Oher calls reverse, will return to Mississippi for senior season
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- Mississippi tackle Michael Oher changed his mind and decided to return to school for his senior season, two days after making himself eligible for the NFL draft.
The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft was Tuesday, but then they're given three days to change their minds, as long as they don't sign with an agent.
Oher, a junior, has been projected as a possible first- or second-round pick.
"While I felt good about being projected as a possible first-round pick and had everybody in my corner, it just kept coming back to me that I was leaving some unfinished business at Ole Miss," Oher said Wednesday in a statement. "It's really about winning more games and going to a bowl game. I wanted to be a part of making that happen."
Oher was traveling Wednesday and was expected to talk with media following the basketball game between Florida and No. 18 Ole Miss. Oher's father, Sean Tuohy, did not return a phone message Wednesday afternoon.
The 6-foot-5, 325-pound Memphis, Tenn., native was an all-Southeastern Conference first-team selection this year at left tackle and helped running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis to two straight 1,000-yard seasons. He has started 34 straight games for the Rebels in three seasons.
"I was excited when Michael called to say he's decided to return to Ole Miss for his senior season," Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said. "Michael told me he wanted to make a commitment to his academics and to football and be the very best football player he can be. It's good to have him back in the Ole Miss family."
Oher's rise from homeless teen to can't-miss left tackle prospect was chronicled in Michael Lewis' best-selling book, "The Blind Side."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo to enter NFL draft
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo will skip his senior year to enter the NFL draft after leading the Southeastern Conference with 140 tackles this season.
"My experience here at the University of Tennessee has been a roller-coaster ride," Mayo said Wednesday. "I wouldn't change anything if I could do it all over again."
Mayo was considered the leader of the Volunteers defense, which struggled with injuries and inconsistent play early in the season before finishing strong in the SEC championship and Outback Bowl.
"Jerod has been a great leader for our football team and obviously a great player ... an outstanding student and just a wonderful person to have in our program," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. "He'll be very difficult to replace, no doubt about that."
Tennessee finished 12th in the final Top 25 poll after beating Wisconsin 21-17 in the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl. Mayo finished with a game-high 13 tackles against the Badgers.
Mayo, who has been projected as a late second-round or early third-round pick in the April draft, said one factor in his decision to leave was he graduated in December with a degree in sport management.
"He will do well, there's no doubt about that," Vols defensive coordinator John Chavis said.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Hampton, Va., native started every game but one in his final two seasons and finished the 2006 season 11th in the SEC with 83 tackles.
"I feel like I'm in a blessed and fortunate situation right now just to have the opportunity to make this decision whether to leave or to stay," he said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Two Helena High football players make college commitments
HELENA, Mont. -- Two Helena High football players have made verbal commitments to college football teams.
Bengals coach Tony Arntson says Josh Stuberg has committed to Montana while lineman Josh Leonard has committed to the University of Wyoming.
Stuberg, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder who played running back as a senior, earned all-state honors at cornerback as a junior. Arntson says Stuberg is projected to play outside linebacker for the Grizzlies.
The 6-4, 245-pound Leonard is expected to join the Cowboys' offensive line after playing defensive line in high school.
Helena High reached the semifinals of the state Class AA playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Gundy hires Tennessee assistant Taylor new offensive coordinator
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy hired Tennessee receivers coach Trooper Taylor on Wednesday to be the Cowboys' co-offensive coordinator.
Taylor was on the same Baylor staff with Gundy and former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Larry Fedora for one season in 1996 before the three parted ways. Fedora was hired as coach at Southern Mississippi last week, and Gundy acted quickly to fill a void on his staff, even though he hinted earlier Wednesday he had had little time to consider potential replacements for Fedora.
The Cowboys play Indiana in the Insight Bowl on New Year's Eve.
Regarded as a strong recruiter, the 37-year-old Taylor has been on Phillip Fulmer's staff at Tennessee since 2004. He also has coached at Tulane and New Mexico, and he played defensive back at Baylor before joining the staff there.
At Tennessee, Taylor has coached Robert Meachem, who set the Volunteers' season record for receiving yards (1,298) before becoming a first-round draft pick by the New Orleans Saints this year.
Taylor joins an offense that ranked ninth in the nation in total offense (484 yards), seventh in rushing (245.8 ypg) and averaged 33.4 points last season but loses top rusher Dantrell Savage and top receiver Adarius Bowman.
Taylor was considered a possible candidate to be promoted by Fulmer to offensive coordinator, replacing David Cutcliffe, who was hired by Duke as head coach.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Report: Miles signs extension at LSU
NEW ORLEANS (TICKER) -- Les Miles apparently will be at Louisiana State well into the next decade.
Miles signed a contract extension Thursday that will keep him at LSU at least through the 2012 season, according to a report on the New Orleans Times-Picayune's web site.
The newspaper did not include financial terms of the deal, which officially would end speculation that Miles might leave for the coaching vacancy at Michigan.
"I appreciate this contract very much," Miles told the newspaper. "I look forward to many years as LSU's coach."
Miles, 54, announced his intent to stay at LSU in unofficial yet angry fashion at an impromptu press conference prior to Saturday's Southeastern Conference championship game.
Addressing an erroneous report from ESPN earlier that day, Miles claimed that he did not attempt to interview with Michigan, his alma mater.
LSU (11-2) defeated Tennessee to win the SEC championship Saturday and jumped to No. 2 in the BCS standings the following day, locking up a spot opposite Ohio State (11-1) in the BCS title game on January 7.
Miles played for two seasons at Michigan under the late Bo Schembechler in 1974-75, then later served as an assistant coach for the Wolverines before moving on to Colorado in 1982.
Miles acknowledged last Friday that LSU had granted him permission to speak with Michigan, but insisted all his attention was focused on Tennessee.
Since replacing Nick Saban in 2005, Miles has a 33-6 record at LSU while guiding the Tigers to consecutive double-digit wins for the first time in school history.
Prior to his stint at LSU, Miles compiled a 28-21 record at Oklahoma State from 2001-04. He also was the tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys from 1998-2000.
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
2 Texas A&M football players arrested in investigation of home-invasion case
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Texas A&M indefinitely suspended two football players Thursday after their arrests a day earlier on felony robbery and drug counts.
Yemi Babalola was charged with two aggravated robbery counts and one count of misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to a College Station police statement. Brandon Joiner was charged with three drug possession counts, one a felony.
Babalola was free Thursday on bond totaling $52,000, according to records at the Brazos County Jail. Joiner remained in jail with bond set at $16,000, records show.
A spokeswoman for the Brazos County district attorney's office said Thursday an arraignment hadn't been set. It wasn't clear if Babalola and Joiner had hired lawyers.
According to the police statement, one resident suffered minor injuries in the home invasion on Nov. 29 at the Callaway Villas Apartments. Police said two men entered the apartment, one carrying a semiautomatic pistol.
The investigation led to the search of the suspects' homes on Wednesday, where drugs and other evidence was found, according to the statement.
Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said he and interim coach Gary Darnell determined both players would be suspended "until cleared of any wrongdoing."
"From information we have at this time, it is obvious this is a very serious situation," Byrne said in a statement. "The Texas A&M athletics department will cooperate completely with any investigation into this matter to gather all of the facts."
Babalola, a junior offensive lineman, played in nine games this season, including six starts. Joiner, a freshman defensive end, took a redshirt season and didn't play.
Texas A&M (7-5) plays Penn State (8-4) on Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Army coach Brock to revisit using option attack at West Point
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) -- After the Army-Navy game on Saturday, the Black Knights will retreat to the daily grind and begin thinking about spring football while their archrivals -- the Middies and Air Force Falcons -- begin preparing their option attacks to play in the postseason.
Army (3-8) doesn't have that opportunity this year, and even if the Black Knights snap their five-game losing streak against Navy (7-4), they're already assured of their 10th straight losing season.
It may be no coincidence that the Army mascot is a mule. It's taken seven years for academy brass to realize they had a pretty good thing going with the wishbone attack before former head coach Todd Berry jettisoned it in favor of a pro-style set, to disastrous results.
First-year head coach Stan Brock has finally seen the light. He plans to meet with his coaching staff after the season to discuss implementing at least some aspects of the option, which produced victories in the first two bowl games in academy history (10-6 over Michigan State in the 1984 Cherry Bowl and 31-29 over Illinois in the 1985 Peach Bowl) and its only 10-win season.
"There's a lot of things with the option that we like, but you have to recruit people to do it," Brock said this week as he prepared for the biggest game of the season. "We'll talk about a scheme or system, who we are, who we're recruiting, who our opponents are. But it will be a part (of the offense)."
That's music to the ears of countless alumni and fans.
Jim Young became a hero at West Point when he built Army back into a winner after more than a decade of despair. When Young arrived as head coach in 1983, Army had won more than four games only once in the previous 11 years. Young didn't fare any better his first season (2-9). But after installing a ground-oriented attack in 1984, Army football took off.
Young had only one more losing season before retiring after a 30-20 victory over Navy in 1990, his 51st win at West Point, third-most in academy history.
Bob Sutton succeeded Young, and after five so-so seasons plagued by injuries and some amazing bad luck, guided the Black Knights to a 10-2 mark in 1996.
Sutton was fired on a Philadelphia street after losing to Navy in 1999, three years after he won national coach of the year honors.
"Sutton beat Navy five years in a row and then they fired him," said Joe Steffy, the 1947 Outland Trophy winner for Army during the glory days of Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard. "That's the dumbest thing in the world."
It sure has seemed that way since. Berry was 5-35 before he was fired at midseason in 2003, and since going away from an option-based attack, Army has 17 wins in 92 games.
The slide can also be attributed in part to Army's 1998 decision to join Conference USA, a move aimed at getting more money from television and perhaps a bowl game now and then. Many thought that was a mistake. No longer afforded the luxury of scheduling Division I-AA schools like Colgate and Lafayette, Army sputtered. The Black Knights never won more than two conference games in seven seasons before reverting to independent status in 2004.
Army athletic director Kevin Anderson was quick to caution against expecting immediate results from the option. After all, Homer Smith, an expert in the wishbone-T offense while at UCLA, took over as head coach at Army in 1974 and went 3-8 and 2-9 before abandoning it.
"It wasn't only the option," Anderson said. "It was the scheduling. You can go back and look at the record books. Jim Young balanced the schedule. That's when we had success."
In considering the option, all Brock had to do was look at the stats.
Navy, which has the 16th-best offense in the country and leads the nation in rushing at 357 yards per game, has beaten Army in eight of the last 10 meetings. And Air Force (9-3), third in the nation in rushing at 298 yards per game and averaging 29 points, has beaten Army in nine of the last 10.
When it ran the wishbone with star tailbacks like Mike Mayweather, who graduated in 1990 as the all-time leading rusher in service academy history with 4,299 yards, Army was consistently one of the nation's top rushing teams.
This year, the Black Knights have 45 three-and-out drives, are averaging 86 yards rushing and 18 points per game to rank 111th out of 119 schools in both categories. They're still looking for their first 100-yard rusher in a game.
Still, Brock knows he has a chance to make that first postseason staff meeting enjoyable.
"If we beat Navy, everybody will be happy," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
