Geter/Kicking/Fundraising

[Tricky_Falcon]

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Article published Thursday, August 23, 2007
Geter plays big, looks like BGSU starter
Florida freshman tough runner

By RYAN AUTULLO
BLADE SPORTS WRITER


BOWLING GREEN - Joe Zaccheo cannot recall the month, the year, or even the defender's name, but he remembers clearly the details from a particular sequence during a Florida high school playoff football game against Glades Central.

"I put Willie on a little sweep and he cut it outside and then he cut it back in," Zaccheo said. "The safety [highly ranked nationally] looked at Willie and kind of licked his chops, and Willie proceeded to plant that kid in the ground and leave cleat marks on his chest."

Willie is Willie Geter, a freshman running back who has thunderously leaped to the top of the depth chart at Bowling Green State University.

The starting running back position was expected to be won by either incumbent Chris Bullock or junior college transfer Eric Ransom, but instead, a pocket-size 18-year-old is practicing with the first-team offense.

Zaccheo, Geter's coach at Monsignor Pace in Miami, was not surprised to hear Geter will likely start in nine days at Minnesota.

"I would be surprised if someone called me up in the middle of the year saying he's not doing so good," Zaccheo said. "I would expect to get a call in the middle of the year, someone saying, where did this kid come from?"

That's a fair question.

Geter, despite being named All-Florida first team last year - no small feat considering the quality of football played in that state - did not receive heavy interest from major programs.

Presumably, his small stature, 5-9, 170 pounds, scared away bigger programs. Akron and Southern Florida were the only other schools that offered Geter a scholarship.

"To be honest with you, if Willie had two or three more inches you probably wouldn't have been able to get him," Zaccheo said. "Willie is a legitimate Division I player stuck in a small body."

Geter, whose last name is pronounced like that of the New York Yankees shortstop, has also wowed his college coaches. His rare blend of speed and elusiveness has helped him pass by Bullock, who rushed for 769 yards in 2006, and Ransom, who just recently began practicing after being sidelined early in camp with a hamstring injury.

"What I told my [staff] after last season was we need a [player like former Northern Illinois petite running back] Garrett Wolfe, and lo and behold we found him in Willie Geter," BGSU coach Gregg Brandon said. "Did I think Willie would come in and be this dynamic as a true freshman? No. He's everything we saw in high school that you would anticipate him to eventually be in college. We just didn't think it would happen this quick."

Geter, by accounts from his current and former coaches, is humble and soft-spoken. He'd rather deflect praise to his offensive line than take credit for the work.

But when told that Zaccheo called him "a monster in the weight room," Geter laughed and said Zaccheo's assessment is accurate.

"Yeah, that's surprising but it's true," Geter said. "I've been put down plenty of times about my size. It makes me work hard. I dig deep and play tough no matter how big they are."

A former teammate of Geter's found that out the hard way during a practice two years ago.

"I had a starting free safety about 6 foot, 185 pounds," Zaccheo said. "Willie ran an inside power play and cut it outside. Then the free safety came up to make the play and he thought he was going to bulldog Willie. Willie cut up into him and dislocated his collar bone, or broke it, or dislocated his shoulder. All I know is I lost my free safety for six weeks."

AND THE WINNER IS: Brandon said he will name the starting quarterback for the Minnesota game early next week. Tyler Sheehan has gotten most of the first-team repetitions throughout camp and looks to be a lock to start over Anthony Turner.

GO HOME KIDS: Brandon made a deal with his players yesterday about 5 p.m. If kicker Sinisa Vrvilo made a 55-yard field goal, practice would be over. Vrvilo, in his first year at BGSU, missed right, but Brandon gave him another chance. Vrvilo sent the ball through the uprights. Practice over.

"All I know is I could have never done that last year so that's huge for us," Brandon said.

FUTURE PLANS: BGSU director of athletics Greg Christopher was at practice yesterday and said the department is conducting a fund-raising feasibility study to help determine how much money in donations can be expected for forthcoming renovation projects.

Contact Ryan Autullo at:
[email protected]

[factman]

Isn't a good share of the "Centennial Campaign" suppose to go towards athletics? I thought we were told that some time ago.

[Warthog]

GO HOME KIDS: Brandon made a deal with his players yesterday about 5 p.m. If kicker Sinisa Vrvilo made a 55-yard field goal, practice would be over. Vrvilo, in his first year at BGSU, missed right, but Brandon gave him another chance. Vrvilo sent the ball through the uprights. Practice over.

"All I know is I could have never done that last year so that's huge for us," Brandon said.

Will Brandon never let this issue go? It seems that every time a kicking game issue comes up, he thinks it's another opportunity to insult Ellis/Rojas. It's history coach, deal with it. Look to the future and praise Vrvilo instead of taking another shot at Ellis. He is gone and can't defend himself.

[hammb]

GO HOME KIDS: Brandon made a deal with his players yesterday about 5 p.m. If kicker Sinisa Vrvilo made a 55-yard field goal, practice would be over. Vrvilo, in his first year at BGSU, missed right, but Brandon gave him another chance. Vrvilo sent the ball through the uprights. Practice over.

"All I know is I could have never done that last year so that's huge for us," Brandon said.

Will Brandon never let this issue go? It seems that every time a kicking game issue comes up, he thinks it's another opportunity to insult Ellis/Rojas. It's history coach, deal with it. Look to the future and praise Vrvilo instead of taking another shot at Ellis. He is gone and can't defend himself.

My thoughts exactly. It's totally classless and there's absolutely no reason to keep harping on it. They were FRESHMEN coach. FRESHMEN!

12 months ago he was talking about how awesome our kicking game was going to be because of these two great new freshmen. They struggled to adapt to the college game right away (no doubt due in large part to poor STs coaching), and now he cannot stop ripping on them for no apparent reason. Ellis, especially, had family members who posted on this board and were great people. Continually harping on his struggles doesn't do any good, and sure as hell doesn't send a great message to future recruits.

It's in the past, let it go.

[ZiggyZoomba]

FUTURE PLANS: BGSU director of athletics Greg Christopher was at practice yesterday and said the department is conducting a fund-raising feasibility study to help determine how much money in donations can be expected for forthcoming renovation projects.

I've actually been a part of this study. It's very exciting and, from what I've heard recently, it's going to be a very aggressive campaign and will be on the "fast track" so to speak. Very exciting!

[MIBGSUFan]

Link


GO HOME KIDS: Brandon made a deal with his players yesterday about 5 p.m. If kicker Sinisa Vrvilo made a 55-yard field goal, practice would be over. Vrvilo, in his first year at BGSU, missed right, but Brandon gave him another chance. Vrvilo sent the ball through the uprights. Practice over.

"All I know is I could have never done that last year so that's huge for us," Brandon said.


Contact Ryan Autullo at:
[email protected]

More Lies... He did this very thing on AT LEAST one occasion last year with Ellis making the FG on the FIRST attempt from 50. To quote your recently promoted (read between the lines could't get outta dodge) Rothen-bueller "The kick would have been good from 60 yards!". Can't this MORON give it a rest.

[Flipper]

I like Gregg Brandon...he's always struck me as being a decent guy, but this s**t with the kickers really needs to end. I don't know if he's trying to build some confidence in the special teams or what, but I really do not hink referencing 19 or 20 year old kids who left months ago is the right way to do that.

Either that or he's really pissed about it....what the heck did you say to him, Mark?

[h2oville rocket]

I was just about to post this but looks like you all have it covered. It would be nice to see your former kicker come back and be All-American somewhere. It does get a little old-

[Dayons_Den]

GO HOME KIDS: Brandon made a deal with his players yesterday about 5 p.m. If kicker Sinisa Vrvilo made a 55-yard field goal, practice would be over. Vrvilo, in his first year at BGSU, missed right, but Brandon gave him another chance. Vrvilo sent the ball through the uprights. Practice over.

"All I know is I could have never done that last year so that's huge for us," Brandon said.

Will Brandon never let this issue go? It seems that every time a kicking game issue comes up, he thinks it's another opportunity to insult Ellis/Rojas. It's history coach, deal with it. Look to the future and praise Vrvilo instead of taking another shot at Ellis. He is gone and can't defend himself.

I guess he is using the same PR firm as Dakich.

Maybe this year we can make sure to have 11 guys on the field for all field goal attempts.

I really don't know how Ellis/Rojas could take these barbs that continue any other way than personally. What if people started personally attacking GB for things like being a poor tipper at Fricker's or the actions of his family members? I think that would be in the same ballpark as these uncalled for jabs that have no place in the papers let alone the locker room.

[tiznow]

Where did Ellis and Rojas end up?

To change it up a little. I can't wait to see Geter. I love it when BG gets players that fall through the cracks from Florida and other football states outside of Ohio. Sharon and Jacobs off the top of my head from Florida, Jansen Patton from Georgia... I know there are others.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

I hope the new coach in 2009, in a post game press conference in which we didn't get destroyed in the third quarter, says something like: "Man, it sure was nice for our kids to come out and have a chance to succeed in the third quarter. It's a big step forward from the last guy, who was borderline retarded and HATED old people and puppies."

[MIBGSUFan]

To tell you the truth, the fact of the matter is that I never spoke with Brandon after Sean left the program. I briefly spoke with Troy R. the day after Sean decided to leave. Bueller had no answers and I asked if he would please have Coach Brandon call me. TWO WEEKS LATER I received a short voicemail from your esteemed head coach only saying that it was him calling. TWO WEEKS? Yeah there was a lot of concern there. I was in Europe on business and did not get the message for several days. At that point I did not believe that anything positive would or could come from me having a conversation with him so I did not call again.

So with me not having spoken with him I can't tell you where his continued jabs at Sean (and Rojas) are coming from. I can speculate that it is his lame attempt to bolster confidence in the ST situation by continually throwing those guys under the bus. I do know there was plenty of gushing about the two kickers last year during preseason. To quote Gregg, "Ellis is worth the price of admission." and "He can flat out BOOM the football." Listen to the preseason interviews from last year. It is all in there. So was he lying then? Restating something that Bueller told me last year during the week before the Wisconsin game. "Pair of future All-Americans...." in regard to Sean and Alonso. THE WEEK BEFORE THE SEASON STARTED? Again WHAT HAPPENED? Did they lose all their abilities?

That staff LOST THE TEAM last year plain and simple. Many of the players had ZERO confidence in that bunch and it showed on the field. ST was an afterthought and those two freshmen got hung out to dry because of it both publicly and privately. The ST blocking and tackling (schemes and actual onfield performance) was questionable at best. The Ole move allowing the outside rusher to get to Corey P. basically untouched to block the FG vs. OSU was a prime example.



All that guy on the right end needed was a red cape... OLE'

[hammb]

I hope the new coach in 2009,

I'm still holding out hope that the administration will grow a pair and this event will take place in 2008.

[BGDrew]

A 1,000 word article with 4/5 of it about our amazing freshmen RB, a blurb about our AD raising more money, and people are harping on the kicker comment.

The head coach is not all about X's and O's. He has to make the fans excited about the year. Brandon knows that the kicking problems last year weren't Ellis alone (I'm still of the belief that while the Shield is a shitacular formation, the times when Rojas did have time to get the kick off is was about 20 yards and in the 3rd row). Brandon will never be a master orator. Anyone who's ever heard him speak knows that he's no Lombardi. However, as the head coach he needs to make sure that the loyal fan base, that's seen the awful special teams of the past 2 years, will have a reason to think things have changed. Brandon was saying the same things last year and no one was taking shots at Brandon then for burying Timchenko.

I love you guys, but there's more to this year then:
1) Turf
2) Logo
3) Fire Brandon

[Warthog]

I'm still trying to figure out where the 11th man is in the OSU blocked FG.