Winners of collegepressbox.com best writing contest announced August 2010 The results from the collegepress- Championship Game Media Hotel in the Vol. 48, No. 3 box.com 18th annual Best Writing Con- Phoenix area. Places 1-3 receive certifi- test for FWAA members are listed below. cates and cash prizes, and honorable All places in the contest will be recog- mentions get certificates. First-place win- Inside this issue: nized at the FWAA’s Annual Awards ners in each category also will receive Breakfast on Jan. 10, 2011, at the BCS commemorative footballs. FWAA Pre-season Poll 2 GAME First place: Bud Withers, Seattle Times Membership directory 2 Second place: Michael Lev, The Orange County Register Third place: Pete Thamel, The New York Times Honorable mention: Eric Hansen South Bend Tribune; Column winner: 3 Brett McMurphy, AOL FanHouse.com John F. Silver LOOSE DEADLINE First place: Brett McMurphy, AOL FanHouse.com Game winner: Second place: Lindsay Schnell, The Oregonian 4 Third place: Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Bud Withers FEATURES First place: Joe Rexrode, Lansing State Journal 2010-11 Best Writing Second place: Mark Anderson, Las Vegas Review-Journal Contest Rules and 5 Third place: Chris Low, ESPN.com Procedures Honorable mention: Matt Fortuna, The Daily Collegian; Scott Cacciola, The Memphis Commercial Appeal; Joseph Person, The State Features winner: 6 COLUMN Joe Rexrode First place: John F. Silver, Manchester Journal Inquirer Second place: Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com Third place: Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Enterprise winner: 9 Honorable mention: Bud Withers, Seattle Times; Peter Kerasotis, Florida Today; Steve Wieberg Herb Gould, Chicago Sun Times ENTERPRISE Volney Meece First place: Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY Scholarship 12 Second place: Brett McMurphy, AOL FanHouse.com Nomination Procedure Third place: Stewart Mandel, SI.com Loose deadline winner: Honorable mention: Dennis Dodd, CBSSports.com 13 Jason King, Yahoo! Sports Brett McMurphy Page 2 THE FIFTH DOWN President Tim Griffin Freelance ′Bama picked to repeat First Vice President Tommy Hicks Mobile Press-Register DALLAS — The Alabama Crimson had two first-place votes and was third Second Vice President Tide is the favorite to repeat as the with 199 points. The other first-place Lenn Robbins Grantland Rice Trophy champion in the vote from the 15 voters went to Ne- New York Post Football Writers Association of America braska, which was eighth in the poll with Board of Directors annual pre-season poll. 133 points. John Davis Alabama, which finished 14-0 last Rounding out the Top 10 are Florida, Oxford (Miss.) Eagle season after beating Texas in Pasadena, Texas, Oklahoma, TCU, the Cornhusk- Heather Dinich would become the fifth straight South- ers, Virginia Tech and Iowa. ESPN.com eastern Conference team to win the Pete DiPrimio FWAA trophy if the FWAA voters are First. place votes in brackets Fort Wayne (Ind.) News- accurate. Before last season, Florida 1. Alabama (9) 231 Sentinel 2. Ohio State (3) 205 Chris Dufresne won in 2008 and 2006 and LSU in 2007. 3. Boise State (2) 199 Los Angeles Times The Grantland Rice Trophy has been 4. Florida 164 Ryan Finley awarded to the top team in college foot- 5. Texas 147 Arizona Daily Star ball by the FWAA since 1954. Alabama 6. Oklahoma 145 Pete Fiutak 7. TCU 142 has been named the winner five times — 8. Nebraska (1) 133 College Football News in 1965 (co-winner with Michigan State), 9. Virginia Tech 126 Cory Giger 1978, 1979, 1992 and last season. 10. Iowa 109 Altoona Mirror Alabama claimed nine of 15 first- 11. Oregon 89 Kevin Gorman 12. Miami (Fla.) 84 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review place votes and tallied 231 votes in the 13. USC 50 Kate Hairopoulos 2010 FWAA pre-season poll. Ohio State, 14. Wisconsin 42 Dallas Morning News which garnered three first-place votes, 15. Florida State 26 16. Auburn 22 Mick McGrane was second with 205 points. Boise State Freelance Rodney McKissic Buffalo News Dave Matter New and improved Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune Jorge Milian membership directory Palm Beach Post Malcolm Moran on its way to you Knight Foundation The 2010-11 FWAA member direc- Randy Rosetta tory is online and also on its way to you. Baton Rouge Advocate This year's edition has many new fea- Roger Rubin New York Daily News tures, including a redesign and expan- Adam Sparks sion of the school pages. We have also Daily News (Tenn.) Journal added Twitter feeds in the members sec- Andy Staples tion as well as to each team page. In Sports Illustrated addition, we now list an e-mail address Phil Steele for every team beat writer in the team Phil Steele Magazine section. The team pages, now listed by Jake Trotter conference, also include the names of Daily Oklahoman key support staff, the administrative as- Jimmy Watson sistants for each head coach and athletic Shreveport Times director and media will call and parking Ex-Officio information. The 254-page book — the Charles Bloom largest we've ever produced — should Southeastern Conference John Paquette once again be a great companion for you Big East Conference throughout the year. Also, look for the Joe Hornstein media guide disc in the mail shortly. Central Florida Thanks to the AT&T Cotton Bowl and collegepressbox.com, we will again have every Division I media guide on one disc. Page 3 THE FIFTH DOWN Column: John F. Silver Comment by the judge, Mickey Spagnola: This was JOHN F. SILVER an example of passion and great human understanding Manchester Journal of a young man’s plight in life cut short. Now you might Inquirer say it’s easy to write a column about a “sick cat,” and Age: 33 you guys know what I mean. But this was more than just College: University of Con- a great subject to write about. This writer did a very bal- necticut anced job of portraying and making me feel why Jasper Background: Starting my Howard’s death was so unfair and cruel, outdistancing fifth year covering the UConn the next two columns which did a great job of taking a football team for the Journal stance with well-written opinions. Inquirer and have spent a decade covering sports in By JOHN F. SILVER Connecticut including the last Manchester Journal Inquirer seven years at the Journal STORRS — Jasper Howard loved the UConn football Inquirer. I have covered nearly everything in Connecti- team. He loved Connecticut. He loved life. cut including a PGA Tour stop and an ATP-WTA tour- That it was taken away at a place of refuge such as nament that is a week before the U.S. Open. I started Storrs is a tragedy none of us can fully comprehend. my career at the New Britain Herald where I did the Howard was murdered in front of the Student Union, most important job at the paper – the baseball agate steps away from the football team’s campus home, the page. Several months later, I escaped from the desk Burton Family Complex, and across the street from and started covering the Central Connecticut State Gampel Pavilion. It is a world away from where he grew University men's basketball team just in time for its run up in Little Haiti, a violent area of Miami that is filled with to the NCAA tournament for the 2001-02 season. At despair and discouragement. Storrs was supposed to be the Journal Inquirer, I have done nearly everything at Jazz’s place to be free. Free from violence, free of op- the newspaper from covering Little League to world pression, and constant crime. Free to be himself, as God title fights at local casinos. In addition to covering intended. UConn, I help out as a layout editor and put out the It was supposed to be his place to live, not to die. section twice a week in the off-season. I have won a “He was a special young man,” a teary-eyed UConn handful of regional SPJ awards for feature writing on coach Randy Edsall said Sunday. “He made you smile, college football and basketball as well as spot news. I and made you love life. A guy you loved to be around. am married to my lovely wife, Shannon, and we have He enjoyed life.” two children, 3-year old Julia and 9-month old John Jr. Growing up in Miami, Howard saw the brutal side of life far too many times. Little Haiti is the kind of place When the time came to play football, Howard went as people don’t like to talk about. Violence, drugs, street far away as he could. The 5-foot-9 cornerback from the crime, and death are daily occurrences. It is Miami, but inner city came to a “cow college” in Storrs. Howard the glitz and glamour of South Beach are also a world found something here. He found a reason to live and away. Its lack of hope even made the coaching staff of hope. UConn cringe when talking about it. When Howard came to Connecticut, he didn’t trust a Howard’s tale isn’t new or unique. His story of a hard single person here. It was hard on the coaching staff and life is playing out in our cities daily. It would almost be a his teammates. They didn’t know how to reach him. The cliché if wasn’t so sad. Howard was the product of a sin- inner city had hardened him. He didn’t smile, had little gle-parent home, raised by his mother, Joangila. He had hope in his eyes, and he was soft-spoken and reserved.