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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sioux Empire Kids to Spend Day with Detroit Lions Left Tackle Riley Reiff




On Saturday, March 28, 2015 Boys & Girls Clubs of the Sioux Empire Club members will spend the day with Parkston, SD native Riley Reiff, Detroit Lions Left Tackle.

March 24, 2015

Sioux Falls, SD -

Reiff, who has a track record of giving back in South Dakota, is excited to partner with the Boys & Girls Club to make it a special day for members of the Club.

1:00pm-3:00pm Reiff and Club members will be at Sioux Falls Scheels to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

3:30pm Reiff and Club members will stop by, Boys & Girls Club sponsor, Buffalo Wild Wings on Louise Ave to have wings and meet fans.

7:00pm Reiff and Club members will be recognized on field at the Sioux Falls Storm’s season opener and sign autographs during halftime.

Eight Club members who were recognized for their achievement with the Buffalo Wild Wings Flag Football program last fall are honored to join Riley in the day’s activities.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Coaches' contracts reflect playoff


New postseason means new incentives for college coaches to win it all

March 24, 2015
By Heather Dinich | ESPN.com

At Clemson, winning a national championship in the College Football Playoff is valued at $900,000 -- that's the bonus coach Dabo Swinney is guaranteed if the Tigers win it all. It's more than any incentive promised to the four coaches who actually made the semifinal round of the inaugural playoff, including Nick Saban.

It's even more than Michigan's Money Man, Jim Harbaugh, whose total bonus is $800,000 for winning a title in Ann Arbor.

It's on par, though, with Colorado, where a national title is worth $750,000 to coach Mike MacIntyre.

Meanwhile, Cal coach Sonny Dykes is still waiting for his contract to be updated to include the playoff, but he would have gotten $50,000 for taking the Golden Bears to the BCS national championship.

The disparity in incentives for winning college football's biggest prize? Priceless.

"We pay close attention to the marketplace, which is much easier to do on guaranteed compensation than it is on incentive compensation," said Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens, "because incentive compensation can be all over the board."

He's right -- it is.

ESPN.com obtained the contracts of 34 FBS coaches representing each Power 5 conference, and there's a wide range of incentive money for winning the national title. The bigger lump sums are because the bonuses are cumulative. Harbaugh, for example, gets $300,000 for making the semifinals and another $500,000 for winning the championship. Swinney gets $400,000 for a CFP semifinal appearance AND $400,000 for a CFP championship appearance, AND another $100,000 for winning the title.

Many contracts were written before the playoff began and still include BCS language and polls, but some schools still accounted for the possibility of it. Other programs haven't been as proactive in updating the coaches' contracts to reflect the new postseason, which now includes semifinal games for the top four teams. The contracts of the four coaches who advanced to the semifinal round in 2014 are all up-to-date and hovered around the same amount:

• Ohio State coach Urban Meyer got a $250,000 bonus for reaching the inaugural College Football Playoff title game, and earned the maximum postseason bonus of $400,000 for also winning the Big Ten East Division and the overall Big Ten title.

• Mullens recently raised Mark Helfrich's bonus from $250,000 to $500,000 if he wins a national title in the playoff.

• Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has a $500,000 bonus in his contract for winning the national title, but he would also receive $200,000 for a top-five ranking by the selection committee, and $200,000 for an undefeated season.

• Saban's contract states he would have received $300,000 for playing in the national championship game OR $400,000 for winning the title. Swinney's most recent contract was finalized in January 2014, when athletic director Dan Radakovich knew the playoff was imminent. Radakovich, one of the 12 members of the College Football Playoff selection committee, said it made sense to alter the contract to acknowledge the "new reality" of what was happening with the sport's postseason.

"It was really important to myself and the agent that if Dabo has a phenomenal year that he has the ability to be compensated at a really, really good level," said Radakovich. "It also means that in the reality of things, should that circumstance occur, there would need to be a renegotiation in the remainder of the contract, depending upon when in the length of the contract that occurs.

"The playoff has helped create the market," Radakovich said. "The playoff has increased the revenue opportunities for athletic programs and therefore because those revenues are coming in, if you have a successful coach, you have more resources by which to compensate them and make sure they stay at your institution."

There's not necessarily a correlation between a coaches' longevity at the school, or the name-brand appeal of the program. At Colorado, Mike MacIntyre is guaranteed $750,000 for winning the national title, but it's a cumulative bonus that also includes $100,000 for playing in the league championship game, and another $75,000 for an eight-win season. First-year Nebraska coach Mike Riley isn't too far behind with a $650,000 bonus for winning the national title.

"As revenues continue to escalate in college football, coaching contracts will continue to escalate also," said Neil Cornrich, an agent who represents Bob Stoops, Kirk Ferentz and Todd Graham, among many others. At Auburn, coach Gus Malzahn's contract was recently amended to include playoff language. He would get $500,000 for winning the national title, OR $300,000 for reaching the title game or semifinal -- a $150,000 increase from the previous contract for reaching the national championship but not winning it. The old contract promised $100,000 for playing in a BCS bowl, while the amendment includes $200,000 for playing in a New Year's Six Bowl.

"The College Football Playoff, that is our goal now," said Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs.

"Our contracts have changed to represent that." Jacobs attributed the disparity between coaching incentives throughout the country to basic capitalism. "It really is just like a salesperson or a COO -- you get rewarded for good will at your craft, and when you don't, you don't get that reward," he said. "Whether your sell hospital beds or win football games, it's all about how well did you do?"

Malzahn also has the chance to earn another $450,000 in bonuses if he finishes with 14 wins AND wins the SEC title, AND finishes with a top-five ranking by the selection committee.

"We put top five in there because with only four teams, four and five could be alike and the committee not pick us," Jacobs said. "People could argue, why don't you say top eight or top six? We say one past the top four that's fair for right now, and they got it right this past year."

The contracts show that experience and tenure don't necessarily add up to the biggest bonuses. K-State coach Bill Snyder, a member of the most recent College Football Hall of Fame class, receives an extra $350,000 for winning the national title. Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, the country's winningest active coach, has a $200,000 bonus in his contract for winning a national title.

Beamer wasn't available for comment, and hasn't done any interviews since his throat surgery in early December.

"With him it's never been about money, and his love of Virginia Tech overrides everything in his mind," said Beamer's son and running backs coach Shane Beamer. "His first response would be that Virginia Tech has been very good to him, and he's very fortunate for what he has and what this program is about."

For some, the trophy might be incentive enough.

Pro Day Tour: Weisman States Case




Iowa fullback Mark Weisman outperformed most of the running backs who were invited to the Scouting Combine. He has a John Kuhn-like skill-set — which is something to keep in mind given Kuhn's uncertain future. (Caylor Arnold/USA TODAY)

Could Iowa’s Mark Weisman be the Green Bay Packers’ starting fullback next season?

The Packers haven’t re-signed Pro Bowler John Kuhn. Kuhn, a free agent, will turn 33 on Sept. 9 and it appears the team hasn’t shown a ton of interest in making a move to bring back the popular fullback.

Weisman, despite not being picked for the Scouting Combine, made his statement to be the No. 1 fullback in this year’s draft. Weisman turned in a jaw-dropping workout at Iowa’s pro day on Monday.

According to a source, who used words like “monster” and “freakish,” Weisman (6-0, 240) ran his 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds.
Of the 31 running backs who ran the 40 at the Combine, only 12 were faster than Weisman. Moreover ...

— Of the 25 backs to run the three-cone drill at the Combine, only four were faster than Weisman’s 6.88.
— Of the 32 backs who did the broad jump, only four jumped further than Weisman’s 10 feet, 3 inches.

— Of the 26 backs who performed the short shuttle, only nine were faster than Weisman’s 4.17.
— Of the 29 backs who did the vertical jump, only eight jumped higher than Weisman’s 36 inches.

More than just a workout warrior, Weisman’s career totals include 599 rushes for 2,602 yards and 32 touchdowns over just three seasons after transferring from Air Force. As a senior, he was a second-team Academic All-American by rushing for 812 yards. His 16 rushing touchdowns rank third-best in school history.

With his ball-carrying skills, intelligence and athleticism, Weisman appears to be a perfect fit for Green Bay’s offense — just in case the Packers are moving on from their popular fullback.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Mike Vrabel: A League of His Own - Ohio State's career sacks leader



CAREER SACKS: OHIO STATE'S LEADERS

March 17, 2015

REMY'S BLOG


Mike Vrabel is Ohio State's sacks leader.

A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN

Mike Vrabel is the only Ohio State football player with over 30 sacks for his career. Vrabel's 36 sacks are 8.5 more than the player listed second on Ohio State's all-time sacks list.
What is amazing is that Vrabel (36) and Matt Finkes (25) combined for 61 sacks between 1993 and 1996. I'm sure the quarterbacks playing in 1997 were very happy that Vrabel and Finkes graduated in 1996.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The Legend of Brandon Scherff




He was once just your typical rebound-grabbing, tape-measure home-run-mashing, serve-and-volleying, trombone-playing 270-pound high school quarterback. Then Brandon Scherff kept growing until he was the NFL draft's best—and nastiest—offensive line prospect.

By Jenny Vrentas

March 11, 2015

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Randy Gregory hadn’t spent much time lined up on the right side of the defensive line that day. The matchup was better on the opposite side. Really, the matchup anywhere in the college football world was better than across from Brandon Scherff on a Saturday afternoon.

But in the second quarter of this game between Big Ten foes Iowa and Nebraska in November 2013, Gregory, the Huskers’ stud pass rusher, tried his chances against Scherff, Iowa’s left tackle. Future first-round draft pick vs. future first-round draft pick.

If you want to know why Brandon Scherff is widely considered the best offensive lineman in this year’s draft class, this play is a good starting point.
It was third-and-19, an obvious passing down. Gregory lined up far to the outside, the wide-nine technique, and Scherff engaged him in pass protection. But when the play broke down, and Hawkeyes quarterback Jake Rudock scrambled to his left, something unusual happened. Scherff shifted his momentum forward, converting in a split second from protector to aggressor. By the time he was done plowing Gregory out of the way, the two were across the field at the opposite hash marks. Point, Scherff.



Consider this analogy from Iowa offensive line coach Brian Ferentz: Imagine your car is stalled on the top of a hill and begins to roll back down. You’re trying to stop it. Then suddenly, not only are you stopping it from rolling down the hill, you’re pushing it back up the hill for five seconds. That’s what Scherff did on that play.

“And that’s what most offensive linemen cannot do,” says Ferentz. “By sustaining that block, he did something that separates him from probably 95 percent of the guys who play that position. And he did it against one of the most gifted athletes we’ve seen line up across from us.”

Scherff is the favorite to be the first offensive lineman taken in this spring’s draft. Hear enough about his legendary feats from across the Hawkeye state, and it’s easy to understand why.

* * *

The first time anyone from the University of Iowa laid eyes on Brandon Scherff was in 2008, at the Iowa high school state track and field championships. Scherff was a sophomore shot-putter, dueling against another Iowa football recruit.

Yes, it’s routine for the Hawkeyes to scout football players there. “Oh, absolutely,” says Reese Morgan, the longtime Iowa assistant who recruited Scherff. “That’s a great evaluation tool for us, especially if we’re looking at linemen,” which they always are. Morgan watched Scherff and his main competition go back and forth. With one throw left, it looked like Scherff would settle for second. But then he heaved the shot put nearly 60 feet to steal the title on his final throw. “It wasn’t technique,” Morgan recalls. “It was kind of his will, and his competitive spirit, and his power.”

Those are the attributes that have helped more Iowa offensive linemen get drafted into the NFL than those from any other school over the past decade (13 since 2003)—a fact that is printed on Brian Ferentz’s business card. Of course, when Iowa was recruiting Scherff he wasn’t a lineman. He was Denison High’s 270-pound quarterback. His favorite play was the quarterback sneak, which he’d call on his own pretty much any time the Monarchs had second-and-5 or less, and especially when he spotted an even defensive front. He’d motion to his center to go left and he’d go right, or vice versa, and then Scherff would surge through the opening for the first down. Scherff’s center, by the way, was 170 pounds soaking wet.

Growing up in Denison, a farm community of about 8,000 where the major industry is now beef and pork meat-packing plants, Scherff literally stood a head above his classmates. His athletic skills were just as obvious as his size. In little league, he hit a home run so far that it pinged off a nearby water tower. He was the rare youth soccer player adept at using both his left and right foot. As a fifth-grader, he won a regional to earn a trip to the NFL’s punt, pass and kick competition at the Metrodome. He won, and then got to watch his quarterback idol, Daunte Culpepper, start for the Vikings. As a high school freshman he competed in five sports—football, basketball, track and field, tennis and baseball—and also played trombone in the school band.

Scherff spent some winter breaks working at a Christmas tree farm, lugging trees out to customers. One of his high school coaches started calling him Paul Bunyan. The nickname was perfect considering Scherff’s local folklore.

He could lob a shot put 65 feet by his senior year, the farthest distance ever on the western side of the state.

On the baseball mound his signature pitch broke a foot, some uncategorizeable combination of a fastball and curveball that left one frustrated opposing coach asking, “What the heck was that?”

During a game at Creighton University he blasted a home run over dead center, a distance of 405 feet, past the fence and onto the adjacent road. “It’s probably still rolling down toward the Ameritrade ballpark down there,” says Don Lyons, his high school baseball coach.

He racked up as many as 20 rebounds in a single basketball game, and he finished his high school career with a school-record 613; second place on Denison’s career list is 474. “He reminded me of Moses Malone,” says Lyons, who also coached him in basketball.

But football was Scherff’s future, specifically the offensive line. Iowa coaches broke the news to him during a recruiting visit, and Scherff understood. He had literally outgrown the quarterback position. Halfway through his junior year, Denison coach Dave Wiebers called him into his office on a Monday and told him they were switching him to tight end. Scherff put his hand in the dirt for the first time during a practice that afternoon, started at tight end on Friday and caught a touchdown pass on the opening drive.

As a senior, Scherff moved to right tackle for the simple reason that Denison liked to run the ball, and run it to the right. With a playoff spot on the line, Denison had to come from behind to win a game in the final minute. The Monarchs had a third-and-short in their own territory, so Wiebers called a run right behind Scherff to get the first down. Scherff plowed the left defensive end 10 yards downfield, and the running back scampered behind him, slipping through for a 58-yard touchdown run. (On the ensuing possession, Scherff bull-rushed as a defensive end and sealed the game with a sack.)

“Donna Reed from It’s A Wonderful Life is from Denison, and that’s on the water tower here,” Wiebers says. “But I think Brandon’s taking a step on Donna Reed.”

***








Iowa’s genesis as O-line U. began when Kirk Ferentz arrived as the school’s position coach in 1981 and developed three first-round draft picks in the 1980s. After a brief stop in Maine and six seasons in the NFL, Ferentz returned to the Hawkeyes in 1999 as a head coach. In two stints covering 25 seasons in Iowa City, he can’t remember many freshmen coming into the program weighing more than 300 pounds. Scherff was one of them.

The coaching staff’s challenge was clear: mold Scherff into the program’s next great offensive lineman. Scherff hadn’t lifted until his junior year of high school and had eaten everything in front of him in anticipation of being a Big Ten offensive lineman. Chris Doyle, Iowa’s strength and conditioning coach, put him on a strict eating schedule that shaved off eight percentage points of body fat and harnessed Scherff’s brute strength. Last summer, a video of Scherff hang-cleaning 443 pounds three times (a school record) went viral. “It was a very typical day of training,” Doyle says matter-of-factly.

As a sophomore, Scherff shared time at left guard with Matt Tobin, now with the Philadelphia Eagles. When Riley Reiff entered the draft after his junior year, Scherff stepped in at left tackle. Iowa’s last three blindside protectors: Scherff, Reiff, Bryan Bulaga.

There’s a tradition among Iowa offensive linemen. Every Saturday morning during the spring, starting at 6:30, they do skill work. It’s a routine Scherff has kept up with as he prepares for the NFL draft. This is where the athletic versatility that comes from playing five sports comes in handy. Scherff’s agile feet were developed on the tennis court, his power honed by heaving a shot put, and his competitive drive heightened by years of battling for rebounds. And while it’s irrelevant to his NFL projection, Iowa coaches are only half-joking when they say Scherff might have been the team’s best punt returner. Sure-handed. Unusual hand-eye coordination for a big fella.

“You know that friend we all have who can just pick up a musical instrument and play it? For Brandon, football is like that. Football just makes sense to him,” says Brian Ferentz, who spent three seasons overseeing tight ends on Bill Belichick’s New England staff before returning to Iowa.
“Rob Gronkowski was like that. It just made sense to him. He may not be able to verbalize to you exactly why he did something, but it’s perfect. You couldn’t coach it any better than he did it.”

True to form for an offensive lineman, Scherff isn’t a big talker. That’s something he learned from his parents: Bob Scherff, the transportation director for the Denison school district, and wife Cindy, an elementary school teacher. But a switch flips for Scherff when he starts watching football highlights.

There are plenty from his career at Iowa. In another clip from that same 2013 game against Nebraska, he sprinted 30 yards downfield to try to clear a path to the end zone on a sweep play. One of his favorites is a play against Pitt. A blitzer thinks he has a free path to the quarterback until Scherff stuffs him like a bully slamming his victim into a locker, then drops him. There’s one clip in which he drives an Ohio State defensive back all the way to the sidelines, heeding Brian Ferentz’s instructions to finish the block until the refs pull their flag, but before they throw it. Later in his highlight reel, he takes another Buckeyes defender and flips him to the turf.

“You can feel when they are going to tip,” Scherff says, a grin peeking out. “Then you just take those two extra steps, and torque them and tip them. Brings back good memories.”

The morning of the football banquet that followed Scherff’s junior year, Kirk and Brian Ferentz sat down with him and his parents. Kirk Ferentz told Scherff he was in a rare position where he had the game won: He could leave early for the NFL draft and would probably be selected in the same vicinity that Bulaga and Reiff were (each went 23rd overall, to the Packers and Lions, respectively). Or, he could return for his senior season, and the NFL would be waiting for him a year later.

Scherff didn’t need much time to decide. He wasn’t ready to leave college yet, and he thought he could get better if he stayed. On the way out of the meeting, he turned to his parents and asked, “Is it O.K. if I come back?”

As a senior he won the Outland Trophy, given to college football’s best interior lineman, and he also added another chapter to his legend—the time he tore his meniscus, and only missed one practice. The injury happened in the first half of a September game against Ball State. He came back after halftime and finished the game, then found out Monday night he had a small tear in the meniscus of his right knee. Tuesday morning, he had a knee scope. Scherff knew if he took pain medicine the doctors would have to hold him out, so he refused it. Wednesday morning, he lifted. Thursday, he practiced with the team. And on Saturday, he started against Iowa State. Kirk Ferentz has never coached a player who was back on the field that quickly after a knee scope, much less one who was also just months away from being a first-round draft pick.

During the combine medical exams, some team doctors thought there was a misprint on his record. “It says you missed one practice. Do you mean one game?” one doctor asked him. “No,” Scherff replied. “One practice.”


* * *

The vetting process for expected first-round picks is thorough. One NFL team’s director of security recently paid a visit to Denison. He sat in Wiebers’ office for about 45 minutes, recording the conversation. Wiebers had gotten about a half-dozen questionnaires in the mail from NFL teams in December and January, but this was his first in-person visit. They went through a list of questions: Do you know his brother and sisters? (Brandon is the third of four, and his older brother played center for Denison). What are his hobbies? (Hunting and fishing). When was the last time you talked to him? (A few days ago).

The security director told Wiebers his next stop was the town’s police station, so he asked him again, “You really have no dirt on this guy?” Wiebers thought for a second, and came up with something. Scherff used to work on the high school grounds in the summertime, trimming weeds and mowing the lawns, his legs hanging off the riding mower. “We had just bought a new batting cage,” Wiebers told the director of security, “and he got too close to it. Cut a big ol’ hole through our batting cage net.”

That’s pretty much who Scherff is—a small-town Midwestern kid who happens to be blessed with rare athleticism. In high school, after Friday night football games he’d fish with teammates at one of the farm ponds. He hunts coyotes (he bagged 11 in one trip), deer (his prize was a seven-point buck)—whatever is in season. Last Wednesday night, to step outside the pre-draft pressure cooker, he and a buddy drove a truck onto a frozen pond just outside Iowa City. They set up a portable ice shanty, drilled through 13 inches of ice and went fishing for bluegill and bass and crappie. If the fish are big enough, he’ll clean them and eat them for dinner.

Scherff has been the big fish at Iowa, but NFL talent evaluators are confident he’ll succeed in the big pond of the NFL, too. One night at the combine, an offensive coach whose team picks in the 20s spotted a TV replay of Scherff running the 40-yard dash earlier in the day, and lamented that he’d be long gone by the time his team is on the clock. The only real question surrounding Scherff: Where will he play in the pros?

His height, 6-foot-5, is average, and his arm length, 33 3⁄8 inches, is on the short side—at least according to the lofty criteria for NFL left tackles. That’s why some talent evaluators say Scherff is best-suited to play guard. Notre Dame’s Zack Martin made a similar move from collegiate left tackle to the inside of the Cowboys’ line last season, and earned All-Pro honors as a rookie. During his 23 formal interviews with teams at the combine, Scherff sensed some coaches and GMs were trying to persuade him, saying, “We feel you can play guard.” Scherff’s answer to them was the same to as it was in high school: I’ll play wherever you need me to play.

“To say he’ll move inside right away, I don’t think that’s necessarily going to happen,” says Marshal Yanda, the Ravens All-Pro guard who has been training alongside Scherff at their shared alma mater this offseason. “Sure, guys who are taller with longer arms usually excel at tackle. But Matt Light was 6-3 ½, and he was a Pro Bowler who played left tackle for 10 years. Guys with shorter arms can still get it done at tackle. It’s more about the team, and what the team needs.”

The Giants, for instance—an offensive line-needy team picking in the top 10, by the way—drafted Syracuse lineman Justin Pugh two years ago, and GM Jerry Reese said he watched tape after tape, and found no reason Pugh’s 32-inch arms should restrict him to the interior. Kirk Ferentz, who has seen NFL talent evaluation from both sides, shrugs at the debate. “Every player has holes,” he says. “Other than Ogden.” Ferentz’s mentor, the late offensive line coaching legend Joe Moore, had a saying: Good blockers are good blockers because they wanted to be, not because they were born that way.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Scherff has played every position on the offensive line except center, in either practice or a game. As one NFL scout wrote in his report, Scherff may be better-suited for guard at the NFL level… but he has the athleticism to play whatever.

That’s a decision for the NFL team that drafts him. Right now, the biggest decision Scherff has to make is where to be on draft day. He’s leaning toward accepting the NFL’s invitation to attend the draft in Chicago. But about 100 friends and family bought tickets to the Outland Trophy presentation in Omaha in January, and part of him thinks it only seems right to spend draft night in Denison. After all, that’s where the legend began.

He can still fly

Steelers Looking To Keep Running Game Humming With Matt Spaeth Back





By Matthew Marczi

March 10, 2015


Just before the official start of the free agency period, the Pittsburgh Steelers tended house, re-signing two of their own pending free agents, among them veteran tight end Matt Spaeth. He has spent six of his eight years in the league with the Steelers, and was the first offensive player drafted by head coach Mike Tomlin.

Spaeth, 31, was drafted in the third round of the 2007 draft and slowly improved as a run-blocking tight end through his first four seasons in Pittsburgh. After that, he signed a contract with the Chicago Bears, where he continued to develop, but he was released after two seasons when the team signed Martellus Bennett.

The Steelers were quick to bring Spaeth back for the 2013 season, signing him to a two-year contract. They have brought him back a second time with yet another two-year contract, which just so happens to be the same amount of years left on Heath Miller’s deal.

When he was first here, Spaeth was an undervalued commodity, perhaps in part because he was never much of a receiving threat. This proved to be true with the front office as well, however, as they did let him walk without an offer on the table.

But if there was one thing that they learned during the two intervening years, it was that they never managed to be able to replace what Spaeth gave them on the field, and their product suffered because of it.

Thus, when the opportunity arose to replace Spaeth’s replacements with Spaeth himself, they seized upon it, and his first season back was a fine indicator of just how valuable he actually is to what the Steelers look to do on the ground.


As you’ll recall, Spaeth suffered a foot injury during training camp, which caused him to miss a full three quarters of the 2013 season. The Steelers struggled to be productive on the ground working with marginal talents and failed offensive tackles at the tight end position.

The running game spiked upward during the month of December, however, when Spaeth finally returned to the lineup, with Le’Veon Bell finally achieving the elusive feat of his first 100-yard rushing game in Week 16.

In his sophomore year, Bell rushed for over 1300 yards to lead the AFC and broke the franchise record for all-purpose yards, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Spaeth was featured prominently in some of Bell’s best ground performances on the season, coincidentally.


Re-signing a reserve tight end may not be the most exciting move happening around the league right now, but locking up Spaeth has a big impact on what the Steelers are able to do on offense, which, if I may remind you, was more productive than all but one offense last year in team history.

Spaeth’s size, strength, and versatility makes him a great asset. He can block defensive ends or get out on the move to pull block on a safety on the perimeter.
Not to mention, it helps free up Miller from doing much of the grunt work on his own, keeping him fresher as a receiving option.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Coach Todd Graham In Super Elite Company With 10-Win Seasons





As every Sun Devil football fan knows, in 2014 ASU secured back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time since Frank Kush notched double-digit victories from 1970-73. That is a drought of 31 years since it last happened, providing further evidence of how difficult an achievement back-to-back 10-win seasons are to come by. In fact, Head Coach Todd Graham now has a school-record 28 wins in his first three seasons as head coach at ASU, one more than College Football Hall of Fame Coach Dan Devine (1955-57).

And, the Pitchfork Posts blog has previously stated that Coach Graham has now recorded 10 wins in five of his nine seasons as a head coach (Tulsa 2007, 2008, 2010; ASU 2013, 2014). ASU Athletic Media Relations student intern alumnus Joe Healey got us started and conducted the research. How does Coach Graham’s five seasons of 10-wins stack up in comparison with other active Division I coaches since 2007? Well, quite well, to be sure. Using 2007 as a cutoff and FBS only, Coach Graham currently sits tied for No. 4 nationally in most 10-win seasons with five.

Here is the criteria:

• The cutoff is a minimum of three 10+ win seasons since 2007
• Only FBS seasons are taken into consideration (whether that means the coach was at the FCS level or the school promoted from FCS to FBS in that span)
• The school listed for the coach is where the wins occurred, not necessarily where the coach is now (Petersen and Bielema are the only cases, we believe)
• This list only includes active head coaches for 2015.

So, what we see is only three active coaches (Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Chris Petersen) have more 10-win seasons since 2007 than Graham. And, among active coaches, only Graham and Urban Meyer have recorded multiple 10-win seasons at multiple FBS schools since 2007.

Here is the chart:

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