Oklahoma State looks to recapture glory
OMAHA, Neb. -- Oklahoma State never has won a Big 12 title. Rarely have the Cowboys even been a factor in the South Division race.
They're doing their best to change that this season.
No. 21 Oklahoma State goes into Saturday's home game against Texas A&M unbeaten and with lots of mojo. The Cowboys have their first Top 25 ranking in four years, a streak of three straight games with at least 55 points and a fan base that's perking up.
Oklahoma State hasn't had much staying power on the national scene since Barry Sanders and Hart Lee Dykes starred in Stillwater during those 10-win seasons of the 1980s in the old Big Eight.
With a massive facilities project to be completed in 2009, thanks largely to the generosity of billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens, the Cowboys are positioning themselves to challenge Oklahoma and Texas.
This week's national ranking is a sign of progress.
"I'm excited for the Oklahoma State people," coach Mike Gundy said on Monday's Big 12 coaches' teleconference with reporters. "The fans and players have worked hard and the administration has been committed here. We've had a plan in place for several years, and we've got a ways to go. We're taking steps each day, each game, each year in accomplishing our goal."
The school has set a record by selling 40,000 season tickets, and a single-game record crowd of 52,463 showed up for Saturday's 55-24 win over Troy.
Oklahoma State has the nation's top ground game, the third-leading rusher in Kendall Hunter, No. 3 scoring offense, fourth-most efficient passer and a defense that's been good enough to beat the likes of Washington State, Houston, Missouri State and Troy.
"I was amazed Oklahoma State wasn't rated until this week. That's because they haven't beaten notable teams," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "We've seen Oklahoma State for the last couple years, and Missouri and Kansas got all that credit. Oklahoma State is going to be right in the mix of a lot of things."
Oklahoma State, which has never finished higher than third in the South Division, must go on the road to play Missouri, Texas and Texas Tech. The Cowboys play top-ranked rival Oklahoma at home.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Pac-10-Mountain West rivalry continues this week
SAN FRANCISCO -- Early season games are often have an element of conference pride to them, as leagues look to use wins by their teams to boost their perception.
While for the Pac-10 most of those types of games are often between its teams and other BCS teams, this week's big nonconference tilt is between California and Colorado State of the Mountain West.
That's because the Mountain West has dominated the Pac-10 so far this season, winning all five head-to-head meetings. Already this season, BYU has beaten Washington and UCLA, TCU knocked off Stanford, New Mexico beat Arizona and UNLV topped Arizona State.
"It's not so much for the conference as it is for ourselves," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "We have to get back on track. We lost a tough one at Maryland. We're focused on what we need to get done. We have enough concerns of our own."
The Golden Bears, coming off a bye week, are trying to rebound from a 35-27 loss at Maryland.
If Cal doesn't win this week, the only other chance for the Pac-10 against the MWC in the regular season comes Oct. 2, when Oregon State visits No. 17 Utah.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Big 12 plays on four straight days
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Big 12 schools are branching out this week to create a smorgasbord of four straight days of football.
Just don't count on Kansas coach Mark Mangino wanting to get in on the weekday action again anytime soon. The 19th-ranked Jayhawks fell six spots in the polls after losing 34-31 to South Florida last Friday night, but his preference for playing on Saturdays is more about tradition.
"In my opinion, college football is made for Saturdays and that's the way we like to do it," Mangino said Monday on the Big 12 coaches' conference call.
"Winning or losing had no bearing on what day we played, I'll make that clear, but one of the things that we do here is we have a routine. We're comfortable with the routine, our players are comfortable with it, it's been good to us and we'd like to stay with that."
Kansas State kicks off the Big 12 schedule by hosting Louisville on Wednesday night, Colorado hosts No. 21 West Virginia on Thursday and Baylor visits Connecticut on Friday night before a slate of six Saturday games.
It's the first time in the conference's history that games have been played on four straight days.
"I'm very conflicted about the games and when they're played. I think that one of the biggest issues is that we have a lot of terrific teams and a lot of terrific quarterbacks and I can understand why it's important for the kids and the programs to be seen nationally, and I think it's a great opportunity," K-State coach Ron Prince said.
"The football coach in me also says things that get you out of your routine and things that take you away from the classroom, that's not the norm in football."
Prince said he consulted with other college and pro coaches during the offseason for ideas on dealing with playing at an odd time and felt like he developed a solid plan.
Colorado's Dan Hawkins admitted there are some trade-offs with the weekday games. About 30 of his players had to skip practice on the Buffaloes' usual off day Monday because they had to attend class, but in turn they'll get to play on national television.
"Any time you get an opportunity to put your product out there, it's great for your fans and your alums and your recruiting as well, so all that stuff means something," Hawkins said.
For first-year Baylor coach Art Briles, playing on a Saturday would almost be against the norm in his time so far at the school. The Bears' game last week was supposed to be played on Saturday but was moved up to the previous night because of Hurricane Ike's impending arrival.
"When they tell us to play, we play," Briles said. "You just adjust your schedule. So far this year, we've played on a Thursday, a Saturday and two Fridays. I like it because that's what we're doing."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Craft's UCLA debut was memorable
LOS ANGELES -- This was tough for Tom Craft. His son was smack in the middle of college football's national spotlight, and flopping big-time.
Good thing the game wasn't over. By the end, Tom Craft was clapping so hard for his son in his UCLA debut that his hands were sore.
In a remarkable turnaround, Kevin Craft recovered from four first-half interceptions to lead the Bruins to a dramatic victory over Tennessee.
"We were hoping he would get off to a good start, but it was as bad a start as he could have. We just felt awful for Kevin," said Tom Craft, who was in the Rose Bowl stands with Kevin's mother, Kathy, and sister Lacey for the nationally televised opener.
The Bruins upset then-No. 18 Tennessee 27-24 in overtime on Sept. 1. They then moved into the national rankings at No. 23 before dropping out following a bye last weekend. Now they try to knock off this week's No. 18 when they play BYU at Provo on Saturday.
A third-stringer before Patrick Cowan and Ben Olson were injured, Craft seemed more valuable to the Volunteers than to the Bruins in the first half. The junior college transfer went 7-of-18, with his fourth interception sailing straight into the hands of Tennessee's Nevin McKenzie, who took off for a 61-yard touchdown and a 14-7 lead 23 seconds before halftime.
At the half, Craft had thrown to Bruins receivers for 66 yards and no touchdowns. The Vols had 66 yards and a touchdown on the four interception returns.
All that changed after halftime. Craft was almost flawlessly, going 18-of-25 for 193 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.
After Tennessee took a 21-17 lead with 1:54 remaining, Craft went 6-of-7 during a drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass to give UCLA the lead with 27 seconds left. The Vols tied it with a field goal as time expired, but the Bruins won by making a field goal in overtime before Tennessee missed a field goal.
"We felt like we were on a roller-coaster hanging on for dear life," Tom Craft said. "I think that's the most excited I've been. My hands hurt, I was clapping so hard."
Kevin smiled as he talked about his father's reaction.
"I've seen him on the sidelines as the coach and he's calm and in control," he said. "But he was just a dad and a fan this time."
Cameras panned in to catch some parental emotion. There was, however, one problem.
"They were showing the wrong guy," Kevin said. "It was Pat Cowan's dad, not mine."
Asked about his halftime transformation, Kevin said there was no big mystery. He and his coaches and teammates simply discussed adjustments in the offense.
"I thought, 'Hey, I've just got to play smart and keep us in a position to win," he said. "At the end of the day, it's a football game and I've been playing for a long time and feel like I know how to play, and I've been coached well out here and have all the tools to be successful."
Offensive coordinator Norm Chow said Craft was determined to get the job done.
"We fixed some things up to give him a chance to be successful and it worked out OK," Chow said. "He's a good, solid young man, works hard, studies, doesn't get rattled real easily."
Taylor Embree, a freshman who had all his four receptions in the second half, said Craft's teammates reassured him at halftime.
"We told him, 'We've seen what you can do in practice," Embree said. "After that, just like in practice, he started making plays, completing passes."
In addition to working under Chow and coach Rick Neuheisel at UCLA, Craft has benefited from his father's coaching. Tom, a San Diego State quarterback in the 1970s, was the Aztecs' head coach when his son was a freshman there in 2005. Now he's the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Mt. San Antonio College, a junior college where Kevin completed 61 percent of his passes for 4,231 yards and 44 touchdowns last year.
The younger Craft began his redshirt freshman year at San Diego State third on the depth chart and there, like at UCLA, was pressed into duty by injuries. He started five games for the Aztecs in 2006, the season after his father left, then transferred to Mt. SAC to play under his dad before moving on to UCLA last spring.
"I grew up around football, and my dad really framed the quarterback position for me," Kevin said. "I'm on the sidelines or riding home with him and he'd tell me what his quarterbacks did or talk about situations in games and how that guy might have handled it differently. It's a big advantage being the son of a coach."
Craft's first college start was for San Diego State at BYU two years ago, when he went 20-of-32 for 216 yards and was intercepted once in a 45-17 loss.
"I was impressed then," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "I think he quarterbacks like a coach's son, which he is."
He added that Craft's about-face against Tennessee was "just a poise and maturity issue. Each snap that he played he became more and more confident, and he put together a really nice drive at the end of the game."
At least one person in the stands saw that late drive coming.
"I've seen him do that at every level he's played -- in high school, at San Diego State and at Mt. SAC," Tom Craft said. "When they had the ball on that final drive, I knew he was going to do it."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Ponder will start for Seminoles
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Christian Ponder will start at quarterback for Florida State in its season opener against Western Carolina.
Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher selected Ponder over senior Drew Weatherford, who has started 33 games for the Seminoles, and sophomore D'Vontrey Richardson.
Ponder, a sophomore, has thrown only 18 passes in college.
"We'll find out what we've got with the first guy," Fisher said. "I'm not a short-leash guy. You can't play yo-yo quarterback."
Weatherford's best season was his first. In 2005, he threw 18 touchdown passes and had an Atlantic Coast Conference freshman record 3,206 yards. The Seminoles capped that year with an upset win over Virginia Tech in the inaugural ACC championship game, but haven't come close to that success since.
The Seminoles have gone through consecutive 7-6 seasons, going a combined 7-9 in the ACC those years.
Weatherford left practice early Wednesday and did not speak with reporters.
Ponder, who is already in graduate school working on his MBA, admitted to being nervous.
"Friday night's going to be a long night for me," said the 6-2, 218-pound Ponder, whose dad, David, was a defensive lineman for the Seminoles under Bowden in the early 1980s. "Finally, the starting job is here."
There will be a host of other new starters in the first three games. Six key performers remain suspended from an academic cheating scandal in early 2007.
That includes TE Caz Piurowski and five defensive players: CB Patrick Robinson, LB Dekoda Watson, DE Neefy Moffett and DTs Budd Thacker and Paul Griffin.
And the Seminoles' best offensive player, junior receiver Preston Parker, will miss the first two games because of an arrest last spring on drug and weapons charges. The legal issues were resolved, allowing Parker to remain on the team.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
Croom given contract extension through 2011 by Mississippi St.
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom received a two-year contract extension Monday.
The extension pushes Croom's contract to four years, the longest allowable under state law, and runs through 2011. Financial terms were not released.
After nine wins in three seasons, Croom led the Bulldogs to an 8-5 record and a Liberty Bowl win over Central Florida. It was the first season Mississippi State had more than three wins since 2000 and Croom was selected Southeastern Conference's coach of the year following the turnaround.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
California center Alex Mack will return for senior season
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Center Alex Mack will return for his senior season at California after being chosen the Pac-10's top offensive lineman this past season.
Mack was a unanimous all-conference selection and a finalist for the Rimington Trophy as a junior with the Golden Bears (7-6). He anchored a line that allowed just 11 sacks, and the conference's defensive linemen chose him for the Morris Trophy as the Pac-10's best offensive lineman.
There is a lot I can do at Cal to improve my game and to further my career," Mack said Tuesday. "I didn't want to miss the experience of my senior season and helping the team get back on track and finish things right. This also gives me an opportunity to finish my degree and continue my education."
Mack expects to complete his degree in legal studies in May.
Cal receiver DeSean Jackson hasn't announced whether he'll return for his senior season. The punt return specialist was a third-team All-American as an all-purpose player. Jackson is expected to leave Cal, but could be reconsidering his decision after injuries and inconsistent play dampened his junior year.
The Bears lost six of their final eight games after a 5-0 start and a No. 2 national ranking.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
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