Colleges

College Gameday

By Times staff and wires
Published September 22, 2007

Are we there yet?

So you think No. 3 Florida's road trip to Mississippi is no big deal? Florida is taking 48 freshmen and sophomores on what amounts to the first road trip for many.

Think family vacation with 85 kids. A plane ride. Another hour-long bus ride. A bunch of their stuff in tow.

Then add that the biggest part of the trip kicks off at 12:30 p.m.

"Chris Rainey said to me, 'So, Coach, how does this travel stuff work, do we leave the day before the game?' " UF coach Urban Meyer said. "I said, 'Yeah, Chris, we leave the day before the game.' "

Rainey was at Lakeland High School last year. So were 24 of his teammates. Which is one of Meyer's worries when No. 3 Florida plays at unranked Ole Miss today.

"The red flags are up," Meyer said. "That is a major concern. We don't have the answer. ... I even asked some of the players I trust: 'How do we make sure we're energized?'"

In an effort to stay as routine as possible, the Gators will take their usual two-lap walk around the hotel to get the blood flowing, then wait for the "spit-flying, Vitamin Addazio" pregame breakfast speech from assistant coach Steve Addazio.

Antonya English, Times staff writer

Notre Dame is last in the nation in rushing offense and total offense, among the worst teams at stopping the run and has nearly twice as many punts as it does points.

Some say the Irish don't have the talent to be competitive.

NFL draft analyst Gil Brandt said he recalls a conversation with Irish coach Charlie Weis at the Super Bowl in Detroit in 2006 when Weis said he was worried about the 2007 and '08 seasons.

"Here's a guy that was coming off a great year and he was really concerned about what was going to happen because of the fact he did not think they had the guys there that could make them competitive," Brandt said.

Weis said he doesn't recall the conversation.

On the day Notre Dame signed 17 players in February 2004, CSTV recruiting analyst Tom Lemming called it the worst class for the Irish in at least 20 years. He now says it was even worse than that. The next year's class, which was a hybrid of Tyrone Willingham and Weis recruiting, wasn't much better, again finishing out of the top 20.

"One bad year is real bad, but it's not disastrous. Two is disastrous," Lemming said.

Act like you've been there

Meet Bill Gramatica, movie star.

The former USF and Arizona Cardinals kicker laughs at his small role in Disney's The Game Plan, a football movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnsonopening in theaters Friday.

"Believe it or not, I'm a kicker," said Gramatica, who spent about a month in Boston last fall filming scenes for the movie.

Unless you count an instructional video he filmed with brother Martin a few years back, it's his film debut, made possible through former Tampa Bay Storm teammate Pat O'Hara, who helped cast the football extras.

Gramatica, 29, who still holds USF's record for longest field goal at 63 yards, doesn't have any lines in the film and couldn't remember his character's name, but you can't miss him in one key scene.

"I get to kick off in the Super Bowl," he said, unsure how many background shots he ended up making.

Football movies, much like the sport itself, are nice when you're a kicker, he said.

"I want to tell you, when you see the hits, they're real," he said. "I felt bad when they had to say 'Cut' and do it again. It's not staged."

The movie opening conflicts with USF's primetime showdown with No. 5 West Virginia. Tough call?

"That's not a tough call at all," he said. "The movie will be on TV in a little while."

Greg Auman, Times staff writer

Information from the Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman, Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Daily News was used in this report.

Quotable

"I don't want our guys to go down there with false belief that we have a great chance to win this game. Sometimes you've got to be realistic."

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier as his 12th-ranked team prepares to take on No. 2 LSU

"We like to be the underdog every time we go in. It makes for a good upset when we go out there and do it."

Gamecocks running back Cory Boyd

Five things

1. Today's game matching Karl Dorrell (UCLA) vs. Tyrone Willingham (Washington) marks the only regular-season I-A pairing of African-American head coaches this year. Only six of 119 coaches are black. "It's much bigger than that from a national scope, and from a career scope for young people interested in coaching," Dorrell said. "It's really to keep the inspiration alive for them. ... I think all that is real important."

2. In its two losses Minnesota has been outscored in the first half 56-14, by Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic. The Gophers are last in the nation in turnover margin at minus-3 per game, next-to-last of 119 teams in pass defense (allowing 431 yards a game) and 116th in total defense (556.33 yards a game).

3. The last time the Oregon State Beavers won at Arizona State was 1969, the year the Beatles released Abbey Road. Midnight Cowboy was the big movie, and Sesame Street made its debut on television.

4. The last time Michigan State received votes in the Associated Press poll and Michigan did not was Dec. 7, 1987.

5. Georgia Tech has run 201 plays in three games without a turnover. The total includes 75 passes, 71 by quarterback Taylor Bennett.

By the numbers

1 Touchdown allowed by the Cincinnati defense in its 3-0 start

1 Miami player arrested since 2001

5 Schools that have never played a I-AA opponent since the current divisional format was established in 1978: Michigan State, Notre Dame, UCLA, USC and Washington

7 Florida players arrested since the BCS title game, Jan. 8

11-9-1 Series record advantage Mississippi holds over Florida

14-1Steve Spurrier's record as a player (3-0) and coach (11-1) at Florida against LSU

42 Average yards allowed on punt returns by Tennessee

[Last modified September 21, 2007, 22:20:30]