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Monday's local college football notes

B.G. Brooks, Randy Holtz & Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 6, 2007 at midnight

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Air Force

Falcons in spotlight

Chad Hall and Ryan Harrison were honored by the Mountain West Conference on Monday for their performances in Saturday's 30-10 win against Army.

Hall, a 5-foot-8, 180-pound senior receiver/running back, earned his third Offensive Player of the Week honor this season after setting two school records.

He rushed for 275 yards on 34 carries (8.1 average) and eclipsed the Air Force rushing record of 256 yards he set earlier this season against Colorado State.

He finished with 333 all-purpose yards to break the 39-year-old single- game record of 315 all-purpose yards set by Ernie Jennings in 1968 against Colorado. Two of Hall's rushing attempts went for more than 50 yards, and 13 carries resulted in first downs.

"It's not that hard to get a little bit resourceful and find ways to get him involved," coach Troy Calhoun said of Hall, the MWC's all-purpose yardage leader and co-No. 2 rusher (112.2 yards a game). "We've just got to keep moving the guy around."

Harrison connected on field goals of 35, 40 and 56 yards and averaged 42 yards on two punts in earning the co-Special Teams Player of the Week honor. The junior from Keller, Texas, is the only player in NCAA Division I-A this season to kick three field goals 50 yards or longer.

Air Force has claimed a conference player of the week four times in the past five weeks.

Dekker doubtful

Tight end Travis Dekker is doubtful for Saturday's game at Notre Dame after suffering a concussion against Army.

"You looked into his eyes and it looked like the fog at Pebble Beach," Calhoun said.

Dekker has improved - "his eyes were crystal clear," Calhoun said - but he's still iffy.

Look forward, not back

Notre Dame's eight losses tie for the most in school history, but coach Charlie Weis isn't concerned about this being one of the worst, if not the worst, team in school history.

Irish teams in 1956 and 1960 each went 2-8.

"What I have to do in my job is try to put the team in position to beat Air Force," Weis said. "And that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to hark back on history. You try to beat Air Force, because as a coach, you live your life week by week."

CU

No bowl = pain

He has been mum on the subject the past several weeks, but here's what coach Dan Hawkins had to say at the Big 12 Conference's preseason media days about the Buffaloes reaching the postseason:

"I'm one of those guys who thinks we have to go to a bowl game," he said in late July in San Antonio. "To sit around in the offseason and watch everybody else play and you don't . . . it's like pounding yourself on the thumb with a hammer about three times a day - and that's hard to take."

The Buffs have two more chances to get their sixth win and become eligible for a bowl game - Saturday at Iowa State and Nov. 23 at home against Nebraska.

The Big 12 is aligned with seven bowls plus the Bowl Championship Series. But there's no guarantee six wins earns a bowl berth; Kansas finished 6-6 last season and was left out.

Six Big 12 teams currently are bowl eligible, with three others (CU, Kansas State, Oklahoma State) needing one victory.

Forever young? Forget it

Entering Week 11 of the regular season, senior cornerback Terrence Wheatley has some advice for younger players who are regular contributors: Youth no longer is an excuse for mistakes of the type made in a 55-10 loss against Missouri.

"Everybody at a certain point needs to grow up," Wheatley said. "Especially about midway through the season. You figure everybody is beyond the freshman or sophomore stage. You have to grow up and just play. You've been through enough games that you've seen every situation there is.

"You have to grow up and say, 'I didn't do my job today, and that's the end of it.' "

Wheatley, who has at least two games remaining in his college career, is wearing an immobilization boot on his left foot/ankle but hopes to play Saturday.

Table for two, please

Iowa State coach Gene Chizik confirmed he plans to play senior Bret Meyer and redshirt freshman Austen Arnaud at quarterback this week.

"I'd like to go ahead and play two . . . give our young guys a shot," Chizik said. "I'm pleased with the fact we had Arnaud come in and move the team some (in Saturday's 31-20 upset of Kansas State). We're here to win games now."

Chizik said he was "very proud" of Arnaud for the way he managed and moved the offense and made plays.

"He's been banged up and hasn't had the opportunities in the last month," Chizik said. "Now, he's physically able to do the things he does best - like move around in the pocket."

CSU

Borcky impressing

Whether Sonny Lubick is coaching the team or not in 2008, Colorado State figures to have an interesting quarterback situation going into spring practice.

While most have assumed second-team junior Billy Farris would take over for graduating senior Caleb Hanie, Lubick had high praise Monday for true freshman T.J. Borcky.

Borcky and another true freshman, Klay Kubiak of Regis High School, could push Farris for the right to replace Hanie. Also in the mix could be Grant Stucker, now a sophomore, of Ponderosa High School.

"He looks like he could be a really good quarterback," Lubick said of Borcky, a lean, 6-foot-4 prospect from Orlando, Fla., who has impressed in practice while redshirting this season. "Not only can he throw the ball, but he has great speed. He's a smart kid who was really well-coached in high school by his father (Tim), and he's a tall kid who has a lot of moxie.

"If we can get 10 more pounds on him, he'll be up around 200 to 205. We're pretty excited about him for the future."

One reason the current No. 2, Farris, didn't play in CSU's loss at Brigham Young was he felt a pop in his throwing arm while throwing a deep ball near the end of the Rams' practice Thursday. Farris is scheduled to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam on his right elbow early this week. If Farris can't play Saturday at New Mexico, Stucker would be No. 2 behind Hanie.

At this stage of the season, the coaching staff has no intention of pulling the red shirt off Borcky or any other player currently redshirting.

Etc.

• The area in which the Rams have improved most the past few weeks has been the offensive line, Lubick said. "As I see it, the biggest part of our improvement on offense has been our line," he said. "They're playing with a little more confidence as they start to get more continuity."

• Tickets for CSU's two remaining home games - against Georgia Southern on Nov. 17 and Wyoming on Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving - are available at CSURams.com or by phone (1-800-491-7267). The Georgia Southern game won't be televised; the Border War game between the Rams and Cowboys will be aired by the mtn. Both games kick off at noon.

• John Mosure, a talented redshirt freshman from Miami who has played sparingly this season, missed the game at BYU after having surgery on his gums. He's questionable for this week.

UNC

Leaving a mark

Cristian Sarmento, a junior linebacker from Lakewood High School, had a big day for the Bears against Eastern Washington.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pounder made 20 tackles, a career high for him and the most by any Big Sky Conference player this season.

His total tied for the 10th-most in school history with Ed Markham, who had 20 against Eastern New Mexico in 1978, and is the most by a Northern Colorado player since Reed Doughty's 21 against Nebraska-Omaha in 2001.

Wyoming

Find the end zone

The Cowboys need to correct one major flaw before their game at Utah - jump-start the offense.

Wyoming, which ranks ninth in the Mountain West in total offense, managed only 250 yards against San Diego State, which has the worst total defense in the league.

"I wish we'd garnered a few more points on offense," coach Joe Glenn said. "I think we're good enough that we can score more points. We've just got to get more points on the board."

B.G. Brooks (CU), Randy Holtz (CSU), Jim Benton (Air Force) and wire services (Northern Colorado, Wyoming).

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