The Macon Telegraph from Macon, Georgia • 205

Sunday Aug 20 1995 The Macon Telegraph ootball 55 ootball The Associated Press JACKSONVILLE la Back in April the field was a muddy quagmire overrun with tractors and trucks the aisles were ut tered with cardboard and wiring and stray paper oiew in me wina Railings had yet to be fastened down only two tight towers had been hoistea mto place and a huge crane hovered over the stands in the south end zone obscuring the view ot the St River It was hard to believe they would be play ing an ml game nere less man iuiu months This is the new Gator Bowl for lack of a better name until the customary corporate ti tle is bestowed on the $125 million home ot the Jacksonville Jaguars About 19 months ago the grimy pile of steel known as the Gator Bowl was leveled and a new stadium one built tor a genera tion that exnects cun holders on their seats and nosh restaurants and bars beneath the stands began to go up in its place Unlike their expansion brethren in North Carolina who will spend their first year play ing at a college stadium until their site in Charlotte is built the Jaguars wanted to play in their new home right from the start And make no mistake this is a new stadi um not just a renovation of the old Gator Bowl The only part of the former stadium still standing is the concrete upper deck on the west side which was added in 1982 to raise capacity to more than 80000 The rest of the stadium more than 70000 seats was demolished and even the part that was left standing is being completely re done from the new armchair seats being in stalled in the upper deck to the glass atrium where wealthy fans can make their way to club seating and luxury boxes via elevator escalator or grand stairway Workers have endured a grinding seven day a week schedule and torrential rains to bring the project to its final stage The pace seemed to have caught up with at least one handyman recently as he slept on top of a pile of sheetrock in one of the barren luxury boxes his feet resting on a yet to be installed window frame we started they (the Jaguars) know exactly who they were going to hire as offensive coaches and defensive coaches and strength coaches all these different said Don Nickell overseeing the con struction for the work for Haskell each of those people came in they had their own set of ideas about how they wanted i their space Three practice fields will be built next year I when a nearby paint warehouse is demol shed in the meantime two temporary fields have been set up in a fiiture parking lot just in time for a weekend mini camp HOK Sport the architectural firm that drew raves for baseball parks like Camden Yards that combine old fashioned charm and modem conveniences concern itself with designing football stadiums modeled af ter classics like Soldier ield or the Los Ange les Coliseum I NL fan is not interested in the nostal I gia aspects of said Jack Boyle project manager for the new I stadium wants to see them play in I the mud anymore Nobody wants to see them wear leather Besides this a new WT market in a state where the nro same is still relatively new lorida they have that great his 1 torical reference for design like the would in the North and the Boyle said ans will eniov new i a i or dowi Local NL players Player Team CdlegeHS Anthony Abrams DL Washington Warner Robins Scott Adams OL Chicago Georgia Eddie Anderson DB Oakland fort Valley St William Bell RB Washington Georgia Tech George Brewer DT Atlanta Georgia Gary Brown OL Green Bay Georgia Tech Kevin Butler Chicago Georgia Willie Clay DB Detroit Georgia Tech Marco Coleman DL Miami Georgia Tech Jamal Cox LB Chicago Georgia Tech Antone Davis OL Philadelphia Peach Co Terrell Davis RB Denver Georgia Ray Donaldson Dallas Georgia Lethon lowers RB Pittsburgh Georgia Tech Russell reeman OL Denver Georgia Tech' Bill Goldberg DT Carolina Georgia Rodney Hampton RB NY Giants Georgia Hason Graham WR New England Georgia rank Harvey RB Cleveland Georgia Andre Hastings WR Pittsburgh Georgia Garrison Hearst RB Arizona Georgia Terry Hoage DB Arizona Georgia Al Jackson CB Jacksonville Georgia Preston Jones QB Atlanta Georgia Shawn Jones DB Minnesota Georgia Tech Jon Kasay Carolina Georgia Dorsey Levens RB Green Bay Georgia Tech Mo Lewis LB NY Jets Georgia Nate Lewis KR Atlanta Georgia Greg Lloyd LB Pittsburgh fort Valley St David Lutz OL Detroit Georgia Tech Arthur Marshall WR NY Giants Georgia Guy McIntyre Philadelphia Georgia Shannon Mitchell WR San Diego Georgia Todd Peterson Seattle Georgia Mark Pike DL Buffalo Georgia Tech Tyrone Poole DB Carolina fort Valley St Coleman Rudolph DL NY Giants Georgia Tech Troy Sadcwski IE Cincinnati Georgia Charlie Simmons WR Green Bay Georgia Tech Scott Sisson Jacksonville Georgia Tech Ben Smith CB Denver Georgia Rod Stephens LB Washington Georgia Tech red Stokes DL St Louis Ga Southern Rick Strom QB Buffalo Georgia Tech Mack Strong RB Seattle Georgia Pat Swilling IB Detroit Georgia Tech Larry Tharpe DB Arizona Southwest Greg Tremble DB Dallas Georgia Herschel Walker RB NY Giants Georgja Rodney Wilkerson LB Miami Georgia Tech Bernard Williams Philadelphia Georgia Tim Worley RB Chicago Georgia Carlos Yancy CB New England Georgia Eric Zeier QB Cleveland Georgia we actually try to do is create a signature: ev erything from color to palm trees and every thing in ans who attended the Aug 18 home exhi bition opener against the St Lottis Lajus found a teal dominated stadium with all the standard amenities plus some unique fea tures Unlike other new stadiums where the high priced club seats usually ring the entire stadium between the upper and lower decks 10000 club seats are concen trated entirely in the bottom level between the 30 yard lines The scoreboards at each end will be among the largest in the NL: 60 feet tall and 156 feet wide nearly the width of the field The scoreboard in the south end zone will be placed on four huge metal towers weft behind the seats which are lower on that side to af ford a view of the river that cuts through the heart of the city going to be Nickell prom ised Bowl alliance ends full day of football The most important shopping day of the year? The day after Thanksgiving The most important day of the year for flower sales? Day The most important day for watching college football on television? It used to be New Day The bowl alliance that goes into effect this season uses a staggered schedule for the ma jor bowls The Sugar Bowl will be played on New Eve the Orange and Rose bowls on New Day and the iesta Bowl for the national championship on Jan 2 In other words no more surfing the college football scene for 12 hours of football until you tell Keith Jackson from Bo Jack son On Jan 1 1996 you will have the opportu nity to watch six bowl games (possibly five the Gator Bowl doesn't yet have a TV deal) from 11 am to about midnight The game that matters most though will be the iesta Bowl On Jan 2 The disturbing part about this schedule is that it pushes college football closer to becom ing indistinguishable from the NL Each year the pros point to Super Bowl Sunday as the highlight of the television season Are we ready for National Championship Night? Last year there were seven bowl games on Jan 2 The game that determined the na tional title (Nebraska over Miami in the Or ange Bowl) was played the previous night But from 1991 93 there were eight bowl games on Jan 1 and the game each year that determined the national title was played at night Also on the airwaves this fall: WMAZ AM (910) will not broadcast Atlan ta alcons games for the first time in the 30 year history According to WMAZ general manager Jim McLendon the alcons new network refused to allow WMAZ to pre empt the football games on Sunday for Braves baseball WMAZ will broadcast Jack sonville Jaguar games live or on a tapedelay when the Braves play on Sunday afternoon Georgia football games will remain on WMAZ WWIQ (965) in Macon and WYIQ (1025) in Warner Robins have agreed to broadcast alcons games It is the first time that alcons games have been on an sta tion locally Longtime Atlanta television and radio personality Bob Neal returns as the play by play announcer He called al cons games from 1975 to 1981 ormer Atlan ta All Pro lineman Bill ralic will provide col or commentary NL fans in Middle Georgia will have the opportunity to see the fast moving hour long ox pregame show Last year when ox games were shown on WGXA the pregame show was prompted for college shows The first year team of announcers re turns with studio host James Brown and ana lysts Terry Bradshaw Howie Long and Jim my Johnson The show can be seen each Sunday at noon on WPG A Channel 58 A standard highlight is analysis of a play using a 20 yard field in the studio Other networks have responded to success will start at 10:45 am Sundays and CNN has length ened its Sunday Preview" to an hour TNT named Vince Cellini the host of its ootball pregame show that will air Sundays from 7 8 pm before the net TVRadio Ivan Aronin nine games starting Sept 3 ox will keep its No 1 announcing team of Pat Summerall and John Madden in their 15th year together intact NBC has added Paul Maguire and Phil Simms to its top team with Dick Enterg TNT will proba bly replace play by play man Gary Bender who left to join the Rams with Verne Lund quist No radio station in Macon will broadcast Georgia Tech football Three members of the Tech football network in Middle Georgia are in Dublin (WXLI AM) Milledgeville (WMVG AM) and Sandersville (WSNT M) Top five college games: Tennessee at lorida Sept 16 3:30 pm ABC A lot of points are always scored in this game that will establish early who is the team to beat in the SEC East Miami at lorida State Oct 7 7:30 pm ESPN Who cares who wins? Who cares ranked? The intensity of the rivalry is enough to reserve a good seat on the couch early Albany State at Savannah State Oct 7 3:30 pm SportSouth Both Albany State the two time defending SIAC champion and Savannah State should be unbeaten in con ference play entering this game Southern Cal at Notre Dame Oct 21 2:30 pm NBC In its first six games South ern Cal plays San Jose State and Houston and the soft part of its Pac 10 schedule The Irish warm up for this game by playing Washington and Army on the road SEC Championship Game Dec 2 8 pm ABC lorida finally gets to play a school other than Alabama on its way to a major bowl berth The game loses some ap peal in that the winner automatically go to the Sugar Bowl but a iesta Bowl bid possible ive best pro games: Green Bay at Chicago Sept 11 9 pm ABC The Packers will find out soon if they are still a prime time attraction without Ster ling Sharpe Atlanta at New Orleans Sept 17 1 pm ox The NC West rivalry deepened during the offseason with the free agent exchange of kickers Playing early in the season should help the teams remember that San rancisco at Dallas Nov 12 4 pm ox this the only game that matters? The Cowboys have won the past two games of the series played in Texas Stadium San rancisco at Miami Nov 20 9 pm ABC Is this Dan Marino's final fling against a defense that could include four Pro Bowl ers? New England at Pittsburgh Dec 23 12:30 pm NBC The game to determine homefield advantage for the AC playoffs.