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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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The Workouts Don’t Stop For the Wildcat Two Sport Standout

(Szczur and more than 30 others have been featured in the Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports since the start of the 2009 fall semester.  Click the link to see how they’ve performed to date.)

That success doesn’t just happen though.  Like any college athlete in any sport Szczur trains hard, but with two sports involved his training is unique and it’s almost never ending.

Following is an article on Szczur’s unique training regimine written by Villanova strength and conditioning coach Stephen King.  It was published in the November edition of Training & Conditioning magazine.

By Stephen King

When training any athlete, sport-specific factors are paramount: What are the major movers in their sport? What energy systems and muscle groups do they use most? Do they need to focus mainly on straight-ahead speed, change of direction, rapid acceleration, lateral movement, or all of the above? The list goes on.

But what happens when an athlete is training for more than one sport at a time? At the high school level, where two- and three-sport athletes are common, training demands are generally low enough to avoid raising any major concerns. At the college level, however, developing a multi-sport athlete requires special considerations.

Matt Szczur is one of those rare athletes who plays two sports successfully at the college level. Here at Villanova, he is a third baseman/outfielder/catcher on our baseball team and a running back/wide receiver/kick returner/occasional quarterback on our football team. Preparing him to excel in both sports means combining the regimens for each into

Matt Szczur is both the 2009 CAA Offensive & Special Teams Player of the Year (Villanova Photo)

one coherent, comprehensive training plan and carefully monitoring his progress and physical response. It poses a unique challenge for the strength and conditioning staff, but it’s one we’ve risen to meet with enthusiasm.

INITIAL CONSIDERATIONS
The first step in planning an effective conditioning regimen is to perform a needs analysis and identify specific areas to focus on and improve. When working with a two-sport athlete, this process begins by looking for common threads between the sports in question.

For Matt’s football roles, the keys are running speed, quick change-of-direction ability, upper-body strength to get off of “jams” from defenders, and total-body strength to help with breaking tackles. For baseball, the major movements are rotational swinging, straight-line running, and since he sometimes plays outfield, transitioning from a backpedal to a run. In all of Matt’s workouts, we keep those priorities at the forefront, looking for exercises and progressions that will maximize cross-over benefits.

We test all our football athletes at the beginning of summer in the vertical jump, broad jump, squat, and bench press, and use the results as baseline numbers. The baseball players are tested when they arrive in the fall. This is important for tracking everyone’s progress in strength and conditioning, but it’s especially important for Matt, because training for two sports means a greater risk for overtraining. If we ever notice a drop off in his performance relative to his baselines, we know we need to scale back his workload and possibly make adjustments to his training regimen.

I am responsible for strength and conditioning for the baseball team, and my colleague Justus Galac works primarily with the football team. We collaborate in designing Matt’s workouts, and to make this process easier on him, we decided early on to standardize as many aspects as possible. We already have very similar training philosophies, but we decided that everything from the way we taught specific lifts to the terminology we used in the weightroom should be consistent. Attention to details like these has helped Matt adapt to the demands of two teams’ training schedules, while also facilitating communication among the strength coaches and sport coaches.

SUMMER & FALL
Matt’s yearly training cycle starts in early summer. He is among the 20 or so football players who stay in town voluntarily to train during the break. In summer, he trains five days a week: conditioning work (which includes running and movement prep) every weekday, and lifting four days.

The conditioning schedule involves two days of running, one day each of agility and speed work, and a day to focus on agility running or running mechanics, which is a lighter day (usually in the middle of the week) designed for active

Szczur led Villanova with a .346 batting average in 2009 as a redshirt freshman. (VU Photo)

recovery. The running days typically involve series of 65-, 75-, or 80-yard runs, with the number of reps varying from 15 to 30 and the rest intervals between each rep ranging from roughly 30 to 60 seconds. The speed and agility training includes cone drills, read and react drills, and speed ladder work. On the active recovery days, the players do sub-maximal running, focusing on details such as arm mechanics.

The summer lifting program is designed to help the football team build strength for the upcoming season. It consists of two days a week of upper-body lifts and two days of lower-body lifts, alternating to allow for maximum muscle recovery.

The primary exercises on upper-body days include bench presses, pull-ups, and bent over rows. We always include at least one pressing movement, whether it’s a bench press, incline bench, or some other variation, but we focus more on pull movements because they develop greater shoulder stabilization and because many players are “front dominant” in their upper-body strength. We also use unilateral and prehab movements, such as band work and horizontal and vertical protraction/retraction of the scapulae, for the shoulders and rotator cuffs.

Our main exercises for lower-body strength building include the front squat, deadlift, back squat, hang clean, and box jump. On max effort days the athletes will focus more on squats and deadlifts, while hang cleans and box jumps are reserved for dynamic movement days. Our lower-body workouts also feature unilateral and prehab movements, such as hip walks and ankle band work.

Lifting is one area where the benefits clearly cross over into both of Matt’s sports. The football team’s strength regimen prepares his body to withstand the rigors and high impacts of that sport, but it also helps him recruit the muscle groups that enhance rotational acceleration and upper-body strength and control, which translates into a more powerful, consistent swing. In addition, the lower-body strength exercises aimed at increasing explosiveness and speed will help him on the base paths as much as on the football field.

Many baseball players don’t have time in the summer for serious strength and conditioning, as they participate in summer leagues and often play five, six, or even seven days a week. While Matt doesn’t get that extra game experience as he works in the weightroom all summer, we believe his focus on conditioning more than makes up for the loss of baseball-specific activity and gives him a significant leg up on most of his teammates.

As the summer progresses and football season gets closer, conditioning priorities shift away from basic running and agility in favor of vigorous position-specific football routines. The players start doing seven-on-seven drills and agility work that mimics their running and movement demands on the field, which for Matt means a focus on sprinting, cutting, and accelerating. He’ll run various routes, such as posts, corners, and comebacks, and do lateral shuffles and jump cuts. We also use reaction drills that involve him sprinting forward and then making a hard cut to the left or right depending on a visual cue from a coach.

Meanwhile, the lifting schedule changes slightly as well: Upper-body lifting still occurs two days a week, but the football players do only one day of lower-body work in late summer, and one day a week (usually Friday) is used for strongman competitions. The strongman days include events such as tire flips, farmer’s walks, tug-of-war, and many other activities that are standard fare in football training programs. They provide total-body exercise, develop mental toughness and competitiveness, and promote team unity. They’re also a fun change of pace for the players after a week of hard training.

By early fall, as the workload grows more and more football-specific, it’s especially important for me as the baseball strength and conditioning coach to evaluate Matt’s progress and ensure he’s not jeopardizing his baseball fitness by over- or under-using any muscle groups or body parts. For example, the heavy rotational demands of baseball increase the risk for repetitive stress injuries to the shoulders, hips, and knees, and all three of those areas receive heavy attention during football conditioning. To keep Matt in shape for both sports and ensure he won’t be on the verge of overuse injury by the time baseball’s preseason training arrives, I’ll supplement his football work with prehab exercises for those specific body areas.

For his shoulders, I’ll prescribe band exercises with low and high external rotation, med ball work, and rotator cuff exercises. For the hips, he’ll do hip walks with a band around his ankles, foot slides on a platform, and reverse hypers while holding a ball between his legs (these last two exercises are also ideal for strengthening the groin). For the knees, we use the squat-and-touch, single-leg squats, and quarter-squat holds on one leg while touching various points on the floor with the other foot.

When preseason football camp starts, lifting decreases dramatically for the entire team, Matt included. Voluntary lifting sessions are available after meetings and practices, but they typically last only 15 minutes and focus mostly on the upper body because of the pounding the lower body takes during team practice. During this time, even though Matt is lifting less, he continues with his full complement of prehab work.

Once football season begins, Matt follows essentially the same regimen as everyone else on the team. After Saturday games, the players have a light full-body lifting session on Sunday that includes yoga and core work. One other lifting session during the week, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday, focuses on the upper body and is designed primarily to maintain strength gains made over the summer.

Matt continues with his prehab work at this time, but aside from that, we want him to focus solely on being a football player. He is an integral part of the team–on the field for most offensive plays–and it would be counterproductive to disrupt his physical rest and recovery during the week by adding baseball training to his schedule. His baseball teammates are in their fall lifting program during football season, hitting the weightroom three days a week to focus on total-body hypertrophy, building work capacity, and increasing strength and explosiveness, but he doesn’t attempt to join their workouts.

WINTER & SPRING
At the end of football season, all the players get some time off (varying based on how much they played), and the strength coaches are responsible for monitoring their physical condition to catch signs of overuse or lingering injuries. For most players, it will be eight months or more until they take the field again for intercollegiate competition, so the pace of their return to training is highly flexible. But for Matt, baseball preseason is already on the horizon.

You might think this would mean accelerating his return to serious strength training, but that’s not our approach. Because Matt plays positions in football that involve frequent, high-impact collisions, we’ve found that the wear and tear on his body can’t be ignored by season’s end. We want him to take at least a couple of weeks to rest and recuperate, so he won’t start lifting again until winter break.

By that time, the baseball team is performing its most intense workouts of the year, having ramped up both lifting and running regimens since fall ball ended. With Matt not having lifted heavily since before football season, it’s important for him to build up his work capacity, so we’ll have him do both the baseball and football lifting routines. But we keep the lines of communication open, and he is free to tell us if he feels overwhelmed or needs to adjust his personal workload as he gradually gets back into serious lifting and conditioning.

Once the spring semester starts, Matt continues participating in both teams’ workouts. The football team usually lifts three times a week (on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday) and on Friday does mat drills–essentially an indoor version of the summer’s strongman days.

Matt’s lifting sessions differ from those of the rest of the football team, as he essentially performs a hybrid of football and baseball regimens. For instance, he’ll do some of the football team’s higher rep work, including dips, hamstring curls, and certain presses, while following the baseball team’s regimen for power movements, max strength lifts, and medicine ball activities. At this time, he also joins the baseball team for batting cage work and the start of a tossing program.

Baseball season begins in March, and the football team starts its spring practices soon after. This time is quite strenuous for Matt, as he is lifting, running, practicing with the baseball team, and playing in the games. We tailor his twice-weekly strength sessions at this time to address a few key priorities–power movements, lower-body strength development, and upper-body push and pull movements–and supplement that with more prehab exercises and medicine ball work.

We usually have him skip the baseball team conditioning sessions at this time because he does football conditioning most days and that tends to be more strenuous. Although both the baseball and football teams follow pre-determined conditioning schedules and workout programs with set progressions, we adjust Matt’s routines every week based on his feedback and the way his body responds to training.

When he feels very fatigued, we’ll scrap his normal lifting and other work for a day or more. In their place, he’ll do recovery activities like myofascial release with a foam roll, band stretches, partner stretches, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching focusing mostly on his legs, back, and hips. He’ll also do light circuit lifting to stimulate his muscles and give him an opportunity to rest and regenerate.

This is the time of year when baseball is Matt’s top priority. Attending practices for both sports and playing in baseball games is physically taxing, so we dial down the intensity of his football spring practice participation. Specifically, he’ll do only non-contact football work at this time.

After baseball season, Matt gets two to four weeks off before the cycle begins again with the start of summer break. He is typically below his football playing weight by this time because of the lower strength training demands of the baseball season, so he’s careful to take in enough calories, carbohydrates, and protein as summer strength training kicks off to support muscle growth and build himself back into football shape.

ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION
Throughout the entire training year, it’s critical for a multi-sport athlete to share feedback with the strength staff about how his body feels and how he’s responding to the workout progressions. Trust is an important component of this relationship–Matt is an extremely hard worker, and we know he won’t try to get out of lifts or conditioning sessions just because he wants a day off.

In fact, one of our biggest concerns at the outset was just the opposite–that he would be concerned about not shortchanging either team’s training regimen, and thus push himself too hard and risk injury. Early in his college career, we explained to him that it was better to be honest about his physical limits, recognize when he was fatigued, and skip a conditioning session or the heavier portion of a lifting day when necessary. We preach to all our athletes that the strength program is aimed at stimulation and not annihilation, and this is especially important with a highly motivated athlete juggling commitments to two sports.

Another critical component of making this arrangement work is open dialogue between all the coaches involved–the strength coaches, Head Football Coach Andy Talley, Head Baseball Coach Joe Godri, and their respective staffs. Coaches have a natural inclination to not want to share their athletes, but in this case, both coaches were very receptive to the changes we made to Matt’s program. We took it upon ourselves to explain that his special hybrid strength and conditioning schedule wouldn’t neglect the needs of either sport, and because we were upfront about that, they let us create his plan and trusted us to track his progress.

And of course, if the coaches had any doubts, Matt’s performance on the field took care of them. His .346 batting average led the baseball team last season, and he earned second-team all-conference honors in football after scoring eight touchdowns and registering over 1,000 all-purpose yards. Matt is a special athlete with an incredible work ethic and the determination needed to make a two-sport commitment work. With a training program that helps keep him strong, powerful, and injury-free, it has been very rewarding to see him excel in both sports.

Notre Dame Football/Baseball Star To Forego Remaining College Eligibility

Toby Gerhart is not Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders, but the big Stanford running back is going to do something that neither of those famous two-sport stars ever did.  Gerhart is part of a small group of athletes whose college career

Gerhart (Stanford Photo)

will end after playing in both a football bowl game and the College World Series.

While Sanders took his two-sport act to another level by winning Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys and playing in the World Series with the Atlanta Braves, even he cannot make the claim that Gerhart will after Stanford plays in its bowl game at the end of this season.  (Sanders was also neither a Biletnikoff Award finalist nor Heisman Trophy hopeful, although he and Biletnikoff did both go to Florida State.)

Based on how Gerhart has performed this year odds are he will be a part of an even more select group of athletes who can say they hit a home run at the CWS and scored a touchdown in a bowl.

Here’s a by the numbers look at Toby Gerhart’s statistics as both a college football and baseball player at Stanford:

1,736…net rushing yards by Gerhart this season

1,651…Gerhart’s career yardage prior to 2009

.867…Gerhart’s OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in 2009 on the Cardinal baseball team

1…football start made by Gerhart in 2007 after he suffered a season-ending knee injury vs. San Jose State

Mark Marquess (Stanford Photo)

140…yards he rushed for in that game prior to the injury

16…career home runs Gerhart has hit in three seasons playing for Mark Marquess

16…career touchdowns he scored in his first two-plus seasons playing for Walt Harris and Jim Harbaugh

26…touchdowns Gerhart has scored so far in 2009 – a new Pac-10 single-season record

42…career touchdowns scored by Toby Gerhart – a new Pac-10 career mark

25…times Gerhart has been hit by pitch

(Pac 10 Photo)

639…career rushing attempts by Gerhart

433…Gerhart’s career at-bats

12…career stolen bases in as many attempts

7…home runs hit and stolen bases in 2009

7…Gerhart’s football jersey number

24…Gerhart’s baseball jersey number

24…career doubles Gerhart has hit

1…career pass attempt by Gerhart – an 18 yard touchdown in Stanford’s win over Notre Dame

1…home run hit by Gerhart in Stanford’s 2008 CWS win over Florida State

3…RBIs in two Super Regional elimination game wins over Pepperdine in ’08

3…200-plus yard rushing games by Gerhart this season

0…200 yard rushing games by a Stanford player since 1988 prior to this season

21…credit hours – Gerhart’s course load at Stanford during the fall 2009 semester

Gerhart is among more than 35 student athletes who have been featured this fall in the exclusive Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports.

Toby Gerhart And Golden Tate Are Among More Than 35 Players In The Report

Zach Collaros

Zach Collaros- 6’1-209 – Football: QB & Baseball: IF
Collaros batted just .204 in 49 at-bats in 2009 for the Bearcat baseball team.  However, he has had a much bigger impact this fall for the UC football team.  Collaros has passed for 1,434 yards with 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions in 2009.  He has also rushed for 344 yards and four more TDs.  He has played in all 11 Cincinnati games in 2009, including four starts after Heisman contender Tony Pike went down with injury.

Cincinnati (11-0) plays Pittsburgh (9-2) on Saturday, Dec. 5.  A win would send the Bearcats to a second straight BCS bowl.

Clemson

Kyle Parker- 6’1-200 – Football: QB & Baseball: OF
Parker graduated high school a semester early to enroll at Clemson in January 2008.  He’s a redshirt freshman on the football team, but he will be a junior on the baseball squad in 2010.

Parker has passed for 2,294 yards with 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2009.  Clemson (8-4) plays Georgia Tech (10-2) on Saturday, Dec. 5 in the ACC Championship Game.

Elon

Scott Riddle-6’0-210-Jr. – Football: QB & Baseball: IF/C
This season Riddle became the  Southern Conference record holder for career completions and passing yards.

Elon's Scott Riddle

Riddle passed for 3,345  yards with 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions for the Phoenix in 2009.

Riddle led Elon (9-3)to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, but the Phoenix lost 16-13 to #4 Richmond in the first round.  He finished seventh in the nation with 278.7 passing yards a game.

Fairfield

Tucker Nathans-6’0-180-Jr. – Soccer: Forward & Baseball: 2B
Nathans started 10 of Fairfield’s 17 soccer games and totaled three points in 2009.  Nathans started all 47 games for the Fairfield baseball team last season, and led the Stags with a .377 average with a 1.006 OPS.

George Washington

Marshall Seedorf-6′3-185-So. – Swimming: Sprints & Baseball: P                                               Seedorf was one of just two freshman to qualify for the Atlantic 10 Championship finals in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle events in 2009.  He pitched in relief in 13 games last season for the GW baseball team.  He is currently competing

Hofstra

Anthony Nelson-5’10-180-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Nelson finished the 2009 season as  Hofstra’s second-leading receiver with 40 catches for 520 yards and four touchdowns for the (5-7) Pride.

Holy Cross

Rob Dornfried-5’8-176-Jr. – Football: K & Baseball: IF
Dornfried hit 7 of 9  field goals and 40 of 41 extra points for the Crusader football team this fall.  He played in 15 games in 2009 for the Holy Cross baseball team.

Holy Cross (9-3) won the  Patriot League title but lost 38-28 to Villanova in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

Josh Hauser-6’4-218-Fr. – Football: TE & Baseball:

Kentucky

Brian Adams-6’4-212-Fr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Adams is a true freshman who was a high school quarterback and is now making the transition to receiver in college.

Louisiana-Monroe

Kolton Browning-6’2-181-Fr. – Football: QB & Baseball: Pitcher.
Browning is a true freshman that is a back-up quarterback on the football team and is expected to pitch for the Warhawk baseball team next spring.

LSU

Chad Jones-6’3-231-Jr. – Football: Safety & Baseball: Pitcher
Like his former LSU teammate, Jared Mitchell (drafted and signed by the Chicago White Sox), Jones has both a football and a baseball national championship ring.

Jones is LSU’s fifth  leading tackler with 60 takedowns along with 3 interceptions.  Jones is also averaging 21.5 yards on six punt returns, including a 93 yarder for a touchdown vs. Mississippi State.  LSU (9-3) beat Arkansas 33-30 to close the regular season.  The Tigers will finish their season in a bowl game.

McNeese State

Jace Peterson-6’1-190-So. – Football: Safety & Baseball: IF

Jace Peterson (#6) In On A Tackle

Peterson had 39 tackles, three sacks and an interception in 2009.  He batted .366 with 16 stolen bases in limited action on the diamond last spring.

Malcolm Bronson-5’11-188-So. – Football: Safety & Baseball: OF
Bronson led the Cowboys with 75 tackles in 2009.  He also had two interceptions.

McNeese State lost 49-13 to New Hampshire in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

Minnesota

Eric Decker-6’2-215-Sr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Decker entered the season on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List.  The award is given to the nation’s top receiver.  He started Minneosta’s first eight games, but suffered a foot injury against Ohio State missed the rest of the season.   Depite missing the Gopher’s last three games, Decker was still named All-Big Ten by a vote of conference coaches.  He finished the season as Minnesota’s  leading receiver with 50 catches for 758 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Nebraska

Khiry Cooper-6’2-180-rsFr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Cooper started 20 games for the Cornhusker baseball team as a true freshman
last spring.

New Mexico State

Tanner Rust-6’2-195-Fr. – Football: QB & Baseball:
Rust is the Aggie’s third-string quarterback and he plans to play baseball next spring as well.  He would be just the second athlete to play both football and baseball at New Mexico State.

Nicholls State

Mike Barba-6’1-180-Fr. – Football: WR & Baseball

Kyle Hughes-6’5-220-Sr. – Football: LB & Baseball
Hughes recorded 34 tackles with an interception for the Colonel’s (3-8) in 2009.

Kevin Persick-6’2-215-rsFr. – Football: LB & Baseball

North Carolina State

Russell Wilson-5’11-201 – Football: QB & Baseball: 2B
Wilson is a redshirt sophomore for the football team, but he will be a junior on the 2010 Wolfpack baseball squad. He

Wilson Tops The ACC With 31 TD Passes

totaled 3,027 passing yards with 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2009, while also rushing for 260 yards and 4 more scores.   His 31 touchdown passes led the ACC.

He passed for 259 yards and 4 touchdowns to help N.C. State (5-7) upset North Carolina (8-4) to end an otherwise disappointing season for the Wolfpack.

Notre Dame

Eric Maust-6’2-190-Sr. – Football: P & Baseball: Pitcher
Maust has averaged 35.8 yards on 19 punts in 2009.  As the holder on ND’s field goal team he completed a pass to convert a first down on a fake FG vs. USC.  He was an All-Big East pitcher in 2008.

Evan Sharpley-6’2-217-Sr. – Football: QB & Baseball
Sharpley is the ND 3rd string quarterback in 2009. He was named the
team’s scout team player of the week for his impersonation of Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick prior to ND’s 35-0 win. 2009 was Sharpley’s last season with the Irish baseball team. He was picked by Seattle in the 50th round of the June MLB draft. Sharpley batted .333 with 7 HR, 29 RBIs and a 1.043 OPS for the Mariner’s AZL Rookie League team.

Golden Tate-5’11-195-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Tate is one of three finalists for the 2009 Biletnikoff Award.  He’s had a record-setting season in 2009 with 93 receptions for 1,496 yards and 15 touchdowns (all single-season school records).  His 2,707 career receiving yards are also an Irish school record.

Tate finished the regular season with 10 catches for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 45-38 loss to Stanford.  The Irish (6-6) lost their last four regular season games, but they are bowl eligible.

Oregon State

Jordan Poyer-5’11-181-Fr. – Football: S & Baseball

Penn State

Jesse Alfreno-5’11-194-Jr. – Football: CB & Baseball: Pitcher
Alfreno was 1-0 with one save in 20 relief appearances in 2009 for the Nittany Lions baseball team.

Sacred Heart

Steve Tedesco-6’1-195-Sr. – Football: WR & Baseball: IF

Tedesco is the Sacred Heart (2-8) school record holder with 37 career touchdowns.  Tedesco had a career day with 12 catches for 144 yards and four touchdowns in the Pioneer’s season-ending 45-42 loss to Duquesne.  He finished the 2009 season with a team-high 67 receptions for 865 yards and 11 touchdowns.  He was selected to play in the 9th annuall East Coast Bowl All-Star Game.

Bobby Shepherd-6’1-180-rs Fr. – Football: P & Baseball: Pitcher
Shephard made four relief appearances and two starts in ’09 for the Sacred
Heart baseball team. He’s the football team’s back-up punter.

South Alabama

Eddy Cabrera-5’9-160-Fr. – Football: DB & Baseball: OF

This is South Alabama’s first season of college football, which makes Cabrera the first player in the 45-year history of the USA baseball program to play football and baseball.

Stanford

Toby Gerhart-6’1-235-Sr. – Football: RB & Baseball: OF
Gerhart is one of three finalists for the 2009 Doak Walker Award, which goes to the nation’s top running back.  He is also a top contender for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Gerhart was an outfield starter for Stanford’s 2008 College World Series team.

Gerhart capped his regular season with 205 rushing yards and 3 touchdown runs in Stanford’s 45-38 win over Notre Dame.  He also complete his first career pass attempt for an 18-yard touchdown pass in the game.

As of Nov. 29 Gerhart leads the nation with 1,736 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns.  His 42 career touchdowns are a Pac 10 record.  Gerhart has now topped the 200 yard mark three times this season.  Coming into 2009 no Stanford back had surpassed 200 rushing yards in a game since 1988.

Gerhart could exercise a fifth year of football eligibility (he missed most of 2007 with a knee injury) and he still has a final season of baseball eligibility remaining.  However,  he  is expected to forego those options to prepare for February’s NFL combine and, ultimately, April’s NFL draft.

Texas State

Jeff McVaney-6’2-220-So. – Football: FB & Baseball: OF/LHP
McVaney made 12 relief appearances as freshman for the 2009 Bobcat baseball team that made it to the NCAA Tournament.   The fullback had four carries for nine yards in 2009.

Villanova

Matt Szczur-5’11-195-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF

Matt Szczur

Szczur was second team All-CAA in football last season as a sophomore.  He was named the Colonial Athletic Associations Offensive Player of the Year and Special Teams Player of the Year in 2009.   He is just the second player in CAA history to receive two major awards in the same season.

As a redshirt freshman in 2009 he led the baseball team with a .346 average.  Szczur was a 38th round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school in 2007.

Szczur’s 2009 stats include:  45 catches for 534 yards and 4 touchdowns, 86 rushes for 562 yards and 7 TDs, 3 of 3 pass attempts for 21 yards and 2 touchdowns, and 26 kickoff returns for a 27.7 average and another TD.

He and the Wildcats have playoff wins over Holy Cross and New Hampshire & are now in the FCS national semifinals.

Marlon Calbi-5’11-180-So. – Football: QB/Holder & Baseball: SS
Calbi is a third-string quarterback who has played every career game as the
team’s holder. He started more than half of the baseball team’s games at
shortstop last season.

Christian Culicerto-5’9-190-So. – Football: QB & Baseball: LHP
Culicerto is a backup quarterback on the football team who walked on to the
baseball roster last season. He pitched in two games in relief.

Kenny Miles-5’11-180-Fr. Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Miles is a highly-touted freshman in both sports. He is currently low on the depth chart for football, because the team is deep at the wide receiver position.

Wofford

Landon Bennett-6’3-200-So. – Football: K/P & Baseball: OF
Bennett had 8 punts in four games in 2008 for the football team. During the 2008 baseball season played in 25 games with 14 starts and hit .298 with 17 hits and 8 RBIs.

Football/Baseball Standout Has Big Day In Wolfpack Upset Of Tar Heels

QB/IF Russell Wilson

For the game, Wilson completed 20 of his 27 passes for 259 yards through the air. Senior Toney Baker rushed for 62 yards on 17 carries.

Wilson just finished his redshirt sophomore season with the Wolfpack football team.  He completed 224 of 378 passes (59.3%) for 3,027 yards, 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season.  He will be a junior on the N.C. State baseball team in 2010.  He and other college baseball/football players (and a swimmer and soccer player who also play baseball) have been featured throughout the fall in the exclusive Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports.   CLICK HERE to listen to a CB360 podcast interview with Wilson.

The Wolfpack maintained the victory thanks to a pair of big defensive plays. First, as Carolina drove the field late in the game, the drive stalled and Casey Barth came out to try a 38 field goal. But defensive tackle Alan-Michael Cash tipped the low line drive right as it crossed the line of scrimmage. The ball fell harmlessly to the ground before reaching the goal line.

Then, after the Wolfpack offense picked up a three first downs before turning the ball over on downs, senior safety Clem Johnson intercepted a deep pass by Yates near midfield.

After Wilson took a knee, the sold out crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium began celebrating its third consecutive victory over the Tar Heels.

N.C. State finishes the season with a 5-7 record overall and 2-6 in the ACC. North Carolina falls to 8-4 and 4-4.

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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This is the latest installment of the Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Report.  We are updating the progress of college baseball players who also play sports like football, soccer and swimming.  If you know of someone not on the list shoot us an email and let us know: editor@collegebaseball360.com.

Elon QB Scott Riddle

Elon

Scott Riddle-6’0-210-Jr. – Football: QB & Baseball: IF/C
This season Riddle became the  Southern Conference record holder  for career completions and passing yards.  For the season Riddle is 96 of 153 for 1,799 yards with 13 touchdowns and two interceptions for the Phoenix.

Fairfield

Tucker Nathans-6’0-180-Jr. – Soccer: Forward & Baseball: 2B
Nathans has started the Fairfield soccer team’s first nine games in 2009. He
started all 47 games for the Fairfield baseball team last season, and led the
Stages with a .377 average with a 1.006 OPS.

George Washington

Marshall Seedorf-6′3-185-So. – Swimming: Sprints & Baseball: P      (Podcast)

Seedorf was one of just two freshman to qualify for the Atlantic 10 Championship finals in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle events in 2009.  He pitched in relief in 13 games last season for the GW baseball team.

Hofstra

Anthony Nelson-5’10-180-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Nelson is Hofstra’s second-leading receiver with 18 catches for 176 yards and a touchdown through the first six games of the season.

Holy Cross

Rob Dornfried-5’8-176-Jr. – Football: K & Baseball: IF
Dornfried has hit 3 of 5 field goals and 16 of 17 extra points through the Crusader’s first six games.

Josh Hauser-6’4-218-Fr. – Football: TE & Baseball:

Kentucky

Brian Adams-6’4-212-Fr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Adams is a true freshman who was a high school quarterback and is now making the transition to receiver in college.

Louisiana-Monroe

Kolton Browning-6’2-181-Fr. – Football: QB & Baseball: Pitcher.
Browning is a true freshman that is a back-up quarterback on the football team and is expected to pitch for the Warhawk baseball team next spring.

LSU

LSU's Chad Jones

Chad Jones-6’3-231-Jr. – Football: Safety & Baseball: Pitcher
Like his former LSU teammate, Jared Mitchell (drafted and signed by the WhiteSox), Jones has both a football and a baseball national championship ring.  He is LSU’s fourth leading tackler with 35 takedowns along with two interceptions.  Jones is also averaging 24.2 yards on five punt returns, including a 93 yarder for a touchdown vs. Mississippi State.

McNeese State

Jace Peterson-6’1-190-So. – Football: Safety & Baseball: IF
Peterson has 26 tackles, three sacks and an interception in the Cowboy’s first six games of 2009. He batted .366 with 16 stolen bases in limited action on the diamond last spring.

Malcolm Bronson-5’11-188-So. – Football: Safety & Baseball: OF
Bronson is the Cowboy’s second-leading tackler with 39 through his first six games.

Minnesota

Eric Decker-6’2-215-Sr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF

Gopher WR Eric Decker

Decker is one of two wide receivers on the Biletnikoff Award preseaon watch list who is on the two sport report.  His 731 receiving yards are the fifth most in the nation.  He has caught five touchdowns as well.

Nebraska

Khiry Cooper-6’2-180-rsFr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Cooper started 20 games for the Cornhusker baseball team as a true freshman last spring.

New Mexico State

Tanner Rust-6’2-195-Fr. – Football: QB & Baseball:
Rust is the Aggie’s third-string quarterback and he plans to play baseball next spring as well.  He would be just the second athlete to play both football and baseball at New Mexico State.

Nicholls State

Mike Barba-6’1-180-Fr. – Football: WR & Baseball

Kyle Hughes-6’5-220-Sr. – Football: LB & Baseball
Hughes has recorded 26 tackles with an interception in the Colonel’s first six games.

Kevin Persick-6’2-215-rsFr. – Football: LB & Baseball

North Carolina State

Russell Wilson-5’11-201 – Football: QB & Baseball: 2B
Wilson is a redshirt sophomore for the football team, but he will be a junior on the 2010 Wolfpack baseball squad.  He has completed 132 of 225 passes for 1,659 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions.  Wilson has also rushed for 249 yards and three touchdowns through seven games.

Notre Dame

Eric Maust-6’2-190-Sr. – Football: P & Baseball: Pitcher
Maust has averaged 39.8 yards on 14 punts so far in 2009.  As the holder on ND’s field goal team he completed a pass to convert a first down on a fake FG vs. USC.

Evan Sharpley-6’2-217-Sr. – Football: QB & Baseball
Sharpley is the ND 3rd string quarterback in 2009.  This past season was Sharpley’s last season with the Irish baseball team. He was picked by Seattle in the 50th round of the June MLB draft. Sharpley batted .333 with 7 HR, 29 RBIs and a 1.043 OPS for the Mariner’s AZL Rookie League team.

Notre Dame's Golden Tate

Golden Tate-5’11-195-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Tate enters 2009 on the Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list. He is ND’s leading receiver with 41 grabs for 719 yards and six touchdowns through six games.  His 719 yards are the sixth most in the nation.  Tate has also rushed for 96 yards and another TD.

Oregon State

Jordan Poyer-5’11-181-Fr. – Football: S & Baseball

Penn State

Jesse Alfreno-5’11-194-Jr. – Football: CB & Baseball: Pitcher
Alfreno was 1-0 with one save in 20 relief appearances in 2009 for the Nittany Lions baseball team.

Sacred Heart

Steve Tedesco-6’1-195-Sr. – Football: WR & Baseball: IF
Tedesco is Sacred Heart’s leading receiver with 36 catches for 506 yards and four touchdowns through six games this season.

Bobby Shepherd-6’1-180-rs Fr. – Football: P & Baseball: Pitcher
Shephard made four relief appearances and two starts in ’09 for the Sacred
Heart baseball team. He’s the football team’s back-up punter.

South Alabama

Eddy Cabrera-5’9-160-Fr. – Football: DB & Baseball: OF
This is South Alabama’s first season of college football, which makes Cabrera
the first player in the 45-year history of the USA baseball program to play football and baseball.

Stanford

Toby Gerhart-6’1-235-Sr. – Football: RB & Baseball: OF

Stanford RB Toby Gerhart

Gerhart has the fourth most rushing yards in the nation with 897 yards on 168 carries with 12 touchdowns in Stanford’s first seven games of 2009.  On Sept. 26th he rushed for 200 yards and a TD in Stanford’s 34-14 win over Washington.  He became the first Cardinal back since 1988 to have a 200 yard rushing day.

Texas State

Jeff McVaney-6’2-220-So. – Football: FB & Baseball: OF/LHP
McVaney made 12 relief appearances as freshman for the 2009 Bobcat baseball team that made it to the NCAA Tournament.   The fullback has three carries for six yards through six games in 2009.

Villanova

Matt Szczur-5’11-195-Jr. – Football: WR & Baseball: OF

Szczur was second team All-CAA in football last season as a sophomore. As a redshirt freshman in 2009 he led the baseball team with a .346 average. Szczur was a 38th round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school in 2007.   He has 24 catches for 234 yards in seven games for the Wildcat football team in 2009.  On Sept. 19th he returned a kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening kickoff vs. Penn.  Szcur is averaging 29.6 yards on 16 kick returns this season.

Marlon Calbi-5’11-180-So. – Football: QB/Holder & Baseball: SS
Calbi is a third-string quarterback who has played every career game as the
team’s holder. He started more than half of the baseball team’s games at
shortstop last season.

Christian Culicerto-5’9-190-So. – Football: QB & Baseball: LHP
Culicerto is a backup quarterback on the football team who walked on to the
baseball roster last season. He pitched in two games in relief.

Kenny Miles-5’11-180-Fr. Football: WR & Baseball: OF
Miles is a highly-touted freshman in both sports. He is currently low on the depth chart for football, because the team is deep at the wide receiver position.

Wofford

Landon Bennett-6’3-200-So. – Football: K/P & Baseball: OF
Bennett had 8 punts in four games in 2008 for the football team. During the 2008 baseball season played in 25 games with 14 starts and hit .298 with 17 hits and 8 RBIs.

This is our second installment of the two-sport report.  Following is a list of college baseball players who also play another sport at the collegiate level.  Most play football, but there is also a soccer player and a swimmer on the list.   We have updated the stats through September for players who are currently playing a fall sport.