From the June 29 KICKOLOGY BLOG:
"Kicker Wyatt Schmidt from St. Thomas Academy in St. Paul has decided to turn down a scholarship offer from Dartmouth and other schools to play hockey, to walk on at USC to play football. He made the decision yesterday and will arrive at SC around July 29."OK, the scholarship thing was wrong but you get the idea.
A poster on the USC 247 BOARD offers a little more info:
"He came out for an unofficial visit during Spring Ball with his father, and just loves USC and the connections he will have in SoCal."Wyatt Schmidt tweeted the news himself on June 30. (LINK)
Schmidt was the 2012 Herbalife 24 Chris Sailer Award winner as the national high school kicker of the year after going 15-for-15 on field goals. Find an earlier BGA posting about him HERE.
Despite the loss of one kicker, the incoming freshman class still has a talented foot heading this way in the person of Quebec's David Smith. (LINK)
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Regular visitors to this site know I'm a huge proponent of transcripts accompanying online videos. Unfortunately, there wasn't a transcript with Football Gameplan's FCS preseason All-America team so I had to watch the whole thing to extract names of interest – so you don't have to ;-)The one Ivy Leaguer tapped for the first team was Princeton offensive tackle Spenser Huston. The only other Ivy representative is Princeton's Quinn Epperly, chosen – bizarrely – as the second team's "all-purpose" player. He was described as "Tebowesque," which in this case is meant as a compliment.
The Big Green will face one more player recognized by Gameplan in Central Connecticut's Rob Holloman, chosen second-team running back.
Dartmouth followers may find it interesting that Sacred Heart's Keshaudas Spence was named first-team running back and teammate Troy Moore is a first-team defensive tackle.
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There have been all kinds of whispers about star Yale tailback Tyler Varga's future after he was lost to injury last year. Will he be ready or even able to play this year? Yale coach Tony Reno was noncommittal with the PORTAL 31 BLOG, which wrote of Varga:He has made progress and saw a handful of foot specialists during the offseason.
So will the bruising RB be ready?
“I honestly don’t know,” Reno said. “I expect him to be here for preseason camp. Once he puts the pads on, we’ll see.”
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The local daily ran a blurb last week about former Columbia head coach Larry McElreavy taking over the reigns at Newport High School, about 45 minutes from Hanover. Yesterday there was a FEATURE STORY on McElreavy, a Claremont, N.H., native who had been coaching a middle school team in his hometown.
