Culture

http://extracurlyfries.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/top-25-toughest-places-to-play/ In the new edition of NCAA Football ‘09 which releases for the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 next Tuesday, the top 25 toughest places to play in the game are set. Three SEC teams in the top five. Not bad. #1 LSU #2 Florida #3 Ohio State #4 Penn State #5 Tennessee #6 Oklahoma #7 Oregon #8 Wisconsin #9 Virginia Tech #10 Nebraska #11 USC #12 Texas #13 Michigan #14 Texas A&M #15 Notre Dame #16 Georgia #17 Florida State #18 Alabama #19 Auburn #20 West Virginia #21 Clemson #22 Arkansas #23 Colorado #24 Boise St. #25 South Carolina Why on earth is Oregon, Wisconsin, and Southern Cal ahead of Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama? The latter three should be in the top ten instead of the first three mentioned. Southern Cal has to cover up 30,000 seats and they still can’t sell out. I guess it’s tougher to play in Autzen Stadium (50,000+) than in the SEC? Ha. Here’s my top 25: 1. LSU 2. Florida 3. Tennessee 4. Georgia 5. Ohio State 6. Penn State 7. Auburn 8. Alabama 9. Michigan 10. Virginia Tech 11.Nebraska 12. Texas A&M 13. Florida State 14. Texas 15. Oklahoma 16. Clemson 17. Wisconsin 18. Notre Dame 19. Oregon 20. Arkansas 21. Southern California 22. Arizona State 23. South Carolina 24. Colorado 25. West Virginia ExtraCurlyFries,please 7/10/08

http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=2&c=767909 Most teams in Tennessee are going to rely on their ground game heavily during the 2008 season. Find out who some of the top running backs will be this season throughout the state. Learn more about the prospects and the schools recruiting them. The most sought after running back prospect in the state may be Gabriel Hunter, 5-11, 190 pounds from Memphis-Kingsbury (Tenn.). He has offers from Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Memphis, Mississippi, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech. Hunter is a strong running back with the potential to take it the distance. Look for a big season from this 2007 Mr. Football Finalist. One of the hottest prospects in Tennessee is David Jones, 6-0, 205 pounds from South Pittsburg (Tenn.). Jones holds offers from Memphis, Middle Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State. He is being recruited by some schools as running back, but his athleticism has allowed some schools to go after him as a linebacker or safety. His team will be out to defend their 2007 state championship relying heavily upon Jones. Keenan Kolinsky, 6-1, 212 pound running back from Knoxville-Christian Academy (Tenn.) is a big back in East Tennessee hoping to turn some heads this season. He holds one offer from Air Force and is receiving a lot of interest from many other schools. The other schools actively after this big back include Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Stanford, and Virginia. In his junior season he had 193 carries for almost 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns. scout.com 7/9/08

http://lsusportspalace.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/just-who-is-andrew-hatch-football-thursday-and-more/ I think the move is pretty expected if you look at the history of position battles since Les Miles has been at LSU. When each player is at or near the same skill set, Miles always tends to go with the more experienced player and the results have worked. Where would LSU have been this past season if Miles didn’t name Jacob Hester the team’s starting running back? But while Hatch is older and more experienced in the system, we still do not know a ton about him, because he only has been out on the field a couple of times in his career. So what we will do today here at the Sports Palace is give you the report card on Hatch, so Tiger fans can know what they can expect from the LSU signal caller. Andrew Hatch: Arm Strength: C- Hatch does not have a cannon and he sometimes struggles with distance on his long ball. But he is capable of hitting a man down the field if the receiver has a step. The receiver he has the most chemistry with is DeMetrius Byrd as we saw in spring when the two connected on several deep balls. lsusportspalace.com 7/10/08

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/35730-lsus-50th-anniversary-championship-present-national-champ-appalachian-state In a rare meeting of the two current national champions in their divisions, the Louisiana State Tigers challenge the Mountaineers of Appalachian State in the opening game of the 2008 season. One year ago, App. State went into the alma mater of LSU coach Les Miles, the University of Michigan, and defeated the Wolverines on their own field. Four months later, Michigan beat defending national champion Florida in the Citrus Bowl. Fifty years ago this season, Ohio native Paul Dietzel brought the National Championship to LSU, defeating Clemson 7-0 in the Sugar Bowl to finish 11-0. Dietzel left LSU after the 1961 season to coach at West Point. Following a stint as coach at South Carolina, Dietzel left the field, and eventually retired to the mountain resort town of Blowing Rock, N.C. Blowing Rock. Five miles from Boone, N.C. The same Boone, N.C. that is home to Appalachian State University. Adding to this strange confluence of events is the fact that Dietzel is publishing an auto-biography, "They Call Me Coach", due to hit the shelves the same week as App St takes on LSU. In Dietzel's last four years at LSU he went 36-7 with one national title and two other seasons with Top 10 rankings; #3 in '59 and #4 in '61. In Miles' three seasons at LSU he has one national title and a #3 in '06 and a #6 in '05. bleacherreport 7/7/08

http://www.northeastledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/NEWS/807090307 The New Orleans Saints will be rolling into town in two weeks to begin their third year of training camp at Millsaps College. The Saints, who advanced to the National Football Conference championship game in 2006 after their first stay in Jackson, are looking to reach that level of success again. How is Jackson preparing for the team's arrival, and how will gas prices affect those looking on during camp? "The people from New Orleans who are taking vacation at that time - school's getting ready to start, so it's the last chance to do it - so instead of driving, say, to Florida and going that extra mileage, they may decide 'I'll only drive three hours and visit Jackson for the Saints camp," said Gina Aswell, the manager of communications and public relations for the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The crowds may not be affected as much (by the gas prices) because people are discontinuing those longer drives and flights and starting to drive in the region more. So it may help us. We won't know until it gets here, but we expect the crowds to be as large as they've ever been." At Sal and Mookie's, just up the road from camp, discussions are just getting under way as to how to best approach the visitors who will be looking for places to dine. Things will also be a bit less hectic this year as opposed to last year. "We were very new this time last year, so obviously we were busy with the opening, but we did see a lot of business (because of the camp)," said Jon Pixler, the chef at Sal and Mookie's. "We saw a lot of players too, and also did some catering over there with the team." Possibly one of the biggest beneficiaries of the camp are the nearby hotels, such as Cabot Lodge Millsaps, just off of campus. Northeast Ledger 7/9/08