|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Neuheisel quiets critics
When Rick Neuheisel bolted Colorado for Washington in January 1999, rebuffed Buff fans said that Neuheisel couldn't coach the running game, was a poor game-day coach and that Colorado committed too many penalties. Well, this season the Huskies led the Pac-10 in rushing, won five games in the fourth quarter and finished fifth in the league in fewest penalties. You could make the point that Neuheisel won with another coach's players, just as he did at Colorado. But he inherited a 6-6 team in Seattle. In Washington, they're preparing for the Rose Bowl. In Boulder, they're kind of quiet.
Nord brings wrong materialCoaches hate it when their players provide bulletin-board material for the opposing team. What does a team do when the coach is the one who opens his mouth?UTEP coach Gary Nord said last week that the 3,000 Miners fans going to Fort Worth for the TCU game would be "enough to tear down their goal posts after we beat them." After TCU won, 47-14, Horned Frogs senior linebacker Shannon Brazzell said, "He must think we don't have the Internet up here." Coach Nord, I'd tell you to try www.stick-to-the-cliches.com, but we love the material.
Major cameo at Iron BowlThe best quarterback at Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday wasn't Andrew Zow. And, no, it wasn't Ben Leard. It was Major Applewhite.When Texas coach Mack Brown gave the Longhorns two days off, Applewhite went to Tuscaloosa for the Auburn-Alabama showdown with his dad, who is such a big 'Bama fan that he named Applewhite for former Tide great Major Ogilvie. Applewhite told me that he thought seeing that kind of emotion in the stands and on the field could only help him prepare for Friday's game against Texas A&M. Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers the college football beat for the magazine and appears each Saturday on CNN's "College Football Preview." Click here to send a question to his mailbag.
| ||||||||||||||||
