Hey here's a surprise....a WR from a BCS school won the Biletnikoff

Is Notre Dame a BCS school?

It was kind of what I expected, and Tate is a very good player.  It would have been refreshing to see a record setting WR from a non-BCS school win, but that's now how those things work.  Freddie has had a historic season, and he remains #1 in our hearts, and I was immensely impressed to see this on my television tonight.

Football Recruiting Updates

There is a lot of news on some of our football verbals, as the post-season honors roll out.  Let's scan the wire....

Kevonte Martin-Manley and DJ Lynch were both named all-Oakland County.

Check out what the paper had to say about each of them..

Kevonte Martin-Manley, Birmingham Brother Rice Sr. WR — As dangerous a deep threat as there was in the state, Martin-Manley closed out a fine high school career by catching 43 passes for 745 yards and 10 touchdowns despite facing constant attention from opposing defenses. For his three-year career at Brother Rice, the Bowling Green-bound Martin-Manley had 1,545 receiving yards and 22 touchdowns.

“Kevonte is one of the best all-around athletes I’ve ever had at Brother Rice,” Brother Rice head coach Al Fracassa said. “He is a hard worker in the offseason and dedicated to continuous improvement. His knack for making the big play in crucial situations has helped us win many games over the past three years.”

D.J. Lynch, Auburn Hills Avondale Sr. LB — The focal of point of Avondale’s defense all year long, Lynch in nine games had 49 tackles, 14 of which came for loss in being named honorable mention all-state in Division 1-2. Committed to Bowling Green, Lynch also rushed for 347 yards and four touchdowns on 35 carries and caught 19 passes for 303 yards and three touchdowns on offense.

QB Trent Hurley led his team to its first Western Pennsylvania football title (if you don't know, football is kind of a big deal over there).  

Caleb Watkins of Middletown finished D-1 All-Ohio, along with numerous other district and country titles.  This article is very positive, and talks about how he sacrificed his personal stats so they team could win.  (article also notes he is graduating early and will be in Spring practice for the Falcons.) 

“It stopped being about me throwing for 250 yards and a couple of touchdowns in a game this year,” said Watkins, the 2009 JournalNews Butler County Offensive Player of the Year. “It was about Antonio (Banks) getting his yards and us just doing everything we need to to win.”

Marcus Beaurem continued to excel, even as his team was defeated in the state playoffs.

Lorain OT Isaiah Byler was named first-team all-state.

Dlineman Darius Gilbert was named second team all-Butler County.

Orr Presser

Coach Orr had a presser earlier this week, which I just got around to watching.  Feel free to head to the BGSU site to watch the whole thing for yourself.  Here are the parts I found particularly interesting...

He feels the team is improving.  The defense is playing better and contesting shots.  We are shooting better and going inside-out more effectively.

Just a personal note:  our defense did look better against Fordham, a bad team without their leading scorer...I think it bears watching to see if the improvement continues).

We are playing mostly zone right now, and that is what is working for us.  In man to man, dribble penetration was killing us.  I've only seen a couple games, but I think our 2-3 zone is really tough, and I clearly this it is our stronger look.  Coach says he wants us to play both man and zone, but that right now, the zone is working for us.

Against Fordham, every possession was zone.

He also talked about Dee Brown, and his hard work and commitment to his game.  Dee has really improved over last season, and is become an effective and efficient scorer.  The idea of efficient scoring (which basically means scoring without eating up a ton of possessions like, oh, Martin Samarco, for example) is one of the most compelling parts of the advanced basketball stats that have been emerging. 

It is a very compelling way to look at the game, I think.  For example, his offensive rating is nearing 100, which means 1 point per every 100 possessions he uses up (with a shot or turnover).  100 is decent for a team, and that number is clearly heading in the right direction, especially for a sophomore.

NCAA Basketball Stats

For example, for the season, he is slightly more efficient than Carlos Medlock, considered to be a premier offensive player but considerably below the conference's leading scorer, David Kool.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Freddie Barnes Video Blogs....

Freddie Barnes is in Orlando for the Biletnikoff Award ceremony, which is Thursday at 7 PM.  He did a really nice job with some video blogs along the way.  Check back on bgsufalcons.com for more information, but in the meantime, here are the first two installments.

Also, CBSSports.com named Freddie as a 2nd Team All-American....Go Freddie!

CBSSports.com Blog Poll Revised

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas	1
3	Cincinnati	2
4	Florida	2
5	TCU	1
6	Boise State
7	Oregon
8	Ohio State
9	Georgia Tech	1
10	Iowa	1
11	Penn State
12	Virginia Tech	3
13	Brigham Young	1
14	West Virginia	5
15	LSU	6
16	Miami (Florida)	4
17	Pittsburgh	5
18	Arizona	5
19	Oregon State	6
20	Stanford	4
21	Wisconsin	4
22	Nebraska
23	Southern Cal	6
24	Utah
25	Oklahoma State	3
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: California (#16), Houston (#18).

I made a couple changes. I decided I had Miami too high and Oregon State too low.....now we take a blogpoll break until the bowls are over.

Clawson Presser--Idaho Memories

So, Coach Clawson had a weekly presser, and there was not much new information provided.  Still interesting if you want to hope over to bgsufalcons.com and take a listen.  Kind of unreasonable to think that there would be much new to say, because there hasn't been too much going on.

The most interesting thing he said had to do with coaching transitions.  When the whole world was predicting the BG would have a bad season because of Coach Clawson's trouble in the first year, one of the things I suggested was that he might actually have learned something during those struggles.  Which, he said yesterday he probably had.

• First, he's really excited to to be in the Humanitarian Bowl.  Let there be no doubt.
• It helps that our guys have played on the turf (or most of them) plus we will get to practice on it more than you would just heading out for a game.
• Coach has been to Idaho once.  He was the RB coach for Lehigh, and they got stuck playing out there.  John L. Smith (smack!) was the coach, and they had a good QB.  The Lehigh bus got caught in the snow going up a hill for two hours and that was the good part of the trip.  Idaho killed them.
• He noted that the MAC had a poor bowl performance last year (my note:  last two years, but who is counting?).
• He said that Idaho has a good coach from the PAC-10, which I assume is true.  He also continues to say we have not played a WAC team, which Boise is.
• He said he asked players about what went wrong in the Mobile Debacle a couple of years ago.  He didn't say what they told him, but he said that the team was trying to strike a balance--not hold double practices and make the bowl game a punishment, but also working hard enough to try and compete for the win.  Some practices will be inside, some outside.
• We will work right through Christmas.  Coach says with the game that close, he wouldn't enjoy it anyway.

Finally, he is flying to Florida Wednesday with Freddie Barnes for the award ceremony for the Biletnikoff Award as part of the larger college award ceremony.  As he noted, only one MAC player will be there that night, and his name is Freddie Barnes.  A great moment for Freddie, his Mom, and our program.  We'll be watching, and we are incredibly proud of Freddie's season.

Of course, we will all be watching

Blog Heisman

Hey kids, there is a blog Heisman, which I am voting in for the first time over at Blue Workhorse.  Here is the ballot I just submitted.

1.  Gerhart

He just had an eye-popping season.  More yards than Ingram and 26 TDs....are you kidding me?  Ingram only had 18.  Gerhart is clearly the highest performing player this season.

2.  Ingram
3.  Tebow

We'll check in Thursday and see who wins.