- Jan 3, 2008
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Does he want sympathy now?
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[h2]Sources: WR Williams to enter draft[/h2]
Comment Email Print By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
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Junior wide receiver Mike Williams, who left the Syracuse program three weeks ago, has informed school officials that he will not return next season, and will enter the NFL draft in April 2010 as an underclassman, sources told ESPN.com.
[h4]Big East blog[/h4]
ESPN.com's Brian Bennett writes about all things Big East in his conference blog.
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College Football Nation
One of the first underclass prospects this season to bypass his remaining eligibility and declare his intention to turn pro, Williams is expected to be one of the top wide receivers in the talent pool. Although there remains considerable work to be done in evaluating draft candidates over the next several months, two NFL college scouts told ESPN.com on Sunday morning that Williams is a highly regarded prospect.
Williams quit the Syracuse football team earlier this month. Williams was on the verge of another suspension when he quit the team, a person close to the program told ESPN's Joe Schad.
According to a report in the Syracuse Post-Standard, Williams was in a vehicle with teammates Torrey Ball, Antwon Bailey and Andrew Tiller when it was rear-ended by a tractor trailer.
Syracuse coach Doug Marrone told Williams that he could be suspended again and the receiver said he'd rather quit, the source said.
Williams, 22, played in seven games this season and registered 49 catches for 746 yards and six touchdowns.
Blessed with prototype size (6-feet-2, 210 pounds) and speed (estimated 4.4-second 40-yard dash), Williams is well-suited, the scouts said, for the NFL game. Citing the league's confidentiality guidelines, and the fact Williams has yet to formally apply for the 2010 draft, the scouts declined to speak for attribution.
In 31 career games, Williams had 133 receptions for 2,044 yards and 20 touchdowns. In 2007, he established a school record by posting touchdown receptions in nine straight games. He had career bests that season in receptions (60), yards (837), and touchdown catches (10).
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT
Big Mike, Brandon Willis didnt make that trip to UCLA.
Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes defensive tackle Brandon Willis (6-2.5, 252) committed to Tennessee in early September, the weekend that the Vols hosted UCLA.
Two months later, the soft verbal to Tennessee was in Westwood and Pasadena, to see the Bruins play in person and officially visit UCLA.
"It was my first time in L.A. and I had a great time there," said Willis. "My trip was great. It's really nice around UCLA, in a real nice area. UCLA is one of the best campuses I've seen."
Willis was hosted by sophomore Datone Jones, and the two hit it off.
"Datone was my host and I talked with a lot of the other guys, like Jerry Rice's son, but I mainly stuck with Datone," said Willis.
Willis said several things stood out to him.
"What stood out most was the area," said Willis. "Westwood and Brentwood are really nice. The campus and the facilities were great and I liked the Rose Bowl."
Defensive line coach Todd Howard has been primarily recruiting Willis, and the four-star spent ample time with him, but also talked much with head coach Rick Neuheisel.
"Coach Howard is the one recruiting me, so I talked mostly with him, but Coach Neuheisel and I spent a lot of time together too," said Willis.
Willis got a chance to see one of the best defensive tackles in the country, Brian Price, have one of his best games of the season.
"Brian Price is a great athlete and a very good defensive tackle," said Willis. "UCLA wants me for that same position."
Willis also noted what struck him about the UCLA program.
"It's a program on the rise, and the coaches are recruiting a lot of great players to help them keep going, and they told me they need more players like me to keep doing that," said Willis.
But Willis said his commitment to the Vols remains the same.
"I'm still committed to Tennessee but I just want to see all of my options," said Willis. "I talked with Coach (Lane) Kiffin about it and he was cool with me taking my trips."
Willis has visited Tennessee officially as well as North Carolina and said a visit to Miami could happen as soon as next week
Originally Posted by IYE2
Carlos Hyde got them grades in order and is gonna enroll Jan 2.
Run game should be serious.
[font=Arial, Helvetica]"I felt like the quarterback could manage the situation," Miles said, "and that was my mistake."[/font]
real stand up guy that Les Miles.
*edit, actually, I'd have to see the rest of the interview. cus that could be outta context and he could be saying he himself made the mistake"
I dunno, either way, all around bad situation
coming from a guy who isn't even playing?Originally Posted by Nako XL
from Oregon State QB Lyle Moevao:
@MOEVAO3: This is what I've been waitin for. Payback is a !*$#@!
[h3]USC needs to adjust to improved Pac-10[/h3]After watching the film of his team's 55-21 defeat to Stanford, USC coach Pete Carroll came to a fairly simple conclusion.
Stanford imposed its will upon the Trojans.
"We allowed Stanford to run the plays they wanted to run and we didn't knock them out of those," he said. "Normally, we try to keep people out of doing their favorite stuff. That didn't get done. We had to adjust more than we thought we would. We underestimated them. We thought we could get it done and it didn't happen."
Gary A. Vasquez/US PresswireUSC coach Pete Carroll is seeing the divide between the Trojans and the rest of the Pac-10 close.
Basically: The Trojans thought their guys could win one-on-one battles, so they didn't overcompensate to meet Stanford's power running game. They were wrong.
Carroll's take fit in with a theme during the Pac-10 teleconference. Each of the other nine coaches were asked if the perceived talent gap between USC and the rest of the conference had closed and, to a man, each said, "Yes."
"I think people have had to rise up," Oregon State coach Mike Riley said before concluding. "But I think it's real."
It is. USC ranks in the middle of the Pac-10 in most statistical categories.
In four of its last five games, its once dominant defense has surrendered 27, 36, 47 and 55 points. The offense ranks seventh in the conference in passing and has been out of sync the past three games, when it's averaged just 17.7 points per game.
And, by the way, special teams haven't been terribly special, either.
Injuries have been a big issue. Thirteen starters have missed at least one game, and that doesn't include the season-ending injury to Stafon Johnson.
Still, at this point it's fair to say USC has moved back and the conference pack has moved up.
The question now is how do the Trojans react to the unexplored territory of not ranking among the Pac-10's nor the nation's elite?
"National championship? Rose Bowl? No? OK. What's next for us to fight for?" safety Taylor Mays said. "If we don't fight back from this, and we keep going downhill, that's when you really get upset."
If USC wins its next two games -- UCLA and Arizona, both at home -- it still could end up in the Holiday Bowl. Even if the Trojans ended up tied with Stanford, the odds are the Holiday Bowl would pick them to boost television ratings.
And if the Trojans prevailed, a 10-3 finish would ease some of the sting of a disappointing season. It might even be enough to push them back into the top-10.
A strong finish and some offseason momentum also would increase the odds they'd again be the preseason conference favorite in 2010.
And yet.
Based on what's transpired since the fourth quarter of the game at Notre Dame, it certainly seems reasonable to doubt whether the Trojans will win their final three games and generate that positive momentum.
"The first thing is you have to get to the truth of what happened and everybody is clear about that," Carroll said.
That starts with coaching. Perhaps Oregon and Stanford have comparable talent to USC, but does anyone really believe they are a combined 102-41 better than the Trojans?
Quarterback Matt Barkley was a better quarterback five weeks ago. The linebacker play also has regressed. A talented secondary has just six interceptions. The offensive line may produce a heap of NFL draft choices, but it's hardly been dominant. The offense can't convert on third down. The defense doesn't force turnovers. The Trojans commit a lot of penalties.
More than a few USC insiders acted like the departures of offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and defensive coordinator Nick Holt for Washington might offer a chance for a schematic upgrade. Who'd assert that now? Seem to recall the same being said -- nudge, nudge -- when Norm Chow "chose" to leave.
Carroll may need to take a serious and objective look at his staff. Is everyone getting the most out of his players? And Carroll may need to do some self-evaluation.
Or: Maybe this is just a blip. Maybe what's extraordinary is that it's taken this long for USC to be ordinary.
Would you be shocked if, a year from now, this space is filled with calibrations of various scenarios for USC to play for the national title? Of course you wouldn't.
"We'll bounce back in a positive direction," Carroll said.
We'll see.
But this column from SEC country recalls an interesting parallel that also occurred to me: In 2001, when Florida State's run of 14 consecutive 10-win seasons ended with an 8-4 finish, no one -- no one -- thought the Seminoles would disappear from the national title discussion.
They did.
So there's really one position to have here, Trojans fans.
There no reason to overreact to the sudden downturn. But it's also foolish to act like nothing is amiss.
and the other article they referenced
[h1][/h1]
[h1]COTTRELL COLUMN: Has USC lost its grip?[/h1]
Events of this weekend turned my thoughts back to 2001.
Not for the reason you might think.
As I watched Stanford manhandle USC on its own field Saturday, I immediately began to think of Florida State's 2001 team.
Coming off 14 straight 10-win seasons, those Seminoles lost four games, were blown out three times and were the first FSU team to fail to win the ACC title.
At the time, most chalked it up to a momentary hiccup with a young team, but as the years have progressed it's clear that wasn't the case.
The talent level wasn't quite the same. A conference it had completely and totally dominated had suddenly caught up. Losing several top assistants wound up hurting them.
Sound familiar?
While USC is very young and has suffered some tough luck with injuries, this team couldn't even stay on the field with some of the teams it had in the past. The rest of the Pac-10 is catching up (just look at the likes of Oregon, Stanford and Cal, and up-and-comers like Arizona, Oregon State, UCLA and Washington).
And if you look across the college football landscape, you see that a lot of Pete Carroll's assistants are wearing the big man's headset. That's not to say Carroll and the Trojans' run is over. It very well may not be.
But we could be seeing the kind of sea change we saw in Tallahassee at the beginning of this decade.
Same game, different view
On the flip side of that Stanford-USC coin, it's hard to overstate the job Jim Harbaugh has done with the Cardinal.
Following Ty Willingham's exit for his ill-fated Notre Dame adventure, Stanford went from a respectable, competitive program to, quite literally, among the worst football programs in the country in five short seasons with two bumbling coaches.
In Harbaugh's third season, the Cardinal are already bowl eligible and with some luck could bring home the conference title.
While his going-for-2 gimmick was uncalled-for and will almost certainly be punished by the football gods, Harbaugh has cemented himself as one of the best coaches in the business already.
It's just too bad for his alma mater, Michigan, that he decided to burn his bridges with them a few years back.
Where Was That?
Two SEC teams finally gave us a glimpse of what they're capable of this weekend.
Ole Miss, the Rebels of the darkhorse-national-title-contender talk back in the preseason, finally played the way many thought they would in a blowout win over Tennessee on Saturday.
Dexter McCluster ran wild, Jevan Snead played well and the defense was dominant in the second half.
Maybe if they'd played like this all year they wouldn't be a laughingstock right now.
And later that day, Georgia gave us a glimpse of why people are always so high on them before they inevitably fold each season.
After a horrible first quarter, the Bulldogs played near-perfect football the rest of the way in a dramatic win over Auburn.
From all the things they did that they don't normally do - protect the football, not kill themselves with penalties, etc. - the single most important one was pretty simple.
The Bulldogs played hard.
I've spent a lot of time watching them over the years, and the biggest single thing I can point to as far as why Georgia always disappoints is a fundamental lack of effort.
If they always gave the kind of effort they gave last night, there would be significantly better feelings in Athens in Mark Richt's ninth season.
It's Science
While I'll be the first to admit I'm no BCS expert, one very interesting team to watch over the final three weeks of the season will be Texas.
Why, you ask?
Well, even if Florida or Alabama lose before the SEC title game, turning around and winning that game would probably be enough to put them back in the BCS National Championship Game.
But what if Texas somehow loses to Kansas or Texas A&M, or in the Big 12 title game?
Would TCU, Cincinnati or Boise State ascend to the spotlight?
I'm not so sure.
There's a very real possibility - albeit an unlikely one, given how much better Texas is than everyone it has left to play - that if the Longhorns were to falter we could see Alabama and Florida play twice.
And wouldn't that be boring?
Bonus bowl speculation
Now that former Auburn defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads has Iowa State bowl eligible, there's a very real chance the Cyclones could wind up in the Independence Bowl.
The Independence Bowl is also affiliated with the SEC, and while it may be a longshot, the Cyclones could be matched up against Auburn and a certain former ISU coach.
And wouldn't that be interesting?
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT
Les Miles should be fired.
he has been quoted as saying he doesnt know where JJ got the idea to spike it, and on Colege game day they show this dufus Miles running down the sideline signalling to spike it.
man I was right initially, he wasnt taken outta context hes a +$%*@% Liar.
what a piece of !$##
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT
Les Miles should be fired.
he has been quoted as saying he doesnt know where JJ got the idea to spike it, and on Colege game day they show this dufus Miles running down the sideline signalling to spike it.
man I was right initially, he wasnt taken outta context hes a +$%*@% Liar.
what a piece of !$##
Originally Posted by Bigmike23
Les is now saying it was all on him
and he was not saying to clock the ball he was saying the LSU player was down because the ole miss had come away with the football
and he spike the ball because he thought ole miss had 12 man on the field