Despite laying dormant since 1992, The Cal State Fullerton Titan Football program continues to demonstrate success in 2010.
Since the end of the 2009 NFL regular season, there has been much speculation that Head Coach of the Oakland Raiders, formers assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton Tom Cable, would be retained or terminated by owner Al Davis. No matter what the future holds for Cable, signs are pointing that he will return to coach the Raiders next season with a familiar face calling the offensive plays.
Numerous media outlets have come out reporting that Baltimore Ravens Quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson will accept a three year contract to be the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders. The move reunites Cable and Jackson who were first introduced to each other on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. Jackson coached the Titans running backs while Cable was coach of the offensive line in 1990. Cable and Jackson also coached together in 1996 while serving on Steve Mariucci’s staff at California-Berkley. Mariucci also has ties to Cal State Fullerton in that his first coaching job was on Gene Murphy’s staff as an assistant.
Although Jackson was a running backs coach during his stint with Titan Football, he has developed his reputation as an outstanding teacher of quarterbacks. It is this successful track record of developing young quarterbacks that may have been the major appeal to bring on Jackson. JaMarcus Russell, the former No. 1 overall selection in the 2007 NFL Draft, is widely considered a draft bust. It is believed that Al Davis believes Russell can develop into a quality NFL quarterback and may be enlisting Jackson to be the catalyst to that end. Jackson will have his work cut out for him. In three years in the NFL, Russell has completed 52.1% of his passes, thrown 18 touchdowns compared to 23 interceptions and has been sacked 70 times. Russell’s quarterback rating is a lackluster 65.2 over his brief career. (158.3 is a perfect QB rating)
Come next season it is very likely that a third Titan Football alumnus will be on the field with Jackson and Cable but as an NFL official. Todd Prukop served as a back judge on Mike Carey’s NFL officiating crew in 2009. Prukop played safety for the Titans in the late 1980′s after being recruited out of Servite High School.
Prukop’s first year as an NFL official may have flown under the radar had he not been involved in a high profile game between the Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles. In that game, Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley believed he was interfered with and complained to Prukop that a penalty flag was not thrown. Prukop gestured to Stokley to head to the sidelines and the incomplete pass resulted in a fourth down. Out of frustration, Stokley swung his arm in the direction of Prukop and made contact with his hand, slapping it back. Prukop then threw his penalty flag, this time for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Stokley for striking an official. Referee Mike Carey who has also ejected the most players in the league among current referees, made the decision to eject Stokley for striking Prukop despite the contact being unintentional. The video can be seen below:
Football fans and supporters of the movement to Bring Back Titan Football are encouraged to attend a tailgate party this Saturday, October 3, 2009. The show of support will be held at Titan Stadium on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. Fans are encouraged to bring their own grills, coolers, food and beverages and to meet in Lot G.
Facebook Groups Created To Help Bring Back Titan Football
When it comes to social networking, Facebook and Twitter have dominated the online scene lately. (Sorry MySpace, you had a good run but your time is up.) Naturally the effort to Bring Back Titan Football has evolved with the times and we are happy to announce that two Facebook groups have been created to help promote this cause.
The first group you should be aware of is Titan Football History – Cal State Fullerton. This Facebook group is dedicated to sharing photos, news clippings, testimonials and the overall history of Titan Football. Because the program has been suspended since 1992 some of the history could potentially be lost forever. This Facebook group is dedicated to ensure that although the football program at Cal State Fullerton may not be active its rich tradition and history will never be forgotten. If you have some history to share or would like to learn more about Titan Football the way it was, please join this Facebook group.
The other Facebook group of interest to Titan Football supporters is the Bring Back Football to the BIG WEST CONFERENCE! group. The lion’s share of current sports at Cal State Fullerton participate in the Big West Conference. Prior to the Titan Football program suspension, Cal State Fullerton played in the Big West Conference against other Big West Conference schools like Long Beach State, University of Pacific, Utah State, UNLV, Fresno State among others. Many of those schools that formerly played football in the Big West Conference have either moved on to other conferences. i.e. San Jose State moving to the WAC and UNLV going to the Mountain West Conference. Other schools that have remained in the Big West Conference like Long Beach State, Pacific and Cal State Fullerton of course, have dropped their football programs completely. The Big West as it stands today is a conference that fields 18 sports (eight men’s and 10 women’s) but only two of its member institutions have football. (UC Davis and Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo are forced to play football in the the Great West Conference for football but the Big West for all other sports.)
This Facebook group was created to encourage the leaders in the Big West Conference to consider bringing back football as a sport it sanctions. With two member institutions already fielding football teams the other member schools like Fullerton, Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, etc. would either need to bring back their respective teams or create a team from scratch. The benefit of bringing football back to the Big West Conference would be the cost benefit to the member schools. Since the Big West Conference member schools are all located in California, travel costs (which are a major expense for any college football team) would be greatly reduced. Both UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO have to travel to North Dakota, South Dakota and Southern Utah to play games within their conference. These road trips all require air travel which is much more expensive than bus travel. If the Big West were to bring back football as a sanctioned sport and member institutions brought back football many of these long road trips requiring air travel could be eliminated.
Please feel free to to join the Bring Back Football to the BIG WEST CONFERENCE! Facebook group and join the discussion with other fans on how to convince the leaders this is a good idea.
Lastly, we mentioned Twitter has become the newest way for those online or via their mobile device to stay connected with those people or organizations they deem important. By Simply “following” someone’s Twitter account you can get the latest updates on what they are doing or where they are. A new Twitter account, @CSUFfootball, has been created to update the masses on all things Titan Football related. Registering for a Twitter account is free so sign up and follow @CSUFfootball for up to the minute updates.
Bring Back Titan Football!