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By Greg Vacek
UCF
George O'Leary said
he hopes to settle on his depth chart for UCF's season opener against
South Carolina State by Wednesday or Thursday.
Redshirt freshman
quarterback Nate Tice has decided to transfer from the UCF program in
order to find an opportunity where he will receive more playing time.
Senior LB
Cory Hogue
will likely be sidelined for a few weeks with a leg
injury. Sophomore DE Darius Nall is expected to join the team on Aug.
22. He is recovering from surgery to remove a growth in his chest.
The Knights will
have a decal on their helmets this season honoring teammate Ereck
Plancher,
who died
March 18th, collapsing after a workout in preparation for the opening of
the Knights' spring practice. The autopsy revealed Plancher
had a sickle-cell trait, a medical condition that could cause death under
when exposed to physical stress.
EAST CAROLINA
The plan for
Saturday’s scrimmage was to start filling out ECU’s depth chart.
"The biggest competition going on right now
is between the seconds and thirds, who's going to make up the list,"
said fourth year head coach Skip Holtz, "With as many players as we have
with returning experience, a lot of those positions are kind of set."
“Today really wasn’t about where we stood as an offense, today
was about trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle around those guys that
are already cemented in as starters.”
Holtz said his
team’s biggest concern at this point in the season is the kicking game.
Matt Dodge, Ben Ryan and Nathan
Przestrzelski are sharing the place-kicking duties for the Pirates
because kicker Ben Hartman is nursing an injury.
Season tickets are
close to sellout, according to sources less than 500 tickets remain.
MARSHALL
John McCain spent about 20 minutes with
the Marshall University football team Wednesday and he received a
Marshall jersey with a number 1 on it, got a chance to call a few plays
with the team, and spoke to the players about his time as a prisoner of
war in Vietnam.
The Herd defense
will be going through numerous changes this season with new defensive
coordinator Rick Minter. "We're throwing a lot of stuff on the wall
right now and we're going to figure out what sticks, and that's what
we'll go with. But we're very diversified on defense” Coach Snyder
commenting on new coordinator Rick Minter’s defense.
Senior DT Montel
Glasco is expected to be sidelined at least three games after tearing a
rotator cuff while lifting weights. Junior CB Zearrick Matthews will
miss the first two games with a broken bone in his foot.
MEMPHIS
After
the first week of fall camp, Memphis coach
Tommy West
said Saturday he was relatively pleased. "We've gotten a lot done in a
week,'' West said. ''For what we've asked out of them so far, it's been
good.” West should know more about his team after evaluating Monday’s
scrimmage.
Two
key members of the football team -- running back
T.J. Pitts (ankle) and linebacker
Josh Weaver
(shoulder) -- continue to rehabilitate from offseason surgeries.
AD R.C.
Johnson announced Friday that $1.5 million -- or about half the cost --
has been raised toward the construction of a 12,000 square-foot weight
room for the football team. The project, which will be privately funded,
will be part of a $10 million fund-raising campaign that will include a
covered indoor practice field.
SOUTHERN MISS
First-year coach
Larry Fedora was disappointed in speed during 1st scrimmage Saturday.
Quickness that is required for his fast-paced spread offense. "It's a
mental deal. We were very slow," Fedora said after the closed scrimmage,
“We wanted to find out where we were, we did that.”
Southern Miss is
expected to pass the school record for season football tickets this week
with about 10,500 sold as of Friday.
UAB
In UAB’s first
scrimmage the Blazers ran the ball with success. "I think the first
offense did a good job against the second defense, scored a lot of
points and had a lot of big plays," said UAB coach Neil Callaway. "I'm
not really sure how many points the second offense scored but the first
defense has got to play better. For the second offense to be that
effective against our first defense, that's not good."
Senior receiver
Sylvester Mencer had surgery on his left shoulder and could be out the
entire season. Mencer who appeared in 11 games in 2007 could medical
redshirt 2008.
By Bryan Finck
Tulsa – Running
back Tarrion Adams was recently named to the watch list for the Doak
Walker Award, which is given every year to the most outstanding running
back in the country. Adams joins such BCS-league stars as Chris Wells
from Ohio State and Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno.
Adams saw plenty of
action this week but went down with a right leg injury in the third
quarter and did not play for the rest of the game. No word on the
severity of the injury as of yet. Tulsa also had starting Free Safety
Charles Davis leave the game in the first quarter with an unspecified
injury. He did not return to the game.
Houston – During
this week’s victory over Southern, Cougars’ starting OL Mike Bloesch
hyperextended his knee and left the game. Afterwards, Bloesch said his
knee felt fine and he anticipates being able to play against Oklahoma
State this week.
When SirVincent Rogers,
talented OL for the Cougars, goes up against Oklahoma State, he can be
forgiven for having some bad memories. In 2006, Rogers tore all three
major ligaments in his knee in a game against Oklahoma State. That was
his last football game until he suited up this past Saturday for the
Cougars’ season opener against Southern University.
Rice –Owls’ QB
Chase Clement and WR Jarett Dillard now have a total of 35 touchdown
connections in their careers, putting them 3 touchdowns short of tying
the all time career record for touchdowns from a QB/WR combination.
Jarett Dillard is on
the verge of becoming the NCAA all-time leading touchdown receiver. The
current record-holder is Troy Davis, with 50 touchdowns. Dillard now
sits at 43 touchdowns for his career.
SMU – Despite
his true freshman quarterback’s four interceptions in the season opening
loss, June Jones is sticking with his man going forward. Jones believes
the young QB will get better and says the rest of the team needs to get
better around him.
The Mustangs will be
looking for their first win in more than a year on Saturday, against a
team that represents their best chance for such an outcome. Texas State
comes into Dallas and the Mustang fans hope to celebrate for once
against an opponent that June Jones hopes will be easier to stop than
the Rice Owls proved to be this past Saturday.
Tulane –
Tulane’s opening game against Alabama was never going to be easy, but
weather has made it even more difficult than normal. With New Orleans
anticipating a possible direct hit from Hurricane Gustav, the football
team has evacuated New Orleans, arriving in Birmingham at the campus of
Samford University on Saturday afternoon. The Green Wave will practice
at Samford’s stadium and will use all of the school’s facilities to get
ready to face the Crimson Tide on Saturday.
UTEP – The
Miners got an extra practice day thanks to their Thursday game against
Buffalo, and they used it to work on the many problems that arose from
the opener. Said Mike Price, “We’ve got to learn from the mistakes, and
there’s a lot to learn from…”. The general feeling is that a lot has to
change for the Miners to keep pace with the Longhorns coming up this
weekend.
UTEP is hoping a trend
in recent years plays out this year. In 2000 and 2004, when the Miners
lost their opening game of the season, the team went on to record 8-4
records in the end.