Between the Hedges. Any college football fan knows what those 3 words mean and what team and stadium it really is associated with. The University of Georgia football team plays in Athens, Georgia in Sanford Stadium. Sanford Stadium is surrounded by English privet hedges, blocking the field from the fans, hence the phrase between the hedges.

The University of Georgia football program has a rich tradition of prosperous teams. Even so, there is one season in particular that took the program from a regionally well-known program into a national identified program. The 1980 football season for the Georgia Bulldogs is one of the greatest seasons that a college football program can have. The 1980 team won the national championship and dominated most teams on their schedule throughout the year culminating with a Sugar Bowl victory against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 17-10. However, this 1980 season, which included exceptional play from upperclassmen, for example Buck Belue and Lindsay Scott, is recognized for a freshman that would start his college career with such impact that it catapulted him to a level of infamy that couple of right after him have come close to attaining.

The freshman that took the country by storm throughout the 1980 season was running back Herschel Walker. Walker, from the state of Georgia, came to the University of Georgia among a lot hoopla after coming off a season in which he won the national high school athlete of the year soon after leading his high school team to their lone state championship in 1979. So to say the least, the expectations were extremely high for Walker coming into to his first season at Georgia, nonetheless what he would accomplish was well beyond any of the high expectations that many had just before the season began.

Walker becoming a highly touted freshman had a good deal of eyes on him, on the other hand, it seemed as if Walker welcomed the pressure and basked under it. During his initial season he rushed for over 1,600 yards, averaging virtually 150 yards a game including 15 touchdowns and was third inside the Heisman voting, which was pretty much unheard of for a freshman at that time. He also set the record for most rushing yards by a freshman by running for 283 yards against Vanderbilt University. With the success of Walker, he was a driving force behind the 1980 National Championship season for the Georgia Bulldogs . He was able to take pressure off the other players on the team due the teams focusing all their energies on stopping Walker, even though no team was prosperous and Georgia would go undefeated in Walker’s very first season.

To this day, all freshman running backs are compared to the statistics that Walker was able to put up. This not only consists of Georgia running backs, but running backs from all over the nation. Walker’s freshman season is regarded as by numerous to be the very best ever by a freshman along with the very best ever overall due to the ease by which Walker was able to dominate opponents with his speed and strength. Walker is synonymous with Georgia football and several these days long for the days of Walker dominating on the field.
Georgia Bulldog Watch, Men’s Belt, St. Louis Cardinals Watch

As Houston Nutt prepares for spring football practice, he probably has been making a “list of things to do”. Nutt has an incredible track record and the Ole Miss football squad is lucky to have him. He is right up there with ex-Rebels Coach Tommy Tubberville  in his knowledge and expertise of  football strategy and implementation.

Spring practice at University of Mississippi starts today, March 17 and extends through April 12th. Last season the Ole Miss Rebels football team finished 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference under the direction of Coach O. Their overall record was 3-9.

So what might Nutt’s TTD list look like today?

1. find a quarterback

2. find a tailback

3. get a new center ready

4. increase the size of the defense

Newsflash…the spring practice that was scheduled to start today, was postponed until Wednesday or Thursday because of the NIT basketball playoff tournament. So we’ll keep you updated about what is going on with Rebel football.

There is really alot of excitement among the fans about Coach Nutt and what his leadership could mean for the Rebel Nation. Hopefully, the tradition of The Grove will flourish again. A really cool Smack Apparel t-shirt just came out that says, Goin’ Nutts and the back of the shirt says, Houston, we have a coach….and we’re goin’ Nutts in Oxford.

 

Head football coach, Butch Davis of the North carolina Tar Heels had his team running drills and preparing for the upcoming sping football game scheduked for April 5. The team finished last season with a 4-8 record and 3-5 in the ACC. They are the second ACC team to start spring drills.

NC Tar Heels have a fair amount of players returning, however, the buzz is about who will play QB. Paulus, a four star prospect was beaten out by Yates last pre-season. Yates now suffering from a shoulder injury will be sidelined this spring. Thus giving Paulus the opportunity to showcase his skills this spring.

Coach Davis will have 10 returning starters on offense. They have also signed 5 linebackers to  give them more depth. Expect to see great things happen on offensive line with  four out of five starters back from last season.

This will be UNC second spring practice under Coach Davis. If they can keep the key players  healthy, the fans should be looking forward to a much improved season over last year.

For 60 games, the people of the great state of Texas have enjoyed watching Texas A&M Aggies and University of Texas Longhorns play football on Thanksgiving day. It was a tradition. However, they have not played each other on Thanksgiving day since 1993.

This year the Texas-Texas A&M game will be broadcast on ESPN on the traditiional Thanksgiving day in Austin, Texas. The holiday schedule will be retained for the next 2 seasons.

Aggies have won the last 2 match-ups against Texas Longhorns.

Many top college football players finished their workout in Indianapolis today. NFL hopefuls and top performers were Chris Johnson (RB) East Carolina Pirates, clocked 4.23 seconds in the 40 yard dash; Vernon Gholston (DL) Ohio State Buckeyes and Jake Long (OT) Michigan Wolverines, completed 37 reps on the bench press at 225 pounds.

For a list of other top combine performers and their stats, visit Rivals.com or click on this link to see how your favorite NFL hopeful fared.

http://nfldraft.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1164&CID=779093

Terry Bowden from Yahoo Sports has posted his Sweet Sixteen predictions for the 2007-08 NCAA football  season. Who will be #1? According to Bowden, USC is the contender with John David Booty as quarterback and ten returning defensive starters. USC starts off their season on September 1 at home against Idaho. Some say that USC John David Booty will follow Matt Leinart as the next USC Heisman winner. Booty graduated a year early from Evangel High School in Louisiana to start his football career at USC, while watching Leinart from the bench on gameday his freshman year. John David Booty is a well-deserved canidate as he is a scholar, a tremendous athelete and has high moral  standards. Booty for Heisman. So will USC be this years champions. Will John David Booty be this years Heisman winner? Or will both of these things happen? What do you think?

 

 

 

 

The schools talked about in this articles are talked about in detail at collegeteamreview.com. This great new site is an awesome place for sports fans to find information about their favorite teams. Also is some great information about finding the latest merchandise that these fans are buying to support their teams. College team reviews is also a place that fans can leave comments about their favorite or least favorite team.

Appalachian State University is located in a Boone, North Carolina. Appalachian State University is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system.  On December 16, 2005, Appalachian State won the division I-AAA national football championship over the University of Northern Iowa.  The score was 21- 16 in the favor of Appalachian State. Appalachian State Christmas Ornaments are a great way to celebrate the Christmas season.
Arkansas Razorbacks football completed the 06 season with a 10- 4 record.  Arkansas had a 7-1 record in the regular season in the SEC. Arkansas Razorbacks head coach is Houston Nutt and their offense coordinator is Gus Malzahn.  Arizona’s defensive coordinator is Reggie Herring. Razorback Stadium can see 72,000 people.  The last game Arkansas played in the 06 season was in the Capital One Bowl were they lost 17-14.

Brady Hoke is the current head coach of Ball States football team.  Ball State holds an all-time record of 376- 340- 32.  Throughout history, the Ball State Cardinals have played in three bowl games with a record of 0-3. The first bowl game was in 1989 against Fresno State in the second bowl game was in 1993 against Utah State.  The third and final defeat was in 1996 against Nevada.

Boston College is in the Atlantic Coast conference and has become notorious for their hard-hitting defense.  Boston College is located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and their mascot is Baldwin the Eagle.  Athletes at Boston College are some of the most academically successful in the nation.

Another article that has some awesome information about a new Baby Bedding Store that is coming soon can be found here: Baby Boy Nursery

JaMarcus Russell, former QB of LSU Tigers, is headed for the Oakland Raiders.  JaMarcus was the first pick of the first round in the NFL 2007 draft. He finished his junior season at LSU with 28 touchdown passes and 8 interceptions. He had the second most touchdown passes (52) and second highest completion percentage (61.9) in LSU history.
Russell is 6 foot 6 inches, 260 pounds and described as having a “rocket arm.”
Russell has already been practicing with the Raiders and his “strong arm” has been the main conversations of his teammates.
The Raiders offense scored only 12 touchdowns last season, so selecting JaMarcus Russell is huge for their future.
LSU’s loss will be the Raiders gain. This tremendous athlete will be a QB in the NFL to be reckoned with for many years to come. Russell has an arm of a rocket launcher and the presence on the field to lead other players to championships. So it want be long before we should be seeing the Raiders in many post season games. And then it can’t be long before we see the Russel lead Raiders in the Super Bowl.

 Brent Schaeffer was named the Rebels’ starting quarterback before he arrived in Oxford last August. But after a very bad 2006 season and so-so spring showing, he’s competing with former walk-on Seth Adams to hold on to the starting job. After spring practices were concluded, Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron acknowledged Adams has the edge. “(Adams) has a leg up on Brent right now,” he said. “Brent has had some good days and inconsistent days, and we’re keeping (the quarterback job) open.” Other prospects for the future QB position include redshirt freshman Michael Herrick and .Jevan Snead, a freshman who transferred to Ole Miss from Texas in December and must sit out the upcoming season, both saw action in the 2007 spring game. Freshman quarterback, Cliff Davis did not see any playing time during the spring game and has quit the team. Cliff Davis, redshirted in 2006, turned in his jersey after the fourth quarter of the spring game, calling in quits with Rebel football. Davis was a standout baseball and football player at Eupora High School in Mississippi who signed with Alabama in 2003 but changed his mind to play professional baseball with the Houston Astros. Davis joined the Rebels as a non-scholarship player with the Rebels as a Freshman quarterback. 

I have seen Cliff play both football and baseball when he was in high school and he was a great athlete. Best of luck in the future, Cliff.  

 

A record attendance was on hand for the annual spring game. It was predicted there would be about 50,000 fans on hand, however approximately 92,138 showed up to see what  Nick Saban has in store for the Tide next year. There were probably about 30,000 more fans than have ever been at an Alabama Crimson Tide spring game.
“We have a lot more experience on offense, nine guys who were starters,” Saban said. “We also have several other guys who have played significantly. There’s a little more security there, knowledge, experience. They’ve taken to the offense, and they’re buying in to what we need to do.”
 New offensive coordinator, Major Applewhite , demonstrated in the  “A-Day” spring game that he isn’t afraid to throw the ball.
It certainly looks promising that Nick Saban will return the Tide Football program to heights of past glory and beyond. If you don’t believe me just ask any one of the 92,138 fans that attended the “A-Day game.
Alabama Crimson Tide football opens their 2007 season on September 1, 2007.   

keep looking »

Blogroll

WP Themes