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Mantles Are Full For The Two Sport Stars

By Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires

Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate and Stanford running back Toby Gerhart have capped their 2009 award hauls by being named Consensus All-Americans on the football field.  The Associated Press named both first-team All-Americans on Wednesday.

Gerhart leads the nation with 26 rushing TDs.

Both Tate and Gerhart earned first-team status on the five All-American teams that comprise the consensus designation: The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), The Walter Camp Football Foundation, and The Associated Press.

Gerhert is Stanford’s first consensus All-American since Troy Walters in 1999.  Tate takes the first consensus honors since Shane Walton did it in 2002.

Tate won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wide receiver, while Gerhart hoisted the Doak Walker Award as the top running back in the country.  He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up to Alabama running back Mark Ingram.

Tate recently capped off the best receiving season in Notre Dame football history. He finished with 93 receptions for 1,496 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns in 2009. Tate added two rushing touchdowns, one punt return for a score and totaled 1,915 all-purpose yards, second

Tate had 8 school records in 2009.

most in Irish single-season history.

Tate equaled or surpassed eight school records this year, including most catches and receiving yards in a season, tied for most touchdown catches in a season, most receiving yards in a career, most 100-yard receiving games in a season and career, most receiving yards per game in a season and tied for most consecutive games with a touchdown reception.

Gerhart ranks second in the nation in rushing, averaging 144.7 yards per game, and he leads the nation in scoring (13.33) and touchdowns (26). He has rushed for 100 or more yards in 10 of Stanford’s 12 games this season, including three games in which he rushed for 200 yards or more. He has also carried the ball 10 or more yards, 50 times this season, according to ESPN, the nation’s highest.

Tate hit .329 for ND last spring.

He was at his best down the stretch, as he averaged 185.5 yards a game and scored 13 touchdowns over Stanford’s last four contests against No. 7 Oregon (223), No. 11 USC (178), California (136) and Notre Dame (205). The Cardinal posted a 3-1 record in those games to finish the regular season with an 8-4 overall record, its most wins in a single-season since the 2001 campaign.

Gerhart and Tate have also been college baseball players at their respective schools.  Gerhart played for three seasons on the diamond for the Cardinal baseball squad, helping the team to the 2008 College World Series.  Tate played

Gerhart hit 7 home runs in 2009.

baseball for two years for the Irish, batting .329 last season.

Tate has already announced his plans to enter April’s NFL draft.  Gerhart has not officially announced his plans, but he is expected to enter the draft as well (he has a 5th year of football eligibility and one season of baseball eligibility left).  Both could also still be selected in the June MLB draft.

Gerhart and Stanford face Oklahoma in the Brut Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.  Tate and Notre Dame will not play in a bowl game.

Tate and Gerhart have been among more than 35 college baseball players who have been included throughout the fall in the exclusive Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports.

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Four Things I’m Thinking About Right Now

1.  College football’s Doak Walker and Biletnikoff Awards could both go to guys who also play college baseball.  If you have followed our Two Sport Reports so far this season you know that Stanford’s Toby Gerhart and Notre Dame’s Golden Tate are among college baseball players who have excelled on the gridiron this fall.

Gerhart’s 1,395 rushing yards are currently the third most in the nation, while Tate is fourth in the land with  1,172 receiving yards.  Tate has scored a total of 14 touchdowns (11 receiving, 2 rushing & 1 punt return), while Gerhart has rumbled across the goal line 19 times.  Tate needs just 78 more receiving yards to break current Chicago Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija’s Notre Dame single season receiving school record.

Gerhart batted .288 with 7 home runs and 36 RBIs for the Cardinal in 2009.  Tate hit .329 with 13 stolen bases and scored 45 runs at the top of the Irish line-up last season.

Both were also just named Walter Camp Player of the Year semifinalists.  The duo goes head to head when Notre Dame visits Stanford on Nov. 28th in the regular season finale for both teams.

2.  I talked a little about schedules last week, and I mentioned how Virginia’s first two weeks of 2010 will be challenging with three games each vs. East Carolina and Rhode Island.  Well how about Rhode Island’s 2010 slate?  Rhody opens the season with three games in Starkville, MS vs. Mississippi State and then heads to Charlottesville, VA for those three games against the Cavaliers the following weekend.

There’s a double edged sword for a northern team scheduling two such trips.  The Pros:  You’ll get guarantees for making the trips (needed revenue for teams that don’t get DI college football windfall), you’ll bump your strength of schedule and RPIs, you give your players exposure to great college baseball environments, and you have the chance to compete against and beat good competition.  The Con:  You need to win at least two games in a three-game series to get credit when it comes down to NCAA Tournament selection time.

I’ve talked to an NCAA selection committee member about this before.  Winning just one of three games is essentially the same as losing all three games when it comes to selection.  Teams from the north are better off scheduling just two games against an ACC or SEC team and hope for a split, but most teams from the south have no interest in that.

Jim Foster’s URI team won 37 games in 2009.  They played single games against the likes of Miami, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Boston College (all tourney teams), but they missed the NCAA Tournament.  They still have a handful of “TBA” games in Winter Haven, FL to be added to the 2010 slate.  We’ll see how things shake out…

3.  I talked last week about guys flying below the radar in high school and then blossoming in college. There’s no better example than Middle Tennessee State’s Bryce Brentz.  The 2009 Team USA outfielder who grew up in Knoxville is wearing blue instead of orange in college, and he’s wearing it well.  As a sophomore last season Brentz led the nation with his .465 average, 28 home runs and .930 slugging percentage.  Not bad for a guy who says he never thought much about playing for Tennessee because he was a “late bloomer”.   MTSU has also won 71 games with a 2009 NCAA Regional appearance in Brentz’s first two years in Murfreesboro.

4.  There’s been a lot of recent talk about revamping instant replay in Major League Baseball.  Most of the talk, centered around umpiring mistakes that were made during the playoffs.   People like Bob Costas are in favor of expanding replay during the playoffs, but not necessarily during the regular season.  The reasoning is there are more cameras in use and the games mean more, so why not take advantage of the extra technology and make sure you get the calls right.  Would you want that rationale applied to the College World Series?  Those games are arguably the most important games of the college season, and they’re all televised by ESPN.  Who’s to say they are really the most important games though?  One could argue though that game three of a Super Regional is just as important as any game in Omaha, because you have to win there just to get to the promised land.  While all Super Regional games are now televised there are not as many cameras in use there, and the angles are different, because the college stadiums are smaller than Rosenblatt Stadium.

Getting the calls right is the most important thing, but sometimes hairs are split by technology.  Case in point:  the Chicago Bulls vs. Denver Nuggets game last week.  A last second shot initially looked like the Bulls won the game.  However after ten minutes of replay review the shot was waved off and the Nuggets won.  If it takes ten minutes to make the decision shouldn’t the initial ruling just stand?

College football has instant replay, but that system is far from perfect.  Who hasn’t watched a college football game and scratched their heads at calls made on the field that are overturned even when video replays don’t indisputably support the decision to overturn them.  Too often judgment in the replay booth replaces judgments made on the field, and that’s not how replay is supposed to be used.

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Junior wide receiver one of 15 “players to watch” in final weeks of regular season

Golden Tate

The 5-11, 195-pounder two sport star from Hendersonville, Tenn., leads the Irish with 74 receptions for 1,172 yards with 11 receiving touchdowns adding two rushing touchdowns and one punt return touchdown. He is five receptions shy and 78 yards away from breaking Notre Dame’s single-season school record for receptions and receiving yards.

Tate’s 14 total touchdowns are tied for most among wide receivers in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He is tied for third in touchdown receptions, ranks fourth in total receiving yards and receiving yards per game and is ninth in both yards per catch and receptions per game. Tate has totaled seven 100-yard receiving games this year, second most in Notre Dame history and no FBS player has more this season.

Tate is also a two year member of the Fighting Irish baseball team.  He has a career .318 batting average with 51 runs scored and 16 stolen bases.

Tate has also been named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award (top college football player) and the Biletnikoff Award (top collegiate wide receiver).

Stanford football/baseball player Toby Gerhart is a Walter Camp semifinalist as well.  The senior running back has rushed for 1,395 yards and 19 touchdowns for the Cardinal in 2009.  He is also an outfielder on the Stanford baseball team.

Both Tate and Gerhart have been featured throughout the current football season on the exclusive Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports.

A list of five finalists will be announced on Wednesday, Dec. 2. The 2009 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, who is voted on by the Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be presented live on Thursday, Dec. 10 during the 6 p.m. edition of ESPN SportsCenter.

The winner will receive his trophy at the Foundation’s annual national awards banquet on Saturday, January 16, 2010 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven, CT.

2009 Walter Camp Player of the Year “Players to Watch”

Toby Gerhart, Senior, RB, Stanford – 1,395 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns
Mardy Gilyard, Senior, WR, Cincinnati – Averaging over 180 all-purpose yardage a game
Jerry Hughes, Senior, DL, TCU – 13 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks
Mark Ingram, Soph., RB, Alabama – 1,297 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns
Case Keenum, Junior, QB, Houston – Leads nation with 4,194 passing yards and 31 touchdowns
Dion Lewis, Freshman, RB, Pittsburgh – 1,291 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns
Rolando McClain, Junior, LB, Alabama – 77 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 3 sacks and 2 interceptions
Colt McCoy, Senior, QB, Texas – Completing 72.3% of passes for 2,792 yards and 19 touchdowns
Kellen Moore, Soph., QB, Boise State – Leads nation with 172.49 passing efficiency
Jacquizz Rodgers, Soph., RB, Oregon State – 1,545 rushing & receiving yards and 18 touchdowns
Jordan Shipley, Senior WR, Texas – 81 receptions for 1,096 yards and 8 touchdowns
C.J. Spiller, Senior, RB/KR, Clemson – Averaging 195.2 all-purpose yards a game
Ndamukong Suh, Senior, DT, Nebraska – 14 QB hurries, 11 tackles for loss, 8 pass breakups and 5 sacks
Golden Tate, Junior, WR, Notre Dame – 1,174 receiving yards and 14 total touchdowns
Tim Tebow, Senior, QB, Florida – Has passed for 10 touchdowns and rushed for 12 more

(Staff and release contributions)

Gopher Two-Sport Star Out With Foot Injury

Eric Decker

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s sputtering offense sure didn’t need this: Star wide receiver Eric Decker will miss the rest of the regular season because of a sprained left foot.

If the Gophers (4-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) get in a bowl game and Decker doesn’t need surgery, the school’s all-time leading receiver could play once more. Otherwise, Decker’s college career is done. He hurt his arch last Saturday.

“It’s tough right now,” quarterback Adam Weber said. “You have all these expectations for the season, and it’s a big blow.”

Decker sprained his left ankle last Nov. 1 in a loss to Northwestern, was unable to contribute in the following two games and the Gophers didn’t win again. This is a different injury, but the impact is the same.

Decker is one of 10 finalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given annually to the nation’s top receiver. He’s a baseball star, too, drafted by the Minnesota Twins in June, and he batted .319 with four home runs and 25 RBIs last spring.

Decker On The Diamond

He is the first Minnesota athlete to letter in football and baseball since 1999, and he’s only the third Minnesota player since 1966 to letter in football and be selected in the Major League Baseball Draft.  (He joins Hall of Famer Dave Winfield on that short list.)

Decker was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

The transition to a pro-style, play-action offense after two seasons running the spread has been rough for the Gophers. They’re next to last in the conference with 21.1 points per game and last with 292.8 yards per game after dropping 20-0 and 38-7 decisions to Ohio State and Penn State in successive weeks.

Despite being held down this month by Purdue (three catches, 50 yards), Penn State (one for 42) and Ohio State (three for 27 before the injury), Decker has still accounted for half of Minnesota’s passing yardage and five of Weber’s six touchdown throws. He’s second in the Big Ten with 758 yards receiving.

“I think he’s the best wide receiver in college football, period,” coach Tim Brewster said Tuesday. “You know, it’s tough to replace a guy like that.”

Will the Gophers be all right? Defensive tackle Eric Small, another captain, called Decker the hardest worker on the team. He’s not only their most talented player but also perhaps their most inspiring.

During a loss to Cal, then the nation’s eighth-ranked team, Decker caught eight passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns with blood all over his face and jersey from a hard hit that opened a gash that needed stitches. He even threw for a score in that game.

“He adds everything you could ever want in a player,” Small said.

(AP and Staff report)