SPORTS N STUFF

Case Keenum threw five touchdown passes to lead Houston to a 55-3 win over Southern on Saturday night. Giving Kevin Sumlin a victory in his first game as the Cougars’ coach.

L.J. Castile and Mark Hafner each caught two touchdowns from Keenum, who was 33-of-43 for 392 yards. The quarterback threw four touchdown passes, a career high, before the end of the first half.

Hafner and Castile were the leading receivers for the Cougars (1-0) with 103 and 83 yards, respectively.

Andre Kohn scored the first points of the game with a one-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Ben Bell added a 20-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

The Cougars added a pair of touchdowns in the next five minutes. Castile caught a 30-yard touchdown from Keenum, followed about two minutes later by Hafner’s 36-yard TD.

The Jaguars (0-1) got on the board when Josh Duran made a 36-yard field goal to make it 24-3.

But the Cougars answered with two more scores just before halftime. Keenum hit Castile for a 22-yard touchdown. Patrick Edwards then made the first touchdown catch of his career to make it 38-3.

The Cougars broke a 53-year school record, scoring the most points in team history for a new head coach. Bill Meek’s Cougars scored 54 points in a 42-point win over Montana in 1955.

Coach Rich Rodriguez first game day at Michigan started with a storm of sights and sounds.

It ended silently.

Before kickoff of his debut – a 25-23 upset loss to Utah – Rodriguez and players had strolled through a crowd of screaming fans in maize and blue. Then, a bit later, they knelt around him.

“You guys can’t wait to get out there, huh? I can’t wait myself,” Rodriguez said Saturday before Michigan took the field. “I’m proud of the way you worked. We’re ready to play a game – every man, every play from the first whistle to the last whistle. They’ll make some plays. We’ll make some plays. We’ll make one more than them, and we’ll sing “The Victors,” afterward.

“Everybody has questions about Michigan football,” he added with the loudest voice he’d unleashed in a week. “What is Michigan football? Where is this program at? We’ve got a bunch of guys in winged helmets, who are going to go down that tunnel and play their (tails) off and will play with pride, passion and intensity on every snap. That’s what Michigan football is!”

Rodriguez left his coaching job and alma mater at West Virginia to replace Lloyd Carr, who announced his retirement last year after 13 seasons leading the nation’s winningest college football program.

Ahead of his first Michigan game, Rodriguez allowed The Associated Press exclusive access to the team and coaches during the last, frenetic week before the 2008 season. This story is what life under Rodriguez looks like at Michigan.

—

Full team meeting room, 4 p.m. Sunday

Spot the ball. When the time to perform arises, the time to prepare has passed. Win for Michigan. Hold the rope.

In blue paint on white walls, those words stare at players seated in the full-team meeting room.

Rich Rodriguez slips into the room and suddenly, the small talk and jokes end.

“We’re finally in game week,” Rodriguez says.

“Yeah!” the players reply.

—

Rodriguez’s office, 6:15 p.m.

Four glass candy jars are a step inside Rodriguez’s door, which is propped open by a kickstand doorstop when he’s in the building. That’s about 16 hours a day.

A majestic shot of Michigan Stadium is the lone picture hanging on the gray, wallpapered walls. Framed photos of his wife, Rita, 12-year-old daughter, Raquel, and 10-year-old son, Rhett, line the shelves behind the coach’s desk. Atop the shelves, five winged helmets sit.

Defensive coordinator Scott Shafer steps in as Rodriguez has his feet propped up – between two laptops and just below an HDTV mounted to a wall.

Rodriguez’s staff is filled with coaches who were with him at previous coaching stops, most recently West Virginia. Shafer has no connection to Rodriguez or the Wolverines.

“Because I’m new, what do we call a double-edge pressure?” Rodriguez asks.

“Cats and dogs,” Shafer says.

—

Parking lot, 6:07 a.m. Monday

A Lexus rolls into the parking lot under a pitch-black sky.

Rodriguez gets out of the SUV sporting dress shoes sans socks, blue athletic shorts and a gray T-shirt. He lugs a bulging leather bag in one hand and the other holds slacks and a shirt on hangers.

A few minutes later, with running shoes on, he steps on a machine labeled “COACH ROD’S STAIRMASTER,” for a 35-minute workout on level 15. The speed is so intense that he logs five miles.

Rodriguez bounces on his toes with each step, quickly working up a sweat. It’s unclear if he or the whirring StairMaster is getting more of a workout. “SportsCenter” is on the TV a few feet away, but he’s oblivious to it – even when his image is shown as ESPN teases an upcoming segment featuring Michigan’s new coach. Rodriguez reads articles about each team on the schedule and, as fatigue sets in, he leans on the equipment so much that his face is a few inches away from the stack of white paper.

Later, Rodriguez hits a speed bag the skill of a seasoned boxer, creating a rhythm that sounded like a rattlesnake.

Behind him, the Wolverine Countdown clock shows there are 5 days, 6 hours, 24 minutes and 52.3 seconds until the Utah game.

—

Staff meeting room, 8 a.m.

Rodriguez, assistant coaches and members of the support staff are seated at a long, oval conference table. Other members of the staff sit in blue chairs along a wall.

Rodriguez runs the meeting with the same understated voice he always seems to have when he’s not on the practice field. In a businesslike way, he asks for reports from the equipment manager, trainer, an assistant athletic director and the head of strength and conditioning.

“Check their weight later in the week,” Rodriguez says. “I don’t want them blowing up because of all the free time they have.”

The schedule for the day and the rest of the week are among the topics of discussion.

“With all the freshmen we have, we need to be in the stadium on Thursday,” Rodriguez says. “Two or three years from now, we probably won’t need to do that.”

—

Practice fields, 4:53 p.m.

A two-plus hour practice that is as intense as one can be without full pads is over, but Kurt Wermers can’t leave yet. He’s being disciplined.

The offensive lineman starts his extra work with a bear crawl for 100 yards and 100-yard sprint.

“If you don’t like being punished, don’t be late!” assistant coach Greg Frye shouts. “C’mon Wermers!”

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound freshman is so exhausted on his next bear crawl that knees are dragging and hands are sliding on the artificial turf. After more crawling and sprinting, Wermers tries to outrace Frye from the far corner of the field to the indoor practice facility.

“I was supposed to be at a team meal at 10:30 and I got there at 10:31,” the exhausted Wermers – flat on his back – says to trainer Paul Schmidt.

“Just remember,” Schmidt says. “Early is on time and on time is late.”

—

Full staff meeting room, 6:15 p.m.

The offensive coaches are debating what plays to run near the goal line.

“We need extra points – not field goals,” offensive coordinator Calvin Magee says with his bare feet propped up on the conference table, left hand on belly, right on a remote control that rewinds, pauses and plays every play from practice several times.

Rodriguez interjects that he wants running back Carlos Brown, who played quarterback in high school, to get a shot to be a signal caller.

After a ball bounces off a receiver’s arm and into the arms of a player on the scout team, Rodriguez tilts his head back, arches his back, puts his palms over his eyes and rubs his face.

Sigh.

“This is giving me a headache,” he says shortly before going home at 10 p.m., when the sky looked a lot like it did 16 hours earlier.

—

Practice, 2:30 p.m. Tuesday

Brown’s option pitch with his left hand comes up short, sending the football bouncing off the turf.

“Run it again!” Magee demands with a few not-fit-to-print words mixed in.

Brown does, perfectly flicking the ball to Brandon Minor.

Rodriguez’s wife, Rita, and their two kids – along with other coaches’ wives and children – are around again today. Sometimes they watch practice, sometimes they just hang out on the indoor practice field.

“Bo (Schembechler) never had wives and kids around like this,” former Wolverine Vada Murray said while watching his first Rodriguez-led practice. “But I love the pace of this practice, and Bo would’ve, too.”

—

Full team meeting room, 12:45 p.m.

Rodriguez stresses the importance of backups practicing hard on the scout team to improve themselves and their teammates. He goes on to say everything the players do on and off the field will be scrutinized, especially on the Internet, because they’re Michigan football players.

Then, he delivers another message after getting upset about another article questioning whether he cares about Michigan’s tradition.

“I don’t know where that comes from,” Rodriguez tells his players. “We’re going to sing ‘The Victors’ and we’re going to wear winged helmets. We’re not going to change the tradition or the culture here.

“But tradition isn’t going to get us a first down. You have to earn that. Tradition isn’t going to get you a degree. You have to earn that and I hope every one of you does just that. I don’t think people outside the program really understand what’s going on here.”

Suddenly, Rodriguez bows his head silently.

“I’m not choked up,” he deadpans. “I’m sick.”

Laughter fills the room.

—

Walk to The Big House, 2:07 p.m. Thursday

Rodriguez walks across the outdoor practice field, train tracks and a parking lot to get to Michigan Stadium for practice.

“That’s him,” a construction worker says, pointing at Rodriguez.

“Welcome to Michigan, coach!” another man shouts.

“Thanks,” Rodriguez says, waving his hand.

Rodriguez then walks down a long tunnel and onto the field where the seats are empty, tons of steel for future luxury boxes tower over both sidelines.

Michigan’s marching band shows up later, following a tradition before the season opener by performing for players and coaches who don’t hear its halftime performances because they’re in the locker room. Rodriguez, his wife and kids sing the school’s famed fight song, “The Victors,” along with the rest of the team.

—

Campus Inn Ballroom, 8:55 p.m. Friday

Rodriguez slips into a darkened ballroom 5 minutes before a scheduled team meeting and keys to the game are projected onto a screen.

Rodriguez wants the Wolverines to play smart, avoiding penalties.

“When you make a big play, celebrate with a teammates because chances are, a teammate helped you make the play,” he says. “Don’t be a clown.”

Rodriguez speaks in the silent room for 16 minutes, his longest speech of the week.

“I’m not BSing you guys. We have a lot of unknowns,” the son of a coal miner and sign-language interpreter says in his thick, West Virginia accent. “I ain’t been in a game with y’all. But I can’t wait to find out who you are.”

A little later, Rodriguez cues a highlight tape, which shows current players making plays in the past.

“It’s time to make new highlights,” Rodriguez says when the 6-minute video ends. “See ya tomorrow.”

—

Crisler Arena, Champions Center, locker room, 7:43 p.m.

After the game, Rodriguez walks out of his news conference and goes through three buildings so quickly that two police officers quickly figure out they have to pick up the pace to escort him.

He silently and solemnly glides past anyone in his path, pausing only a couple seconds to hug his wife before going into the coaches’ locker room to change his clothes and get ready for Miami of Ohio.

Georgia defensive tackle Jeff Owens left the top-ranked Bulldogs game Saturday. Against Georgia Southern because of a right knee injury.

Owens was supported by two Georgia trainers as he walked off the field with 7:15 left in the first quarter. Georgia announced Owens would not return to the game. No details of the injury were immediately available.

Owens took off his shoulder pads and watched the first half from a trainer’s table on the sideline.

Owens, a senior, started all 13 games last season and had 27 tackles. The loss of Owens cut into Georgia’s depth on its defensive front. Backup Kade Weston was held out of the game with a sprained knee.

—-
Harvin, Spikes sit out Florida season opener.

No. 5 Florida played without receiver Percy Harvin and linebacker Brandon Spikes in its season opener against Hawaii on Saturday.

Neither player dressed for the game.

Harvin is still recovering from a right heel injury that required offseason surgery. He participated in portions of practice last week, but he has been unable to go full speed since Aug. 5.

Spikes injured his right foot last week and was wearing a walking boot on the sideline Saturday.

Also, tight end Aaron Hernandez did not start for the Gators. It was unclear whether he was injured or suspended.

—-
Alexander gets start for Hawaii.

Greg Alexander started at quarterback for Hawaii against No. 5 Florida on Saturday, replacing Brent Rausch.

Rausch, who had been tabbed to replace departed star and Heisman Trophy finalist Colt Brennan, missed several days of practice beginning last week because of a sore right throwing arm.

Rausch still dressed for the game.

Alexander spent the last two seasons at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, throwing 71 touchdowns passes. He completed 63 percent of his passes for 3,487 yards, 40 touchdowns and only six interceptions last season.

The Warriors could have another quarterback in the mix starting next week. Senior Tyler Graunke, who threw for 1,234 yards and 10 touchdowns as Brennan’s backup last season, missed most of preseason practice because of academic issues.

Graunke was reinstated last week, but didn’t make the trip to Gainesville.

Arkansas running back Michael Smith was suspended for the team opener against Western Illinois on Saturday night. For improper use of scholarship textbooks.

A school spokesman said the matter involved an NCAA secondary violation, which the school has turned in.

Freshman Dennis Johnson started at running back for the Razorbacks, who are trying to replace stars Darren McFadden and Felix Jones from last year’s team. Smith, a junior, has gained 6.8 yards per carry in limited duty the last two years. He was atop the depth chart before being suspended.

—-
Wells carted off field with leg injury.

Heisman Trophy contender Chris “Beanie” Wells injured his right foot and the Ohio State tailback was carted off the field during the third quarter of the second-ranked Buckeyes’ game against Youngstown State on Saturday.

X-rays were negative, but Wells status remained unknown as he visited doctors an hour after the second-ranked Buckeyes’ 43-0 victory.

“I may have rolled it or planted wrong a play or two before,” Wells said through Ohio State spokeswoman Shelly Poe. “Something just didn’t feel right. Then I think I felt a pop. But the X-rays are OK, so we’ll see how it feels in a day or two.”

Coach Jim Tressel declined to speculate on the severity of the injury or on Wells’ availability for Ohio State’s games next week against Ohio and in two weeks against No. 3 Southern California.

He did admit to getting a sick feeling in his stomach when Wells went down.

“You feel for anyone who goes down, especially when it looks like a leg injury,” Tressel said. “First you think ‘Oh, is it a knee?’ Then, ‘Is it an ankle?’ From what I gather other than getting medical (people) into it, it’s a foot thing. X-rays are negative. But absolutely your heart jumps.”

On the play, Wells fell to the ground before he was even hit, fumbling the ball away on a first and goal at the Youngstown State 2. He writhed on the ground in pain while he was attended by several doctors and trainers, with his teammates standing around him watching. Tressel also ran onto the field.

“As I handed the ball back, he didn’t even grab the ball,” quarterback Todd Boeckman said. “I didn’t know what to expect, didn’t know what he did. He went down and he was in some serious pain.”

Wells was helped off the field and then put on a motorized cart and taken to the locker room.

Wells returned to the field in the fourth quarter wearing a boot on his right ankle. An Associated Press reporter asked him if he was OK and he nodded his head.

He watched the end of the game while sitting on the bench with teammates and did not appear to be in pain.

Immediately after the game, Wells walked into the locker room from the bench area. He was almost dragging his right leg.

The junior had 111 yards on 13 carries, including a 43-yard touchdown burst as the Buckeyes rolled to a 26-0 lead at the time of his injury.

Boeckman said Ohio State’s players were stunned as they watched Wells go down.

“When you see one of the best backs in the country laying there in pain, it’s definitely something that you don’t want to see,” he said. “Beanie’s a tough guy. I know we’re all pulling for him. He’s gone to the doctors and he’ll do whatever he can to help this team out.”

Playing its first football game in 48 years, Lincoln University beat George Mason 34-7 on Saturday.

Kareem Dennis threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score for the Lincoln Lions (1-0), who last played on Nov. 24, 1960, losing to Howard on Thanksgiving Day.

Lincoln disbanded its program following an 0-7 season in which the Lions were outscored 227-37. Its last victory was a 12-8 win over Howard in November 1959.

The school’s board of directors voted to reinstate the program in 2006.

The Lions, who are transitioning to NCAA Division II status, play their home games on a nearby high school field. George Mason’s does not play varsity football, it has a club team. Lincoln’s remaining nine games will be against varsity opponents.

Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is the nation’s first historically black university and has about 2,000 students. The school is about 50 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

Dennis led a pair of long touchdown drives before halftime, hooking up with Shawn Bethea and Steven Rudd for scores to make it 27-7. Dwight Williams added a 25-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

Dennis, one of only eight players on the Lincoln team who have previous college football experience, threw for 188 yards on 19-for-37 passing.

—-
Texas retires Young’s No 10.

The video on the stadium scoreboard Saturday replayed the moment Texas fans have committed to memory.

Vince Young took the snap, bolted to his right and crossed the goal line, lifting the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship with a 41-38 win over Southern California in the Rose Bowl.

On Saturday, Texas retired Young’s No. 10 jersey, honoring the former Longhorns’ quarterback with a short ceremony before the kickoff of the season opener against Florida Atlantic.

“I definitely want to thank our fans,” Young told the crowd, which saluted him with a standing ovation as he flashed a “Hook’em Horns” with his right hand. “Ya’ll’s heart, ya’ll’s spirit … ya’ll mean a whole lot to me.”

Young, who now plays for the Tennessee Titans, was presented with a framed burnt-orange jersey on the field and got a hug from Texas coach Mack Brown.

Young was 30-2 as a starter at Texas, leading the Longhorns to a 13-0 record in 2005. He left Texas after the Rose Bowl win over USC for the NFL.

He joins Earl Campbell (20), Bobby Layne (22), Ricky Williams (34) and Tommy Nobis (60) as the only Texas football players to have their numbers retired.

Andre Roberts caught two touchdown passes and added a 64-yard punt return. For a score to lead The Citadel to a 54-7 victory over Webber International on Saturday.

Roberts had touchdown catches of 9 and 78 yards, and finished with three catches for 91 yards as the Bulldogs improved to 1-0. He also had 116 yards on four punt returns, including a 64-yard return for a touchdown that gave The Citadel a 14-0 lead with 8:40 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs led 38-0 at halftime to cruise to the victory over the Warriors (0-1).

Asheton Jordan rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns to lead The Citadel’s rushing attack.

The Citadel quarterback Bart Blanchard was 12 of 14 for 137 yards and backup Cam Turner went 3-for-5 for 54 yards and two touchdown passes.

Cory Johns hit Tito Torres on a 15-yard touchdown pass for Webber International’s lone score, but the Warriors were held to 78 yards passing.

—-
No. 14 Kansas opens with easy win over Fla. Int.

Kansas’ historic season didn’t go unappreciated.

A crowd of 52,112, a record for 88-year-old Memorial Stadium, showed up for the season opener and watched the No. 14 Jayhawks race past Florida International, 40-10 on Saturday night.

“It was unbelievable,” said Todd Reesing, who threw three touchdown passes to Dezmon Briscoe. “To play the first game of the season and have the place fill up and have the crowd loud and behind you is something special. I don’t think there’s been a first game here at Kansas in a while that sold out.”

Reesing was not as sharp as he often was while throwing a school-record 36 touchdown passes in a 12-1 campaign in 2007. Florida International, a 55-3 loser to the Jayhawks a year ago, was able to put pressure on him several times and he threw an interception while going 37-of-52 for 256 yards and three TDs. But Briscoe, a sophomore and Reesing’s third-leading receiver in 2007, had touchdown catches of 3, 4 and 3 yards and the visitors from the Sun Belt Conference never threatened.

“We got a win, which is the most important thing, but I think we have room for improvement,” Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. “In the first game you find out a little bit about your team, who’s in the right spots and where we have to tweak things. So this will be a good tape for us to study tomorrow.”

Briscoe’s third TD, on fourth-and-goal from the 3, was a leaping grab in the corner of the end zone after Reesing appeared to have overthrown his wide-open target.

“I just threw it out there in the back of the end zone. I couldn’t really see where he was headed,” Reesing said. “I kind of threw it to a spot and he went up and made an amazing catch. That’s the kind of things he can do for us.”

The crowd broke the mark of 51,910 which watched the resurgent Jayhawks beat longtime nemesis Nebraska 76-39 last year, a game when Briscoe also had three TDs. It also broke by 4,000 the Memorial Stadium record for a nonconference game.

“That’s good. That’s progress,” Mangino said. “As we get better, it seems like everything around us gets better. Those are all signs of progress.”

Kansas took a commanding lead with a 23-point second quarter that made it 30-10 at the half.

The Golden Panthers, 1-11 last season, were playing the highest-ranked team they have seen since becoming a major college program in 2006. They got their only touchdown in two games against Kansas when T.Y. Hilton took a punt and sped 74 yards into the end zone in the second quarter. Dustin Rivest had a 43-yard field goal for Florida International at the end of the half.

“Kansas is a great football team,” Florida International coach Mario Cristobal said. “They were one of the best teams in the country last year and I think they will be this year, too. When you get out here and the speed is turned up about two or three notches, it’s not as quite as slow of a game as it was on the practice field.”

Jeremiah Weatherspoon returned his interception of Reesing 20 yards to the Kansas 27 in the fourth quarter. But a few minutes later, Phillip Strozier made his second interception for the Jayhawks. His first was returned 30 yards and set up Briscoe’s third touchdown.

Kansas held the Golden Panthers to only 2-for-14 in third-down conversions.

“That means we’re efficient, that means we’re doing our job,” said safety Darrell Stuckey. “That means we’re playing hard and locking and locking and we’re fighting trying to win.”

The Jayhawks, who did not commit a turnover until the third game last season, lost a fumble on their first possession. But Jake Laptad sacked Florida International’s Paul McCall for a 5-yard loss on fourth down midway through the first quarter and Jocques Crawford, last season’s junior college offensive player of the year, scored on a 7-yard run for Kansas.

Briscoe capped a 56-yard scoring drive with his first TD catch on the first play of the second quarter. A few minutes later, Daymond Patterson, a freshman, broke loose for a 75-yard punt return, jumping over one would-be tackler near the 20 who had been blocked to the ground.

Alonso Rojas, replacing departed Scott Webb, kicked a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter for a 17-0 lead and added a 37-yarder in the third as the Jayhawks won for the 16th time in their last 18 games overall.

McCall was 10-for-28 for 73 yards, with two interceptions.

Dale Steele had one of the toughest jobs in college football. Convincing recruits to play for a Campbell program that didn’t exist.

There weren’t any highlight reels he could show young players, no bowl trophies, no jerseys of Camels-turned-NFL-stars hanging in the fieldhouse behind the stadium. Until recently, there wasn’t a stadium, either.

No wonder that, time after time during his two years on the job, many of those recruits would slam their front doors on him, skeptical of what would become of a Campbell program that hadn’t played a game since the Korean War.

This is the week Steele has been waiting for: After a 58-year hiatus, football is back in Buies Creek.

The Camels are relaunching their program in the nonscholarship Pioneer Football League with the ambitious hopes of someday duplicating Appalachian State’s championship-subdivision success and maybe even jumping another level to compete for bowl berths. But for now, the once-dormant junior-college power will start out at a decided disadvantage with little tradition and no recent history to sell – at least, not yet.

“It was difficult. I won’t tell you that it’s not, because we had some doors shut in our face early,” Steele said. “There were enough young people out there that, when we sat down and told them what we expected this program to be, and what the vision of this program was going to be, that they were able to buy into this vision and they were able to see themselves.”

Since the plan to revive football here was hatched in 2004, the hopes have risen considerably at this tiny Baptist university tucked an hour’s drive south of Raleigh in the tobacco fields of central North Carolina.

The private school with the modest athletic tradition – perhaps best known for the men’s basketball team’s only NCAA tournament appearance in 1992 when the Camels were routed by Duke – has invested a reported $6 million in its football program. That bill included the cost of turning the plot of land that once was the school’s track into a 3,500-seat stadium that they plan to someday expand to around 10,000.

“I think I was one of the later players to finally see the vision,” running back Carl Smith said. “I found it kind of hard to believe (while being recruited in 2007) that a year from now, that we’ll be playing, and I just see a patch of field and a track around it.”

Steele, a 53-year-old former East Carolina and Kansas State assistant and the older brother of Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, was hired in June 2006 to build the roster from scratch, and not surprisingly, it has a strong local flavor.

Roughly four-fifths of the players are from North Carolina, with some transfers from the bowl subdivision sprinkled in. Defensive lineman E.J. Rascoe came to Campbell from Marshall, and starting quarterback Matt Vollono was a backup walk-on at Connecticut last season who signed in March.

“I started looking into this conference, and I started talking to Coach Steele (and) he described to me what the buildings are going to look like, how it’s going to feel, all the new, incoming atmosphere,” Vollono said. “And he told me up front, ‘Everybody’s a freshman, and everybody’s going to be getting a fair shot.’ And that’s all I could ask for.”

As is usually the case at the lower levels of college football, most players are a step slow, stand an inch too short or have some other flaw in their games to cause the big-name schools to shy away. Linebacker Milton Brown initially was recruited by East Carolina and North Carolina before he stopped growing at 6-foot-1.

“At Campbell, (Steele told him), ‘You are kind of small, but you’re talented,”‘ Brown said. “It was a need-to-know-more thing, because (the team was) not playing for a year, but at the same time, if I went anywhere else, I’m pretty sure I would have got redshirted and wouldn’t play for a year anyway, so that’s what kind of equaled it out for me.”

Campbell, which won six state juco titles before folding its program in 1950 because of the Korean conflict, practiced for the first time last August and even held an intrasquad scrimmage for homecoming in October.

Since then, Steele has been busy taking care of those unseen, last-minute details that always seem to pop up – from making sure there were enough “CU” logo stickers for the helmets, to teaching the Camels where to stand on the sideline and how to enter the new fieldhouse, to informing his players that, yes, they should continue lifting weights during the season.

Meanwhile, workers this week were hammering together the stadium’s temporary press box, racing to have it finished by Saturday’s opener against Division III Birmingham-Southern.

“We’ve all invested a lot of ourselves in this program,” Steele said. “I have invested a lot of myself in this program, in terms of building, day-by-day, of this program, the small details that need to be taken care of to build a solid program that I felt would represent this university and stand the test of time.

“I’m going to, obviously, be nervous, because we don’t know yet where we are. This will be the first litmus test of where we stand today, because we can guess, we can estimate,” he added. “But we really don’t know until after Saturday what we have to do to move the program forward, from the way that we handle it administratively as we get a large crowd here, to the way we handle players on the football field, to the way they handle things. They don’t know yet. We all feel like we’re as absolutely prepared as we can be, but we all have that nervousness, and if you don’t have that nervousness, it’s time to stop playing the game.”

Coach Urban Meyer called his running backs pathetic. Trash and inadequate during his first three seasons at Florida.

He threatened to play without a tailback two years ago and turned most of the running game over to quarterback Tim Tebow and receiver Percy Harvin last season.

He expects things to be very different this fall.

Meyer has praised the backs at every turn during two-a-days, calling Kestahn Moore, Emmanuel Moody, Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps the best group he’s had on campus in four years. He’ll finally get to see them in action when the fifth-ranked Gators open the season against Hawaii on Saturday.

“We have some dynamic backs,” Meyer said. “I’m kind of like a fan in that I can’t wait to see these guys play.”

The backs might be relied on like never before, too, because Meyer is hoping to limit Tebow’s carries this season and Harvin is still recovering from a nagging heel injury.

“I hope we have enough balls to go around,” running backs coach Kenny Carter said. “You can put any combination of guy out there and a lot of special things can happen. You give them the ball and they can go to the house from any place on the field. That’s a great thing to have.”

It starts with Moore, the lone senior in the group. His first three years were plagued by inconsistency and fumble problems, but he was the best of the bunch in spring drills and summer workouts. Meyer already has named him the starter and plans to use him at fullback some just to keep him on the field as much as possible.

Moore welcomed the added load, especially after watching Tebow and Harvin get the ball so often in the most critical situations the last two years.

“It hurts you,” Moore said. “You being a running back and you have other people coming in and taking the carries. It helped the team, so I can’t complain too much.”

Many thought Moody, a former Parade All-American who transferred from Southern California, would step in and take over the starting role.

But he took longer than expected to learn the offense. And even when he showed progress, he followed with a step in the wrong direction. He ran for 111 yards and a touchdown in the spring game, but also fumbled at the 1-yard line and drew strong criticism from Meyer.

“Coach Meyer, he’s always getting in your grill to get things right,” Moody said. “He’s a perfectionist. It really made me jump on the horse, study the playbook more and think about football even more than I was.”

The extra time Moody spent getting the offense down paid off this fall. He looks more comfortable with the ball and has moved up the depth chart.

“It took a while,” Moody said. “I’m starting to play like how I play and not really thinking about what the schemes are and what steps I have to take. It comes natural to me know.”

Moody left USC in hopes of becoming a featured back. But that’s not likely to happen, especially with Rainey and Demps in the mix.

Rainey has been compared to Harvin since he stepped foot on campus last year, but the 5-foot-9, 185-pound speedster hasn’t had quite the same success. Harvin helped the Gators win a national championship as a freshman in 2006, but Rainey committed three errors in two games last season, then injured his shoulder and missed the rest of the season.

He rebounded this spring and was the star of the team’s annual Orange & Blue game. He ran for 75 yards and a touchdown and had a 65-yard scoring reception.

He may have been even more impressive a few months later, when he raced Demps in a 40-yard dash behind an on-campus dormitory.

Demps had just returned from the U.S. Track and Field Olympic trials, where he missed out on making the U.S. team but still had the fastest 100-meter dash time ever for a high school athlete. Rainey, considered one of the quickest guys on campus, wanted to see if Demps was as good as advertised.

So Rainey challenged him one night.

There weren’t any starting blocks, stopwatches or judges. There were just a handful of teammates who eagerly formed a gallery.

Rainey swears he won both races, but Demps believes he took the first one and barely lost the second.

Regardless of the actual outcome, Meyer hopes that speed spills onto the field this fall. If so, Demps, Rainey, Moody and Moore could give Meyer and the Gators nothing but positive things to talk about.

Funny how the first game of the season often provides a revealing glimpse of what will happen in Pitt football season.

In 2005, the Panthers began coach Dave Wannstedt’s first season ranked No. 23, with huge expectations going into a much-hyped opener against unranked Notre Dame. But all the Panthers’ previously unseen weaknesses were quickly revealed in a 42-21 loss that led to a 5-6 season.

Last year, quarterback Bill Stull badly injured a thumb a few plays after halftime of a 27-3 opening-night win over Eastern Michigan, and the Panthers’ offense needed every one of freshman LeSean McCoy’s 1,328 yards rushing after that to keep from being overwhelmed. The passing game never developed during a 5-7 season that was saved only by a 13-9 win at then-No. 2 West Virginia.

No wonder Stull, back at quarterback, and the No. 25 Panthers, back in the Top 25 to start a season for the first time since that 2005 debacle, are wary of Saturday’s opener against Bowling Green.

Sure, Pitt is 25-2 against Mid-American Conference teams and has never lost to one at home, but there are some danger signs with this one – and not only because Pitt is coming off three consecutive underachieving seasons.

Bowling Green, one of the MAC preseason favorites, was 8-4 last season despite a 62-7 loss to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl. The Falcons return an excellent quarterback in Tyler Sheehan, who threw for 3,264 yards and 23 touchdowns out of a spread offense.

Bowling Green also proved it can hang with the big boys, upsetting Minnesota on the road 32-31 in overtime to start its season.

“It’s the MAC vs. the Big East, and all eyes are on us and, hopefully, we can do what we did last year,” Falcons receiver Marques Parks said.

Coach Gregg Brandon must think the Falcons are capable of doing it, too, saying as training camp ended, “Everybody is a little fired up and is ready to wax somebody else.”

Stull, even more so than McCoy, might be the Pitt player who can singularly make sure that doesn’t happen.

With freshman Pat Bostick at quarterback most of last season, Pitt’s passing game was elementary and low risk. Not only was Stull injured and out, so was top wide receiver Derek Kinder, who injured a knee on the first full day of training camp and never played.

With Stull and Kinder back, Pitt’s offense is likely to open up, if only to provide more running room for McCoy, who set a Big East freshman rushing yardage record.

“We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, a lot of blood, sweat and tears,” Stull said. “We’ve grown a lot, and we’re better for it.”

With Pitt’s offense likely to be more complex, a Bowling Green defense that was suspect all season figures to face an even greater challenge. Despite the Falcons’ 4-0 closing stretch last season, their defense allowed averages of 4.7 yards per carry and 207.8 yards rushing per game.

If the Falcons aren’t any better this season, the question won’t be whether McCoy gets his usual 100 yards-plus but whether he gets 200.

“We’re going to do what it takes to win,” Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said. “If that’s run the ball 50 times, we’ll run the ball 50 times. If it’s throw 50, we’ll throw 50.”

Of course, Bowling Green nearly always plays a team as good as Pitt in its opener, so this opener will be no different. And when the Falcons played Minnesota last season, Sheehan threw 51 times – and the Falcons won.

“In the last five years, we’ve played Minnesota, Wisconsin twice, Oklahoma,” Brandon said. “I mean, let’s go.”

Look out, West Virginia opponents. Noel Devine anticipates his workload could quadruple this season.

That’s right, the one-time backup to Steve Slaton who averaged 8.6 yards per carry as a freshman has moved into the starting role at running back for the run-happy Mountaineers.

With Slaton gone to the NFL, Devine is expected to get the majority of the touches alongside quarterback Pat White in No. 8 West Virginia’s season opener Saturday against Villanova.

Just how many is anyone’s guess, but Devine wants it piled on thick.

“It’s all about heart, and I have a big heart,” Devine said.

Hearts went out to Devine last year as the story of his personal life unfolded.

He lost his parents to AIDS, witnessed a friend’s murder, rejected Deion Sanders’ attempts to adopt him and became a father of two before his rushing career at North Fort Myers (Fla.) High became an Internet highlight reel.

Now that he’s settled in, Devine only has to answer questions about football. He’s not a rookie anymore. At 20, he’s not so shy, not so soft-spoken and considered by teammates a leader.

Devine’s ability to change directions with little loss of speed has drawn comparisons to NFL Hall of Famer Barry Sanders. He doesn’t mind knocking over defenders and carrying a few along the way. And like Sanders, he’s able to hide behind his linemen until the right moment comes along to dash out into the open.

It’s only a matter of time before Devine finds out whether his 5-foot-8 frame can take the extra pounding. He averaged only six carries per game last year in compiling 627 yards.

Despite Devine wanting more, running backs coach Chris Beatty isn’t tipping his hat on the player’s workload.

“You want to be smart,” Beatty said. “You want Noel playing through the middle 25 times a game, so we’re going to be smart and figure out what he does best and what gives him the best chance for success.”

Devine already has proven he can take over a game.

On national television in Week 3 against Maryland, Devine piled up 125 yards on his first three carries. After Slaton was knocked out of the Fiesta Bowl early with a leg injury, Devine rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns, including a 65-yarder in the fourth quarter that clinched the 48-28 win over Oklahoma.

“When the time comes, we’ll see,” Devine said. “I’m doing more to be above average and working harder than everybody else. I’m looking forward to proving myself.”

For some reason he believes he didn’t do that that last season, so he has spent more time studying plays and film.

“It’s like a business, and I had to learn that,” Devine said. “You will be a better running back when you study the game. Being around the coaches and being in the meeting rooms, they know their stuff and that made me want to know my stuff. I have to know where the holes will be and who I’ll have to block.”

Slaton’s exit created a hole in the depth chart and West Virginia has been working in haste to prepare a bevy of inexperienced backups.

Jock Sanders is being groomed more as a wide receiver but also could get work behind Devine. Also in the mix are freshman Terence Kearns and junior Zach Hulce, who’ve never had a carry in a game.

“They need to feel comfortable in the backfield, because in their first year, they are going to be nervous,” Devine said. “Being a leader and being in their shoes last year, I’m trying to step up and help them learn.”