Category: Stanford Cardinal

NCAA Football Commentary: Fla St will face formable Clemson; N.Dakota a force in the MVC;Oregon-Wash St could be a close match

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by Michelle Richardson

Florida State (3-0) ranked number one: Clemson (1-1) is coming down to Bill Campbell Stadium to face the undefeated and number one ranked Florida Seminoles and this game is expected to be electric and everybody remembers what happened last year to Clemson in Death Valley as the Seminoles defeated Clemson by a landslide 51-14. Don’t get too overly impressed by anything that Clemson has done they come into Saturday’s game 1-1.

Clemson got trounced 45-21 by Georgia in week one and then they trounced South Carolina State 73-7 last Saturday. So with Clemson coming to Florida State this week this is going to be good. Florida State is coming off a bye week their going to be fresh and you can expect Florida State to be prepared for this game. The Seminoles are the favorites but if you start noticing other teams in the ACC they are really coming up.

Louisville (2-1), Syracuse (2-0), most of the ACC teams are playing really well likewise for some non-ACC teams, Boston College, Duke, and USC is in the house the ACC wants other teams to take notice that their here and nobody is going to take that away.

North Dakota State Bison (3-0): North Dakota State is one of the best kept secrets they were ranked number one in the FCS Coaches poll this week and they’ve been going strong for over five years now. The Bison have been challenging everybody to all new comers. North Dakota State their definitely going to do their damage and their a MVC champion.

The Bison have been around awhile and they’ve conistantly good, their quarterback Carson Wentz has thrown for 45 completions, for 633 yards and three touchdowns, running back John Crockett has carried for 56 times for 341 yards, and receiver Zach Vraa leads the Bison with ten receptions for 139 yards, and is averaging 13 yards per catch.

The Bison are not a team to overlook and the MVC is basically is a treasure trove of talent and people look past because their too busy looking at the big five conferences.

Oregon (3-0) 48 vs.Wyoming (2-1) 14: The Oregon Ducks maybe 3-0 but they really haven’t faced anybody yet, they should beat a school like Wyoming and that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Your supposed to beat Wyoming. Next week the Ducks get into the Pac 12 opening up their first conference game against Washington State (1-2).

This game will be at Washington State and you can bet that Cougar Nation will be ready for the Ducks at Pullman, I don’t expect the Cougars to win this game but I do expect the Cougars to be competitive. This will be an interesting match up this Saturday. One thing about conference play, there are a couple of teams in the conference that will have to fight to get by.

Oregon they cruised over Wyoming and they were supposed to, you have to do that in the Pac 12 as well as outside of the Pac 12.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Football commentary each week for http://www.sportradioservice.com and you can hear her entire analysis on Soundcloud below this article.

Stanford Rebounds, Defeats Army

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Stanford rebounded with a win over the visiting West Point Black Knights win a 35-0 win at Stanford Stadium Saturday. Stanford’s defense was outstanding recording the second shutout of the season and has allowed just 13 points in the three games played so far this season. Unfortunately,the 13 points were scored by USC last week as they upset Stanford. Stanford’s offense had a tough time getting into the end zone against USC but today was a different story as the Cardinal scored five touchdowns in the win. Quarterback Kevin Hogan threw for four scores and Ty Montgomery ran one in for a touchdown.

The game summary follows below.

Stanford won the toss and elected to receive. The drive started on the Cardinal 25 yard line. Kevin Hogan drove the Cardinal 75 yards in nine plays for the score. The drive was a nice mix of runs and passes. Hogan completed a 9 yard pass to Austin Hooper, Kelsey Young had a 16 yard run and a key 10 yard grab byEric Cotton got the ball to the Army 23rd yard line. On the next play Hogan found Devon Cajuste all alone in the end zone for the score. The extra point was good and Stanford has a 7-0 led with 10:44 left in the quarter. From that point until just 1:30 left to play in the half it became a defensive struggle. Stanford moved the ball a lot better the Army but Army’s defense came up big and stopped Stanford. Stanford’s defense was strong as the allowed Army just 58 total yards in the half. The key play in the second quarter came late in the half when Army fumbled on their own fifteen yard line. The fumble was recovered by Kevin Anderson. On the first play, Hogan handed off to Ty Montgomery who ran it to the Army 4 yard line. Hogan ran it to the 2. Hogan’s pass to Cajuste was incomplete but they connected on the next play for the touchdown. Stanford ahead 14-0 at the half.

Stanford kicked off to Army to start the second half. The Cadets controlled the ball for almost nine minutes but had to punt. Stanford got the ball on the their own 2 yard line and then went 98 yards in nine plays for the their third touchdown of the game. Stanford ran the ball down to the Army ten yard line. Barry Sanders had three carries for 61 yards on the drive. Stanford ran the ball into the end zone but the play was nullified by a holding penalty. Hogan was sacked for a two yard loss but on the next play Kevin Hogan found Devon Cajuste in the end zone again for the touchdown. Cardinal has a 21-0 lead With 2:51 left in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter the Cardinal went 35 yards in 8 plays to take a 28 -0 lead. Army tried a fake punt

that was broken up by Patrick Skov at Army’s 35 yard line. Stanford went for the jugular and took it in for the score. The touchdown was scored by Ty Montgomery from the wildcat formation. 11:35 left to go in the game. Stanford scored again following an interception by linebacker A.J.Tarpley on Stanford’s 27 yard line. The Cardinal went 73 yards in 6 plays with the key play being a 32 yard touchdown pass from Kevin Hogan to Ty Montgomery for the score. 35-0 with 6:09 left. Time for Coach David Shaw to play the backups. The Army drove to the Stanford 2 yard line but the Stanford defense rose up and stopped the Cadets on fourth and goal. Final score 35-0 in favor of Stanford.

Game notes:

Through three games in 2014, Stanford’s tight ends have combined for 16 receptions. The same position group combined for 10 receptions for the entire 2013 season.

Stanford posted its second shutout of 2014. It is the 41st time in school history that the Cardinal has shut out multiple opponents, but just the second time since 1973.

Stanford has held opponents scoreless in the second quarter in all three games this year.

Stanford held Army to 3.5 yards/carry on Saturday. In the 2013 matchup between one of the nation’s top rushing defensive units against one of the nation’s best ground games, Stanford allowed 284 rushing yards on 61 carries (4.65 yards/carry). Army averaged nearly 370 yards per game (5.5 yards/carry) in 2012, and 312 yards (5.4 yards/carry) in 2013. Army rushed for 341 yards in its 2014 opener against Buffalo.Stanford is 8-0 following a loss under head coach David Shaw. The Cardinal has not lost consecutive games since midway through the 2009 season.

The Cardinal is 39-4 (.907) at Stanford Stadium since the final home game of 2007.

·Over the past four seasons, Stanford owns a 28-2 record at Stanford Stadium which includes an 11-2 clip against top 25 opponents.

Stanford is 12-0 in its last 12 home games against non-conference opponents. The last such loss came against Notre Dame in 2007.

Coach Shaw had this to say after the game today

COACH SHAW: I thought it was a good effort by our players.First and foremost, Lance Anderson did a phenomenal job on the defensive side.That is a tough thing in one week, which is really three days of practice.In three days of practice to get ready for this triple option, I thought it was phenomenal.

Give a lot of credit to Lance.Give a lot of credit to our older guys on defense. Some new starters, but a lot of these guys played a lot of football.They were at Army last year, and though some of this is a little different because it’s a new coaching staff, but the guys played well.They played the scheme extremely well. I thought Aziz Shittu played well, Blake Martinez played extremely well. Henry Anderson making tackles for loss and getting in there. And David Parry, because it starts up front defending the option, those guys played so well.

Secondary was very disappointing.Saw a bunch of passes by this group last week so we knew the big play was a possibility.And second, Duane Akina got the secondary ready.When they dropped back to throw it, everybody was covering deep.They hit some balls underneath, and that’s fine for us.Can’t say enough about what the defense did today, it was outstanding.

Offensively, we started fast.Scripted plays of the first drive was executed perfectly.We thought it was just a great drive.We had a lull in the middle there.Some things that weren’t quite clean.A lot of things we addressed and cleaned up again, and then started at the second quarter and got kind of back into it. Got in the third quarter and got back to the running game.

I thought Kelsey ran the ball well I thought Barry Sanders had a big game, did some nice things for us And Devon Cajuste, is just a tough guy to guard.He’s just under 6’4", and 227 pounds and he can run and jump.It’s such a great compliment to what that guy can do.Mike Rector can be explosive.We’ll continue to work on our tight ends and get them involved, but we’re trying to build a complete offense here.

Stanford has a bye next week then travels to Seattle to meet the Washington Huskies on September 27th.

Stanford vs Army Preview

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Stanford Cardinal meets the Army Black Knights Saturday at Stanford Stadium. Coach David Shaw will have his team ready to resume its winning ways as they seek to rebound from last Saturday’s loss to USC. The Cardinal offense had multiple opportunities to win the game in the second half but USC’s defense rose to the occasion and kept Stanford at bay.

Army, under new head coach , Jeff Monken , beat Buffalo at Michie Stadium 47-39 to get their season off on the right foot. The Cadets led 28-3 midway through the third quarter and it looked like an easy win for the Cadets but Buffalo refused to quit. Buffalo scored with 4:17 left to play in the third quarter to make it a 28-10 game but Army answered with a touchdown to maintain a 21 point lead. Army then

recovered an onside kickand scored a touchdown. Buffalo kept coming back but Army held on to win 47-39.

This will be the twelfth meeting all-time between the two teams with Stanford holding a slim 6 to 5 margin. The Cardinal has a 3-2 record at home and is 3-3 at Army. The Cardinal and Army played last year at West Point and it was not a cakewalk for Stanford. The Cardinal won 34-20 but it was not easy.

Stanford had its hands full with Army’s triple-option offense. The Cardinal led by seven at the half and 27-13 late in the third quarter. The most critical play came in the third quarter. Trailing 20-13 and poised to tie the game,Army quarterback Angel Santiago botched a third-down handoff and Stanford recovered the fumble. The Cardinal scored to increase the lead to 27-13. The Cardinal secured the win on Tyler Gaffney’s one yard TD run.

It should be a good game as Army can not be counted as a pushover. The Cardinal must get their offense going again and should be strong on defense, Army ,while known from last year, has a new coach and he may have a few new wrinkles up his sleeve and will be looking for ways to upset Stanford.

Game time is at 2pm at Stanford Stadium

NCAA Football commentary: Alabama slip in polls but wins big; Ducks score four unaswered TDs; Fla St is number one

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by Michelle Richardson

Alabama 41 Florida Atlantic 0: As I keep telling people this is going to be a real different year for Alabama. It’s going to be harder because their going to be fighting for those four top spots to get into the playoffs. Alabama is fighting just as hard with the other schools to get into the top four spots that’s how hard Georgia and LSU are fighting to be there.

Alabama has been on top a good five years and they’ve won five consecutive ACC Championships. With schools like that they stop getting the top recruits because they have so much fire power and that student athlete will think “if I go to some other school I’ll be the third or second in line” the thought here is the rich keep getting richer and that the way it is getting that top spot in college football.

I’m not really worried about Alabama just yet because their not into conference play, if this continues into conference play and if they beat Florida like what their suppose to do these games won’t be over for another three years and most of these games will be scheduled at least four years in advance. In about three or four years all of these money games will come to an end and Alabama knows they’ll have to make up time and points the next week.

Oregon 46-Michigan State 27: I’ll be honest I was very surprised, I had Michigan State winning this game, this was going to be the turnaround season where Michigan State really was going to stand up and take over the Big Ten. They still are likely able to take over the Big Ten but they couldn’t get past Oregon last Saturday.

Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota threw for 17 completions, 318 yards, for three touchdowns inspite of getting sacked three times. Michigan State was behind at the half 24-18, Oregon came back with four unanswered touchdowns after Michigan State scored four straight times unanswered. Oregon knows how to win and they’ve been doing it well for the past ten years, even with the change of coaching they still manage to be on top.

This is very interesting as Oregon is on top in the Pac 12 and number two in the AP Poll, it’s going to be Oregon and UCLA in the Pac 12 Championship, one of those teams will end up in one of the top four slots.

Florida State is number one in the AP Poll: The Florida State Seminoles are number one because they haven’t lost and they won’t stop winning until you tell them their not the champions. They haven’t lost a game they beat Citadel and Oklahoma State and are 2-0 and they beat both of them soundly. Even Oklahoma State by six points.

Everybody says they didn’t win so big and for Oklahoma State it’s not like dropping off the bridge it’s the first game nobody didn’t play football since last January and Oklahoma State hadn’t played since last December. So let’s just quit the panic over one game. Florida State will be number one but they’ll drop into the polls because they go into a bye week this weeek.

Though the Seminoles will go and play Clemson, and Clemson is coming to Doak Campbell Stadium on September 20th, beating Clemson at home at Doak Campbell really means something. Clemson is going to be out for blood simply because Florida State went to Death Valley last year and handed Clemson one heck of a beat down on their way to the Natonal Championship.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com and hear the rest of her interview by clicking on the soundcloud below

 

USC upsets the Stanford Cardinal

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Stanford Cardinal lost the opening game of the Pac-12 season to the University of Southern California Saturday at Stanford Stadium by a score of 13-10. It snapped a seventeen game home winning streak that was the longest in the nation. The Stanford defense played well as they held the SC offense to just 13 points. They did their job but the offense just couldn’t cash in on their opportunities and mistakes killed the Cardinal. Two many penalties and miscues doomed them and it resulted in the first loss of the season for Stanford.

The SC Trojans kicked off to Stanford and the Cardinal held the ball for six minutes and were moving well but the drive was stymied by three penalties on the offensive line and an attempted field goal went wide. The Trojans then went 68 yards in 12 plays to take an early 7-0 lead. Javorious “Buck” Allen had 2 key runs to help set up the TD. Justin Davis scored the touchdown. Stanford was on the move near the end of the first period but a bad snap from center killed the drive.

The Cardinal tied the game in the second quarter on an eleven play, 77 yard drive. Patrick Skov scored the touchdown for the Cardinal. Stanford was on the march again near the end of the second quarter but two penalties killed Stanford’s chance for a touchdown and they had to settle for a field goal to give them a 10-7 lead at halftime.

Stanford had chances in the third quarter as the Cardinal had consecutive drives inside the USC 10-yard line and fumbled in Trojan territory on the next series. Stanford had its chances in the fourth quarter,too. Kevin Hogan passed to a wide-open Austin Hooper in the end zone for an apparent 23 yard touchdown but the score was nullified by a Stanford chop block penalty.

The Trojans tied the game in the third period on a field goal and won it 2:30 left on a career high 53 yard field goal by Andre Heidari. Final score USC wins 13-10.

After the game this is what coach David Shaw had to say “So, bottom line, you don’t take advantage of opportunities, you lose games to good football teams. I said it earlier in the week and it rings true.You give a team like that so many opportunities, they’re going to take advantage. They’ve got good personnel. They’re good on offense, they’re good in the kicking game.

We had so many opportunities to win this football game. I give them credit, they made the plays and we didn’t. They made the calls and we didn’t.To miss two field goals and get turned away inside the five yard line, to go from a field goal position backed up to a punt position.Coaches and players, that’s everybody, which is veiled to say that’s me, that’s me.

My passion is for football of course, but individually, inside of football, it’s red zone and third down. We were solid on third down and not good enough in the red zone. When you’re not good enough in the red zone, you lose games.You got to make field goals, you got to take advantage of field position.We just did not.This is what happens. The charge is to our guys, our coaches and players, to be better. Not to scrap what we’ve done, not at all, but to be better than we were today.We have a lot of good football teams coming down the road that we got to try to find a way to beat.’

Stanford plays its third home game in a row next week as the Army pays a visit. Game time at Stanford Stadium will be at 2pm.

Stanford vs USC Preview

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The number 11 nationally ranked Stanford Cardinal opens the 2014 Pac-12 campaign on Saturday against the number 14 ranked University of Southern California Trojans. The game will be televised nationally on ABC at 12:30 pm from Stanford Stadium.

The game should be a barnburner as both teams started the season last week by routing their opponents. USC beat Fresno State 52-13 and the Cardinal demolished UC Davis 45-0.

The Trojans had a tumultuous 2013 season. They fired head coach Lane Kiffin on September 29th and replaced him with Ed Orgeron. Kiffin had a record of 3-2 at the time of his firing. Orgeron’s Trojans went 7-2 the rest of the way and their biggest win of the year came when Trojans upset the Cardinal in Los Angeles.The Trojans named Steve Sarkisian as their new head coach before the Las Vegas Bowl was to played and coach Orgeron resigned. SC nonetheless, went to the Las Vegas bowl and defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs. Interesting to note that SC’s last two games were against Fresno State and they beat them each time. The Cardinal won the Pac-12 championship and went to the Rose Bowl for the second consecutive year but lost to Michigan State.

The Trojans offensively are led by quarterback Cody Kessler. The Trojan uptempo offense ran 105 plays in the Fresno State game , racking up 37 first downs and 701 total yards. Coach Sarkisian said that it was the best game of Kessler’s career. The Trojans are loaded at wide receiver with Nelson Aghholor, who had 5 catches for 57 yards last week and JuJu Smith. Smith had 4 receptions good for 123 yards including receptions of 43 and 54 yards. Javorius Allen is the main running back and Bryce Dixon is the fullback.

Stanford, on the other hand, is a team that does not use an uptempo offense. Stanford prefers to grind it out as they very disciplined and well coached. SC will have their work cut out for them if they are to beat the Cardinal. Stanford is led by senior quarterback Kevin Hogan. Hogan has an experienced corps of wide receivers including Ty Montgomery and Devon Cajuste. Christian McCaffrey played an important role in the win over UC Davis and should see action on Saturday. The Cardinal will attack the weakness of the Trojan defense.

The Cardinal’s strength the last two or three season has been part of Stanford’s success. The defense is led by defensive end Henry Armstrong and linebacker A.J.Tarpley. The defense’s job will be to slow down the Trojan Express.

Should be a great game. Stanford, however, is listed as the favorite.

NCAA Commentary: Cal might have something there with upset in Northwestern; USC’s Shaw story jumping to conclusions

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by Michelle Richardson

What a shocker by Cal in a 31-24 win over Northwestern: I was one of the people with my mouth open because the Cal Bears took my card in the pick em, this could be the tide turning for Cal. They’ve had some many years in missing bowl games and last year they won only one game and maybe former head coach Jeff Tedford’s exit might have brought in a change and right now it’s new blood with head coach Sonny Dykes.

Part of that new blood is new students and a new attitude at Cal, I always say sometimes it takes a change in management to change how a place works and I’m hoping that there is another team in the Pac 12 that will be competitive this year. If you rank the big time conferences the Pac 12 is at the bottom. UCS is not impressive, Stanford I’m not sure if they’re kind of a bubble team or a team that’s been pretty much running the Pac 12 the last few years.

Mike Leach at Washington State took over and made the Cougars his team and the team has got better and better every year. This is his third year and all of those recruits are all his, I’m looking forward to seeing whats going on and not like USC whose changed coaches in the last few years. I’m very excited that Cal turned it around and beat a team in the Big Ten and their hoping to be number one and to show some strength in their schedule.

Notre Dame’s win over Rice 48-17 not surprising: Don’t get confused this win by the Fighting Irish is not a tone setter for the season, it’s Rice its not going to set any tone unless your playing Rice in baseball I’d say no. Notre Dame was supposed to win this game and win this game handedly. Had Rice won I would tell you that Norte Dame could stick a fork in it.

This is not a game where you can say Notre Dame beat Rice the Fighting Irish are going all the way, no there not, I need to see the Irish play a Michigan and play more top ten teams. When Notre Dame starts getting into their part of the ACC schedule we’ll see. The Irish play Michigan for the last time this year we’ll see then. Right now no, that game meant nothing except that’s the first game of the season for the Lucky Charms.

USC controversies: Josh Shaw’s fake balcony jump and he was also named in a burglary report in L.A. I don’t feel sorry for him and I know he’s a young man and he’ll make mistakes but he lied and said he went and jumped do really think somebody is going to follow up on that? His nephew was drowning and he jumped two stories do think people are going to follow up on that. USC is going to follow up on that because the school is concerned now about their reputation.

You have the L.A.Times and Sports Illustrated making this a national story is Shaw stupid? Then there is the fact that he lied. You could lie about a whole lot of things but you don’t lie about people’s lives being in peril and you don’t lie about people dying. Because you believe in karma and it mighht come back on you in a bad way.

That was just a horrible, horrible, thing that Shaw did and I truly, truly hope that he learned his lesson and he’s eligble for the NFL draft, doesn’t Shaw know he’s affecting his draft stock? My thing is if Shaw just said he jumped off the balcony and he did something stupid and he hurt his ankle that would show more character than saying he saved two kids from a burning building. This lying is ridiculous and you put yourself in a bad position with the team over something that was completely stupid and illegal, I don’t have a place for you on my team.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com. You can hear the rest of her commentary on the soundcloud audio below the column

NCAA Football commentary: Powerful earthquake rocks Bay Area, multiple injuries one week before college football starts

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by Michelle Richardson

We say our prayers to anyone who was effected by Sunday morning’s 6.1 magnitude earthquake which shook the Bay Area at 3:20AM hoping that you didn’t suffer anything more than rattled nerves. Muliple injuries were reported out of Napa and the Sonoma Valley which includes the epicenter American Canyon, Suisun, Fairfield, and Vallejo.For others from other parts of the country they think it’s just the earth shaking and things falling but an earthquake can be as dangerous as a hurricane, tornado or storm.

When it happens in the middle of the night a building that is not retrofitted that could be a problem like it was for some of the older buildings that were damaged in the North Bay. Sesmically it was reported that the quake should not have too much effect for college football next Saturday as most of the damage was done in the Napa Valley. That would be more like Homboldt State or Somona State somewhere like that could be effected.

You will think about that because you have a lot of kids who are returning to college in the Bay Area who grew up in those areas. That will be ever present on the athletes young men and women who grew up in the Napa Valley and the NCAA will be thinking about their families and hoping that everybody is safe and had no harm done to them.

Alabama vs. West Virgina: I don’t understand how Alabama not being the reigning NCAA Champion is holding onto the number one spot and I’ve always said “it’s your title until they take it and the winner should start the year as number one” that’s just how I feel about it. This is a good match up coming this Saturday definitely I’ll go with Alabama the Crimson Tide just retooled and retooled and it just seems like their never out of stock of young talent.

In the last three years the Crimson Tide have lost a lot of veteran talent they’ve either graduated or went to the NFL. Especially losing a quarterback who won three national championships, it could be a very big learning curve in Alabama and there is a bit of quarterback controversy with Jake Coker, David Cornwell, and Cooper Bateman.

When you have a transfer from Florida State and you have a quarterback whose been the cornerstone of the team and someone is coming in as a transfer and now there is a bit of a controversy and someone who didn’t even start from another school and they come to take your place at Alabama that could raise some hackles. Knowing head coach Nick Saban he has a way to make it work. All I can say it’s going to be an interesting year at Alabama.

Clemson vs. Georgia: The Clemson Tigers lost last year in the championship to Florida State and the Tigers lost a lot of players and they lost their starting quarterback. The AP Poll rated the Tigers number two but polls are about as useful as socks with holes in them. Clemson is going to struggle this year they open up against Georgia on Saturday.

Their not going to be as good as everybody might think their going to be. Their going to struggle with a new quarterback and whoever that’s going to be. There’s a whole cavalcade of quarterbacks trying out for the Tigers, Chad Kelly, Austin McCaskill, Dave Olson, Nick Schuessler, Cole Stoudt, and Deshaun Watson. There are a lot of players gone from last season.

I’m not necessarily saying that Clemson will be in the hunt for the national championship but I don’t see it happening they might make a bowl game but there not going to get into the national championship. I’ve been around before, I’m crazy like that.

Michelle Richardson does NCAA Football commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Bay Area College Football Media Day

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[tags, college football, Pac-12, San Jose State}

by Jerry Feitelberg

San Francisco Bay Area College Football Media Day.

The annual Bay Area College Football Media Day was held at the spanking brand new Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. It was the first event of this type to held at the 49ers new stadium and all the media was truly excited to be at the stadium and after the tour the media gave the new stadium rave reviews.

The event kicked off Doug Kelly honoring the late Sam Goldman by placing butterscotch candy at all the tables. Goldman who passed away last month had attained iconic status as he handed out butterscotch candy at all the athletic events he attended and was loved by all that knew him.

After a few short speeches, the coaches from San Jose State, University of California Berkeley and Stanford were introduced. First speaker was Ron Caragher from San Jose State. In his first season, Caragher had a 5-3 record in conference play and 6-6 overall. It was the first time in 21 years that a first-year San Jose State coach produced a .500 percentage and a winning record in conference play. Jabari Carr and David Peterson represented the SJS players.

Cal coach Sonny Dykes talked about the expectations to improve on last year’s dismal season and how tough the Pac-12 Conference is. Dykes said that his team will be ready to play and they open the season against Northwestern. Dykes was accompanied by Cal players Chris Adcock and Brannon Scarlett.

The final speaker was Stanford coach David Shaw. Shaw is starting his fourth year as Cardinal coach and he is hoping to continue the success that he has had the last three season which included three straight bowl appearances and the last two were at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Stanford won the Rose Bowl game in 2013 but lost the game on New Year’s day 2014. Stanford has a lot of the team returning including quarterback Kevin Hogan, linebacker A.J.Tarpley and wide receiver, kickoff returner Ty Montgomery. The Cardinal lost player on both the offensive and defensive lines, linebackers and defensive backs. Hopefully the new players will step up and help Stanford to the Pac-12 championship again this year. Coach Shaw spoke about the need for the team to gel. He did not elaborate about how long the process would take but he was hoping for sooner rather later. A.J. Tarpley felt that the team would be prepared as the open the season against UC Davis and then meet the University of Southern California Trojans at Stanford Stadium in the second game of the year. He, however, warned against looking ahead to games on the schedule and stated that the team would prepare only for the team that they woulf face that week.Ty Montgomery reiterated much of what Tarpley said and he felt that he would be ready for the season despite having shoulder surgery earlier this year.

It was a great event again this year and football practice starts next week for the upcoming season. No one knows how the teams will fare this year but that’s why they play the games.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Angels set to turn things around in chase of A’s and first

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–The Los Angeles Angels are playing great ball right now, their playing to win and the last few years the A’s have won the west. Everybody on the Angels is healthy, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout is back, Josh Hamilton and the Angels have a great line up.

I challenge anybody who knows baseball to compare the Angels position by position. The Angels are a better team than the A’s. The A’s at present are playing much better no doubt about that. Looking at the Angels you have Pujols at first, you have Howie Kendrick at second, Erick Aybar is a great shortstop with a gold glove.

The Angels have a great team with Hamilton, Trout, they have great pitching with Jerod Weaver and C.J. Wilson and on Monday night they had starter Garrett Richards who pitched a tremendous game. The Angels are going for it they have won four in a row beating Oakland for their fourth on Monday night.

NCAA players making move for pay: It’s very simple I got one opinion I don’t agree with it, I don’t think college athletes should be paid to play sports. You go to college for academics and if you excel in sports that’s great.

There are a small amount of players that become professionals, you have to work hard, you have to have some kind of God given talent. I don’t agree I don’t think the players in college should get paid. This country is huge and it’s the richest country on earth.

There are still plenty of opportunities, you got four terrific leagues here. you have the NFL, MLB, NHL and the NBA. There are so many outlets if your good at the sport. I don’t think we should be paying kids to be playing sports in college.

World Cup in Brazil: Brazil is a huge country territory wise and it’s larger than the United States and population wise it’s still a third world country and their still very poor. There is a lot of criticism about FIFA.

FIFA has been for three years loaded with corruption and scandals and they have a lot of beautiful stadiums in Brazil and the people there are kind of complaining about what is going to happen when World Cup ends?

They cannot eat those stadiums there, what are they going to do with those stadiums? There are still a lot of people there still suffering. The World Cup should help them though in their economy. Brazil still has a lot of problems, the Brazilians are so proud to have the World Cup.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com