Bielema wrist-slaps starter over critical Taylor Martinez comments

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By John TaylorSep 27, 2012, 9:20 PM EDT

Heading into Nebraska’s game against Wisconsin Saturday, the Cornhuskers will bring a much-improved Taylor Martinez into the Big Ten opener for both schools.

Martinez this season has thrown nine touchdowns against just one interception, ranking first in the conference and 10th in the country in passing efficiency.  Numerous observers have been impressed with the growth as a passer the junior has seemingly undertaken, with the notable exception being a defensive member of this weekend’s opponent.

Here is a sampling of Badgers starting defensive end David Gilbert‘s midweek comments when asked about Martinez’s progress:

“It still looks like he’s skipping rocks out there to me.”

“He still can’t throw. I’m just going to say it. He still can’t throw. He’s not going to beat us with his arm.”

Bret Bielema‘s response to Gilbert’s comments?

“He’ll be skipping rocks on the sideline with me for the first play,” the UW head coach said, referring to Gilbert being “benched” for the first defensive snap of the conference tilt. “That’s just not what we are and who we are.”

It appears that Bielema is using Gilbert’s very public ripping of Martinez as a teachable moment for both the player and his teammates.

“The kid is going to learn,” Bielema said. “As a head coach I’ve got to remind my guys all the time that the things we say and the things we put in front of the media… you said it, now you’ve got to play it.”

Ex-K-State WR involved in release imbroglio transfers to Appalachian State

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By John TaylorJun 24, 2017, 9:39 AM EDT

After public pressure helped get him out of the Little Apple, Corey Sutton is going to resume his collegiate playing career on the East Coast.

On his personal Twitter account Friday night, Sutton (pictured, No. 12) announced that he is “[b]lessed to say I will be continuing my collegiate career at Appalachian State University.” The rising sophomore will have to sit out the 2017 season because of arcane and one-sided NCAA transfer rules.

Beginning in 2018, he’ll have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

The move comes three weeks or so after a very noisy exit from his first college football home.

In early June, the transferring wide receiver revealed in an interview that Kansas State had denied a release to all 35 schools he requested, including FCS and Div. II programs.  Bill Snyder both confirmed the accuracy of Sutton’s accounting of events and defended his decision, then inexplicably ratcheted up the public rhetoric by revealing Sutton had failed a pair of drug tests.

Facing a maelstrom of criticism, Snyder subsequently apologized publicly while the football program granted Sutton a “full release” from his scholarship that still restricted him from transferring to any Big 12 school or one that’s on K-State’s future schedule while he still has eligibility. It’s unclear if the Sun Belt Mountaineers were on Sutton’s original list of 35 schools that was denied by the university.

In his lone season with the Wildcats, Sutton played in 11 games, catching four passes for 54 yards. Sutton came to K-State as a three-star 2016 signee after playing his high school football in North Carolina.

ESPN extends broadcast agreement with BYU football through 2019

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By Bryan FischerJun 23, 2017, 6:28 PM EDT

BYU’s future as an independent appears to be on solid ground through at least the next couple of seasons.

That’s the biggest takeaway from Friday’s announcement at the Cougars’ annual football media day in Provo as the school confirmed ESPN had exercised their contractual option to extend broadcast rights for BYU home games through 2019.

“We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with ESPN for decades and that relationship seems to get stronger every year,” athletic director Tom Holmoe said in a release. “There is great collaboration, and I feel really good about what we are doing together. We’ve had good dialogue about extending the contract and felt this option would give us some time for additional conversations.”

ESPN agreed to an eight-year deal with the school when they originally opted to become a football independent back in 2011. The network holds the rights to all BYU home games aside from at least one game a year that will be aired on the school’s own network, BYUtv.

In addition to extending the broadcast deal another season, BYU also secured a slot in a bowl game thanks to ESPN’s backing. The Cougars, if eligible, didn’t have a set bowl game to go to in 2017 and their slot in the Poinsettia Bowl for 2018 went away when the bowl folded earlier this year. The end result is that if BYU hits the necessary six wins in the next few seasons, they’ll wind up playing in one of the many postseason games that ESPN owns, operates or televises.

Ole Miss adds Troy to 2022 non-conference slate

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By Bryan FischerJun 23, 2017, 5:37 PM EDT

The schedule-makers in Oxford were pretty busy on Friday.

Not content to just add a non-conference game against Texas Tech in Houston to the Rebels’ slate of future games, Ole Miss has also added Sun Belt foe Troy to the schedule in 2022. According to a release from the Trojans, the two teams will open the season that year on September 3rd in Oxford.

The game will be just the second ever between the two programs despite being in neighboring states and about a five hour drive away from each other. The Rebels won the previous meeting back in 2013 by a score of 51-21.

The one-off game will complete the Ole Miss non-conference schedule for 2022 and leave just one opening between the upcoming season and 2023 left for the school to fill. In addition to hosting Troy for the opener, the Rebels will also play Central Arkansas and Tulsa in Oxford, plus Georgia Tech up in Atlanta.

Troy has played their fair share of SEC programs over the years and also has a future date with Missouri on the docket as well.

Auburn looking into scheduling UAB for future football game

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By Bryan FischerJun 23, 2017, 4:46 PM EDT

2017 will mark the return of UAB football after a brief absence on the scene following a controversial disbanding of the program. As part of that return to college football, the school is in the market to schedule several future games down the road and it appears one of the Blazers non-conference games could include a trip up the highway to play in-state power Auburn.

“We’ve had conversations with them,” Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs confirmed to AL.com this week. “We’d love to play them again if we can work it out on the schedule, but finding a common date is often difficult to do some times.”

As Jacobs alludes to, finding a match in terms of dates could prove to be tricky. The Tigers have filled all their non-conference slots through 2019 and already have already agreed to home games against two fellow CUSA programs in 2020 and 2022.

On the flip side, UAB also has signed up their fair share of top-flight SEC competition as well. The school will play at Florida this season and will travel to Texas A&M in 2018 and Tennessee in 2019. Meetings with the state’s two SEC programs are rare (Auburn and UAB last played in 1996) but it could be fun to see the recently revived Blazers find a way to schedule their neighbors up the road at some point in the future.

Based on comments from both schools, the only question left now might be what the date actually is.