College Football Notebook – May 23, 2013

This will likely be a light notebook post today as I am working on some assignments and web site maintenance, but here we go.

Chris Ault honored by Nevada

Chris Ault will forever be a Nevada man. Photo: Getty Images

As he should be, Chris Ault will be honored by the University of Nevada by having the football field named in his honor. For a guy to stick with a program like Nevada for as long as Ault did is truly remarkable. I would like to think that Ault had some opportunities to take on a higher profile job at some point during his 28-year coaching career, but he managed to make Nevada football something worth watching. A two-time WAC coach of the year and a College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Ault is also credited with the invention of the Pistol offense, which continues to create an impact not only at the college level but also in the NFL to this day.

On a related note, while looking up something on Ault’s career I was reminded that there was once a bowl game called the Salad Bowl. Nevada played in the 1948 Salad Bowl (during the 1947 season) and defeated Lone Star Conference champion North Texas State Teachers College, 13-6. You know North Texas State Teachers College today simply as North Texas. That was the first bowl game Nevada participated in, but they almost did not participate. The team voted not to play in the game for reasons I am unable to verify, but they ended up playing in the game after a threat of a lawsuit (at least according to Wikipedia). If there are any historians out there who can shed some light on this, I’m all ears. … Continue Reading

College Football Notebook – May 22, 2013

The American wants a bowl game too

If baseball won’t fill the seats, might as well give football a shot.

The SEC and Big 12 have their deal with the Sugar Bowl. The Big Ten and Pac 12 have the Rose Bowl. The ACC has a deal to stay in Miami with an Orange Bowl spot reserved. Now The American wants to stay in Miami as well, despite being essentially locked out of the Orange Bowl. With no spot available in the Orange Bowl, The American is looking to create a brand new bowl game, with Marlins Park potentially serving as the host site according to a report by Tampa Bay Times reporter Greg Auman.

The idea would mean we would have four bowl games being played in baseball stadiums. The Pinstripe Bowl (Yankee Stadium), Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl (Tropicana Field) and Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (AT&T Park) have proven that hosting bowl game sin baseball venues is possible, and Marlins Park should be more than big enough to host a football game if this plan gets that far.

But two bowl games in Miami? That is an idea that may need a little more support from the city, although multiple bowl games in the same city is certainly nothing new. New Orleans will host up to three bowl games in some years between the Sugar Bowl and New Orleans Bowl and a BCS Championship Game every now and then. Orlando also has hosted multiple games with the Russell Athletics Bowl and Capital One Bowl. The odds of playing a second bowl game in Sun Life Stadium, the home of the Miami Hurricanes, Miami Dolphins and the Orange Bowl, are probably slim. This makes Marlins Park the obvious choice.

It also makes it the most likely to receive support from the city of Miami, which forked over a large sum of tax payer dollars to construct a baseball stadium that struggles to see 14,000 fans show up on a  regular basis. If baseball is not going to fill the seats, you might as well find as many ways to pack the seats as possible.

Whatever happens with a bowl game in Marlins Park, please do not let Jeffrey Loria have any role in it. … Continue Reading

Wyoming has fun with numbers, and so do I

It is possible to skew numbers any number of ways to make yourself look better, as evidenced by someone behind the keyboard handling Wyoming’s Twitter account today.

Wyoming plays in one of college football’s premier conferences! @themwc #ThinkWYO twitter.com/CowboysFootbal…

— Wyoming Cowboy FB (@CowboysFootball) May 17, 2013

If you know me, then hopefully you know how much of a fan of the Mountain West Conference I actually am, so please do not continue reading I am simply attempting to squash the conference as a whole. But let’s just lay out the numbers and keep everything fair and balanced on this discussion. … Continue Reading

Fresno State also adding a white helmet in 2013

Next up in the white helmet craze is Fresno State. In a design move that appears to fall in line with the thinking of Texas Tech and Nevada, Fresno State will be showing off a white helmet as an alternate look in 2013. Have a look…

Fresno Sate is adding a white helmet to their 2013 uniform line-up, it seems.

But wait, there’s more to the potential 2013 Fresno State uniform line-up…

… Continue Reading

Nevada introducing silver and white helmets as alternates

The white alternate helmet seems to be continuing (and more are on the way). A day after catching a glimpse of Texas Tech’s supposed white helmet for the 2013 season, we now catch wind that Nevada could be the next in line for a white helmet. And, it seems, a silver helmet.

Cameron Hartsfield, a defensive back commitment for Nevada’s Class of 2013 out of Texas, shared a photo (via Twitter) of three Nevada helmets on a recent recruiting visit. In it we see Nevada’s standard blue helmet with logo. We also see what appears to be a silver helmet with the logo and a white version sits on top of the other two.

Is Nevada introducing a white and silver helmet in addition to their standard blue helmet? It looks like it.

… Continue Reading