Tidbits From the College Gridiron – 1/8

This will be the second-to-last Tidbits From the College Gridiron post until the 2008 season starts. The last one will come in February when the recruits send in their letter-of-intent to the schools they plan to call home in the fall.

If you were under a rock last night, you missed LSU rallying from a 10-0 deficit to win the BCS National Championship 38-24 over The Ohio State Buckeyes. LSU became the first team in the BCS era to take home the title two times. They are also the first school with two losses to win it.

As my brother said in a previous comment, the Hawai’i Warriors will be looking for a new coach next season as June Jones has decided to comeback to the mainland to coach the SMU Mustangs. He was offered a 5-year deal that is worth $10 million. The main reason for Jones leaving due to the poor facilities at Hawai’i and the lack of a big recruiting budget. Most of their recruiting is done by word-of-mouth and the players actually coming to visit them. Hawai’i did make a last ditch effort to keep Jones and even offered him a contract that would have doubled his salary to $1.6 million. In the end, Jones wanted a new challenge and settled on the SMU job and hopes to bring them back to the national scene.

The BCS will take a look at a possible plus one game for the 2011 bowl season. Their TV contract is up after the 2010 bowl season. Personally, I favor the plan by University of Georgia president Michael Adams about an 8-team playoff using the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls as quarterfinals. He then proposes the semifinals one week later and the finals two weeks later.

Rutgers running back Ray Rice has decided to forgo his senior year and enter the 2008 NFL Draft. This decision comes on the heels of his 280 yard 4 touchdown performance in the International Bowl.

Central Florida running back Kevin Smith recently had said he would be back for his senior season. Well, now he has changed his mind and has decided to enter the 2008 NFL Draft. Smith led the nation with 2,567 yards rushing.

I haven’t heard anything in the mainstream media about this but I noticed as I was going through the AP others receiving votes that Appalachian State received 5 votes from the AP media voters. They got the same amount of votes as Rutgers, and more votes than Tulsa, UConn, Air Force and Rutgers.