NCAA

OL—John Bender, Senior, Nevada

Big bad John Bender (6-8, 325, Sr.) anchors the line at the strongside guard. Bender presents an immovable wall in the middle of the Nevada line and is a postseason honors candidate.

Baylor senior left tackle Danny Watkins was born in Kelowna, British Columbia. Watkins never picked up a football until three years ago at Butte College in California, where he was a junior college all-American as a sophomore. He enrolled at Baylor in January of 2009 and totaled 103 knockdowns last year and was one of 11 Bears to start all 12 games.

Football was calling Alex Mateas, with his quick feet and now 6-foot-3-inch, 310-pound stature.
Raised playing soccer and basketball, Mateas outgrew those sports. Carleton University basketball coach Dave Smart, Mateas' former summer AAU coach, noticed Mateas' footwork.

The NCAA goes international Wednesday.
British Columbia-based Simon Fraser will become the first Canadian school to compete as an NCAA member when its men's and women's soccer and women's volleyball teams open their respective seasons in what athletics director David Murphy terms "an historic step for us."

There's only one player on the Stanford football team who is a certain first-round draft choice.

No, it's not Andrew Luck, who may or may not enter the NFL draft after the season. Several other Cardinal players hope to be drafted, but only one is a surefire first-rounder.

Despite being recruited as a linebacker out of Leduc Composite High School in Thorsby, Alberta, and playing the position the next two seasons at UND, Curtis Dublanko began the 2008 season at fullback.