Team Selection Committee holds second meeting of 2019
On Monday, members of Florida Citrus Sports’ Team Selection Committee held their second meeting of 2019, as representatives shared their road reports from more than 20 scouting trips during Week 3 and Week 4 of the season.
Chris McLeod led off this week’s presentations with a recap of his and Benjamin Hankins’ trip to Charlottesville for the Cavaliers’ win over Florida State in Week 3.
“The crowd was exceptional,” McLeod said. “They were pumped, and this is quite a team. I think the committee, as well as everybody else in the decision making process for the Camping World Bowl, should really take a long and hard look.”
Bill “Roto” Reuter followed McLeod with a presentation detailing the trip he and his son, Logan, made to Morgantown for West Virginia’s win over North Carolina State.
“What a great place to scout,” Reuter said. “Those guys love us — they’ve been here a couple times in the past few years — and that place is so intimate, so we were really looking forward to going there. It was a phenomenal, phenomenal, environment.”
Over the Big 12 and Big Ten, Dennis Donath visited Iowa State with Brent Muller for the Cyclones’ loss to Iowa.
“I’ve been on the committee for 18 years, and I’ll tell you, it’s one of the top five tailgates I’ve seen,” Donath said of the crowd in Ames. “The atmosphere was great, and Iowa State is a hidden gem. The student section was incredible. They had to force them out of the student section during the lightning delays, and they all came back for the second half of the game.”
In State College, Pat and Karen Connors were on hand for Penn State’s win over Pitt in Week 3, and Pat Connors raved about his experience on the Nittany Lions’ campus.
“This was a bucket list type of game for us,” said Connors, a Big Ten team host during Penn State’s visit to Orlando for the 2019 VRBO Citrus Bowl. “We joined the organization in 2006 at Feast on the 50, and this was on our list for many, many years.”
Elsewhere in Week 3, Dan Eckhart and Mike Thomas paid a visit to East Lansing for Arizona State-Michigan State and Stuart Farb attended Florida-Kentucky in Lexington with Michael Moyano, who drove in from Louisville to cover the game.
“With Kentucky being here last year, they were extremely thrilled to see us again,” Farb said of the reigning Citrus Bowl champs. “And the total indication is that they would love to come back.”
Following Farb, Chuck Ingram led off the Week 4 presentations with a recap of his visit to Tallahassee for Florida State-Louisville with Juan Murcia, and was followed by Gabe DeJesus, who traveled to Lawrence for Kansas-West Virginia on Saturday.
“The weather was terrible, but despite that, there was a good amount of tailgating going on at The Hill, at the south end of the stadium,” DeJesus said. “(Kansas) put together a program where I met with the athletic director, met with (ESPN broadcaster) Mike Golic, Jr., they took us down to the field, and to the premium seating area.”
Jeff Arnold then detailed his and Jay Van Heyde’s trip to Athens for Georgia’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday — “If there was grass anywhere, there were people in tents sitting on it,” Arnold said — and Eric Eide closed out the reports with a recap of his and Bill Staiger’s trip to Oxford for Cal’s win over Ole Miss.
“There was a controversial ending that kind of put a damper on the game,” Eide said of the much-discussed finish. “Everyone left very quietly if they were wearing Ole Miss blue and red.”
The next Team Selection Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 7. The Team Selection Committee is an all-volunteer community that represents Florida Citrus Sports at games across the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12, and participation is open to all active members. To learn more about membership options, visit our memberships page.