Dramatic welcome to college football! UTSA 33, South Alabama 31

Wow. What an introduction to college football broadcasting that was!

Just like last year, UTSA and South Alabama traded momentum all afternoon, with some impressive big plays tempered by a mess of turnovers and penalties. It was fascinating to see things swing first one way, then the other, and continue back and forth throughout the game. In the end, though, we got one of the most dramatic endings we could have asked for.

In last year's game between the teams, UTSA kicker Sean Ianno had a chance for a close-range game-winning field goal with three seconds remaining. Whether due to a low trajectory, a slight struggle at the line, or some combination thereof, the kick was blocked. South Alabama went on to win in overtime. While the play does not go down as Ianno's fault, you have to believe he had been seen that kick in his dreams plenty of times over the last 11 months.

He got a chance to make up for it and then some on Saturday, as UTSA, trailing 31-30, reached the 34-yard line in the final 30 seconds. Ianno seized his chance, hitting a bomb from 51 yards that cleared the crossbar with plenty of room to spare, giving the Roadrunners a win in their first game as a transitional FBS team. It was an incredible moment both for Ianno, personally, and for the UTSA team and school.

It was also a lot of fun to be part of as a broadcast team! Cole Cubelic was a great partner for my first televised football broadcast - he seemed to know half the people we ran into at Ladd-Peebles Stadium - and I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. I'm sure it was not perfect -- I know there were a few name hiccups, and I'm still adjusting to football play-by-play -- but I enjoyed the whole thing just as much as I hoped, and I can't wait to work on more college football games this fall.

My next one is Troy against Louisiana-Lafayette next Saturday, also here in Alabama, and I can only hope the ending lives up to today's.

Why you should watch: the most exciting players in Saturday's UTSA-South Alabama game

If you know nothing about UTSA and South Alabama’s college football teams, you’re probably not as interested as I am in a post breaking down the game, matchup by matchup.

So here’s a primer on some players I’m excited to see on Saturday – if you tune in, I think you’ll enjoy watching them too.

1. Kam Jones, WR, UTSA #1
5-11, 190 lbs, redshirt sophomore from Edna HS in southeast Texas
This is the guy you need to locate before the snap on every UTSA play. You’ll see him wide, in the slot, in the backfield, and even taking a direct snap once in a while. Quick and a great broken-field runner, he led the Roadrunners with 881 all-purpose yards last year after setting the tone for the season by returning the opening kickoff 37 yards and across midfield.

2. Jake Johnson, LB, South Alabama #42
6-1, 240 lbs, fifth-year senior from Stafford HS in Fredericksburg, Va.
Played at Virginia Tech 2008-09.
This guy plays like an animal. A weightroom fanatic who says his favorite NFL player is Jared Allen, he finds a way to be everywhere on defense from the center of South Alabama's 3-4 scheme. The play that stands out in my mind came against UTSA last year, when Johnson showed blitz up the middle, read the snap count perfectly, and got to the quarterback before the tailback did, forcing a fumble in the process. Not somebody you want to get hit by.

3. Eric Soza, QB, UTSA #8
6-0, 200 lbs, redshirt junior from Beeville Jones HS in southeast Texas
Redshirted at Texas State 2009.
As a Rice alumnus, I have a special fondness for the option, and Soza runs a terrific one. I appreciate a quarterback who can wait until the last second to pitch the ball, then absorb a big hit and get right back up, and Soza does it time and again. His backfield movement and ballhandling is very deceptive, and he’s not bad through the air.

4. Tyrell Pearson, CB, South Alabama #9
5-8, 150 lbs, junior from Greenville HS in South Carolina
Played at Mesa Comm. Coll. In Arizona 2010-11.
This guy basically got himself a Division I scholarship based off of a highlight tape that looked like an action movie, so that’s impressive to begin with. Described as a pure ballhawk, everybody who’s seen him says, “You’re going to love watching this guy play,” and I don’t doubt it.

5. Triston Wade, S, UTSA #14
5-11, 170 lbs, sophomore from Tyler John Tyler HS in east Texas
This is a guy starting at safety as a true sophomore even after committing at least seven personal-foul penalties last year and being ejected from a game! It’s because he is a huge hitter, forcing five turnovers last year and separating numerous other receivers from the ball. If he can control himself and his timing, expect to see some big plays.

6. Demetre Baker, RB, South Alabama #33
6-1, 210 lbs, sophomore from Orange Park HS in Florida
You see a lot of skill players who were track and field stars in high school, but how many of them were stars in the shot put and discus? Baker is a bruising running back who also happens to be the South Alabama school record holder in the shot put. I’m looking forward to watching him run, but I bet UTSA isn’t – Baker scored the game-winning touchdown in double overtime last year.

Saturday afternoon's game will kick off at 2 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN3 and WatchESPN. Follow @jtyardley for more coverage before and after the game.

Common experience: UTSA, South Alabama share common threads

Weather permitting, South Alabama and UTSA will play their inaugural games as NCAA FBS teams, albeit transitional ones, on Thursday night Saturday afternoon. Weather permitting, I’ll call the game on ESPN3 alongside former Auburn offensive lineman Cole Cubelic. Fortune permitting, we’ll get a game as competitive as these teams played last year.

Yes, it is the first game at the FBS level for both teams, two of the four transitional FBS teams in 2012, along with Texas State and UMass. But UTSA and South Alabama met last year when both were competing as FCS independents, with the Jaguars winning at the Alamodome in double overtime. (Check out the highlights.) While there are plenty of differences in terms of Xs and Os (and I plan to look at some later in the week) and in terms of the path both teams took to prepare for an FBS schedule, they share any number of attributes and common storylines.

This game has been a long time coming for just about everybody on both teams: UTSA spent a full season just practicing in 2010, while South Alabama spent two years beating up on prep and lower-division schools in 2009-10. Last year, playing as independent FCS teams, both groups always had one eye on this year and this game. There’s going to be a lot of emotion attached to the first game at the FBS level, so in that sense, the teams come in on equal footing.

In scouting the teams, similarities also jumped out at three positions, providing three pairs of players to watch and focus on as we count down to the 2012 college football season:

1. Ubiquitous linebackers
Both teams’ defenses are led by take-charge players who seem to be everywhere on the field, yet they come at it in different ways. South Alabama senior Jake Johnson played two years at Virginia Tech, admits he got into weightlifting while watching professional wrestling as a kid, and plays with the savage power you would expect from a guy whose favorite NFL player is Jared Allen. His head coach, Joey Jones, calls him “a player I think will play in the NFL.” 'Nough said. On the other side, UTSA’s defensive soul starts with the less-heralded Steven Kurfehs (pronounced KERR-fis), a Division II transfer and Division I walk-on who earned a scholarship after that 2010 practice season. He proceeded to lead the Roadrunners in tackles through seven games last year before missing two games due to injury, although he was suspended for the final game of the year for a violation of team rules. A former safety, his speed and energy propel him from sideline to sideline, and head coach Larry Coker said he can play anywhere in Division I. Both teams have other excellent linebackers as well – Brandon Reeves for UTSA, Clifton Crews and Enrique Williams for South Alabama – but Johnson and Kurfehs are the guys who set the tone.

2. Eloquent centers
Each side sees its offense anchored by a true student-athlete at center. South Alabama’s Trey Clark has already graduated with a degree in exercise science (he is currently enrolled in a master’s program) and is the only Jaguar on the offensive side to start all 27 of the program’s games, dating back to 2009. UTSA sophomore Nate Leonard graduated third in his high-school class of more than 400 and readily employs appropriate metaphors when describing his search for Division I football in a must-read debut blog for the Huffington Post website. Snap counts should be in good hands with this duo.

3. Resilient kickers
Both South Alabama’s Michel Chapuseaux (pronounced Michael CHAP-uh-sew) and UTSA’s Sean Ianno (eye-AH-no), the latter from Pflugerville High School (where game sequences from ‘Friday Night Lights’ were filmed), played mostly soccer in high school, adding kicking duties in their junior and senior years, respectively. Yet they have already had to deal with plenty of adversity in their short football careers. In last year's meeting between the teams, Ianno lined up a 26-yard attempt for the win on the game's final play, only to see it blocked; Chapuseaux missed a field goal in the 2010 opener and has not attempted a competitive field goal since. Although both will surely say they have moved on, there will be a little extra pressure on each kick Thursday night this Saturday.

Weather permitting, of course.

Saturday afternoon's game will kick off at 2 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPN3 and WatchESPN. Follow @jtyardley for more coverage before and after the game.

One more post on HGPs: 2012 freshmen

In writing about men's college soccer, which kicks off tonight, it's usually best to stay away from freshmen until after they've played a few games. Some guys come in with a reputation and live up to it, but it's hard to predict, coaches don't like to talk about it, etc.

So when writing about MLS home-grown players in college soccer, both the Top Drawer Soccer team and myself, when compiling our lists of top prospects, have mostly stayed away from freshmen.

Because more information is better, however, I'm going to present a list of notable MLS-protected freshmen in college this season without making evaluations. Here is one college freshman from each MLS team (except Montreal) that I have heard of with good reason. I'm not saying these are the best players or that they will one day be a professional, merely that I have heard of each one for his soccer ability. Here they are, presented in alphabetical order by MLS team:

Chicago Fire - FW Andrew Oliver, Indiana, 5-8, 160
Chivas USA - DF Brendan Hines-Ike, Creighton, 6-1, 170
Columbus Crew - DF Andrew Souders, Akron, 5-11, 165
Colorado Rapids - MF Dillon Serna, Akron, 5-7, 135
D.C. United - FW Luis Rendon, Duke, 5-10, 160
FC Dallas - DF Mikey Ambrose, Maryland, 5-9, 155
Houston Dynamo - DF Bradley Bourgeois, Tulsa, 5-11, 190
Sporting Kansas City - FW Nate Opperman, Evansville, 6-0, 170
LA Galaxy - MF Grady Howe, UCLA, 5-10, 155
New England Revolution - DF Mitchell Taintor, Rutgers, 6-2, 175
New York Red Bulls - FW Brandon Allen, Georgetown, 6-0, 180
Philadelphia Union - FW Darius Madison, Virginia, 5-8, 160
Portland Timbers - MF Mikhail Doholis*, Oregon State, 5-10, 160
Real Salt Lake - MF Cole Nagy, UCLA, 5-8, 160
Seattle Sounders - MF Aaron Kovar, Stanford, 5-10, 155
San Jose Earthquakes - GK Kendall McIntosh, Santa Clara, 5-11, 160
Toronto FC - FW Omari Morris, Akron, 5-4, 145
Vancouver Whitecaps - MF Ben McKendry, New Mexico, 5-11, 150

* like many players with ties to Portland at this point, there are questions about the home-grown eligibility of Doholis

In case you can't get enough HGPs

One of my favorite MLS-related tasks over the last few years has been trying to track which players in college soccer have ties to MLS academies and are eligible to sign home-grown contracts. It's pretty cool to be able to nod understandingly when Alex Dixon, Connor Lade, or Matt Lampson signs a home-grown contract and be able to say they had been on your radar for a few years.

So I have a long list of players I believe to be associated with each club, although confirming their status on that club's protected-player list is usually tricky, if not impossible. This summer, I worked with the tireless Travis Clark at Top Drawer Soccer, and he's posted some of the top MLS-associated players to watch in college soccer this year. The list is a must-read and will get you acquainted with guys who could definitely be in MLS next year.

I agree with all the names on that list, but I wanted to add a few more that you may want to keep an eye on. Check them out after the jump:

Catching up ... and relocating!

I've been too preoccupied to post for the last month or so, so my apologies on that front. We've been in the middle of a move from Philadelphia to Shreveport, Louisiana, and that has taken up most of my time. Things are relatively settled in Shreveport now, so I can get back to the sports business at hand.

In the last 6 weeks, I've called the beginning of the FC Dallas resurgence (its first road win, 2-1 over Colorado - check out the highlights with the TXA 21 commentary, which are unavailable on the MLS website) and part of the Houston Dynamo's five-game win streak (its first win outside the United States, 2-0 over Toronto - check out the highlights). In the process, I got to work with two great color analysts: Ian Joy for the FC Dallas game and Eddie Robinson for the Dynamo game.

Ian has been my most frequent partner in crime in Big D this year, and we enjoyed celebrating his birthday after the July 14 game. Unfortunately for our FCD broadcast team, Ian has accepted a position as analyst for BeIN Sports USA, where he will be an analyst for mostly European matches. I'm disappointed that we won't be working together again in the near future, but excited for him because I think he's a terrific analyst and friend.

Eddie is a long-time colleague and friend from my days working for the Dynamo, of course, and I'm actually going to take some of the credit for starting his broadcast career! He had knee surgery early in the 2009 season and was watching training from the stands near me one morning. He had a litany of comments on a recent national broadcast we had both watched and clearly felt strongly about broadcasting, so I invited him to join me on the radio broadcast for a game when our normal analyst was out of town. He accepted, and though unfortunately no recording of the game exists (I'm pretty sure it was the 0-0 tie against New York), he did very well in his first outing.

Fast forward three years, and Eddie has transitioned to coaching in the Dynamo Academy and regularly working as a color analyst on television broadcasts. He was a rough, physical player, but anybody who covered the Dynamo knows that Eddie Robinson has always been an honest, articulate quote, win or lose. He is the same way as a broadcaster, candidly pointing out both Xs and Os and more subtle nuances with straightforward, easy-to-understand terminology that I believe help fans understand the action. It was great to work with him on a Dynamo game again and catch up off the air.

College football coming your way
Since then, my focus has broadened to include the college football season. I am excited to say that I am scheduled to call four Division I college football games in the next month for ESPN3, all involving Sun Belt Conference teams. Working on a college football television broadcast was one of my main goals at the beginning of the year (while I have called football before and worked on television before, it's my first foray into televised football), so I am proud (and a little bit nervous) to get the chance. Check out my updated broadcast schedule for a list of games, outlets, and partners as they are confirmed.

I'll be posting about those college football games on this site - both about the games themselves and about my experience traveling to and calling them - but I am still a total MLS junkie, and I still have three soccer broadcasts scheduled this fall, so I won't back off the soccer commentary either. That should mean increased blog content all fall, so stay tuned ...

Three keys for FCD against Colorado on TXA 21 Saturday night

After almost two months without working an FC Dallas game, I’m back on the call in the Metroplex on Saturday night, teaming up with Ian Joy on the TXA 21 broadcast of FC Dallas-Colorado Rapids at 8 p.m. CT.

These teams met back on May 6 in Frisco, with Colorado winning 2-0 after Daniel Hernandez and Blas Pérez were BOTH sent off in a three-minute span in the first half, leaving Dallas with just nine men for the rest of the game.

A lot has happened since then, and some Thursday night rumors have been heating up about Toronto midfielder Julian de Guzman potentially being traded to Dallas. But regardless of whether or not FCD has a new center mid, here are three of the key matchups for FC Dallas on Saturday:

1. Set Pieces – Big in any game, set pieces loom especially large because of Colorado’s recent troubles defending them and a serious FC Dallas size advantage. Colorado’s tallest regulars are Conor Casey and Jeff Larentowicz at 6-foot-1. After that, Drew Moor at 6-foot-0 and Jaime Castrillon at 5-foot-11 are next tallest. As you can see above, Colorado’s set-piece strategy has been to position Larentowicz and Moor as zonal markers along the 6-yard box, with 4-6 man markers at the top of the penalty area and nobody covering either post. That leaves shorter players, other than Casey, marking opponents’ primary targets, so driven delivery that lands between the zonal markers can put the Rapids under serious pressure.
   Dallas, meanwhile, boasts big targets in Matt Hedges (6-4), Brek Shea (6-3), Andrew Jacobson (6-2), James Marcelin (6-2) if he starts, and Hernan Pertúz (6 feet). That’s four players taller than Colorado’s tallest, not counting goalkeepers. What’s more, David Ferreira is back and can provide consistently dangerous service, something Daniel Hernandez has struggled to do. After Seattle scored two goals on poor Rapids marking last week, expect Schellas Hyndman and Dallas to look for set pieces early and often. On the other side, it will be interesting to see if Oscar Pareja sticks with the same marking system or tries something new to fix a recurring problem.
2. Defending the Dynamic Duo – Feared as one of the most formidable forward tandems in MLS, Conor Casey and Omar Cummings are a handful for any defense. Colorado is fourth in MLS in scoring at home, averaging two goals per game, which will test a young Dallas back line (Zach Loyd-24 years old, Hernan Pertúz-22,Matt Hedges-22,Carlos Rodriguez-21) that has grown confident after allowing just one goal in the last three games. All three of those games were at home, however; Dallas has the second-worst road defense in MLS, allowing 2.13 goals per road game. Meanwhile, Casey and Cummings have only started together twice this season, but the Rapids had 31 shots in those two games, and expect to see them put a lot of pressure on Kevin Hartman in goal.
3. Second Stanza – While Dallas is one of the worst second-half teams in MLS, Colorado is one of the best. The Rapids have scored 18 of their 25 goals in the second half, including nine goals in the final 15 minutes, which trails only the 'Goonies-never-die' Earthquakes in MLS. Dallas, meanwhile, has surrendered 21 goals in the second half, ranking second-worst after only expansion Montreal. Perhaps most surprisingly, Dallas has only trailed at halftime twice this season, yet its record when leading or tied at the half is a frustrating 3-7-7. Dallas is going to have to close the deal to break either its four-game road losing streak or its 14-game all-competitions winless streak.

* A reminder that you can use Twitter to ask questions of myself and analyst Ian Joy during Saturday’s game by using the hashtag #FCDTV- we'll answer some questions prior to the second-half kickoff.

These matchups are very subject to change, because both teams are unpredictable in terms of formation and personnel, especially with Colorado’s different formations (4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1) and Dallas’ continued injuries and now personal absences. Blas Pérez, sadly, lost his father this week, so you have to assume he won’t be in the lineup, which leaves Dallas without a proven forward. Brek Shea has been playing up top, but we know he’s more comfortable as a wide midfielder. Despite his inconsistency, the speedy Fabian Castillo has a favorable matchup against Colorado right back Hunter Freeman, so I think we might see Shea stay up top.

I'm really interested to see how these teams fare and how their coaches handle some big decisions this weekend - join us on TXA 21 for the broadcast at 8 p.m. CT!

Home-grown cage match: FC Dallas vs. Toronto FC

The FC Dallas signing of home-grown defender/midfielder Kellyn Acosta on Thursday got me thinking. If the two most successful MLS academies in terms of home-grown players signed (7 each, by FC Dallas and Toronto FC) met on the field with only those players, who would win?

Here's what such a 7-on-7 matchup could look like, although the size and surface of the field and the rules of the game would surely affect how teams chose to lineup.

FC DALLAS (2-2-2)

GK Richard Sanchez (18yo)

DF Kellyn Acosta (16yo) ------------------ DF Moises Hernandez (20yo)

 MF Victor Ulloa (20yo)

MF Bryan Leyva (20yo)

FW Jonathan Top (19yo) ------------------ FW Ruben Luna (20yo)

FW Keith Makubuya (19yo)

MF Nicholas Lindsay (19yo) ------------------------------- MF Matt Stinson (19yo)
MF Oscar Cordon (19yo)

DF Ashtone Morgan (21yo) ------------------ DF Doneil Henry (19yo)

GK Quillan Roberts (17yo)

TORONTO FC (2-3-1)

Now it's an interesting game, but I'm giving the edge to Toronto because the combined experience of Morgan and Henry at the back would cancel out the main Dallas advantage - two forwards who have seen MLS game time - and limit Toronto's disadvantage in goal, where I think Richard Sanchez is further along than Quillan Roberts.

I like the Ulloa/Leyva tandem in the midfield, but even if Top dropped in to match Toronto's numbers, I don't think Dallas is getting on the board. Makubuya has yet to make his MLS debut, so Toronto could struggle up front, but the speed of a healthy (for the purposes of this exercise) Lindsay against the green duo of Acosta and Hernandez would put Toronto over the top.

Who do you think would make a difference in this game? Who would come out on top?

My inner Canadian

I covered today's Toronto-Philadelphia game as a free-lance writer for The Canadian Press, and I was so inspired that I even sang along to, "O Canada," in the press box. The English words, though, not the French.

The game itself was one-sided, which means finding good quotes and story angles can be difficult, but both Terry Dunfield and Jeremy Hall were very classy and well-spoken in defeat, so my thanks to them.

So far, my wondrous prose has appeared on the website of The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and MetroNews Canada (with a huge, bold headline). Pretty cool! And yes, they switched out my "defense" for "defence" ... stylistic differences we may not solve overnight.

But seriously, everybody from TCP has been really helpful and classy to deal with, so my thanks to them for the second chance this year to work together.

Catching up from Saturday's blackout

While visiting Maryland for the weekend, I got caught in Saturday's blackout and spent the afternoon and evening sweating bullets in a powerless, wireless house, trying to take care of a couple of rambunctious canines. When reconnected to the world this morning, it seems I missed a stirring soccer Saturday in MLS.

Folks on Twitter kindly informed me that the Galaxy-San Jose game was mandatory viewing, so I had time to watch significant parts of that game and the Houston-Philadelphia game (old hometown vs. current city) before kicking back for Euro 2012 coverage. Here are five thoughts from those two games:

1. The atmosphere and emotion in the Galaxy-Earthquakes game was, as everybody else has already said, exceptional. It was a great night to showcase the league with a game that had intrigue well beyond the 4-3 scoreline, and it in some ways validated the MLS decision to go to an unbalanced schedule: More rivalry games means more potential for emotional encounters like this one. I now want to watch the October 21 game between these teams way more than I want to see the Galaxy or Quakes play another game against Columbus or Toronto.
2. Geoff Cameron, who has been sloppy at best sometimes this year, turned in one of his best performances Saturday against Philadelphia. Moved into midfield in Dominic Kinnear's surprise (and effective) switch to match the Union's 4-3-3, Cameron showed off flashy dribbling moves, inventive passes, and hard tackling. He made mistakes, but certainly showed well for a potential move to Europe. I've always thought Cameron was best in midfield, where his height and size make him an outlier, and particularly at D-mid, where he excelled in the 2008 SuperLiga semifinal.
3. Boniek Garcia appears to be a keeper. The Honduran right wing, who should simply be called 'Garcia' on second reference, both in print and on air, was thrown right into the starting lineup after two training sessions and was everything Houston wanted. He's technical on the ball, but what stood out to me was how he used his body to throw defenders off balance even when making simple passes. He played a big part in both of Houston's goals, defended honestly, and is exactly the additional offensive weapon the Dynamo needed in midfield.
4. I hope MLS finally punishes David Beckham for his immature petulance. Hopefully you've seen it by now: Beckham, feeling aggrieved from a night of physical play and close decisions, intentionally kicked a ball at a prone opponent during a stoppage in play. Brek Shea got three games for kicking a ball at an official (an act that was far less pre-meditated than Beckham's); I think Beckham's suspension should exceed that one.
5. An end-zone camera should be a non-negotiable component for every MLS broadcast. The LA-San Jose broadcast, by ESPN, showed us some of the potential of having cameras throughout the stadium, with great angles used to illustrate key calls. The Houston-Philly game, with an understandably smaller production, missed its chance to show the game by choosing not to use an end-zone camera. All three goals could have been better understood by fans with use of an end-zone angle, especially Keon Daniel's goal (which I believe took a wicked deflection other cameras could not detect) and Brian Ching's penalty kick. Adding a camera for every production is a significant cost, but one worth paying.

There's plenty more I still need to see, but those two games were great preparation for the Euro 2012 final.