Sept. 11, 2007
USD vs. No. Colorado Game Notes
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GAME THREE: The USD Torero football team (2-0), under the direction of first year head coach Ron Caragher, will host the Northern Colorado Bears (0-2) this Saturday, September 15th in a 6:00 p.m. contest at Torero Stadium. USD will be gunning for its 21st straight home victory. The radio broadcast will air on 620 AM (pre-game with Chris Ello & Ted Tollner at 5:45 p.m.) and via the internet at www.usdtoreros.com.
TOREROS FALL TO NO. 2 IN SPORTS NETWORK MID-MAJOR POLL: Despite their 2-0 start, the Toreros were unseated from their No. 1 spot atop the Sports Network Mid-Major Poll by Drake University. Both USD and Drake received 8 first place votes, but Drake edged the Toreros, 161 to 160. The Sports Network Mid-Major Top-10 (Week 3): 1- Drake (8 1st place votes), 161 points; 2- San Diego (8), 160 points; 3- Dayton, 116 points; 4- Albany, 113 points; 5- Central Connecticut State, 96 points; 6- Robert Morris, 65 points; 7- Stony Brook, 57 points; 8- Duquesne, 51 points; 9- Iona, 36 points; 10- Monmouth, 23 points. USD is also receiving votes in the Sports Network Top-25 poll for all FCS teams.
PFL STANDINGS (as of Sept. 10th)/UPCOMING SCHEDULE: San Diego (2-0), Drake (2-0), Dayton (2-0), Butler (2-0), Morehead State (1-0), Davidson (1-0), Valparaiso (1-1), Jacksonville (0-2). Other PFL Games for Sept. 15th: St. Joseph's (Ind.) at Butler (1 pm), Lenoir-Rhyne at Davidson (1 pm), Central State (OH) at Dayton (1 pm), Valparaiso at Kalamazoo (1 pm), Drake at WI-Platteville (2 pm), West Virginia Tech at Morehead State (7 pm), Jacksonville (Bye).
JOHNSON TABBED PFL OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (Sept. 10th): Senior All-America quarterback Josh Johnson (Oakland, CA), a Payton Watch candidate, was tabbed the PFL Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the team's 38-17 win over Marist College... It was Johnson's 10th career PFL weekly honor... In his 2007 debut, Johnson completed 24-of-28 passes for a career-best 403 yards and 4 touchdowns... His TD strikes were for 39 & 80 yards to John Matthews; 9 yards to Wes Doyle and 20 yards to JT Rogan... Johnson, who improves to 23-2 as a starter, now needs just 2 TD passes and 374 passing yards to become USD's all-time leader unseating Eric Rasmussen (75 TDs; 7,487 yards).
HOME WIN STREAK AT 20: When the Toreros line up on Walter J. Zable Field at Torero Stadium this Saturday against the Northern Colorado Bears, they will be gunning for their 21st straight home victory.... The Toreros have not lost at Torero Stadium since their 24-17 defeat to Princeton on September 25, 2004... Following that game USD went on to win their final 5 home games in 2004, all 8 games in 2005, and all 6 home tilts last season... During this current streak the Toreros have outscored their opponents by an average of 30.5 points (44.3 to 13.8).
JOHNSON LEADS TOREROS PAST MARIST, 38-17: The USD football team improved to 2-0 on the season as they defeated the Marist Red Foxes, 38-17. It was USD's 20th straight win at Torero Stadium, and head coach Ron Caragher's first in front of the Torero home crowd of 3,071. Senior All-American quarterback Josh Johnson returned to the lineup and didn't show any signs of rust as he completed 24-of-28 passes for 403 yards and 4 touchdowns. The 403 yards passing is a new career-best for the senior out of Oakland, California, and he now needs just 2 TD passes and 374 yards to set new Torero career marks and pass up Eric Rasmussen (75 TDs; 7,487 yards). Junior WR John Matthews was on the receiving end of 6 passes for 169 yards and 2 scores (39 & 80 yards). The Torero defense came up with the some big stops in the final period when Marist showed signs of threatening to score; twice USD held the Red Foxes on 4th and one. The Toreros got on the scoreboard first with a 1-yard TD burst by junior running back JT Rogan. Marist answered with a 34-yard Bradley Rowe field goal, but Johnson connected on his first TD pass of the 2007 campaign with a 39-yard strike to Matthews for a 14-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the 2nd quarter, Marist moved the ball 80 yards but came away with no points as Rowe missed from 27 yards out. On USD's first play from scrimmage, Johnson threw a perfect bomb to a wide open Matthews down the right side for an 80-yard TD strike. He followed up with a 9-yard TD pass to WR Wes Doyle to increase the lead to 28-3 with 2:35 left in the half. Marist pulled the score to 28-10 at halftime as Tim Keegan hauled in a 4-yard pass from QB Steve McGrath with just four ticks left on the clock. In the 3rd quarter, Marist rambled 81 yards on 8 plays with Adam Hansen rushing in from 5-yards out to make it 28-17. From there the Toreros closed out the scoring with a Hutch Parker 22-yard field goal, and an acrobatic catch in the end zone from JT Rogan for 20 yards with 2:21 left in the period. Neither team would score the rest of the evening, but the Torero defense came up with some big plays at the right time. For the game USD totaled 525 yards of offense. Rogan finished with 83 yards of hard running on 19 attempts. Besides Matthews, Doyle caught 7 balls for 84 yards and 1 TD; Rogan caught 4 balls for 39 yards and Kenny Stivers netted two receptions for 68 yards. Defensively the Toreros were paced by Jared Forrester (14 tackles), Patrick O'Neill (12 tackles), Ronnie Pentz (12 tackles), Eric Bakhtiari (7 tackles; 1.5 sacks), Paul Tremblay (7 tackles) and Matt Shearer (7 tackles).
TORERO TIDBITS: This week's opponent, Northern Colorado (a member of the Big Sky Conference), marks the first time USD has hosted an FCS (formerly I-AA) scholarship program... USD ranks #1 in the nation for NCAA FCS team statistics for kickoff returns at 39.1 yards per return... USD appears in the top-25 in eight other areas - #1 in 4th down efficiency defense (.000), 7th in tackles for loss (2.5 per game), 10th in passing offense (290.0), 11th in sacks allowed (0.5), 15th in scoring offense (40.0), 18th in 4th down efficiency (66.7%), 19th in kickoff return defense (16.43), 21st in tackles for loss (8.0) and 24th in total offense (416.0)... JT Rogan leads the NCAA FCS ranks and PFL with his 45.8 yards per kickoff return average (4 for 183 yards)... He also ranks 3rd in all-purpose yards (229.5) and t-14th in scoring (12.0 ppg)... Other Toreros to rank in the top-25 include WR John Matthews (6th in total receiving yards, 228; 8th in receiving yards per game, 114.0), WR Wes Doyle (25th in receptions per game, 6.5), FS Patrick O'Neill (t-4th in interceptions, 1.0; t-7th in passes defended, 2.0) and RB Mark Cianciulli (18th in kickoff returns, 30.33 ave.)... The Toreros are gunning for their 21st straight home win at Torero Stadium.
PFL PRESEASON COACHES POLL: The Pioneer Football League's Coaches tabbed the USD Toreros as the preseason favorite in the PFL Preseason Coaches' Poll, receiving five of the eight possible first-place votes. Drake was picked a close second, picking up the remaining three first-place votes, while Davidson got the third-place nod and Dayton was chosen fourth. Morehead State, Jacksonville, Butler and Valparaiso round out the bottom half of the preseason poll.
ALL TORERO GAMES ON RADIO (SAN DIEGO 1700 AM or 620 AM): For the second straight season all of USD's football games will air on the radio. Eight games will air on San Diego 1700 AM, while three games (Azusa, Marist & Drake) will air on 620 AM. Chris Ello takes over the play-by-play duties this year, and will be joined by Ted Tollner as color analyst. Now in his 13th year doing sports talk in San Diego, Ello has been with XX Sports Radio the past four years. Between 1994 and 2002 Chris hosted a show on XTRA Sports 690 called, `The World of Sports according to Chris Ello'. During his time with XTRA he began to do play-by-play where he covered the San Diego Sockers (1994-95), the San Diego Wildcards (1996), the San Diego Gulls (1996 thru 2006) where he twice was named the WCHL announcer of the year, and the San Diego Spirit (2001). The versatile announcer has also called play-by-play for Padres spring training games; CIF high school football championship games for Channel 4 the past eight years; San Diego State football and men's basketball; USD men's basketball and baseball; and arena football for both the San Diego Riptide (2002-05) and Shockwave (2007).
TORERO COACHING STAFF: Coach Caragher retained five coaches from last year's staff and brought five new assistants onboard... Returners include Dave Adolph (Asst. Head Coach, Def. Coor., LB; 4th year), Ed Lamb (Special Teams Coor., Recruiting Coor., DB's; 3rd year), Jimmie Dougherty (Passing Game Coor., QBs; 4th year), Mike Rish (Senior Offensive Assistant; 24th year) and Tanner Engstrand (RB's; 3rd year). New assistants include Todd Washington (OL), Mike Babcock (TE's, FB Operations), Steve Mooshagian (WR's), Jon Sumrall (DL) and Todd Rusinkovich (Def. Asst.).
A LOOK AT THE NORTHERN COLORADO BEARS: Northern Colorado is a scholarship program that competes in the Big Sky Conference... The Bears return 26 lettermen and 10 starters (5 offense, 5 defense) from last year's 1-10 club... Second year coach Scott Downing comes to town with a 1-12 mark after this past Saturday's 31-0 home loss to Chadron State... In their season opener two week's ago the Bears were dealt a 63-6 loss at No. 23 Hawaii... This past weekend UNOC was held to 214 yards of offense (123 rushing, 91 passing) while Chadron State amassed 479 yards (214 rushing, 265 passing)... TB David Woods led the rushing attack with 52 yards on 10 carries... QB Mike Vlahogeorge was 10-for-21 for 80 yards... WR Cory Fauver caught 6 balls for 51 yards... After two games the Bears are averaging 111.5 yards passing and 86.5 yard rushing.
O'NEILL TABBED PFL DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (Sept. 3rd): Junior free safety Patrick O'Neill (Mission Viejo, CA) was named the Pioneer Football League Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in USD's season opening 42-32 victory over Azusa Pacific. O'Neill got USD on the scoreboard first with a 93-yard interception return in the first quarter. For the game he finished with 6 tackles and two pass breakups. Last season O'Neill led the squad with 5 interceptions on his way to being named Second Team All-PFL. He was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America 2nd Team.
2007 TEAM CAPTAINS SELECTED: The USD players picked their offensive and defensive team captains for the 2007 campaign - the defensive captains are senior defensive end Eric Bakhtiari (Burlingame, CA) and senior linebacker Ronnie Pentz (Lake Forest, CA); the offensive captains are senior center Jordan Paopao (Oceanside, CA) and senior quarterback Josh Johnson (Oakland, CA).
NCAA FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION: The Toreros will now compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly the NCAA I-AA. On August 3, 2006, the Division I Board of Directors took action regarding the two football subdivisions in Division I (Division I-A and I-AA), approving new labels. The university presidents approved a change in terminology to "Football Bowl Subdivision" for the former I-A classification and "NCAA Football Championship Subdivision" for the former I-AA group. The Collegiate Commissioners Association helped develop the new labels. The presidents believe the new nomenclature, which became effective in December 2006, more accurately distinguishes Division I institutions for purposes of governing football, the only sport for which such a distinction is necessary. Members felt the old nomenclature inaccurately tiered Division I institutions in all sports, not just football, and produced instances in which media outlets and other entities incorrectly cited institutions as being Division I-AA in basketball or baseball, for example.
A BRIEF RECAP OF 2006: USD turned in the program's best season ever with last year's 11-1 campaign... The Toreros reached as high as 15th in the FCS (formerly I-AA) The Sports Network Top-25 Poll, finishing the year at 20th overall... USD won its second consecutive PFL title and mid-major national championship, and dealt Monmouth University a 27-7 setback in the inaugural Gridiron Classic game between the champions of the PFL and Northeast Conference... Former head coach Jim Harbaugh earned his second PFL Coach of the Year honor; Josh Johnson earned his second straight PFL Offensive Player of the Year honor; Eric Bakhtiari was tabbed the PFL co-Defensive Player of the Year; and freshman CB Gabe Derricks was named the PFL Freshman of the Year... The Toreros led the nation in scoring offense (42.83) and total offense (494.25), and second in scoring defense (12.9)... All told, the USD defense ranked in 12 top-25 NCAA team statistical areas, and the Torero team offense appeared in six, including a top-ranking in scoring, total offense, passing (293.3), passing efficiency (169.95 rating) and 3rd down conversion percentage (58.3%)... Individually, Johnson ranked first in total offense (336.7 yards per game), passing efficiency (169.0 rating) and points responsible for (24.33)... Other Toreros that ranked in the top-20 in their areas included JT Rogan (14th in scoring, 8.5 ppg; 17th in all-purpose yards, 138.5), Wes Doyle (15th in total receiving yards, 909; 17th in receiving yards per game, 82.64), Patrick O'Neill (17th in interceptions per game, 0.42) and Bakhtiari (6th in tackles for loss, 1.75 per game)... Johnson and Bakhtiari were both tabbed 3rd Team AP All-Americans, and were joined on the mid-major All-America team by Jordan Paopao, Wes Doyle, Gabe DeAnda and Josh Brisco. Doyle and O'Neill were both named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America 2nd Team.
UP NEXT: USD has a bye week for the weekend of September 22nd... They'll return for back-to-back road PFL contests at Butler (Sept. 29) and Valparaiso (Oct. 6) .
