McFadden says he'll enter NFL, skipping senior season at Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Darren McFadden isn't sticking around for another run at the Heisman Trophy.
The Arkansas All-American announced Monday he'll skip his senior season and enter the NFL draft.
"When I was growing up, I dreamed of playing for the Razorbacks," McFadden said. "Now, the time has come for me to pursue another dream of mine -- playing in the NFL."
McFadden was the Heisman runner-up in 2006 and 2007, so his decision to turn pro wasn't surprising. He ran for 1,830 yards last season, second on the Southeastern Conference's single-season list. He is also second on the career list with 4,590 yards rushing.
Felix Jones, the Razorbacks' other talented tailback, said he'll also enter the draft a year early.
McFadden rushed for over 1,000 yards all three seasons at Arkansas. Jones did it the last two. They were part of a backfield that also included senior fullback Peyton Hillis, another NFL prospect.
Now Arkansas will have to rebuild under new coach Bobby Petrino.
McFadden's decision comes a week after he was involved in a "pretty rowdy scene" at a piano bar in Little Rock, when he was handcuffed by police and then released without charges. In the summer of 2006, he severely injured his toe in a fight outside another club, but recovered in time to play in the season opener.
McFadden holds Arkansas' career and single-season rushing records.
McFadden, from Little Rock, made an immediate impression in 2005. He ran for 1,113 yards and was chosen SEC freshman of the year. In 2006, he led Arkansas on a 10-game winning streak and was second in the Heisman race to Ohio State's Troy Smith.
It was during that season that the Razorbacks began using McFadden in the shotgun at quarterback -- he could run, throw or hand off to Jones.
McFadden spoke first at a joint news conference Monday. Then it was Jones' turn.
"I guess that'll be the last handoff from D-Mac," Jones joked.
This season, the Razorbacks lost their first three SEC games but rebounded late. They beat then-No. 1 LSU in the regular-season finale. McFadden ran for 206 yards and three touchdowns and also threw for a touchdown in Arkansas' triple-overtime 50-48 win.
McFadden also tied an SEC record with 321 yards rushing in a November win over South Carolina. He figures to be one of the first players taken in the April draft.
"I just want to go play in the NFL," McFadden said. "Whether I went No. 1 or dead last, it'll be the same feeling for me."
McFadden and Jones join an impressive group of running backs in this year's draft, including Central Florida's Kevin Smith, Michigan's Mike Hart, Rutgers' Ray Rice and West Virginia's Steve Slaton.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
BCS title game ratings down from last year
NEW YORK (AP) -- This year's LSU-Ohio State matchup in the BCS title game couldn't draw as many television viewers as last season's Florida-Ohio State game.
The Tigers' 38-24 win Monday night on Fox earned a 14.4 rating and a 22 share, down 17 percent from the 17.4/27 in 2007.
It was the third-lowest rating in 10 years of BCS championship games. Southern Cal-Oklahoma drew a 13.7 in 2005 and Miami-Nebraska attracted a 13.8 in 2002.
The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions, and the share is the percentage tuned into the broadcast among those households with TVs on at the time.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Al Golden withdraws name from UCLA coaching search, will stay at Temple
PHILADELPHIA -- Temple coach Al Golden withdrew his name from consideration for the opening at UCLA and will remain with the Owls.
Golden, 5-19 in his first two years at Temple, interviewed twice for the job that opened after the Bruins fired Karl Dorrell.
In a statement from Temple on Wednesday, Golden said he was "flattered" to have been contacted by UCLA, but instead looked forward to a bright future at Temple.
"UCLA is a world-class institution, and athletic director Dan Guerrero is a first-class person," Golden said. "However, we are on the brink of something truly special here at Temple."
Golden led the Owls to a 4-8 record this season, their highest win total in five years. Temple has not had a winning record since 1990.
UCLA also met with Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Rick Neuheisel, who played quarterback for the Bruins and was the head coach at Washington and Colorado.
Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker served as interim head coach for UCLA's 17-16 loss to No. 19 Brigham Young in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
West Virginia poised to hire Holliday
PARKERSBURG, West Virginia (Ticker) -- John "Doc" Holliday has emerged as the leading candidate to replace the departed Rich Rodriguez as West Virginia coach, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported on its web site Wednesday.
According to the report, Holliday could be named coach as early as Wednesday.
An assistant with the Mountaineers from 1979-99, Holliday has been one of several candidates interviewed since Rodriguez announced Sunday he was leaving to become coach at Michigan.
Holliday, 50, currently is an associate head coach at Florida, which won the national championship last season. In Gainesville, Holliday has garnered the reputation as a great recruiter.
Like Rodriguez, Holliday also played at West Virginia. He was a linebacker from 1975-78.
Holliday launched his coaching career at West Virginia as graduate assistant from 1979-81, then was a part-time assistant from 1981-83 before spending the next 17 years as full-time coach under Don Nehlen.
In addition to Holliday, others reportedly who have interviewed for the coaching job include former Auburn coach Terry Bowden, Florida State offensive line coach Rick Trickett and Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster.
Associate head coach Bill Stewart is preparing West Virginia (10-2) for its Fiesta Bowl matchup against Oklahoma (11-2) on January 2.
Copyright 2007 PA SportsTicker. All Rights Reserved
Guy set for last visit
Las Vegas (Nev.) Western defensive lineman Lawrence Guy is down to four schools. He has already taken official visits to three of his finalists and will take his final visit this coming weekend.
Guy, 6-6, 265 pound is one of the elite linemen in the West region this year. He has the ability to play inside or outside at the next level and is the state's top prospect this year.
The big lineman has already checked out Arizona State, Oklahoma and Tennessee and had nothing but great things to say about each school.
"Oklahoma was my first trip and I liked it a lot," Guy said. "They have a great football program and are always competing for championships. As good as they are now, I think they're going to be even better in the coming years.
"Arizona State is up and coming and I like Coach Erickson a lot. He has really taken that program to the next level and I think they have what it takes to be a dominant program in a year or two.
"Tennessee is a lot like Oklahoma, they have great tradition and have a great team every year. They didn't have their best season this year but still did really well and will be real good again next season.
"This weekend I'm going to visit Arizona and that will be my last trip. These are my final four schools and I plan to make my decision before Christmas. My brother is coming home around December 20 so I want to talk with him about it and then decide right about that time.
"I'm looking for a school that has a great football program and a place where I'll be comfortable. I also want to go somewhere that can develop me as a person as well as a player. Location and depth charts aren't that big of a deal. I'll go anywhere and I'm not afraid to compete anywhere I go."
Copyright 2007 Rivals.com. All Rights Reserved.
New Nebraska coach will stay with LSU through BCS national championship game
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini has Tom Osborne's "full support" to coach the second-ranked Tigers in the BCS championship game.
Nebraska's interim athletic director said Tuesday that his new football coach will be on the sidelines as LSU takes on top-ranked Ohio State on Jan. 7 at New Orleans.
Bo has been at LSU for three years, and its players and coaches have worked very hard for a chance to win the national championship," Osborne said. "The two-week dead period in recruiting gives him a chance to take care of some unfinished business at LSU without really putting us in any kind of bind."
Meanwhile, Pelini was recruiting and hiring coaches, including former longtime Nebraska assistant Ron Brown, who said Monday he was hired as tight ends coach.
Nebraska spokesman Keith Mann said Pelini wants to hire all nine assistants before making the list public.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Backyard Brawl turns 100, and what a century it's been
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads has played a role in some of college football's biggest rivalries, including Ohio State vs. Michigan. None, he says, is like Pitt vs. West Virginia in one special quality.
To Rhoads, the Backyard Brawl is a perfect nickname for an always-physical, always-meaningful series that will be played for the 100th time Saturday night when Pitt tries to block No. 2 West Virginia's path to the national championship game.
Other rivalries are better known nationally and make a bigger impact on the Top 25 rankings, but the Brawl decides who is the toughest kid on a very small block.
"This rivalry is big and it's important," Rhoads said Wednesday. "This one is mean. This one is physical and these are two teams that like to get after each other for 60 minutes."
Separated by only 75 miles of interstate highway, the Panthers and Mountaineers often recruit from the same talent pool, with brothers and former high school teammates sometimes landing on opposing sides.
The teams even share the same colors, gold and blue, though in much different shades.
"There's a lot of great stories in this game," said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, a player and a coach in the Backyard Brawl. "They're recruiting a lot of the same players we are, so the kids know each other. That always brings a rivalry to life, when the kids know each other."
If Bobby Bowden didn't know much about the Brawl, he learned quickly. With his 1970 Mountaineers manhandling the Panthers 35-8 at halftime in Pitt Stadium, Bowden pulled in the reins, content to sit on a big lead.
Instead, Pitt came surging back for a 36-35 upset victory that rankles West Virginia fans to this day. Some fans were so incensed they beat on West Virginia's locker room door, demanding Bowden come out and explain what happened.
Bowden joked later he wasn't worried so much about being hung in effigy as he was about being hung for real.
Those same fans weren't much happier when West Virginia squandered a 31-9 lead in the final 17 minutes in 1989 and Pitt came back for a 31-31 tie, the last Brawl in which both teams were ranked in the Top 10.
There seem to be 99 quirky stories for the previous 99 Backyard Brawls, an informal nickname that usually appeared in lower case until about 30 years ago.
After all, this rivalry once produced the highest-scoring game in major college football history. The Brawl was decided one year by a walk-on kicker, the next by a Heisman Trophy winner -- and, nearly 20 years later, by another walk-on from the same city as the earlier walk-on star.
Talk about fanning a rivalry. Imagine how West Virginia fans felt in 1955 when, with Sugar Bowl representatives on hand to invite the Mountaineers to the New Year's Day game, the bowl reps changed their minds and chose Pitt instead.
While these Mountaineers (10-1, 5-1 in Big East) seemingly have little chance of losing to Pitt (4-7, 2-4), they might want to be a little wary.
In 1954, a mediocre Pitt team that fired its coach during a 4-5 season took West Virginia out of the national title race with a 13-10 upset, the Mountaineers' only loss.
In 1997, underdog Pitt landed a surprise bowl bid by scoring a stirring 41-38 three-overtime comeback win in Morgantown after Pete Gonzalez completed a 20-yard pass on a fourth-and-17 play in overtime.
There's another first in this Backyard Brawl: Dec. 1.
Backyard Brawls have been staged in August, September, October and November, but this will be the first December meeting.
Pitt once led the series 49-22-1, but West Virginia -- which played only a handful of home games in the series until 1962 -- has been catching up under coaches Don Nehlen and Rich Rodriguez. The Mountaineers are 15-7-2 in the last 24 games and have won 11 of 15.
Pitt's early dominance was largely the result of famed coach Jock Sutherland, who went 14-1 against the Mountaineers. The lone loss came in 1928, when gleeful West Virginia fans followed the Pitt team home and spent all night celebrating at a hotel close to Pitt's campus.
The rivalry has produced approximately 400 NFL players, about two dozen first-round draft picks, a lot of hard feelings and many off-the-wall moments. A public address announcer and some reputed garbage men once played prominent roles in the Brawl.
With West Virginia coming off an 0-8-2 season in 1960, a Pitt player noticed the Mountaineers were heavily recruiting in western Pennsylvania. In an offhanded remark to the Pitt student paper, he said the Mountaineers were rebuilding "with western Pennsylvania garbage."
It might be football's first known example of trash talking.
The story wound up on West Virginia's bulletin board, and the motivated Mountaineers upset Pitt 20-6 in Pitt Stadium in 1961. A year later, to prove it wasn't a fluke, West Virginia won again at Pitt, 15-8, during an eight-win season.
Proof perfect that one coach's trash is another coach's treasure.
In 1965, West Virginia's 63-48 win at old Mountaineer Field was the highest-scoring game in major college football until then.
West Virginia's biggest win may have been in 1975. With Bowden soon to leave for Florida State, walk-on kicker Bill McKenzie's last-play field goal gave the Mountaineers an unexpected 17-14 victory. The next season, Pitt bounced back behind Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett to win the national title, but only after a tight 24-16 win over a losing West Virginia team.
McKenzie, a straight-on kicker who had kicked only two other field goals that season, was from Wheeling, W.Va. In an unusual twist, another Wheeling walk-on, wide receiver Zach Abraham, caught a decisive 60-yard TD pass with 16 seconds remaining to give West Virginia a 47-41 win at Pitt Stadium in 1994.
That game featured three touchdowns and as many lead changes in the final 1 minute, 32 seconds, with West Virginia's Chad Johnston throwing for scores of 81 and 60 yards only seconds apart. The game also featured four touchdowns on blocked kicks and interceptions and some barnyard humor.
Pitt Stadium announcer Don Ireland caused a stir by making several hillbilly-type jokes about the Mountaineers. In one announcement, he said, "The owner of a tractor with the West Virginia license plate number E-I-E-I-O, please report to the parking lot -- your lights are on."
Just another day in college football's biggest Brawl of them all.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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