The Pacific-12 and the Big Ten are two of the best college football conferences in the country. Every year, these leagues routinely churn out national title contenders and are home to some of the most hostile and passionate fans in the sport.
The San Diego State football team got a taste of big-time college foot- ball when it traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich. last season to play the Michigan Wolverines in the “Big House,” which holds 109,901 football fanat- ics. SDSU head coach Rocky Long remembers the team was very excit- ed because of the venue and oppo- nent, which resulted in a 28-7 loss.
SDSU will get another taste of that big-time college football again when they travel to Seattle to take on the University of Washington Huskies this Saturday. The only difference this time: the Aztecs are calm.
“Teams that get overexcited and overhyped for those games, deep down, they don’t think they are good enough,” Long said. “So our team has been as calm as I’ve ever seen a team. Maybe they don’t know what’s coming. But I think maybe our guys think they are good enough.”
“Totally different game,” senior center Alec Johnson said when asked if the buzz around the team and players is the same as last year against Michigan. “This is just the first game of the year. We are just excited to play.”
Football selects team captains Seniors Leon McFadden, Walter Kazee and Dominique Sandifer will serve as the football team captains for the 2012 season. The captain of the special teams will be selected on a weekly basis. For the University of Washington game, junior defensive back Eric Pinkins will serve as captain.
“Actually, being a captain on this football team is the greatest honor an athlete can get because coaches have no say,” Long said. “It’s purely a vote by the players. They pick who they think are the best leaders on the team. And that says something about all three of those guys.”
Television information is re- leased for football games Three of the remaining six SDSU football games for 2012 will be aired on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, a new network set to launch on Oct. 1.
The Mountain West and its television rights holder CBS Sports Net- work control all SDSU home games, including conference games.
The games scheduled to broadcast on Time Warner Cable SportsNet are Colorado State on Oct. 13, UNLV on Oct. 27 and Wyoming on Nov. 24.
“With the addition of San Diego State, UNLV and Fresno State football and basketball games to our telecast schedule makes Time Warner Cable SportsNet the media destination for sports fans in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Fresno,” senior vice president and general manager of TWC Sports Regional Networks Mark Shuken said. “Our network will give fans access to the teams they care about, from high school to college to the professional level.”
McFadden and Katz named to Senior Bowl watch list Senior quarterback Ryan Katz and senior defensive back Leon McFad- den are part of the 311 seniors and top NFL prospects named to the first-ever Senior Bowl watch list. Six MW student-athletes made the watch list.
“The Senior Bowl is very pleased to announce our first-ever ‘official’ watch list,” Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage said. “We want both college and pro football fans to enjoy tracking the players of our list as they begin their journey to- ward the Senior Bowl and the 2013 NFL Draft. We have included pros- pects from almost every level of the college game and look forward to monitoring their progress through- out the upcoming season.”
The Senior Bowl features the nation’s best college football seniors and the top NFL draft prospects. The 2013 Senior Bowl is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 26 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala.
