“Fresno State - Team Notes (USA Today)” plus 3 more

Fresno State - Team Notes (USA Today)
Louisiana-Monroe - Team Notes (USA Today)
New Age ‘philosophy’ dangerous, deadly (Arizona Daily Wildcat)
As Sanders' sub, Bullitt provides high caliber of play (USA Today)

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Posted: 05 Feb 2010 01:36 AM PST

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Could the 2010 recruiting class indicate a shift in philosophy for Fresno State coach Pat Hill? The Bulldogs' highly regarded 21-member class includes five wide receivers.

The Bulldogs have long been known as a run-first and power football team, but because of the addition of throwing quarterbacks such as Derek Carr, Hill indicated that approach could be changing slightly.

"We're going through a little bit of a transition right now on offense," Hill told the Fresno Bee.

Part of the reason for high number of wide receivers is that Fresno State lost four seniors at that position. But the quality, including two receivers who originally committed to California, is indicative of the changing thoughts.

"We're never going to scrap the run game. But we're also going to use more spread formations ourselves, get playmakers on the field. It plays into the strength of what we're recruiting," Hill said.

Fresno State secured commitments from wide receivers Davon Dunn and Josh Harper after they'd initially committed to Cal, and punter Matt Darr, considered the No. 1 punter in the nation, de-committed from USC to sign with the Bulldogs.

The haul was regarded as the top class in the Western Athletic Conference by Rivals.com and Scout.com.

NOTES, QUOTES

--Coach Pat Hill agreed to a contract extension in December, but no contract has been signed. Hill said he and the school would negotiate in March. "We've agreed to agree," Hill told the Fresno Bee. "We haven't had time to iron it out." The 58-year-old Hill makes about $1.2 million per year.

--Fresno State had the top-ranked recruiting class in the WAC, according to Scout.com and Rivals.com. Rivals ranked the class No. 52 nationally and Scout put the class at No. 63, 18 spots higher than Hawaii.

TOP RECRUITS:

--P Matt Darr, Bakersfield, Calif. -- The Bulldogs landed the No. 1 punter in the country according to Scout.com in Darr, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder. With the graduation of Robert Malone, Darr should step in right away for the Bulldogs. Darr had committed to USC but re-opened the recruiting process after Pete Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks.

--WR Davon Dunn, San Diego, Calif. -- The son of a former Fresno State receiver David Dunn, the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder originally committed to Cal before choosing the Bulldogs. Rivals.com calls him a four-star recruit. With the loss of four senior wide receivers and an emphasis on improving the passing game, the Bulldogs signed five receivers in the class.

--WR Josh Harper, Stockton, Calif. -- The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder originally committed to Cal but opted for Fresno State and said it was a better fit for him. With Fresno State losing four senior wide receivers, there is room on the roster for receivers to quickly make an impact.

--S Edward Dillihunt, Tulare, Calif. -- The 5-foot-10, 194-pounder is among the players Fresno State targeted to help the Bulldogs contend with the increasing number of spread teams it plays. "We need more players who are able to play both man and zone coverage. We need players who can play in space," Hill told the Fresno Bee. Hill called him a "heat-seeking missile."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "This year, probably for the first time in my 14 years, we were able to go head-to-head with some very good competition and win out. Does that mean they're going to be great players. No. It means they have the potential to be great players. We have to develop them." -- Coach Pat Hill to the Fresno Bee about beating Cal and USC for players in this recruiting class.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

2010 LOOK AHEAD: The Bulldogs will have to reload at the skill positions on offense, especially running back where they lost Ryan Mathews and Lonyae Miller. Robbie Rouse, a 5-foot-7, 185-pound sophomore, will step into the spotlight, but it remains to be seen if he can be an every-down back. Jamel Hamler and Devon Wylie will get first crack at suddenly thin wide receiver. Quarterback will be another position battle where starting quarterback Ryan Colburn will have to hold off Derek Carr again.

Fresno State should be better on defense as it has to replace just two starters (cornerback A.J. Jefferson and safety Moses Harris) from the New Mexico Bowl. The Bulldogs struggled defensively last season, ranking 84th in scoring defense, 98th in total defense, 111th in rushing defense, 111th in turnovers forced and 119th in sacks.

SPRING SNAPSHOT: Fresno State could be headed for another quarterback battle in spring practice, where returning starter Ryan Colburn, who had a solid if not spectacular season, will be trying to hold off Derek Carr for the starting position. There is some talk that Carr will redshirt to preserve a year of eligibility. Finding depth at running back and wide receiver is vital, too.

PRO POTENTIAL: The Bulldogs are sending six players to the NFL Scouting Combine, including two running backs and two wide receivers. The Bulldogs could have as many as seven players drafted.

--RB Ryan Mathews -- The nation's leading rusher opted to enter the NFL draft early, which was of little surprise to people around the program. Mathews does have some durability concerns, but is projected as potentially a second-round pick.

--RB Lonyae Miller -- Miller rushed for more than 2,000 yards in his career at Fresno State but wasn't a huge factor as a senior with the emergence of Mathews. Miller did earn an invite to the NFL Combine and could be a late-round flier because of his speed.

--P Robert Malone -- Malone earned an invite to the combine, too. Fresno State was 10th in the nation in net punting and, although Malone did not qualify for the NCAA leader board, he averaged 45.2 yards per punt. Malone had 15 punts of 50 or more yards.

--CB/KR A.J. Jefferson -- Jefferson has a chance to impress on defense and special teams. He was invited to the combine along with wide receivers Chastin West (30 catches, 472 yards, two touchdowns as a senior) and Seyi Ajirotutu, who enjoyed a breakout senior season with 49 catches for 677 yards and seven touchdowns -- all team-highs.

--RB Anthony Harding -- Harding was not invited to the combine, but could find his way into an NFL camp.

ROSTER REPORT:

--QB Ebahn Feathers, a highly touted recruit in 2008, will remain with the Bulldogs, ending speculation that he was going to transfer. Feathers didn't dress for the final two games of the regular season because of academics. Feathers, who played in seven games last year, is likely to be a backup again.

Louisiana-Monroe - Team Notes (USA Today)

Posted: 05 Feb 2010 01:33 AM PST

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First-year coach Todd Berry, who replaced Charlie Weatherbie, stuck with a similar recruiting philosophy at Louisiana-Monroe.

Berry signed 19 high school products on National Signing Day, in addition to three junior college transfers who were already on campus.

Berry went hard after linemen on both sides of the ball, as evidenced by signing 12 at the position. Defensive back also was an emphasis after ULM lost most of its talented secondary from last season's team.

"A good portion of the players I already knew because I had been recruiting them before and I had watched them practice in the spring and conversed with them in the fall," Berry said. "That was important to me with this class.

"I wanted to make sure that we weren't just getting players that we knew were talented, but we were also getting players that want to get a degree and are good young men."

Berry faces somewhat of a rebuilding situation due to the fact ULM lost so much talent on the defensive side of the ball.

With that in mind, returnees will be a key, although this year's recruiting class has promising signs for the future.

NOTES, QUOTES

--Todd Berry replaced Charlie Weatherbie as the team's head coach after the latter was fired following a 6-6 season. Berry is a former offensive coordinator at Louisiana-Monroe. He hired Bryan Applewhite as running backs coach, Leon Lett as defensive tackles coach, Jason Nichols as receivers coach, Brandon Shelby as quarterbacks coach and Adam Waugh as safeties coach. Everett Todd (defensive ends) and Vance Vice (offensive line) were retained from the previous staff.

--Senior RB Frank Goodin should be primed for a great final season. He rushed for a team-high 1,226 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2009.

TOP RECRUITS:

--C Josh Allen, Cedar Hill, Texas -- The three-star signee from Cedar Hill, Texas, was rated as high as the No. 77 player in the nation at his position.

-- WR Luke Russell, Ponder, Texas -- He's a three-star signee who caught 125 passes for more than 2,500 yards and 30 touchdown.

-- OL Jeremy Burton, Muskogee, Okla. -- Burton is a first-team all-district and region performer. He's a three-star pick who was rated the No. 29 prospect out of Oklahoma.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I am very excited about the group of student-athletes we have signed. I think this is a good group of young men and a good group of players. We will find out if it's an excellent group about four years from now. I am tremendously proud of our staff, considering how long we had to recruit in relation to the NCAA calendar. We only had about two weeks to put a class together." -- ULL first-year coach Todd Berry.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

2010 LOOK AHEAD: Louisiana-Monroe is coming off a six-win season, but it wasn't enough to save coach Charlie Weatherbie's job. First-year coach Todd Berry has a rebuilding task ahead of him in many ways. However, Weatherbie has recruited good skill players and athletes, so the Warhawks might not take too big of a dip in 2010.

SPRING SNAPSHOT: The Warhawks begin spring practice March 15, with the spring game scheduled for April 24.

First-year coach Todd Berry is very familiar with ULM, having served under former coach Charlie Weatherbie as offensive coordinator. However, he won't be overly familiar with his team as the bulk of it used up its eligibility. ULM needs to rebuild its defense after losing a wealth of talent. Additionally, ULM's younger receivers need to have a good spring after the group lost its top two wideouts, LaGregory Sapp and Darrell McNeal.

ROSTER REPORT:

--ULM had three mid-term junior college signees in linebacker Dan Jackson from Trinity Valley Community College and offensive linemen Jordan Karriman and Ryan McCaul from Northeast Oklahoma A&M College.

--QB Trey Revell started 10 of the 12 games last season, although sophomore Cody Wells could get a serious look in spring drills due to ULM having a first-year coach in Todd Berry.

--ULM had a dependable defense a year ago in terms of time missed. Eight players started in all 12 games, while three others started 11. Eight have used up their eligibility, however.

New Age ‘philosophy’ dangerous, deadly (Arizona Daily Wildcat)

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 11:12 PM PST

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What would any reasonable person think of a motivational speaker described as "a peer of Deepak Chopra and Tony Robbins," known for a best-selling self help book and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show?

Presumably, that the man is a paradigm-case asshat.

But the world is full of stupid people. Not to speak ill of the dead but James Shore, Kirby Brown and Liz Neuman probably were among them.

These three unfortunates were casualties of James Arthur Ray's New-Age "sweat lodge" ceremony, in which participants spent two hours in the Angel Valley Resort near Sedona, Ariz., confined in a tent composed of blankets and plastic tarps, heated by steam from red-hot rocks in the tent's center. Eighteen others were hospitalized.

The sweat lodge ceremony was part of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" program during which, for the reasonable price of $9,695, Ray subjected his students to a variety of stultifying New-Age malarkey, from which death must have been sweet respite.

Ray's website describes his corporation — named after himself, naturally — as "dedicated to mentoring individuals to create wealth in all areas of their lives: financially, relationally, mentally, physically and spiritually." He has certainly mastered the first aspect: James Ray International turned a profit of $9.4 million in 2008, according to a New York Times article. For a taste of this spiritual guru's standard practice: during the "vision quest," a 36-hour fast in the Sedona desert, which preceded the sweat lodge ceremony, Peruvian ponchos were made available to the seekers — for a trifling $250.

Such is the cost of pseudoscience (I'm talking about untimely death again, not the overpriced ponchos, but – come on! - $250 for an alpaca Snuggie? That alone merits this article). Ray is a proponent of a New-Age concept known as the Law of Attraction, which purports that a person's thoughts, positive or negative, will influence his or her life in either way respectively. This thesis is justified through various appeals to shamanism, self help principles and even a remarkably poor understanding of quantum physics. Steve Salerno, skeptic and author of "SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless," is quoted in an article in The Arizona Republic on Ray describing his ideas as "psychological bouillabaisse." Bouillabaisse, indeed – less delicious, no doubt, but just as fishy!

In his book "Harmonic Wealth," Ray writes: "I'm 8 years old, sitting in the front pew in my father's church. I hear the words that would play in the background of my life like annoying elevator music for years to come: 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.' That cannot be true, I thought." Despicable, indeed, but surprising — in that one might expect that elevator music to be this smarmy huckster's jam.

To the yuppies who plague Sedona, James Arthur Ray offered a valuable service: to provide some spiritual amelioration, to return to them the souls they had rashly sold, for a fee they could comprehend. Not through asceticism, for Ray himself embraces things material, nor serious spiritual study, no, enlightenment can apparently be attained at a two day workshop – all Ray wanted was money, that world-renowned panacea, and his victims had become so emotionally desperate that they believed spiritual satisfaction could be bought. This in itself is a death of the soul, perhaps as tragic as the deaths of Shore, Brown and Neuman; lost sheep preyed upon by a wolf in savior's clothing.

James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday on three counts of manslaughter. I'm hoping my power of positive thinking — and perhaps yours, dear reader! — will convince the judge to punish this charlatan to the fullest extent of the law.

— Ben Harper is a philosophy senior who, while researching this article, undid years of dental work grinding his teeth every time he saw New-Age thought referred to as a "philosophy." He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

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As Sanders' sub, Bullitt provides high caliber of play (USA Today)

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 07:13 PM PST

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With strong safety Bob Sanders forced to the sideline by knee injuries each of the last two years, Bullitt, who was undrafted, has exceeded all expectations in replacing the 2007 NFL defensive player of the year.

"You hate to see somebody get hurt," Bullitt says. "But when my shot came, I took advantage of it and I tried to establish myself as one of the better safeties in the NFL."

The third-year man was pressed into service for nine regular-season starts in 2008. He made 12 such starts this season.

"That's one of the great things about this team," coach Jim Caldwell says. "We've had guys that have been able to step up and play extremely well. We expect that across the board. In this game, you are going to face some injuries and some adversity. We just have to be well-prepared and say, 'Next man up.'

"He's an individual who can make a lot of plays. He's highly aggressive. It's not a real surprise he can step in there and do the job."

Bullitt finished fifth on the club with 77 tackles. As for his aggressive approach, he was fined $5,000 for drilling New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez in the back after he had released a pass in the AFC Championship Game.

"Since he stepped in from Day 1, he's done a great job," linebacker Clint Session says. "Sometimes people don't remember that Bob Sanders was our starter."

Given Bullitt's humble beginnings, his rise to prominence is stunning. The 6-1, 201-pounder started 25 of 44 games at Texas A&M. Every NFL team passed on him in the 2007 draft.

After signing as a rookie free agent, Bullitt learned everything he could from Sanders, who was a force when Indianapolis won the Super Bowl to close the 2006 season and made 96 tackles in 2007.

He never sought to emulate Sanders, however. "We've got two different styles of play," Bullitt says. "He'll make the big hit. I'll make the sure tackle. Making the sure tackle is definitely something you have to do, being the last line of defense."

The Colts know they must limit the number of big plays for the New Orleans Saints and slow an attack that averaged a league-high 31.9 points and 403.8 yards a game.

Bullitt must take a different approach from the first two playoff games, when he moved toward the line of scrimmage early to be more of a factor in stopping the ground games of the run-oriented Baltimore Ravens and Jets.

"These past two games required more run support," he says. "We'll have to be more patient because they do run some flea-flickers. That's a normal play for their offense.

"This is probably the only team we faced all year that can match our speed on defense. It's going to be exciting, and it's going to be a fast ballgame."

Middle linebacker Gary Brackett expects Bullitt to play a key role in at least slowing New Orleans by denying the deep ball and limiting yards after the catch on short and intermediate routes. "The 10-yard run doesn't kill you. It's the 60-yard pass," Brackett says. "They thrive on big plays. We don't want to give them any deep passes. We want to make them earn everything."

Philosophy

Friday, February 5, 2010