KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010 / SPORTS
7A
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Big 12 anticipates home openers
Senior safety Chris Harris makes a tackle during Kansas' home opener against Northern Colorado last season. Kansas won the game 49-3. The Jayhawks had anticipated the win against the FCS school.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops knows all too well the risks of starting a season against another powerhouse team.
Just picture Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford writhing in pain with a shoulder injury in the first half of the Sooners' season-opening loss to BYU last September.
"It's only good if you win and you don't get your quarterback hurt," Stoops said Monday. "It's high risk, and I think fairly low reward. You're not really rewarded for it as much as you used to be for playing a tough schedule. Pretty much everybody gets ranked in the column depending on wins and losses."
Every Big 12 team is favored to win its opener, with lopsided scores also expected from No. 5 Texas against Rice and eighth-ranked Nebraska over Western Kentucky, which has lost an NCAA-high 20 games in a row.
Wildcats coach Bill Snyder would prefer to play somebody else.
Kansas State is even a slight favorite at home over UCLA, which beat the Wildcats 23-9 last season in Los Angeles.
"I'm not a big fan of playing a nationally prominent program in the early stages. The conference schedule is tough enough." Snyder said during the Big 12 coaches' conference call. "Our preference is to open up with a schedule that you can build into your conference. When the conference schedule begins, it's going to be eight weeks of very, very, very competitive football."
There are season-opening rivalry
games at neutral sites for Missouri against Illinois in St. Louis and Colorado against Colorado State in Denver. But the Tigers and Buffaloes are both double-digit favorites.
Texas A&M (vs. Stephen F. Austin) and Baylor (vs. Sam Houston State) open against FCS teams while Turner Gill makes his Kansas debat at home against North Dakota State, a lower-division team that went 3-8 last season.
"We're not concerned about who is the name of the opponent," Gill said. "It really doesn't matter who the opponent is from our standpoint. We're trying to get going and get going in the right way."
Iowa State begins its second
season under coach Paul Rhoads as only a slight favorite at home Thursday night against Northern Illinois, a team filled with return-
"We have a very, very challenging opener," Rhoads said. "When these schedules are done (in advance), who's to say who's going to be real good, or coming off this kind of season or that kind of season.
a favorite in the Mid-American Conference.
You always play the first game as it arrives."
Cowboys beat No. 13 Georgia by two touchdowns.
Oklahoma State began the 2007 season with a three-touchdown loss at Georgia. In last year's opener at Stillwater, Okla., the ninth-ranked
"Most schools that are in major conferences see a tremendous amount of competition."
"Most schools that are in major conferences see a tremendous
MIKE GUNDY Dallas Cowboys coach
amount of competition week to week," Cowboys coach Mike Gundy said. "When you play in these leagues, I just don't know many coaches that are fired up about playing difficult nonconference schedules. You put one more tough week on your players."
Oklahoma State
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Publicists help gain recognition for Heisman
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
There, perched on steeds, wearing leather helmets with footballs in hands, are the Four Horsemen: Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley and Harry Stubdlreher.
For those under the impression that promotion of college football players is a latter-day thing, we give you a photograph on the back pages of the Notre Dame media guide.
This was 1924, you understand.
The photo was orchestrated by a student publicity aide to the fabled coach Knute Rockne, to capitalize on a boary passage penned by the famous sportswriter Grantland Rice. Rice borrowed from the Biblical references to pestilence, war, famine and death and wrote that the Irish had their own irrepressible forces.
This was 1924, you understand. No doubt, the Four Horsemen would be amazed by some of the creations of publicists in the near-century that ensued: toy race cars, clocks, full-length posters, oats
(yes, oats), billboards in Times Square, notebooks, CDs, videos, etc.
Even as you read this, some enterprising publicist might be shepherding to the post office a shipment of camshafts, shetrock or garden tools to the nation's
media, with the hope of stealing an awards vote or two for his star player.
Nothing too crazy is expected out of Washington to advance the Heisman candidacy of lake Locker, which is mostly in keeping with the times. In an age of instant media, the
early promotions of the Heisman.
Promotionally speaking, we've come full circle. Notwithstanding the Four Horsemen, there wasn't much traction, or effort, put into
assumption has taken hold that if Locker and his team are good enough, he has a chance to win it.
Then came the late 1970s and '80s, which saw all sorts of kitschy efforts to capture votes.
Now, save for the obligatory CD or promotional postcard, that era has mostly given way to the reality that nothing will trump simple
"It was necessary 20 or 30 years ago. There wasn't much television, ESPN, the Internet."
ROGER VALDISERRI retired publicist
performance.
"It was necessary 20 or 30 years ago," said Roger Valdiserri, now retired as Notre Dame publicist, a job he held from the mid-1960s to 1995. "There wasn't that much television, ESPN, the Internet, YouTube."
The first man
The first man widely credited with successfully winning a Heisman for his candidate was Oregon State publicist John Eggers, who championed Terry Baker in 1962. Eggers didn't promote so much as he informed.
Coast to attack the East Coast media with facts and figures," says Rod Commons, longtime Washington State publicist who got his start working under Eggers at OSU.
Every week - through regular mail, yet - Eggers updated media members of Baker's latest exploits
"John always stayed whenever he could and worked the game," Commons said. "He was very good friends with a lot of college football writers around the country."
He had another tack. Back in the day, a team of college all-stars would annually take on the previous year's NFL champion in August at Soldier Field in Chicago, which coincided with the national convention of college sports publicists.
"He was the first on the West
USA BASKETBALL
Today, the Heisman is presumed to be won on the field, thanks to "College GameDay" and "Mike and Mike in the Morning" and abundant Web sites. Yet name recognition isn't automatic.
USA scores first win versus Brazil
Despite Brazil topping first half USA wins 70-68
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISTANBUL — The United States survived its first tough test at the world championships, edging Brazil 70-68 on Monday when Leandro Barbosa's shot rattled out at the buzzer.
Kevin Durant scored 27 points and Chauncey Billups added 15 for the Americans (3-0), who essentially clinched Group B with the victory. But this was further proof that a world title won't come easily for this young U.S. team — if it comes at all.
After the Americans trailed most of the first 2 and a half quarters, Lamar Odom's dunk with 7:14 left put them ahead 64-62. But they couldn't build on the lead during a tense final few minutes, and Brazil had two chances to send the game to overtime.
Following a miss by Billups, Brazil got the ball and Marcelo Huertas was fouled on a drive to the basket with 3.5 seconds remaining. He missed the first free throw and then the second intentionally, tracking it down in the corner and firing it underneath to Barbosa, who up put a shot over Kevin Love, only to have it bounce off the back and front of the rim.
Barbosa finished with 14 points after a strong start for Brazil (2-1). Marcus Vinicius scored 16, and Tiago Splitter had 13 while batting foul trouble in the second
With NBA big men Nene, Anderson Varejao and Splitter, Brazil was considered one of the teams with enough size to topple the undersized Americans. Nene had to pull out with an injury and Varejao sat out again while continuing to rest a sprained right ankle, so the Brazilians turned to a speed game to lead for much of the game.
half
They just couldn't finish the upset, leaving the Americans needing only a victory over Iran or Tunisia, the bottom two teams in Group B, or another Brazil loss to earn the top seed from the group and three full days off before meeting the No. 4 seed from Group A on Sept. 6.
The Americans have plenty to work on before worrying about that, after needing a huge night from Durant and 31 minutes from Billups, the old man of the team at 33, to pull this one out.
The U.S. team has none of its 2008 Olympic gold medalists, and nowhere was it more apparent than in the match with Barbosa. When the teams last met, in their 2007 Olympic qualifier, Barbosa entered as the tournament's leading scorer before Kobe Bryant led a defensive effort that held him to four points on 1-of-7 shooting in an easy U.S. win.
There's no defenders like Bryant here, and Barbosa took advantage in the first quarter by making two 3-pointers and scoring eight points. Brazil made 12 of its first 16 shots in the period and its first four 3-pointers, streaks that were snapped when Barbosa was just short on a halfcourt heave at the buzzer, leaving them with a 28-22 lead.
You Have an Option Exercise it!
Go the Extra Mile
Discover the Difference
It's Worth it!
NOT your ordinary bicycle store
More Bang for Your Buck - Everyday! The Friendliest Shop in Town
842-6363 2121 Kasold · North of Hy-Vee on Clinton Parkway
Voted Best Pizza in Lawrence!
Rudy Tuesday
2 Small Pizzas
2 toppings
2 drinks
FreeDelivery!
ONLY
$1299
pluspax
749-0055 • 704 Mass. • rudyspizzeria.com
Jacksonville 700 Monterey Way
785-841-4935
www.midwestpm.com