Connor Cook
Connor Cook (born January 29, 1993) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans and was their starting quarterback from 2013 to 2015. He holds the record for most career wins at Michigan State. Cook was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders. After initially serving as the third-string backup to Derek Carr and Matt McGloin, Cook played in his first NFL game in the Raiders' last regular season game of the 2016 NFL season after Carr and McGloin suffered injuries. Following this, he was named the starter for the Raiders' playoff game against the Houston Texans and became the first quarterback in NFL history to make his first career start in a playoff game. Early years Cook was born in Parma Heights, Ohio, on January 29, 1993. Cook is from an athletic family: His father, Chris, played football at Indiana; his mother, Donna, played basketball at Cincinnati; and his older sister, Jackie, pl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually considered the leader of the offense, and is often responsible for calling the play in the huddle. The quarterback also touches the ball on almost every offensive play, and is almost always the offensive player that throws forward passes. When the QB is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, it is called a sack. Overview In modern American football, the starting quarterback is usually the leader of the offense, and their successes and failures can have a significant impact on the fortunes of their team. Accordingly, the quarterback is among the most glorified, scrutinized, and highest-paid positions in team sports. ''Bleacher Report'' describes the signing of a starting quarterback as a Catch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2015 Cotton Bowl Classic (January)
The 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2015 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The 79th Cotton Bowl Classic was one of the "New Year's Six" bowls of the College Football Playoff. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that concluded the 2014 FBS football season. The game kicked off at 12:30 PM EST and was broadcast on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio and XM Satellite Radio. It was sponsored by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and was officially known as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. From 1997 to 2013, the Cotton Bowl Classic pitted Big 12 Conference and Southeastern Conference teams against each other. In 2014, Michigan State was runner-up in the Big Ten Conference's East Division, and Baylor was Big 12 co-champion with TCU. After falling behind by 20 points, Michigan State staged a dramatic comeback in the fourth quarter to beat Baylor by a score of 42–41. This was the highest scoring Cotton Bowl ever, and the fourth bowl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2016 NFL Draft
The 2016 NFL Draft was the 81st annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft began on Thursday, April 28 with the first round, and ended on Saturday, April 30. The Tennessee Titans, the team with the fewest wins in the NFL for the 2015 season, traded the right to the top pick in the draft to the Los Angeles Rams, the first time the top pick was traded before the draft since 2001 when the San Diego Chargers traded their first pick to the Atlanta Falcons. Ohio State became the second school to have three players drafted in the top ten and to have five players drafted in the first round. Early entrants Ninety-six underclassmen announced their intention to enter the 2016 NFL Draft as underclassmen, which primarily include juniors and redshirt sophomores who are forgoing future years of college eligibility. In order ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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College Football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most other sports in North America, no official minor league farm organizations exist in American or Canadian football. Therefore, college football is generally considered to be the second tier of American and Canadian football; one step ahead of high school competition, and one step below professional competition (the NFL). In some areas of the US, especially the South and the Midwest, college football is more popular than professional football, and for much of the 20th century college football was seen as more prestigious. A player's performance in college football directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will typically declare for the professional draft after three to four years of collegia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually considered the leader of the offense, and is often responsible for calling the play in the huddle. The quarterback also touches the ball on almost every offensive play, and is almost always the offensive player that throws forward passes. When the QB is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, it is called a sack. Overview In modern American football, the starting quarterback is usually the leader of the offense, and their successes and failures can have a significant impact on the fortunes of their team. Accordingly, the quarterback is among the most glorified, scrutinized, and highest-paid positions in team sports. ''Bleacher Report'' describes the signing of a starting quarterback as a Catch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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American Football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the Glossary of American football#drive, drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins. American foot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Passer Rating
Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL), and the other used in NCAA football. Passer rating is calculated using a player's passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions. Passer rating in the NFL is on a scale from 0 to 158.3. Passing efficiency in college football is on a scale from −731.6 to 1261.6. Since 1973, passer rating has been the official formula used by the NFL to determine its passing leader. Passer rating is sometimes colloquially referred to as “quarterback rating” or “QB rating”, however the statistic applies only to passing (not to other contributions by a quarterback) and applies to any player at any position who throws a forward pass, not just to quarterbacks. History Before the devel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Passing Yards
The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see '' Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K A punt, place kick, or drop kick L M N O P Q R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Interceptions
In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team but caught by a player of the team on defense, who thereby usually gains possession of the ball for their team. It is commonly seen in football, including American and Canadian football, as well as association football, rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules football and Gaelic football, as well as any sport by which a loose object is passed between players toward a goal. In basketball, a pick is called a steal. American/Canadian football In American football and Canadian football, an interception occurs when a forward pass that has not yet touched the ground is caught by a player of the opposing defensive team. This leads to an immediate change of possession during the play, and the defender who caught the ball can immediately ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Touchdowns
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In American football, a touchdown is worth six points and is followed by an extra point or two-point conversion attempt. Description To score a touchdown, one team must take the football into the opposite end zone. In all gridiron codes, the touchdown is scored the instant the ball touches or "breaks" the plane of the front of the goal line (that is, if any part of the ball is in the space on, above, or across the goal line) while in the possession of a player whose team is trying to score in that end zone. This particular requirement of the touchdown differs from other sports in which points are scored by moving a ball or equivalent object into a goal where the whole of the relevant object must cross the whole of the goal line for a score to be aw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Percentage
In mathematics, a percentage (from la, per centum, "by a hundred") is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted using the percent sign, "%", although the abbreviations "pct.", "pct" and sometimes "pc" are also used. A percentage is a dimensionless number (pure number); it has no unit of measurement. Examples For example, 45% (read as "forty-five per cent") is equal to the fraction , the ratio 45:55 (or 45:100 when comparing to the total rather than the other portion), or 0.45. Percentages are often used to express a proportionate part of a total. (Similarly, one can also express a number as a fraction of 1,000, using the term " per mille" or the symbol "".) Example 1 If 50% of the total number of students in the class are male, that means that 50 out of every 100 students are male. If there are 500 students, then 250 of them are male. Example 2 An increase of $0.15 on a price of $2.50 is an increase by a fraction of = 0.06. Expressed a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
The 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, the 24th edition of the game, was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 29, 2012 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona as part of the 2012–13 NCAA Bowl season. The game was telecast at 8:15 p.m. MT on ESPN. It featured the Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten Conference against the TCU Horned Frogs of the Big 12 Conference. Down 13-0 at the half, the Spartans rallied back to win 17-16, having taken the lead for good with only 1:01 remaining in the contest. Teams This game marked the second meeting of the two teams. Their first meeting was in 1953, which the Spartans won 26-19. The Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl had fourth selection of Big Ten teams and third selection of Big 12 teams, both after BCS selections. From the Big Ten, conference champion Wisconsin (Rose), Nebraska (Capital One), Michigan (Outback), and Northwestern (Gator) were already selected, and Penn State and Ohio State were ineligible due to N ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |