Stephen Hamby, who was projected as the team's starting center this fall, was involved in an altercation on March 29. A Lubbock County grand jury has now indicted the Red Raider for aggravated assault for his alleged involvement in this brouhaha.
Hamby reportedly punched a man in the face twice before fleeing the scene. The victim was then treated for a fractured jaw. The severity of the victim's injuries likely led to the aggravated assault charge.
"I do know for a fact there was no weapon involved, so it had to be serious bodily injury for it to qualify as an aggravated assault,'' [Lubbock Police spokesman Capt. Greg] Stevens said.
Hamby started just two games in 2007. However, a strong spring propelled the 6-foot-3, 287-pound junior ahead of incumbent starter Shawn Byrnes. Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach was already aware of the incident involving Hamby and no changes have been made in Hamby's status with the team.
"His status is we'll see what the facts are and then address it based on the facts,'' Leach said. "We're not going to jump to any conclusions.''
Leach said he "was aware that there was an altercation.''
"But my understanding is that we addressed it, just like we address things internally,'' Leach said. "So if there's more facts that I don't know ... We're going to just wait and see what they are.''
The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.
The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.
Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.
"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."
The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.
"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.
I have to admit, I'm a sucker for these newsreel type highlights of the best of college football's storied past. This video highlights the best of Oklahoma's 1950 national championship season. The 1950 season began with Notre Dame riding a 38–game unbeaten streak. However, the Irish struggled to beat North Carolina in their opener, and then lost for the first time in five years to visiting Purdue 28–14. Notre Dame would go on to lose three more times before the end of the season, finishing at 4–4–1 and failing to make the final Top 20 for the first time in 10 years.
Oklahoma, on the other hand, swept through the regular season with 10 wins on the way to its own unbeaten string of 31 victories. They were led by Billy Vessels (who would win the Heisman in 1952) and All-Americans Jim Weatherall and Leon Heath. Following their undefeated regular season, Oklahoma met 7th ranked Kentucky (then coached by Bear Bryant) in the Sugar Bowl. The Wildcats took a 13–0 halftime lead and eventually held on for a 13–7 upset. However, because the final polls were released before the bowl games at this point in history, the AP voted Oklahoma as national champions.
A group of former Colorado Buffalo football players have created a network of ex-players designed to forge their allegiance to the school. The Buffs 4 Life Foundation has already reached out to several former players in need.
"Anthony got sick and that moved us forward," [Lance] Carl said. "That was the impetus that really started things rolling."
"Anthony" was former CU running back Anthony Weatherspoon, who was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder in 2004. Weatherspoon died in 2005, and in 2006, Buffs 4 Life held their first charity golf tournament, with proceeds going to Weatherspoon's family.
That got the ball rolling and it hasn't stopped. Last year, tournament proceeds benefitted former Buff quarterback John Hessler.
This sounds like a great organization and one devoted to far more than just reminiscing about the "glory days." The former players have united and found away to give back to the community and the university that oversaw a significant portion of their growth and development. The group posts job listings and resumes of members and is looking to continue its commitment to the university.
"Every guy that ever walked up that hill from the practice field to the locker room has something in common," Embree said. "That's a bond that won't go away. We want that to be a lifetime bond -- and it's important that we continue that bond."
"We came forward and were forthright about here's what it is and here's what his background is," [athletic director Jamie] Pollard said. "We laid all our cards on the table, and for that, there was a lot of initial criticism.
"But we worked our way through it."
While the initial debate over the addition of Lykins included a faculty petition against the move, as well as criticism from a number of media outlets, we're just now finding out how intense the situation was.
Pollard says his house was vandalized on three occasions during the time in which school officials were considering Lykins' appointment.
He said he decided not to file a police report.
Pollard said someone ripped landscaping apart and tossed the remains into the neighbor's yard. He also said he found garbage dumped in his front yard.
"I'm assuming it was because of this issue," Pollard said. "I can't prove that, but I assume it was."
Pollard remains committed to the idea of a life skills assistant and believes that Lykins' presence has benefited the university. At the end of the day, I suppose that's all that matters.
I earlier discussed Bo Pelini's role in laying the groundwork for Nebraska's reconciliation with Frank Solich. Now word comes that Solich himself, is making moves toward such a resolution. As this article notes, he recently began the process of reinstating a scholarship in his name to the Nebraska athletic department.
"The concept of Solich's $350,000 post-graduate scholarship was the brainchild of three close friends, Bob Sawdon of Austin, Texas; Tom Rodeno of Castle Pines, Colo; and Mick Ziegler of Dallas. The scholarship was established shortly after Solich took over as Nebraska's head coach in 1998. In 2004, in the months after his firing, he moved the scholarship out of the athletic department to the NU College of Law.
Perhaps Solich didn't appreciate that the plaque in South Stadium recognizing his scholarship recipients was taken down."
Perhaps you're right. The scholarship fiasco was another unfortunate by-product of Solich's firing, and the way it was mishandled by former athletic director Steve Pederson. But this seems to be more evidence that we're getting closer to some type of reunion. Fortunately, Steve Sipple agrees that bringing together the old and the new isn't a panacea for what ails Husker Nation.
"As for the old wounds, it's probably shortsighted to think they're going to magically heal, even with Tom Osborne back in the fold. Bottom line is, the program has endured massive tumult - almost unimaginable, if you think about it - and the healing process will require a lot of more time and patience. No need to rush anything."
The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been released by the Football Writers Association of America. The Nagurski Trophy is presented annually to the best defensive player in college football and is sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.
According to the press release:
"The Charlotte Touchdown Club will hold the 2008 banquet on Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. For the eighth straight season, the FWAA will also pick a Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week beginning with games on Aug. 30 and running through the middle of November. And a Bronko Nagurski Legends Award winner will also be selected from the FWAA's 1967 All-America team.
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been presented since 1993 and is awarded in memory of the legendary Nagurski, a former All-America lineman at Minnesota in 1927-29 and a star for professional football's Chicago Bears in the 1930s."
This year's watch list includes eight players from Big 12 schools, led by Oklahoma, which places three Sooners on the list. The Big 12 players on the Nagurski Watch List are:
George Hypolite, Colorado
Joe Mortensen, Kansas
Ian Campbell, Kansas State (pictured at right)
William Moore, Missouri
Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri
Auston English, Oklahoma
DeMarcus Granger, Oklahoma
Nic Harris, Oklahoma
Since its inception in 1993, three Big 12 players have won the Nagurski Trophy. Oklahoma defensive back Roy Williams took home the award in 2001. The Big 12 then had back-to-back winners in 2003 and 2004 in Oklahoma's Derrick Strait and Derrick Johnson from Texas.
"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.
Heisman Trophy winners often falter in their team's bowl game appearance following the award ceremony. But when they do play up to their potential, we are occasionally rewarded with an amazing performance like that of Nebraska's Johnny Rodgers in the 1973 Orange Bowl.
Nebraska's head coach Bob Devaney moved Rodgers from wingback to I-back for the Orange Bowl match-up with the Fighting Irish. The move paid off as Rodgers finished his collegiate career by scoring four touchdowns and throwing for another in a 40-6 Nebraska victory.
In what remains one of the greatest bowl performances ever, Rodgers:
· Rushed 15 times for 81 yards or an average of 5.4 yards/carry.
· Scored three touchdowns on runs of eight, four and five yards.
· Caught a screen pass from quarterback Dave Humm and ran 50 yards through the Irish to score a fourth time, establishing a new Orange Bowl record for total points and touchdowns scored.
· Threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Frosty Anderson.
Overall, Rodgers personally accounted for 30 of Nebraska's points and clinched a dramatic and impressive final victory for retiring coach Bob Devaney.
It was an messy, messy breakup when Nebraska fired Frank Solich in 2003. So messy that it led to the failed Bill Callahan experiment and the darkest days in the history of Husker football. Now Bo Pelini - a member of Solich's final coaching staff in Nebraska in 2003 – is back as the head coach. So too, are the painful memories of the way in which Solich was let go. What is perhaps surprising, however, is that it is Pelini who is banging the drum on Solich's behalf.
Pelini first mentioned the way Solich was treated in a 45-minute speech to a crowd in Columbus, Nebraska. During that night, Pelini responded to a question about not being named head coach in 2003, by stating that Frank Solich should not have been fired in the first place.
"He [Frank Solich] played a big part in me being where I am tonight," Pelini said.
"I do know this: The one person I feel sorry for in the whole thing is Coach Solich," Pelini told a crowd of 525 Thursday night. "I wish he could be back here with us. Just through the whole thing, I thought he was the one who got the short end of the stick, and that's too bad."
Davyon McGhee a sophomore linebacker for Kansas State has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest on Thursday night. McGhee was first identified by a liquor store employee as a suspect in the theft of $300 worth of alcohol. When police stopped his vehicle a short time later, they also found four laptop computers that had been stolen from the university.
That's a rough day, already, but according to the official police report the charges for McGhee weren't over yet:
"McGhee was arrested for theft, possession of stolen property, minor in possession of alcohol and possession of marijuana. He was released on $3,000 bond."
Not bad for one night's work. McGhee appeared in three games and made four tackles as a redshirt freshman, but was expected to contribute more in 2008. The site KstateFootball.com notes that:
"[McGhee] Closed his spring as one of the leaders on the Purple defense in the spring game, i.e., tied for most in solo tackles (4) and total tackles (5)."
Stephen Hamby, who was projected as the team's starting center this fall, was involved in an altercation on March 29. A Lubbock County grand jury has now indicted the Red Raider for aggravated assault for his alleged involvement in this brouhaha.
The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is 
A group of former Colorado Buffalo football players 
Last summer, the Iowa State athletic department 
I earlier 
The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy 
It was an messy, messy breakup when Nebraska fired Frank Solich in 2003. So messy that it led to the failed Bill Callahan experiment and the darkest days in the history of Husker football. Now Bo Pelini - a member of Solich's final coaching staff in Nebraska in 2003 – is back as the head coach. So too, are the painful memories of the way in which Solich was let go. What is perhaps surprising, however, is that it is Pelini who is banging the drum on Solich's behalf.
