Exam Time

Former defensive back Joe Scola '07, who helped out as a student-assistant coach this fall, has passed his NCAA recruiting certification exam with flying colors. Curious about the test Scola and other coaches have to pass? Take a practice exam yourself here.

The Columbia Spectator has another look back at the Lions' season. While Dartmouth's overtime losses to Colgate and Princeton could have gone the Big Green's way, the Spec reminds us that the win over Columbia was hardly a sure thing. From the story:

Dartmouth showed itself to be the closest match to Columbia when the teams faced off in Hanover. The Lions and the Big Green traded touchdowns four times in a row to set up a 28-28 tie in the fourth quarter. Tight end Jamal Russell fumbled a pass, and Dartmouth recovered to score a touchdown. The Lions took the ball with a seven-point deficit and 1:24 to play, and a botched shotgun snap resulted in a Dartmouth safety and a 37-28 score.

Another story about the College Football Hall of Fame, this time from the Cincinnati Bengals' perspective, has largely the same Reggie Williams '76 quotes.

The University of North Carolina has announced a $291,000 raise and a one-year contract extension to football coach Butch Davis. As this story notes, the move has raised some eyebrows. From the story:

One writer asked rhetorically, WWYD -- What would Yale do? He suggested that one would never find Harvard or Yale or Princeton offering millions to a football coach.

Regarding that thought, the writer offers this opinion:

To compare athletics funding at an Ivy League school to that at any major NCAA member is like comparing the amount StarKist Tuna budgets for bicycles to that spent by Lance Armstrong.

It will be interesting to see how the Nebraska football fortunes go in the next few years. A story in the Journal Star about an unheralded recruit offered a scholarship by interim coach Tom Osborne highlights the differences between the approach taken by former coach Bill Callahan and Osborne. The story is centered around a 6-4, 215 tight end that it describes this way:

A great student. A good football player, though perhaps the kind whose name doesn’t show up on those big recruiting sites that rate football talent in the form of stars.

A few Ivy League schools wanted him, and Iowa State and Kansas were giving him looks, too. The 2007 Husker coaching staff had not paid him much attention.

And finally ... I'm hoping to wrap up an assignment today and to get to that season-ending Optimist-Pessimist tomorrow. I'll let you know.