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09/08/2010 - Lincoln, NE (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fresh off a 49-10 thrashing of Western Kentucky in last week's season opener, the sixth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers figure to be challenged a bit more this Saturday as they welcome the Idaho Vandals to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
The Vandals are also 1-0 on the young season, having disposed of visiting North Dakota last week in a 45-0 final. It was the first time since 1998 that Idaho opened a season at home, and the first time they posted a shutout since 1997. The Vandals are coming off a 2009 campaign (8-5) in which they produced the second-best turnaround in the country -- they went just 2-10 in 2008.
As for the hometown Huskers, they scored early and often last week against the Hilltoppers to post their 25th straight season-opening victory -- the longest active streak in the nation. All 25 wins have come by double figures. WKU has now lost 21 consecutive games -- the nation's longest current losing streak.
A win here is important for the Cornhuskers, who travel to the Pacific Northwest next week to take on Pac-10 foe Washington. The Big 12 Conference slate, Nebraska's swan song as it will move to the Big Ten next season, will offer plenty of potential pitfalls, although the Huskers are fortunate to get Texas at home and miss Oklahoma all-together -- save for a potential meeting in the Big 12 title game.
This bout marks the first-ever meeting between Idaho and Nebraska on the gridiron.
Idaho started off slowly in last week's clash with North Dakota, but the floodgates opened soon enough and when the dust had settled the Vandals had piled up 547 yards of total offense and 45 unanswered points. QB Nathan Enderle went 24-of-37 for 311 yards with a pair of TDs and one INT. He hit Daniel Hardy four times for 82 yards and Armauni Johnson three times for a game-high 86 yards and a TD. Princeton McCarty was UI's leading ground gainer with 89 yards and two scores on 12 carries.
Idaho scored on all four trips to the red zone, while North Dakota came up empty on its two visits.
Defensively, the Vandals got huge games from Tre'Shawn Robinson and Shiloh Keo, the former logging nine tackles and the latter coming up with eight stops, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception.
North Dakota finished with just 270 yards of total offense, with the pass yielding a mere 122 yards on 35 attempts. Five Fighting Sioux turnovers played a huge role in the outcome, as did the fact that the Vandals stood tall on third down, permitting just 3-of-13 chances to be converted successfully.
"As a whole," said Keo, "offensive and defensively, we were kind of slow in the beginning. But, at the end of the day, we came and did what we wanted to do. The offense moved the ball consistently and our defense held in there and we made some big plays and got the ball back to the offense."
Nebraska redshirt freshman QB Taylor Martinez made quite an impression in his first collegiate start last week against Western Kentucky, rushing for 127 yards and three TDs to power the Cornhuskers to their 39-point victory. He is the first freshman in school history to start the season opener, and was also effective in the passing game, hitting 9-of-15 attempts for 136 yards without a turnover.
NU head coach Bo Pelini was relatively happy with his rookie signal-caller's first game, "I thought Taylor did a nice job running the ball. He made some explosive plays and did some really good things. I thought he managed the football team well. I thought he threw it well and was pretty efficient. I thought for his first start he did a nice job."
Niles Paul was the team's leading receiver in the game, pulling down five balls for 92 yards and a TD, while the ground assault generated 289 yards and six TDs. In all, the NU offense amassed 536 yards on an average of 9.2 yards per play.
The 'Blackshirts', as the Nebraska defense has come to be known, allowed the Hilltoppers a mere 299 yards and just 10 points -- all scored in the second half. They were particularly tough against the pass (120 yards, zero TDs).
Lavonte David led all defenders in the game with 13 tackles, while P.J. Smith (INT) and Eric Hagg (fumble recovery) came up with the team's two turnovers.
Despite dominating the overmatched Hilltoppers, coach Pelini was not pleased with his defense's performance, "I thought overall defensively, I thought it was an absolute embarrassment. I thought it was coached poorly, that starts with me. I don't like anything we did defensively. There were a couple of things we did OK, but we did not play up to our standard."
<< LSU visits Vanderbilt in SEC lidlifter
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Vanderbilt Commodores are coming off a
highly-disappointing week-one loss, and they will open SEC play on Saturday
against the 19th-ranked LSU Tigers, who are fresh off a drama-filled victory.
LSU took on
<< Ranked SEC foes lock horns in Columbia
Columbia, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Richt leads his 22nd-ranked Georgia
Bulldogs into an SEC battle with Steve Spurrier's 24th-ranked South Carolina
Gamecocks in Columbia this weekend.
"Our guys are focused on South Carolina right now," sai
<< Tigers battle Bulldogs in SEC action
Starkville, MS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - SEC action begins on Thursday in Starkville
as the Mississippi State Bulldogs welcome the 21st-ranked Auburn Tigers to
town.
Auburn opened its season last weekend with a 52-26 victory over Arkansas
State.
<< Struggling Braves turn to Lowe in finale with Pirates
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Pirates sure have been enjoying their role
of spoiler in this series and are now in position to sweep the Atlanta Braves
for the first time in over 16 years.
To do that they will have to solve Derek Lowe, wh
13th-ranked Hokies seek quick turnaround against Dukes >>
Blacksburg, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off a heart-breaking loss, the 13th-
ranked Virginia Tech Hokies now set their sights on the James Madison Dukes
this weekend at Lane Stadium.
In the most anticipated game of the opening week, it was
Fireworks likely in showdown between Ducks and Volunteers >>
Knoxville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Coming off perhaps the most impressive
performance in week one of the 2010 college football season, the seventh-
ranked Oregon Ducks take to the road, as they invade SEC Country to battle the
Tennessee Volunteer
Yellow Jackets and Jayhawks square off in Lawrence >>
Lawrence, KS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 15th-ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
take their act on the road for the first time this season, as they invade
Lawrence this weekend, for a showdown with the Kansas Jayhawks in an ACC/Big
XII non-conferenc
Sooners and Seminoles meet in Top-25 showdown >>
Norman, OK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two teams with a lot to prove square off in a
tiop-25 showdown in Norman this weekend, as the 10th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners
play host to the 17th-ranked Florida State Seminoles.
The Seminoles got the Jimbo Fisher
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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In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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