kramer

nice thanks

Huskers 6-0 sweep

Lee was there with his dad. Pretty big kid. Hope he enjoyed himself.

nILES WAS AT THE GAME AND TALKING TO ALL THE 2006 recruits. It's like he's already part of the team

Great stuff on my background

The rarest of recruits

 

The incredible story of Rulon Davis

By Richard Cirminiello

 

A little over six years ago, Rulon Davis played his very first down of organized football. Almost two years ago, he was on foreign soil, waging a daily battle to return home alive. Last summer, he had both of his legs run over by a semi on I-10 in Los Angeles. Today, he’s one of the prized recruits of Cal’s 2006 recruiting haul, an incredible, almost storybook, transformation that has Bear coaches and fans wondering if they landed an up-and-coming edge rusher or a superhero.

 

Rulon Davis is a 6-6, 275-pound defensive end with long arms, good feet and NFL potential, but by every measure, he’s the antithesis of the garden variety, four-star recruit that graces web sites and wish lists during each recruiting cycle. For starters, he’s spent more time in the last 24 months on the battlefield than on the football field. Oh, and it wasn’t until his junior year at Charter Oak (CA) High School that he was smitten by the pigskin, and even then, he was an offensive lineman without much of a future in athletics beyond high school. The only recruiting of Davis was done by the United States Marine Corps, which landed him as a reservist without any competition.

 

”In high school, the coaches didn’t put me out there or promote me (to colleges), but that was fine with me,” Davis admitted. “I figured I was done playing football and the next step in my life would be with the Marines.”

 

Davis was born in San Diego, raised in LA County and profoundly influenced by a two-year stay at Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Tex. Like most of the kids in his neighborhood, he grew up loving sports, but until a six-inch growth spurt ushered in an awkward gawky stage, he’d always dreamt of being the next Charles Barkley, not the next Charles Haley. Spending 8th and 9th grade at MMA left a lasting impression that would affect the course of his life and lay the foundation for the focused, mature student athlete he is today. Harlingen would up being a harbinger of things to come and the inspiration for the most important decision of Davis’ young life.

 

”My own ignorance,” Davis described his initial inspiration for becoming a Marine. “I thought it would be like MMA, which were two of the most fun years of my life. Man, was I dead wrong. I knew the moment I got to San Diego that it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. It wound up being the most challenging thing I’d ever done up to that point. It set me apart from everyone else. I became even more mature and learned some core values I’d wind up incorporating in my everyday life.”

 

Davis fulfilled his obligation, becoming an Avionics Technician because he wanted to tackle one of the toughest careers available, and earned a release from active duty in September 2002. The next leg of his odyssey would take him to Mt. San Antonio College, tucked away in the San Gabriel Valley and recognized for having one of the best athletic programs of California’s 109 community colleges. Davis enrolled at Mt. SAC in 2003 with an eye toward a degree and a return to the gridiron for some unfinished business.

 

”Deep down, I still felt like I had something to prove on the field,” he admitted. “I just wasn’t done with football, so I wound up trying out for the team my freshman year. Honestly, when I first showed up, I figured I would just get cut from the team.”

 

He didn’t. In fact, he blossomed into a dominant pass-rusher, playing as if he was channeling a 20-something Bruce Smith and generating interest from major I-A programs like Washington State that didn’t even know his name just two years earlier. Davis was excelling in the classroom and on the field, and laying the foundation for a bright future. The kid that couldn’t get a sniff of interest at Charter Oak was creating a mild stir after just one season at Mt. SAC. Life was good. Good, that is, until an unexpected phone call early in 2004 would forever change his life. College football may have wanted Rulon Davis, but Uncle Sam still owned his rights. The road to Pullman had a detour…Fallujah, Iraq.

 

”My whole world was crushed,” Davis said with a hint of anguish still in his voice. “My family was devastated. I had just begun to hit all of my personal goals. My heart just stopped. I couldn’t believe what was happening. No one wants to go to war, but that’s what I was prepared to do, and when the time came, I felt I was ready to take on the challenge.”

 

After two months of training at Camp Pendleton (CA), Rulon Davis the student-athlete had become Rulon Davis the soldier, and was headed to Iraq as part of HMLA 775 Helicopter Squadron. In reality, two years of training could not have prepared him for what awaited on the other side of the world.

 

”As soon as the door of the plane opened, there was this intense heat that made you feel as if you’d melt on the spot,” Davis said. “You knew you were in a totally different world. The air smelt different. Everything tasted different. All of my senses were attacked, and then shortly thereafter, we were getting attacked. I remember scrambling to find a bunker so I wouldn’t get shot. I had never been shot at in my life. There’s no training to mentally prepare you for that kind of experience.”

 

Those six months in the Middle East felt like an eternity, and moved with all the swiftness of a life sentence without parole. When Davis returned home to California in September 2004, he was a different person—a little somber, a little less care-free and a lot more focused on seizing the most that life has to offer. Having witnessed unspeakable horrors during a mission that he openly questioned, Davis took more than his belongings back to Covina. His duffel bag included a fair amount of cynicism and skepticism as well.

 

”It was a case of the first to go, last to know,” he said. “We were often poorly informed. We’d watch CNN sometimes to get updates on what was going on around us. We weren’t always getting three squares a day. Helicopters were going down. From my perspective, we weren’t doing anything positive in Iraq. What was our mission? I didn’t know. I’d ask my superiors, and they had no answers. I wanted to leave as fast as possible. I remained focused and did my job as I was trained, so I could get home in one piece.”

 

With the toughest year of his life in the rear view mirror, Davis was intent upon getting back to Mt. SAC and that place when all things in his academic, athletic and personal life were harmoniously aligned. It all seemed simple enough until he had yet another brush with drama to endure last July. Another obstacle to strengthen his resolve. Another chapter for when the book about his life gets written.

 

”I don’t know what I was thinking,” Davis confessed. “Me and a friend thought it would be cool to buy motorcycles. One day last summer, I was riding on I-10 and got tapped from behind. I had no time to react, my lane was cut off and I got thrown from my bike. I was on the highway, trying to crawl away, but a semi wound up rolling over both my legs.”

 

Davis was rushed to USC Medical Center, where he learned he’d neither broken any bones, nor suffered any ligament damage in either leg. It’s no wonder the Fantastic Four showed considerable interest before falling out of contention for his services. Davis did suffer an infection in the hospital, and when the swelling in his leg didn’t subside, surgery was necessary. Following some physical therapy, he was cleared to get back on the field in mid-October, but rather than burn a year of eligibility, he sat out the rest of the season and concentrated on the intense recruiting process that beginning to percolate. That’s good news for the Cal program, which will watch Davis develop for the next three years.

 

For Davis, selecting a college to attend was almost as distasteful as that half-year stint in Iraq. No, his life wasn’t in jeopardy, but his privacy was, and after giving the nod to Cal, he received a spate of threatening hate mail from fans of Nebraska, a school he’d given a verbal commitment to last fall. At the end of the day, Berkeley felt like home for so many reasons, so Davis went with his hunch.

 

”It’s just such a great campus,” he gushed. “The library is awesome. The first time I walked in, there wasn’t a sound. There were tables and tables everywhere. I need to have no distractions. I was actually skeptical of how tenacious Nebraska was during the process. I kind of like staying under the radar. Cal was like, you can come or not. I really liked that. I wanted to go to a great academic institution, plus Cal’s defensive schemes are similar to what we had at Mt. SAC. From the coaches and the players to the campus, it just felt like the right decision.”

 

So here he is, a veteran of only three years of organized football, and none in the last 26 months, with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a future in football that was non-existent not long ago. Davis knows he has plenty to prove and a few layers of rust to shed, but the potential is evident and the player expects to make an immediate impact on a Bear D that’s jonesing for kids that can make plays in the opposition’s backfield.

 

”Rulon has all the physical tools to be a dominant rush-end in the Pac-10,” offered Brad Hoiseth, National JUCO Analyst for Rivals.com. “A lot of his success will depend on how his body reacts to not playing competitive football for two years. He is very tough mentally. Nothing that happens on the field could possibly compare to what he went through off the field the last couple of years.”

 

For many years, The United States Army has reminded us that they do more by 9 AM than most people do all day. Well, in that same vain, Rulon Davis, an ex-Marine, has done more in the past four years than most people do in a lifetime. And beginning this fall, when he’s matriculated at Cal and fighting for a starting job, he’ll have a chance to add a new twist to a journey that’s already one of the most compelling of the 2006 recruiting season.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All this and he was afraid of the competition at NU?!?!?!?

Lots of negative recruiting going on against Nebraska. Andre Jones said that "many" schools implied that Nebraska was an "all-white" school that was not a good place for African-Americans to attend. I think that the interviewer was a bit suprised to hear that. Dre said that he had no problem telling these coaches they were full of ****. Secondarily, he was told that Callahan would be fired. However, he said that this stuff was "deja vu all over again" from when he was recruited out of high school, so he kind of expected it.

below are the one's i'm aware of- and its likely missing SEVERAL, even aside from those in the high school ranks. also some may be out of date.

 

FWIW this also includes guys that coached for but didn't play for NU. I marked the guys (that i know of) that actually played with a *.

 

NFL

Gene Huey, Indianapolis, RBs

*Tom Rathman, Detroit, RBs (at least as of 2005)

*Monte Kiffin, Tampa Bay, Defensive Coordinator

*Eric Stokes, Seattle, Scout (ok, not a coach, but still)

*Dave Redding, San Diego, Strength & Conditioning

 

UIF

*Tony Veland, Omaha Beef, Defensive Coordinator

*Damon Benning, ", RBs & WRs

*Jeff Long, Evansville BlueCats, DL

 

NCAA

Buffalo Bulls: *Turner Gill (HC); *Jimmy Williams (intern); Angus McClure (OL); Aaron Stramn (DL); Brian Mohnsen (intern)

 

Ohio: *Solich, *Jimmy Burrow (DC); Tim Albin (OC); Carl Pelini (DL); *Gerry Gdowski (QBs)

 

Southeast Missouri: Tony Samual (HC); *Kenny Wilhite (CBs); Chris Norris (RBs)

Norris graduated from NU but I can only assume that he played.

 

Wayne State: Dan McLaughlin (HC); *Clint Brown (DC)

 

Doane College: *Frazier (HC); *Troy Dumas (LBs)

 

Concordia: *Mark Mauer (HC); *Russell Gary (secondary); *Rodney Lewis (DBs)

 

North Dakota State: Craig Bohl (HC); Nelson Barnes (DL); *Tracey Wistrom (grad asst)

 

*Steve Standard, Colorado State, DC

 

Marvin Sanders, North Carolina, DC

 

Kevin Steele, FSU, LBs

 

Jon Jost, FSU, Strength & Conditioning

 

Bo Pelini, LSU, DC

 

George Darlington, La-Tech

 

*Alvarez, Wisconsin, HC (obviously retired from that position last year)

 

*Ryan Held, SW Oklahoma State, HC

 

*Mike Grant, Iowa State, WRs

 

*Barney Cotton, Iowa State, OC

 

Jeff Jamrog, Minnesota State-Mankato (DivII), HC

 

*Mickey Joseph, had been RB coach at Central Oklahoma in 2004. not sure where he is now.

 

Scott Downing, Northern Colorado, HC

 

*Dave Gillespie, North Iowa Area CC, HC

 

*Chad Stanley, Panhandle State

 

*Ed Stewart, Missouri, Asst Athletic Director

 

 

High School

*Brian Boerboom, Great Bridge (VA), HC

 

*Doug Colman, Absegami (NJ), HC

 

*Clinton Childs, Omaha North, RBs

 

*Andy Means, Millard South, HC

 

*Jason Peter, Huntington Beach (CA), as of 2005

 

*Jerry Dunlap, Napa High (CA), HC

 

*Clint Finley, Granado (TX), DC (just hired this year)

 

Neil Smith is an owner for an Arena League team. He had been a coaching intern a couple years ago (for the Broncos i think?)

 

 

Others, retired, and currently unknown:

Zaven Yaralian, retired from the Broncos in 2001

 

Joe Blahak, Marc Munford, and Mark Traynowicz had been with the Lincoln Capitols up to 2003.

Jerry Murtaugh was coaching for the Omaha Beef until a couple years ago i think.

 

Joel Makovicka was an intern with U of Virginia in 2004

 

Rich Glover was working with Tony Samuel at New Mexico State until that (Husker-heavy) staff was let go.

 

Even before Turner, U of Buffalo had Clayton Carlin as DB coach.

Where did you find all that

How's Joey Robinson?

A "B"..........lot to many of our number 1 guys

Player: Harlan Gunn

Hometown: Omaha, NE

Position: OL

Height: 6’3”

Weight: 290

40 time: 5.1

Visit Date:

Scholarships offered: Miami (FL), Kansas, Kansas St., and Nebraska

Favorites: Committed to Miami Hurricanes

Rankings/Stars:

Rivals:

Bid Red Report:

Assessing the talent: Easily the best lineman in the state of Nebraska. Will soon be a hot commodity throughout the country. Will explore his options

Odds of becoming a Cornhusker: 10% In state guy that has a few teammates in Lincoln already should help. Nebraska has the inside track, but has to prove to Gunn he is wanted.

NCAA Approves Uniform Start Date For 2008

The NCAA Board of Directors approved a Big 10 Conference proposal that will establish a uniform start date for college baseball, beginning with the 2008 season.

Should help Northern schools

Here's a Q and A from Baseball America regarding the Huskers.

Q: Jim Gilmore from Denver asks:

How far down the list is Nebraska, weren't they in your preseason top 8 teams to watch?

A: Will Kimmey: Nebraska's right there on the cusp of the Top 25. If we ranked 30 teams, you'd see NU in there. But 25 is the number we roll with, so that's where we are. Chamberlain and Dorn returning give you two nice arms around which to build a staff, but the Huskers lost a lot of skill and experience to the draft and graduation, including four important hitters. Now, you've got injuries to Bohanan and Gerch to compound that. None of this means Nebraska isn't a good team. We know it is and picked it third in the Big 12 and to make an NCAA appearance. It is very capable of popping into the t25 at some point during the year.

Callahan can't stop talking about the concert. COmmented on the song of "Cant' always get what you want.

16 players are going to have surgery already or will and most likely not particiapte in spring drills

Do we have a list. Has Herian gone back under the knife?

Can he ever recover? Is this the same shoulder or are they different. He's a physical back and that's his style....physical back.

This was something that was a no brainer

Callahan: When we recruit, academics is the number one thing we talk about, everything else comes second."

For some yes, but I just think for some people other things are discussed

New caption contest... Don't forget to vote for your favorite cap for the last one, Poll: Caption Contest XLI

 

Best caption gets a $3 Husker bucks!

 

Rules and stuff here: Fark, Caption & Riddle Contests

Why are you guys making this so difficult????

1) What are your first impressions of this recruit (speed, strength, character, leadership, grades, etc)?

Heard he was ranked so high on most peoples list

2) Rank his importance to the Huskers 1-10 (10 the most important).

8 - Hope he doesn't mind sharing time and being patient learning the offense

3) Will he contribute right away? In what capacity?

Yes/no - Can he pick up trhe offensive scheme. He will return kickoffs

4) Who does this player most remind you of?

Maybe lie a Terrel Davis

5) Where do you see this player in 2010?

Possible pros

Here is to Eric The Red. He was on top of the signing day action since early this morning. He had the info out everyone as fast as it was available. Great job!

Right on....thanks for the effort.

1) What are your first impressions of this recruit (speed, strength, character, leadership, grades, etc)?

His size, he's huge. His speed is probably deceiving because his strides are huge.

2) Rank his importance to the Huskers 1-10 (10 the most important).

10 - without a doubt

3) Will he contribute right away? In what capacity?

He damn well better. A week or two to know a few plays and then more an dmore on his plate.

4) Who does this player most remind you of?

Roy WIlliams - hopefully he can produce

5) Where do you see this player in 2010?

Second year with the Buffalo Bills

LJS story

Recruit knows his Husker history

BY JOHN MABRY / Lincoln Journal Star

EL DORADO, Kan. — Kenny Wilson knows his Husker football history. Now, he’s ready to make some. “Ahman Green. Mike Rozier. I watched all of them,” said Wilson, a Butler County Community College tailback who signed with Nebraska this morning. Talk Huskers at Life in the Red | More Big Red news and views in Husker Extra

Kenny Wilson signed a letter of intent with NU. (John Mabry)

The coaches here have no doubt that Wilson will become a Division I-A star as he joins a backfield that includes former Butler County quarterback Zac Taylor.

Wilson’s numbers as a Grizzly, starting with his 4.26 40 time, are something to behold. He ran for 1,229 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, including a performance against Hutchinson (10 carries, 267 yards) that still has them buzzing.

The numbers might have been bigger if Wilson, who grew up in Liberal, Kan., hadn’t alternated starts with backfield mate Ryan Torain, now on his way to Arizona State.

But it’s the person in the 6-foot-2, 220-pound body, not the player, that Butler County head coach Troy Morrell wanted to talk about Wednesday.

“Probably the best thing about Kenny Wilson is the work ethic and the character,” Morrell said. “He’s a kid who not only talks about what he’s going to do, but he backs it up with actions.“

Offensive line coach Chris Jirgens wasn’t the least bit surprised when Wilson was selected as a team captain in 2005.

“No-brainer. Phenomenal kid,” Jirgens said. “He’s one of the last guys we can drag off the field, signing little kids’ autographs.“

In El Dorado, they are convinced that Wilson can follow the path of former Butler County star Rudi Johnson, now a running back with the Cincinnati Bengals.

First, though, he will have to see how he stacks up with NU’s returning backs.

“Marlon Lucky and (Brandon) Jackson, they’re good runners and good players,” Wilson said. “I expect to come in and compete with them.“

Husker coaches Jay Norvell and Randy Jordan were Wilson’s key recruiting contacts, but you can bet Taylor had something to say about it, too. Taylor was one of the main reasons Wilson selected NU over Florida and Tennessee.

“No matter where else I go,” Wilson said, “no one’s going to have my quarterback from last year.“

Wilson is studying business and plans to continue that field of study in Lincoln, on and off the FieldTurf.

“Taking care of business,” he said, “that’s what I really like.“

I know he's not offically Nu now, but won't he always be.

Thomas Drewes, incoming freshman, knows all about his new coach, ongoing college football legend.

Who wouldn't know about the quarterback of one of the greatest offenses of all time? Turner Gill was a Heisman finalist, 28-2 as a starter, the Vince Young of his day.

Turner Gill joins Buffalo after serving as director of player development for the Green Bay Packers. (Getty Images)

... of his day ...

That's the key, because reference points are important when the coach's on-field accomplishments are older than most of his players.

Oh yeah, Drewes, a linebacker who signed with the University of Buffalo in December, knows all about his new coach.

He has cable.

"I saw an ESPN Classic game on TV," Drewes said, "against Miami. That was huge, who he played against, who he had playing with him."

Before plasma and flat screens and Blackberrys and text messaging, Gill played out the end of his career in real time on New Year's Day 1984. That night Gill guided Nebraska in the heart-breaking loss to Miami, the game that kicked off the Hurricanes dynasty and ended the quarterback's college career.

Even by Nebraska's steam-rolling standards, established before and after, Gill was an all-time great. Slippery, smart, savvy. And perhaps a victim of the digital age, when his first head-coaching job involves luring 21st century recruits to what is arguably the worst program in America.

It's obvious not everyone will be Buffalo Gill's.

If you're a recruiting-head, you've surfed the 'Net till you've drowned, scouring top 100 lists, keeping track of the latest commits. This is the other end of the recruiting trail.

Buffalo is ranked somewhere in the 80s by the major recruiting services. It has only 16 scholarships to offer in a program that has won two of its past 17 games, over Central Michigan and Kent State.

Drewes might be typical of the talent available. At one point he was a Big Ten-caliber linebacker out of Pennsylvania, but he injured both shoulders in high school and had to attend prep school to improve his stock.

"Kids today, it's hard for them to respect anything," said Bill Chaplick, Drewes' coach at Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y. "But they respect guys that played."

That's part of the reason Gill and Buffalo hooked up last month. Buffalo was, well, desperate, and Gill was available. The two are lucky to have each other.

Since jumping up to I-A in 1999, Buffalo is 10-69. Former coach Jim Hofher was fired last year after the school's third one-victory season since '99.

Meanwhile, the college football legend was looking for his first head-coaching job. Perhaps Gill was too happy, too comfortable under Tom Osborne and Frank Solich to seriously pursue anything outside of Nebraska.

Gill did interview at his alma mater, Sam Houston State, New Mexico State and Missouri over the years. There were no takers.

Maybe it's because Gill has never been a coordinator. Maybe the fit wasn't right. But the Bulls just hired the guy who, after 13 years as a Nebraska assistant, just spent a year as director of player development for the Green Bay Packers.

"They (players) don't know me, but the parents do," Gill said. "Hopefully they can eventually can research and know who I am and what I am as a person."

Gill hit the ground flying this week with an itinerary that rivals a U2 tour. It started Sunday in New York. By the end of the week, he will have hit Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago and Omaha.

In the middle of the barnstorming tour, recruiting coordinator Allen Mogridge called to relay a change of plans. Gill would have to leave San Francisco in the middle of the day to fly to L.A. A potential baby Bull was interested.

"Hey baby," Gill responded, "the whistle is blowing. It's game time."

So far, game time has netted a handful of prep school players. Gill supposedly stole a high school player that Michigan State liked. If true, that's huge news. Buffalo is used to beating out the likes of Hofstra for recruits.

"I can't imagine coaching these players without being a player," said Chaplick, who was a three-year letterman at center for Boston College. In his seven seasons, Chaplick says he has delivered 92 players to I-A schools.

"I'll feed him as many players as I can."

During this same week Gill is spanning the country, Buffalo AD Warde Manuel is in Florida hustling money from boosters. The former lineman and associate AD at Michigan is hooking his career to the new coach.

"We are tied at the hip," said Manuel, who was hired in July.

Manuel still looks like he could lay a shoulder into somebody, which is part of his appeal. This isn't a gray-haired program, but it could use a new weight room.

And more fans. UB Stadium is a fine facility (29,000 capacity) but was barely half full in 2004, the last year NCAA stats are available. That put Buffalo eighth-worst nationally in attendance.

"We are, by far, head and shoulders there academically," Mogridge said. "You sell a kid on, 'We're not there yet, but we're learning our way.' You've got to find guys who believe."

It always comes back to the f-word for these downtrodden programs: Faith. It's funny that current Southern California president Steve Sample was the CEO at Buffalo when he decided to sign off on the ascension to I-A.

Talk about yin and yang. USC is winning national championships. Buffalo is winning one game a year.

The program's key players now are in their 30s and 40s. Manuel played under Bo Schembechler. Gill played under Osborne. Mogridge was a tight end under Mack Brown at North Carolina. Co-defensive coordinator Jimmy Williams played for Nebraska and in the NFL. Quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt was a veteran NFL backup.

More advantages: Buffalo is in the MAC, a fluid mid-major conference where a conference title is never that far away. Gill won't say it, but his best bet might be to squeeze a seven- or eight-win season out of Buffalo in the next two or three years and skip to a place where he can reasonably recruit.

"I knew it was a tough situation," he said.

The Buffalo administration is counting on this from the PlayStation generation of recruits: Kids might not remember Gill, but they remember the quarterback greats he coached at Nebraska -- Heisman winner Eric Crouch and Tommie Frazier.

"Kids were going home for Christmas when they learned who their coach was going to be," Manual said. "Suddenly parents are talking about it, 'Do you know who your coach is?'"

Anonymity goes both ways. The best Buffalo team won the Lambert Trophy, as the No. 1 team in the East. That was 1958. The school then dropped football for a time in 1971. It has produced Wolf Blitzer (CNN) and Gerry Philbin (Jets defensive end in the 1970 Super Bowl) but little else that would make you flip on the Motorola as a football fan.

Some of what the recruits don't know, they don't need to. Tom Osborne's coaching tree is not exactly blooming. Tony Samuel was fired at New Mexico State last year. Nebraska AD Steve Pederson determined Frank Solich wasn't the answer despite a sterling record (58-19). Solich now is at Ohio, embarrassed by a DWI conviction.

Former Osborne assistant Kevin Steele was a head coach at Baylor, a similarly hopeless situation. He worked in the NFL for a time and is now with Florida State.

Gill was one of only two coaches retained when Bill Callahan came in. After one season in 2003, it became evident to observers that as receivers coach in a West Coast offense, the fit for Gill wasn't good.

Oddly enough, it looks like the master of Nebraska's I-option will run the West Coast offense in Buffalo.

Gill is jazzed that faculty rep Charles Fourtner is in tune with athletics-being-the-front-porch-of-the-university thing. Buffalo Bills president Tom Donohoe gave the job a thumbs up.

On the day he was hired, Gill himself crooked his thumb and forefinger to form a "U".

"UB will stand for 'U Believe,' he said. "They have to believe in themselves."

"He brought that up, the underdog role," Drewes said. "I like being on an underdog team."

For now, he doesn't have a choice."

nice melons