COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
Texas Tech quarterback Cody Hodges never intended to disrespect the Indiana St. football team.
Oops!
After the Red Raiders humiliated Sam Houston St. 80-21, Hodges said if there was a game in which his team could score 100 points, it was this Saturday against Indiana State. By Sunday night, Indiana State players, such as defensive co-captain Doc Gooden (no joke), had read Hodges’ comments on the Internet.
“That’s disrespecting us a team, as family, as men, as football players,” Gooden told The Post. “If you can’t get up for something like that, you don’t belong on the field. I don’t want anyone on the field with me who doesn’t take that personally.”
The Post spoke to Hodges Monday night. He explained that he had been asked if his team was capable of scoring 100 points. Hodges said the Red Raiders had 15 possessions against Sam Houston and if they scored a touchdown on each one, well, you do the math.
“It has nothing to do with who our next opponent is,” said Hodges. “We worry about ourselves. There still is a lot we need to work on before the Big 12 schedule.”
Hodges pointed out that the Red Raiders were called for 15 penalties and he gave his team a B-minus on offense. The Red Raiders beat Florida International in their opener 56-3 and could be 6-0 going into their game at Texas. But they’ll be hard-pressed to crack The Post’s Top 25 unless they light up Nebraska and Kansas State.
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How did Louisville defensive end Elvis Dumerville of Miami, who set an NCAA record six sacks in one game and nine in the first two, not end up at one of the Big Three – Miami, Florida or Florida State?
Miami offered Dumerville a scholarship but said he’d have to redshirt and probably wouldn’t start until his junior year. FSU didn’t recruit him. Florida had Dumerville wrapped up until Steve Spurrier left for the NFL.
That left Syracuse, where Dumerville’s older brother’s James and Louis played, and Louisville. Syracuse wanted to redshirt Dumerville and play him and outside linebacker. Louisville said he could play as a freshman at DE.
“I know I don’t look like a defensive end,” said the 6-foot, 256-pound Dumerville. “I believe I’m a contradiction.”
His father, Frank, is the critic. He said his son had underachieved the last two seasons and really started riding him after the 2003 GMAC Bowl.
“There were three times he had [Ben] Roethlisberger sacked and twice he flicked him off and threw touchdown passes,” said Frank Dumerville. “I rag him all the time about that: ‘You made him with that ESPN highlight. Every time they show a Roethlisberger highlight, they show you.”
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The game within the game this weekend features Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson, a 6-4 Larry Fitzgerald clone, against Virginia Tech’s Jimmy Williams, a 6-3 monster who talks more than a carnival barker.
The quarterback matchup – the Ramblin Wreck’s Reggie Ball, who missed last week’s game with viral meningitis but is expected to play, and Virginia Tech’s Marcus Vick – isn’t bad either. Vick has thrown just one interception.