Sunday Morning Reading Room: Marshal Yanda, Tyler Sash, more

Only guard Marshal Yanda of Iowa has stood out on the Baltimore Ravens' offensive line this season.

Says who? Says Associated Press in this preview of Sunday's Ravens-New England Patriots AFC title game.

A passage from Carroll County Times writer Bob Blubaugh suggests Yanda was trying to be a diplomat, but Ravens safety Ed Reed didn't help his team by criticizing Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco and the team's offensive line.

"Ed wouldn't do anything to be detrimental to the team a week before we play the AFC Championship game," Yanda said.

The other former Hawkeye in Sunday's conference finals is safety Tyler Sash of the New York Giants. Sash is one of 11 rookies on the Giants.

I never heard of FootballOutsiders.com before I started searching around the Web for items on Saturday, but that fine site put Sash on its 2011 NFL All-Rookie team. ,,, at gunner.

Giants veteran punter Steve Weatherford felt the need to post a photo of Sash on Twitter as the team flew to San Francisco for the NFL championship game.

More Twitter: Sash and actor Cuba Gooding Jr. sat together at a New York Knicks game this week.

In more serious matters, the New York Times had a long weekend piece entitled "How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life."

The premise isn't new, but it's an interesting piece with plenty of sources and information. Some nuggets that interested me:

At Oregon, statistics show the more successful the Ducks' football team, the more goofing off is done by the school's students.

Of the 600 Duke students who study abroad each year, only 100 do so in the spring ... basketball season.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

A few years ago, the “Big Red Welcome” for new University of Nebraska students began including a special treat: the chance to replicate the football team's famed “tunnel walk,” jogging along the snaking red carpet below Memorial Stadium, then crashing through the double doors onto the field (though without the 86,000 fans).

When Kirk Kluver, assistant dean for admissions at Nebraska's College of Law, set up his information table at recruiting fairs last year, a student in Minnesota let him know he would “check out Nebraska now that you are part of the Big 10.” He got the same reaction in Arizona. Mr. Kluver said applications last fall were up 20 percent, while law school applications nationally fell 10 percent.

Joe Philbin was introduced as the Miami Dolphins' head coach Saturday. It's been nine years since he was Iowa's offensive line coach (from 1999 through 2002), but he did an excellent job at that before beginning his nine-year stint on the Green Bay Packers' coaching staff. Eric Steinbach, Bruce Nelson and Robert Gallery got college coaching from Philbin. That says quite a bit in itself.