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Expect Florida DE Brown to rebound
Music has one-hit wonders. The Florida defense has Alex Brown, the end who, as a sophomore in 1999, sacked Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin five times and intercepted him once in the Gators' 23-21 victory. That's right, 1999 -- so long ago that Alabama was good. Since that game, Brown has taken more time off than Barry Sanders; he played hard some of the time and hardly played most of the time. That's going to change this fall, when the Alex Brown we got a glimpse of in the Swamp against the Vols starts appearing on a regular basis. Why? There are three reasons: 1) This is Brown's last chance to prove himself to the NFL. 2) New defensive line coach Ricky Hunley, the College Football Hall of Fame linebacker, has cracked down on Brown. Hunley's description of his motivational technique with Brown is vivid, mildly scatological and medically impossible -- i.e., my Google search on "foot implantation" didn't come up with much. 3) The Gators believe second-year nose tackle Ian Scott can command a double team and free up Brown to be blocked by one man. Here and thereLast year the hot hybrid position was the running/passing quarterback. This year it's the safety as the eighth man in the box, a defender big enough to stop the run and fast enough to play man coverage. Not many are around, and none are more talented than Oklahoma junior Roy Williams. With corner Michael Thompson's career in doubt after his horrific automobile accident this spring, Williams becomes more important to the Sooners defense than ever. ... Give Stanford athletic director Ted Leland an A in marketing. In a recent campus debate on the renewal of the university's contract with Nike, Leland said that the deal has an "opt-out" clause, allowing athletes who don't want to wear the swoosh not to wear it. The opt-out sounded like a change in policy, but it's really not. All Leland did was take the standard penalty clause of the contract, which specifies what Stanford must give back if an athlete performs without wearing Nike, and give it a new, more palatable name. Strictly speaking, it's an "opt-out." In reality, it's marketing worthy of Nike. ... Last season's hot state was Oregon, what with both the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers rising above their losing histories to win at least 10 games. This fall, bet on the state of Iowa. Though Iowa State lost more than two dozen seniors from last year's 8-4 team, the Cyclones still have a good nucleus of talent and Dan McCarney's underrated coaching staff. More important, the Iowa Hawkeyes are poised to return to respectability. Their defense will be one of the best in the Big Ten, as it was in the last month of last season when it beat Penn State and Northwestern, holding the high-powered Wildcats to 17 points. ... Someone in the Big East other than Miami and Virginia Tech is going to win eight games this fall. I'm picking Pittsburgh. The Panthers have a lot of returning talent and a schedule that eases considerably after the Hurricanes and the Hokies. ... Best early-season collection of subplots: Miami's season-opening visit to Penn State on Sept. 1. The Hurricanes will be among a handful of favorites for the national championship. They have a new coaching staff, led by career coordinator Larry Coker. Penn State coach Joe Paterno is one win short of tying Bear Bryant at 323 victories, most in Division I-A history, and he'll have a chance to get it before a national television audience and more than 106,000 fans in newly expanded Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions have a lot of rebuilding to do after going 5-7 last season. On what better stage could they prove themselves? |
