Football Update--All-Star Games and new Assistants

Some more updates on the football program...

First, two additional assistants have been named.  The first is Benny Morrison, who will be the LB coach.  Like most of the new staff, he has never been a D1 assistant.  He was a defensive graduate assistant at South Florida last year and before that he was the graduate assistant FOR THREE YEARS at Texas-San Antonio, where he worked with our new DC, Perry Eliano.  As such, he has the longest post-graduate career in the history of education, unless he by some chance is beginning work on a dissertation.   He played LB in college at Drake.

Matt Brock will be special teams and defensive assistant. He worked with the defensive line this season after serving as the Red Raiders’ interim inside linebackers coach during the 2014 season. He was also a defensive quality control coach for Texas Tech in 2013.  There's no record of him working with special teams.

On the more upbeat side, BG has six players will play in post-season all-star games designed to showcase players for the NFL.

Three Falcons will play this Saturday in the new Topic Bowl.  The game is in Miami and there apparently is no TV.  Derek Lee, Ryan Burbrink and Zach Colvin will play in that game.

The following Saturday, three-time All-MAC guard Alex Huettel will play in the East-West Shine Bowl.  The game is at 4 pm on the NFL Network and is played in Tampa.

Finally, Matt Johnson and Travis Greene are playing in the NFLPA game, which will be played on January 23 at the StubHub Center in California.  The game is at 6:00 pm on ESPN 2.

This is huge for everyone involved.  These games--and the practices leading up to them--are great chances to show the NFL what you can do.  In addition, this is great exposure for the program when recruiting players.

One final not...Gabe Martin was promoted from the Cardinals' practice squad to the active roster for the playoff game this weekend.  No idea if he will be active, but the possibility is exciting.