KcMizzou
12-01-2007, 10:34 AM
Mizzou already is cashing in on the BCS bonanza
By CANDACE BUCKNER
The Kansas City Star
Derrick Hall is a Texas boy. Loves home and once thought he’d never leave.
He’s a wide receiver out of Beaumont. There are four gold stars under his smiling mug on Rivals.com. As a junior, he orally committed to Texas A&M. But these days, he’s bleeding black and gold.
“I really like Missouri, they’ve come a long way,” Hall said earlier this week. “That’s my school right there. To tell you the truth, that’s the school I’m rooting for. I’m riding with them right now.”
Wait a second. “My school”? We are talking about Missouri football, right?
Seems as if the No. 1-ranked Tigers are reaping the rewards in becoming a Bowl Championship Series contending program.
Good things happen for BCS bowl-bound teams, especially for those programs like Missouri without a long-standing tradition of successful football. For starters, BCS bowl teams get more exposure than a “Dancing with the Stars” contestant. Also, top recruits really, really like you.
“You’re playing on a day when everybody in the country is watching you,” said Tony Gibson, West Virginia recruiting coordinator and defensive backs coach. “You get your own three- to four-hour recruiting right there. Everybody wants to be in a BCS bowl.”
Like West Virginia, Wake Forest may not have the tradition that screams “football powerhouse.”
“Fans sometimes get a little apathetic about football,” Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe said. “The standard line is wait for basketball season.”
But after the Demon Deacons earned a bid to play in the Orange Bowl in 2006, their coaches didn’t just get inside the homes of more four- and five-star recruits. Those kids were calling Wake Forest. Those basketball fans wanted in, too. This season, Wake Forest sold out all its season tickets. That had never happened before.
“Once you’re in the Orange Bowl, like we were last year,” Grobe said, “it’s an unbelievable shot in the arm for a school like Wake Forest.”
No better example of the little-program-that-could can be found in Boise, Idaho.
Last season, Boise State shocked Oklahoma, and the nation, by winning the Fiesta Bowl. Boise State coaches have traditionally recruited from the West Coast, but post-Fiesta, opportunities opened up in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Already, Missouri’s top BCS ranking and national coverage have thrown a substantial pebble into the recruiting pool that rippled all the way down to Hall in Texas. Hall has had the choice of Louisiana State, Alabama, Oklahoma and Notre Dame, and yet he wants to visit Columbia, in the winter no less, on Dec. 8. All Hall can think about is possibly playing in Mizzou’s spread offense.
“With Chase Daniel back there, Jeremy Maclin on one side and me on the other and a great line, picking defenses apart, I don’t think anybody can stop us,” Hall said. “(Maclin) is young, and I’m going to be there as a freshman. We’re going to be together for a good little minute.”
By CANDACE BUCKNER
The Kansas City Star
Derrick Hall is a Texas boy. Loves home and once thought he’d never leave.
He’s a wide receiver out of Beaumont. There are four gold stars under his smiling mug on Rivals.com. As a junior, he orally committed to Texas A&M. But these days, he’s bleeding black and gold.
“I really like Missouri, they’ve come a long way,” Hall said earlier this week. “That’s my school right there. To tell you the truth, that’s the school I’m rooting for. I’m riding with them right now.”
Wait a second. “My school”? We are talking about Missouri football, right?
Seems as if the No. 1-ranked Tigers are reaping the rewards in becoming a Bowl Championship Series contending program.
Good things happen for BCS bowl-bound teams, especially for those programs like Missouri without a long-standing tradition of successful football. For starters, BCS bowl teams get more exposure than a “Dancing with the Stars” contestant. Also, top recruits really, really like you.
“You’re playing on a day when everybody in the country is watching you,” said Tony Gibson, West Virginia recruiting coordinator and defensive backs coach. “You get your own three- to four-hour recruiting right there. Everybody wants to be in a BCS bowl.”
Like West Virginia, Wake Forest may not have the tradition that screams “football powerhouse.”
“Fans sometimes get a little apathetic about football,” Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe said. “The standard line is wait for basketball season.”
But after the Demon Deacons earned a bid to play in the Orange Bowl in 2006, their coaches didn’t just get inside the homes of more four- and five-star recruits. Those kids were calling Wake Forest. Those basketball fans wanted in, too. This season, Wake Forest sold out all its season tickets. That had never happened before.
“Once you’re in the Orange Bowl, like we were last year,” Grobe said, “it’s an unbelievable shot in the arm for a school like Wake Forest.”
No better example of the little-program-that-could can be found in Boise, Idaho.
Last season, Boise State shocked Oklahoma, and the nation, by winning the Fiesta Bowl. Boise State coaches have traditionally recruited from the West Coast, but post-Fiesta, opportunities opened up in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Already, Missouri’s top BCS ranking and national coverage have thrown a substantial pebble into the recruiting pool that rippled all the way down to Hall in Texas. Hall has had the choice of Louisiana State, Alabama, Oklahoma and Notre Dame, and yet he wants to visit Columbia, in the winter no less, on Dec. 8. All Hall can think about is possibly playing in Mizzou’s spread offense.
“With Chase Daniel back there, Jeremy Maclin on one side and me on the other and a great line, picking defenses apart, I don’t think anybody can stop us,” Hall said. “(Maclin) is young, and I’m going to be there as a freshman. We’re going to be together for a good little minute.”