TCY: Bear Goes Home
 

2004: Preseason
 

Notes from Coach Bear's Journal

Day 1: 2004
My first day back on campus in beautiful Keene, NH at the base of majestic Mt. Monadnock. The leaves are falling, autumn in New England is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, and I've got practically no time to get ready for the season in this, my first college coaching job (still can't believe they hired me, but hey, don't look a gift Fighting Owl in the mouth).

Had a meeting with Brant Cline, the alum President Cabs hired as the New England regional scout. Brant will also be handling talent assesment for the current squad. He's not the nepotistic dunderhead I expected. He knows his football and has a great eye for QB's RB's and receivers. As I plan on eventually running a wishbone, Cline's ability to find me top notch runners will be invaluable. I think he and I will get along fine.

Next I met with Syndicate Coordinator Spencer Tinker. Man, does he give me the creeps. I tried to discuss the importance of academics and building good alumni relations with him, and all he wanted to do was tell me the best way to get alums to give recruits cars and fake jobs and the like -- oh and sell me some Mass Millions tickets. Jeez. We're not going to get along. I see him as a one and done guy.

I then paid Omar Harper a visit in his office in the Humanities building. The former Head Coach at Fall Mountain Regional High School and a professor in the KSC History Department specializing in the art of ancient warfare seems to me at least, to be sort of an ironically suitable fit as a Defensive Coordinator. Omar and I talked for hours. His schemes and stunts and grasp of both the tactical and strategic sides of football lead me to believe his play calling will be TERRIFIC . He also has some VERY GOOD programs for conditioning and injury avoidance and has done some state of the art Rehab with his old high school program that can only be described as TERRIFIC.

Omar's not the most congenial guy however. He'll go off on tangents and start talking about the Jewish strategy at Masada and I'm afraid he'll bore recruits (and me) to death sometimes. To be FAIR, however, he's not an ogre, just a bit boring.

Omar seems very weak in developing linebackers (TERRIBLE), which is a concern to me. But he is an expert on the secondary (EXCELLENT) and pretty solid with the defensive line (GOOD). Guess he's an airforce/infantry guy and doesn't have much use for armor. Overall, I like Omar and can see him being a significant part of this program for awhile.

My next meeting was over lunch with Offensive Coordinator Drew Thompson. I'm not sure drew and I are going to get along. First, I want to run a wishbone and he's a power-I guy. Second, he thinks conditioning is for sissies (TERRIBLE injury avoidance) and believes offensive linemen are an afterthought (TERRIBLE OL development).

Drew, whose resume consists only of having played in an FOF2k4 MP league with the college president's wife, (not that my cv is like Bill Bellichick's or anything) does have some unique ideas on developing talent at the skill positions and he may actually be a success. His playcalling and schemes are not rocket science, but they're better than average.


Day 2: 2004
Spent the day getting practice schedules and academics worked out for our players. Alas, Spence Tinker isn't going to be much help in this regard - I kept talking about getting the players tutors and more study time and he kept talking about where we could buy exams for their classes. I really don't think Tinker is going to work out.


Day 3: 2004
Took a look at our schedule today as it was finalized before I took the job. We've got 4 non-conference games, a big one at preseason #18 Virginia Tech. We'll also be playing at Northen Illinois and at Wake Forest and Hawaii will be visiting us. Stupid AD couldn't make the Hawaii game a road game, could he?


Thru End of Summer
Worked out the kids and began to get a starting lineup worked out. After much wrangling, hemming and hawing we finally convinced Coach Thompson to go with the wishbone. Redshirt Sophomore Tommy Cassidy out of Raymond H.S. here in NH is going to run the show. Our top two backs are going to be Frosh Norm Duran out of Eden HS in NY and Gus Hanson, a senior from Pembroke Academy, another local boy. Our FB is going to be John Hurt, a Soph also with 4 years of eligibility from Hanover High, up the road in Dartmouth territory. (Ed note: technically all these guys would have 4 years of eligibility, but thats not how the game works. C'est la vie).

Tommy's prime pass target will be Split End Everett Bishop who has the speed to make the big play and isn't afraid to go over the middle. He's got a case of stonehands right now, but we're hoping Coach Thompson can soften those hands up over the next 4 years.

Defensively we're pretty weak, very young, and hoping for a big year out of true Junior ILB Jumbo Rodgers. We'll be running the 3-4 and we'll be counting on Jumbo to be a big run stopper. Redshirt Jr. Desmond Reynoso will be shadowing the top receiver of our opponents.
It's going to be a long, long season...but hey I could have said no when offerred the job.

2004: Regular Season
 

WEEK 1
Off week

Spent most of the week scouting New England area high school players. Did take a trip down to Texas to check out a young tailback named Quentin Poole who is attracted to Keene State for its Marketing program. Scout Paul Arriaga rated him a 68/100 but after watching him play I think he's better than that. Asked him to come visit campus and offerred him a scholarship. I'd love to see him in Owl red, black and white. All the QB's coming out of the granite state this year are pass happy, not a one likes to run. We'll look around the rest of New England, but Tommy Cassidy has 4 years so it's not a must.


WEEK 2
vs. Univ. Hawaii

Hawaii is coming into Keene this week. The oddsmakers have installed Hawaii as a 3 point favorite and my first thought was "what kind of crack are they smoking?" I'd consider a win over Hawaii at this point in the program a major accomplishment.

During my recruiting the past two weeks I've noticed that most recruits hate Coach Thompson, my OC, and a few don't like my DC much either.

That can't help.

Well Hawaii whipped our butts 50-25. Our wingback Gus Hanson ran for 85 yards on 5 carries while Norm Duran was held to 73 on 19. Tommy Cassidy was held to 19 yards on 12 carries. Our bone needs quite a bit of work.

CB Dez Reynoso broke his clavicle and is out for 6 weeks. He's our best CB -- that's going to hurt.



WEEK 3
@ Univ. Northern Illinois

We'll be going to Northern Illinois this week where we're 8 point underdogs. Drew Thompson and I did some tweaking of the bone to try and see if we could utilize WB Gus Hanson a little more. We'll see how that goes.

No big news on the recruiting front. Have contacted a couple of running QB's but don't think there's much chance in landing them. Stayed in touch with Quentin Poole and may make another visit out to Texas next week. I'm not at all optimistic about recruiting this year. Well, onto Northern Illinois.

Clearly we're out of our league right now, losing 48-7. I knew that coming into the season. I'd like to see some signs of production out of our running game as we were held to under 100 yards on the ground. Freshman wideout Victor Cramer did have 5 catches, one for a TD. That was our only bright spot all day.



WEEK 4
@ Wake Forest

Wideout Malcolm Mason from Londonderry HS here in NH is visiting campus this week. He's also been contacted by South Florida, a school a tad more prestigious than us, but we're real close to home and he wants to stay in the area. Brant Cline rates him a 58 but after watching him play I think Brant has underrated him. The kid has some moves and should be
able to put up some serious YAC.

My offensive coordinator continues to be a burden on recruiting. Kids just don't like him much at all. Mostly local recruiting visits this week, though I did fly out to Texas to continue to court Quentin Poole. Here's hoping we get him onto campus for a visit.

Well the trip down to Wake was a disaster. We lost about as bad as a team can lose, 63-0. We ended up getting behind and got away from the running game and that was that. Good YPC for our backs, but we didn't run much at all. It's going to be like a wake on the flight home.


WEEK 5
Off week

Van McGee, a powerhouse run blocking OT from Boston, MA is on campus this week. Normally we wouldn't stand a chance in landing him, but he wants to stay close to Boston so that gives us an outside shot. We've been pleasantly surprised Boston College hasn't contacted him.
No major news on the recruiting front yet.



WEEK 6
@ Dartmouth (NNE)

We'll be going up the road to Hanover to play Dartmouth. It's our first conference game and it'll be interesting to see how we compare to some of the other new 1-A schools - though Dartmouth has had a football program a lot longer than we have. Still, more of an even playing field than our non-conference schedule.

Good news on the recruiting front this week. Wideout Malcolm Mason from Londonderry signed a Letter of Intent with us this week. Brant Cline rated him a 58 but he looked better than that when i went to see him play.

The pundits pegged us at 9 point underdogs heading into the Dartmouth game on the road but boy did we surprise them with a 10-7 win in a defensive struggle. Tommy Cassidy scored our lone TD of the game and we finally got a running game generated, at least a little. TB Norm Duran ran for 96 yards with Cassidy adding 42 and Hanson 23. Frosh wideout Victor Cramer continues to be a pleasant surprise with 6 catches for 69 yards. Senior ILB Graham Kramer was all over the place with 10 tackles, 2 assists and a sack. A good, good win for us.



WEEK 7
vs. Green Mountain (NNE)

We play a conferance game at home this week against Green Mountain. We only drew 12,900 against Hawaii and have only sold 8,800 season tickets so it'll be interesting to see what we draw. Green Mountain is favored by 6.

An uneventuful week of recruiting, making more contacts, bringing in more kids for visits. Got a call from Quentin Poole's HS coach that he's got all the info from us he needs, but he still hasn't visited yet. He's been contacted by Ball State but doesn't have an offer from them. We can still hope.

The Green Mountain boys rolled right over us 37-11. We just couldn't get a running game going. The only bright spot was ILB Graham Kramer again, with 13 tackles.



WEEK 8
vs. Plymouth State (NNE)

This week we play at home again vs. Plymouth State. For the first time in our history we're favored as the oddsmakers have us at -9. Sure is nice that someone thinks we're any good. RB Eugene Paullin from Lincoln, RI committed to KSC this week. Brant Cline had him rated as a 90 but when I saw him play I didn't think he was that good.Still, he'll be a good fit for our bone. Academically he's top notch with a 3.95 GPA and a 1376 SAT.

Lots of kids on campus visiting right now, but still no Quentin Poole. Poole still doesn't have any other offers yet, but we may just be too far from home for the kid. He'd make a good tandem with Paullin. But onto the game.

Boy did the oddsmakers have that wrong. Tommy Cassidy threw 3 picks and we got hammerred at home 34-7. One good thing is we did get a running game going, as Duran was 16/68 4.2, Cassidy 10/87 8.7 and Hanson 6/26 4.3. It was still close at halftime as we were down 17-7
but PSC blew it open in the second half. Not a good one for us.


WEEK 9
@Virginia Tech

This week we play at Virginia Tech, who has now fallen out of the top 25. I don't hold out much hope as our young program simply isn't competetive at that level yet. But it'll be good experience for these kids. Tech is listed as 33 point favorites, and I can't really argue with that.

Real good news on the recruiting front as we landed run blocking OT Van McGee from Boston High. McGee was the #1 rated recruit from Massachusetts and ranked 67th in the nation as well as being rated the 7th best OT in his recruiting class. I'm real excited about landing
him. DT Donnell Rodgers, a pretty average DL, also signed with us this week. It's going to take a long while to build a good wishbone attack at KSC. But I think landing McGee and Paullin have been two big steps in the right direction.

Well Quentin Poole finally came for a visit but Ball State has also offerred him a scholarship now, so it's unlikely we'll land him.

As for the game, ouch. 72-10. Hope the school got a nice payday from Tech for us being the sacrificial lamb on their schedule this season. Not one nice thing to say about this game, so I won't say anything at all.


WEEK 10
@Maine Maritime (NNE)

This week we'll be playing at Maine Maritime. Both programs are 1-6 and the oddsmakers have the game as even. We'll see.

Very good news on the recruiting front this week. Quentin Poole signed a letter of intnt with us. Quentin is a power back who was rated a 68 by scout Paul Arriaga who has an excellent eye for running backs and when I saw Poole play he looked even better than that. We spent a lot of time recruiting Poole and it's a good feeling to see all that hard work pay off. We landed a couple of other committments, but nothing noteworthy.

This week was good news all around as we took a hard fought 14-7 road win from Maine Maritime. We ran for 187 yards, 98 of them by Norm Duran, who had 1 rushing TD. QB Tommy Cassidy also ran for a TD and actually had a good day passing going 17/25, 185 yards and no picks. Wideout Ev Bishop finally had the day we thought he was capable of with 6 grabs for 74 yards. That brings us to 2-6 on the year but a respectable 2-2 in conference.

Bad news is senior Graham Kramer sufferred repetetive concussion syndrome. He's done for the year. He was a key part of our defense and he'll be terribly missed.


WEEK 11
Homecoming vs. Univ. of New Hampshire (NNE)

Our homecoming game this season is against UNH, the lead school in the university system. Keene State has long lived in the shadows of UNH, some observers might say KSC even has a chip on its shoulder regarding its elder sister school. Losing that chip won't be easy though, as 5-3 UNH is an 11 point favorite even playing in Keene.

FB Len Sembower from Clifton, NJ has committed to KSC this week. Len is a run blocking specialist whom Monty Howard - who is admittedly poor at scouting backs - rated a 75. However when I went to see him play Len looked a lot better than a 75, so this might be a coup.

Georgia, sweet Georgia's still on my mind, and so is CB Leo Bishop from Turner HS in Ashburn, GA. Bishop was rated at 61 by scout Brenden McElroy but when I saw the kid play he looked a little better than that.

Good news all around.

A 3rd RB, Bert Deering, from Massachusetts, committed to KSC this week. Deering rated at 68 by Brant Cline, looked better than that in person. I'm really looking for positive things in our running game down the line.

Well, like I mentioned earlier, this was homecoming weekend and what a homecoming it was. All 11,600 KSC fans were treated to a stunner of an upset as the Fighting Owls took it to the UNH Wildcats 35-0. Norm Duran ran for 96 yards and QB Tommy Cassidy went 16 for 25 for 182 yards and 3 TD's. Ev Bishop finally seems to be growing more comfortable in the
wishbone, making 6 catches for 107 yards including a 47 yard bomb.

(NNE 3-2-0 Overall 3-6-0)


WEEK 12
@ Univ. Vermont

We'll be driving north to Burlington Vt. to play the Catamounts this weekend and after our impressive win over UNH last week the pundits pick us as 6 point favorites on the road. UVM is 1-7 overall and 1-4 in conference, but we're still not real consistent. We're currently 1 game behind Maine and Green Mountain for the conference lead, and while we play Maine the final game of the year, we lost to Green Mountain earlier this year so it's unlikely we'll snag a share of the conference title. Still, finishing over .500 in conference would have to be considered a success.

Among others, TE Terry Noyes, the 3rd best TE coming out of NY state, signed a letter with us this week. Our expectation is that he'll step right in as a starter next season. That brings this recruiting class to 13, meaning we can only sign letters with 3 more student athletes. I'd really like to land the kicker currently visiting campus and 2 of the 3 LB's
who are also visiting.

Like I thought, we're just too inconsistent right now. The Catamounts picked us apart 35-7 and we only ran for 113 yards, a good recipe for defeat for a wishbone program. The one high point was that Tommy cassidy did connect with Ev Bishop on another long bomb, a good
sign for the future.

(NNE 3-3-0, Overall 3-7-0)


WEEK 13
vs. Maine (NNE 5-1-0, Overall 6-4-0)

We'll be at home against the Maine Black Bears who will be gunning for a share of the NNE conference championship this week. Maine is a 5 point favorite, but we've been so hot and cold this season who knows what will happen.

Well, we landed 2 of the LB's we wanted and the third turned us down. So we've got one more slot open in this recruiting class and a scholarship offer still out there for kicker Reuben Check. He's currently visiting campus and with any luck he'll sign this week.

Looks like we cost Maine a share of the conference title as we ran for 221 yards - 140 of them by TB Norm Duran en route to a 24-10 win for the Fighting Owls. It was a good way to end our program's first season as we finish up 4-3 in conference. Next season we'll be looking into finding some more consistency, but nonetheless a terrific win.

(NNE 4-3-0, Overall 4-7-0)


WEEK 14
Open week

Still no word from Reuben Check. I'm going to look around and see if there are any over looked kickers out there.



CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Open week

Still no work from Check, so I invited 3 other kickers in for visits. We'll see how that goes.


MINOR BOWL TIER WEEK
Open week.

Well, no new kicker for me next year. I had a scholarship offer out there to a local kid from Burlington Vt and he accepted the offer - so that fills my recruiting class. Error on my part for not checking more closely. Oh well, live and learn, the kid is a decent player.

For those interested, Army beat Navy 24-20 in their annual clash of arms.



MAJOR BOWL TIER WEEK
Open week.


FOUR STAR TIER WEEK
Open week.


NEW YEAR'S TIER WEEK
Open week.


NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TIER WEEK
Open week.

The University of Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Southern Cal Trojans 27-17 for the National Championship. Georgia finished the year at 12-1, their lone defeat coming at the hands of LSU in the SEC Championship game.

RB Fernando Martinez of the University of Texas won the Heisman.

2004 Season Review and Summary
 

END OF SEASON REVIEW

2004 was very much an up and down year - more ups than we had the right to expect I think. Finishing 4-3 in conference was a significant accomplishment, especially considering we went with a very young lineup and eschewed the use of upperclassment when possible. I've got to be pleased with the way TB Norm Duran and WB Gus Hanson ran. Duran was a true freshman and has the potential to be very good (63). He also has potentially good hands and that might add a bit more of an outlet for Tommy Cassidy to throw to.

Frosh wideout Everett Bishop was very disappointing at the start of the season but appeared to make a lot of progress as the season went on. He's already a playmaker and can outrace DB's for the big play, but he has to work on getting open consistently and catching the ball - both of which he has the potential for.Graham Kramer's departure - he graduates this year but we lost him to RCS after 8 games - leaves a giant hole in an already weak defense as Graham was our leading tackler. He had a
fine season for us before he went down to injury.

We didn't put much pressure on opposing QB's this year and hopefully we'll improve on that next season. I think we had a good recruiting class and I look for a number of the incoming frosh to make an immediate impact next season. TCY Today ranks our recruiting class 54th in the nation, the highest of all NNE programs, with the next highest being Green Mountain at #95.

I'm also proud of our academics and would like to note we had three members named to the Northern New England Athletic Association's All-Academic team: WR Ev Bishop, OT Alan Flowers and OLB Bernard Reddick. We spent a lot of time this past season emphasizing academics and the hard work of these players is recognized by these awards. All in all it was a solid inaugural season for the Fighting Owls and I can't wait until next year to see how improved we are.

2005 Preseason
 

WINTER 2005

Very disappointed in the turnout for home games last season, I convinced the Athletic Department to slash ticket prices especially for students and alumni. I am hoping we can significantly improve our low turnout from 2004 - especially with $2 student section seating.

I handed Spence Tinker his pink slip. He and I just didn't see eye to eye from day one on the job. I'm sure he won't have a problem finding a job with a big time program -- but Keene State just isn't the place for him. As we're trying to run a clean program, we really don't need an expert at warding off NCAA investigations. I wanted someone to come in and take charge of academics, and if they could raise funds to boot, all the better. 60 year old Myron Stephens was just the man, with a reputation of Very good in academics, Terrible in investigations and Good in soliciting donations. With Myron on the job, hopefully the rest of the staff can work on areas they're best at and let Myron handle the academic preperation.

Our Deep South scout Paul Arriaga must have impressed a lot of folks with his work on Quentin Poole as he landed a job with Texas Tech, so now we've got to find a replacement.

The pickings were slim but we hired 65 year old Nate Weingrad, an expert of QB's who is at least fair/decent in everything else. We're going to stand pat on the rest of the staff. Drew Thompson's offensive play calling isn't great, but it's good and he's one of the best skill position coaches in the game. Omar Harper is a defensive genius, even though he's not the most personable guy around. Brant Cline is an exceptional Lead Scout and the rest, well, got to keep the administration happy. We'll replace them by attrition like we did with Paul Arriaga.

There won't be any transfers in as we're plumb out of scholarships atm. Too bad too, as this would be a good place for a small fish in a big pond to show his stuff as a starter.

I'm allowing my coordinators to handle player schedules this season - we'll see how that works out.



SPRING 2005

Looks like our AD has booked us into permanent games with UAB and Northern-Illinois. That leaves me two games to schedule. We'll see if BC will play us at The Heights and I'll take a stab at bringing Notre Dame into Keene -- though I doubt they'll bite.

Stage 1: Yup, Notre Dame laughed in my face. Northwestern is offerring a home and home but I think we'll see what BC says first.

Stage 2: BC rejected a home and home. I've simply got to face it, big time programs won't take us seriously for quite a few years.

Stage 3: Army turned us down for a home game, but New Mexico is offerring an away game in week 8, but I want to keep that off week if possible.

Stage 4: BC turned us down flat for a game at The Heights even. Sheesh, no respect. New Mexico is still asking for a game week 8. I'm going to see if they'll take one earlier in the season.

Stage 5: New Mexico agreed to play us out west in week 1. It'll be a tough game, but one where we can see how far we have come in one year. As BC won't play us, we'll look at another regional game, with UCONN this time.

Stage 6: UCONN turned us down flat on a home and home series. Kansas is offerring an away game in week 4. I think we'll take it. It'll be a rough schedule for us but the only way to get noticed is to get blown out . . . or something like that.

Stage 7: Game at Kansas all set for Week 4 and our 2005 schedule is complete.



SUMMER 2005

As the players do twice a days, we're starting to get a feel for who is going to start for us this Autumn. We'll start by taking a look at the defense.

At NT we're going to start sophomore Jackie hollins again. He's got decent all around potential, nothing spectacular, but redshirt senior Alonzo Sheldon gets winded taking a water break. At DLE we'll be returning Sr. Seth Dunlap, our 2004 sack leader (3.5). At right end Van Calera, a redshirt Jr., returns in a starting role. Because we're so weak on the Dline, the temptation to start prized recruit Buddy Doggett (0/85, 1/67, 100/100) is so great, but he's just far too unpolished and we think a red shirt year will help him mature some.

At ILB we'll be returning natural senior Jumbo Rodgers for his final season. He's our best backer and really the only one capable of being a playmaker. Alongside him will be under-developed frosh Corey Tatum, who at 8/70 has lots of potential but needs a lot of work. Unfortunately DC Omar Harper is notoriously bad at developing LB's. But there's not a lot of choice as we have little depth at this position, or at OLB. At OLB we'll actually be starting two walk-ons,as our scholarship players -- well, they must know someone in the AD's office.

Patrick Airhart and Dan Surdyk will return as starting safeties, while freshman Leo Bishop will start at CB along with returning starter Desmond Reynoso.

It doesn't look like our D is going to be much better than it was last year, but I'm going to resist the temptation to play Buddy Doggett and instead give him a redshirt year, Hopefully Leo Bishop (73/73 INT) can be a difference maker at the corner.

On offense, I need to come to the realization that Drew Thompson is not going to be able to get the fullest potential out of our big guys. That being said, prized recruit Van McGee will start at LT amongst a bunch of underachievers and just plain poor opperclassmen.

Returning as our option QB will be redshirt junior Tommy Cassidy. Coach Thompson's been working with Tommy on his passing skills, but Cassidy is the starter because he can run.

Joining Cassidy in the wishbone will be freshman FB Len Sembower, who has the potential to be a great run blocker as well as power back. Sophomore Norm Duran, our leading rusher in 2004, will again be our starting tailback. In a real surprise, frosh Bert Deering won the
starting Wingback spot, as we've decided to redshirt both Quentin Poole and Eugene Paullin, who are both very rough around the edges.

One thing to note was when I was trying to get a kicker to committ near the end of last season, I thought a local RB from Vermont had scooped up a scholarship I had forgotten to withdraw. But no, he signed on as a recruited walk-on, and he'll be our primary backup RB this year -- Carlton Mahoney.

The primary targets Tommy Cassidy will be throwing in the general direction of will be wideouts Ev Bishop and freshman Malcolm Mason, who we hope makes a big contribution this year. Starting at TE will be frosh Terry Noyes, who has the potential to be a great run blocker but already is a fantastic clutch receiver and is fearless going over the middle.

It looks like we've improved slightly at the skill positions - we've got a lot of potential in the backfield and at wideout, we've definately upgraded at TE and made a big improvement at offensive tackle in Van McGee. We've still got a long way to go in building a quality O-Line though, and the jury is still out if Tommy Cassidy can run a wishbone offense successfully.

Defensively I think we've regressed some, though our secondary has improved our linebacking corps, outside of Jumbo Rodgers, is, well, not good. Freshman DE Buddy Doggett is a ways away from helping, though he has lots of potential.

All in all I'd be surprised if we challenged for the conference title. I think 4-3 or 5-2 in conference are realistic expectations. Anything worse will be a major disappointment, anything better a pleasant surprise.

Summer drills have however, made me take note that the two biggest voids in this program, LB and O-line, are positions my coordinators just don't develop players well at. In the long run, if we're going to get better and bring in talented kids, we may need to make some changes despite the other strengths of our coordinators.

2005 Season
 

2005 SEASON

WEEK 1
@ New Mexico (0-0-0)

Well, we get started right off the bat with a tough game in week 1. Hopefully we'll be able to hold our own.

Recruiting priorities: LB's, O-line, and a running QB. Bad news on the recruiting front. Most of the regional recruits that fit my needs are a bad fit for the college. I'll need to expand my search next week. We really need some OL and LB's.

We started off the year in the best way possible, with a "W". The Fighting Owls pulled out a 22-13 win at New Mexico on the back of tailback Norm Duran, who ran for 136 yards and 1 TD. Frosh wideout Malcolm Mason made an immediate impact, catching 6 passes for 100 yards, while frosh FB Len Sembower also had 6 receptions. And I don't know how Omar Harper did it, but his D held New Mexico to 9 yards rushing for our first non-conference win ever.

The bad news is we got hit with the injury bug bad. We lost RB Bert Deering, NT Jackie Hollins and starting OG Lenny Daschle. Hollins may miss the entire year, What a waste.

NNE (0-0-0) Overall (1-0-0)



WEEK 2
vs. UAB (0-1-0)

Our first homegame of the season should be pretty interesting as we host UAB. I'm very disappointed in ticket sales as we've only sold 8,700 season tix. Maybe as we mature as a program the fans will start to come. By the by, the pundits have us as 2 point favorites over UAB.

I expanded the recruiting search some and went down into NY and NJ. Watched a lot of games, saw a lot of kids, but nothing noteworthy to report yet. Pickings seem slim this year.

13,400 showed up at Owl Field to watch us drop a close one to UAB, 21-17. We really should have won this one as we led 17-7 after 3 quarters but just fell apart in the 4th. We didn't really run the ball well, managing only 111 net on the ground, but Tommy Cassidy had a decent day passing, tossing 2 TD passes, both to freshman TE Terry Noyes, who caught 6 passes for 70 yards on the day.

This loss was really, really disappointing.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)



WEEK 3
Off week.

No game scheduled this week so we'll mostly be focusing on recruiting and getting healthy. We lost Jumbo Rodgers for the season last week, leaving an already weak LB corps further depleted.

No one in for a visit yet. I'm starting to get a bit worried about this year's recruiting class. There just don't seem to be a lot of players that are good fits at positions we need filled.



WEEK 4
@ Kansas (2-0-0) TV5

We'll be playing the Jayhawks this week and this will be our first network televised game. Based on our first two games I'm cautiously optimistic that we won't completely embarass ourselves on national (well, regional) TV. Kansas is favored by 4.

QB Mark Chapman is on campus for a visit this week. Mark has ran for 686 yards in 7 games. Our main competition for him appears to be Miami. They have the edge on us in program prestige but our Art Department is one of the best in the nation and that's what Chapman wants to major in.

The Fighting Owls certainly weren't embarassed on TV this week even though losing to Kansas 13-10. We played our hearts out and it seems evident as we head into the NNE conference schedule that we've come along way in a year's time. TB Norm Duran had another 100 yard day and frosh FB Len Sembower had 7 receptions as Tommy Cassidy tossed 1 TD and had no picks. Cassidy's passing, while he has been disappointing running the ball, seems promising for the future.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (1-2-0)



WEEK 5
@ Maine (1-2-0) (NNE)

We play our first conference game this week as we head "down east" to play the Black Bears of the University of Maine. In my opinion we've had three good tune up games and I'm optimistic about conference play - moreso than I was during the summer.

We've got another running QB, Terrell McKenzie from NJ, visiting on campus this week. Hopefully we'll land either him or Chapman. McKenzie has rushed for 548 yards through 8 games. Still little progress in our primary needs areas, O-line and linebackers.

As for the game, oh what a heartbreaker of a loss - this one is going to come back to haunt us as we lose at Maine 29-28. The Owl bone worked to perfection as we ran for 305 yards, Norm Duran for 162 and Tommy Cassidy had a breakout game, rushing for 97 yards. Freshman OT Van McGee had a whopping 13 key run blocks, totally dominating the line of scrimmage. But we lost the turnover battle, Cassidy getting picked once and us fumbling once, while Maine didn't turn the ball over at all.

Oh that hurts.

NNE (0-1-0), Overall (1-3-0)



WEEK 6
vs. Northern Illinois (1-2-0)

Northern Illinois comes into Keene this week as 7 point favorites. I'm encouraged about the progress our offense is making, but worried about our D now. When we run for 304 net, our defense ought to be able to stop the bad guys enough for us to win one.

Grady Stone, a run blocking center from NJ is in for a visit this week, and we have a decent shot at landing him. He's not a super prospect, but he's a lot better than what we've got now.

Baby steps.

Turned out to be a big win for our program this week as we knocked off Northern Illinois 23-10, rushing for 229 yards. Norm Duran again led the way with 106 yards and frosh wingback Bert Deering, back from a tonsilectomy, added 68 yards on 9 carries. QB Tommy Cassidy continues to make progress in the passing game tossing 2 TD's and no picks. Freshman OT Van McGee had another dominant game in the trenches.

NNE (0-1-0), Overall (2-3-0)



WEEK 7
vs. Plymouth State (1-4-0) (NNE)

The bookies have us as 18 point favorites at home against Plymouth State. Offensively we've been playing really well and hopefully that will translate into some conference W's. Still looking for it to "click" with Tommy Cassidy where he runs and throws well in the same game. Tailback Norm Duran has 549 yards rushing through 5 games at a 4.7 YPC clip. He's averaging 109.8 YPG. He seems to have taken a step up to that next level from his freshman year.

Good news on the recruiting front. We landed QB Terrell McKenzie, the fleet footed signal caller from NJ. McKenzie finished his HS season with 579 yards on 93 carries. He also threw for over 3000 yards. Here's hoping we found our next QB.

OLB Michael Grevan from Mass. is on campus this week for a visit. Grevan had 98 tackles and 13 sacks and Brant Cline, who is terrific with LB's has him pegged at 81/100 -- and when I saw him play he looked even better than that. He would improve our linebacking corps exponentially.

Well, this week the running game was in fine shape as Norm Duran had another 100 yard game and Tommy C ran for another 90, but 6 sacks and a pick did us in at home as we sufferred yet another disappointing loss, 29-24. 16 unanswered PSC points at the end of the 4th quarter, one on a fumble return, cost us another game we should have won. Lack of quality talent on the defensive side of the ball is really hurting us, along with key injuries up the middle.

NNE (0-2-0), Overall (2-4-0)



WEEK 8
Off week.

Well, we get a much needed break this week, but only bad news comes in the mail. 2 LB's and an OL we recruited turned us down and went to other schools.

When it rains, it pours.



WEEK 9
@ UNH (2-4-0) (NNE)

I suspended backup OT Cory Herrick for violating team rules today. He's done for the year. He'll have two more years of eligibility left if he returns next season.

Lost out on another OL-man, but we've got a bunch on campus visiting this week. We'll be driving over to Durham to play New Hampshire this week and maybe that will get us back on track.

In the game against UNH, Norm Duran had yet another 100 yard game, OT Van McGee once again dominated the line of scrimmage and Tommy Cassidy was a pinpoint 16 for 19 passing as the Fighting Owls defeated New Hampshire 13-10. Frosh ILB Corey Tatum (8/70) had a dominating day on defense with 15 tackles. Another member of the freshman class, Len Sembower, had 9 receptions as he and Tommy C played pitch and catch all day.

NNE (1-2-0), Overall (3-4-0)



WEEK 10
@ UVM (2-4-0) (NNE)

This week we'll be on the road again to play the Vermont Catamounts. I'm confident that our wishbone attack can beat any team in this conference now, but the question is, can our defense stop the bad guys from scoring?

Great news on the recruiting front. Walt Forte, an OG from South Kingstown HS in Rhode Island has signed a letter of intent to play for us. Walt has both solid athletic and academic prep, and we project him as a starter next season. Joining Forte in signing with the Fighting Owls was OT Don Liedtke from Shepherd Hill Regional in Dudley, MA. Don will need a bit more prep work before he's ready to start but when I saw him play he looked a lot better than his 91 projection. Two much needed signings to help our much beleaguered offensive line.

The Fighting Owls put it altogether come game time this week with a 45-7 rout on the road at Vermont as QB Tommy Cassidy ran for 3 TD's and threw for another. It was another dominating day for freshman OT Van McGee who has certainly made his presence felt in this, his freshman year.

NNE (2-2-0), Overall (4-4-0)



Homecoming week against a very solid Green Mountain College program. The Mounties are 5-0 in conference and this game is attracting national tv coverage -- good exposure for our fledgling program. Green Mountain has been installed as 5 point favorities - it'll be interesting to see if we can stay with them for 60 minutes.

More good news recruiting wise. OLB Mike Grevan has committed to come to Keene State. Mike was selected to the Massachusetts All-State team and was rated an 81 and looked better in person. Joining Grevan to bolster our linebacking corps will be ILB Peerless Boller, rated at 63 but appearing much better in person. Some much needed pieces have started to fall into place this week, now let's see if we can't upset the Mounties.

Against Green Mountain Tommy Cassidy led the way running for 92 yards on 19 carries, running for 1 TD and throwing for another as the Fighting Owls upset Green Mountain College 27-10 in front of a largest ever KSC home crowd of 15,500. Freshman FB Len Sembower had 6 catches for 92 yards and fellow frosh TE Terry Noyes had a TD reception. Junior DE Van Calara had 3 sacks as the Owls dominated play on both sides of the ball.

NNE (3-2-0), Overall (5-4-0)



Won't be any tv for this one, as Maine Maritime has played just woefully this season. Hopefully we won't play down to their level and can keep playing the high quality ball we have been playing for the past month. Oddsmakers have us as 12 point favorites on the road.

No new news on the recruiting front. Three players with pending scholarship offers are all visiting and we've invited a number of other kids to come visit and check out the school and potentially enroll as walk-ons.

DE Van Calara has really taken his game to the next level. As a starter last year, he had 3 sacks. Through 9 games this year, he has 9.5 sacks. But he's borderline academic probation as he just isn't cutting it in the classroom. Hopefully now that the coaching staff is spending some additional study time with him, he'll improve his school work.

You just knew it was going to happen. A 20-0 lead at halftime, 20-7 after 3 quarters, and yet we can't hold on, losing to a woeful Maine Maritime squad 21-20. TB Norm Duran had a very solid game, rushing for 141 yards on 21 carries, putting him over the 1000 yard mark for the season. Defensive genius or no, if Omar Harper can't get his boys to hold onto leads, given his abject inability to develop linebackers, he may be looking for a new job this winter.

NNE (3-3-0), Overall (5-5-0)



WEEK 13
vs. Dartmouth (1-8-0) (NNE)

Bryant Moss, an OG with Loch Raven HS (isn't that a cool HS name?) in Baltimore, MD has signed a letter of intent with Keene State this week, further bolstering our offensive line for 2006.

Well, we close out the 2005 season this week with mixed feelings. I'm really pleased with the way the running game has come together and I've seen some positive flashes from Tommy Cassidy. But we've lost a lot of games we could have, and in my opinion, should have, won. Hopefully we'll close on a high note and whup Dartmouth.

Alas, it was not to be. We got behind, abanoned the run and lost 34-28. Tommy Cassidy did throw 3 TD passes, freshman wideout Malcolm Mason had 6 grabs for 145 yards and 2 TD's and fellow frosh FB Len Sembower had 6 catches for 99 yards. But our defense gave up 296 yards rushing and we were never really in this game. Definately a sour note to end the season on.

NNE (3-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



WEEK 13
Open week.

Freshman walk-on RB Carlton Mahoney has approached me about a scholarship. Looks like we might have one open next season and he's been a good reserve for us. Think I might give the kid a full boat.

Justin Rivera, a pretty decent looking safety from Pittsburgh, PA, has committed to playing for KSC next season.



CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Open week.

We finished tied for 4th in the Northern New England Athletic Association. A pretty disappointing finish given my preseason expectations.



MINOR BOWL TIER
Open week.

Decided to spend the week in New Orleans getting souced. I sure needed it after that up and down year. Ran into Spencer Tinker down here, trying to get girls to lose their tops for strings of beads, Man, that guy just doesn't stop hustling.



MAJOR BOWL TIER
Open week.

This week, it's Vegas baby.

Tried out the card game that's part of TCY. A fun way to kill 45 minutes when you're bored.



FOUR STAR TIER
Off week.

Too hungover to journal. Coach Bear sleeps it off.



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Open week.

Starting to give some serious thought about changing coordinators. However, I'm not far enough removed from those 4th quarter losses to make any rational decisions yet.



CHAMPIONSHIP TIER
Open week.

Oklahoma trounces UCLA 37-9 to win the national championship.

Craig Agnew, QB from LSU wins the Heisman.

2005 Season Review and Summary
 

2005 SEASON REVIEW

All in all 2005 was a disappointing season for me. We lost too many games I think we should have won. Defense was a big problem and I just didn't do enough defensive recruiting to help support what turned out to be a very good offensive attack. Fortunately I think we've corrected that for 2006, but I can't help but feel 2005 was a lost opportunity for this
program.

On a lighter note, there were some personally rewarding accomplishments in the 2005 season. Freshman OT Van McGee, who I thought was a major recruiting coup, was named 1st Team All-American. Keene State also had 4 players named to the Freshman All-American team: McGee, FB Len Sembower, TE Terry Noyes, and ILB Corey Tatum.

KSC was also well represented on the All-NNE Teams. QB Tommy Cassidy was named NNE Offensive Player of the Year. Van McGee was named top offensive freshman in the NNE while fellow frosh Corey Tatum was named top defensive freshman. Cassidy, Sembower, McGee, Noyes and Tatum were all named to the 1st Team All-NNE squad while K Dave Oliver, DE Van Calara and OLB Bernard Reddick were named to the 2nd team. Academically, Reddick and OT Alan Flowers were named to the Academic All-NNE team.

After sleeping on it, I took a look at the stats from this past year and think sometimes you're just too close to the trees to see the forest. All those heartwrenching losses at the end of games made our defense look a lot worse than the numbers might suggest. Omar Harper's defensive unit was 22nd in the nation in points allowed, allowing only 17.9 PPG. Our pass defense was 4th in the country - though a significant factor in that was our run defense was ranked a porous 55th. I'm still somewhat concerned with Harper's inadequacies in linebacker development, but I really can't blame him when I didn't provide him with much defensive talent outside of the secondary.

And again, that points allowed figure is pretty impressive - and should have resulted in a lot more wins for this program. It's even more impressive when you look at the improvement over 1 season, 33 PPG allowed (105th) in 2004 to 17.9 (22nd) in 2005.

So, to make a long story short, I'm leaning towards being more likely to retain Harper as DC than not atm.

2006 Preseason
 

WINTER 2006

TCY Today had our recruiting class ranked #22 in the nation. That gives me some real positive vibes heading into the 2006 season.

Looks like UGA was playing a little dirty to win their national championship in 2004 as the NCAA placed the school on probation - no TV and no bowl games. I think that program will be hurt pretty badly by those sanctions, and it saddens me a bit as I have a soft place for UGA in my heart.

But I've got my own problems to worry about.

Starting Safety Patrick Airhart was ruled academically ineligible - a true senior that finishes his football career here at Keene. Airhart has started both seasons the program has been in existence. Kyle Mueller, a walk-on OG has also been suspended for academic reasons. He won't be missed.

I ultimately decided to leave the staff intact this season. It'll be interesting to see what Drew Thompson and Omar Harper can do with some of the talent I have brought in, and Lead Scout Brant Cline is a key figure in the future success of this program.

Once again no transfers in or out, and we're maxed out at 60 scholarships. Turned out to be a pretty quiet winter in the Monadnock Region in 2006. Hopefully we'll make some noise come the fall.



SPRING 2006

Due to AD negotiated contracts, we play at UAB week 3 and at home against Northern Illinois week 6. That leaves us two non-conference games to schedule. I'd like to establish some more regional rivalries, so we'll look at UCONN and BC first.

Stage 1: UCONN accepted our offer of an away game this year and a game at Keene in 2007. As they're right down the Connecticut River from us, that should be a fun series. Now let's see if we can get something done with BC. Ohio State is offerring an away game for us, but I'd rather get something done against a solid program within the region.

Stage 2: BC turned down our offer of a home and home series. Maybe a little sour grapes about us stealing OT Van McGee from right under their noses two years ago. Arizona is offerring us a home game for week 2, and I'm going to accept it. Be nice to have a big time program come into Keene.

Stage 3: Got the Arizona game all set and that fills up our schedule early this year. We'll start play Week 1 against UCONN in Storrs, have a week off in Week 4, open our conference schedule Week 5 at NNE champ Green Mountain, have a week off during week 9 and finish up with all NNE games weeks 10-13.

There's already talk of a quarterback controversy and we haven't even started summer drills yet. Some boosters are calling for Freshman Terrell McKenzie to start right away. I can't really red-shirt McKenzie as our depth at QB is pretty thin, but I think coming off the year Tommy Cassidy had he deserves the start. But we'll see.


SUMMER 2006

I'm allowing my staff to handle time management again this season. I find it to be the most tedious, time consuming, and annoying part of the job. I'll chip in during the season when a player has a crisis and allocate some blocks of time, but other than that, I'll let my assistants earn their paychecks.

As the Owl coaching staff worked our student-athletes through summer two-a-days we're already noticing how many freshmen recruits are far more talented than their upperclassmen counterparts. Like Van McGee and Len Sembower last season, we're looking for a number of frosh to be impact players this season. Summer camp has shown us that we've significantly improved the offensive line and drastically improved our linebacking corps. We don't have much depth in either area yet, but we're working on that with some redshirts and we'll continue looking to bring in depth in those areas.

Our offensive line is led by 1st Team All-American Sophomore LT Van McGee. Van's counterpart at RT is redshirt senior Alan Flowers who has really grown in his time with us. We're looking for big things from him over the next two years. True junior Lenny Daschle returns at LG while frosh recruit Walter Forte, as expected, won the starting RG position. At OC, returning for his 3rd season as a starter is redshirt senior Omar Bjorlin. There's not much depth here after the starting 5, but this has the makings of a very good O-line.

Returning as signal caller for his 3rd season is redshirt senior Tommy Cassidy. Tommy was the NNE's Offensive player of the year in 2005, throwing for 1800 yards and 12 TD's while running for 7 more TD's and 503 yards. Coach Drew Thompson continues to work hard with Tommy to improve his passing game, and Tommy was pushed hard in camp by freshman Terrell McKenzie, who will back up Cassidy this season.

Redshirt sophomore Eugene Paullin wrested the tailback spot away from 2 year starter Norm Duran. Paullin enters the season at 60/93 after being redshirted last season - boy did he improve his game significantly. Duran will be starting, but at Wingback, while another redshirt sophomore Quentin Poole serves as the primary backup. The Owls sport a very deep backfield this season and should for years to come.

Starting at FB will be sophomore Len Sembower. Sembower was 1st Team All-NNE last year with 56 receptions for 548 yards and 4 TD's and he continues to develop into a fine run blocker and short yardage back.

Our ends will be the same as last year, with 1st Team All-NNE TE Terry Noyes anchoring the strong side while big play threat Ev Bishop and sure-handed Malcolm Mason share time on the weak side at Split End. In Tommy Cassidy's three seasons here at KSC this is the best group of receivers he has ever had.

While our offense looks to be explosive this season, it's likely that we've improved more defensively than anything. We'll be starting 3 freshman at LB including prized recruit Mike Grevan at SLB. They'll join 1st Team All-NNE ILB Corey Tatum, only a sophomore himself, to give us a much improved linebacking corps.

Anchoring the defensive line will be DE's Van Calera, who really came into his own last season registering 35 tackles and 10.5 sacks while earning 2nd team All-NNE honors, and the high potential redshirt sophomore Buddy Doggett (23/83).

The secondary was the strength of the Fighting Owl defense last season, and 3/4 of it returns intact. Leo Bishop and Dez Reynoso start at the corners and Dan Surdyk fills one of the safety spots. Freshman Justin Rivera replaces the academically ineligible Patrick Airhart at the other safety spot.

There's no doubt the defense is much improved, at least potential-wise. The question is can Defensive Coordinator Omar Harper translate that high potential into on field production enough to make the Owls legitimate contenders for the NNE conference title?

2006 Season
 

WEEK 1
@UCONN (0-0-0) TV4
UCONN (-6)

Looking to land a couple of major recruits this season. Made a quick scholarship offer to a pass rushing NT from Lunenburg, MA named Jumbo Quinn. Jumbo is ranked as the 5th best DT in his graduating class and we feel he'd be a major impact player on our defensive line for 4 years. We'll also be looking to land at least one safety and CB as Surdyk and Reynoso graduate this year. I'd also like to increase our depth at LB, but it's going to be difficult to land a prize recruit at that position as we're starting 4 underclassmen.

Drawing nation TV exposure can't be bad for our program's prestige, and the pundits had us listed at only 6 point underdiogs against a Big East school, on the road. All good signs we're heading in the right direction.

We're due for a lot more attention now.

Led by QB Tommy Cassidy's 16/21 196 yards, 3 TD performance in which he tacked on another 70 yards rushing the Fighting Owls played like they wanted to send a message right away in 2006, hammerring the Huskies 52-16. Cassidy connected with sophomore wideout Malcolm Mason 5 times for 115 times and 1 TD including a 42 yard bomb.

The game was never in doubt, at halftime Keene State led 24-3 and the Owls outscored UCONN 21-3 in the 3rd putting the game away. Cassidy won player of the game honnors, but the KSC offensive line really dominated the Huskies, especially the play of tackles van McGee and Alan Flowers and freshman OG Walt Forte.

Redshirt sophomore Eugene Paullin, in his first game as a Fighting Owl, ran for 137 yards and 3 TD's on 23 carries as wingback Norm Duran also added 54 yards on 7 carries. It was truly a dominating performance and hopefully a portent of good things to come this year.

Unfortunately FB Len Shembower went down with a pulled quad and is expected to be out 6 weeks. That'll press redshirt sophomore Bert Gaylor into action at FB. It's unrealistic he can fill Len's shoes, but he's the best we've got.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (1-0-0)


WEEK 2
vs. Arizona (0-0-0) TV4
(KSC -2) Rank: #18

For the first time in the short history of Keene State's football program the Fighting Owls burst into the Top 25, being ranked at #18. While the honor is rewarding, early season polls are notoriously sketchy - and in this case the voters placed a little too much emphasis on our blowout of Connecticut. Still, I think we sent a message to some folks that we're a serious football program.

One of the prize recruits we're pursuing this season is CB Alan Woodling from Connellsville, PA. Woodling is rated 100 and the #1 recruit in the nation. Normally we wouldn't stand a chance at landing a high profile recruit like Alan, but he is highly attracted to KSC because of our Marketing Department and he also wants to stay in the northeast so I think we've got a shot at landing him.

We're also recruiting a bunch of local kids, most notable is OLB Thurman Hardy, who really likes our Mechanical Engineering faculty. Our main competition to date for Hardy is UNH.

As I thought, the pollsters were a bit too optimistic after the UCONN game, and Arizona came in and kicked us in the teeth, beating us 38-13 on our home turf. The wildcats shut down our wishbone attack and only Gene Paullin could make any headway, gaining 92 yards on 20 carries. Tommy Cassidy did connect with Malcolm Mason on a 55 yarder as well as a 17 yard TD pass, but that was about it for our offense on the day. Freshman OLB Ed Wagner had a decent day making 8 tackles and Corey Tatum made 7 tackles and had a sack.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)



WEEK 3
vs. UAB (0-1-0)
(KSC -5)

Spent most of the week making new contacts with recruits around the northeast. Found an interesting running QB from Wamogo regional in Litchfield, CT named Tracy Leska, who expressed strong interest in attending KSC. I'll have to go take a closer look at him next week. No one has come to campus on a visit yet, but it's still early in the recruiting season.

Eugene Paullin just exploded in front of a crowd of just over 13,000 at Owl Field, rushing for 231 yards on 37 carries as the Fighting Owls eeked out a 29-28 win over UAB - good to be on the winning end of one of these nailbiters for a change. Coach Thompson just kept calling Paullin's number all day and the redshirt soph took it to the house twice. As if that wasn't enough, Tommy Cassidy hit him with 4 passes for 66 yards, 56 of them YAC. Gene has the ability to be a very special back.

Backup FB Bert Gaylor and All-American OT Van McGee each had 6 key run blocks opening holes for Paullin all day. ILB Corey Tatum had another fine game making 9 tackles.

Bert Gaylor's career might have been short lived however as he went down with a serious compound leg fracture and is expected to be out for at least a year. Redshirt senior John Hunt, a solid receiver and 3rd down back will fill in at FB -- though we expect our run blocking to suffer some.

Here's hoping Bert's young career isn't over because of this.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (2-1-0)



WEEK 4
Off week.

With the off week we'll spend most of the week prepping for our conference opener against Green Mountain and continuing contacts with some of the most promising recruits we hope to land this season. NT Jumbo Quinn and LB Thurman Lind were both in for visits this week. Quinn's quite the capable pass rusher and he's been offerred scholarships by us and Boston College. Lind is the #1 prospect coming out of NH this year and along with us fellow NNE schools UNH and UVM have made strong pitches for him. I really like our chances though as we've got the best Mechanical Engineering program of those three schools and that's Thurman's top priority.

Looking ahead to next week, I'm pleased we're off to the start we are and look forward to starting our conference schedule. I'm excited about this team and the program in general. Our last recruiting class was exceptional and I think we're building a quality program here in the Monadnock Region -- one that may just be able to compete on a national level within the next 5 years.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (2-1-0)



WEEK 5
@ Green Mountain (0-2-0)
(KSC -4)

Coach Thompson and Lead Scout Brant Cline have really designed this year's wishbone attack around the QB option and around tailback Eugene Paullin. Paullin made tremendous progress in development during his redshirt year under Coach Thompson and all that hard work is finally starting to show dividends. My hope is Paullin will become the dominant back in the NNE this season. I think there's at least an outside shot of that happening.

Spent a lot of time this week with Jumbo Quinn, Thurman Lind, and two other recruits in for visits - QB Tracy Leska and an OLB from Norwalk, CT named Blaine Nordbye. Right now we've got the inside track on Nordbye, but we're competing against Penn State and Ohio State for Leska. Those are bigtime programs but I think we've got a shot at landing the kid.

It just doesn't seem like we can get over the hump in conference, as we sufferred a 24-20 loss at Green Mountain. The Mountain boys scored 17 unanswered 4th quarter points to beat us - though they stymied our offense the entire game. Tommy Cassidy threw 2 picks and we only ran for 151 yards on the day - with the Mounties holding Gene Paullin just under 100.

This will hurt any aspirations we might have at the conference championship.

Freshmen LB's Ed Wagner and Mike Grevan both played well in a losing effort, recording 10 and 9 tackles respectively. Adding insult to inury we also lost All-American OT Van McGee to injury this week. He's expected to miss 5 weeks with a seperated shoulder.

NNE (0-1-0), Overall (2-2-0)



WEEK 6
vs. Northern Illinois (1-3-0)
(KSC -13)

Very good news on the recruiting front as NT Jumbo Quinn signed a letter of intent with us, choosing Keene State over Boston College. With starting NT Alonzo Sheldon graduating and the failure of Jackie Hollins to develop and his constant injuries, Jumbo could be starting for us at the nose as early as next year.

Made a strong pitch to RB Bert Springer from Troy, NY this week. He's a good fit for KSC because he wants to stay in the region and he likes our academics. Syracuse is probably our strongest competition for him.

CB Rob Blount from Princeton Junction, NJ is also attracting interest from some major collegiate programs but he is strongly attracted to our Physics department which is ranked 12th in the nation. We're hoping to lock him in before he even visits any other schools.

On the field we simply couldn't get a running game going this week as Northern illinois came into Owl Field and upset us 24-17. Gene Paullin did have a 100 yard game but it took him 35 carries to earn 122 yards. Tommy Cassidy self-destructed tossing 4 INT's, leading talk radio callers screaming for Terrell McKenzie.

For an option wishbone we've gotten really one dimensional. Norm Duran only had 2 carries and Cassidy 7. I think I may and tinker with the bone next week. We've got to add some variation to this offense.

NNE (0-1-0), Overall (2-3-0)



WEEK 7
@Maine (2-2-0) (NNE)
(Maine -1)

Plenty of kids on campus visiting this week. Still hoping to sign a few big name recruits away from major programs. Academically we'be got some good advantages over many major schools, and for the most part concentrate on kids from the northeast that want to stay in the region, giving us an edge as there aren't that many major football powerhouses up this way.

I sat down with Brant Cline and Drew Thompson and we made some serious adjustments to the offense. I thought we were getting too predictable and weren't utilizing all the talent we have in that backfield.

We'll see.

Don't really know how much my input helped, but we came out with a W and a more diversified offense and less of a workload on Gene Paullin, but with beter production from him. Gene's carries were reduced to 24 but he ran for 133 yards (5.5 YPC) as we ran as a team 220 total yards in a 31-28 win over the Black Bears. Wingback Norm Duran had 7 carries for 36 yards (5.1 YPC) and Freshman Safety Justin Rivera returned an INT for a touchdown.

A win is a win is a win. It's going to take me some getting used to gameplanning, but we'll take it.

We lost DE Buddy Doggett amd OLB Mike Grevan to injury, probably for the rest of the season.

NNE (1-1-0), Overall (3-3-0)



WEEK 8
vs. Vermont (0-6-0) (NNE)
(KSC -21)

Some very good news on the recruiting front. Tracy Leska and Blaine Nordbye signed letters with us this week. As we've said, those were two of the recruits we really wanted to land. We lost RB Bert Springer to Syracuse, but we're very deep at RB already, so the loss doesn't hurt hat much.

A little more tinkering with the offensive gameplan this week. Might have cut Gene Paullin's workload down just a tad too much, but he did go over the 100 yard mark again (19/103/5.4/1 TD) and as a team we ran for 245 yards on the day. We tried to put Tommy Cassidy in situations where he could throw the ball without facing maximum pressure and he seemed to respond well, going 24/32 for 310 yardswith 2 TD's and 1 INTin a 38-0 whitewashing of UVM.

FB Len Sembower was back from injury with a vengeance making 8 catches and wideout Malcolm Mason had 4 catches for 120 yards as well as 3 carries for 47 yards and a TD. Freshman RG Walt Forte had a solid day with 5 KRB.

To date, through 7 games, Eugene Paullin has had a terrific season, gaining 913 yards on 187 carries for a 4.8 YPC. Gene has also hit paydirt 7 times.

In conference we're 1 game out of first behind Green Mountain College, who we lost to.

Unfortunately we lost our other rising star OLB, Ed Wagner, most likely for the rest of the year. This just emphasizes our need for more depth at LB.

NNE (2-1-0), Overall (4-3-0)



WEEK 9
Off week.

More good news on the recruiting front. Thurman Lind has committed to us. The young LB was one of the recruits we pursued the most. Another major recruit, CB Rob Blount also signed a letter with us this week. We also added some more depth at QB and LB with some local signings. Spent the off week poking around for some depth at DE. Even though both Van Calera and Buddy Doggett will return next year, we need to add some depth at that position and Van will be a 5th year senior next year.

NNE (2-1-0), Overall (4-3-0)



WEEK 10
Homecoming VS, UNH (2-4-0) (NNE)
(KSC -8)

We scored a major recruiting coup this week landing CB Alan Woodling from Pennsylvania. We talked about Woodling back in Week 2 and just kept pursuing him. His athletic and academic prep are just fantastic and with Dez Reynoso due to graduate this year, Woodling may be able to make an immediate impact. It's quite a major coup for a program our size to land the #1 recruit in the nation and shows how far we've come in just three short years.

Made further overtures to some under-recruited safeties in hope of landing one or two as walk-ons, or even finding one worthy of a scholarship. 14,900 fans showed up at Owls Field for Homecoming this year, and once again our opponent was the University of New Hampshire. The Fighting Owls were firing on all cylinders this week, wiping out UNH 52-7 to the delight of the many KSC alums present. Gene Paullin ran for 3 TD's and Tommy Cassidy threw for 3 more and frosh Safety Justin Rivera returned another INT for a touchdown as the Owls dominated every aspect of the game. The game was over by halftime as Keene State built a 35-7 lead at the half and then added 17 unanswered points in the second half to wrap this one up.

Bad news on the injury front however as Gene Paullin left the game with a concussion and Norm Duran is out for the season with back surgery. Paullin is listed as Probable for next week but I don't know if we'll play him. Van McGee went down again as did wideout Malcolm Mason. We may have to suit up Adam Sandler and the Waterboy for next week's game against Dartmouth.

NNE (3-1-0), Overall (5-3-0)



WEEK 11
@ Dartmouth (2-5-0) (NNE)
(KSC -5)

Run stopping DE Neal Lira from Memorial High School in Brick Township, New Jersey has signed a letter to play for us next season. Neal will be a project but has a lot of potential as a rated 88+ player. Look for us to red-shirt him and get him a year's worth of prep work before he takes the field for us.

Dartmouth took an early 14-0 lead against the injury depleted Owls and never looked back, handing us a plain old fashioned whuppin, 42-10. Coach Thompson abandoned the run when we fell behind and that just doomed us. Due to injuries the much heralded Quentin Poole got to play starting at Wingback, and he arrived with a thud - 5 carries for 0 yards. FB Len Sembower did have a good game, making 9 catches for 79 yards, 25 of them after the catch.

We lost yet another LB, freshman starting ILB Peerless Boller. We'll suit the Fighting Owl mascot herself up next week.

The loss ends any hope we had of catching Green Mountain, who are now 5-0 in conference.

NNE (3-2-0), Overall (5-4-0)



WEEK 12
vs. Plymouth State (3-6-0) (NNE)
(KSC -8)

Still waiting on decisions from two players - NT Burt Harvey from Iowa and Safety Erik Zimmerman from West Virginia. I'd like to land both of them, as they're the only offers we have left out there.

Uhm, we definately need the drug testing folks here after this one. In what has to be the most incredible display of offense and most toro-style defense on the part of both schools, the Fighting Owls come away with a 63-57 win in OT.

The Owls ran for 414 yards against the porous PSC defense (PSC didn't do too shabby itself, running for 244 against us) and Eugene Paullin had the game of his - and everyone else's - life. Gene carried the ball 45 times, gained 350 yards and ran for 6 touchdowns - a 7.7 YPC avg. I just don't know what to say. That was the most incredible offensive display I have ever seen in either TCY or FOF. Un-be-frackin-lievable.


That just speaks for itself.

NNE (4-2-0), Overall (6-4-0)



WEEK 13
@ Maine Maritime (5-5-0) (NNE)
(KSC -1)

I think I'm still in shock. That game was fracken amazing. Sweet fancy Moses.


But anyway, Burt Harvey turned us down and decided to go be a corn-fed D-lineman at Iowa. Win some, lose some. Can't feel too bad as we already have a committment from Jumbo Quinn to play the nose for us. I'll invite a few players to come visit campus and see if any want to walk on. Other than that, a win at Maine Maritime will garner us sole possession of 2nd place in the Northern New England Athletic Association. We're already guaranteed to finish over .500 both in conference and the NNE, so a win here would make this a very successfull season and I think we'd have to be considered legitimate contenders for the conference crown next year.

I guess we were just too exhausted and beaten up from that past game and the laundry list of injuries we've sufferred this season, as a 7-6 game at halftime turned into a 42-14 blowout for the whale lovers. Gene Paullin did have yet another fine game, gaining 112 yards on 25 carries and NT Alonzo Sheldon, in his last game for the Fighting Owls, wracked up 2.5 sacks.

We finish in a 3-way tie with Maine Maritime and Dartmouth for 2nd at 4-3, but officially finish 4th having lost to both of those schools this year.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



WEEK 14
Open week.

Made another home visit to Erik Zimmerman, the safety from West Virginia. It's down to us or UNLV. They've got a little bit higher pretige, we're much better academically. It's a toss up. I also invited a few recruits to come visit campus - none worth using a scholarship on, but 1 or 2 would make fine walk-ons.

Navy beat Army 27-20. Army finishes the year 0-11.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)




CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Open week.

Erik Zimmerman finally makes a decision and chooses us over UNLV. He'll be a key contributor down the road for us. That's a very nice late signing for us as he's rated at 71 by my scout and when i saw him play he looked better than that.

Decided to offer a scholarship to NT Isaac Eyechart (ok, it's really Grzegorczyk).

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



MINOR BOWL TIER
Open week.

J.B. Kosteva, a defensive tackle from Huntington High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, has decided to walk-on and play for us next season. That fills up our recruiting class for this year.

Sorry eyechart, no dice.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



MAJOR BOWL TIER
Open week.

Funnilly enough, The Patriot Bowl, held in Boston, MA, pits Air Force vs. Navy this year. Think I'll go to that one.

Air Force beat Navy 28-21.

While on the topic of the service academies, shouldn't it be a law that Army has to have a good ground game, Air Force a solid passing attack, and Navy both (Marines and carrier aircraft?).

Just a thought.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



FOUR STAR TIER
Open week.

#5 Nebraska vs. #6 Utah in the Sugar Bowl looks like it'll be a good game.

It wasn't. 42-17 Nebraska.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Open week.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)



NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Open week.

Michigan defeated Alabama 42-23 and won the National Championship.
QB Donnell Huard of USC won the Heisman.

NNE (4-3-0), Overall (6-5-0)

2006 Season Review and Summary
 

2006 SEASON REVIEW

An improvement over 2005 as we finished over .500 in conference and for the first time in our history finished over .500 overall, going 6-5. We've made steady progress in building the program, going 4-7 in 2004, 5-6 in 2005 and now 6-5 in 20o6. We had two big non-conference wins, at UCONN and at home against UAB and we won that spectacular shootout with Plymouth State in OT during Week 11 that had us on Sportscenter for days.

As the season went on we had a lot of players forced into roles where they just weren't talented enough to succeed. To me, that means I just haven't brought in enough talent to create the type of depth w need to succeed when faced witha rash of injuries such as we were hit with this season. I'm hopeful that with our second consecutive outstanding recruiting class - TCY Today had last season's rated as 22nd in the nation and this year's class rated even higher at #15 - we'll have addressed that major problem.

As we played the games during the season, our running attack seemed to be significantly more explosive and productive - but it was only slightly moreso than last year. We only ran for 7 more yards as a team in 2006 than we did in 2005 - albeit in about 30 fewer carries, and we only scored one more rushing TD on the ground than we had the year before. The development of redshirt sophomore Gene Paullin was exciting and I think he's going to be a key to our potential success over the next three years, but if anything I feel our wishbone attack regressed some this year. QB Tommy Cassidy barely ran the ball and we never really got our wingback or fullback involved in the running game. Those are areas we're going to try and work on this spring and summer - all while trying not to diminish the phenominal explosiveness Gene brings to our run again.

Our passing attack however, was much improved. We gained over 400 more yards through the air than we did in 2005. Tommy Cassidy threw 18 YD's this year as opposed to 12 last season - though he also threw more INT's this year, 13 as opposed to 8 in 2005. And overall as an offense, we scored a lot more points in 2006, averaging 30.8 PPG as oppossed to 23.3 in 2005. We can thank the Plymouth State shootout for some of that no doubt.

Defensively I feel we've regressed quite a bit - though with 3/4 of our linebacking corps injured for most of the season walk-on's were playing quite a bit down the stretch. Our turnover margin was worse this season, +1 wheras in 2005 it was +5, and we gave up nearly 10 more PPG than we did in 2005 - again though, some of that we can thank the PSC game for.

I must admit to some disappointment, as I had thought we had a chance at the coference title. But as the season went along, it became painfully obvious I just hadn't recruited enough depth on defense - especially at linebacker - and the last three games of the season we just simply couldn't stop anyone, allowing 42, 57, and 42 points to our conference opponents during that 3 week span. Defensive coordinator Omar Harper is VG at conditioning and terrific at rehab, so it's difficult to blame him for a string of bad luck. If there's blame here, it's just we didn't have enough depth and were playing walk-on's at LB again.

Still, there were a number of bright spots, some of which, like the 15th ranked recruiting class in the nation, bode well for the future. And while 2005 1st team All-American OT Van McGee was hurt for much of the season and didn't have a chance to repeat as an All-American,
a number of our other student-athletes were recognized.

Three of our students were named to the Academic All-American team. Tailback Eugene Paullin, OT Alan Flowers and NT Alonzo Sheldon. Academics are important here at Keene State and we like to emphasize them. In fact, our highly rated academic programs help us bring in
nationallly ranked prep stars we might not otherwise be able to attract given the size and newness of our program.

Freshman OT Walter Forte was named to the Freshman All-American team. Walt had a good year for us and we look forward to him anchoring the O-line with Van McGee.

We also had a number of players recognized by the Northern New England Athletic Association. Tailback Eugene Paullin was named both the NNE's Most Valuable Player and it's Offensive Player of the Year, while OT Walt Forte was named the NNE's Freshman Offensive Player of the year.

Keene State also had 7 players named to the All-NNE First team and another 3 named to the 2nd team. Named as First Team All-NNE selections were QB Tommy Cassidy, Tailback Eugene Paullin, Fullback Leonard Sembower, TE Terry Noyes, K Dave Oliver, and CB Marty Armstrong. Named as Second team All-NNE selections were OT Alan Flowers, DE Van Calera, and WR Malcolm Mason.

Last but not least, we had 4 student athletes selected to the All-NNE Academic Team. Those players were RB Eugene Paullin, OT Alan Flowers (his 3rd consecutive selection), NT Alonzo Sheldon and ILB Ty Westbrook.

Congratulations go out to all those players for those well deserved awards.

Starting NT Alonzo Shelton and starting CB Dez Reynoso graduate this year.

Here's hoping 2007 is less frustrating than 2006.

Good read, looking forward to more... but I'm wondering, how are these the first ten posts you've ever made???

Lurking
 

Been lurking for a long time. Don't usually post to message boards - and I'm hardly an expert on these games, so I don't have much to say, but read a lot of dynasty posts here though and thought it would be fun to do one.

I've been really amazed at the user-friendliness of the formatting to post boxscores and stuff. I thought it would be a lot more difficult.

Thanks for reading!

2007 Preaseason - Winter
 

WINTER 2007

The frosty months of 2007 opened up with me getting a number of job offers from other schools. I received calls from 12 AD's inquiring as to whether I wanted to take over their programs. Offerring jobs were Kentucky, New Mexico, San Diego State, Wyoming, Cincinatti, UTEP, Kent State, Western Michigan, Arkansas State, Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette and Troy.

Kentucky being an SEC school was certainly intriguing and it would be a major step up careerwise. But I'm where I belong right now and my mission here, establishing a major college football program at Keene State, isn't finished yet. I let my AD know I wasn't going anywhere and politely declined all the offers.

Safety Patrick Airhart was never able to get his academics straightened out despite being forced to sit out last season and has left school. It's a shame as he was a two-year starter for us but he just never could get it together in the classroom. It bothers me that we let this kid fall between the cracks once he went on probation and I think there's more we could have done to keep him in school.

Junior Leo Bishop, a two-year starter at CB, has been placed on academic probation and will be ineligible to play this season. I'm starting to wonder if allowing my staff to handle time management for these kids is a good idea.

Myron Stephens, whose main job was to keep these kids academically eligible, has retired. From the results he produced with these kids, looks like he phoned it in last year anyway.

Two NNE schools made coaching changes this month, Vermont and Dartmouth. They'll be looking to turn those programs around. Our SW regional scout was hired away by Clemson so we'll be looking to replace him as well as finding a new Syndicate Coordinator.

I've decided to make a change at Offensive coordinator. I though Drew Thompson's playcalling has regressed the past two seasons, he is terrible at developing offensive linemen and he's been terrible at avoiding injuries. I've hired 48 year old Ernie Stuart to come in and take charge of the offense. Stuart's playcalling is rated as VG, he's XL at developing QB's and OL, and rated as Good at everything else except rehab, in which he is admittedly lousy. I don't relish making the change, but I think it's necessary in this case for the program to take a step to the next level.

Omar Harper will return for his 4th season as our defensive Coordinator. I really like his defensive schemes and the woes of our defense have just been a lack of quality personnel.

No reason to let him go.

Brant Cline will also be returning in his capacity as our New England/Lead Scout. I've come to rely on his good judgement, though I don't know how much longer he'll remain with the program as he just turned 64 and may be considering retirement soon.

Coming aboard as our new Syndicate Coordinator is 30 year old Michael Yost, formerly an Assistant Professor of physics here at Keene State where we have one of the best programs in the country. Yost is rated Terrific at Academic elig and lousy in investigations and soliciting donations. Good enough for me at this point and it'll keep the faculty here happy we're involving one of their own in the program.

63 year old Anthony O'Neil, coach at Tom Landry HS in Arlen,Texas joins the Fighting Owl staff as our SW regional scout. O'Neil's specialties are QB's, RB's and the O-line. He'll fit right into our program.

That rounds out our staff for 2007.

I'm not sure why we don't have any scholarships left. At the end of recruiting last year it said I had three left to offer - which I didn't offer. Sometimes the NCAA is just a pain in the ass. Sometimes I still just don't understand this game.

No players transferring in this year.

TCY Today rates our incoming recruiting class 15th in the nation. Here's a look at the class.

2007 Preseason - Spring
 

SPRING 2007

As always, we've got our permanent non-conference games against UAB and Northern Illinois. This season they'll both be at Owl Field, vs. UAB in week 2 and vs. Northern Illinois week 6. We've got the second half of a home and home against UCONN, also at Owl Field, scheduled for week 3. We currently have an open week during week 8 which I'd like to keep open to allow us a break midseason to help recover from any injuries before we hit the meat of our conference schedule as we play 5 conferenece games weeks 9 thru 13.

This leaves us needing just one game. I'm looking to play a major power this year to see just how far we have come in the last three years. Notre Dame is preseason ranked 20th. I'll try for a home and home - away this season - first, but if they say no I'll offer an away game in South Bend. I think they'll be a good test.

Stage 1: As expected, the Irish turned down my offer of a home and home. Washington is offerring me a home and home at Owl Field this year. They're not preseason top 25, but the temptation to play a pretty good program here at home (they're rated preseason #45, while we're #78) makes it worthwhile.

Stage 2: We set up the game with Washington for week 1 at Owl Field. Hopefully we'll attract some network tv coverage and earn some extra revenue and gain some additional prestige.

Here's the Fighting Owl's schedule for 2007.



A big jump in season ticket sales this season. That's a good sign that we're making progress.

2007 Preseason - Summer
 

SUMMER 2007

I've been very disappointed in our academic results since I've allowed the staff to handle time management for the players. I hate it, it's one of the most tedious parts of the game for me - makes it feel like a real job I guess - but I don't like what happened to Patrick Airhart and Leo Bishop and I think those situations could have been avoided had I been managing their time. So, I'll take over time management again this season and see if I can handle the situations a little better than the staff did.

As we start our two-a-days we're getting a much better sense of who can contribute this year and who needs a year of prep work. In a surprise, we've decided to redshirt NT Jumbo Grier. Jumbo's just too raw right now and could use the extra year to work on some skills.

Redshirt soph Ron Bernstein will start at the nose, backed up by redshirt junior Donnell Rodgers. Manning the defensive line with Bernstein will befour year starter Van Calera and redshirt junior Buddy Doggett. It's our hope that Doggett will make major strides this year and become an all conference type end for us in 2008 and 2009. Freshman Glenn Lake will be the primary backup at DE, as we've decided to redshirt Neil Lira, who is very unpolished. Lake (24/91), should be able to step right into Calera's spot when Van graduates the end of this season.

At ILB returning as starters will be junior Corey Tatum and sophomore Peerless Boller. Backing them up will be freshman Lorenzo Lyons. Lyons really should be redshirted a year, but we really need him to play significant reps this year to give us some depth up the middle. We are however, redshirting Vincent Coggins who is just far too raw to play yet.
On the outside returning as starters will be Ed Wagner and Mike Grevan, with solid backups in junior Omar Cochrane and freshman Jared Wright. Wright is going to be a very good OLB down the road, but this year he'll just provide us much needed depth. Redshirting will be Thurman Lind and Blaine Nordbye. We should be really deep at all our LB slots in 2008 if the incoming freshman develop this year - but that's a big if as Defensive Coordinator Omar Harper has trouble developing LB's.

The only returning starter in the secondary is sophomore Justin Rivera. Rivera is joined by freshman Safety Erik Zimmerman and two outstanding frosh CB's, Alan Woodling and Rob Blount. That underclass quartet provides us with a nice starting unit, but with Leo Bishop being academically ineligible this year, we don't have much depth in the secondary.

On the O-line we've got some depth this year. Fourth year starter Omar Bjorlin starts at OC and he's backed up by redshirt soph Grady Stone. At LG we've got returning starter, sophomore Walt Forte, the All-NNE Offensive Freshman of the year in 2006. At RG will be senior Lenny Daschle. Those two will be backed up by redshirt sophomore Bryant Moss and senior Emmanuel Reeves. We expect Moss to step right into a starting role next season and he'll be ready this year in case either Daschle or Forte go down.

5th year senior Alan Flowers moves from RT to LT this season as he is our best pass protector. He's joined by 2005 1st Team All-American, junior Van McGee, who moves from LT to RT. Backing them up will be redshirt sophomore Don Liedtke, who looks to be a starter down the road, and
5th year senior Spencer Rodriguez. We're concerned about the lack of development of Grady Stone at OC, but we're pleased with the way Liedtke and Moss are coming along and think they will provide us with much needed depth on the O-line.

Running the Owl Wishbone will be 4th year starter and 2 time All Conference 1st team QB Tommy Cassidy. He'll be backed up by sophomore Terrell McKenzie and frosh Tracy Leska, who are expected to compete for the starting job in 2008. Joining Cassidy in the backfield will be 2006 conference MVP Eugene Paullin at Tailback and 4th year starter Norm Duran at Wingback. We have an awful lot of depth in the backfield with Bert Deering and Quentin Poole as the primary backups, so we've decided to redshirt walk-on junior Carlton Mahoney. Mahoney really deserves a scholarship and maybe next season we'll be able to find him one.

Tommy Cassidy's primary targets will once again be Paullin, Sembower, and juniors TE Terry Noyes and wideout Malcolm Mason. Frosh Cary Jennings won the backup TE job in summer camp and we've got far too many wideouts on the roster for a wishbone team - no lack of depth there. Ev Bishop and Marco Reed will be Mason's top subs.

Here's a quick look at our roster heading into the season.


After our summer workouts, our staff is feeling very positive about heading into this season. Given the improvements we've made to our defense and the continued growth of many of our offensive players, I think it's a reasonable expectation that we compete for the conference championship this season. And while he probably won't get the national attention he deserves, Tailback Eugene Paullin is a Heisman talent. He's really developed exceptionally well.

So, onto the 2007 season, the 4th in our program's history. Here's looking for great things to come!

2007 Season
 

2007 SEASON

Week 1
vs. Univ. of Washington (0-0-0)
(even) KSC RANK: --

One of our major recruiting needs this season will be landing some run blocking offensive linemen. We'll be losinh 3 starters off the line this year to graduation, and while we have players ready to step up at OT and OG, OC remains a weakness - and of course we'll need to get players ready to replace those who are stepping into starting roles next year. Len Sembower is entering his junior year, so we'll be looking for a FB to replace him year after next. As always we'll be on the lokout for talented RB's, a wishbone program can never have enough of them. We'll also be looking for depth in our secondary, though we're starting three frosh and a sophomore there this season. We'll also be looking for a punter to replace Brian Godfrey after the 2008 season, and maybe another running QB to compete for the starting job next season as Tommy Cassidy graduates.

Ernie Stewart and I have put together a wishbone offense this season that we think will be a little more varied than the attack was under Drew Thompson. It seems really, really difficult to get the wingback a lot of carries however, through experimentation we've found that even with settings of TB 1, FB 1, QB 1, and WB 97, the QB will end up keeping the ball most of the time - though the WB might get the ball more often if we didn't emphasize the QB option so much.

We spent most of the week recruiting local kids. There's a good RB and good running QB coming out of the granite state this year, and we'd like to land both of them. The RB is a powerback coming out of Colebrook Academy named Leo Riffle. Colebrook does a good job both academically and athletically in prepping their kids for college, and Riffle looks better than the 67 Brant Cline has him rated at. The QB is Eugene Sutton out of Fall Mountain Regional, which does an exceptional job of academic and athletic preperation for their students. Sutton looks better in person than the 64 he is scouted at.

Tommy Cassidy led the way both running and throwing and OT Van McGee dominated the line of scrimmage as we opened up the season with a statement victory - beating Washington 35-7.

While the Huskies held Gene Paullin and Norm Duran in check, Cassidy ran for 71 yards and a TD on 15 carries, throwing for 2 more TD's and 210 yards. Junior TE Terry Noyes was Tommy's main target today making 5 catches for 76 yards and a TD. FB Len Sembower had the other TD reception. Tackle Van McGee had 7 key run blocks opening quite a few holes for Cassidy.

Wideout Malcolm Mason also had 3 catches for 72 yards on the day.

This is a big win for our program and hopefully a portent of things to come.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (1-0-0)


Week 2
vs, UAB (0-1-0)
(KSC -6) KSC Rank: #18

An early season win over Washington has the pollsters ranking us at #18. We're taking it with a grain of salt as the voters often get slap-happy after 1 game early in the year. Still, that win shows we're making progress in building this program, and that's what matters.

One of the more interesting problems we're having is making the wishbone diversified enough so that all the weight isn't placed on Gene Paullin's shoulders - yet not reducing the effectiveness of Paullin, who is one of the better backs in the nation at this point. It will take us continually tweaking the wishbone gameplan to find a happy medium.

We expanded our recruiting circle to the rest of the New England states this week. We'll chase a couple of players that are likely to attend more prestigious schools but that we have some hook with, such as them wanting to stay in the area or being particularly strong in the academic area they want to major in. Our last two recruiting classes we've managed to land such particular longshots so it's worth taking a run at a couple such players.

Everyone ran the ball this week as we defeated UAB 33-24. Gene Paulling led the way with 163 yards on 33 carries while Tommy Cassidy ran for 63 yards on 8 carries and Norm Duran had 64 yards on 4 carries. Both Duran and Paullin ran for TD's and Cassidy had a fine day passing going 16 for 21 for 244 yards and 2 TD's. Tommy connected with Terry Noyes and Ev Bishop on the scoring strikes.

OT Van McGee and OC Omar Bjorlin controlled the line of scrimmage and DE Buddy Doggett had 2 sacks as the Fighting Owls played a good all around game.

It's difficult not to let the excitement of these two big wins get the better of me, but one can't help but feel this is a pretty good team this year.

I hope I'm right.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (2-0-0)


WEEK 3
vs UCONN (0-1-0)
(KSC -5) KSC Rank: --

(Ed. note) We're actually "ranked" #41, but I am not counting it as being "ranked" unless we're top #25. Same with our opponents.)

We fall out of the Top 25 this week despite a good performance in a win over UAB, which isn't a surprise since more teams have played now. Polls the first couple of weeks are so unreliable as many teams don't start their seasons until weeks 2 or 3.

Johnny Brisman, a punter from Calais HS in Maine is on campus this week for a visit. Brant Cline rated him a 59 but he looked much better in person when we saw him play. Hardly an earth shaterrting recruit, but he's fairly local and we excel in the academic program he's looking for. Spent most of the week in New York and New Jersey looking at prep prospects. Recruiting above our prestige level, but looking at kids who want to stay close to home. Most of the highly rated recruits in that area are overated, but we'll have some in for visits.

UCONN came into Owl Field this week and we handed them a whuppin, beating the Huskies 44-10 on our home turf. Tailback Eugene Paullin had a big day running for 165 yards and 4 TD's on 25 carries - though Tommy Cassidy and Norm Duran were stopped cold. Paullin also had 5 receptions for 70 yards, 41 of them after the catch.

QB Tommy Cassidy had a good day throwing the ball, going 22/34 for 295 yards. Junior Malcolm Mason led our receivers with 90 yards on 5 catches before going down with an abdominal strain that may keep him out for a few weeks.

Our defense was aggresively stingy today, recording 4 sacks and 3 picks, one INT run back 62 yards for a touchdown by frosh CB Rob Blount.

After three games we're off to a very good start and I can't help but be pleased with the effort. Let's hope it carries over into our conference play.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (3-0-0)



WEEK 4
Off week.
KSC RANK: --

Being off this week will give Malcolm Mason a little time to recover from his injury. The injuries we've had so far, aside from his, have all been minor and players affected listed as Probable. Compared to last year the injury news has been a blessing.

Taking a run at landing QB's Gerald Carswell and Charlie Neid, two prep stars that are really out of our league pretigewise. Both love to run all the time and landing one of them would be a major boost for our program over the next 4 years. I'd call them both longshots at best however, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Spent the rest of the week continuing to recruit in NJ and NY and calling on players we have already contacted.

NNE (0-0-0), Overall (3-0-0)



WEEK 5
@ Univ. of Maine (2-1-0) (NNE) TV4
(even) KSC Rank: --

Our game against the Black Bears will be on national tv this week and we received some votes for the Top 25 this week, but didn't quite make it. Maine is off to a good start this season and this should be a good game.

Wideout Malcolm Mason is listed as doubtful, so we'll need Ev Bishop to step up his game quit a bit and give Tommy Cassidy a big play target to throw to.

Gerald Coutts, an exceptional RB from Rochester, NY is on campus this week for a visit. Coutts wants to stay close to home and both us and Green Mountain College are recruiting him. He's getting some attention from some very high pretige schools as well as our annual opponent, Northern Illinois. Brant Cline rates him as an 83, but I've got him at 83+ as he looked better than what was reported. He'd be a very nice pick up for us long term.

No new contacts this week, just mainly calling or re-visiting kids we're interested in.

Made a bunch of scholarship offers the past three weeks and now it's just a case of pursuing them until they commit (using a house rule that I can make no more than 1 phone call and 1 visit to a recruit in a single week).

The game against Maine turned out to be a defensive struggle. The teams matched touchdowns in the 1st quarter, the injured Malcolm Mason hauling in a TD pass in the red zone from Tommy Cassidy, making it 7-7 after the first. Owls tailback Gene Paullin scampered in from 14 yards out in the 2nd to make it 14-7 Fighting Owls at the half. But the Black Bears did a fine job shutting down Paullin, holding KSC's exciting tailback to 81 yards on 22 carries.

Maine would answer with a FG in the 3td quarter, but there would be no scoring the last 20 minutes of the game, and Maine's last drive ended with an interception by Freshman CB Alan Woodling, his 2nd pick of the day. Fighting Owls win 14-10.

A nice win to start off the NNE conferebnce schedule, though I'm pretty concerned about how well Maine held Paullin in check. Tommy Cassidy did have 47 yards on 9 carries - but one of them came on a 42 yard scamper. Norm Duran didn't touch the ball out of the backfield and I am starting to think the Wingback doesn't get any pitches out of the option. I can get him more carries by adjusting the run % numbers for his position, but I think those are independent of the option play.

I'm not really complaining as Paullin is such a stud, but it does seem like the wingback in a wishbone in the game is a forgotten man.

Anyway, we'll take the win.

NNE (1-0-0), Overall (4-0-0)



WEEK 6
vs. Northern Illinois (2-1-0)
(KSC -14) KSC Rank: --

Bad news all around on the recruiting front, even local kids turning us down to go to Maine and UCONN this week. We weren't rejected by anyone we had our hearts set on though, and the big names we're pursuing still haven't said "no", so that's a plus.

A few local kids on campus to visit this week - no difference makers though. Recruiting at this point is following up with the kids we have contacted, phoning or visiting them at home, and waiting for them to make decisions.

Another week and Gene Paullin was shut down. Looks like opposing defenses are really trying to keep him from being a difference maker.

Wingback Norm Duran did bust loose for a 59 yard TD run however and our defense stymied Northern Illinois, as we won going away 28-3. Redshirt junior DE Buddy Doggett has played particularly well the past two weeks, this week registering 9 tackles, 3 assists and 2.5 sacks. I'm very pleased with the progress he has shown and he's been a key playmaker on defense for us.

NNE (1-0-0), Overall (5-0-0)



WEEK 7
@Plymouth State (1-4-0) (NNE)
(KSC -24) KSC Rank: --

We lost a local OG to Dartmouth, Russ Clemente. Clemente's not going to be a star, but we projected him as a starter in his junior or senior year. Tough losing him to a conference school.

Three beefy Offensive linemen from NY and NJ are visiting this week - OG Shawn DeLizzio (99--), OG Travis Woodson (82+) and OC Orlando Walters (78+). Landing Walters would be a key coup as he could step right into our starting lineup next season. He wants to stay near home, so I think it'll come down to us and Syracuse. We're a little closer - though not
significantly so, but they have a big edge on us with team and conference prestige. I think we have a chance, but I'm not counting on it and have some other feelers out for OC's.

No committments yet, perhaps I've been too selective with my scholarship offers this year, and maybe shooting too high at some recruits. I guess we'll see as the season progresses.

Our Fighting Owls ran for 276 yards as we put away Plymouth State 37-24. Norm Duran ran for 128 yards on 11 carries and Bert Deering added 83 yards and 2 TD's on 18 carries as both Gene Paullin and Duran went down with severe inuries. Duran requires a scope on his knee and is likely done for the season while Gene has a severe wrist sprain. The trainers didn't like my suggestion that Gene rub a little dirt on it, spit on it, tape it up and play and they have listed him as out for next week.

On the brighter side, OT Van McGee and OG Walt Forte completely dominated the line of scrimmage today, resulting in the big running numbers we posted.

Well, I was going on and on about how much depth we have in the backfield, I guess we'll see if I was right for the next few weeks as Deering and the much heralded but under-performing Quentin Poole will be the starters for us in the backfield.

Malcolm Mason is doubtful with the same abdominal strain he sufferred earlier in the season and junior ILB Corey Tatum is out with a seperated shoulder. I hope we can withstand these injuries better than we did last season when we fell apart at the end of the year.

NNE (2-0-0), Overall (6-0-0)



WEEK 8
Off week.
KSC RANK: --

A much needed off week to try and get some guys closer to being healthy. I'm re-swapping Van McGee and Alan Flowers and going to emphasize running to the left in hope of squeezing a little more performance from the strong side of the bone. I also have noticed an oddity -- even though the wishbone formation shows the Split End as the one wideout that starts, the depth chart actually starts the Flanker. I noticed that at the end of last season and had moved Mason over to Flanker. Just an odd little quirk.

Gerald Carswell, the running QB from Allen Park HS in Allen, MI is on campus visiting. He's another top prospect we're taking a flyer on pursuing - our Spanish program is 81/100 and that's his top priority - we have the best Spanish program of all the schools recruiting him. Carswell ran for over 1000 yards as a QB in his 9 game HS season. He's rated (100--), so he's definately overrated, but Rivals.com has him as the 15th best QB in this recruiting class. We're primarily attracted to him for his running skills.

There are also a bunch of other recruits visiting campus this week, mostly defensive depth type players, though one or two who could become immediate starters given a little luck.

NNE (2-0-0), Overall (6-0-0)



WEEK 9
vs. Univ. of New Hampshire (3-3-0) (NNE) TV5
(KSC -25) KSC RANK: #19

We cracked the Top 25 this week, getting ranked at #19 in the nation. Hopefully we'll be able to play up to it, as it's really rewarding to break into the rankings this late in the year. In conference, it looks like Green Mountain is still the team to beat as they're off to a 3-0 start. We're 1/2 game behind them at 2-0 and we have yet to play them. We face off against them in Week 11 at Green Mountain, so it'll be a tough one for us.

Good news on the recruiting front as Ethan Poulin, a defensive tackle from Dover High School in Dover, New Hampshire has signed a letter of intent with us. Ethan is rated at 57+. Also committing to Keene State this week is Johnny Brisman, a punter from Calais High School in Calais, Maine. Johnny is rated at 59++. He'll likely redshirt next season, then back up Brian Godfrey in Brian's last year before taking over the punting duties in 2010 as a redshirt junior.

I invited a few local, overlooked OC's in for visits, one or two of them are likely walk-ons or candidates for last minute scholarship offers.

In our game against the Wildcats this week QB Tommy Cassidy ran for 3 TD's while Bert Deering added another as we ran for over 200 yards against the UNH D. The real story of the running game was Walt Forte and Van McGee, both of whom pushed around the Wildcat D-line and opened up some big holes for our backs to run through.

In a major upset Plymouth State beat Green Mountain 42-35, putting them ahead of the Green Mountain Boys on a tiebreaker. As we're 3-0 in conference and we've already defeated Plymouth, this gives us the inside track towards winning the conference title.

No counting chickens yadda yadda though.

NNE (3-0-0), Overall (7-0-0)



WEEK 10
HOMECOMING vs. Univ. of Vermont (0-7-0) (NNE)
(KSC -37) KSC RANK: #17

Sheesh I'm not sure it's even possible to cover a 37 point spread. Trap game laying in wait for us if I ever saw one.

Excellent news on the recruiting front as both Carswell and Coutts signed letters with us this week. Assuming Carswell runs anywhere near his prep numbers he'll be a perfect wishbone QB for us. Also committing to us this week were: Josh Fulton, a wide receiver from Lenape High School in Medford Lakes, New Jersey (92+); Travis Woodson, an offensive guard from Memorial High School in Brick Township, New Jersey (82+); Alfred Wenger, an offensive tackle from Tottenville High School in Staten Island, New York (85--); Levon Cassani, a defensive end from Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut (89--); and Gus Blackburn, a safety from Lewiston High School in Lewiston, Maine (69++). Still haven't landed a quality OC yet though, which is one of our primary needs.

Well, I was wrong - it is possible to cover a 37 point spread and 17,500 homecoming weekend fans were treated to a 51-3 Fighting Owl win over UVM. Quentin Poole finally showed what all the prep school hype was about running for 125 yards and 1 TD on 18 carries. QB Tom Cassidy got ill early in the 1st Quarter and was replaced by sophomore Terrell McKenzie who had a fine day passing going 19/30 for 248 yards while tossing 2 touchdown passes. Backup NT Donnell Rodgers recorded 3 sacks as the Owls dominated every aspect of play.

Plymouth State and Green Mountain remain 1/2 game behind us for the conference title, and we play at the Mountain Boys next week in a must win situation for us if we want to win the conference this year.

NNE (4-0-0), Overall (8-0-0)



WEEK 11
@ Green Mountain College (4-4-0) (NNE) TV4
(KSC -21) KSC RANK: #15

This week's game is a must win for us. It'll give us wins over the two other teams in contention for the conference title and a KSC win would virtually eliminate Green Mountain.

I think Gene Paullin is going to play this week, though our backfield has done an admirable job filling in for him. QB Tommy Cassidy won't play and he's likely done for the season - though it's possible he could play if we get invited to a bowl game.

More good news on the recruiting front. Leo Riffle, a running back from Colebrook Academy High School in Colebrook, New Hampshire, has signed a letter of intent with us. Rizzle is rated (67+). We had made a strong pitch for Leo since the start of the season and it paid off. With the depth and pipeling of backs we've recruited over the past three seasons he likely won't make an impact for 2-3 years, but it's good to be in a position like that.

Also committing to us this week were Shawn DeLizzio, an offensive guard from Cold Spring Harbor High School in Cold Spring Harbor, New York (99--) and Warren Dole, a defensive end from South Kingstown High School in Wakefield, Rhode Island (61+). Both players will provide depth or even contend for starting jobs at positions where we are losing graduating
seniors this year.

As for our game this week, it was nice being #15 while it lasted, but we lost to Green Mountain 34-30. OT Van McGee tore his ACL and there was a big void at LT. Still, the solid play of LG Walt Forte opened some holes for Eugene Paullin who carried the ball 25 times for 117 yards and 1 TD, but sophomore QB Terrell McKenzie, starting in place of the injured Tommy Cassidy threw 2 picks and we just couldn't get it done.

This is a real blow to our conference title hopes, as Green Mountain now takes a half game lead over us and they only have 1 game left to play. We need for them to lose and we have to win our last two games. If we finish tied, they'll get the championship because of head to head.

We should have won this one, taking the lead with 1:44 in the game but the Green Mountain Boys drove 78 yards in 50 seconds to win the game, and Terrell McKenzie was picked off on a hail mary at the end.

That's just so disappointing. Thought we had them licked this year, finally.

NNE (4-1-0), Overall (8-1-0)



WEEK 12
vs, Maine Maritime (3-6-0) (NNE)
(KSC -27) KSC RANK: #20

Despite the loss we remain in the Top 25, dropping to #20. We should take some pride in that, but last week's loss to Green Mountain puts a real damper on our season and makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to win the conference title.

We had two more recruits committ to us this week. Melvin Newhart, a fullback from Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley, California (66+) and Levon Grolsko, a center from Warwick Veterans High School in Warwick, Rhode Island (65++) both signed letters with us. Grolsko may comepete for the starting OC job as a freshman depending on how he looks during spring drills and summer camp.

We got back on track this week with a convincing win over Maine Maritime 48-10. Gene Paullin ran for 174 yards in 31 carries and the game was over at halftime as the Fighting Owls build a 31-0 lead after 2.

Sophomore Terrell McKenzie continues to struggle however, throwing 3 INT's, and he doesn't look real good running the ball either. Very disappointing start to his career with us.

Redshirt sophomore OT Don Liedtke, subbing for the injured Van Moss, broke his arm and will miss the rest of the year. He'll be replaced by 5th year senior Spencer Rodriguez for the game against Dartmouth.

NNE (5-1-0), Overall (9-1-0)



WEEK 13
@Dartmouth (1-8-0) (NNE)
(KSC -32) KSC RANK: #16

Well the NNE championship comes down to this week. We're tied with Green Mountain at 5-1-0 for the NNE lead, but the mounties have beaten us - again - this year. We need to beat Dartmouth and Green Mountain, favored by 20 at home over Vermont (2-8-0), needs to get tripped up by the Catamounts.

This week is also important because a win against Dartmouth will give us 10 wins on the year, a major accomplishment for our 4 year old football program.

Good news is we climbed to #16 in the nation, and we're drawing better crowds - over 18,00 came to the Maine Maritime game.

We had another recruit sign with us this week, Glen Kreutz, a cornerback from Cupertino High School in Cupertino, California. Kreutz is rated at(67+) and he'll add some much needed depth to our very young secondary.

We're not offerring any other scholarships, though we have 2 left. We've got 4 players we've invited to walk on with us and 1 slot left open in the recruiting class, so we'll see what the cat drags in at the end of the year.

Well, we didn't get the job done against Dartmouth, getting blown out 38-17. Terrell McKenzie threw 4 picks and was replaced late in the game from freshman Tracy Leska. A depleted offensive line and losing Tommy Cassidy hurt us down the stretch.

Green Mountain did win their game, so they win the confernce -- again.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (9-2-0)



WEEK 14
Off week.
KSC RANK: #24

Our season is likely over, though because we only fell to #24 in the nation it's possible we'll get invited to the Vegas Bowl or the Garden State Bowl. A bowl bid would be tremendously gratifying, but I'm not expecting it.

Still, however, it is possible.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (9-2-0)



CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Off week.
KSC RANK: --

We fell out of the Top 25 this week. Chances are looking even slimmer now that we'll get a bowl invite.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (9-2-0)



MINOR BOWL TIER
*Garden State Bowl* vs. #22 Rice (9-2-0)
(KSC -1) KSC RANK: --

Terrific news, we received an invitation to play Rice in the Garden State Bowl and have been installed as 1 point favorites. What a significant accomplishment for our program. Now if we can pull out the win, we'll have had a truly successful season.

Seth Fulcher, a safety from The English High School in Boston, Massachusetts has agreed to come to KSC as a walk-on. Fulcher (62-), will add some much needed depth to our secondary.

In the Garden State Bowl, Keene state's first ever bowl game, Gene Paullin rushed for 118 yards and senior QB Tommy Cassidy came off the injured list to throw 3 TD's as the Fighting Owls defeated Rice 37-31 in OT. Junior wideout Malcolm Mason had a big game for us, catching 6 passes for 102 yards and 2 TD's. Defensively, freshman ILB Lorenzo Lyons had a big day making 10 tackles playing in place of the injured Corey Tatum. This was a tremendous win in a hard fought game and a very good way to end the year.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (10-2-0)



MAJOR BOWL TIER
Off week.
KSC RANK: #21

Our victory over Rice in the Garden State Bowl put us back in the Top 25 ranked at #21 in the nation. I'm very excited about that and hope that ranking will hold as it'll be nice to finish Top 25 for the first time ever in our school's history.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (10-2-0)



FOUR STAR TIER
Off week.
KSC RANK: #22

We slipped to #22 this week but that ranking may be able to hold up.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (10-2-0)



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Off week.
KSC RANK: #21

A little more movement in the national rankings and we're back up to #21. Looks like that's about where we'll end up being ranked.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (10-2-0)



NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Off week.
KSC RANK: #20

We moved up a notch to 20th in the nation.

#1 Texas (12-0) played #2 Miami (11-0) for the national championship. Texas won 24-14.

RB Irving Schepper from Texas won the Heisman.

Keene State College finished ranked #20 nationally.

NNE (5-2-0), Overall (10-2-0)

2007 Season Summary and Review
 

2007 Season Summary and Review

2007 would definately have to be considered a very successful season here in Keene, NH. Our 10-2 mark is unprecedented in the short history of the program, and while we didn't manage to win the Northern New England conference championship, our appearance, let alone victory, in the Garden State Bowl along with a season end #20 national ranking were significant accomplishments for the program as a whole.

It was however, extremely frustrating to finish 2nd in the conference. The Eagles of Green Mountain College have won the NNE all 4 years of its existence. I really thought we had a chance to beat them this season and win the conference, but it just didn't happen.

Injuries once again demonstrated our lack of depth - particularly at the QB position - though we were far better able to overcome them this season as opposed to 2006. Sophomore Terrell McKenzie was clearly not ready to step in for QB Tommy Cassidy when Tommy went down with an injury. That doesn't bode well for 2008 either, as Cassidy has graduated and the QB job will be up for grabs.

A number of Fighting Owls won awards in 2007, topped off by redshirt sophomore OG Walt Forte, who was named 2nd Team All-American. Walt was a dominant force and made for an impressive combination with OT Van McGee when Van was able to stay healthy.

Redshirt sophomore Tailback Eugene Paullin was again named NNE Most Valuable Player as well as NNE Offensive Player of the year. Paullin missed 2 games in 2007 but still managed to break the 1000 yard mark for the second consecutive season while rushing for 11 touchdowns. Gene has two years of eligibility remaining here at KSC.

CB Rob Blount was named NNE Freshman Defensive Player of the year in 2007. Blunt intercepted 6 passes while defending 8 and teamed with fellow frosh Alan Woodling to really shore up our porous secondary from a season ago.

The Fighting Owls had 8 players named to 1st Team All-NNE honors and another 2 named 2nd Team All-NNE. Named to first team honors were Paullin, junior FB Len Sembower, junior TE Terry Noyes, junior WR Malcom Mason, sophomore OG Wal Forte, junior OT Van McGee - despite missing significant time to injury, redshirt junior DE Buddy Doggett and redshirt senior K Tom Cornelius. Doggett particularly became a dominating presence on the defensive line this season, recording 48 tackles and 12 sacks in only his second season of collegiate play.

Named to the 2nd Team All-NNE honors were 5th year senior QB Tommy Cassidy and freshman CB Rob Blount. Cassidy missed 3 games in 2007, and he graduates having been honored with two 1st Team All-NNE selections, one 2nd Team All-NNE selection, and having been named the NNE Offensive Player of the Year in 2005.

The Fighting Owls also had two student-athletes selectecd to the Academic All-NNE Team. Senior OT Alan Flowers was named for the 4th time in 4 years here at Keene State, a tremendous accomplishment for the graduating offnsive lineman. Finally, redshirt junior Tailback Gene Paullin was selected to the Academic All-NNE Team for the second consecutive year.

So, four years into my coaching career in the Modadnock Region, we've managed to build a Top 25, Division 1-A college football program. We've become somewhat competetive on a national level, but still our conference title eludes us. So our goals for the future here at Keene State are to bring home the conference title and to become even more competetive on a national level.

2007 was a giant step down the road towards achieving both of those goals.


2007 Season Summary

2008 Preseason
 

2008 PRESEASON

January 2008

Boy do I have some difficult decisions to make this winter. Having built a solid program here at Keene State and having three fantastic recruiting classes in a row, the school looks on solid footing for the long term future. Even the short term future looks bright as Tailback Eugene Paullin has two years of eligibility left and has developed into one of the best backs in the nation.

After our 10-2 record and victory in the Garden State Bowl, I suddenly find myself a hot property. Two of the most prestigious football programs in the nation have offerred me their head coaching jobs. Just two years after winning the National Championship, the Oklhahoma Sooners finished 5-6-0 and 3-5-0 in the Big 12 and are pursing me to take their job.

Likewise, perennial national power the USC Trojans, who were in the National Championship game just a couple of years ago also would like to hire me.

Both programs are long on prestige but in rough shape and would require some significant work rebuilding - unlike here at Keene State, which is short on prestige but has a pretty solid future laying in wait.

It's a difficult decision. On the one hand, I've done what I was hired to do at Keene, built a national football program and have the program in very good shape to hand off to a successor. Once again we're had a fine recruiting class here, one TCY Today ranked as 32nd in the nation.


But the opportunity to coach one of the most prestigious college football programs in the nation doesn't come along every day. It's a dimena I suppose every coach faces - do I owe it to the kids I recruited to hang around and be their coach when I have a major career opportunity with Southern Cal or the Sooners?

We've run a completely clean program here at Keene State. There's no probation or any possibility of any sanction hanging over the heads of the kids here. The program is in superb shape, and in my opinion, we underachieved last season and should have won the conference to go along with out national ranking. There's no reason here for me to not take one of the two jobs if it appeals to me.

There are some major drawbacks to taking one of those two jobs. Both programs are in dire straights and need a good buit of rebuilding. Both have fairly mediocre academic reputations which will hinder recruiting tremendously. And the expectations will be enormous. Here at Keene State, there really haven't been any expectations. Every terrific recruiting class was hailed as a surprise. The fact we finished 2nd in conference was looked at as progress. Our Top 25 ranking, invitation to a minor bowl game and victory in the Garden State Bowl were hailed as tremendous triumphs and shockers. At USC or Oklahoma, the expectations and pressure to win right away will be so much greater.

Can I win at that level?

(Ed. note: For the record, I've also been offerred jobs with Kansas, Rutgers, Iowa, Virginia, Washington State, Auburn, New Mexico, Hawaii, Akron and Eastern Michigan, but I'm really only considering the Oklahoma or Southern Cal jobs, or staying put.)

2008 Preseason B
 

2008 PRESEASON

February, 2008

In the end, there's really only one way to find out. And that's to take up the new challenge and try and win at the highest level. I'm going to miss the Keene State program, we've accomplished great things here, and I think the program is ready to take a step up to the next level. But it's time for me to move on and see if I can turn one of the great all-time programs around, rebuilding the University of Southern California Trojans.

So I met with Keene State's Athletic Director and College President, letting them know I was going to take the USC job. There was talk of pay raises and other incentives, but I had decided I just had to accept this challenge. USC used to be a mighty football power, and the school faced long odds in the PAC-10 to regain it's past glory. I had done what I came to do at Keene State, and it was time to move on. Time to see if I could make the Trojans live up to their past glory, time to see if I could cut it at the highest level of college football.

We parted on good terms, I had accomplished much, much more than the Keene State administration could ever have hoped. But as I left Etienne's office, I guess I had a quick case of buyer's remorse. Was I making a mistake? Would I regret leaving such a good situation here in Keene? I knew that once I left, there was no going back. Things would be too different.

Far too different.

But I had cast my lot, made my choice. I needed to see if I could compete at a national championship level. And here was my opportunity. So I flew out to Los Angeles and we had a little press conference where I spoke of the Trojan tradition and how my tenure here would be about restoring the luster back on the once shining armor of USC, and I set to work trying to fix a program that had fallen to shambles.

2008 Preseason C
 

2008 PRESEASON


March, 2008

So I moved into my new office in sunny southern California. Boy did I have my work cut out for me. The previous coach had been running a Run & Shoot offense - boy were things going to change. First thing I needed to do was review the staff here and see if I needed to bring in my own people.

Syndicate Coordinator Pete Prior is XL in Academic eligibility. That makes him a definate keeper as we have to improve the academic reputation of USC. The fact that he's VG with Syndicate Investigations and G at Soliciting Donations is just gravy for me.

Offensive Coordinator Tyrell Kay and his Run & Shoot have to go. Not only are we going to run the wishbone, but he's a horrible play caller. My first call to replace him was to Ernie Stuart, but he was staying put in Keene. He also thought I was nuts for taking the USC post.

My priorities in finding an Offensive Coordinator are good play calling and development of RB's, OL and QB. Ernie would have fit them all, that's why he was such an asset at KSC.

We ended up hiring Will Marvel away from Stanford. Will is XL at play calling, XL at QB development, PG at developing RB's and decent with OL. He had 2 years experience with pro formations, but we're switching to the wishbone. There were some candidates with significant wishbone experience, but I'm more concerned about play calling and development right now.

For Defensive Coordinator I brought over my LB/Secondary Coach from Keene State, Bucky Riley. Bucky is a very fun guy to be around so the recruits love him, he excels at play calling, and is terrific and xl with LB's and the secondary while being good at developing DL. He's also VG at conditioning, so hopefully we'll avoid the injury bug.

As Lead and SW Scout we hired Oliver Henry away from Miami of Ohio. Oliver is pretty solid in all the areas needed to build a good wishbone attack.

As with the rest of the staff, as at Keene State I am only going to replace them through attrition.



SPRING, 2008

With a staff put together, it was time to move on to putting the final touches on our 2008 schedule. We don't play Washington this year, but we do have our permanent game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. So that leaves me 2 games to schedule.

I'm determined not to schedule any cupcakes this year, even though it'll be hard going for us. I'm going to offer defending national champion Texas a home and home, and we'll look at Michigan for a home and home.

Stage 1: Texas accepted an away for us in 2008 and a game at the Rose Bowl in 2009. Now to see if Michigan will bite.

Stage 2: Michigan refused, probably because we wanted the home game this year. Wake Forest is offerring us a home game for week 3. They're coming off a 3-8 season. No cupcakes, we're going to play a tough schedule.

Stage 3: Georgia turned down Home 2008, away 2009. I'm going to offer Alabama, coming off an 11-2 mark, an away this year and home for us next.

Stage 4: Bama had no games open. Michigan refused a game at them this year and at the Rose Bowl next year. Wimps. Think we'll invite the defending WAC champs in for a game at the Rose Bowl, Fresno State.

Stage 5: Fresno State had no games left, so we scheduled an away game at Hawaii, coming off an 8-4 mark, and they'll make the trip in here next year. That fills our schedule.

On to my first summer camp at Southern Cal.

2008 Preseason-D
 

Summer, 2008

The kids reported to camp and I got my first closeup look at them during summer drills. With no capable run blocking TE's (the [product of a run & shoot offense) and a couple of good wideouts, we're going to use a flexbone rather than a pure wishbone. Leading our attack will be redshirt junior QB Marlon May. In the backfield with May will be senior FB Xavier Dandron, freshman tailback Donnell Cash and wingback Phillip Ferentz. We'll be relying heavily on Cash to start and see how that works out.

May's primary targets will be 5th year senior Jumbo Alabasso and redshirt junior Thurman Whelan. We're expecting big things from Whelan who is the complete package at wideout. Xandron, Cash and Ferentz also look to figure prominently in our passing attack.

On defense, the dearth of linebackers we've inherited and the amount of talent we have on the defensive line means we'll be going mainly with a 4-3 this season - though I much prefer a 3-4. We just don't have the talent to run a 3-4.

Starting at the defensive end spots will be redshirt senior Shaun Collins and true senior T.J. Pritchett. Also expect redshirt junior Don Briggs to get some action on passing downs.

At the defensive tackle positions redshirt seniors Hunter Burgess and Seth Turner will anchor the line. At Middle Linebacker will be redshirt junior Steve Kinney. Flanking Kinney on the weakside will be redshirt junior Claude Reger and on the strong side freshman Kevin Fedo. Perry
Merriman and Kendrick Ballard figure to be the primary backups at LB this season.

In the secondary the immesely talented senior Hunter Lelie will be starting at shutdown corner. He'll be shadowing the other team's primary receiver. At the other corner will be redshirt sophomore Anthony Clayton, as J.R. Howard is on academic probation this term. Redshirt senior Mercury Lyle will be playing strong safety while redshirt junior Quentin Kaesviharn will be playing the free safety spot. Harris Norton, Ted Powell and Rex England also figure to see a bit of action back there.

Here's a look at our full roster.




It'll be rough going this first year with the flexbone. But we'll be emphasizing bringing in the right personnel in recruiting, as well as bringing in some talent on the defensive side of the ball. Marlon May does love to run so we'll see what he can do, but our running game will primarily be in the hands of Donnell Cash while we tweak and jigger our playbook to best take advantage of what offensive assets we do have.

Preseason 2008: Media Snapshot
 

LA Times
Summer 2008

. . . and now for our beloved Trojans. It seems the administration over at Southern Cal has gone truly mad. In their new coach they've brought in a coach from one of those elitist, east coast bias teams. But worse than that, this one is determined to drive our beloved Trojans back into the stone ages - scrapping the run & shoot and replacing it with a wishbone no less.

It's as if he thinks the forward pass should be illegal or something.

God help USC.

2008 Season
 

2008 Season

WEEK 1
Off week.
Preseason USC RANK: #14

I'm a little bit surprised to be ranked so highly given the disastrous year this program had last season and the lack of returning starters - though given the horrid year the Trojans had in 2007, perhaps the lack of returning starters is a good thing.

Spent the week making first recruiting contacts, emphasizing high ranked kids in California and RB's and running QB's across the nation. It's going to take some getting used to that I can't be a bottom feeder anymore and have to score some major successes in landing highly ranked recruits or this program will flounder.

A few of the recruits we'll be working really hard to land are RB Eric Hardee out of Illinois, OG Neal Reaves here in Caly, QB Brandon McHenry from Illinois and wideout Ray Grier from the golden state.



WEEK 2
@ #19 Texas (0-0) *TV4*
(Texas -6) USC RANK: --

Fell out of the top 25, which is a good thing because I don't really think we belong there. I'm surprised the Longhorns are only favored by 6 - my first impression of us is that we're only a middling team. But there isn't much past performance to go on as almost all of our 22 starters are first time starters this season.

Pursuing quite a few kids in the Rivals.com top 100. I don't really know what to expect, but we're going after them doggedly. Also really beating the bushes here on the gold coast, lots of talent here.

In our opener we hung with the Horns the entire game, losing 20-15. We couldn't punch the ball in the endzone, redshirt sophomore Kicker Shawn Henson booted 5 FG's as QB Marlon May had a poor day passing. Donnell Cash did have a good day rushing the ball in his first collegiate game, carrying the ball 26 times for 116 yards, and wideout Thurm Whelan made 7 catches for 128 yards. MLB Steve Kinney was a standout on defense with 12 tackles and 3 assists.

Senior DE T.J. Pritchett went down with a broken wrist and is expected to miss 12-15 weeks. Not good news.

PAC 10 (0-0-0), Overall (0-1-0)



WEEK 3
@ #20 Hawaii (1-0)
(Hawaii -2) USC RANK: --

No TV this week as we face off against the University of Hawaii. If nothing else it's a heckuva fun roadtrip.

The way we played Texas was encouraging. Be interesting to see how we bounce back this week on the road. I don't think Hawaii's in the same class as the Longhorns, but I don't have a good enough feel for my Trojans yet to know what to expect.

Intensified recruiting efforts on kids already contacted and have quite a few scholarship offers out. Started looking at defensive backs as that's another area of weakness that we need to address for the future - especially with Hunter Lelie graduating this year.

The game this week turned out to be another defensive struggle as we couldn't get anything going at all offensively. But Marlon May managed to avoid turnovers, Donnell Cash punched in 1 TD - though he was held to under 100 yards, and a 4th quarter FG by Shawn Henson won it for us 10-7.

The one offensive bright spot for us was once again widfout Thurman Whelan, who had 6 catches for 129 yards. Backup DE Don Briggs, filling in for the injured T.J. Pritchett, had 8 tackles and 2 sacks.

A good win for us, though we're having a lot of trouble offensively so far.

PAC 10 (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)


WEEK 4
Off week.
USC RANK: --

We're off this week before we hit the meat of our schedule, so we'll be recruiting some and tweaking our offensive game plan to try and add some finesse running and some options to it.

Mack Wilkins, a highly rated (88+) CB from Modesto is on campus visiting this week. We've got some strict competition for this young man however, as UCLA, Georgia, Michigan and Texas are also all pursuing him. It'll be very difficult to land him but we're going to try as hard as we can. He comes from a solid, though not spectacular HS program (58).

Peeked in at my old team at Keene State and they're off to a 2-1 start, beating Air Force and UAB and losing to Washington. Good to see them playing well.

PAC 10 (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)


WEEK 5
vs. Arizona State (1-2-0)
(USC -9) USC RANK: --

The Sun Devils are coming into the Rose Bowl as we play our first home game of the season. We're big favorites and I hope that portends good things for us.

No decisions on the recruiting front as of yet, but we keep plugging away. We're pursuing some really highl;y ranked kids, so it's a big gamble. But in order to rebuild this program to the level it should be, we have to aim high.

We head into the game against ASU pretty banged up. Starting CB Anthony Crayton is going to be out a year and his career may be over with a degenerative hip condition. TJ Pritchett remains out and MLB Steve Kinney had his knee scoped this week and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

Wow, was I overwhelmed. When I was at KSC, best crowds we had at home were around 18,000. We sold every seat in the house for today's game - all 92,000 of them. What a feeling to play in front of that many people. And the boys didn't disappoint, winning 31-24 mostly on the arm of QB Marlon May, who went 19/36 for 381 yards and 2 TD's. Marlon also added 49 yards rushing out of the flexbone.

May's primary targets on the day were Thurm Whelan, who had yet another big day, grabbing 7 passes for 116 yards and 5th year senior Jumbo Alabasso, who made 5 catches for 137 yards and 1 TD. The Trojan D picked off 3 passes and also added 2 sacks. A good win to start our PAC-10 schedule.

PAC 10 (1-0-0), Overall (2-1-0)


WEEK 6
@ Oregon State (1-2-0) *TV5*
(USC -14) USC RANK: #18

Well, we're back in the top 25 this week and here's hoping we stay there. Still got a lot of kinks to work out in the offense, but the defense has been reliable even suffering through some injuries.

No good news on the recruiting front, just a couple of rejections. Was a bad game this week, we got completely shutdown, and shutout. OSU beat us 27-0 and we couldn't get a thing going. Marlon May couldn't hit anyone and we had no running game. The only bright spot was the play of MLB Perry Merriman, who made 11 tackles with assists on 5 more.

We've got a long way to go.

PAC 10 (1-1-0), Overall (2-2-0)



WEEK 7
vs. #16 California (4-0-0) *TV4*
(CAL -5) USC RANK: --

We lost 2 highly prized RB's - one to UCLA which really hurts, but we did get one committment his week. Terrance Adjemian, a cornerback from Des Arc High School in Des Arc, Arkansas, signed a letter of intent to play for the Trojans next season. Adjemian is rated 86+ and is a strong man-to-man defender. He may have to redshirt for a year as we think he'll be a little raw.

Another dismal performance offensively as QB Marlon May threw 5 INT's despite throwing only 22 passes as we get hammerred at home 45-17. No running game whatsoever. None. Nada. Nil.

PAC 10 (1-2-0), Overall (2-3-0)



WEEK 8
@ Oregon (2-4-0)
(USC -7) USC RANK: --

Some good news on the recruiting front as we land Neal Reeves (85+), an offensive guard from Burroughs High School in Burbank, California and Johnny Coles (100--), an inside linebacker from Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California. Lost a couple more players to UCLA, that's not going to set well with the alumni.

Another big loss, 31-17 this time to Oregon. We just don't have the hosses on offense yet to run this game, and our defense is missing several key players.

Still, I hear there's already a "firebeargrowlz.org" web site set up. Thurman Whelan played well making 6 catches for 148 yards, but that's about all that went right for us today.

PAC 10 (1-3-0), Overall (2-4-0)



WEEK 9
@ Stanford (5-2-0)
(Stanford -3) USC RANK: --

My old friends at Keene State are playing well, off to a 5-1-0 start as they enter the meat of the NNE schedule. But, at least the weather is warm here.

Just more rejections from recruits this week. I'm going to get crucified unless I land quite a few more bigtime players.

Still couldn't get any kind of running game going, but defense and special teams were clicking today as we beat The Cardinal 45-17. Jumbo Alabasso ran a kick back for a TD and we picked off 4 Cardinal passes, one of which was run back for a TD by safety Quentin Kaesviharn. Thurm Whelan had a TD reception and TJ Pritchet made his way back into the lineup with a sack.

Much needed win for us on the road.

PAC 10 (2-3-0), Overall (3-4-0)



WEEK 10
@ Washington State (4-3-0)
(WSU -5) USC RANK: --

We landed a couple more recruits this week, though with mixed scouting reviews. Ben Burroughs (100--), a defensive tackle from Livingston High School in Livingston, California and Mack Wilkins (88+), a cornerback from Modesto High School in Modesto, California both committed to us this week. Wilks has decent athletic prep and may become a contributor as early as next year.

Freshman Donnell Cash finally broke loose this week, rushing for 209 yards on 30 carries. Cash took it to the house 3 times and easily had his best game of the season leading the Trojans to a 34-24 victory. Here's hoping that as he grows more and more accustomed to this offense his promise shows through more and more.

PAC 10 (3-3-0), Overall (4-4-0)



WEEK 11
vs. Arizona (3-5-0)
(USC -14) USC RANK: --

Landed two more recruits this week in Antoine Dromeshauser (82-), a running back from Pioneer High School in San Jose, California and Steve Strickland (98--), a defensive end from Conway High School in Conway, Arkansas. Both have holes in their game our scoputs didn't perceive, hopefully they won't be too badly flawed.

Offensive Coordinator Will Marvell knows a good thing when he sees it and he ran Donell Cash to death today, calling his number 38 times as Cash had another 200 yard rushing game. That was all the offense we could find though, but LT Kevin Segers and OC Clifton Ferrell dominated the line of scrimmage enough for us to eek out a 17-7 win over the Wildcats. Our defense picked off 3 Arizona passes to shutdown their offense.

PAC 10 (4-3-0), Overall (5-4-0)


WEEK 12
@ Notre Dame (8-1-0)
(ND -18) USC RANK: --

Roderick King, a quarterback from Barstow High School in Barstow, California has signed a letter of intent o play for the Trojans next fall. King is a running QB who was a little overrated by our scouts (82-) but we think he can still make a contribution.

We stuck close to the Irish but a 4th quarter collapse in which they outscored us 21-7 resulted in a 31-27 loss to Notre Dame. Will Marvell seems determined to up the ante each week, calling Donnell Cash's number 44 times this week. Cash ran for 144 yards and 1 TD and Marlon May threw 2 TD passes.

That'll close out our schedule except for the big inner-city battle against UCLA.

PAC 10 (4-3-0), Overall (5-5-0)



WEEK 13
vs. #15 UCLA (7-3-0) (PAC-10) *TV5*
(UCLA -9) USC RANK: --

Last year USC finished 3-5-0 in conference and 5-7-0 overall. We've already bettered the conference win total and a win against UCLA would better the overall mark as well and give us at worst a 3rd place finish in the PAC 10 -- a significant improvement over last year.

Wideout Thurm Whelan managed a 45 yard run for a TD but that was about all the offense we could get going as we lost to UCLA 27-24. QB Marlon May went down with repetative concussion syndrome and he'll be out for over a year -- sadly that'll likely finish his career.

My old team at Keene State went 10-1-0 and 7-0 in conference to finally win the NNE. Maybe I was holding them back. Good for them to finally pull it off and a #14 national ranking to boot.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



WEEK 14
Off week.
USC RANK: --

Bryant Hudson (57+), a center from Oak Park-River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois, has signed a letter iof intent to play for USC next season. I can't help but feel that this year's recruiting class is an abject failure. We lost too many players to UCLA and were never really in the hunt for others. It has been quite an adjustment in the different recruiting echelons that I didn't quite make well enough this year. Hopefully next year will be better.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Off week.
USC RANK: --

Landed another mid-level recruit this week as Rob Mascorella, an outside linebacker from Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, California has agreed to play for us next year. Mascorella is an underrated OLB adept at stopping the run.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



MINOR BOWL TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: --

Landed our final two recruits this week, at least giving us some depth. Brad Berberich (85--), a running back from Emmonak High School in Emmonak, Alaska and K.C. Humphrey (62--), a safety from Largo High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, have signed letters of intent to play for USC next season.

Still a very disappointing recruiting season.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



MAJOR BOWL TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: --

5 or 6 of our kids, including Donnell Cash, are in danger of failing classes. Looks like I am going to have to take charge of time management here.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



FOUR STAR TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: --

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: --

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)



NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Off week.
USC RANK: --

11-0 Penn State defeated 12-0 Texas A&M 33-7 to win the National Championship. QB Norman Wallek from Notre Dame won the Heisman.

PAC 10 (4-4-0), Overall (5-6-0)

2008 Season: Media Snippets
 

LA Times
Fall, 2008

. . . and now regarding our once proud Trojans. Coach Bear Growlz spent 2008 trying to force players into a system where they simply didn't fit, where no one fits today. The wishbone went out in the 1970's. Today's game is about high tech planning, speed and a big time aerial attack. Coach Growlz is a relic of the past, a past when big time college football was played on small fields amidst ivy covered walls. He's out of place here in southern California, and even the fans realize it, having created a site on the world wide web called "firebeargrowlz.net".

The name says it all.

Nice read so far ... good luck at USC! I'll be following this one ...

AZ

Thanks!
 

Aztarheel,

Thanks! Glad to know people are reading and enjoying it.

I had never done one of these before, but one thing that fascinates me is how much more real the team, situation, and players become, how much more immersed you become when you actually sit down and take the time to write up what is going on so other people can understand what is happening.

That's added a lot of enjoyment to the game for me.

Thanks again,
--Bear

2008 Season Review and Summary
 

2008 Season Review and Summary


In many ways, 2008 was a lost season. The staff knew going into the year we didn't have the talent to compete. We also didn't have the talent to run either the offense or defense we prefer. We lost our one running QB to repetative concussion syndrome and our best tailback looks like he may end up academically ineligible.

Yet through all this adversity, we managed to remain competitive, moreso than the program had been under its last coaching staff. Our run defense was simply superb, people wouldn't run against us and when they did, they got stuffed - though conversely playing us was apparently known as taking a trip in the friendly skies with the amount of passing yardage we allowed.

It's going to take a couple-three years to turn this program around, and I'm not sure the fan base is willing to wait that long. But that's for another day.

My most difficult problem this season was the transition from competing for mid-level players and snagging the occassional high ranked regional stud into having to compete with all the national programs for the highest ranked recruits in the nation. Interestingly enough, I feel I may have shot too high, that I should have pursued some of the same players I did while at Keene State and not spent so much time on so many highly ranked players.

Time will tell I suppose. I was stunned to hear that TCY Today rated our recruiting class #13 in the country. Particularly so as I was feeling very disappointed in it and felt I had botched it. But it's nice to know someone thinks ya done good.

Frankly as regards the roster and lineup, I'm not sure where we stand heading into next year. I felt Lead Scout Oliver Henry's scouting was at best spotty and at many times circumspect. I'm not certain I have enough confidence in him to bring him back next season.

We went with the flexbone this year, and it's pretty safe to say that's what we'll use again in 2009.

In any case, I feel our performance on the field was surprisingly competitive and that this time next year we'll have a better feel for the program and have taken some major steps to return the program to national power status.

2009 Preseason
 

2009 PRESEASON


Winter, 2009

Neglected to mention our individual award winners from 2008 in my season wrapup. Tailback Donnell Cash was named to the Freshman All-America Team. Cash was also named PAC-10 Offensive Freshman of the year. OLB Kevin Fedo was named PAC-10 Defensive Freshman of the year two good signs for the future.

Graduating senior CB Hunter Lelie was the only Trojan to be named 1st Team All PAC-10. Redshirt seniors OC Clifton Farrell and OT Kevin Segers won second team honors. Farrell and Segers were joined by MLB Perry Merriman and OLB Claude Reger in being named to the Academic All-PAC 10 team.

As I noted in my season review, TCY Today ranked this year's recruiting class 13th in the nation. Maybe I was just too close to it and my view was colored by the disappointment in losing so many recruits to UCLA (TCY Today ranked their class #1). In any case, only UCLA had a better recruiting class in the PAC-10 than us according to TCY Today. Here's a look at the class.



I guess more than a few AD's thought I'd had it after 1 year with the Trojans, as I received job offers from Clemson, Colorado, Texas Tech, Washington State, Mississippi, Southern Mississippi, Middle Tennessee State and Utah State. I politely declined them all, I've made a committment to turn this program around and we're just getting started. My wife did express her thoughts that I should at least consider the Clemson job - she much prefers the more laid back, slower southern lifestyle than we have here in LA - but I told her I just wasn't interested.

We had to agree to disagree on that point. Needless to say, she's not happy.

On a more somber note, it's official, Marlon May's career is done. He left the program and won't be able to play football again. It was the best decision for him, but I feel bad for the kid.

Donnell Cash was suspended academically as expected, along with OG Barry Humphrey, DE Rob Atkinson, DT Emmitt Boone and OLB Ernest Harvey. I'll be taking over time management this season to make sure nothing like this happens again.

As for my staff, needed to make some changes in order to step foward. I let Offensive Coordinator Will Marvell go, he was just horrible on the recruiting trail and turned off a lot of potential recruits. 39 year old Korey Butler, the Head Coach at Division I-AA superpower Georgia Southern takes his place. Korey has an excellent reputation all around and will hopefully be a big addition to the staff.

As I expressed at the end of last year, I just didn't have any confidence in the scouting reports Oliver Henry was giving me. It was a foregone conclusion that he'd be fired, and I did so. Replacing him as Lead Scout is Wally Campana, an assistant to Scott Pioli, Director of Player Personnel for the New England Patriots. Campana was responsible for helping putting together the Patriots draft board every season and is originally from San Diego, so he knows the area quite well.

The remainder of the staff remains unchanged.



SPRING, 2009

We already have a full schedule for 2009 with Hawaii and Texas coming into the Rose Bowl this season. The one PAC 10 team we don't play this year is Washington State. Homecoming will be week 12 against the Fighting Irish. Hopefully we'll be playing in front of full houses again this fall.

Here's a look at our schedule.




SUMMER, 2009

I died laughing when I took a look at redshirt freshman K.C. Humphrey's class schedule for this term -- Basket Weaving I and Professional Wrestling I. Where is Jimmy Harrick Jr. when you need him?

So I took charge of time management again - and got the program straightened out.I wish when you had a Syndicate Coordinator that's XL at academic eligibility they would make sure the kids had enough study time. In any case, I'm probably over-compensating, but even the very good students now have a minimum of 20% study hall time, the bad, bad ones 30-35%. The tedium is frustrating, but it's either that or lose players who can't pass Decibal Production I.

We worked the kids out in summer two-a-days. They'll take some getting used to new Offensive coordinator Korey Butler, particularly his deep and slow southern drawl. I had one freshman come up to me and ask what language Korey was speaking. Got to love it.

On defense we'll again be going with a 4-3. Our linebacking corps is a little deeper this season, but I'm still not comfortable going to a 3-4, and we do have two very solid DT's, Hunter Burgess and Seth Turner - both of whom graduate thos year. Anchoring each end of the defensive line will be 5th year senior Shaun Collins and redshirt senior pass rush specialist Don Briggs, who led USC with 9 sacks last fall.

In the middle of it all will be MLB Perry Merriman, who really came into his own last year. Last year's starter, Steven Kinney will back him up. Flanking Merriman on either side will be sophomore Kevin Fedo on the strong side and redshirt senior Claude reger on the weakside. Our secondary looks pretty solid this season with 5th year senior J.R. Howard playing the shutdown corner spot after coming off academic probation. His opposite number will be redshirt sophomore Harris Norton who made great strides during his redshirt year. Returning at Strong Safety will be senior Mercury Lyle and he'll be joined by redshirt junior Ted Powell, who won the job in camp. We have a lot of depth at safety, less so on the corners. Here's hoping that doesn't become a problem.

Offensively, like Donald Rumsfeld once said, you play the game with the Quarterback you've got, not the Quarterback you wish you had. Redshirt sophomore Everett McDaniel's not a great runner, and he has a long way to go with his passing, but he's the best, most polished signal caller we have, so that's who gets the starting nod. Joining him in the backfield will be redshirt junior Jimmy Schultz and 5th year senior Norbert Favenport - we'll really miss Donnell Cash here.

Due to an abject failure on my part to land a FB during recruiting, we'll be holding weekly auditions - got college eligibility left? You too can start for the Trojans at FB. Come on down.

The explosive Thurman Whelan returns at one wideout and once he gets in synch with Ev McDaniel we look for big things from that pair. Redshirt sophomore Wally Hopper had a great camp and he'll man the other wideout slot as again we run the flexbone rather than the pure
wishbone.

Anchoring the offensive line will be 5th year senior Clifton Ferrell. The left side of the line will be returning LT 5th year senior Kelvin Segers and LG Daniel Rebensdorf. Over on the right side will be redshirt sophomore Gilbert Lucas at RG and redshirt senior Warren Austin returns at starting RT. It's a solid, though unspectacular o-line.

Here's a look at the USC Roster for 2009.



So what's the outlook for this year? We're preseason #23 in the BCS rankings, and the coaches have us set at #25. I think that's mostly based on past reputation, as I don't see that we've made significant enough progress to be in the top 25 - not even close. Even with Donnell Cash and Marlon May available, it'd be a stretch to say we're top 25.

My goals for this season are to win more than we lose, get a good grip on recruiting at the major college level, and maybe upset UCLA and/or Notre Dame. Those will be big steps in the right direction towards rebuilding this program.

2009 Preseason Media Snippets
 

LA Times
Summer, 2009

. . . When you come right down to it, Coach Growlz has enough talent on this team to go to a bowl game and contend for the Pac 10 title. If he doesn't, it's a failure of him and his staff, not the talent that Pete Carroll brought in.

The guantlet has been thrown down. The Trojans should finish top 25 - the computers say so, the other coaches say so, in fact the only ones not saying so are Coach Growlz, his staff, and the dunderheads in the administration at USC that have turned the once proud Trojans into a second rate eastern elitist, field hockey playing, liberal arts college.


The Sporting News
Summer, 2009

. . . and out on ocean west, Coach Bear Growlz' surprisingly strong recruiting showing for USC was outdone only by the Trojans' cross-city rivals the UCLA Bruins. Now how long it will take for the men of troy to translate that recruiting success into on the field results remains to be seen . . . .


ESPN.com
Summer, 2009

So, who's hotter? The chick in the UCLA Bruins costume, or the USC cheerleaders? That's what's important. And we're your worldwide leader in sports, ESPN.


firebeargrowlz.net
Message Board
Summer, 2009

Poster: Vegamite
Posts: 7,212,347

Why am I still banned?!?

2009 Season
 

2009 SEASON


WEEK 1
Off week
USC RANK: #23

We spent the off week approaching some highly recruited running QB's and RB's. Some of the players we're targeting are QB's Irving Donaldson and Benjamin Duran, and RB Johnny Boyer. Boyer's a 93+ and a 95 fitness for us, so we think we have a chance to land him.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), Overall (0-0-0)



WEEK 2
vs. Hawaii (0-0-0)
(USC -5) USC RANK: --

We open the 2009 season with Hawaii coming into the Rose Bowl this week. Offensive coordinator Korey Butler has been working since the spring to put together a more varied offense that can best utilize the skills of QB Everett McDaniel. That means fewer option plays as he's not the swiftest running QB around. We'd really like to see Whelan and Hopper become show stoppers, but that's going to take some maturing on McDaniel's part.

Spent the recruiting time this week reconfirming interest in players we have already contacted and making new contacts and offers. Because of the proximity to us, UCLA has interest in many of the same players we do. Because they are in better shape than us and have a higher prestige, we just have to outwork them in order to win some of these recruits
over.

The Trojans got 2009 off on the right foot with a 26-14 victory over Hawaii in front of a full house of 92,000 screaming Trojan fans this week. Redshirt senior Thurman Whelan had a big day, making 8 catches for 116 yards and a TD and adding 69 yards and a TD on 4 carries on the ground. It was a good day all around on the ground as the Trojans ran for 242 yards against the Hawaii defense. Redshirt sophomore wideout Wally Hopper also had a fine day, making 6 catches for 169 yards as QB Everett McDaniel went 16/28 for 294 yards, throwing 1 TD and 1 pick.

The Trojans D picked off 2 Hawaii passes and redshirt senior WLB Claude Reger had 3 sacks to shut down the Hawaii attack.

A very good way to start off the year.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), Overall (1-0-0)



MEDIA SNIPPETS
LA TIMES
WEEK 3, 2009

So maybe Coach Growlz and his staff have learned something from last year. That'd be throw the damn ball. USC has two world class receivers and these stone age coaches insist on running a wishbone, or flexibone or whatever the high fanangled eastern establishment word is.

Throw the ball=win.

Maybe they should teach that at USC.



WEEK 3
vs. Texas (0-1-0)
(USC -6) USC RANK: #15
(USC Rank is using the college coaches poll).

Our win against Hawaii must have impressed some coaches as we jumped up to #15 this week. I don't put much credence in early season polls, too many teams haven't played and one victory or loss can easily throw a poll out of whack. I was however happy with the way we played against Hawaii and look forward to the same kind of intensity against the Longhorns.

We're really making a strong effort to land RB Renaldo Summers from Middletown, CA. UCLA is also after him. We don't think he's a difference maker for next season, but with a redshirt year behind him this 84+ power back would fit nicely in our system. Renaldo is on campus visiting this week.

The Longhorns ran the opening kickoff back for a TD and never looked back, though a later surge by the Trojans made it close, USC losing at home 38-30. Wideouts Wally Hopper and Thurm Whelan both had big games, Hopper making 8 catches for 227 yards and Whelan grabbing passes for 163. They each had a TD receiving. QB Everett McDaniel threw for over 400 yards but was picked off 4 times, making the difference in the game.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)



WEEK 4
Off week.
USC RANK: --

More and more on the recruiting trail we're finding our main opposition is UCLA. In 2008 TCY Today ranked them as having had the best recruiting class in America - if this keeps up they're going to be bringing a National Championship home soon.

The recruits we've put the most effort into pursuing so far are RB's Summers and Johnny Boyer, and QB's Donaldson and Duran. We'd really like to land one of those QB's and one of the RB's, if not both.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), Overall (1-1-0)



WEEK 5
vs. Oregon State (1-2-0) (PAC-10)
(USC -2) USC RANK: --

We kick off our PAC 10 schedule this week against Oregon State. They've had a rough start to their year and the jurt is still out on us, so it should be a good test.

No word from any recruits yet, so we keep hitting the trail. A number of recruits were on campus this week, including RB Junior Coffey, CB Max Galloway, FB's Lance Coleman and Clyde Dotson and K Max Elstrom. We have a lot of feelers out and are cautiously optimisitic.

In the game against Oregon State, freshman Antoine Dromeshauser came off the bench and ran for a TD and Shawn Henson kicked 4 FG's as the Trojan defense shut down OSU 19-11. DE Don Briggs came back from missing a week to record 2 sacks and MLB Perry Merriman added a sack and a half. Not a pretty win, but we'll take it.

PAC-10 (1-0-0), Overall (2-1-0)



MEDIA SNIPPETS
LA Times
Week 6

Even a broken clock is twice a day. But to be fair we've been pleasantly surprised by the diversity of USC's offense this season. It's clear they have no running game, and maybe their new offensive coordinator has brought some sense to the team.

But what about recruiting?




WEEK 6
vs. Oregon (1-2-0) (PAC-10)
(USC -8) USC RANK: --

Got word back that we lost QB Ben Duran - but at least it wasn't to UCLA as the young QB decided to attend Michigan State. We did get a letter of intent from Max Elstrom, a kicker from Artesia High School in Lakewood, California. Elstrom is rated 88+ and is a long distance FG kicker, and is coming out of a tremendous atheltic program (97). Academically he's sound and I wouldn't be surprised if he challenged Shawn Henson for the starting job next season.

Freshman Antoine Dromeshauer was a no go due to injury, just as he was about to get a start. Instead of a fantastic show by the talented freshman however, the 92,000 fans at the Rose Bowl were entertained by 5th year senior wingback Norbert Davenport whose 129 yards and 2 TD's on 25 carries as USC defeated Oregon 44-7.

Defensively, the Trojans were all over the Ducks. MLB Perry Merriman had two INT's and 5th year senior DE Shaun Collins had 2 sacks to shut down the Oregon attack.

Good game all around for us. Offensive Coordinator Korey Butler seems to know just who to use and where to go to utilize what talents we do have. And Bucky Riley really has the defense playing well.

PAC-10 (2-0-0), Overall (3-1-0)



MEDIA SNIPPETTS
Pasadena Post Dispatch
Week 7

The Trojans are definately playing the best football they have played in years and it seems to be a different player contributing every week. If nothing else Coach Bear Growlz has certainly built a good team cohesiveness at USC. Whether that will get them past the UCLA's
and Notre Dame's of the world is another story altogether.



WEEK 7
@ #12 California (5-0-0) (PAC-10) *TV2*
(CAL -5) USC RANK: --

Our game against the Golden Bears is drawing heavy national attention this week. They're off to a great start this year after winning the PAC-10 in 2008, and we're going to have our hands full with them. We're going to need a real strong effort to beat Cal.

Well Renaldo Summers answered his county's call instead of ours and enrolled at the Air Force Academy - can't blame a guy for serving his country. There was good news on the recruiting front however, as Junior Coffey, a running back from Murrieta Valley High School in Murrieta, California and Max Galloway, a cornerback from David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles, California both signed letters with USC this week.

Coffery is an 84- with good breakaway speed but will probably have to red shirt a year as his HS athletic program is not particularly advanced. Galloway on the other hand is 82++ who might be able to help us out right away next year.

The Golden Bears were just too much for us at Berkeley as they beat us handily, 31-14. Everett McDaniel played like the young, inexperienced QB he is getting picked 4 times - but he's learning. We simply couldn't establish a running game today - we really do miss Donnell Cash in that regard.

There were some bright spots though. Thurman Whelan once again put on an impressive show, grabbing 8 passes for 152 yards and a TD. On defense, redshirt senior Don Briggs recorded 2.5 more sacks.

Not a good game by any means, but we're not in their class yet. Give us a couple of years.

PAC-10 (2-1-0), Overall (3-2-0)




MEDIA SNIPPETTS
LA Times
Week 8, 2009

Is it too early to say "we told you so?"



WEEK 8
@ Arizona State (1-4-0) (PAC-10)
(USC -18) USC RANK: --

Big favorites on the road this week against the Sun Devils. Let's hope we can go take one on the road.

On the recruiting front we continue to get committments from fairly solid players, though I don't see O.J. Simpson, Marcus Allen, Reggie Bush or Sam Cunningham walking through those doors right now. But Walt de Leon, an outside linebacker from Burton Academy High School in San Francisco, California has committed to play for us next year. de Leon is an 81+ OLB and Burton Academy's athletic programs (98) are outstanding, so Walt may very well be an impact player next season on defense.

Harris Norton returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and the Trojans never looked back, smoking the Sun Devils 45-14. Tailback Jimmy Schultz had a 100 yard day on the ground and both Wally Hopper and Thurm Whelan had big days receiving; Hopper with 7 catches for 139 yards and a TD and Whelan with 6 catches for 97 yards.

Redshirt junior DE Irv Wiggs, subbing for the einjured Don Briggs, sacked ASU's QB 3.5 times and DT Hunter Burgess added 2 sacks for good measure and J.R. Howard also returned a kick for a TD as USC dominated all facets of the game.

A very satisfying win on the road as we played well in all areas.

PAC-10 (3-1-0), Overall (4-2-0)



WEEK 9
vs. Stanford (4-2-0) (PAC-10) *TV5*
(USC -7) USC RANK: --

Very good news on the recruiting front his week, as Irving Donaldson, a quarterback from Guilderland High School in Guilderland Center, New York has signed a letter of intent with USC. Donaldson is a very mobile QB coming out of a high quality athletic program, so his prep should be very good. It's not beyond the realm of the possible that he competes for the starting job next season. Donaldson is one of the recruits we started pursuing right from the get go and figure to be an important piece of our future.

Stanford came in and just delivered a good, old fashined whuppin to us, 35-10. The only Trojan to have a good day was wideout Wally Hopper, who had 5 catches for 113 yards. The Cardinal shut everything else of ours down completely.

We were just completely outplayed in every phase of the game this week.

PAC-10 (3-2-0), Overall (4-3-0)



MEDIA SNIPPETTS
firebeargrowlz.net
Message Board
Week 10, 2009

Poster: Trojanman
Posts: 1276
What u guyz think of Donaldson. Is he 4rl?

Poster: Iheartpetecarroll
Posts: 77
We should be 7 and 0. We would be if Pete was still coach.

Poster: Iheartpetecarroll
Posts: 78
Vega.
Hey, is vegamite still banned?

Poster: Vegamite
Posts: 11,247,923
Yeah, why am I still banned?!?




WEEK 10
vs. Washington (7-0-0) (PAC-10) *TV4*
(WASH -3) KSC RANK: --

The media has been kind of gentle with us this year - I think we've kind of surprised them. Our coordinators are doing one heckuva job getting the most out of this team. Big game this week as undefeated Washington comes to the Rose Bowl.

More committments this week as our recruiting class seems to be coming together. Lance Coleman, a runblocking fullback from Kelly Walsh High School in Casper, Wyoming has signed a letter of intent with us for next year. Coleman, a 97--, is particularly adept at run blocking and will be a big step up from what we have this year.

Also signing with us this week was Dale Cunningham, an inside linebacker from Fowler High School in Fowler, California. Cunningham (78-), comes from a school with a decent athletic program and may compete for a backup spot at ILB if he isn't redshirted in 2010.

Devestated by injuries to the backfield, Offensive Coordinator tried to run a spread offense from the flexbone this week, as USC rushed only 7 times all game. The plan worked early as Everett McDaniel hit Thurm Whelan on a 54 yard scoring strike early in the 1st Quarter, but Ev just couldn't keep it up and was picked 6 times as Washington took over to the tune of 32-7. Everett Whelan had 3 catches for 103 yards and 1 TD.

PAC-10 (3-3-0), Overall (4-4-0)



MEDIA SNIPPETTS
ESPN SPORTSCENTER
Week 11, 2009

Lee Corso (LC): You just don't see that every day. Never in fact. A spread passing attack out of a flexbone offense. Good gravy!

Chris Berman (CB): I guess without any healthy backs . . . .

Susie Kolber (SK): They;ve certainly tried some innovative things down at Southern Cal this year. They just don't seem to have the personnel to win games head to head, so I think they're trying to use every trick in the book to get an advantage in a game.

(LC): And when you do that you get beat bad sometimes . . .

(SK): . . . and you pull an upset sometimes. Let's face it, they don't really have the personnel out there to win with.

(CB): And we turn to our guest, Pete Carroll, former Coach of the USC Trojans and now the Head Coach of the Los Angeles Showtime, the NFL's newest franchise. Pete, what about it? Does Bear Growlz have the personnel to win with at USC?

Pete Carroll (PC): Well, I know when I was there, I was jacked, and we were pumped, and we were wanting to win and getting jacked and pumped and all. But I think I did a pretty good job there geting everyone all jacked and pumped.

(LC): Good analysis Pete. You hit the hammer right on the head with the nail...er...yeah.

(SK): Coach Carroll? How long do you think the USC administration will give Growlz to turn that program around?

(PC): Well, it all depends on how jacked and pumped he is. If he really gets things jacked up and pumped up, it could be awhile. That's the key to winning, getting real jacked and bigtime pumped.

(LC): Right on the hammer Pete. Love having you on.

(CB): Thanks for the time pete, that's all we have for tonight.



WEEK 11
@Arizona (2-6-0) (PAC-10)
(USC -6) USC RANK: --

More recruit signings this week. Still can't land a decent OC, but adding some good young players in other spots. Warren Taggart, an offensive tackle from Beaumont High School in Beaumont, California, Walt Newman, a defensive end from Elk Grove High School in Elk Grove, California and Korey Thomason, an outside linebacker from Gompers High School in San Diego, California all signed letters with us this week. Taggart (89+) could develop into a real special player. Newman (76+) and Thomason (72-) will likely have to redshirt and gain some experience and work on their findamentals next season.

USC's Offensive Coordinator Korey Butler once again changed up things on an opponent defense, firing up a dink and dunk passing attack that resulted in redshirt sophomore Everett McDaniel throwing 59 passes for 395 yards en route to a 49-23 victory over Arizona.

Due to multiple injuries in the backfield, and the fact the two best players right now are the team's wideouts, we had Butler put together a plan that would get those two the ball as much as possible, while trying to minimize the possibility of Ev being picked off. McDaniel did throw 4 INT's, but he also tossed 3 TD's.

Wally Hopper had by far the best day of his young collegiate career, making 15 catches for 247 yards and 3 touchdowns. Fellow wideout Thurman Whelan added 9 receptions for 125 yards.

CB Harris Norton ran an interception back 59 yards for a TD as USC dominated the wildcats on their home turf.

All we're doing right now is to try and win as many games as we can, no matter how unorthodox we have to be. Even before injuries started hammerring us, we didn't have the personnel we need. So we're just trying to use our best weapons in ways that other teams can least effectively stop them. It works sometimes, and we look damn silly at others. But if it gives us a better chance at winning, then we're going to do it.

PAC-10 (4-3-0), Overall (5-4-0)



WEEK 12
HOMECOMING vs. #4 Notre Dame (7-1-0) *TV5*
(ND -3) USC RANK: --

We've got our big annual matchup against the Irish this week, and then next week we close out against UCLA. It's crunch time - time we started to play our best football. We've been hit by a swarm of injuries this year and have gone 3 or 4 deep in some positions so that we're starting walk-ons, but this is the time of year when we have to just play through whatever issues we get hit with and play until we don't have anything left. these are two teams that USC lives to beat. Trojans breath, bleed, live and die to defeat the Irish and the Bruins, and we're going to make sure that we leave every ounce of everything we're made of out on this field today, and across town next week against UCLA.

We landed a 2nd FB, a position we badly needed this year, as Clyde Dotson, a fullback from Eastern Wayne High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina, signed a letter of intent to play for USC next season.

The Trojans came out with an entirely different look against the Fighting Irish today, combining the dink and dunk passing that worked so well against Arizona with a regular QB option offense and pulled off a major upset of #4 Notre Dame, 24-10 at the Rose Bowl.

QB Everett McDaniel, who has seen just about everything in gameplans this season, went 21/36 for 230 yards passing, tossing 2 TD's and only 1 INT. Wingback Norbert Davenport, just back from injury, had 10 catches for 87 yards and a TD in addition to his 40 yards on 10 carries rushing.

MLB Perry Merriman had 12 tackles and assisted on 3 others and backup DE Kyle Newsome, filling in for the injured Don Briggs, had 2 sacks.

A big, big win for the Trojan football program.

That one feels really good. Now one more to go - UCLA.

PAC-10 (4-3-0), Overall (6-4-0)




MEDIA SNIPPETTS
LA Times
Week 13, 2009

There hasn't been this much excitement around the USC Trojans since Reggie Bush and company where here. The mayhem after the win over Notre Dame was just unbelievable. You'd think the program had won a national championship.

To be honest, we don't know what's going on at Southern Cal. Bear Growlz comes in, puts in and old fashioned running offense, then out of nowhere, his offensive coordinator will have their redshirt sophomore QB throw the ball 60 times - and then the next week he's running the option.

We here at the Times have never pretended to be big fans of Coach Growlz, or "Coach Bear" as the kids on campus call him. But we'll be the first to admit that win over Notre Dame made a statement and made us sit up and take notice. If Coach Bear can lead his Trojans over the Bruins (ha, bear vs. bear!) this coming weekend, the rest of the world might just sit up and take notice that USC football, however improbable, is on its way back.


WEEK 13
@ #12 UCLA (8-2-0) (PAC-10) *TV4*
(UCLA -9) USC RANK: --

I want this game. Every player in the locker room wants this game this week. Everything we've done this season has been improbable. Faced with challenge after challenge, adversity and injury, we've fought hard and come back to put together our best run of two seasons. I'm under no illusions. This program isn't a national championship contender. It will be, but not now. This program isn't even ready yet to contend for the PAC-10 title. But what we are is a courageous team, that has fought through all the adversity and just done whatever - and I mean whatever - it took to win a game. I'm damn proud of this team, maybe proudest of all the teams I've coached. And a win here this week would be the culmination
of one unbelievable season.

Well, the magic of this late run ran out, as no amount of scheming or plotting could overcome UCLA's dominant play, as UCLA beat us 48-3. Not much to say here, we tried to run the ball and couldn't, and passing was even worse, McDaniel getting picked 3 times before he went to the bench.

Thurman Whelen did make 4 catches for 94 yards, Perry Merriman made 15 tackles and Claude Reger had 2 INT's, but we were just outplayed and overpowered.

Still one heckuva nice run down the stretch of exciting football. And next year looks even better for us.

PAC-10 (4-4-0), Overall (6-5-0)



WEEK 14
Off week.



CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
Off week.




MINOR BOWL TIER
KEYSTONE BOWL: vs. Air Force (7-4-0) *TV4*
(Air Force -1) USC RANK: --

We've come a long way in two short years. Our play down the stretch earned us a bid to The Keystone Bowl in Williamsport, PA, against Air Force. It's not the Rose Bowl for the National Championship, but considering where this program was when we took it over, this is a major accomplishment for USC Football.

Now to just win the game.

We finally got a running game going, as Jimmy Schultz went over the 100 yard mark, but Everett McDaniel had an awful day at QB, going 13/39 with 4 picks. He did connect on one long 63 yard strike to Thurman Whelan for a TD however.

MLB Perry Merriman had 10 tackles and Hunter Burgess and Shaun Collins each had 1.5 sacks in their last games in a USC uniform.

Tough loss, but a season to be proud of.

PAC-10 (4-4-0), Overall (6-6-0)



MAJOR BOWL TIER
Off week.



FOUR STAR TIER
Off week.



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Off week.



NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Off week.

Texas A&M defeated Nebraska, 38-17.

QB Dean Griffin from Pitt won the Heisman.

Your wife must not know much about Clemson -- they are among the most dilusional fans when it comes to football of anyone out there. At least in real life, they want national championships every year and have itchy trigger fingers when their coaches don't deliver ... As someone from the "laid back" South just had to post that ... ;)

Good luck to the Trojans...

AZ

Laid Back Suthrun
 

Aztarheel,

To be fair, she doesn't.

She's a UGA Bulldawg through and through.

Did I just say I married a dawg? Hope she's not reading. ;)


--Bear

2009 Season Review & Summary
 

2009 Season Review & Summary


The 2009 season had every reason to be an abject failure and total disaster. Instead, the group of kids we had here turned adversity into a building block and put together a very solid year culminating with an upset of #4 Notre Dame and an appearance in the Keystone Bowl.

Defensive Coordinator Bucky Riley has built one of the best - second only to Notre Dame - run defenses in the nation, holding opponents to 63 YPG and less than 2 yards per carry. Our pass defense got better this year as well, and that ws a necessary impreovement as opponents just would not run the ball against us as our run D was so good.

Offensively there was no consistency this season, but that was by design. Aside from WR, we were really outmanned on offense by every defense we faced. So while ostensibly in the flexbone - the offense we'll continue running here in the future - Offensive Coordinator Korey Butler threw everything but the kitchen sink at opposing defenses in an attempt to put points on the board. I think we may have won a couple of games we wouldn't have otherwise, and we probably got blown out of a couple that would have been closer had we played conservatively. But the idea is to win games - not lose by 3 instead of 30. And I think that was the best way, with this unit, to win football games.

Both coordinators did spectacular jobs this season and I'm really pleased with their work.

On offense, nowehere did that shine more brightly than in the work of wideouts Thurman Whelan and Wally Hopper, both of who had 1000 yard receiving seasons and both were named 1st team All-PAC 10. Joining them receiving All-Pac 10 honors were graduating offensive linemen Clifton Ferrell and Kelvin Segers, both of whom were named 2nd Team All-Pac 10. Ferrell and Segers will both be missed next year, but Hopper and Whelan will be returning, Whelan as a 5th year senior and Hopper as a redshirt junior. Also receiving PAC 10 honors was oft-injured freshman RB Antoine Dromeshauser, who was named PAC 10 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year.

On defense, Coach Riley has really been working with MLB Perry Merriman to take his game to the next level, amd in 2009 Perry did just that, winning 2nd Team All-America honors. Perry had a psectacular season in 2009, making 98 solo tackles, assisting on 32 others, while recording 8.5 sacks and picking off 4 passes. Merriman will return to USC next season as a 5th year senior and we're expecting another great season from him. Perry also won All-Pac 10 honors, being named 1st Team All-Pac 10.

Joining Merriman on the defensive side of the ball in winning All Pac-10 honors was Safety Mercury Lyle, who was named 2nd Team All-Pac 10. Lyle graduates this season.

A number of Trojans were accorded academic honors, a fact we're very proud of here at USC. MLB Perry Merriman was named an Academic All-American as well as being named to the Academic All-Pac 10 Team. Joining Merriman as Academic All-Pac 10 awardees were offensive linemen Clifton Ferrell and Kelvin Segers, Punter Dennis Glover and Safety Ted Powell. These students empitomize what being a student-athlete is all about - excelling both on the field of play and in the class room and they set examples for all of our athletes here at USC, not just the football program.

All in all, I was genuinely pleased with how we played in 2009. I think we won all the games we should have amd maybe one or two we weren't expected to. We're still playing mainly with players recruited for a poorly performing run & shoot offense and I think it'll be another 2 to 3 years before we have our full program in place and can full see the fruition of the coaching staff change which brought us in in 2008. Given all that, the fact we went to a Bowl Game this year and we beat Notre Dame have to be considered major succeses.

I look forward to seeing even more of them in 2010.



2009 University of Southern California Trojans
Team Summary

Great thread......grew up in NH, fondly remember all those schools, KSC, PSC, the Maritime.

Thanks
 

Marathoner,

Thanks! Hope you keep reading and enjoying.


--Bear

2010 Preason
 

2010 PRESEASON


Winter, 2010

When word came out I was offerred the Clemson job last winter and refused, a friend of mine sent me a letter telling me to be thankful I didn't take the job - Clemson fans are impatient and expect national championships every year and it's like a coaching carousel down there.

Guess who's knocking at my door again this year?

Guess that was prescient advice from my friend.

Besides the job at Clemson, I turned down offers from Mississippi State, Southern Mississippi, UTEP and Idaho. I've got my work cut out for me here at Southern Cal and am enjoying the job. So far the administration has been supportive and we're turning things around both academically and athletically.

Sophomore RB Antoine Dromeshauser was in my office earlier this week complaining about how his girlfriend left him because he didn't have enough time to spend with her. I mean c'mon, the kid was hurt 3/4 of the season, couldn't he take her out for pizza and a beer every now and then? Jeez.

Well I sure am upset with both the NCAA and Perry Merriman. The 5th year senior has been suspended for the year by the NCAA. Seems Perry was invited to play in some college all-star game to show off for pro scouts and he went and put itching powder in the shower heads of the coaching staff. I mean, I know 2 of the coaches were from UCLA and all, but Perry man, smarten up. Heck, now we lose him for his final season. He was the heart of our defense.

As for the NCAA, don't you think that the penalty kind of doesn't fit the crime?

Suspended for a full season? Give me a break. UCLA lovers.

Big turnover among some of the most prestigious programs in the country. Miami, Florida State, Georgia, Texas and LSU among others all hired new Head Coaches. Big turnover amongst the big powers.

Our staff will remain unchaged from 2009.

I'm very pleased with the work done by coordinators Korey Butler and Bucky Riley and have full confidence in Syndicate Coordinator Pete Prior and Lead Scout Wally Campana. As for the others, again I am only replacing them through attrition. When they retire or take another job I'll replace them.



Spring, 2010

As winter turns to spring, we need to finalize our schedule for 2010. Our two year home and home contracts with Hawaii and Texas expired last season, so we'll need to fill 2 slots on our schedule. As always we have our annual showdown with Notre Dame - at the Rose Bowl this year - and we play 8 PAC-10 games. Every year we don't play one PAC-10 team, and this season it's Oregon State.

My thoughts on the schedule are that we're starting to move in the direction where thoughts of being ranked among the Top 25 are not outrageous any longer. Our conference schedule is pretty rough, a lot of good teams here in the PAC-10. Right now on our schedule we have 4 preseason top 25 teams sscheduled - Washington, Cal, UCLA and Notre Dame, with UCLA and Notre Dame being preseason Top 10. I don't think we need to improve our strength of schedule (SOS), but don't want to play any cupcakes either. So we'll be looking for some mid-level teams to play that won't hurt our SOS but that I see as winnable games.

Taking a look at the Solecismic computer rankings (where we are ranked 36th), Georgia Tech (41st) looks like a solid matchup for us. I'm also going to try and setup a rematch against our opponent in the Keystone Bowl last season, Airforce (45th in the Solecismic Computer). Those look to be winnable, yet respectably competitive games for us.

Stage 1: Air Force turned us down for a game at the Rose Bowl. Vermont is offering us a home game. They're 125th on the Sol computer, that's a lot weaker than I am looking for - remember, no cupcakes.

Stage 2: Air Force accepted a Home/Home series, with this year's game week 1 at the Rose Bowl. Works for me. Now let's see what Georgia Tech wants. Texas is offerring me a home/home with this year's game at the Rose Bowl. Texas is 4th in the Sol computer, a little tougher than I want to schedule this year.

Stage 3: Georgia Tech accepted a game at the Rose Bowl for 2010, so that will fill our schedule for this year. Here a look at it.





Summer, 2010

Once again I have been handling the study schedules and time management of the roster. The improvement in academic performance is significantly noticable after just one season. I'm hopeful this will also improve our academic reputation - though I am not sure how that is handled in the game engine. But I'm going to act as if it will, as it makes good sense.

I also want our players to graduate and be well prepared for the world outside academe. Most of my players aren't going to play in the NFL, and even those few the average career is 5 years or so? I want my players prepared for careers when they leave this program.

Once we got the kids in two-a-days I realized how different this team was going to look this season - which is both a good thing and a bad thing. On offense we should have quite a bit more punch and consistency, but on defense we lost a number of key players, most to graduation, and one to a stupid prank.

Calling the signals after a rough first season will be redshirt junior Everett McDaniel. Ev was picked 31 times last season, not good. But the coaching staff can take much of the blame for that, and clearly Ev wasn't ready to play last season. He was just all we had. He's had a good summer of workouts and development and seems to be better prepared this year.

Joining McDaniel in the backfield will be Tailback Donnell "Big Money" Cash. Because we hadn't redshirted Cash, I don't actually think he lost a year of academic eligibility (at least according to the game engine, which is treating him like a redshirt junior), which would be nice for our program. Now that Donnell has his academic difficulties under control, we're expecting a breakout year from him and some real explosive running.

Over at Wingback will be last year's starting Tailback, Jimmy Schultz. Jimmy, a redshirt senior, was simply overmatched to handle the load of a tailback in the flexbone, but should do fine as our wingback. Coles and Schultz' primary backups will be sophomore Antonie Dromeshauser and redshirt sophomore Brad Berberich. At Fullback, mostly in a run blocking capacity will be freshmen Lance Coleman and Clyde Dotson, sharing time.

Ev McDaniel's primary targets this year will once again be wideouts Thurman Whelan, a 5th year senior, and Wally Hopper, a redshirt junior. Both Whelan and Hopper were named 1st Team All-PAC 10 last season.

Blocking for McDaniel and opening holes for our backfield will be our offensive line, anchored by 5th year senior Leland Fish at OC. At Guard we have redshirt senior Barry Humphrey and redshirt junior Gilbert Lucas. Their primary backup will be a starter from last season, senior Dan Rebensdorf. At OT will be two 5th year seniors - Warren Austin and Emmitt Whitfield. Their primary backups will be redshirt junior Vinny Dudgeon and redshirt senior Ike Hampton.

Redshirts this year on offense include highly touted QB Irv Donaldson; Tailback Junior Coffey, whom we expect big things from in the future; OC Rufus Mitchell; and tackles Joseph Shipman and Warren taggart, whom we hope will develop nicely together and anchor our line for years to come.

On defense, we've gone over to a 3-4 base defense. The loss of Perry Merriman at MLB is impossible to replace, so we've gone to 2 LB's there. Starting at NT will be senior Cary Dawson. Flanking Cary on the D-line will be 5th year senior Don Briggs, who if he stays healthy - not an easy task to date - is one of the most dominating defensive linemen in the PAC 10, and redshirt senior Irv Wiggs, who septn most of 2009 filling in for the injured Briggs. This isn't as dominating a group as we've had the past two years, but we think it's solid and will give our linebackers a chance to shush out the ball.

Our linebacking corps, absent the merry prankster Perry Merriman, is led by 5th year senior Claude Reger at OLB. Joined on the outside is 3 year starter junior Kevin Fedo. In the middle, trying to fill the shoes of Merriman, are redshirt sophomore Johnny Coles and redshirt junior Adrian Hopper. Their primary backup will be former starter, 5th year senior Steven Kinney. Backing up on the outside will be freshman Walt de Leon and sophomore Rob Mascorella.

I've got to admit some concern about our front seven this season. The past two years it has been a strength, but with losses through graduation, lack of significant development of players already here, and a reliance on very young talent in backup roles, I'm not sure we can stop the run as much as we have in the past. But that'll be up to Defensive Coordinator Bucky Riley to pull together. If anyone can do it, I'm sure Bucky is the one.

Our front seven is backed up by a secondary led by shutdown corner, junior Harris Norton. Joining Harris at the other corner will be redshirt sophomore Mack Wilkins, who if he puts his work in this year could be a star as early as next season.

At Strong Safety will be 5th year senior Rex England. He's joined by another 5th year senior Quentin Kaesviharn. Backing them up will be redshirt seniors Marlon Gillespie and Ted Powell.
All in all I think we're substantially stronger on offense and a bit weaker on defense this season. I'm going to really have my work cut out for me this year in recruiting.

I don't think we're quite ready to contend for the PAC 10 title yet, but I think a reasonable expectation would be a winning record, perhaps even 7-4, and a trip to a Bowl Game.

And of course we want to beat Notre Dame and UCLA.

I told you about Clemson -- they are looking for a coach two years in a row for goodness sakes ;)

Clemson
 

You're not kidding. LOL.:p


-Bear

Test
 

Hrrm, my two most recent posts don't seem to be showing up for me.

Test.

Try again
 

dola.

We'll try again.

-Bear

2010 Season: Part 1
 

2010 SEASON


WEEK 1
vs. Airforce (0-0) *TV2*
(USC -7) USC RANK: --

High billing on TV2 for our week 1 matchup against the Air Force Academy. They'll be a pretty good test for our PAC 10 schedule as they consistently run a pretty solid program in Colorado Springs - and hopefully we'll get a little revenge for them beating us last year in the Keystone Bowl. We've got more weapons on offense and a more experienced quarterback this season, so we'll see how it goes.

Spent most of my recruiting time this week looking at top 100 players. Some of the top ranked recruits we are pursuing this season are: WR Drew Watkins from Ohio; RB Ed Saycocie from New York; QB Malcolm Moreno from Michigan; NT Earnest Pierce from Kansas and Caly products Tyrell Lyons, Doug Wischer and Charlie Schultz. If we land any of those recruits it'll be a real boon to our program. Next week we look at more defensive players and recruits close to home.

Junior CB Harris Norton opened up the game for the Trojans with a kickoff return for a touchdown asnd we never looked back, posting a dominant 38-14 victory over the Air Force Falcons.

Tailback Donnell Cash, in his first game from from an academic suspension, carried the ball 23 times for 141 yards (6.1 ypc) and set the tone for the Trojans. Safety Quentin Kaesviharn picked off a Falcon pass and ran it in for a touchdown and DE Don Briggs had 1.5 sacks. Our front seven did look weaker than last year, allowing 184 yards rushing, but only 3.4 YPC.

Only 87,700 turned out for the game at the Rose Bowl - I hope we haven't started to lose fan support. It's early in the year though, hopefully attendence will pick up come PAC-10 time.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), OVERALL (1-0-0)



WEEK 2
Off week.
KSC RANK: #7

Again the pollsters have got early season-itis and have gone off the deep end, this time ranking us #7. I think it's possible we'll be a Top 25 team by the end of the year, but we're not #7 and we will likely fall out of the Top 25 as soon as more teams open their schedules this week and next.

No time to get cocky.

Spent the week traveling around ocean west, recruiting th best kids from Caly. Our biggest competition for these kids will be primarily from UCLA, and to a lesser extent, CAL. Some of the top Caly kids we're looking at, aside from those already mentioned, are OG Ricky Estevez, DE Cornell Henry, DE Alonzo Chevrier, and OLB Junior Morrison. All of these preps are highly ranked nationally as well as within the state.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), OVERALL (1-0-0)


WEEK 3
vs. Georgia Tech (1-0-0) *TV5*
(USC -6) USC RANK: #24

Our game against the Yellow Jackets is a regional network broadcast - good to be getting the television exposure here, it can only help our football program.

The pollsters still have us the Top 25, and this is going to be a tough game against Tech. But it'll be a very good test of where we are right now in the program building process.

Spent my recruiting time visiting and calling prospects I met the first two weeks of the season. Also contacted two new kids, both run-stopping nose tackles. Our recruiting classes have been ranked #13 two years in a row, so I thinkw e're off to a good start in rebuilding this program, but we have to keep bringing in the top talent in the country as we're up against one of the best programs in the nation every year - crosstown rival UCLA. So I have grown to expect a lot of rejections because we're pursuing kids that every top program is pursuing, but hopefully we'll get enough committments for us to eventually contend for a national championship.

Our Trojans systematically put this one in the win column, taking a 7-3 lead after one, 14-6 at the half, adding another TD in the 3rd to take a convincing 21-6 lead before blowing it open in the 4th, putting up 24 4th quarter points for a 45-13 rout of the Rambling Wreck.

Tailback Donnell Cash had 186 yards rushing on 36 carries (5.1 ypc) leading the Trojan flexbone attack. Redshirt junior QB Everett McDaniel had a fine day passing, using both of his wideouts extensively, hitting Wally Hopper 6 times for 177 yards and a TD and Thurm Whelan another 6 times for 132 yards. Redshirt senior OG Barry Humphrey dominated the line of scrimmage with 8 key run blocks and CB Harris Norton ran back another pick for a touchdown as USC dominated all aspects of this game.

Can't ask for a much better start to the season.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), OVERALL (2-0-0)


WEEK 4
Off week.
USC RANK: #12

Big jump in the national polls for us all the way up to #12 after our dominating win over Georgia Tech. Donnell Cash has really been on his game and if he keeps this up might even get a litle consideration for the Heisman.

Bad news is we lost freshman FB Lance Coleman for 12-15 weeks as he goes under the knife for his shoulder. Hopefully fellow frosh Clyde Dotson will be able to carry the load at one of the weakest positions in our program.

Spent the off week traveling across country visiting kids on our short list, and calling others. (Remember, playing with a house rule of no more than 1 call and 1 visit per recruit per week). As usual, facing stiff competition from UCLA for the many of the top recruits.

PAC-10 (0-0-0), OVERALL (2-0-0)


WEEK 5
@ Stanford (2-1-0)
(USC -11) USC RANK: #20

Backup CB Chester Gonzalez was caught violating team rules. The NCAA chose not to suspend him, but in order to maintain order and morale amongst the program I'm suspending him for the year. Chester is a junior and may return for his senior year if he gets his act together.

Spent the recruiting week really pursuing the prospects at the top of our list. Nine of our top recruits have expressed they have enough information to make a decision and further contact won't help us with them. So next week we'll work the lower portion of our list and perhaps even expand our recruiting a little bit to stave off some of the inevitable rejections we'll get.

The pundits seem to have been as impressed as the polls have been with our first two victories, and they've installed us as 11 point favorites at the Stanford Cardinal. And we lived up to the spread, trouncing the Cardinal 31-3.

The Trojans had two backs go over the hundred yard mark this week, Tailback Donnell Cash was joined by Wingback Jimmy Schultz as they both had outstanding days on the ground. Cash ran for 153 yards and 2 TD's on 36 carries (4.2 ypc) and Schultz added 106 yards and a TD on carries. QB Ev McDaniel was a quietly efficient 11/16 for 172 yards through the air, hitting wideout Wally Hopper for his lone TD pass of the day. More importantly, McDaniel avoided the interception bug, which is key to him being successful.

Defensively USC pressured the Stanford QB all day as senior NT Cary Dawson had 2.5 sacks and redshirt senior DE Irv Wiggs got to the Cardinal QB twice on the day. Another dominant day for us. Korey Butler and Bucky Riley are doing a great job and have their units operating at a very high level right now.

Feeling only positive things at the moment.

PAC-10 (1-0-0), OVERALL (3-0-0)

WEEK 6
vs. #19 Washington State (3-0-0) (PAC 10) *TV1*
(USC -10) USC RANK: #13

Big, big game this week against the Washington State Cougars. the national network is picking it up as the number 1 nationwide broadcast, and we've moved up to #13 in the polls. But we can't get too cocky, it's way early, and the Cougars are a fantastic team.

Lost out on Saycocie and Schultz - Schultz to UCLA, but did land two recruits this week. Alonzo Chevrier, a defensive end from Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, California and Junior Morrison, an outside linebacker from Vasquez High School in Acton, California have signed letters of intent with the Trojans to play for us next year.

Chevrier is a 93+ run-stopping DE and is coming from an excellent athletic program (81) and with Don Briggs graduating this year may very well be able to make a significant contribution his freshman year. Morrison is an 88+ pass rushing OLB who is also coming from a top flight prep athletic program (82). With Claude Reger set to graduate this year, Morrison may also be able to step in and make an immediate contribution on defense.

Two very good early signings this year.

I spent part of my time this week assigning some additional coaching blocs of time to help out a few players who were struggling academically. We had a couple of players with D-'s in a class and I assigned them 2 blocs, then gave a few players with C-'s 1 bloc. Still have plenty of coaching blocs for the rest of the year, but hopefully those players will improve their grades over the next three weeks.

Spent the recruiting week pestering the kids on the lower portion of our list and started making more contacts with under-recruited kids who may be able to fill some voids. While we didn't get either of those RB's, I am pleased and a little more comfortable with recruiting at this level now.

We'll see if the results bear out my confidence.

A big, big win for us this week as we held off Washington State 25-10 on nation TV. Wideout Thurman Whelan had a big day both on offense and special teams, catching 4 passes for 106 yards and a TD as well as returning a kickoff for a touchdown.

Tailback Donnell Cash had yet another fine day running, rushing for 126 yards on 26 carries (4.8 ypc)and QB Everett McDaniel was 15/28 for 226 yards, 1 TD and 1 pick. Strong Safety Rex England led our defensive efforts with 9 tackles and 1 INT.

We're firing on all cylinders right now and clearly playing the best football we have since I took over the program in 2008.

PAC-10 (2-0-0), OVERALL (4-0-0)


MEDIA SNIPPETTS
LA Times
Week 7, 2010

Well it sure looks like Coach bear Growlz has his USC trojans drinking the kool-aid over at Southern Cal, as the men of troy are off to their best start in years. It looks Donnell Cash is joining the long USC tradition of great tailbacks throughout history, joining the likes of O.J. Simpson, Reggie Bush, Charles White and Marcus Allen as he scampers and plunges through opposing defenses.

Mind you, we're still not sold on this offense of Coach Growlz, but we sure do like the results so far this year.


WEEK 7
@ Arizona (1-3-0) (PAC 10)
(USC -22) USC RANK: #11

Jumped to #11 in the polls this week after our convincing victory over Washington State. The program has really come together well this season and I'm cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year.

No surprise, but DE Don Briggs is injured again. he hyperextended his elbow and is out for aprox. 5 weeks. The career he could have had, all wasted to injury.

Three more committments from recruits this week. Nathan Padgett, an offensive tackle from Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California, Clarence Choate, a defensive tackle from Columbia Central High School in Brooklyn, Michigan and Tyrell Lyons, a cornerback from Vasquez High School in Acton, California have all signed letters of intent his week to play for USC.

Padgett is an 88-- run blocking OT from a solid prep athletic program (69). There are some holes in his game that our scouts missed, so it's not real clear when he'll be able to make a significant contribution to our program yet. We'll know better come next summer. The same can be said for CB Lyons (91--) and NT Choate (83--). Not great signings this week, but hopefully all three will have good camps and make significant contributions down the road.

Have almost maxed out contacts with our current recruiting list, though there are still a few that we'll contact again next week. Expanded our recruiting seach looking for more offensive linemen, a big need for us in the future.

Korey Butler prepared an outstanding offensive gameplan for today's game and our Trojans executed it perfectly, controlling the ball for 41 minutes and simply destroying the Arizona Wildcats 61-12 at Arizona. All three USC QB's saw playing time today and we excelled in all areas of the game.
Tailback Donnell Cash had a Heisman-worthy performance, rushing for 203 yards and 4 TD's on 28 carries (7.2 ypc) as the Trojan offensive line completely dominated the wildcat front seven.

QB Ev McDaniel only played part of the game, but when he was in there he was 11 for 13, throwing for 184 yards, 2 TD's and no INT's. Wideout Wally Hopper had a huge day making 9 catches for 211 yards and 1 TD. Four different Trojan receivers caught passes for touchdowns.
Redshirt senior Irv Wiggs continues to have a fine year in his first season as a full time starter, sacking the Arizona QB 2.5 times. Bucky Riley's defense held the wildcats to under 100 yards rushing and only 32 net yards passing.

I'm obviously very pleased with the way we're playing on both sides of the ball. We've got some very difficult games coming up though, so let's see if we can keep things going. Nice, nice streak.

PAC-10 (3-0-0), OVERALL (5-0-0)

OK
 

dola.

Seems to be fixed now, perhaps my posts were simply too long.


-Bear

2010 Seasin - Part II
 

2010 SEASON - Part II


MEDIA SNIPPETTS
firebeargrowlz.net
Message Board

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Ur brd belonging 2 us.

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Why am I still banned?!?


WEEK 8
vs. Washington (3-3-0) (PAC 10)
(USC -21) USC RANK: #10

Still moving up in the polls as we hit #10 this week. We're really playing well so far this season. Donnell Cash has been a real difference maker this year and Ev McDaniel has come so far in just one short year. We've still got a long way to go but I'm very pleased with our performance to date.
More good news on the recruiting front as Aaron Castillo, a running back from Reedley High School in Reedley, California signed a letter of intent with us to play here next season.

Castillo is a 90+ tailback who excels at breakaway running, but he'll likely redshirt his freshman year due to the lack of athletic prep he has gotten in high school. But we expect big things from Aaron down the road.

The Huskies defense held Donnell Cash to 93 yards rushing but wideout Wally Hopper had a big day making 7 receptions for 105 yards as we defeated Washington 27-17 in the Rose Bowl. QB Ev McDaniel went 19 for 31, throwing for 227 yards 1 Td and a pick. NT Cary Dawson applied pressure to the Washington QB all day recording 2 sacks and Strong Safety Rex England made 7 tackles and assisted on 2 others.

Not a pretty win, but we'll take it.

PAC-10 (4-0-0), OVERALL (6-0-0)



WEEK 9
Off week.

Good time of the season for a break - first time we've had a week off in the middle of our schedule like this. I spent much of the time assinging coaches to work with players who have D's or D+'s in classes. That drops me down to about 15 coaching blocs left for the rest of the season. We've got one kid who's getting a D+ in Pro Wrestling. Oy.

Outstanding news as we land Malcolm Moreno, a quarterback from Annapolis High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Moreno will have to redshirt his freshman year as his SAT score was lame, but he has happy feet and ran for 988 yards in 9 games his senior year as a QB. Malcolm is rated a 95+, so if we can get his academics straightened out we may have just landed the QB who can take us to the promised land of a national championship. We'll have to work really hard with him on his academics however.

Also signing letters of intent with us this week were Ronald Wheeler, a (91+) wide receiver from Battle Mountain High School in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Howie Greene, an (89-) offensive tackle from Leavenworth High School in Leavenworth, Kansas.

A very successful week on the recruiting front.

Spent the week looking around California for kids who might turn out to be last minute scholarship offers or walk-ons. Also recruiting a WR or two to join the program as we've had a lot of success this year with the flexbone and having good wideouts is crucial to that.

PAC-10 (4-0-0), OVERALL (6-0-0)



WEEK 10
@ Oregon (6-2-0) (PAC 10) *TV2*
(USC -5) USC RANK: #8

Well, we've raised expectations about as high as they can be raised now. We've climbed to #8 in the national rankings and are favored on the road against a very solid Oregon team. This has all happened a year or two sooner than I expected, but we're playing very good football, so here's hoping we keep this up.

We landed two more recruits this week: Willie Davison, a wide receiver from Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington and Mark Powell, a center from Southridge High School in Miami, Florida. Davison is a 93- wideout that comes from a mid-level athletic program (40). He probably could make a contribution as early as next season off the bench, but we may redshirt him and get him some more time to develop. Powel is a 90- OC and is coming from a poor athletic program, so he'll likely redshirt next year to gain an extra year's development.

Bad news as widfeout Thurman Whelan had his knee scoped after last week's game. He'll likely miss the rest of the year. He'll be replaced by redshirt senior Dominic Walyuchow who has been itching on the bench for 3 years for a chance to show what he can do - now he'll get that chance.

While we wait for the other recruits we're pursuing to make decisions, we've been out hunting for more prospects to bring in on defense and invited quite a few 70-80ish players to come visit campus. We'll see what happens, as we have 5 slots open in this recruiting class.

Tailback Donnell Cash just completely took over this game for the Trojans aboth running and receiving as he ran for 153 yards on 30 carries (5.1 ypc) and caught 8 passes for 136 yards and a TD as USC pulled off a big win over a tough oregon squad, 26-21. Wideout Wally Hopper also had a big day, catching 2 TD passes and had 96 yards receiving.

One has to wonder if Cash will receive serious Heisman consideration this year. Already through 7 games he has gone over the 1000 yard mark rushing while averaging 5 yards per carry and runnign for 11 TD's. Cash has also made 17 receptions for another 227 yards anmd 1 TD. What a terrific year he is having, and if he does get serious attention for the Heisman it'll be well deserved.

PAC-10 (5-0-0), OVERALL (7-0-0)



WEEK 11
HOMECOMING vs. #8 California (7-1-0) (PAC 10) *TV3*
(USC -12) USC RANK: #6

We keep climbing in the rankings, we're at #6 now and have a showdown with the Golden Bears this week. Cal is a very good team and this will be a very big challenge for us. Now's the time for us to step up to the challenge and win some big ones.

Some bad news on the injury front as Strong Safety Rex England is out and having his knee scoped. Injuries haven't been too, too bad this year, mainly because we've added depth over the past two years.

We landed another pretty good player this week as Brian Robinson, a wide receiver from Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California committed to USC. Robinson is rated a 73+ receiver and comes from a very solid prep program both athletically (73) and academically (91), so we suspect he may very well make a contribution as a freshman with Thurman Whelan's graduation.

Continuing inviting some defensive recruits in for visits, mainly to look at as walk-ons, though we've had a lot of acceptances there may not be any spots for these walk on recruits. We'll see what happens the next two weeks.

What a shootout at the Rose Bowl. Tailback Donnell Cash had another great day, running for 142 yards on 26 carries (5.4 ypc)while adding 5 catches for 81 yards and a TD, and wideout Wally Hopper had 5 receptions for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns but we fell just short, losing to CAL 38-35.

QB Ev McDaniel had a hot and cold day, going 18/34 for 352 yards and tossing 4 TD's, but he also threw 3 picks. If Ev could just outgrow the INT's . . . .

Still we played well against one of the best teams in the nation. We've come a long, long way since we took over this program, and we take a step further along the road to a national championship every day.

PAC-10 (5-1-0), OVERALL (7-1-0)




WEEK 12
@ Arizona State (6-2-0) (PAC 10) *TV3*
(USC -9) USC RANK: #16

Dropped to #16 in the polls this week after our close loss to CAL, but we're still favored over ASU on the road. We've been all over national TV this year and that's great exoposure for our program.

OLB Kevin Fedo went down, victim to the injury bug and he'll miss some time. We lost our FG kicker as well, must have pulled a muscle using the remote control or something - so freshman Max Elstrom, who has been handling kickoffs for us, will get a shot at FG's and XP's for us.

Two more committments this week from recruits. Eric Boone, an inside linebacker from Northwest High School in House Springs, Missouri and Claude Horn, a safety from Chandler High School in Chandler, Arizona have signed letters of intent o play for USC next season.

Boone is a 76+ LB from a very poor academic and athletic school, so he'll redshirt and we'll work on both his grades and his skills. He's going to be very raw but talented. Horn is a 94- safety, same situation as Boone. Both will be longterm projects for our staff.

We've got 2 recruiting slots remaining open, and 2 scholarship offers out there, as well as four players on campus whom we've invited to walk on. We've landed 8 players in the Rivals.com top 100 and it will be interesting to see how TCY Today rates this recruiting class, as I think we've done our best job to date with this class.

QB Ev McDaniel hyperextended his elbow early in the game and we had difficulty moving under the guidance of backup QB Dom Gillespie, losing at ASU 31-9.

The Sun Devils held Donnell Cash under 100 yards rushing as he only managed 63 yards on 18 carries (3.4 ypc). Wideout Wally hopper had 4 catches for 92 yards and a TD and DE Don Briggs decided to play this week - and when Don plays he plays BIG - recording 3.5 sacks, but it just wasn't enough to counter key injuries as we're now without both our QB and primary receiver.

PAC-10 (5-2-0), OVERALL (7-2-0)



WEEK 13
vs. #12 Notre Dame (7-2-0)
(USC -14) USC RANK: #22

We keep getting students failing classes walking on. What are they thinking? They should be studying. I quickly cut them. They don't need to be playing football if they're failing classes. Jeez.

Used up the rest of my coaching blocs on players who still had D's. With the emphasis on study hall we've instituted, there's really no good reason for these poor grades, but we'll do what we have to to get them through school with an education.

Terrific news on the recruiting front as Ricky Estevez, an offensive guard from Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, California has signed a letter of intent with us. Estevez is an 86+ run-blocking OG that comes from an outstanding high school program, both athletically (81) and academically (76). He likely won't start his freshman year because both Barry Humphrey and Gilbert lucas will be back, so the jury is out on whether we redshirt him or not.

Not much else to report on the recruiting front this week. Made a couple of calls and visits to potential walk-ons. At this point its just a question of whether they get a scholarship offer from a smaller program, or if our one outstanding scholarship offerree takes us up on our offer.

Guess the pundits didn't think too much of our schedule, as we've dropped to #22 and Notre Dame sits at #12 with the same record as us. We upset the Irish last year and this year we're a better all around team - so I think we can give them a good fight and stand a solid chance of winning.

Backup signal caller redshirt senior Dom Gillespie had an outstanding game in place of the injured Ev McDaniel, going 24/33 for 338 yards, 2 TD's and 1 INT in leading the Trojans to a resounding 34-7 victory in our annual game against the Fighting Irish.

It was almost as if Gillespie and fellow redshirt senior - and another benchwarmer pressed into service - spent the past 4 years drawing diagrams in the dirt and planning what they'd do if they ever got in a game as Gillespie hooked up with Wayuchow 9 times for 177 yards as it seemed Walyuchow was open all day. But for Gillespie's two TD's he connected with 1st team All-PAC 10 receiver Wally Hopper, who had 7 catches for 84 yards to go with his 2 touchdown grabs.

Heisman candidate Donnell Cash did break the 100 yard mark, though the Irish D did make him earn every yard, holding him to 114 yards on 32 carries (3.5 ypc). Cash did find the end zone once on the ground.

5th year senior Free Safety Quentin Kaesviharn had the game of his Trojan career today, picking off 3 irish passes and running one back for a touchdown. Bet that game ball is going on the mantle back home.
Good to see us bounce back in a big way against a highly ranked foe and arch-rival. Now if we can carry this momentum into our game against UCLA, that should be a good game.

PAC-10 (5-2-0), OVERALL (8-2-0)




MEDIA SNIPPETS
LA Times
Week 14, 2010

Well, well, well, the USC Trojans defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish two years in a row, are ranked in the Top 25, and at 8 wins and 2 losses have their best record since the heyday of the Pete Carroll era.

Are the Trojans back as a national power?

Their matchup this week with the UCLA Bruins will go a long way in determining just how "back" the Trojans are. A victory against UCLA will serve notice to the rest of the PAC 10, let alone the nation, that USC is back and has to be considered as a national championship threat next year.

Whatever happens though, we're looking for a spectacular game betwen these two cross-city rivals.

And that's only a good thing for LA sports fans.




WEEK 14
vs. #10 UCLA (8-2-0) (PAC 10) *TV3*
(USC -7) USC RANK: #19

Bounced back up a little bit in the rankings after cout big win against Notre Dame. Now crosstown rival UCLA comes into town and this year we might just be able to give them a run for their money.

No news on the recruiting front. We've got 15 of the maximum 16 slots in the class allowed, one scholarship offer and a few walk-on invitations still pending. Made a few phone calls and a couple of visits and now we just wait and see if anyone wants that last spot.

UCLA came into the Rose Bowl and dominated every phase of the game against us, winning 28-13 as USC could get nothing going offensively. The exciting Donnell Cash was held to 50 yards and backup QB Dom Gillespie could get nothing going throught the air.

Redshirt sophomore ILB Johnny Coles did have a good day on the D, making 9 tackles, but this game was all UCLA's, who continue their dominance over us, both on the field and in recruiting.

That's the big hurdle we have to aim for in the future - getting past UCLA.

Still, a terrific season at 8-3 and I think we can expect a bowl bid.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (8-3-0)

* * *


CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP TIER
Off week.

Great news on the recruiting front as Geoff Warren, an inside linebacker from Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, California, whom we have pursued since the start of the year, finally committed to us and will play for the Trojans next fall. Warren is a 66++ LB, the 66 rating being a little low but we're intrigued by the ++ I saw when I watched him play, and he comes from a high school with excellent athletic (81) and academic (76) preperation, so it's possible he could be a difference maker as early as his freshman or sophomore seasons.

No more recruiting, that fills up our class at 16. Now we just sit and wait and see if we get a bowl bid, and where we'll be going if we do.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (8-3-0)



MINOR BOWL TIER
Off week.

Looks like we will be going to D.C. to play in the Liberty Bowl against the Maryland Terrapins. It's a big step up from last year's Keystone Bowl.

Baby steps.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (8-3-0)



MAJOR BOWL TIER
LIBERTY BOWL Vs. Maryland (7-4-0) *TV4*
(USC -12) USC RANK: --

Hard to believe we fell out of the Top 25 - UCLA and Notre Dame bias no doubt.

Still, we've got a chance to prove we really belong in the Top 25 against a solid Maryland program. Haven't won a bowl game since I've been here, but I think we're got a good shot at taking this one, especially with Ev McDaniel getting cleared by the trainers to play. We'll be without Thurman Whelan however, whose knee is just too messed up to play.

Strong Safety Rex England will also be back in the lineup.

Led by star tailback Donnell Cash's 146 yards on the ground and 4 receptions for 41 yards and a TD through the air, USC made a statement victory over Maryland, trouncing the Terrapins 31-7 in the Liberty Bowl. QB Ev McDaniel only lasted the 1st Quarter until his elbow went numb - turned out to be nothing serious - but backup Dom Gillespie came in and had an outstanding day, going 16/25 for 246 yards and flicking 3 touchdown passes. His favorite target and fellow benchmate Dominic Walyuchow hauled in one of them, but the real story was another big game by Wally Hopper, who had 5 catches for 150 yards and a TD.

On defense Rex England, just back from an injury, made 7 tackles and redshirt senior DE Irv Wiggs had 1.5 sacks to shutdown the Terrapin offense.

A great victory for the Trojan program and a definite statement this team belongs in the Top 25 in the nation.

Got to be happy with that.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (9-3-0)




FOUR STAR TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: #15

Looks like the voters sat up and took notice.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (9-3-0)



NEW YEAR'S TIER
Off week.
USC RANK: #15

Lots of parties around campus. Looks like USC football is back.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (9-3-0)




NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Off week.

Texas A&M defended their National Championship by defeating the University of Florida, 17-14.

Wideout Terry Coffey of Notre Dame won the Heisman. Sadly of note, Donnell Cash was not a finalist. :(

Maybe next year.

PAC-10 (5-3-0), OVERALL (9-3-0)

2010 Season Summary & Review
 

2010 SUMMARY & REVIEW


2010 Season Review

What a terrific season we had. The boys completely exceeded my expectations, winning 9 games, a major bowl game, winning 5 PAC 10 games, beating Notre Dame for the second year in a row, and ending the season ranked #14th in the nation. Looking back on my expectations:


We didn't beat UCLA, but we did just about everything else and then some. QB Ev McDaniel showed tremendous progress from his first season as our signal called - wish he could run more, but that's another story - and Donnell Cash showed he is one of the elite backs in college football.

We had another spectacular year out of wideout Wally Hopper, who made All-American this yearand still has two years of eligiblity left. We made a lot of progress towards improving our kids academics - though it still befuddles me how you get a D+ in Pro Wrestling I, what, do you miss a tag in a tag team match? - but we'll keep working with those kids and make sure they get an education that prepares them for what they are capable of doing in the outside world (WWE Heel?).

TCY Today rated our recruiting class #3 in the nation this year, behind only those of Virgnia and Pittsburgh. For once it felt great to out-recruit UCLA and CAL, though those programs' recruiting classes were ranked 4th and 5th - so the PAC 10 will just keep getting tougher and tougher. But yet another good recruiting class takes us one step closer to our goal of completely rebuilding the USC football program and winning a national championship.

And this year was a giant step in the right direction.

2011 Media Snippetts
 

2011 Media Snippetts


ESPN TV
Winter, 2011

Coach Bear Growlz is a name at the top of a lot of schools' lists to take over their football programs. Rumor has it that the University of Michigan has made an offer to the Southern Cal coach. That would appear to be the most likely landing stop for Coach Growlz after his successful 2010 campaign, though another school of thought has him ending up at N.C. State, which has made no secret about pursuing the Southern Cal coach. The coach's wife has deep ties in the south and it's been public knowledge Clemson has tried to hire him the past two seasons and been rebuffed.

Of course Growlz could always stay at USC, but he runs the risk of ceasing to be a hot commodity there. He has raised expectations so high with his 2010 campaign, that anything short of a PAC 10 title in 2011 might be seen as him moving down a rung on the coaching ladder. And remember, Growlz only stayed four years at his first job, at tiny Keene State in New Hampshire.

Our bet is he "declares victory" and that the USC program has been rebuilt after his 9-3 seson and moves on and takes the Michigan job, where he'll be a lot closer to winning a national championship than at USC.

2011 Media Snippetts - B
 

Rivals.com
Message Board

Poster: NCST4life
Location: Raleigh, NC

Heard it's a done deal. We got Growlz. Go Wolfpack!

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Poster: tRojAnMAn
Location: Your wallet

No way. No way Growlz is going anywhere now that USC has got that kid Moreno. Remember that name, Malcolm Moreno. He's gonna win us many a national championship all with Growlz at the helm. Mark my words.

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Poster: Howlllll!
Location: Ann Arbor, MI

I mock your words trojan boy. And you're both idiots. Bear Growlz is coming to Michigan. I know a friend who knows a friend who heard from a friend that heard that growlz and Tom Brady had dinner the other night and Brady talked him into taking the Michigan job.

Can't beat those facts.

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Poster: Vegamite
Location: Unknown

Why am I still banned?!?

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Media Snippetts (C)
 

Fox Sports
Winter, 2011

At Super Bowl XLV

Tim Buck (TB): Coach, speculation is running rampant about what your intentions are for next season. Various rumors have you headed to Michigan and others to N.C. State. Can you clear it up for us? Where are you going to coach next year?

Bear Growlz: (BG): Jeez Tim, can't a guy just enjoy the Super Bowl without making a major statement?

TB: But Coach, the fans of USC, Michigan and NC State are all entitled to know what your plans are.

BG: That's a crock Tim. My paychecks say "University of Southern California" on them - well they would if I didn't have direct deposit, but that's another story. I have a job. I go into my office every day. My office is on the campus of the University of Southern California. As for what the media or fans on message boards want to speculate on, well, take it for what it's worth. I have no plans on leaving the USC job. I love it at Southern Cal and I want to bring a national championship to USC. Oh, and Leon was right. Your other side is your good side.




firebeargrowlz.net
Message Board

Poster: $$$athome
Posts: 346,758,912,942

MAKE MONEY FROM HOME! NO INVESTMENT NEEDED! THIS ISN'T A SCAM! YOU CAN DO IT TOO! ANYONE CAN! EMAIL ME 4 MORE INFO!

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Poster: Vegamite
Posts: 227,563,881

Why am I still banned?!?

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LA Times
Winter, 2011

So the big question is, will Bear go, or will he stay? The TV pundits insist that he's headed to Michigan or to N.C. State. The Coach himself says he isn't going anywhere.

But no one knows for sure.

We here at the Times think Coach Growlz owes it to USC and it's fans to stay on and finish what he started. The Trojans made tremendous progress under his guidance last year and we'd hate to see three long years of rebuilding go up in smoke.

When Bear Growlz first took over Southern Cal, we'll admit, we weren't his biggest fans. But even the biggest doubters have to be convinced now that he was the right choice for the job. The Trojans are on the verge of once again becoming a national power in college football, and we, eating our words, think Coach Growlz is just the man to lead them to it.

2011 Preseason (A)
 

2011 PRESEASON


Winter, 2011

Some pretty prestigious football programs come knocking on my door this winter, most notably are Michigan (90/Excellent/5th most prestigious) and NC State (80/Excellent). But I've built our prestige back up to 81/Excellent and have had some pretty decent success recruiting. I've only been here three years and already we're looked at as a budding national power. I can't really think of any place I'd rather be than here at USC right now - to see this program entirely through the rebuilding process and win a national championship here.

I turned down offers from Michigan, N.C. State, Utah, Cincinatti, Louisville, and North Texas. I informed the USC Athletic Director that I've turned down those offers and will be returning for 2011. He seems pleased - considering the football program made the 6th highest amout of money in the nation last season ought to make him happy - and I'm pleased. I like my office. It has a window. We're in southern California. The coeds wear shorts. Nuff said.

Yes, yes, I know, I'm married. Just window shopping, not actually buying the product.

In any case, all is not sunny in my world these days. I'm going to have to find a new Lead Scout as Wally Campana retired after last season. I had really come to rely on Wally's advice and scouting aptitude, it's going to be difficult to replace him.

Wally's job is crucial to the program, because not only does he scout prep stars in the southwest region of the country, but he's also responsible for maintaining scouting reports and talent evaluations on our team itself. SO as I see it, we need someone who is as well versed in tal;ent in as many areas as possible.

We find just the man, 61 year old Daryl Hester, who is at least GOOD in every category aside from kickers, where he is lousy. He's XL and VG in a number of positions. We hired Daryl away from the NFL Scouting combine, where he was one of the scouts that put graduating seniors through their paces for NFL coaches in attendence. I think this will turn out to be a good hire.

A couple of regional scouts were replaced as they retired. Pete Prior, who predates my tenure here at USC, returns in his role as Syndicate Coordinator. Pete coordinates alumni relations, academic eligibility and deals with the NCAA so we don't have to. Also returning is Korey Butler, who returns for his 3rd season as Offensive Coordinator. And back for his 4th season as Defensive Coordinator is Bucky Riley. It's a good, solid staff.

During the season I thought we were doing a pretty good job recruiting - but I haave found that sometimes you can just get too close to s situation to really know if you're doing good or not. In this case, the media thought we did a pretty good job as well, as TCY Today ranked our recruiting class 3rd in the nation.

Here's a look at the class.



Ten of the sixteen were rated among the top 100 recruits in the nation. We landed three players who were rated the best at their position in the nation and one high school all-american. Indeed, I think this was the best recruiting class we've had since we've been here at USC.

Other news of note: Wally Hopper has been placed on academic probation for failing a class. We were really counting on him to be a big playmaker this year, he's been 1st team All-PAC 10 the past two seasons and was a 2nd team All-American last year. He's a redshirt senior so he'll have one more year of eligibility if he can get his academic act together.

There were no coaching changes in the PAC 10 - I guess we're all gluttons for the punishment.

2011 Preseason (B)
 

SPRING, 2011

This season we only need to schedule one game. In addition to our annual game against Notre Dame we travel to Colorado Springs to play the second half of a home and home with Air Force.

Every season there is one PAC 10 team we don't play. This year that team is Arizona State.

Our game against Notre Dame is very early in the season this year. I don't care for that much, I prefer to play them at the height of the football season. But c'est la futbol americain.

Think we'll try and land a game for week 1 so we have a tune up game going into the matchup with Air Force. Looking in the 40-50ish range in the BCS rankings, I think we'll invite Boise State in for a game week 1.

Stage 1: They turned us down. University of New Hampshire wants a home and home with us at them this year. Be nice to take a trip back to the granite state and our schedule is plenty tough this year. Think we'll accept.

Stage 2: Got the home and home set up with UNH and that fills our schedule up for this year. The contract with Air Force expires after this season, but with the home and home with UNH we'll still only have one game to schedule in 2012.

Here's a look at our 2011 schedule.

2011 Preseason (C)
 

SUMMER, 2011

Spent much of the summer setting up academic and workout schedules. It was a nice surprise to see many team members with GPA's over 3.0 - Dean's List. We still have the occassional slacker that flouders with a D- in Pokemon Training - but I could not recruit them.

It's the late walk-ons that bug me. They're failing classes and decide to come play football. It's already too late to fix their academic problems, they should be in the library not out on the practice field. Oh well, so long as there are walk-ons, it'll be a problem. Sometimes we get one with good academics and can actually use them as a role player.

Once we got got the players in summer camp for two-a-days it became evident we may take a step back this year, I'm mainly concerned about our offensive line, we're we are starting two OT's that have lots of potential but aren't as developed as we'd like - redshirt sophomores Warren Taggart and Joe Shipman. We have some more experienced tackles, but these two players have the potential to be real dominating in our running game, so it's worth the painful growth of playing them this season.

Joining the youngsters on the offensive line will be 5th year senior Barry Humphrey, an excellent run blocker, and redshirt senior Gilbert Lucas, a solid, all-around guard. At center will be redshirt sophomore Rufus Mitchell - mainly because we don't have anyone ready to play there yet.

Calling the signals will be third year starter Ev McDaniel. Ev worked hard over the summer and if he can conquer the turnover bug can be an exceptional QB in the PAC-10. Leading our rushing game will once again be redshirt senior Donnell "Big Money" Cash. Cash is coming off a 1500 yard rushing season and if the offensive line matures we can expect even bigger numbers from him. But this is where I believe we might take a step backwards - our running game might suffer because the offensive line just isn't as dominating as it was a year ago. If we notice it anywhere, it'll be in this area.

In a surprise, redshirt sophomore Junior Coffey beat out Jimmy Schultz for the wingback spot. Coffey has a lot of potential and developed pretty well during his redshirt year, so while Schultz probably has a slight edge in current talent, playing Coffey and getting him the experience is crucial to our program's future success. Blocking for them will be second year starter FB Clyde Dotson, who also proved himself a more than adequate check down receiver last season.

Absent the academically ineligible Wally Hopking, McDaniel's primary targets this season will be 5th year senior Dominic Walyuchow and freshman Willie Davison. Davison looked more polished than expected in camp and has the ability to be a huge gamebreaker. We're going to need that kind of ability with the young players we have in the lineup.

Handling the placekicking duties will be sophomore Max Elstrom and punting will be 5th year senior Denny Glover.

On defense we've got a solid mix of the old and the new. Anchoring the defense will be NT Ben Burroughs, a redshirt junior. Burroughs has the potential to be a dominant force at the nose. Flanking Burroughs will be defensive ends Irv Wiggs, a 5th year senior, and Kyle Newsome, a redshirt senior. Getting some action in Newsome's place on passing downs will be redshirt junior Steve Strickland.

Our linebacking corps will be hed by senior WLB Kevin Fedo. Over on the strong side will be sophomore Walt de Leon, who filled in ably for injured linebackers during his freshman year. In the middle will be redshirt junior Johnny Coles and redshirt senior Adrian Hopper. The quartet has the potential to be a very solid unit.

In the secondary we sport two outstanding starters at the corners. Redshirt junior Mack Wilkins takes over as shutdown corner while senior Harris Norton will man the other side of the field. Teams will find it hard going throwing against those two. We'll have plenty of experience at the safety positions, as 5th year senior Ted Powell mans the Strong Safety position and his fellow 5th year senior Marlon Gillespie handles the duties at Strong Safety. This unit should turn out to be a very good secondary and teams should have some difficulty passing against us.

Here's a look at our complete roster.




Last season was a pleasant surprise. I thought we'd be good and solid, but we turned out to be very good. This season, I realize expectations have been raised, but I believe we're going to struggle some especially as our offensive line grows up. You never know though. Cash and McDaniel each have a year's more experience and we've added the big play explosiveness of freshman Willie Davison.

But that's why they play the games, isn't it?