Odds & ends you may have missed over the past week:
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There’s some speculation about Kyle Eckel’s future in Foxboro. Here’s one guy’s take on the state of the Patriots’ backfield, guessing that they may add a running back in the draft.
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Navy basketball’s rise to the top of the Patriot League has meant added coverage from local papers, including this great writeup in the Times on Greg Sprink.
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To the dismay of Maryland and Georgetown fans, one local hoops blogger thinks that David Robinson is the area’s all-time greatest basketball player.
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Things are so bad at the Air Force Academy prep school that they’ve cancelled the rest of their basketball season.
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The University of South Alabama is starting up a football team, with the goal of eventually moving into I-A in a few years. Once they do, they’re looking into lining up “quality opponents like Tennessee and Navy.”
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The University of North Alabama already has a football team. A very good team, actually– one of the annual poll-toppers in Division II. They’re coached by former Navy offensive coordinator Mark Hudspeth, and one of the local papers published a story on him here.
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A couple of lacrosse tidbits: first, the Tewaaraton watch list is out, and it includes Navy’s Jordan DiNola. In other news, a Big East lacrosse conference is in the works.
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Former Navy baseball coach Bob MacDonald had a stint with the Mariners as a volunteer batting practice pitcher, among other things.
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Former Navy football player turned cagefighter Brian Stann will be fighting for the WEC light heavyweight title on March 26th. I’ve seen a couple of his earlier fights, and they didn’t exactly last long. One guy took one punch from Stann, got an “oh God what did I get myself into” look on his face, then went down with the second punch. Still, there’s more to this stuff than just punching. We’ll see if Stann’s skills have developed beyond striking.
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And finally, read this.
The Birddog 
I actually think that Faulk has more to worry about than Eckel does, especially given his recent legal problems. He’s also older. Everyone knows how Belichick loves Navy players and his dad allegedly thought the world of Eckel – plus he reworked his contract to help the team with cap room. I figure he’s got another season to prove his worth.
I sort of agree, but I’m no expert in the workings of NFL front offices. But I’d think that Kyle is cheaper than Faulk, and that there are usually a lot of Faulk-like players in any draft.
WRT the Big East getting into lacrosse — I don’t know what to make of this comment:
“There is value in being a BCS quality conference playing sport,” he said. “There are no other major conferences playing this sport.”
I understand ND wanting to get out of the Great Western, but I don’t think the BCS analogy holds any weight. Would lacrosse be better if it was arranged around the power football conferences instead of the current arrangement?
Also it looks like AFAPS is in need of more mentorship … could there be a Combat Basketball Coach Corps in the offing?
Phat or others – What was the consensus on Hudspeth when he was at Navy? I know he was in Annapolis during the really dark times. Just curious because I’ve seen his name floated around for some jobs in the SEC as an Off. Coordinator or future head coach.
I think the consensus was that Weatherbie didn’t really let Hudspeth run his own offense. That, and some people questioned whether it would work at Navy anyway. Whatever good or bad there is to be said about Mark Hudspeth, it doesn’t really involve his time in Annapolis.
I still am amazed that the ACC only has 4 lax teams after all these years. It’s grown faster than kudzu in the south and most of the schools have long established club teams (I know GT and NCSU did back in the mid 90’s when I was looking at schools). I know it’s the whole Title IX, which is a shame