NFL Network and NFL.com’s exclusive week-long coverage of the league’s next generation of talent kicks off February 25 with more than 30 hours of live coverage of the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine, Presented by Under Armour. For seven days, NFL Network will broadcast live from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, providing an up-close look at the 329 players getting set to embark on their NFL careers. Coverage begins Thursday, February 25 at 2:30 PM ET with NFL Total Access at the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine press conference coverage live from Lucas Oil Stadium. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the Super Bowl is finished being shoved down our throats, what happens next now that we are in the NFL Offseason? The following is the 2010 offseason schedule detailing deadlines, the draft and important cuts dates once we get close to the start of the next NFL season.

If you want to know the 2010 NFL First Round Draft order, read our pick-by-pick breakdown. Read the rest of this entry »

What is so damn special about Lane Kiffin, anyway? I mean really, what has he done to get one of the most coveted jobs in college football? OK, sure. He sat at the knee of Pete Carroll at USC for six years as an assistant, the last two as an offensive coordinator, but even as the coordinator he reportedly didn’t call the plays. And is that really enough? The rest of his resume surely doesn’t support it.

We know why Oakland Raiders’ owner Al Davis hired him as a 31 year-old “prodigy” with virtually nothing in his background other than his father’s legacy (Monte Kiffen has a tremendous reputation as defensive coordinator for many years) and only two years as a college coordinator. He had absolutely no head coaching experience and zero NFL experience. Because it’s pretty well documented that Davis is nuttier than your great-aunt Ida’s Christmas fruitcake and is prone to rash decisions. He’s been doing it for years and if anything, the passing of time has only made him crazier. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the 2009/2010 College Bowl Season is over, (and it does feel like a whole season, doesn’t it?) we can start concentrating on our next big storyline for college football: the NFL Draft. Arguing about which college player should be ranked in what order of the draft and discussing which team needs which player is every bit as fun as talking about which baseball players belong in the Hall of Fame and why, and then ranking the best Performance Enhancing Drug users and non-Performance Enhancing Drug users of our time. Read the rest of this entry »

The end of this year’s college football season has been anything but normal. In just the past week, we have had the head coach of one of the premier teams in the nation resign for health reasons, and then unresign then very next day, deciding to take a leave of absence instead, and then we had the head coach of another major school suspended, then fired for allegedly mishandling one of his players.

In this review, we will look at the BSC Bowl Games for January 1st. Check back with us next week for an exclusive TMRZoo review of the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the BCS Championship Game. Read the rest of this entry »

The days of college football coaches running rough-shod over players seem to be coming to an end.

The “Bobby Knight School of Coaching” may have finally rung its death knell as school athletic programs have joined the rest of society in recognizing that people, even student-athletes, are human beings and should be treated that way.

Part of this change in culture is the certainly the light that has recently been cast on injuries, most notably concussions and other head injuries and the interest that the NFL and various entities have taken in this. But part of it is also just a much needed, long overdue change that has been sweeping the business world for well over a decade and is now reaching the collegiate sports level. Read the rest of this entry »

One bad game. That was all it took for Florida Gator’s quarterback Tim Tebow to fall from Heisman grace. One great game. That was all it took for Alabama Crimson Tide’s Mark Ingram to vault himself into leading contention for the Heisman Award.

Well, neither of the above statements is actually quite true. While Tebow was the leading contender for the Heisman Award for most of the season, there really was no time during the year that you could say, “Yeah, he’s the guy”, like you could in ’07 when he won it.

And, conversely, there were times prior to Saturday’s SEC Championship game when you could easily envision Ingram walking up on stage to collect the prestigious award. But, that also goes for the rest of the candidates that will be in attendance at the New York Athletic Club in New York City on Saturday night.

Along with Tebow and Ingram, Texas QB Colt McCoy, Stanford RB Toby Gerhart, and Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh will also be on hand. There really is no clear winner this season, although good money today is on Ingram or Gerhart. Prior to last week, most bets may have been on Tebow and McCoy.

In no particular order, here is a thumbnail sketch of how the candidates’ seasons shook out:

COLT McCOY
QUARTERBACK – SENIOR
TEXAS LONGHORNS

As Tebow fell flat in the SEC Championship Game, McCoy’s timing was just as bad as he picked the Big 12 Championship to have his worst game of the season. Not only did McCoy not throw a touchdown pass for the first time this year, but he also threw 3 interceptions, a season high. His 184 yards were his 4th worse of the season, and his 55.6% completion rate was his second worse of the year.

Now, this shouldn’t diminish the spectacular season that he had as he led his team to yet another Big 12 Championship Game and BCS Title Game. He finished 2nd in the conference in both passing yards (3512, 6th in nation) and TDs (27, T-8th in nation). McCoy is also the Longhorns 2nd leading rusher (378 yards).

McCoy, who was runner up to award winner Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford last season may find himself as a bridesmaid again this year.

TOBY GERHART
RUNNING BACK – SENIOR
STANFORD CARDINALS

Gerhart finished the season with the most TDs in the nation (26) and the most rushing yards in the nation (1736). His last game, against Notre Dame, he rushed for 205 yards and 3 TD. It was his 3rd 200+ yard game of the season.

He had one game this season, against Wake Forest in Week 2, where he was stopped cold. In that game he was held to only 84 yards and no TD. In Week 6, against Oregon State, he was held to a mere 96 yards on the ground, but the Beavers still couldn’t keep him out of the end zone. Gerhart had 2 TD that day.

Based on his numbers and his consistency, many consider Gerhart to be the most deserving candidate in the group. Unfortunately, sometimes, the most deserving doesn’t always win the prize.

MARK INGRAM
RUNNING BACK – SOPHOMORE
ALABAMA ROLLING TIDE

Alabama RB Mark Ingram has been in and out of the Heisman conversation all season. Interestingly, he found himself not only squarely in the thick of it, but largely on top of it when Alabama beat Florida in the SEC Championship Game on December 5th. Very much the same way that Tebow lost a great deal of stock that day, Ingram gained a great deal of stock.

In fact, in many people’s minds, Ingram won the Heisman that Saturday afternoon. Here’s the funny thing: Ingram’s 1542 yards this season was only 5th best in the nation, and his 15 TDs was only good enough to be ranked 14th. Yeah, not even in the top 10.

But, when you’re on the team that has been ranked 2nd in the nation nearly all season, then you get 3 TDs and nearly 200 all-purpose yards in the game that vaults them to #1 and sends them to the National Championship Game, funny things like the Heisman Award can happen.

Ingram has a very, very good shot at being only the second sophomore in college football history (Tebow was the first) to win the award.

TIM TEBOW
QUARTERBACK – SENIOR
FLORIDA GATORS

Tebow had a couple of problems this season: First, he was amazing his sophomore year, and pretty spectacular his junior year as well. So much was expected of him that anything less than superior would be a disappointment. Second, while he still had receivers Aaron Hernandez and Riley Cooper, they were not Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin, and any team that loses Harvin is a team degraded.

His 2413 yards barely cracked the top 50 and were the lowest total in his 3 years starting at UF. Same can be said for his 18 TD (39th in the nation), which is far lower than the 30 he had last season. Always known as a great running QB, his 859 yards and 13 TD slightly better than last season’s 12 rushing TDs, but a huge drop from ‘07’s 23 rushing TDs. His 25 sacks this year clearly hurt him as well.

Against Alabama in the SEC Championship, Tebow had one of the worst games of his career. While he went 20-for-35 for 247 yards, he had only one TD with one INT. His 7.06 YPA was the 3rd worst of the year. His 76.7 passer rating was also his 3rd worst of the season. He rushed for 63 yards and 0 TD.

Had he put up typical Tebow numbers and beaten Alabama, we’d be having a whole different conversation right now. We’d probably still be talking about him as the greatest college football player to ever play the game. As it is, he’ll be lucky to finish 3rd in the balloting this year.

NDAMUKONG SUH
DEFENSIVE TACKLE – SENIOR
NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS

No defensive player has made it as a Heisman finalist since `1997, and he won the award that year. That was Charles Woodson from the Michigan Wolverines. Cornhuskers tackle Ndamukong Suh is good, very very good in fact. But probably not good enough to win.

This season he has 83 tackles (tops in the nation for a DT) and 12 sacks (3rd in the nation at any position). His performance during the Big 12 Championship Game very nearly singlehandedly won the game for Nebraska as he recorded a ridiculous 12 tackles and 4 ½ sacks that day. At the very least, he can say that he probably cost Colt McCoy the Heisman Award.

While Suh may not win the award, his very appearance in New York this weekend will do plenty for a position that has long been ignored at awards time.

PREDICTION: 2009 HEISMAN AWARD WINNER
MARK INGRAM – ALABAMA

First Week of Season to Include 28 Games in Five Days and College GameDay from Atlanta as Part of Dick’s Sporting Goods Kickoff Week

ESPN will kick off the 2009 college football season with the second annual Dick’s Sporting Goods Kickoff Week (Thursday, Sept. 3 to Monday, Sept. 7), featuring extensive studio programming and 28 games over Labor Day weekend, including Labor Day, across ABC, ESPN  and SportsCenter.

As part of Kickoff Week, ESPN will provide extensive studio coverage, including College GameDay Built by The Home Depot originating from Atlanta – site of the ABC Saturday Night Football telecast pitting #5 Alabama vs. #7 Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff Game Presented by Southwest Airlines Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 pre-season USA Today Coach’s poll came out the other day, and it should surprise absolutely no one that the Florida Gators are ranked number one. What is a bigger surprise is that it wasn’t unanimous. The National Champion Gators received 53 of 59 first place votes.

Texas, who is ranked 2nd, received 4 first place votes, while 3rd ranked Oklahoma and 4th ranked USC each received one vote. Alabama rounded out the top 5.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sources: ESPN.com news services

The NCAA will reveal later Thursday that the Alabama football program must vacate victories from 2005 through 2007 that included players who improperly got free textbooks for other students, the Birmingham News is reporting.

Alabama could be forced to vacate as many as 21 wins under the watch of former coach Mike Shula and current coach Nick Saban, sources at the university told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach. Citing a source, the News reported the number of wins to be at least 10.
Read the rest of this entry »