NCAA News & Headlines
Gridiron Glance: Thursday/Friday afternoon edition.
Here’s a look at a few of the headlines from yesterday and today. This will become a pretty regular feature, so keep on the lookout for it.
‘Round and ‘Round Goes the Coaching Carousel
South Carolina defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, who only took the job in December, is on the move yet again.
Former Georgia defensive coordinator VanGorder, who has bounced around the pro and college ranks in the last few years, is returning to Atlanta, where he spent the 2007 season coaching linebackers, to become the Falcons’ new defensive coordinator on Mike Smith‘s staff.
South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier moved pretty quickly, however, luring Ellis Johnson, who had only left Mississippi State for Arkansas this month, back to his home state to take VanGorder’s vacated post.
That’s some pretty bitter medicine, isn’t it, Bobby Petrino?
Mike Alstott Retires
Tampa Bay fullback Mike Alstott, the team’s career touchdown leader, announced his retirement on Thursday after 12 NFL seasons.
After sitting out the 2007 season due to a neck problem, his retirement doesn’t come as a surprise, and it’s for the better, because there‘s no need for him to risk injuring himself further for the sake of playing another year or two.
The A-Train was drafted by Tampa Bay in the second round of the 1996 draft, and the former Purdue star quickly made an impact, making the Pro Bowl in 1997, the first of his six consecutive trips to Hawaii.
Alstott ran for 5,088 yards and 58 touchdowns, and caught 305 passes for 2,284 yards and 13 touchdowns in his career.
His career highs:
Rushing Yards: 949 (1999)
Rushing TD: 10 (2001)
Receptions: 65 (1996)
Receiving Yards: 557
Receiving TD: three (1996 & 1997)
Pro Bowl Additions
Buffalo’s Aaron Schobel has been added to the AFC’s Pro Bowl squad in place of Miami’s Jason Taylor, who will miss the game because of a torn plantar fascia that he suffered in December.
Schobel had 95 tackles and six and a half sacks in 2007, a total that was down from a career-high 14 in 2006.
Four players were added to the NFC’s roster, as Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia (in for Brett Favre), Arizona defensive tackle Darnell Dockett (in for Chicago’s Tommie Harris), Philadelphia DE Trent Cole (in for Seattle’s Patrick Kerney), and Washington long snapper Ethan Albright got their official invites to Hawaii.
Today, Indianapolis safety Antoine Bethea was named to the AFC’s squad in place of Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu.
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Alstott was the man in his prime.