Bucke Lose Pace, Springs
Ohio State coach John Cooper is confident he’ll have plenty of talent next season. He is confident, too, that the Buckeyes will again contend for the national championship.
But they will do it without junior All-Americans Orlando Pace and Shawn Springs.
Pace, a 6-foot-6, 330-pound offensive tackle, and cornerback Springs announced Monday they will forgo their senior seasons to enter the NFL draft in April.
Most draft analysts predict Pace and Springs will be first-round picks.
Pace, winner of the Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award, is expected to be among the first five picks - if not the first player taken. The New York Jets, still searching for a replacement for coach Rich Kotite, have the first selection.
“I’m not worrying too much about who drafts me,” Pace said. “I’m not sure New York wants me, but it would be a challenge.”
The Jets, 1-15 this season, are already expressing interest in Pace.
Springs, the Big Ten defensive player of the year, did not have an interception in 12 games. But his ability to defend both the pass and run makes him the most attractive cornerback in the draft.
Northwestern running back Darnell Autry, who helped raise the Wildcats from college football’s basement to national prominence, said he will skip his senior year to enter the NFL draft.
The 20-year-old junior has rushed for more than 3,000 yards the last two seasons at Northwestern, helping the Wildcats to two of the three postseason bowl games in school history.
Chris Canty, a two-time All-American cornerback, will skip his senior season at Kansas State to enter the NFL draft. The decision ends one of the greatest careers in Kansas State history. Canty was the only Kansas State sophomore to be named first-team AP All-America.
All-America defensive end Peter Boulware of Florida State, the ACC defensive player of the year, will pass up his senior year and enter the NFL draft.
Morehouse hires Williams
Doug Williams, who with the Washington Redskins was the MVP of the 1988 Super Bowl, accepted the head coaching job at predominantly black Morehouse College in Atlanta, an NCAA Division II school.
Williams, who played at Grambling, was an NFL scout with the Jacksonville Jaguars the last two years. He agreed to a five-year contract.
Attendance nears 36 million
Attendance at NCAA college football games in 1996 totaled just under 36 million, second-best in history.
The attendance for games of the 566 NCAA schools with football teams increased 359,847 to 35,997,631, the NCAA reported. That was short of the record of 36,459,896 set in 1994.
Division I-A games accounted for nearly 74 percent of the total football attendance with 26,535,520, an increase of 699,051 from the previous year. In Division I-AA, attendance declined 405,296 to 5,255,033.
Michigan led in team attendance for the 23rd consecutive year, and Tennessee was second for the 12th time in the last 13 years. Michigan averaged 105,932 for its six home games, just a shade better than Tennessee’s 105,418, also for six games in its expanded stadium.
The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN - College football notebook