|
He also served as athletic director for 9 years. RIP.
Jim Owens, who played at Oklahoma for Bud Wilkinson and coached the University of Washington for 18 seasons, has died at his home Saturday. He was 82.
Washington confirmed Owens’ death.
Owens coached at Washington from 1957 until his retirement in 1974, leading a resurgence in West Coast football. He went 99-82-6 in his nearly two decades as Huskies coach, including three Rose Bowl trips. He also served as athletic director at UW from 1960-69.
His accomplishments at UW were honored in 2003 when the university dedicated a statue of Owens outside one of the entrances to Husky Stadium. But that honor came with protests about his treatment of black players during his time at Washington.
 With their 11th and final pick of the draft, the Dallas Cowboys finally take a wide receiver, Oklahoma’s Manuel Johnson.
NFL.com is kind, saying “Johnson has the quickness and speed that teams crave at the wide receiver position. He may have been better than Juaquin Iglesias (Round 3, 99th overall to the Bears) at catching the ball at Oklahoma. Johnson is a small receiver, but he’s got the ability to stick in the NFL.”
Overview
Oklahoma’s offense has so many stars that a solid contributor like Johnson can go unnoticed. While not particularly tall, strong or fast, Johnson’s consistent production over the past three seasons in a complementary role has not gone unnoticed by scouts.
His 42 catches for 714 yards and nine touchdowns in 2008 would have increased if not for a grotesquely dislocated elbow injury suffered against Kansas. Given his tough play on the field and work ethic in practice, it was no surprise when he returned with a brace after missing only one game. Had an arm span of 32 1/2 inches and a hand span of 8 3/4 inches at the combine.
High School
Played quarterback and wide receiver … threw for 48 career touchdowns, ran for 18 scores and caught 17 more… No. 13 wide receiver in the nation (Rivals.com) … No. 16 player Postseason Texas Top 100 (Rivals.com) … No. 21 player in Texas (SuperPrep) … MVP District 13-AAA (2004) … MVP All East Texas (2004) … first team All-State (2004) … Dave Campbell Player of the Year (2004) … first-team All-State (2003) … also a member of the basketball and track and field teams … coached by Jeff Traylor.
Analysis
Positives: More than the sum of his parts. Lanky build with room for additional mass without a significant loss in quickness. At least adequate straight-line speed. Good agility. Can plant his hips and drive out of his breaks to generate separation. Reliable route-runner. Secure hands. Can extend outside of his frame to make the tough catch. Tough. Courageous over the middle. Emerged as a senior and some feel he could be an ascending player. Looks to make a block at the second level. Good locker room presence.
Negatives: Better football player than athlete. May lack upside. Marginal deep speed. Doesn’t make defenders miss in the open field. Production inflated by his role in this explosive offense. Elbow requires a medical check.
Scouts.com has him as the 36th best WR in this draft class.
| Overall Football Traits |
| Production |
3 |
2005-’06: Johnson starts six of the 22 games he appears in catching 46 passes for a total of 548 yards and four touchdowns. 2007: Johnson starts seven of the 14 games he appears in catching 31 passes for a total of 448 yards and four touchdowns and completing his lone pass attempt for 25 yards. 2008: Johnson appears in 13 games catching 42 passes for a total of 714 yards and nine touchdowns. |
| Height-Weight-Speed |
4 |
Adequate height and top-end speed for the position but marginal bulk. |
| Durability |
3 |
2006: Sustains a knee injury that keeps him out of the Baylor game. 2008: Dislocates elbow against Kansas. Misses one game and limited in several others. 2009: Does not work out at combine because of a hamstring injury. |
| Character |
3 |
Majors in Sociology and there have been no off-the-field incidents to our knowledge. |
| Wide Receiver specific Traits |
| Separation Skills |
4 |
Makes crisp cuts and runs precise routes but doesn’t show great burst coming out of breaks and going to have a harder time separating from man coverage at the NFL level. Lacks ideal initial quickness and inability to drive corners back allows them to sit on comeback routes. Can get muscled put of routes. |
| Ball Skills |
4 |
Relatively small hands and drops some passes that should catch. Still has some problems catching passes in stride but appeared to improve in this area as the 2008 season progressed. Does an adequate job of opening hips and can adjust to passes thrown behind him. |
| Vertical Speed |
3 |
Uses nice hesitation move to avoid contact at the line of scrimmage and shows a second gear when tracking the ball downfield but doesn’t have elite top-end speed. |
| Run After Catch |
3 |
Fluid turning upfield, reaches top-end speed quickly and shows good vision when gets into space. Adequate not great elusiveness and flashes the ability to make first defender miss but lacks breakaway speed. Isn’t going to pick up many yards after contact. Doesn’t always carry ball in the outside arm, can run with hit at hip level and can put the ball on the ground. (see third quarter of the 2008 Texas game) |
| Competitiveness and Toughness |
2 |
Not afraid to go over the middle. Willing to throw blocks downfield and tries to spring teammates for long runs but raw technique. Takes poor angles to blocks and doesn’t break down into a sound blocking position when gets to assignments. |
The accident took place on Friday afternoon.
Oklahoma wide receiver Corey Wilson has been critically injured in a rollover collision on Interstate 35.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the 20-year-old from Carrollton, Texas, was flown in critical condition with head and internal injuries to OU Medical Center after the crash about 1 p.m. Friday near Pauls Valley. A hospital spokesman says Wilson’s family asked that his condition not be released.
The patrol says Wilson was southbound on I-35 when his Chevrolet Trailblazer collided with a pickup, ran off the road and rolled twice, throwing him about 45 feet from the vehicle.
Say a prayer for Corey Wilson and his family.
No I’m not talking about some middle aged man propelling a ball at some objects at the end of a lane, but the games that climax every college football season. Bowl season officially starts this Saturday, here are the matchups for all the college football fanatics out there.
Dec 20
Eaglebank Bowl- Wake Forest vs Navy
New Mexico Bowl- Colorado State vs Fresno St
MAGICJACK ST. PETERSBURG BOWL- Memphis vs. South Florida
PIONEER LAS VEGAS BOWL- Brigham Young vs Arizona
Dec 21
R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL- Southern Miss vs. Troy
Dec 23
SAN DIEGO COUNTY CREDIT UNION POINSETTIA BOWL- Boise St vs TCU
Dec 24
SHERATON HAWAII BOWL- Hawaii vs Notre Dame
Dec 26
MOTOR CITY BOWL- Florida Atlantic vs. Central Michigan
Saturday, December 27
MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL- West Virginia vs. North Carolina
Champs Sports Bowl- Wisconsin vs. Florida State
Emerald Bowl- Miami (FL) vs. California
December 28
Independence Bowl- Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech
PAPAJOHNS.COM BOWL- North Carolina State vs. Rutgers
Valero Alamo Bowl- Missouri vs. No. 23 Northwestern
Tuesday, December 30
ROADY’S HUMANITARIAN BOWL- Maryland vs. Nevada
PACIFIC LIFE HOLIDAY BOWL- Oklahoma State vs. No. 17 Oregon
Texas Bowl- Western Michigan vs. Rice
Wednesday, December 31
BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL- Houston vs. Air Force
Sun Bowl- Oregon State vs. Pittsburgh
GAYLORD HOTELS MUSIC CITY BOWL- Boston College vs. Vanderbilt
Insight Bowl- Kansas vs. Minnesota
CHICK-FIL-A BOWL- LSU vs. Georgia Tech
Thursday, January 1
OUTBACK BOWL- South Carolina vs. Iowa
CAPITAL ONE BOWL- Georgia vs. Michigan State
Gator Bowl- Nebraska vs. Clemson
Rose Bowl- Penn State vs. USC
Fedex Orange Bowl- Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
Friday, January 2
Cotton Bowl- Mississippi vs. Texas Tech
AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL- Kentucky vs. East Carolina
ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL- Utah vs. Alabama
January 3
INTERNATIONAL BOWL- Buffalo vs. Connecticut
January 5
TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL- Ohio State vs. Texas
January 6
GMAC Bowl- Ball State vs. Tulsa*
January 8
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME- Florida vs. Oklahoma
That’s 34 games, 68 schools spread over a period of 20 days for those of you keeping score at home. An ample supply of college football for any fanatics out there.
A few notes
*- There are a few bowl games remaining without corporate names in their title. Gator, Sun, Texas, Independence. Were these games unable to find sponsors?
*- Will Oklahoma St. and Oregon combine for 70 pts or more in the Holiday Bowl? This annually has been of the most high scoring affairs.
*- Oh how has the Orange Bowl dropped. A game that featured early triumphs of Joe Paterno led Penn State, Nebraska and Oklahoma in their glory days, the first major bowl appearance of Florida State, and the all time classic 84 battle between Nebraska and Miami, has Cincinnati and Virginia Tech playing this year. I’m sure they are talented football teams, but how many people are drooling to see them play in a prime-time network slot?
*- Arizona and BYU meet in a bowl 30 years after the former left the WAC conference for the higher profile Pac Eight(Now Ten, Arizona State joined also)
*- Vanderbilt makes a rare bowl appearance. Congratulations to Commodore fans, but this is a sign of how bowls are grown way out of proportion. 6-6 college teams get bids. When I was growing up I could remember Florida State going without a bowl in 1978 even though they finished the season 8-3.
It is my humble opinion that bowl season has gotten out of hand. Someone may say what’s the big deal? If someone wants to start a bowl game and there are two schools willing to play in it, does their records matter. A good football isn’t only a contest between stars at big name schools.
All true, but how much public money is spent on these affairs? Many of the teams are state universities who get funded by taxpayers. Then there is the game itself where police have to be taken from other tasks to work the day or night of the game or paid over-time.
With the economic downturn right now, you have to wonder if there will be less bowls in the near future. That would depend on how long a deal a corporate sponsor signed on for. I wonder how many fans of some schools plan to make a bowl trip. Are there 1,000 or more FAU Owls willing to journey from Florida to Michigan in December to watch the team play? Even if I were a Owl fan and had money, I’d stay home.
Enjoy the games.
Florida will play Oklahoma for the National Championship. From ESPN-
Florida football coach Urban Meyer said Tuesday that offensive coordinator Dan Mullen will stay on to coach in the Bowl Championship Series title game Jan. 8 against Oklahoma, despite taking the head coaching job at Mississippi State last week.
“The goal is to win the game, and I think right now, unless something changes, it looks like that’s going to happen,” Meyer said. “Is that the best chance of us winning that game, with the mechanics of the game the way we do them? Probably yes. So right now I’d say the plan is he’ll be up in the press box.”
At the Heisman Trophy ceremony Saturday night, Gators quarterback Tim Tebow said it was unlikely Mullen would call the offensive plays against the Sooners. Tebow suggested that Florida could go with a play-calling-by-committee approach in the title game.
Mullen was still in Mississippi and not planning to return to Gainesville until after Christmas, Meyer said. The Gators held their first bowl practice Tuesday, but with final exams scheduled all week, it was mostly conditioning drills. Meyer said detailed game-plan preparations for No. 2 Oklahoma won’t begin until after Christmas.
I never understood Tebow’s Saturday statement from the beginning. The only reason not to let Mullen play call, is because if players and coaches didn’t trust him. If that was true, why wouldn’t Florida tell Mullen his services weren’t needed for the BCS Championship game?
It stemmed from an incident in a game played last Saturday. From AP-
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has suspended guard Luka Drca for two games for an intentional foul committed in a loss to No. 4 Oklahoma.
Drca tripped Blake Griffin as the Sooners were on a fast break with a 14-point lead early in the second half of Saturday’s game. Oklahoma’s Willie Warren was called for a technical for jawing with Drca, who was whistled for an intentional foul.
Utah coach Jim Boylen said in a release Monday that he was suspending Drca for two games.
Boylen says he wasn’t required to suspend Drca, but felt the trip was unacceptable behavior. The junior from Serbia will sit out Saturday’s home game against Weber State and the Utes’ road game against Utah State next Monday.
Drca suspends every bit of the suspension. That kind of behavior he portrayed on Saturday doesn’t belong on a basketball court.
It was a bizarre weekend in college football, with eight ranked teams losing to teams ranked below them — seven to teams not ranked at all.
#3 Oklahoma lost to unranked Colorado, 24-27.
#4 Florida lost to unranked Auburn, 17-20.
#5 West Virginia lost to #18 South Florida, 13-21 (Thursday night).
#7 Texas lost to unranked Kansas State, 21-41
#10 Rutgers lost to unranked Maryland, 24-34
#13 Clemson lost to unranked Georgia Tech, 3-13
#21 Penn State lost to unranked Illinois, 20-27
#22 Alabama lost to unranked Florida State, 14- 21
This was on top of several other close finishes.
ESPN’s Pat Forde dubs it “Insanity Saturday” and observes that this throws the whole season out of whack.
Just that fast, the college football landscape shifted seismically beneath our feet.
Just that fast, the Red River Shootout game Saturday between Oklahoma and Texas was dropped to undercard status. For the first time in years, it’s not the marquee game in the Big 12. And for the first time in years, the league’s maligned North looks more compelling than the South. If you can believe it, the biggest game in that league next week might be unbeaten Kansas at 3-1 Kansas State — either that or 4-1 Nebraska at unbeaten Missouri.
Just that fast, the upcoming LSU-Florida showdown Saturday in Baton Rouge lost half its helium when the Gators were shocked in The Swamp by an Auburn team that had lost at home to South Florida and Mississippi State on consecutive weekends.
Just that fast, the three Big East teams that began the season in the Top 25 all have at least one loss. Louisville went down first, then West Virginia, now Rutgers. Suddenly South Florida, Connecticut and Cincinnati are the unbeaten teams in the Big East. Honk if you foresaw that in August.
Just that fast, Illinois is 4-1 and tied for first in the Big Ten at 2-0. That’s the same Illinois that went 2-10 last year, with only one victory over I-A competition.
Just that fast, we have an ACC plot twist that leaves Virginia and Boston College well out in front in their respective divisions at 3-0 in league play. Virginia was left for dead after a Week 1 blowout loss to Wyoming. Boston College was picked last in its division by at least one preseason magazine.
And just that fast, USC and LSU put that much more distance between themselves and what’s left of the pack.
The object lesson here is that no favorite is safe. Not at home, not on the road, not in league play, not out of league play. If those lessons hadn’t already been learned by Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32, and Syracuse 38, Louisville 35, they were reinforced on Insanity Saturday.
And no lead is safe. You’d think the Sooners getting up 24-7 would be enough to make Colorado quit. You’d be wrong. The Buffaloes scored the final 20 points, winning on the last play of the game — a 45-yard field goal by Kevin Eberhart.
[...]
Underdogs aren’t scared right now, by much of anyone. Players and coaches are shrugging off past history, blowing off bad losses, not worrying about falling behind and regrouping to pull upsets nobody saw coming. Nobody’s rolling over.
I’ve seen this sort of thing in college basketball before but never to this extent in football. The bottom line, though, is that Notre Dame and Alabama and Michigan no longer have an automatic recruiting advantage over South Florida and West Virginia and Georgia Tech. There’s a wealth of talent out there and plenty of television exposure to be had in the realigned conference structure. Players would rather go to a program with less prestige and start than sit on the bench and one of the Big Boys.
The Minnesota Vikings have selected Adrian Peterson, the Heisman Trophy winning running back from Oklahoma, with the 7th pick.
What the Experts Say:
Scout.com Profile:
 Evaluation: An outstanding ball carrier with sensational running skills, Peterson possesses all the abilities needed to be a feature runner. Durability issues loom large yet if he stays healthy he is potentially a franchise back at the next level.
STRENGTHS: Instincts, Power, Size
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT: Durability
Biography: Three-year starter awarded varying degrees of All-Conference and All-American honors since his freshman campaign. Rushing totals last season were 188/1,012/12, with 10 receptions. Sophomore numbers were 220/1,108/14, after career-best numbers of 339/1,925/15 as a freshman. Missed six games last year after breaking a collarbone. Sat on the sidelines for all or portions of four games as a sophomore with an ankle injury.
 Pos: Big, fast ball carrier who can dominate the action. Patient, waits for blocks to develop and finds the running lane, maneuvering through the smallest of holes. Follows blocks anywhere on the field, makes defenders miss and has a burst of speed. Strong, has defenders bouncing off him and picks up a lot yardage off initial contact. Works runs, driving his feet up the field, and displays power in all aspects of the game. Effectively picks up blocking assignments and helps the quarterback sell ball fakes.
Neg: Not always super-aggressive and occasionally shows some tentativeness at the point of attack. More of a straight-line runner who does not show great skill around the corner.
The Atlanta Falcons (via trade from Houston Texans) are on the clock.
UPDATE Scouts.inc:
This is another example of a team making the right decision by trumping need with value. While the Vikings have more pressing needs at several other positions including defensive end and running back Adrian Peterson is too good to pass up on. Peterson is a tough runner who can pick up yards between the tackles and break tackles when he gets into the open field. He has the burst to turn the corner, make the first defender miss and turn on the jets when he gets a seam.
Oklahoma admittedly didn’t throw to Peterson much but he has shown signs of developing into a quality receiver. Of course there are the durability issues. However, Minnesota already has Chester Taylor on the roster so they wont have to lean on Peterson as much as a lot of other teams would have had they taken them.
The Bucs are on the clock. USC offensive tackle Winston Justice, the guy Rick Gosselin projected for the Bucs, is still on the board. There are plenty of sexier picks on the board, including all the wide receivers in the draft, but I’d be surprised to see Gruden and company pass on Justice.
The pick: Oklahoma offensive tackle Davin Joseph, expected to play guard in the NFL. Mel Kiper had him projected in the 2nd round and Goose had him at #41. The Bucs might be right but, again, why not trade down a few spots and get more value if this was the guy they had their heart set on?
|
|
