College football notes: Sacramento State players express their right to vote
Bouncing around the football regions, near and far:
Get your vote on
Sacramento State will not suit up for a football season until next fall, but the Hornets are not idle. Players continue to condition and they’re using their voice to encourage people to vote.
Hornets quarterback Jake Dunniway is a member of Sac State’s Social Justice Task Force. The school has nearly all of its student-athletes registered to vote, including the entire football program.
Sac State students and any members of the public can vote on campus.
“We want to spread awareness and unity without telling people how to vote,” Dunniway said. “Our vote, your vote, any vote can be the driving force of how society will look the next few years. We as voters have a voice and can be heard.”
Sac State coach Troy Taylor said he regrets not voting until after his Cal football playing days in the 1980s, that being too busy wasn’t an excuse.
”It’s great that so many of our student-athletes are voting,” Taylor said. “My wife Tracey and I were talking about that how we can all make a difference. The best thing is to remind students that it is their democratic right to vote and to utilize that vote. If you’re unhappy with how things are, fine, then try to make something positive out of it and vote.”
Jonah stinger
Jonah Williams of Folsom High School football fame is used to doling out the hurt, but the second-year Cincinnati Bengals left tackle missed practice this week with a neck stinger suffered in a 37-34 loss to Cleveland.
Williams entered the weekend as day-to-day. He was a star at Folsom and a three-year starter in the trenches at Alabama before becoming the first offensive lineman drafted in the 2019 draft, going 11th overall, and area prep coaches wonder if he isn’t the most dominant player they have encountered.
UTEP 3-step; and COVID-19 delays
UTEP’s roster includes two Jesuit products in quarterback Calvin Brownholtz and receiver Josh Farr; there’s also Folsom offensive lineman Tucker Dunbar, so they’re like hands fitting in the same glove.
But the team’s 3-3 start includes a stall. The Miners’ game against North Texas scheduled for Halloween night has been postponed, with the North Texas athletic department citing the surging cases of COVID-19 in El Paso.
UTEP President Heather Wilson said in a statement Tuesday, “We are disappointed that North Texas has chosen not to come to El Paso for the football game this weekend. We have a safe place to play and no players who are sick or in isolation, and North Texas has not indicated that any of their players are ill. We made the decision earlier (Tuesday) not to allow fans in the stadium.”
Udoffia out
The only player that Sac State lost from its football program was one who never even pulled on a Hornets helmet.
Tre Udoffia of Del Oro roots was a graduate transfer from Colorado, where he played four seasons in the secondary. The defensive back wanted to squeeze out one more season, near home, but opted not to pursue that now that Sac State will not play a spring schedule.
He is now in the workforce, Colorado degree in hand.