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The Touchdown club will
be holding a meeting on Thursday, October 10th at 7:00PM. The doors open at
6:00PM. Those who want to join are welcome.
Rutgers Touchdown Club Site
Football
Avon Cobourne was running
free, returning a punt in the second game of his senior season at Holy Cross
High.
The Cherry Hill native had 10 defenders and a 1,400-yard, 32-touchdown junior
year behind him, the kicker and a bevy of scholarship offers lined up in front
of him.
Approaching midfield with only the kicker to beat, Cobourne went to cut and
his leg gave way, tearing his ACL. Cobourne had season-ending surgery, and
the scholarship offers dried up.
Ex-Holy
Cross star Cobourne putting up gaudy numbers for West Virginia
The nation's top rusher.
The Big East's all-time leading rusher. West Virginia's all-time leader in
practically every major rushing category. All those phrases and many more
not only describe the kind of player Mountaineer senior halfback Avon Cobourne
is, but also tell of the kind of challenge the much-improved Rutgers run defense
will be facing this Saturday.
"Avon is as good as there is in the country," Rutgers head coach
Greg Schiano said. "He sees a crack and hits it. He's what I like in
a running back, he goes north-south."
RU 'D' must step up
Two of the Big East's
top players will be knocking heads for the final time in Piscataway tomorrow,
and both hail from South Jersey.
Cherry Hill native Avon Cobourne, a former Holy Cross standout, leads West
Virginia into Rutgers Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. Rutgers senior linebacker
Gary Brackett, a Glassboro High graduate, will be waiting for him.
Cobourne has become a Heisman Trophy candidate. He is the fourth-leading rusher
in Division I with 761 yards, which averages out to 152.2 per game, which
is best in the nation. Brackett, a walk-on who ended up as Rutgers' MVP last
season, is the Big East's second-leading tackler with 49.
Rutgers-W.
Va. clash features two area stars
Marty Pyszczymuka won't
go as far as to say that learning how to the hike the ball with his left hand
the past week has been a snap, but he insists it hasn't been as difficult
as he thought -- or as it may seem to outsiders.
Eleven days after undergoing wrist surgery, and with a cast protecting a broken
bone in his right (snapping) hand, Pyszczymuka is expected to be at his customary
starting center spot for Rutgers when the Knights play host to West Virginia
tomorrow.
Hopes
center on Pyszczymuka now
A couple of weeks ago,
Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano asked injured defensive lineman Greg Pyszczymuka
if he wanted to make the trip to Pittsburgh. Even though the veteran from
Sparta was sidelined with a shoulder injury, he could still act as another
pair of eyes on the sidelines, coaching his teammates here and there if he
saw something wrong.
The problem was Pyszczymuka couldn't bear to stand and watch -- not to say
that it was any easier from his living room watching on television. The Scarlet
Knights defense played very well in a 23-3 loss
Pszczymuka
excited to get back on field for Rutgers
Basketball
With an NIT bid last March
whetting the appetite of its rabid, mostly postseason-starved fan base, the
Rutgers men's basketball program faces an intriguing proposition as it prepares
for the upcoming 2002-03 campaign.
Basically, what can it do for an encore? Or, more to the point, does it have
the goods to satisfy the people who annually make the Brown Athletic Center
one of the loudest places to play, not to mention every member of the team?
Knights
looking for someone to fill the hole left by Kent
Rutgers center Kareem
Wright weighed 319 pounds at the end of last season. A less-than-pleased coach
Gary Waters had a heart-to-heart talk with the junior about what he needed
to do to prepare for his senior season.
Voila! The 6-foot-9 Wright will bring a 275-pound frame to preseason practices
this weekend.
The message was clear: Waters, off a successful first season with the Scarlet
Knights, is continuing to mold the team into his style of athletic, full-court
basketball.
Waters
wants more pressure
Spectators are usually
on their feet cheering at Rutgers men's basketball games. But those holding
courtside tickets may now want to remain seated. Athletics Director Bob Mulcahy
said renovations to the lower bowl of the Louis Brown Athletic Center, including
1,500 new cushioned courtside seats with backs and arm rests, are not intended
to quiet fans.
"I would like
to believe that trying to make our fans a little more comfortable is going
to be more of an incentive for them to be vociferous," Mulcahy said with
a laugh.
Renovated
RAC set for MidKnight Madness
Site Information
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Around
the Big East
Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones
both rushed for more than 140yards as No. 4 Virginia Tech's relentless ground
game and big-play defense beat Boston College, 28-23, last night.
The Hokies, second in the nation in turnover differential, needed three of
them in or near the end zone to stop BC drives and win their seventh straight
game against the Eagles.
Suggs,
Jones help Va. Tech run over BC
Around the Nation
When Notre Dame's Tyrone
Willingham and Michigan State's Bobby Williams shook hands on a football field
last month in East Lansing, Mich., it was a rare moment: The two of them,
old friends, represented one-half of the African-American head coaches among
the 117 major college programs in the nation.
Success
fails to open college doors for black football coaches
Donald "Big
Dog" Forbes: BigDog@Rutgersfootball.com
Mike and the Big Dog LLC