Driskel to start for Florida in SEC opener

By David Jones, Florida Today

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida football coach Will Muschamp said Monday that Jeff Driskel will start at quarterback Saturday as the Gators visit Texas A&M in both teams' Southeastern Conference opener.

"I told Jeff I don't want you looking over your shoulder but you need to play well,'' Muschamp said.

"He wants me to play loose and calm so that's what I'm going to do," Driskel said. "He told me today I was going to play. He told me the choice wasn't just based on Saturday, through out camp and through out practice they had been evaluating us for a while.''

Driskel completed 10 of 16 passes for 114 yards and one touchdown in the season-opening 27-14 win against Bowling Green. He shared the job with Jacoby Brissett last week.

"I just felt like at this time it's good to name one guy and go with it,'' Muschamp said.

He said Driskel's ability to make things happen running with the ball "played a big part'' in the decision.

"I think right now in the development of our offense, that's something that's going to benefit us,'' Muschamp said.

He added Brissett needed to understand "he's one snap way.''

Brissett "wasn't very happy'' when being told he was No. 2, the coach said.

"I would expect that,'' Muschamp said.

Brissett was the No. 2 quarterback last season behind John Brantley, after Driskel started the season as the backup. Now it's Brissett, also a sophomore, who must take a back seat. Driskel said he planned to talk to his teammate but that the conversation would remain private.

"Obviously it was tough,'' Driskel said of falling behind Brissett last year. "But I didn't let it get to me too much. At first I was real upset and going through a little tough time. But I had the support of family and friends and just stayed working hard.''

View the original article here

Houston offensive coordinator out after opener

Wow. That didn't take long.

One bad day was all it took for Houston to change offensive coordinators.

First-year Cougars head coach Tony Levine announced Monday that Mike Nesbitt had resigned his post and assistant Travis Bush would take over play-calling duties.

Houston dropped its season opener Saturday 30-13 to Texas State, a school in its first full season in the Western Athletic Conference that is still transitioning from the Football Championship Subdivision.

"We wish Mike the best in his future endeavors and thank him for his contributions to the Houston program," Levine said in a statement. "We are confident in Travis and his play-calling ability moving forward."

The statement said neither school officials nor Levine would have further comment.

In addition to breaking in a new coaching staff with the departure of Kevin Sumlin for Texas A&M, the Cougars also lost record-setting quarterback Case Keenum to graduation. Successor David Piland did have some game experience prior to this season, but he managed only 211 passing yards completing 17-of-44 attempts in Saturday's loss.

Houston's 13 points and 326 yards of offense were its lowest figures since a 56-7 loss to Tulsa in 2007.

Bush served as offensive coordinator at UT-San Antonio last season. Prior to that, he was co-coordinator at — Texas State. The Cougars host Louisiana Tech, another WAC team, Saturday.

View the original article here

Video: Toussaint suspended for opener

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Isaac prompts S. Alabama to postpone opener

With Tropical Storm Isaac heading for the Gulf Coast, University of South Alabama athletics director Joel Erdmann announced that the start of the Jaguars' first full season in the Bowl Subdivision could wait a couple of days.

USA's home opener against Texas-San Antonio, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been postponed until Saturday. Kickoff is now set for 2 p.m. ET.

"After long consideration of numerous factors impacting the game, the logical decision is to move the game to Saturday," Erdmann said in a statement. "We encourage our fans to come out, enjoy a great football game and support the Jaguars."

Isaac is expected to strengthen to a Category I hurricane. On its present track, it will make landfall early Wednesday morning on the Louisiana coast.

Farther inland, a pair of Division II games scheduled for Thursday in Arkansas have been moved up a day to get ahead of the storm. Ouachita Baptist's home game against Northwestern Oklahoma is now set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, with neighboring Henderson State to kick off an hour later against Southern Nazarene (Okla.).

View the original article here

It's a family affair for the Roccos in opener

There is plenty of familiarity between the Virginia and Richmond staffs, set to face one another in the season opener Saturday.

You can add a player connection into the mix as well.

[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Alan DiazVirginia's season opener will be mean more to Cavs starting QB Michael Rocco thanks to all the familial connections.Virginia starting quarterback Michael Rocco will try to beat his Uncle Danny, ready to coach his first game for the Spiders.

"I’m not quite sure the amount of family members and friends we’ll have but I’m sure it will be a lot," Rocco said during a news conference in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this week. "We’ll see at the end of the week, but it’s going to be a great weekend for my family. It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be competitive and that’s the way it always is in the Rocco family."

There are enough connections between the staffs to make your head hurt. Danny Rocco spent time as an assistant at Virginia with current coach Mike London, before London left for Richmond. Then Rocco went on to become head coach at Liberty. Now here is London entering his third year with the Hoos, while Rocco takes over where London made his mark. There are various ties between the assistants on the staff as well.

Lots of six degrees of Kevin Bacon going on in this game. Well, actually, the connections are much closer than that.

"It is kind of weird to be on the opposite side, knowing you have friends on the other side," London said. "You have players that you sat in their homes and talked to them about the education and experience they'll have at Richmond.

"It will be a good game. Guys are excited about playing the game. We haven't won a game in two games, last two games. Looking to get that feel that comes with victory again and kind of start off with what we hopefully feel will be a productive season."

For the Roccos, football just runs in the family. Michael's brother, Chris, played at Liberty. His father, Frank Rocco Jr., is the head coach at a high school, Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, Va. His grandfather, Frank Rocco Sr., was a long-time assistant at Penn State. Michael Rocco had a chance to play at Liberty, but took the scholarship to UVa instead.

His uncle played a big role in getting him there.

"A lot of my friends went to Liberty, my brother and sister both went to Liberty," Michael Rocco said. "It was a family school, but my uncle was one of the big helpers in getting me to pursue Division I football at the highest level. He encouraged me to play at the highest level I could. He was not pressuring me at all to go to Liberty. I felt no pressure to go there. I have a lot of ties there, but I wanted to go to the highest level I could."

View the original article here

New Penn State staff prepares for opener

Editor's note: Ivan Maisel has the latest from Penn State as the Nittany Lions prepare for their season opener versus Ohio.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, defensive coordinator Ted Roof conferred with head coach Bill O'Brien to change the game plan and put the Nittany Lions in shoulder pads for practice Monday. Roof wanted his defense to get some short-yardage and goal-line work as Penn State prepares to open the season against Ohio.

It's unusual to hit on Monday. But as Roof explained, "I don't know what normal is. This is the first one."

Lost in the discussion of everything else that has surrounded Penn State over the Past nine months is the actual transition of a new staff learning to work together. Football is a notoriously who-you-know business, and O'Brien, like most head coaches, called his guys together to come work for him at Penn State. Tight ends coach John Strollo came from Ball State. He and running backs coach Charles London worked with O'Brien for Roof at Duke.

"When he went to the Patriots," Strollo said of O'Brien, "I kept calling him and bugging him. 'Don't forget about me.'"

In the offensive staff meeting, you could tell the coaches had a history. O'Brien, receivers coach Stan Hixon and offensive line coach Mac McWhorter worked together at Georgia Tech. They interjected anecdotes from their days under offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen. Though the staff sat at a long oval table, O'Brien ran the meeting from the corner of the room. He sat at a desktop computer to work the video he had assembled of the Ohio defense.

Roof had never worked with defensive line coach Larry Johnson or linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, the two assistants whom O'Brien hired from Joe Paterno's staff.

"One of the reasons that I hired Ted," O'Brien said, "is his ability to get along with people."

Roof, like quarterback coach Charlie Fisher, has an accent that you could pour over waffles (for extra thick, listen to McWhorter). He made sure that he, Johnson, Vanderlinden and secondary coach John Butler learned how to work together.

"We've had three dry runs with headsets, sidelines, to rehearse the whole thing," Roof said. "Who's going to make the call, who's responsible for signing it in, who's going to be quiet when they're making a call. They are good guys and good coaches. As long as we're on the same page, we'll be fine. It's my job to tie it all together."

As for practice in shoulder pads, O'Brien liked what he saw. He liked the focus -- perhaps because, for the first time all season, he turned off the music at practice. He liked enough of what he saw that he cut it 20 minutes short.

"I don't know much about what I'm doing," he said afterward, "but I sensed that they had given really good effort to that point. A lot of the things we cut we're going to get to later in the week. It's the first day of school. Some of them have to eat and get to study hall by 7:30."

As study hall began, the offensive staff began a meeting to watch the practice video.

View the original article here

Connor Shaw will be ready to go for opener

South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw missed practice Thursday because of back spasms, but they're not serious and the Gamecocks expect him to be in the lineup when they open the season Thursday at Vanderbilt.

Friday was a scheduled off day for the Gamecocks, and they will return to practice on Saturday.

Coach Steve Spurrier said on his radio show Thursday night that Shaw went to the training room to receive treatment after experiencing the back spasms. Spurrier indicated Shaw might have tweaked his back lifting weights.

The good news is that it's not something that will keep Shaw out of the opener. Moreover, never underestimate the Head Ball Coach's penchant for playing a few mind games with the opponent.

Either way, it's a reminder of how quickly things could change for the Gamecocks if Shaw did go down for any period of time. They have nobody behind Shaw at quarterback with any meaningful experience. Sophomore Dylan Thompson is Shaw's backup. Spurrier said the staff has confidence in Thompson, but Thompson has attempted just two career passes and played sparingly in four games last season.

View the original article here

Auburn will be without Dismukes in opener

The last thing Auburn needed this close to next Saturday's season opener against Clemson was an off-the-field incident.

Moreover, one of the last players Auburn could afford to lose was sophomore center Reese Dismukes, who was a freshman All-American last season and the closest to a sure thing on Auburn's inexperienced offensive line.

As fate would have it, Auburn will be without Dismukes next Saturday when it faces Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in Atlanta. Auburn coach Gene Chizik suspended Dismukes on Saturday following Dismukes' arrest early Saturday morning on a charge of public intoxication.

Chizik's statement didn't specify how long Dismukes would be suspended, but it will at least be for the opener. Auburn plays at Mississippi State the second week of the season.

That Chizik would suspend such a key player for such a key game over a relatively minor charge tells you all you need to know about where Chizik's tolerance level is for off-the-field nonsense. He's obviously sending a message to his team for the long term. After all, it hasn't been the rosiest of offseasons for the Tigers.

Props to Chizik for taking a strong stand. It takes guts to put your best offensive lineman on the bench for an opener as pivotal as this one. Then again, Clemson will be in the same boat. All-America receiver Sammy Watkins will miss the first two games following his drug-related arrest in May.

The loss of Dismukes presents a couple of different problems for Auburn, which was already lacking experience on its offensive line. Dismukes started all 13 games at center last season, and his backup, sophomore Tunde Fariyike, has never started in a game. That means Auburn could have as many as three or four offensive linemen making their first career starts against Clemson. Three freshmen are in the rotation -- redshirt freshman Greg Robinson at left tackle, true freshman Avery Young at right tackle and true freshman Alex Kozan at guard.

There's also a chance that Auburn offensive line coach Jeff Grimes could do some shuffling. Senior guard John Sullen and Kozan could be possibilities at center, and if Sullen does makes the move to center, redshirt freshman Christian Westerman would then move up the depth chart at guard.

However it shakes out, Auburn is going to open the season with a handful of guys seeing their first meaningful action in the offensive line.

The other thing to consider is that sophomore Kiehl Frazier will be making his first start at quarterback, which is unnerving enough. Now, he's going to be taking snaps from somebody other than the starting center and the center he worked the most with this preseason.

That's never an ideal combination -- a first-time starter at quarterback and a new center.

View the original article here