Sports News, Nuggets and Notes from East Carolina and Beyond

PREVIOUS NUGGETS

07.27.03: Realignment pressures and NCAA heat spur changes at Fresno State... .. Vegas Classic box office pits N.C. A&T grads against Southern alums... .. Big Ten brushes off title game talk... .. More...

07.26.03: Hamrick name resurfaces in connection with UNLV... .. Liberty Bowl partner's football tickets moving briskly... .. Sun Belt football league feeling its oats... .. Gamecocks end Turman exile... .. More...

07.25.03: Repercussions from 'ancient' Big East blunder still sting... .. Heir to Ragone still subject to change... .. Blue Demons devise creative ticket sales push... .. C-USA teams set for ESPN Plus appearances... .. More...

07.24.03: Tranghese disputes Swofford apology claim... .. Banowsky articulates league's posture... .. Billikens maintain monopoly on brains... .. Books fell promising Bulls basketball player... .. More...

07.23.03: Coaches declare Frogs superior... .. Tranghese repents, Swofford doesn't... .. Bulls break out new logos... .. UNC-Chapel Hill offers gridiron school for women... .. More...

07.22.03: Greenville startup hops aboard sports radio waves... .. Houston player's career extended... .. Rattlers promoted to I-A... .. Murder charge lodged against Dotson... .. Marquette legend joins Crean staff... .. More...

07.21.03: ACC raid draws attention of Congress... .. West taps into Clemson connections for assistant coach... .. Arena football player dies on bench... .. More...

07.20.03: Meet, mingle and eat with the Pirates... .. Date dampens demand for WVU-VPI ducats... .. Non-BCS CEO's sign up in big numbers for Cowen summit... .. Monetary affairs discourage in-state rivalry... .. 49ers lose one, keep one... .. More...

07.19.03: C-USA formally shifts into football mode... .. Get up close and personal with J.T... .. Key U of L football players banished... .. Gators get head start in rejecting ACC... .. Physician admits torching dead player's medical data... .. LSU football coach survives aquatic knockout plunge... .. More...

07.18.03: East Carolina names new ticket operations boss... .. Dollar draws NCAA wrath... .. Athletes' rights crusader gains steam... .. Banished football program seeks new life... .. Blood clot stymies Buckeye lineman again... More...

BIRMINGHAM — Radio listeners across north central Alabama and well into Tennessee won't having a problem picking up UAB games this fall and winter. The Blazers will have a new 100,000-watt flagship radio station when the 2003 football season opens, according to an announcement by Watson Brown, the school's athletic director and football coach.

WYDE 101.1 FM "The Source" will carry UAB football and men's basketball games, as well as coaches' shows broadcast by the Blazer Sports Network. The first "Inside the Dragon's Den with Watson Brown" coach's show will air Wednesday, Aug. 20 on 101.1 FM.

NEW ORLEANS — Tulane senior quarterback J.P. Losman was recently named to the watch list for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award — and more attention is on the shelves at your local newsstand.

The Venice, CA, senior is the subject of a full-length feature story in ESPN The Magazine in the August 4 issue of the weekly publication. The story refers to the Green Wave signal caller as "the real face of college football."

In his first season as the Wave's full-time starter in 2002, the California native passed for 2,468 yards and 19 touchdowns. He had just 10 interceptions while completing 57.4 percent of his passes.

"I am happy for J.P. personally; he deserves the credit and attention he's being given," Tulane coach Chris Scelfo said. "Now we expect him to live up to it on the field starting Sept. 1."

Tulane opens its 2003 season on Labor Day, hosting defending Conference USA co-champion Texas Christian at the Louisiana Superdome at 7 p.m. The game is Part Two of a televised C-USA day-night doubleheader on ESPN. Cincinnati, the league's other co-champion, will tangle with visiting East Carolina in the noon opener.

FORT WORTH, TX — Four signal callers from Conference USA have been named to the watch list for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award. Tulane senior J.P. Losman leads a group of C-USA candidates which includes juniors Gino Giudugli of Cincinnati and Danny Wimprine of Memphis, and sophomore Darrell Hackney of UAB.

The O’Brien Award, sponsored by the Davey O'Brien foundation in Fort Worth, is the oldest and most prestigious award in the country for college quarterbacks. The honor's namesake is the late Davey O'Brien, Texas Christian's All-American and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who led the Horned Frogs to the 1938 national championship.

Semifinalists from among 42 candidates nationwide will be announced in early November and narrowed to three finalists later that month. The winner of the 2003 O’Brien Award will be announced Dec. 11 on the ESPN College Football Awards Show from Orlando, FL, with formal recognition ceremonies following at the 27th annual O'Brien Awards Dinner in Fort Worth in February 2004.

Saint Louis athletic director Doug Woolard has told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that UNLV has not been in touch with him concerning its search for a new A.D. and that it wouldn't do any good if a contact did come.

Woolard was one of five candidates named as finalists for the job in an account published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. East Carolina athletic director Mike Hamrick was among the others, which included Wayne Hogan of Montana, Mike Bohn of Idaho and Mike O'Brien of Toledo.

The position came open when former Rebels A.D. John Robinson stepped down to focus on his job as the school's football coach and to attend to family matters. Speculation surrounding Woolard as a potential replacement for Robinson centered on Woolard's ties to UNLV head basketball coach Charlie Spoonhour, who previously coached the Billikens.

According to the Post-Dispatch report, Woolard has asked SLU's sports information office to tell reporters from the Las Vegas media who may inquire that he isn't interest in the job.