Monthly Archives: August 2009

Studebaker making big-time adjustment in K.C.

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You can’t get caught up over where the guy you’re lining up across from went to school, even if he went to Florida or USC and you went to, say, Wheaton.

That’s the basic premise under which Andy Studebaker has played his NFL career so far. Entering his second season, Studebaker is trying to make the Kansas City Chiefs roster as a linebacker. He was picked up by the Chiefs midseason last year after he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles out of Wheaton.

Studebaker is the subject of a video interview on the Chiefs’ Web site. Currently it’s the third video in this playlist — eventually you’ll probably have to scroll down farther.

How we rank the teams, 1-238

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No, this isn’t a listing of the 238 teams in order — only Kickoff subscribers get that. But Keith McMillan and I thought it might be interesting to take you guys through the process of how we rank teams, discuss why we do so, and the like.

Why do some teams make big jumps from where they ended last year to where they start this year?
How do you rank a brand-new team anywhere but last?
Why do you guys like Panera Bread so much?

We answer those questions and more in the 2009 season’s first Around the Nation podcast.

For those of you who are new, Keith and I sit down, usually by phone, every week and wrap up the week that was, spotlighting the interesting trends and giving you our first analysis of the past week’s games. On Saturday and Sunday we report the news; on Monday we analyze it in the Around the Nation Podcast.

You can load the podcast page in iTunes or can also get this and any of our future Around the Nation podcasts automatically by subscribing to this RSS feed: http://www.d3football.com/dailydose/?feed=podcast

Or you can click the play button below to listen.

Around the Nation Podcast [ 18:33 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stories from the summer

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I know Wabash isn’t the only program to do something like this — in fact, I interviewed one coach for Kickoff (coming next week!) who does something similar with his program, even giving up a day of practice to get it done. But reading Matt Hudson’s take on the seniors’ retreat to West Virginia seemed interesting and worth sharing.

It gives us an opportunity to talk about the upcoming season, and really bond with the guys that you came in with. After all, my class started with about 60 guys, were down to around 35 after one year, and now we sit with 20 after inheriting 2 from last year’s class (a great thing, because they’re both studs). So since we’ve all been through football together for the last 3 years, we all have great relationships, and I think it shows, both on and off the field.

Follow the link above for the full post.