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In the FCS Huddle: Salukis hope to wow 'em in new stadiumNCAA Football Betting Lines05/24/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It had gotten to the point that Southern Illinois coaches tried not to show McAndrew Stadium or the Salukis' football locker rooms during on-campus recruiting visits. The 73-year-old stadium had become so outdated that it was a negative factor for the Missouri Valley Football Conference power. This past recruiting season, head coach Dale Lennon and his staff saw a difference. The "wow" factor was evident in Carbondale, because the coaches could show off SIU's new 15,000-seat stadium that is being completed for the 2010 season. The Salukis, who averaged 8,882 fans over seven home games in 2009, will debut the stadium on Sept. 2 against NAIA program Quincy University. "The stadium's been a long time coming," said Lennon, who is 20-5 in two seasons at SIU, including 11-2 in 2009. "This is something that they've been talking about here at Southern Illinois since the late '60s. Old McAndrew Stadium, it saw some glory years, but it was time for that stadium to retire. The excitement's that surrounding the new stadium really could give this program that type of boost that we've been looking for." The new football stadium is being called Saluki Stadium until naming rights are announced, perhaps this summer. It is part of the $83 million Saluki Way Project, which includes an arena renovation and a new athletic support facility (which will feature new football offices and football locker room). The stadium will have a two-story press box with 12 luxury suites, a 2,500- square-foot VIP club room, and traditional booths for coaches and TV/radio personnel. While SIU will be the 12th FCS school since 2000 to open a new stadium, it's not like McAndrew Stadium treated the Salukis poorly. They won 37 of their final 39 regular-season games there, including 12 straight conference games for the defending MVFC champions. Their 2009 season, however, ended at home with a 24-3 loss to William & Mary in the FCS quarterfinals. "I want that place full every home game that we're playing," Lennon said, looking ahead to 2010. "I just think that there's so many things that we've done with the design of that stadium that the fans are going to enjoy the overall game experience and, hopefully, that will translate into sellouts. That's number one. Number two, I want the fans to feel like they have an influence on the outcome of the game. And that's where, hopefully, the noise factor can become a strong element. And then number three, I hope our current players understand and realize the privilege of playing in a new stadium that's been a long time coming. A lot of people have done a lot of work to get us to this point. There's a responsibility there also." SIU will return a strong senior class despite losing 23 seniors after last season, including running back Deji Karim, the third-place finisher for the Walter Payton Award after he rushed for an FCS-high 1,694 yards and scored 20 total touchdowns. The running could be done by committee behind an offensive line that features left tackle David Pickard and center Bryan Boemer, a pair of juniors. Backup quarterback Paul McIntosh is the most accomplished rusher on the team, but 6-foot-5 senior starter Chris Dieker returns to direct the offense. All-MVFC first-team fullback John Goode also returns in the backfield. The secondary will be among the best in the FCS with two potential All- Americas, cornerback Korey Lindsey and free safety Mike McElroy, who combined for 13 interceptions. The only other returning starter on defense is defensive end Chance Coda. Junior Connor James headlines the linebackers unit, which lost Buck Buchanan Award finalist Brandin Jordan. "We want to be a consistent program where we put on a pretty good performance week-in and week-out," Lennon said. "We've had some changes on the offensive side, where we have a new offensive coordinator (Kalen DeBoer, the former University of Sioux Falls head coach) coming in. Offensively, we're expecting some big things this year with Chris Dieker coming back, with Joe Allaria at the receiver spot. He was our top receiver from last year. We have some good offensive linemen returning from last year. We'll probably put a little more pressure on the offense than what we've done the last two years. "Defensively, we've got experience coming back, but we're going to have a few more new players play in that area. We've got to play the complete team game and make sure each side of the ball complements the other side." SIU will play six regular-season home games at its new stadium, including one of the biggest of the MVFC season when South Dakota State comes calling on Oct. 16. A week earlier Northern Iowa visits, another key contest as the Salukis make a run at an eighth straight trip to the FCS playoffs. "Our biggest challenge will be making our the stadium feel like home," Lennon said. "You don't want to go into that first game or second game there and feel like you're on the road somewhere. Hopefully, here we'll get a homefield advantage with the noise." AROUND THE NATION - Speaking of FCS fields, the red synthetic turf that is scheduled to be installed at Eastern Washington this summer will bring with it a renaming of Woodward Field to Roos Field. The name change comes after a $500,000 donation was made by Michael and Katherine Roos. Michael Roos is a former EWU player who has started every game of his five-year career with the Tennessee Titans. The 2008 Pro Bowl selection is currently the Titans' left tackle. - Technically, Richmond's new E. Claiborne Robins Stadium is a $25 million expansion to the old First Market Stadium, which had housed the Spiders' lacrosse, soccer and track teams. Robins Stadium will have the feel of a new venue, however, as football returns to an on-campus site for the first time in 80 years. Robins Stadium will hold 8,700 spectators, which is less than the 9,413 the Spiders averaged off campus at Richmond Stadium last season. - UC Davis is the common denominator for two Big Sky programs that have particularly tough non-conference schedules. Weber State opens the regular season at Boston College (Sept. 4) and closes it at Texas Tech (Nov. 20), with a Sept. 25 home game against UC Davis, the defending Great West Conference champion. Struggling Portland State has a three-game opening road stretch of Arizona State (Sept. 4), UC Davis (Sept. 11) and Oregon (Sept. 18). A few other FCS programs with two particularly tough games against FBS programs are Presbyterian (Sept. 2 at Wake Forest and Sept. 11 at Clemson), Tennessee Tech (Sept. 4 at Arkansas and Sept. 11 at TCU) and McNeese State (Sept. 11 at Missouri and Oct. 16 at LSU). - Among three of the FCS power conferences - CAA Football, Big Sky and the SoCon - only Delaware of the CAA and Montana of the Big Sky won't be facing at least one FBS opponent. Delaware's Sept. 11 home game against South Dakota State is one of the more interesting intersectional games of the FCS season, and the Blue Hens also have home gimmes against West Chester (Sept. 2) and Duquesne (Sept. 18). Montana, meanwhile, hosts Western State (Sept. 4) and North Dakota (Nov. 13), and visits Cal Poly (Sept. 11). - Villanova two-sport standout Matt Szczur played the final three games of the Wildcats' baseball season, homering in his first at-bat May 21 after a 23-day break to make a donation of peripheral blood cells to a young leukemia patient. Szczur, The Sportsbook Betting Lines First Team All-America who scored two touchdowns in the Wildcats' 23-21 win over Montana in the 2009 FCS Championship Game, went 7-for-13 over the three-game series and finished the season batting .443 with four home runs, 24 extra-base hits and 38 RBIs over 174 at-bats in 39 games. He will be drafted by a major league organization June 7-9, but football coach Andy Talley and his team are hoping he returns for his senior season this fall. - Author Denny Dressman has a new biography out on legendary Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson. "Eddie Robinson ... He was the Martin Luther King of football" details his life and impact during the turbulent 1960s. The Sportsbook Betting Lines will present its Eddie Robinson Award for the 24th time following the 2010 season. Henry Frazier III of Prairie View A&M was the 2009 recipient.
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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence. The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night. MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds. A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family. A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital. Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
2007 online football betting PreviewMy fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online." The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet. To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession. However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks. Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable. Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone. Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC. 2007 College Football Betting PreviewThere will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson. The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans. So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California. USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl. USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter. Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles. That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy. The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?" The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning. Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years. Las Vegas Sports LinesThe Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States. It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella." The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot. The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan. Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season. After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country. To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
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