostate cancer. Widely known for his pioneering accomplishments in the NFL and other professional sports, Hunt played at Southern Methodist University as a reserve end for three years, graduating in 1956. He later served as a member of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association and as a Life Director of the organization. He made major gifts to the SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium and the Paul B. Loyd Jr. All-Sports Center while also serving as a member of SMU’s Board of Trustees and a member of the board of directors for the Doak Walker Award.

Former San Jose State coach and athletics director Bob Bronzan died at 87... Micah Gifford, a Harding (Ark.) football player from 1998-2002, was killed while serving in Iraq... Bethany Norwood, a former Prairie View A&M cheerleader who was paralyzed after breaking her neck when teammates failed to catch her during a stunt, died from probable complications related to the injury. She was 24.