college football

By BERNIE LINCICOME
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Whoopee. The US of A gets to go to the Olympics.

It has come to this. Our national basketball team had to play its way to Beijing.

By GREG WALLACE
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, August 31, 2007

Let's be honest: after eight years, the Bowden Bowl had gotten a little stale.

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden didn't talk much with his father, Florida State's Bobby, until after the game.

By VICTORIA SUN
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, August 31, 2007

Still basking in the glory of its football team's best season in 22 seasons, the University of Kentucky has seen interest soar to new levels.

Students have already bought up a record 5,115 season tickets, shattering the previous mark of 3,549, and season ticket sales overall have increased by roughly 14,000.

The buzz has been palpable to the Wildcats, who are eager to return to the field for the first time since beating Clemson, 28-20, in the Music City Bowl last December to host Eastern Kentucky Saturday night for both teams' season opener.

"It's crazy, there's a lot of anticipation," senior linebacker Wesley Woodyard said Thursday.

By JAKE CURTIS
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, August 31, 2007

Coaches claim preseason polls mean nothing, but recent college football history suggests preseason No. 1 USC and No.

By JOHN LINDSAY
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Capsule previews for opening week's top college football games. All times Eastern and all rankings Associated Press.

SATURDAY:

EAST CAROLINA (0-0) at No.

By EDWARD G. ROBINSON III
Raleigh News & Observer
Thursday, August 30, 2007

On the morning of April 16, Josh Oglesby awoke to find ambulances and police cars outside his dorm window at Virginia Tech.

From his first-floor room inside Cochrane Hall, the freshman football player saw people carrying what he later would learn to be the bodies of students slain by Seung-Hui Cho, the deranged gunman who killed 32 people that day before killing himself.

That morning still haunts Oglesby, who remembers how students supported one another during the hours and days after the slayings.

The victims and those exchanges of goodwill will be foremost in his mind on Saturday when ninth-ranked Virginia Tech hosts East Carolina in its season-opener at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va.

For many, though, the question will remain: What can a football game possibly mean to the families of the victims or others affected by such a harrowing event?

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said this week that it could mean a lot.

"I think all of us have invited the time when as many Hokies as possible could be together, and this is probably that time since the shooting," Beamer said.

by JOHN TUCKER
New Hampshire Union Leader
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Could there possibly be any more preseason infatuation with Southern Cal?

National college football magazines, ESPN commentators, preseason polls and power ratings are ALL ga-ga with these Trojans, apparently quite sure they're boarding a bandwagon bound for New Orleans.

Even Stanford's new coach Jim Harbaugh has created the impression he's in awe of the men of Troy.

By JOHN LINDSAY
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Capsule previews for opening week's early college football games. All times Eastern and all rankings Associated Press.

THURSDAY:

TULSA (0-0) at LOUISIANA-MONROE (0-0), 7 p.m., ESPN2.

FAVORITE: Tulsa by 6.

COACHES: Todd Graham (first year at Tulsa) and Charlie Weatherbie (15-31 in fifth year at La.-Monroe).

LAST YEAR: Tulsa went 8-5.

By GREGG PATTON
The Press-Enterprise
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I think the defensive end was serious.

With neither his voice cracking, nor his gaze dropping to his shoe tops, he said, "Our goal is the national title and I think it's reachable."

Usually, no big deal.

By CHIP SCOGGINS
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Pop quiz: Which Big Ten team has the most victories the past three seasons? Ohio State? Michigan?

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema figures most people would guess that way, too.