Tuesday, January 08, 2008
IN case you were wondering how the states "other" team did in their bowl game.....
Let's see....
OSU wins their bowl...
Tulsa wins their bowl....
and our football dynasty at OU....... lost.... sigh.... hummmmm........... OU might look to LSU to see how to prepare a team for bowl game... Coach Les Miles and his staff did a great great job...
Victories came easy to the winningest senior class in LSU history
Victories came easy to the winningest senior class in LSU history
By BRETT MARTEL,
AP Sports Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Some guys know how to win.
Make that 56 victories and two BCS titles for the LSU senior class, counting back to the 2003 season when players like quarterback Matt Flynn and defensive end Kirston Pittman joined the Tigers.
It's probably no coincidence that a team with veteran leadership from Jacob Hester and Early Doucet, who both scored touchdowns, didn't crack after falling into an early 10-0 hole in Monday's 38-24 victory over Ohio State in the BCS national championship game.
Coach Les Miles certainly wasn't surprised. He's coached these seniors to 34 victories during his three seasons at LSU. He needed only one word to describe what he learned about his team in the latest triumph.
"Nothing!"
LSU had fought its way out of tough spots all season.
There was a comeback victory over Florida involving a winning drive that included two fourth-and-short conversions by Hester, then finished with Hester's punishing TD run on third-and-goal.
There was Flynn's 22-yard pass to Demetrius Byrd that lifted the Tigers over Auburn with only one second remaining.
LSU was down 27-17 at Alabama late in the third quarter before outscoring the Tide 24-7 the rest of the way in yet another comeback victory; and LSU trailed Tennessee 14-13 in the fourth quarter of the Southeastern Conference title game before cornerback Jonathan Zenon (another senior) returned an interception for the winning touchdown.
Compared to those nail-biters, they made this one look easy.
"This team is full of grown men, guys who've been there before, guys who never quit," Flynn said. "We just knew we had to keep going. We had a lot of time. We just had to keep moving along just like we've done all year."
Against the Buckeyes, Flynn won offensive MVP honors by throwing for 174 yards and four touchdowns, the third to Doucet, who made one tackler miss and shook off two others to get in from 4 yards.
Hester finished with 86 yards and powered his way in for a second-effort touchdown from a yard out in the second quarter.
That score capped a drive that started when senior cornerback Chevis Jackson intercepted Todd Boeckman's pass and returned it 34 yards to the Buckeyes 24. The key play from there was Flynn finding tight end Richard Dickson for a 15-yard gain to the 1.
Then there's Pittman, who played in the Sugar Bowl victory over Oklahoma that helped LSU finish its 2003 season with a first BCS title.
Now LSU is the only team to win the BCS's Waterford Crystal football twice.
"We knew we had the opportunity to come out here and make history," Pittman said. "We're the first team to win two BCS championships. We're the winningest (senior) class in LSU history.
"We've faced adversity all year. We knew who we are. We know our identity. We are a team of fight. We are a team of destiny, and you can't detour destiny."
Pittman's sack of Boeckman forced Ohio State, then down 31-17, but driving and trying to stay in the game, into a fourth-and-7 at the LSU 34.
Enter senior linebacker Ali Highsmith, who charged into the backfield on the next play as Boeckman rolled out and pounded the Buckeyes quarterback, jarring the ball loose for a fumble that LSU recovered in Ohio State territory.
Remember defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, the sure-shot first-round NFL draft choice last spring who instead opted for a senior season in Baton Rouge?
Double-teammed all night, he still had five tackles, highlighted by fourth-quarter sack that helped thwart another Ohio State drive.
Many told Dorsey that passing up NFL wealth was unwise, then piled on after he sprained his right knee in midseason. When LSU lost its last regular season game to Arkansas, it looked like Dorsey wouldn't get the national title shot he coveted, either.
However, LSU regrouped to win the SEC title game, while teams ahead of the Tigers stumbled.
"Our senior class," Miles began, "is just a number of men who just understand how to commit to a team, fight like hell and not let obstacles stand in the way."
During the buildup to the championship game, Miles made a point to mention how proud he was of his seniors. He said this game was as much about them and the winning tradition they've instilled at LSU as anything else.
They were already the winningest senior class in LSU history before the BCS championship kicked off.
By the time it was over, everyone knew why.
Just thinking.... I guess i post these cuz I can... haha...
Tigers' Heart
A Shreveport native who's fiercely proud of his home state, LSU's ironman tailback, Jacob Hester, is vital to his team's hunt for a national title.
Monday, January 07, 2008
By James Varney
Staff writer
SHREVEPORT -- Whatever LSU senior tailback Jacob Hester was or becomes after his student athletic career ends tonight in the national championship battle between Louisiana State University and Ohio State, this he will forever be: a great college football player.
Hester doesn't need a home-state newspaper to make that declaration. Figures in the game no less accomplished than Urban Meyer at Florida and Jim Tressel at Ohio State have identified him as the unceasing heart of the Tigers' offense. Meyer admiringly labeled the seemingly undersized runner, "a tough nut," after Hester's terrific performance in LSU's victory against Florida, and Tressel announced weeks ago that stopping "18" in the Superdome will be one of the Buckeyes' paramount goals.
There are several reasons Hester has emerged as No. 2 LSU's featured weapon and, ironically, one of them is the same knock No. 1 Ohio State has endured for a year. Hester is widely regarded as slow -- even though he has set breakaway run records everywhere he played, rushed for more than 1,000 yards in the Southeastern Conference this year and, at Alabama in November, caught a Tide defensive back from behind on an interception.
With his customary aplomb, Hester always claims he's just fine with the perception.
"That never bothers me," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, that's an advantage for me. Let 'em think that."
But the ineffable quality that has stamped Hester an LSU hero isn't one measured at a combine and isn't the cliché of some guy who just works harder. It is instead what in Louisiana might be dubbed a pigskin je ne sai quoi. There is a kind of grace over Jacob Hester on the football field; he can seemingly perform any task. In the same game he can bang through the middle for a first down, burst outside the tackles and knock an allegedly stronger safety base over apex, and force fumbles on kickoff coverage tackles.
Indeed, while he scored several key touchdowns and displayed almost scary durability as the Tigers' remarkable string of 2007 games played out and teammates went down all around him, Hester only made one boast. And that was for a play on special teams.
"I made Darren McFadden fumble when I hit him on a punt return. Did you see that?" he asked after the Arkansas game. "I guess that's a claim to immortality."
Hester's emergence as the Tigers' cog is surprising for two reasons, one a matter of history and the other a case of that demonstrably false conventional wisdom that he's slow and succeeds only by virtue of his impeccable work habits. As to the former, he verbally committed to Texas before switching to LSU.
His teammates love him and, not suffering from any illusions about his talent, voted him LSU's most valuable offensive player: "the greatest honor I've ever received in sports," Hester said with his gift, rivaled on the team only by defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, of uttering even something banal or hokey with unquestioned sincerity. The two seniors have an uncanny ability to transmit genuine personality at the same time they say all the right things so far as the coaches and the program are concerned.
For a long time, though, including this past spring and summer when Hester was listed as both the starting fullback and halfback, he lurked as an overlooked asset. To look at Hester, who stands only 6 feet tall and weighs 224 pounds, it simply doesn't seem possible that such a small, comparatively speaking, guy can do so much. And as it happens, the tailback who has done so much to get his team to the national title game began his high school career on defense.
When he arrived at LSU after playing on an Evangel Christian Academy team quarterbacked by his good friend and now back-to-back Rose Bowl winner at University of Southern California, John David Booty, he didn't even understand the concept of fullback when coach Nick Saban made him one.
"I came out of a place that was always shotgun with four wides," he said. "I was like, 'What's a fullback?' "
Charles Tilley, Hester's offensive coordinator at Evangel and now his father-in-law, said as much as he loved, "Jake," as he is known throughout Shreveport, even he was slow to realize Hester's huge talent. He looked back at his error recently with Ronnie Alexander, the defensive coordinator while Hester was at Evangel.
"I said, 'Do you realize we had one of the best running backs in the country and we almost made him a nose tackle?' " Tilley said. "And Ronnie thought about that for a second and said, 'Yeah, but he was one hell of a nose tackle.' "
Tribute to the King
A background riddled with doubts about his offensive talent might bother the featured running back on some No. 2 teams. But none of it bothers Hester and none of that indifference is artifice. The only affected thing about Jacob Hester are his sideburns, which appeared recently trimmed when he arrived in New Orleans but for most of the season were long, thick bands of hair that ran below the earlobe out of all proportion to the rest of his cut and his head. His brothers roll their eyes when asked about the fungus, partly because they, too, think it's a bit absurd and partly because a visitor has missed the obvious connection with Hester's idol.
"Elvis Presley!" younger brother, Chance Hester, blurts out. "He's got those things because he loves Elvis Presley!"
Hester's brothers -- their father christened the trio with names linked in some way to John Wayne movies -- expertly play their required roles. Chance, now a freshman defensive back at Calvary in Shreveport, is unabashedly and fiercely proud of Jake: "He can't be hurt," he boasted.
Older brother, Adam, is more circumspect with his comments while transparently harboring the same admiration as Chance. Adam was a player of some consequence, too, until a back injury ended his football days.
Today he is an assistant football coach at Captain Shreve High School, but the rear window and bumper of his car parked in an LSU star's home carport boast an astonishing sight: Texas Longhorns stickers, for Adam's favorite team.
"Thank goodness they haven't played while Jake was at LSU," Adam Hester said.
The burnt orange decals may be incongruous outside a presumably purple-and-gold household, but another carport feature is more indicative of Hester's stature in his hometown. His mother, Nancy, a nurse at the LSU Health and Science Center in Shreveport, has placed a wicker basket outside that friends, acquaintances and sometimes strangers stuff with items for Hester to autograph. True to his Wheaties image, Hester signs every one, according to mom.
Nancy Hester is surprisingly relaxed about her son smashing into the line. A close friend she sits with at all games, quarterback Matt Flynn's mother, Ruth, says she worries constantly about injuries. ("It is a contact sport, Mom," Ruth says Matt will say to her with some disgust). But for some reason, the thought of Hester blowing out a joint or ligament doesn't enter her thinking.
The difference between the mothers' reaction was reflected in a similar maneuver the wired tight backfield partners pulled this year. Hester faked an injury on the goal line after scoring the winning touchdown against Florida so LSU wouldn't have to burn a time out, while Flynn, after catching a pass from wide receiver Early Doucet on a razzle-dazzle play at Alabama, did the same. In Flynn's case, though, his chin strap broke when tackle Carnell Sewart bumped him in celebration after Flynn jumped off the ground so Flynn mysteriously collapsed back on the grass.
The delayed and odd reaction caused a flicker of worry in the Flynn camp, but Nancy Hester said she never doubted the two friends were pulling a nearly identical stunt. That attitude has been ingrained throughout Hester's frighteningly responsible 22 years on earth. As a youth, only once caused momentary concern for her and Hester's father, a Shreveport area law enforcement officer named Joey.
"When he was 14 years old he was spending the night at a friend's house and the mother called me," Nancy Hester recalled. "She said, 'I think the boys took my van out for a joyride, but don't worry, Jacob's driving.' "
A local legend
Driving up the southern approach to Shreveport on U.S. 49 in December, a traveler crosses a landscape flatter than a swimmer's stomach over which gorged hawks patrol the fallow fields. Now, though, the highway also boasts a handmade "Geaux Tigers" billboard replete with Hester and Flynn jerseys atop it, and Shreveport is aware a native son will be an integral part of LSU's championship shot.
Over at Reeve's Marine, which has serviced northern Louisiana boaters for some 75 years, owner Rodney Reeves converted a sliver of his display floor to LSU merchandise last summer. "Tiger Island," as the display is called, quickly metastasized as a venture and now covers almost half the store making it the largest LSU merchandise outlet in Shreveport.
In the past year, Reeves has sold four bass fishing boats painted a metallic purple-and-gold at $44,000 a pop, but said the LSU side of his business is truly booming. Recently, it was the only place in town that still had No. 18 LSU jerseys -- with more than 500 sold, it's the most desired item in the store.
Behind the Evangel football grandstand, a huge color banner of Hester is one of six hanging like museum billboards from the top row. Other Evangel standouts so honored include his good friends Chase Pittman, a former LSU defensive lineman, and both John David Booty and his older brother, Josh, who had a mediocre LSU career after first trying professional baseball.
"I don't think there's any sports figure close to him in this town now," said Tilley, Hester's former coordinator at Evangel.
Hester was a pretty big deal at Evangel, too. His junior year he rushed for 1,593 yards and 24 touchdowns while leading Evangel to the state championship, and he was the 5A offensive most valuable player. As a senior, his carries declined but he still racked up 868 yards and 22 more touchdowns.
But Hester might never have gotten out of the trenches were it not for an injury suffered by Evangel's starting running back in a game against Longview, Texas. The coaches gathered to discuss their options the next week and someone suggested they move "Jake" to running back. He rushed for 250 yards in the next game. The following week he gained 300 yards.
"You should have seen him then, playing at 250 pounds because he'd been a nose tackle," Tilley recalled of a time when a beefy Hester earned the nickname, "Freight Train." "You talk about seeing someone run over people. It was really something."
Impressing the players
But the reissued, condensed version of Hester can crunch a defender as well. Most recently Hester has gotten props for bowling over a Tennessee safety in the SEC championship game, but he did the same thing earlier in the year against Florida and Alabama. Especially near the goal line, where Hester's technique is superb, the first person to get to him rarely brings him down and often absorbs the hardest hit.
After crumpling the Florida safety like a cone on a driver's education course on what would prove the winning fourth-quarter drive, Hester said he did it mostly in an attempt to impress his blockers and there's no question the burly Tigers linemen appreciate that kind of effort.
"When you see a guy fighting for another yard, when you know you have a back who's not going to step out of bounds but instead lowers his head and tries to crush somebody, it just makes you want to play that much harder for him," LSU junior center Brett Helms said. "We love running backs like that."
Most big-time safeties would be hushed and embarrassed by such physical abuse, but the Gator's tongue wagged freely. After the play, he told Hester, "You still got nothing, Vanilla Ice." The comment, Hester told Sports Illustrated, wasn't the first time he'd heard a crack from an opponent about his skin color. In Knoxville, Tenn., last season, the Volunteer linebacker Jerod Mayo asked him why he didn't play for Air Force.
Mayo approached Hester on the field on Atlanta on Dec. 1 after the SEC championship and said, "I was wrong about you. You're a great player."
Fellow running backs Keiland Williams and Charles Scott, both African-American, are featured in framed photos in the Hester living room. Nancy Hester says the veiled knock against her son because of his pallor bothers her to no end.
"I hear and see it all the time that he's not fast enough," Nancy Hester said. "And sometimes it makes me want to yell, 'What you really want to say is he's white!' And Keiland and Charles just burst out laughing."
Once a week, usually on Thursdays, the running backs at LSU try to have dinner out together, Williams said, and Hester is the acknowledged role model for them all.
"Hester's a great guy, and all of us know we can call him at any time about any need," Williams said. "He's just a great guy to model yourself after. Anywhere on the field he runs like it's his last carry, and that's something he's handed down to everyone on the team."
'The complete package'
This year, Hester has joked he single-handedly, as a 2-star-rated recruit, cost LSU the best recruiting class in the country in 2004. Apparently, former coach Nick Saban, who got Nancy Hester's ready approval to stay on Jake's trail after the Texas verbal, didn't think so. Hester was the first player from that class to start. Further evidence of the vagaries of recruiting and reputations: Adam Hester said his brother was a 4-star recruit when he verbally committed to Texas.
LSU coach Les Miles said that he wants people who can handle the madness that surrounds these teams as much as someone who can get the first down on fourth down. On the other hand, Miles never seems to tire of talking about what Hester brings to the game. And there is no doubt in Miles' mind that Hester will find work as a professional athlete, too.
"He's a special guy, he really is; he was named team captain you know," Miles told a cluster of national reporters in Baton Rouge last month for LSU's media day. "I mean here's a guy who says, 'I'm on the punt team,' and, 'Let me run down on kickoffs.'
"If there isn't a place for him in the NFL, then football's not football," Miles added. "I've got to be honest, I've never had a guy who is the complete package like Jacob Hester."'
A rare fumble
The complete package himself, however, did stand for one moment on the Tiger Stadium turf -- it was in the Arkansas game -- lost, moving slowly and shaking his head.
Jacob Hester had fumbled. He got the ball right back, but for that moment it was if the cosmos themselves had cracked.
"That was only the third time in my whole life I've ever fumbled," he said. "And I've only lost one. I didn't lose any in high school; I fumbled once when I was on junior varsity. And so when it happens, it is a shock. It's something I pride myself on and I didn't do my job on that play. I was trying to do too much and didn't worry about ball security.
"So definitely that hit home," he mused. "Golly. I didn't get over that until the last game. Even though we got it back, that ate at me for like two weeks."
Is it all surprising that an offensive coordinator would give his daughter in marriage to such a man?
Hester proposed to Katie Tilley after the Arkansas game last November. Before the game, everyone was in on the pending pitch except Katie before the game, and before this championship game she expressed bewilderment at the way people looked at her husband when they arrived in New Orleans last week.
"Regularly he's, you know, he's a normal guy. And then when we get here, everybody's screaming at him and wanting to take a picture with him so it's different having a celebrity as a husband," she said. "But it's great. I think I might be more excited than he is. He's used to it."
But can her husband really be this good a person? Can it be true that the whole time they dated in high school he never once, as Chris Tilley emphatically declared, ever missed a curfew? That the man who dated his daughter never once, not even slightly, got under her father's skin? "Oh, no," Katie Hester said, shocked at the idea. "No, no, no, no, no. My dad doesn't have to talk, he just has that look in his eyes that you know you've overstepped the boundaries. And Jacob knew he didn't want to get that look."
Right now, the young couple is packing in Baton Rouge as Hester plans to work out somewhere in hopes of the NFL draft. But the future for both is Louisiana. Like Dorsey, Early Doucet, Craig Steltz and some other prominent seniors, Hester has spoken several times in the past month about how much it means to him to be representing LSU, his home state, and to be playing his final game in New Orleans.
"No matter where you are in the state if you're an LSU football player, everyone knows who you are," Hester said. "I plan to live in Louisiana the rest of my life; not sure if it will be here or Shreveport. I love Louisiana. I'm just glad I got the opportunity to stay in Louisiana."
. . . . . . .
James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3413.
A Shreveport native who's fiercely proud of his home state, LSU's ironman tailback, Jacob Hester, is vital to his team's hunt for a national title.
Monday, January 07, 2008
By James Varney
Staff writer
SHREVEPORT -- Whatever LSU senior tailback Jacob Hester was or becomes after his student athletic career ends tonight in the national championship battle between Louisiana State University and Ohio State, this he will forever be: a great college football player.
Hester doesn't need a home-state newspaper to make that declaration. Figures in the game no less accomplished than Urban Meyer at Florida and Jim Tressel at Ohio State have identified him as the unceasing heart of the Tigers' offense. Meyer admiringly labeled the seemingly undersized runner, "a tough nut," after Hester's terrific performance in LSU's victory against Florida, and Tressel announced weeks ago that stopping "18" in the Superdome will be one of the Buckeyes' paramount goals.
There are several reasons Hester has emerged as No. 2 LSU's featured weapon and, ironically, one of them is the same knock No. 1 Ohio State has endured for a year. Hester is widely regarded as slow -- even though he has set breakaway run records everywhere he played, rushed for more than 1,000 yards in the Southeastern Conference this year and, at Alabama in November, caught a Tide defensive back from behind on an interception.
With his customary aplomb, Hester always claims he's just fine with the perception.
"That never bothers me," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, that's an advantage for me. Let 'em think that."
But the ineffable quality that has stamped Hester an LSU hero isn't one measured at a combine and isn't the cliché of some guy who just works harder. It is instead what in Louisiana might be dubbed a pigskin je ne sai quoi. There is a kind of grace over Jacob Hester on the football field; he can seemingly perform any task. In the same game he can bang through the middle for a first down, burst outside the tackles and knock an allegedly stronger safety base over apex, and force fumbles on kickoff coverage tackles.
Indeed, while he scored several key touchdowns and displayed almost scary durability as the Tigers' remarkable string of 2007 games played out and teammates went down all around him, Hester only made one boast. And that was for a play on special teams.
"I made Darren McFadden fumble when I hit him on a punt return. Did you see that?" he asked after the Arkansas game. "I guess that's a claim to immortality."
Hester's emergence as the Tigers' cog is surprising for two reasons, one a matter of history and the other a case of that demonstrably false conventional wisdom that he's slow and succeeds only by virtue of his impeccable work habits. As to the former, he verbally committed to Texas before switching to LSU.
His teammates love him and, not suffering from any illusions about his talent, voted him LSU's most valuable offensive player: "the greatest honor I've ever received in sports," Hester said with his gift, rivaled on the team only by defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, of uttering even something banal or hokey with unquestioned sincerity. The two seniors have an uncanny ability to transmit genuine personality at the same time they say all the right things so far as the coaches and the program are concerned.
For a long time, though, including this past spring and summer when Hester was listed as both the starting fullback and halfback, he lurked as an overlooked asset. To look at Hester, who stands only 6 feet tall and weighs 224 pounds, it simply doesn't seem possible that such a small, comparatively speaking, guy can do so much. And as it happens, the tailback who has done so much to get his team to the national title game began his high school career on defense.
When he arrived at LSU after playing on an Evangel Christian Academy team quarterbacked by his good friend and now back-to-back Rose Bowl winner at University of Southern California, John David Booty, he didn't even understand the concept of fullback when coach Nick Saban made him one.
"I came out of a place that was always shotgun with four wides," he said. "I was like, 'What's a fullback?' "
Charles Tilley, Hester's offensive coordinator at Evangel and now his father-in-law, said as much as he loved, "Jake," as he is known throughout Shreveport, even he was slow to realize Hester's huge talent. He looked back at his error recently with Ronnie Alexander, the defensive coordinator while Hester was at Evangel.
"I said, 'Do you realize we had one of the best running backs in the country and we almost made him a nose tackle?' " Tilley said. "And Ronnie thought about that for a second and said, 'Yeah, but he was one hell of a nose tackle.' "
Tribute to the King
A background riddled with doubts about his offensive talent might bother the featured running back on some No. 2 teams. But none of it bothers Hester and none of that indifference is artifice. The only affected thing about Jacob Hester are his sideburns, which appeared recently trimmed when he arrived in New Orleans but for most of the season were long, thick bands of hair that ran below the earlobe out of all proportion to the rest of his cut and his head. His brothers roll their eyes when asked about the fungus, partly because they, too, think it's a bit absurd and partly because a visitor has missed the obvious connection with Hester's idol.
"Elvis Presley!" younger brother, Chance Hester, blurts out. "He's got those things because he loves Elvis Presley!"
Hester's brothers -- their father christened the trio with names linked in some way to John Wayne movies -- expertly play their required roles. Chance, now a freshman defensive back at Calvary in Shreveport, is unabashedly and fiercely proud of Jake: "He can't be hurt," he boasted.
Older brother, Adam, is more circumspect with his comments while transparently harboring the same admiration as Chance. Adam was a player of some consequence, too, until a back injury ended his football days.
Today he is an assistant football coach at Captain Shreve High School, but the rear window and bumper of his car parked in an LSU star's home carport boast an astonishing sight: Texas Longhorns stickers, for Adam's favorite team.
"Thank goodness they haven't played while Jake was at LSU," Adam Hester said.
The burnt orange decals may be incongruous outside a presumably purple-and-gold household, but another carport feature is more indicative of Hester's stature in his hometown. His mother, Nancy, a nurse at the LSU Health and Science Center in Shreveport, has placed a wicker basket outside that friends, acquaintances and sometimes strangers stuff with items for Hester to autograph. True to his Wheaties image, Hester signs every one, according to mom.
Nancy Hester is surprisingly relaxed about her son smashing into the line. A close friend she sits with at all games, quarterback Matt Flynn's mother, Ruth, says she worries constantly about injuries. ("It is a contact sport, Mom," Ruth says Matt will say to her with some disgust). But for some reason, the thought of Hester blowing out a joint or ligament doesn't enter her thinking.
The difference between the mothers' reaction was reflected in a similar maneuver the wired tight backfield partners pulled this year. Hester faked an injury on the goal line after scoring the winning touchdown against Florida so LSU wouldn't have to burn a time out, while Flynn, after catching a pass from wide receiver Early Doucet on a razzle-dazzle play at Alabama, did the same. In Flynn's case, though, his chin strap broke when tackle Carnell Sewart bumped him in celebration after Flynn jumped off the ground so Flynn mysteriously collapsed back on the grass.
The delayed and odd reaction caused a flicker of worry in the Flynn camp, but Nancy Hester said she never doubted the two friends were pulling a nearly identical stunt. That attitude has been ingrained throughout Hester's frighteningly responsible 22 years on earth. As a youth, only once caused momentary concern for her and Hester's father, a Shreveport area law enforcement officer named Joey.
"When he was 14 years old he was spending the night at a friend's house and the mother called me," Nancy Hester recalled. "She said, 'I think the boys took my van out for a joyride, but don't worry, Jacob's driving.' "
A local legend
Driving up the southern approach to Shreveport on U.S. 49 in December, a traveler crosses a landscape flatter than a swimmer's stomach over which gorged hawks patrol the fallow fields. Now, though, the highway also boasts a handmade "Geaux Tigers" billboard replete with Hester and Flynn jerseys atop it, and Shreveport is aware a native son will be an integral part of LSU's championship shot.
Over at Reeve's Marine, which has serviced northern Louisiana boaters for some 75 years, owner Rodney Reeves converted a sliver of his display floor to LSU merchandise last summer. "Tiger Island," as the display is called, quickly metastasized as a venture and now covers almost half the store making it the largest LSU merchandise outlet in Shreveport.
In the past year, Reeves has sold four bass fishing boats painted a metallic purple-and-gold at $44,000 a pop, but said the LSU side of his business is truly booming. Recently, it was the only place in town that still had No. 18 LSU jerseys -- with more than 500 sold, it's the most desired item in the store.
Behind the Evangel football grandstand, a huge color banner of Hester is one of six hanging like museum billboards from the top row. Other Evangel standouts so honored include his good friends Chase Pittman, a former LSU defensive lineman, and both John David Booty and his older brother, Josh, who had a mediocre LSU career after first trying professional baseball.
"I don't think there's any sports figure close to him in this town now," said Tilley, Hester's former coordinator at Evangel.
Hester was a pretty big deal at Evangel, too. His junior year he rushed for 1,593 yards and 24 touchdowns while leading Evangel to the state championship, and he was the 5A offensive most valuable player. As a senior, his carries declined but he still racked up 868 yards and 22 more touchdowns.
But Hester might never have gotten out of the trenches were it not for an injury suffered by Evangel's starting running back in a game against Longview, Texas. The coaches gathered to discuss their options the next week and someone suggested they move "Jake" to running back. He rushed for 250 yards in the next game. The following week he gained 300 yards.
"You should have seen him then, playing at 250 pounds because he'd been a nose tackle," Tilley recalled of a time when a beefy Hester earned the nickname, "Freight Train." "You talk about seeing someone run over people. It was really something."
Impressing the players
But the reissued, condensed version of Hester can crunch a defender as well. Most recently Hester has gotten props for bowling over a Tennessee safety in the SEC championship game, but he did the same thing earlier in the year against Florida and Alabama. Especially near the goal line, where Hester's technique is superb, the first person to get to him rarely brings him down and often absorbs the hardest hit.
After crumpling the Florida safety like a cone on a driver's education course on what would prove the winning fourth-quarter drive, Hester said he did it mostly in an attempt to impress his blockers and there's no question the burly Tigers linemen appreciate that kind of effort.
"When you see a guy fighting for another yard, when you know you have a back who's not going to step out of bounds but instead lowers his head and tries to crush somebody, it just makes you want to play that much harder for him," LSU junior center Brett Helms said. "We love running backs like that."
Most big-time safeties would be hushed and embarrassed by such physical abuse, but the Gator's tongue wagged freely. After the play, he told Hester, "You still got nothing, Vanilla Ice." The comment, Hester told Sports Illustrated, wasn't the first time he'd heard a crack from an opponent about his skin color. In Knoxville, Tenn., last season, the Volunteer linebacker Jerod Mayo asked him why he didn't play for Air Force.
Mayo approached Hester on the field on Atlanta on Dec. 1 after the SEC championship and said, "I was wrong about you. You're a great player."
Fellow running backs Keiland Williams and Charles Scott, both African-American, are featured in framed photos in the Hester living room. Nancy Hester says the veiled knock against her son because of his pallor bothers her to no end.
"I hear and see it all the time that he's not fast enough," Nancy Hester said. "And sometimes it makes me want to yell, 'What you really want to say is he's white!' And Keiland and Charles just burst out laughing."
Once a week, usually on Thursdays, the running backs at LSU try to have dinner out together, Williams said, and Hester is the acknowledged role model for them all.
"Hester's a great guy, and all of us know we can call him at any time about any need," Williams said. "He's just a great guy to model yourself after. Anywhere on the field he runs like it's his last carry, and that's something he's handed down to everyone on the team."
'The complete package'
This year, Hester has joked he single-handedly, as a 2-star-rated recruit, cost LSU the best recruiting class in the country in 2004. Apparently, former coach Nick Saban, who got Nancy Hester's ready approval to stay on Jake's trail after the Texas verbal, didn't think so. Hester was the first player from that class to start. Further evidence of the vagaries of recruiting and reputations: Adam Hester said his brother was a 4-star recruit when he verbally committed to Texas.
LSU coach Les Miles said that he wants people who can handle the madness that surrounds these teams as much as someone who can get the first down on fourth down. On the other hand, Miles never seems to tire of talking about what Hester brings to the game. And there is no doubt in Miles' mind that Hester will find work as a professional athlete, too.
"He's a special guy, he really is; he was named team captain you know," Miles told a cluster of national reporters in Baton Rouge last month for LSU's media day. "I mean here's a guy who says, 'I'm on the punt team,' and, 'Let me run down on kickoffs.'
"If there isn't a place for him in the NFL, then football's not football," Miles added. "I've got to be honest, I've never had a guy who is the complete package like Jacob Hester."'
A rare fumble
The complete package himself, however, did stand for one moment on the Tiger Stadium turf -- it was in the Arkansas game -- lost, moving slowly and shaking his head.
Jacob Hester had fumbled. He got the ball right back, but for that moment it was if the cosmos themselves had cracked.
"That was only the third time in my whole life I've ever fumbled," he said. "And I've only lost one. I didn't lose any in high school; I fumbled once when I was on junior varsity. And so when it happens, it is a shock. It's something I pride myself on and I didn't do my job on that play. I was trying to do too much and didn't worry about ball security.
"So definitely that hit home," he mused. "Golly. I didn't get over that until the last game. Even though we got it back, that ate at me for like two weeks."
Is it all surprising that an offensive coordinator would give his daughter in marriage to such a man?
Hester proposed to Katie Tilley after the Arkansas game last November. Before the game, everyone was in on the pending pitch except Katie before the game, and before this championship game she expressed bewilderment at the way people looked at her husband when they arrived in New Orleans last week.
"Regularly he's, you know, he's a normal guy. And then when we get here, everybody's screaming at him and wanting to take a picture with him so it's different having a celebrity as a husband," she said. "But it's great. I think I might be more excited than he is. He's used to it."
But can her husband really be this good a person? Can it be true that the whole time they dated in high school he never once, as Chris Tilley emphatically declared, ever missed a curfew? That the man who dated his daughter never once, not even slightly, got under her father's skin? "Oh, no," Katie Hester said, shocked at the idea. "No, no, no, no, no. My dad doesn't have to talk, he just has that look in his eyes that you know you've overstepped the boundaries. And Jacob knew he didn't want to get that look."
Right now, the young couple is packing in Baton Rouge as Hester plans to work out somewhere in hopes of the NFL draft. But the future for both is Louisiana. Like Dorsey, Early Doucet, Craig Steltz and some other prominent seniors, Hester has spoken several times in the past month about how much it means to him to be representing LSU, his home state, and to be playing his final game in New Orleans.
"No matter where you are in the state if you're an LSU football player, everyone knows who you are," Hester said. "I plan to live in Louisiana the rest of my life; not sure if it will be here or Shreveport. I love Louisiana. I'm just glad I got the opportunity to stay in Louisiana."
. . . . . . .
James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3413.
CHAMPS
CHAMPS
Tigers first to win second BCS title
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Peter Finney
In Tigertown, and BCS land, let's say the crystal football torch has been passed, from Nick Saban to Les Miles.
But let's make one thing clear: Four years later, Les Miles is his own man.
He's earned it.
He's paid his dues.
He's lived through a high-pressure, roller-coaster year that saw his Tigers begin the season No. 2 and finish No. 1.
He saw them counted out, once, twice, three times, but there they were Monday night, defeating the Big Ten champion 38-24 in front of 79,651, the largest crowd to see a football game in the history of the Superdome.
The Tigers won the Bowl Championship Series trophy by doing what no team came close to doing to the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, by scoring 31 straight points after spotting them a 10-0 lead in the first six minutes.
They did it with big plays on both sides of the ball.
On four touchdown passes by Most Outstanding Offensive Player Matt Flynn.
On 86 hard-earned rushing yards by Jacob Hester.
On a crucial field-goal block by Ricky Jean-Francois, on a spectacular pick by Chevis Jackson.
On a fumble-forcing sack by Ali Highsmith.
They did it by getting to quarterback Todd Boeckman five times, by pressuring him into two vital interceptions, none more vital than the one by Jackson.
"I was running step for step with the receiver," Jackson said. "When I saw his eyes get bigger, I knew the ball was coming. So I turned around and there I was."
In the fourth quarter, it was Highsmith's turn to come up with a turnaround sack that stopped a Buckeye march.
"We were blitzing," he said, "and I was just trying to get him to throw the football. When he didn't throw it, I knocked it out of his hands. That was it."
It was the kind of evening that left the winning coach in a permanent state of mega-watt smiles.
"In a way," Miles said, "this was sort of like how this team has done it all year, by a bunch of guys stepping up and making the kind of plays you need to win. It was great to see how the guys settled down after that rough start. We were playing an excellent football team, and we managed to respond like champions do."
Miles felt the field goal block that came with the Buckeyes attempting to break a 10-10 tie was one of the biggest of the game.
For academic reasons, Jean-Francois did not become eligible until the SEC championship game against Tennessee on Dec. 1.
"The players stuck with me," he said. "Told me to keep my head up. Told me the sun was going to come up. I felt the block was real good for momentum."
Some of the finest momentum was furnished by Flynn's 19-of-27 night with 174 yards and four touchdowns.
"We grew a lot as a team this year," he said. "We turned into a stubborn team with no quit in us. We did a good job of not letting the things going on around us, the good and the bad, affect our play. When we got down early, we knew what we had to do."
As for the early moments, you can say this: Ohio State was playing like the home team and the home team was playing like it was suffering from a severe case of the jitters.
A minute and a half into the game, Chris Wells was slicing off tackle and taking off on a 65-yard touchdown gallop, longest of the season for the Buckeyes. He was hardly touched.
Early Doucet bobbled a short pass in the flat.
A bad snap from the shotgun formation sent Flynn in reverse, chasing the ball back to his 6-yard line.
A blown assignment in the secondary resulted in a wide-open Brandon Saine grabbing a 44-yard pass that set the table for a 25-yard field goal.
In less than six minutes, the Buckeyes had a 10-0 lead and all the Tigers had to show was a three-and-out.
That would change when the Tigers' offense suddenly came alive and Flynn moved the team 65 yards to a field goal, a push highlighted by a couple of throws to Doucet and a 20-yard burst up the middle by Hester.
It didn't end here.
Flynn was back, this time with an 84-yard march the quarterback kept alive with a 20-yard connection to Demetrius Byrd and closed with a strike down the middle to Richard Dickson that beat a Buckeye blitz. There was more to come.
Jean-Francois and Jackson saw to that.
After Jean-Francois went airborne to block a field goal, Flynn took the Tigers 55 yards, hitting passes inside and outside, finally nailing Brandon LaFell on a 10-yard beauty that came on third-and-5.
Three plays later, it was Jackson running stride-for-stride with Ray Small, turning and picking off a Boeckman rainbow at the LSU 42 and running it back to the Buckeye 24.
Five plays later, it was Hester nudging it in from the 1 and another third-down conversion.
The Tigers had a 24-10 lead.
The Tigers had converted on eight of their last nine third-down attempts.
The most penalized team in the SEC, one that averaged 10 a game, had played for 30 minutes with zero flags.
For 60 minutes, they would play well enough to win a national championship.
When he had dried out from a postgame soaking, when the confetti had stopped dropping, Miles had just a few simple sentences to sum things up.
"We're a deserving champion. We are no 'I' champion. We are a 'we' champion.
That's the best kind."
Tigers first to win second BCS title
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Peter Finney
In Tigertown, and BCS land, let's say the crystal football torch has been passed, from Nick Saban to Les Miles.
But let's make one thing clear: Four years later, Les Miles is his own man.
He's earned it.
He's paid his dues.
He's lived through a high-pressure, roller-coaster year that saw his Tigers begin the season No. 2 and finish No. 1.
He saw them counted out, once, twice, three times, but there they were Monday night, defeating the Big Ten champion 38-24 in front of 79,651, the largest crowd to see a football game in the history of the Superdome.
The Tigers won the Bowl Championship Series trophy by doing what no team came close to doing to the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, by scoring 31 straight points after spotting them a 10-0 lead in the first six minutes.
They did it with big plays on both sides of the ball.
On four touchdown passes by Most Outstanding Offensive Player Matt Flynn.
On 86 hard-earned rushing yards by Jacob Hester.
On a crucial field-goal block by Ricky Jean-Francois, on a spectacular pick by Chevis Jackson.
On a fumble-forcing sack by Ali Highsmith.
They did it by getting to quarterback Todd Boeckman five times, by pressuring him into two vital interceptions, none more vital than the one by Jackson.
"I was running step for step with the receiver," Jackson said. "When I saw his eyes get bigger, I knew the ball was coming. So I turned around and there I was."
In the fourth quarter, it was Highsmith's turn to come up with a turnaround sack that stopped a Buckeye march.
"We were blitzing," he said, "and I was just trying to get him to throw the football. When he didn't throw it, I knocked it out of his hands. That was it."
It was the kind of evening that left the winning coach in a permanent state of mega-watt smiles.
"In a way," Miles said, "this was sort of like how this team has done it all year, by a bunch of guys stepping up and making the kind of plays you need to win. It was great to see how the guys settled down after that rough start. We were playing an excellent football team, and we managed to respond like champions do."
Miles felt the field goal block that came with the Buckeyes attempting to break a 10-10 tie was one of the biggest of the game.
For academic reasons, Jean-Francois did not become eligible until the SEC championship game against Tennessee on Dec. 1.
"The players stuck with me," he said. "Told me to keep my head up. Told me the sun was going to come up. I felt the block was real good for momentum."
Some of the finest momentum was furnished by Flynn's 19-of-27 night with 174 yards and four touchdowns.
"We grew a lot as a team this year," he said. "We turned into a stubborn team with no quit in us. We did a good job of not letting the things going on around us, the good and the bad, affect our play. When we got down early, we knew what we had to do."
As for the early moments, you can say this: Ohio State was playing like the home team and the home team was playing like it was suffering from a severe case of the jitters.
A minute and a half into the game, Chris Wells was slicing off tackle and taking off on a 65-yard touchdown gallop, longest of the season for the Buckeyes. He was hardly touched.
Early Doucet bobbled a short pass in the flat.
A bad snap from the shotgun formation sent Flynn in reverse, chasing the ball back to his 6-yard line.
A blown assignment in the secondary resulted in a wide-open Brandon Saine grabbing a 44-yard pass that set the table for a 25-yard field goal.
In less than six minutes, the Buckeyes had a 10-0 lead and all the Tigers had to show was a three-and-out.
That would change when the Tigers' offense suddenly came alive and Flynn moved the team 65 yards to a field goal, a push highlighted by a couple of throws to Doucet and a 20-yard burst up the middle by Hester.
It didn't end here.
Flynn was back, this time with an 84-yard march the quarterback kept alive with a 20-yard connection to Demetrius Byrd and closed with a strike down the middle to Richard Dickson that beat a Buckeye blitz. There was more to come.
Jean-Francois and Jackson saw to that.
After Jean-Francois went airborne to block a field goal, Flynn took the Tigers 55 yards, hitting passes inside and outside, finally nailing Brandon LaFell on a 10-yard beauty that came on third-and-5.
Three plays later, it was Jackson running stride-for-stride with Ray Small, turning and picking off a Boeckman rainbow at the LSU 42 and running it back to the Buckeye 24.
Five plays later, it was Hester nudging it in from the 1 and another third-down conversion.
The Tigers had a 24-10 lead.
The Tigers had converted on eight of their last nine third-down attempts.
The most penalized team in the SEC, one that averaged 10 a game, had played for 30 minutes with zero flags.
For 60 minutes, they would play well enough to win a national championship.
When he had dried out from a postgame soaking, when the confetti had stopped dropping, Miles had just a few simple sentences to sum things up.
"We're a deserving champion. We are no 'I' champion. We are a 'we' champion.
That's the best kind."
Record numbers put the 'fan' in fantastic
Record numbers put the 'fan' in fantastic
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
By Bruce Nolan
By 7:22 p.m., when LSU kicker Sean Gaudet lofted the ball deep downfield to start the national championship game, Karen Crossin and Deborah VanAuker, visiting Buckeyes from Columbus, were in their terrace-level seats decked out in scarlet and gray, true apostles of Buckeye football called once again to cheer their team.
VanAuker, by her admission, was well along on her self-assigned task "to kiss as many attractive men as possible" on the way to the Superdome before settling to the true business of the day.
"We did not come here to lose," her friend, Crossin, had vowed a little earlier.
She said it slowly, evenly, as if there were a period behind each word.
Baton Rouge resident Ramon Gonzalez, who boasts that he has missed only two Death Valley games in 28 years, was in the north end zone with his wife, Cris, swilling water to lubricate his throat, the better to fulfill his customary role as LSU cheerleader, even among these relative Superdome strangers.
And Kenny Kerth and Ryan Thibodaux, trumpet players in the Bucktown All-Stars, were in their seats, having proceeded up Poydras Street at the head of a small pickup band playing the Tiger's pre-game anthem and trailing thousands of fans behind them.
Kerth's trumpet was purple and gold.
"Tiger Bait!" their partisans screamed.
"Go Bucks!" was the answering roar.
For 45 minutes before kickoff the Superdome boiled with noise and color.
Both schools' bands blared furiously at each other. Jammed concourses surged with fans in face paint; fans in funny hats; bald men with painted skulls.
It was a record Superdome crowd of 79,651.
They shot fists in the air and shouted good-natured taunts.
They came from Metairie and the Midwest.
From Baton Rouge, like Gonzalez, who once broke off a business trip in New Jersey and went nearly sleepless for four days to make an LSU home game.
And from the West Coast, like Steve Langal, a high school football ref and Buckeye fan, who flew from Encinitas, Calif., without a ticket to stand hopefully outside the Superdome, one inquiring finger raised on high.
"I will get in," he said, with the same determined tone Crossin had used.
He did. He got in an hour before kickoff. Ticket price: $500.
From early afternoon until sunset, not much insurance was sold in downtown New Orleans. Legal research ground nearly to a halt. People checked out early. Voice mail filled up.
The streets of the French Quarter, the Warehouse District and the Central Business District filled with LSU and Ohio State partisans in team colors.
Stretch Hummer limos prickly with LSU flags idled in thick downtown traffic, rocking slightly side to side with the force of unseen celebrations inside.
Each school enjoys a notably ferocious fan base, even by the standards of big-time college football.
Consider Tom Titus, a financial services rep from Kinsman, in far northeastern Ohio, who made most Ohio State games this year, home or away, with two sons, a daughter-in-law and other family members.
Monday he was in New Orleans with two sons, a daughter-in-law and a companion, Pam Elliott.
It is a Titus family passion, first laid down by his father, Bob Titus.
"We grew up Buckeyes. He was a real hard-working guy. The only time I remember him not working was when the Buckeyes were on the radio. When they were on, he'd stop and listen. When they were done, back to work."
So it is that every year the Titus family huddles and schedules the games they will attend -- "at least three travel dates a year."
Buckeye football is every bit as serious as it is at LSU.
"My parents had to postpone their 50th wedding anniversary celebration because it fell on a Saturday during the season," Crossin said.
"They put it off to a bye week."
"They knew it was the only way they'd get their son-in-law to come."
Early in the game Buckeye fans were in ecstasy. Ohio State drew first blood with a 65-yard run from scrimmage by Chris Wells that ended right in front of Frank Benham, a lawyer from Shelby, Ohio.
At home Benham, though not an Ohio State alumnus, is a Buckeye true believer. He said he missed only two games this year, home or away.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
By Bruce Nolan
By 7:22 p.m., when LSU kicker Sean Gaudet lofted the ball deep downfield to start the national championship game, Karen Crossin and Deborah VanAuker, visiting Buckeyes from Columbus, were in their terrace-level seats decked out in scarlet and gray, true apostles of Buckeye football called once again to cheer their team.
VanAuker, by her admission, was well along on her self-assigned task "to kiss as many attractive men as possible" on the way to the Superdome before settling to the true business of the day.
"We did not come here to lose," her friend, Crossin, had vowed a little earlier.
She said it slowly, evenly, as if there were a period behind each word.
Baton Rouge resident Ramon Gonzalez, who boasts that he has missed only two Death Valley games in 28 years, was in the north end zone with his wife, Cris, swilling water to lubricate his throat, the better to fulfill his customary role as LSU cheerleader, even among these relative Superdome strangers.
And Kenny Kerth and Ryan Thibodaux, trumpet players in the Bucktown All-Stars, were in their seats, having proceeded up Poydras Street at the head of a small pickup band playing the Tiger's pre-game anthem and trailing thousands of fans behind them.
Kerth's trumpet was purple and gold.
"Tiger Bait!" their partisans screamed.
"Go Bucks!" was the answering roar.
For 45 minutes before kickoff the Superdome boiled with noise and color.
Both schools' bands blared furiously at each other. Jammed concourses surged with fans in face paint; fans in funny hats; bald men with painted skulls.
It was a record Superdome crowd of 79,651.
They shot fists in the air and shouted good-natured taunts.
They came from Metairie and the Midwest.
From Baton Rouge, like Gonzalez, who once broke off a business trip in New Jersey and went nearly sleepless for four days to make an LSU home game.
And from the West Coast, like Steve Langal, a high school football ref and Buckeye fan, who flew from Encinitas, Calif., without a ticket to stand hopefully outside the Superdome, one inquiring finger raised on high.
"I will get in," he said, with the same determined tone Crossin had used.
He did. He got in an hour before kickoff. Ticket price: $500.
From early afternoon until sunset, not much insurance was sold in downtown New Orleans. Legal research ground nearly to a halt. People checked out early. Voice mail filled up.
The streets of the French Quarter, the Warehouse District and the Central Business District filled with LSU and Ohio State partisans in team colors.
Stretch Hummer limos prickly with LSU flags idled in thick downtown traffic, rocking slightly side to side with the force of unseen celebrations inside.
Each school enjoys a notably ferocious fan base, even by the standards of big-time college football.
Consider Tom Titus, a financial services rep from Kinsman, in far northeastern Ohio, who made most Ohio State games this year, home or away, with two sons, a daughter-in-law and other family members.
Monday he was in New Orleans with two sons, a daughter-in-law and a companion, Pam Elliott.
It is a Titus family passion, first laid down by his father, Bob Titus.
"We grew up Buckeyes. He was a real hard-working guy. The only time I remember him not working was when the Buckeyes were on the radio. When they were on, he'd stop and listen. When they were done, back to work."
So it is that every year the Titus family huddles and schedules the games they will attend -- "at least three travel dates a year."
Buckeye football is every bit as serious as it is at LSU.
"My parents had to postpone their 50th wedding anniversary celebration because it fell on a Saturday during the season," Crossin said.
"They put it off to a bye week."
"They knew it was the only way they'd get their son-in-law to come."
Early in the game Buckeye fans were in ecstasy. Ohio State drew first blood with a 65-yard run from scrimmage by Chris Wells that ended right in front of Frank Benham, a lawyer from Shelby, Ohio.
At home Benham, though not an Ohio State alumnus, is a Buckeye true believer. He said he missed only two games this year, home or away.
can I have one??
6ft by 150 inches: measuring up to the world's biggest plasma TV
By Emily Dugan
Published: 08 January 2008
Toshihiro Sakamoto, president of Panasonic AVC Networks introduces what the company calls the world's largest flat panel television (Reuters) Watching Match of The Day will never be the same again after the unveiling in Las Vegas yesterday of the world's biggest plasma television.
The 150-inch (3.75m) Panasonic widescreen TV, which stands 6ft tall, will enable viewers to watch everything in life-size.
But because of its huge size, the screen can only be comfortably watched from a distance of at least 30ft, making it too big to install in most living rooms. And with an expected price tag of £50,000, the giant TV will be beyond the spending power of most consumers.
The screen, dubbed the "Life Panel", was the star attraction on the opening day of the world's biggest consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronic Society International trade fair.
The television trumps the previous record size television – Sony's 108-inch model – by 42 inches.
Unveiling the television, Panasonic's president Toshihiro Sakamoto said: "Can you imagine sitting at home and watching the Olympics on this baby?"
While the enormous television was greeted with glee by gadget enthusiasts, environmental campaigners were less impressed, claiming it will guzzle up to 3,000 watts of electricity.
It is not yet clear when the televisions will be available in the UK, but they will go on sale in the US this year. Other products unveiled at the fair included a digital photo frame slim enough to fit into a wallet and a self-tuning electric guitar.
By Emily Dugan
Published: 08 January 2008
Toshihiro Sakamoto, president of Panasonic AVC Networks introduces what the company calls the world's largest flat panel television (Reuters) Watching Match of The Day will never be the same again after the unveiling in Las Vegas yesterday of the world's biggest plasma television.
The 150-inch (3.75m) Panasonic widescreen TV, which stands 6ft tall, will enable viewers to watch everything in life-size.
But because of its huge size, the screen can only be comfortably watched from a distance of at least 30ft, making it too big to install in most living rooms. And with an expected price tag of £50,000, the giant TV will be beyond the spending power of most consumers.
The screen, dubbed the "Life Panel", was the star attraction on the opening day of the world's biggest consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronic Society International trade fair.
The television trumps the previous record size television – Sony's 108-inch model – by 42 inches.
Unveiling the television, Panasonic's president Toshihiro Sakamoto said: "Can you imagine sitting at home and watching the Olympics on this baby?"
While the enormous television was greeted with glee by gadget enthusiasts, environmental campaigners were less impressed, claiming it will guzzle up to 3,000 watts of electricity.
It is not yet clear when the televisions will be available in the UK, but they will go on sale in the US this year. Other products unveiled at the fair included a digital photo frame slim enough to fit into a wallet and a self-tuning electric guitar.
All eyes on Tatas' Rs $2,550.00 car
All eyes on Tatas' Rs 1 lakh car
8 Jan 2008, 0211 hrs IST,Adil Jal Darukhanawala
Around noon on January 10 at the Pragati Maidan, Ratan Tata will take the covers off the car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry
Around noon on January 10, the massive Tata Motors pavilion at the Pragati Maidan would be the place to be, if you are a chronicler of history or an industry specialist or just a plain automotive enthusiast. At that time Ratan Tata will take the covers off the Tata people's car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry for its sheer concept and execution since the better part of a decade.
The obvious need to provide a more stable, safe and protective set of basic transportation at an affordable price point to the Indian masses who prefer to be astride a two-wheeler was what got the Tata car project going in 1997. The genesis for this car took in a lakh as inspiration, one hundred thousand rupees ($2,500.00) being the target selling point and the team went to work, conjuring up an all weather car with seating for four and with a modicum of performance allied to low operating costs.
Earlier it was perceived that the car would be go down the same route as some microcar makers had shown, bare bones basic and almost akin to a four-wheeled autorickshaw. However all that changed midway through the project when Tata decided, in the face of zealous skepticism and also the apparent living in denial allegations from other more illustrious car makers that such a car could even be thought of at the price point outlined. Out went an easy approach to doing a four-wheeled autorickshaw and in came strong design and processes which went beyond prevailing thought.
Reinventing the manufacturing process (and minimizing that as well) was one mantra to meeting the rigid six figure price point while innovative product design and packaging brought its own worth to the table. A third aspect—as important as meeting the price and mission objective—was getting component makers to also question and challenge all prevailing work and design approaches and come out with practical solutions that were logical, contemporary and effective without being overly complex.
What will be revealed on January 10 will be a properly designed and built car which could have been done by any other car maker in the world but they shied away from this. Credit the team led by Ratan Tata for sticking doggedly to their task and beavering away for almost a decade to come up with what promises to be the most cost effective people's car in the history of the automobile. On this count itself India has shown the way forward and while many lived in outright skepticism of this, only know is there grudging recognition form the majority behind the viability of such a car. Of course strong praise has come forth from none other Renault's Carlos Ghosn, the man who knows all about value engineering and cost shredding. Ghosn has been the first within the international automotive world to have seconded Tata's concept and given it the ultimate accolade by announcing a rival to it!
Yes, Auto Expo 2008 will be notable for the spate of small cars and small car announcements from domestic and global players. The Tata people's car will dominate mindspace but there will be strong stuff from many other OEMs as well. Fiat Auto will be showing off its small car skills with the Grande Punto and Linea saloon which will get an Indian-premiere at the expo on January 9.
Both these models will be made in India later in 2008 but the interesting bit is that Fiat would also be bringing in its Cinquecento city car and the Bravo as CBUs in the second quarter of the year. Alfa Romeo is already mentioned but the bigger story on the Italian front would be an announcement of the Prancing Horse getting ready to gallop in India.
The author is editor-in-chief, auto, Times Internet Ltd
8 Jan 2008, 0211 hrs IST,Adil Jal Darukhanawala
Around noon on January 10 at the Pragati Maidan, Ratan Tata will take the covers off the car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry
Around noon on January 10, the massive Tata Motors pavilion at the Pragati Maidan would be the place to be, if you are a chronicler of history or an industry specialist or just a plain automotive enthusiast. At that time Ratan Tata will take the covers off the Tata people's car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry for its sheer concept and execution since the better part of a decade.
The obvious need to provide a more stable, safe and protective set of basic transportation at an affordable price point to the Indian masses who prefer to be astride a two-wheeler was what got the Tata car project going in 1997. The genesis for this car took in a lakh as inspiration, one hundred thousand rupees ($2,500.00) being the target selling point and the team went to work, conjuring up an all weather car with seating for four and with a modicum of performance allied to low operating costs.
Earlier it was perceived that the car would be go down the same route as some microcar makers had shown, bare bones basic and almost akin to a four-wheeled autorickshaw. However all that changed midway through the project when Tata decided, in the face of zealous skepticism and also the apparent living in denial allegations from other more illustrious car makers that such a car could even be thought of at the price point outlined. Out went an easy approach to doing a four-wheeled autorickshaw and in came strong design and processes which went beyond prevailing thought.
Reinventing the manufacturing process (and minimizing that as well) was one mantra to meeting the rigid six figure price point while innovative product design and packaging brought its own worth to the table. A third aspect—as important as meeting the price and mission objective—was getting component makers to also question and challenge all prevailing work and design approaches and come out with practical solutions that were logical, contemporary and effective without being overly complex.
What will be revealed on January 10 will be a properly designed and built car which could have been done by any other car maker in the world but they shied away from this. Credit the team led by Ratan Tata for sticking doggedly to their task and beavering away for almost a decade to come up with what promises to be the most cost effective people's car in the history of the automobile. On this count itself India has shown the way forward and while many lived in outright skepticism of this, only know is there grudging recognition form the majority behind the viability of such a car. Of course strong praise has come forth from none other Renault's Carlos Ghosn, the man who knows all about value engineering and cost shredding. Ghosn has been the first within the international automotive world to have seconded Tata's concept and given it the ultimate accolade by announcing a rival to it!
Yes, Auto Expo 2008 will be notable for the spate of small cars and small car announcements from domestic and global players. The Tata people's car will dominate mindspace but there will be strong stuff from many other OEMs as well. Fiat Auto will be showing off its small car skills with the Grande Punto and Linea saloon which will get an Indian-premiere at the expo on January 9.
Both these models will be made in India later in 2008 but the interesting bit is that Fiat would also be bringing in its Cinquecento city car and the Bravo as CBUs in the second quarter of the year. Alfa Romeo is already mentioned but the bigger story on the Italian front would be an announcement of the Prancing Horse getting ready to gallop in India.
The author is editor-in-chief, auto, Times Internet Ltd
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