It could be an offense year in Ivy League

NCAA Football Betting Lines

08/10/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - To new Princeton head football coach Bob Surace, the golden words that James Perry used this past winter in describing his philosophy while he interviewed for the position of offensive coordinator were "fast and physical."

Surace and Cornell's Kent Austin, who also is debuting as an Ivy League coach, might want to strap on their seatbelts. This could be a season for the offenses in the Ivy League.

The three teams that finished 1-2-3 in scoring within Ivy League play last season were ranked in that order today in the league's preseason media poll, with Harvard first, defending champion Penn second and Brown third. Each has key returning offensive players, but the offensive talent is vast across the league.

In the reverse of a year ago, six of the league's eight teams return their top quarterback. Also, the top five rushers are back this season.

Meanwhile, 14 players made an expanded All-Ivy first-team defense last year, and only Harvard safety Colin Zych and Yale cornerback Adam Money are back this season.

Surace returns to Princeton 21 years after being the senior center on an Ivy League championship squad. The 42-year-old spent two seasons as the head coach at Western Connecticut State and was an offensive assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Austin, 47, never played or coached in the Ivy League, spending 15 seasons in the CFL and the last two as offensive coordinator at Ole Miss.

Their offensive backgrounds fit in well with what could be an intriguing race. Their coaching brethren were happy to fill them in on the rest of what to expect out of the Ivy League's style of play.

"It's almost an awakening that there's some great coaches here that do a lot," Brown's Phil Estes said. "Sometimes you get at big-time schools and you can basically be very basic in your offense and defense and be able to win. I think in the Ivy League you have coaches that really do their homework. They need to be prepared for each and every week for something different and something new and some kind of new wrinkle that's gonna go in. These guys know it, though.

"It used to be you could look at the schedule and kind of pinpoint different games that you think might be a 'W'. I don't think you can do that in the Ivy League. From top to bottom, it's going to be a tough game each and every game."

"People seem to be going wholesale to spreading you out and trying to make you cover the whole field," Columbia's Norries Wilson said. "The issue I see with that is you spend so much time trying to figure out ways to spread people out and sometimes you forget those guys on defense get paid to coach as well. So someone tinkers with something and you spend a lot of time doing it. But the spread-out game kind of makes it a little bit like basketball on the turf there."

Added Harvard's Tim Murphy, "I think it's going to very versatile, very multiple, a lot of different things. To some extent, I think that's consistent with most leagues.

"They're going to see a lot of different things."

The league's returning quarterbacks are led by Brown senior Kyle Newhall- Caballero, the first-team selection last season. Also back are Harvard's Collier Winters, Penn's Keiffer Garton, Yale's Patrick Witt, Princeton's Tommy Wornham and Dartmouth's Conner Kempe. Columbia will turn to sophomore Sean Brackett, while Austin has three candidates at Cornell, junior Adam Currie, sophomore Chris Amrhein and freshman Jeff Mathews.

Among running backs, Dartmouth workhorse Nick Schwieger could repeat as the Ivy rushing champion, though last year's No. 2 rusher, Brown's Zach Tronti, will be in the mix. Harvard's Gino Gordon and Treavor Scales, who were third and fourth, respectively, and Penn's Lyle Marsh, who was fifth, also are back this season.

Besides Zych and Money, some of the top defensive players trying to slow the offenses are Princeton linebacker Steven Cody and Brown cornerback A.J. Cruz.

IVY LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL (Media)

1. Harvard (10 first-place votes), 128 points

2. Penn (6), 124

3. Brown, 95

4. Yale (1), 83

5. Columbia, 61

6. Princeton, 55

7. Dartmouth, 39

8. Cornell, 27

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Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.

The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night.

MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family.

A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital.

Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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