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FAU Wins In 1st Bowl Game

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The Associated Press

Published: December 22, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - Howard Schnellenberger is still undefeated in bowl games, and now so is the fledgling college football program he built from nothing.
Rusty Smith threw for 336 yards and a New Orleans Bowl-record five touchdowns to lead Florida Atlantic to a 44-27 victory against Memphis on Friday night.

It was the first bowl game for FAU, which has had a football team for only seven seasons and didn't join the NCAA's Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) until 2005.

The game also marked another meaningful step for the young Sun Belt Conference. The league champion has won three of seven New Orleans Bowls, including the past two by convincing margins, with Troy beating Rice 41-17 last year.

It certainly wasn't the highest-profile bowl victory for Schnellenberger, who led Miami to the 1983 national championship with an Orange Bowl triumph against Nebraska. He is now 5-0 in bowl games during his 23 seasons as a head coach. He won the 1980 Peach Bowl with Miami and two bowl games with Louisville, the 1990 Fiesta Bowl and the 1993 Liberty Bowl.

Still, this one had to be special, given that he is the father of FAU's program and the only head coach the Owls have ever known. As the final minute ticked away, the 73-year-old's head of white hair and blue blazer were left drenched by a bucket of ice water his players dumped over him in celebration. But the old coach didn't even flinch.

TENNESSEE: Three starters are among a half-dozen Tennessee Volunteers who have been ruled academically ineligible for the Outback Bowl in Tampa.

Wide receiver Lucas Taylor, linebacker Rico McCoy and defensive tackle Demonte Bolden are among the six scholarship players whose fall semester grades didn't meet NCAA and Southeastern Conference requirements to play.

No. 16 Tennessee (9-4) faces No. 18 Wisconsin (9-3) on Jan. 1.

"We have every resource available through our academic center for academic success by our athletes in all of our sports," Coach Phillip Fulmer said in a statement. "In most of these cases, it was simply the student-athlete not being accountable and doing their work. One bright spot is the fact that all of these athletes will be in school spring semester."

Fulmer said Taylor has passed enough total hours, but was ineligible under a new NCAA policy that requires players to pass six hours within the grade requirements of their major.

The junior leads Tennessee receivers with 73 catches for 1,000 yards.

Also ineligible to play are free safety Ricardo Kemp, wide receiver Kenny O'Neal and linebacker Chris Donald.

MICHIGAN: Fred Jackson was brought back as Michigan's running backs coach Friday, a day after new coach Rich Rodriguez fired all the assistants on Lloyd Carr's staff.

"Rich spoke with everyone individually last night and did not want to hold them up in exploring other options," said school spokesman David Ablauf. "He has rehired Fred Jackson as an offensive coach."

BIG TEN PROBE: Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany acknowledged Friday that an account of football referee Stephen Pamon's off-the-field activities did not paint "a pretty picture."

Delany, however, defended his conference's efforts to look into Pamon's past and vowed to investigate new allegations brought to light in a Yahoo! Sports report.

Delany also said no parallels existed between Pamon and disgraced NBA official Tim Donaghy and said it was "irresponsible" to insinuate Pamon had attempted to fix any games he officiated.

"There has been no suggestion of Pamon's involvement in sports gambling," Delany told the Chicago Tribune in a phone interview.

The Yahoo! Sports story detailed Pamon's bankruptcy and criminal record while alleging that he is a problem casino gambler with a history of abusing women and children.

POINSETTIA BOWL: Utah is taking this bowl business seriously.

Brian Johnson threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and Utah opened the bowl season with a wild 35-32 victory against the Navy Midshipmen (8-5) in the Poinsettia Bowl late Thursday in San Diego.

It was Utah's seventh straight bowl victory dating to 1999.

The loss spoiled the head coaching debut of Navy's Ken Niumatalolo, who was promoted from assistant head coach and offensive line coach after Paul Johnson left for Georgia Tech.

Running back Darrell Mack, who grew up in the San Diego area, scored the first and last touchdowns for Utah (9-4), which won for the eighth time in nine games.

The teams combined for 50 points in the second half.

Navy pulled to 35-32 on Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada's 58-yard touchdown pass to Zerbin Singleton with 57 seconds left.

Singleton recovered the onside kick at the 42, but Kaheaku-Enhada was intercepted by Joe Dale on the second play of the drive to seal the victory.

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