JANUARY 21, 2010 ISSUE
Moore Wins National Coaching Award, Edwards Receives NFL Combine Invite
ASU Hosts SoCon Title Celebration, Announces 2010 Football Schedule
ASU Football Head Coach Jerry Moore was recently selected as the 2009 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award for the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. Photo courtesy of Keith Cline On the field success had something to do with Jerry Moore being recently named the 2009 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award for the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, but not everything.
It did help that Moore led the ASU Mountaineers to a fifth straight Southern Conference championship and a spot in the national semifinals during the fall.
The award, though, was about more than just wins.
The honor recognizes coaches who best display the following four qualities on and off the field: sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility and excellence.
With his selection, Liberty Mutual will donate $50,000 to charities that Moore chooses and $20,000 to the ASU Alumni Association scholarship fund.
The charities Moore selected were: Kids Across America, Samaritan’s Purse, ASU Walker College of Business and ASU Yosef Club.
The winner of the award is selected through fan voting (20 percent) and ballots from selection committees made up of national media (25 percent) and College Football Hall of Famers (55 percent).
According to a press release, Moore beat out South Dakota State’s John Stiegelmeier, Holy Cross’s Tom Gilmore, Eastern Illinois’ Bob Spoo and Liberty’s Danny Rocco for the award.
Moore did particularly well in the fan voting portion of the process, as he picked up nearly 19,000 votes in 15 days. That total was more than twice as many as the next finalist.
Other winners of the award were TCU’s Gary Patterson (Division I Football Bowl Subdivision), Northwest Missouri State’s Mel Tjeerdsma (Division II) and Coe College’s Steve Staker (Division III).
Edwards Invited to NFL Combine
Armanti Edwards, a Greenwood, S.C. native who recently graduated from ASU, received an invitation to participate in the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine, which will be held February 24 to March 2 in Indianapolis, Ind.If Armanti Edwards didn’t show NFL scouts enough in four years as ASU’s quarterback to earn a paycheck in the NFL, he now has another chance.
Edwards, a Greenwood, S.C. native, recently received an invitation to participate in the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine, which will be held February 24 to March 2 in Indianapolis, Ind.
This will be the place that Edwards, who graduated from ASU in December after winning back-to-back Walter Payton Awards for being the top FCS player, will be put through drills, tests and interviews with NFL teams.
More than 600 NFL personnel, including scouts, head coaches and general managers, will be at Lucas Oil Field to watch the events.
Edwards, a four-time All-American, finished his career ranking second in FCS history with 14,753 yards of total offense. He threw 74 passing touchdowns and ran for 65 touchdowns during his career and set 64 ASU and 14 Southern Conference records.
Edwards is the second Mountaineer in three years to earn an invitation to the NFL combine. Two years ago, wide receiver Dexter Jackson ran the 40-yard dash in 4.27 seconds at the combine, which matched the fastest hand-timed time at the event.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked Jackson in the second round later that year. He is now with the Carolina Panthers.
Match-up in The Swamp on Football Schedule
The ASU Mountaineers have played in big-time college atmospheres before—The Big House at Michigan and LSU’s Tiger Stadium to name two—and they’ve added another for the fall’s football season.
ASU will close out the regular season on November 20 with a trip to play the Florida Gators at The Swamp in Gainesville, Florida.
Athletic director Charlie Cobb announced the schedule earlier this month.
The season opener is a road game against the University of Tennessee Chattanooga on September 4, the first time ASU has opened the season with a conference game in 19 years.
The next two games—Jacksonville (September 11) and North Carolina Central (September 18)—will be at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
After an open date on September 25, the Mountaineers play seven straight Southern Conference games, with home dates versus Elon (October 9), The Citadel (October 16), Furman (October 30) and Wofford (November 13) and road tilts at Samford (October 2), Western Carolina (October 23) and Georgia Southern (November 6).
“I am pleased that we once again have a football schedule that is fan-friendly and hopefully gives our coaches and student-athletes the opportunity to make a run at a sixth-straight Southern Conference championship and continued postseason success,” Cobb said in a release. Fans should be happy to know that ticket prices for home games won’t be raised. Last season ASU led the FCS in regular season attendance by averaging 25,969 fans.
A Celebration for a Fifth Straight SoCon Title Saturday
There will be a celebration for the ASU football team that won a fifth straight Southern Conference championship during the fall season.
This Saturday, January 23, the celebration will be held at the Holmes Center, in conjunction with the men’s and women’s basketball games.
At noon, multiple ASU football legends, like national title winning quarterback Richie Williams and all-time leading rusher Kevin Richardson, will sign autographs on the concourse for an hour.
From 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. members of this season’s team will be available to sign autographs and pose for photographs on the concourse.
There will be an on-court ceremony for the team at halftime of the men’s game.
The women’s basketball team hosts Davidson at 1:00 p.m. and the men host Western Carolina at 3:30 p.m.
Along with these activities at the game, members of the ASU Student-Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB) will collect donations for victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
All fans that make a donation to the fund will be entered into a drawing to receive an ASU athletics prize pack, featuring items autographed by head football coach Jerry Moore and men’s basketball head coach Buzz Peterson. The winner will be announced in the second half of the men’s basketball game versus Western Carolina and the winner must be present to receive the prize.
All donations will be given to the Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund.
Tickets for the all events, including both games and autograph sessions, cost $10 for adults and $5 for youth (ages 3-12). Tickets can be purchased online by clicking to GoASU.com, by phone at 828-262-2079 or in person at the ASU athletics ticket office, which is located at the Holmes Center.
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