Football

Husky football great Fred Forsberg, a family man and a fearless enforcer, dies at 76

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

By the time he died on Jan. 26, Fred Forsberg was no longer six-plus feet of unfiltered ferocity. His knees were shot. His memory was muddled. His body was irreparably busted, mangled by the love of an unmerciful game.

“You name a health issue, and he probably had it going on,” his son, Jeff Forsberg, told The Times this week.

Forsberg — who his Husky teammates lovingly called “Fantastic Freddie” — died at age 76, primarily of heart failure.

The same heart never failed him on a football field.

“He was unique — just a larger-than-life character, out of a comic book almost,” said Jeff, who added that his father’s death was not COVID-related. “He was tough as nails. Just loved — loved — the game. He had tons of health problems later on in life, mostly caused by the game. His last three years, there was memory loss.

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Ranking SEC football recruiting classes after National Signing Day

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

The SEC stacked many of the nation’s best recruiting classes in the 2021 class.

Alabama ran away with the nation’s top class, but a handful of SEC schools put together elite groups.

Here is how we ranked the SEC classes:

1. Alabama

Alabama won the national title, then signed the highest-ranked recruiting class in the history of the 247Sports Composite. The Crimson Tide landed 15 of the top 91 players in the 2021 class, including 12 of the top 58. They signed seven five-star prospects. The rest of the SEC signed eight combined. 

2. Georgia

Georgia did Georgia things in the 2021 cycle. The Bulldogs signed another five-star quarterback, a five-star offensive tackle and two five-star linebackers. Kirby Smart raked in 14 top-250 prospects to keep the program in Athens, Georgia, humming.

3. Texas A&M

Texas A&M signed nine top-200 prospects, eight of whom are from Texas.

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College football signing day headliners include Alabama, USC, Oklahoma

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

Want to win the national championship? Scratch that: Want to compete for the national championship? Then you’d better win on national signing day.

Decades of data and feedback — the wall-to-wall, yearlong coverage of recruiting began in earnest in the early 2000s — has established the obvious connection between recruiting success and on-field success. Those who win on the two signing days in December and February also win big in January.

And those who win big in the postseason then continue to own the recruiting trail, creating an almost unbreakable cycle of dominance.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, the nation’s best signing class belonged to defending national champion Alabama, according to the team rankings compiled by 247Sports.com. Following was Ohio State, which lost to the Crimson Tide last month in Miami. Georgia, LSU and Clemson rounded out the top five.

Combined, these national powers have gone 171-24 across the past

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La Salle quarterback Zach Branam signs with Navy

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

MONFORT HEIGHTS – At December’s Early Signing Day for college football, La Salle High School paraded out four Division I recruits with Jaylen Johnson going to Ohio State, Devonta Smith to Alabama, Iesa Jarmon to Cincinnati and Jaymar Mundy to Miami University.

One of the Greater Catholic League-South’s Tri-Players of the Year, Lancers quarterback Zach Branam, was not there. Branam was La Salle’s starter in 2019 when they won the Ohio Division II state title his junior year.

In 15 games as a junior, Branam threw for 1,676 yards and 21 touchdowns and ran for 1,394 and 14 scores. With the season shortened to 11 games as a senior, he still threw for 1,536 yards and 11 touchdowns and ran for 1,395 yards and 19 more. He ran for 253 yards and five scores against Moeller as a junior and 257 and four touchdowns vs. Anderson in a playoff game

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