He’s been in the shadow of his brother Carson for most of his career, but UTEP quarterback Jordan Palmer is quietly preparing for a big senior season.

He ranks first in UTEP history in passing yardage (7,489), touchdowns (62), completions (569), attempts (998), efficiency (130.53) and 300-yard games (10) and is UTEP’s all-time total offense leader with 7,532 yards, averaging 221.5 per game.

I’m not sure what the NCAA record is for combined career passing statistics by two brothers (the Mannings are probably at the top), but the Palmers are probably in the top five.

I had a chance to catch up with Palmer recently following his time at the Elite 11 quarterback camp, where he was part of a group of counselors that included Troy Smith, Drew Stanton, Tyler Palko, JaMarcus Russell, Trent Edwards and Mark Sanchez. At 6-5 and 235 pounds, he is almost a dead ringer for his brother physically and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

HP: How are things looking for you and the Miners heading into 2006?

JP: I’m really excited about this season. We have 28 seniors, which is probably a little more than most teams have. We’ve been real productive this summer–we’ve had perfect attendance and no one has missed any workouts.

I’ve had a lot of fun in my time here and I want to end it right. It’s my last time with these guys.

HP: Have you made any effort to be more of a leader this season?

JP: There’s been leadership everywhere on this team. I’ve been able to sort of sit back and work on things to get better.

HP: What have you been working on to get better?

JP: Well, I need to work on my decision making and keeping my turnovers down. It’s not something you can really practice in the offseason, just in the games themselves. But I’ve tried to become more disciplined with my reads and am working on trying not to do too much when I am out there.

HP: Give me some of the names on UTEP that you think will emerge this season?

JP: I think you’ll hear about wide receiver Johnny Higgins. He’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest, receivers in the country. Also, linebacker Jeremy Jones, who comes from Northern California, is someone to really look out for. Other than that, we’ve got a lot of blue collar guys. In this conference, you need a couple marquee guys mixed in with blue collar types.

HP: Do you consider yourself a blue collar type?

JP: I think so. I try to do what everyone else does.

HP: You talked about reducing turnovers. Well, your older brother Carson was also prone to turnovers early in his career but he righted things as a senior. Have you thought about how you guys are following similar career paths?

JP: A lot of people talk about it. It’s amazing how our careers have been so similar. We both broke our collarbones early in our careers. We both had problems with turnovers. My goal is to do whatever I can to have that great senior year like he did.

HP: What did you learn from his Heisman run?

JP: The biggest thing I learned is don’t try to win it. Just play the season and do well and that stuff comes along with it. Carson never had it as one of his goals to win it until he was actually in New York. Then, when he met all the other candidates, he really wanted to win. But before that, he didn’t think about it.

HP: Do you ever get tired of being compared to him?

JP: Any younger brother has to go through that. It all started early, when we were playing T-ball. I think I’ve established my own identity though. It doesn’t bother me to be compared to him. It’s an honor, really.

HP: What do you think of this year’s Heisman race?

JP: I’m a huge college football fan, but as you know, I don’t get much of a chance to watch games unless we play on a Thursday. Then, I watch all the games on Saturday. Last year, I was an Elite 11 counselor and became good friends with the other counselors like Tyler Palko, who was my roommate, and Brad Smith, both of whom were preseason Heisman candidates. I became big fans of them and tivoed their games every week.

This year, Troy Smith was at the camp and we bonded, so I’ll probably follow him. He is definitely a top candidate that I’ll be rooting for and we’ve already talked a couple times over the weekend. Obviously, Brady (Quinn) will be a big candidate, too.

HP: You seem to make friends pretty easy at these camps.

JP: Being a college football player, you can identify with what everyone else goes through. Being a quarterback, even more so. We have a special bond and it’s easier for us to relate to each other. Me and Troy have similar stories, even if we are playing at different levels.

HP: How do you like playing in Conference USA? Are there any rivalries that get you fired up?

JP: Conference USA has grown on me. It’s a fun conference to play in because every game is a shootout. You’re not going to have many 7-6 games.

As for rivalries, I’m not a very big Tulsa fan. When we were in the WAC, I wasn’t a Boise State fan either.

HP: What’s it like to play for Mike Price?

JP: He’s a great coach to play for. I know everyone says that about their coach, but people here genuinely mean it. Coach Price trusts us and lets us do our thing. He’s a behind the scenes guy. And his offense is fun, too.

HP: Are there any more Palmers coming up through the pipeline?

JP: Nope, I’m the last one.

HP: So this will be a sentimental season for your parents then?

JP: Yeah, they’ve been to every game that Carson and I have played since Carson’s first game in 1998 against Purdue at the Coliseum. I’m excited to be opening at San Diego State, too. It will be the first time in four years that I’ve played a ‘home’ game. It’s only 45 minutes from my house.

HP: Are you looking forward to the NFL and playing against your brother?

JP: Yeah, that will be cool. Hopefully, I don’t have to play against him too much, though! His team’s pretty good.

Thanks to Jordan Palmer for taking the time to chat with us. We’ll be keeping an eye on him as the season unfolds.

Jordan Palmer is a darkhorse Heisman candidate in 2006

The Heisman conversation heats up and training camp looms in this week’s edition of The Round Up….

Maybe some of you in the Chicago area can take part in this….

Special Spectators, the Chicago-based nonprofit organization that creates magical days for seriously ill children and their families at collegiate sporting events across the United States, will be hosting a major fundraiser on August 15, 2006, at Fulton’s on the River.

The festivities begin at 6 PM and include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, a silent auction and special guest, Ivan Maisel, Senior Writer for ESPN.com. Maisel will offer his unique and often humorous insights on the upcoming college football season and guests will have the opportunity to ask about their favorite team’s outlook for the 2006 campaign.

Fulton’s on the River, voted one of Chicago’s “Best New Restaurants” by Chicago Magazine, is located at 315 N. LaSalle Street in the historic Reid Murdoch Building.

The price for this event is $125. Tickets may be purchased online by visiting www.SpecialSpectators.org.

Special Spectators, along with its collegiate partners, provides tickets to games and designs days filled with exciting surprises and experiences in and around the stadium that are not accessible to most fans. The program is designed to create fun for the entire family and provide a pause from the difficulties they face battling a loved one’s illness. Special Spectators also coordinates visits by athletes to children’s hospitals or pediatric units in order to expose them to the inspiration and reward of making a powerful contribution to the community.

Arkansas starting tailback Darren McFadden dislocated his toe in a bar fight in Little Rock and he is now out for the opener against USC on Sept. 2.

As good as McFadden is, though, I don’t think his presence would have made much of a difference in that game. Despite the prediction by some prognosticators that McFadden was set to run wild, I think Arkansas’s new offense will have a difficult time just getting on the scoreboard.

Note that the incident in question took place at 4:20 in the morning. Not 4:19, not 4:21, but 4:20. Think maybe the person who typed the police report got a kick out of that one?

Anyway, does anything good ever happen to football players after midnight?

On Thursday I had a chance to stop by Pac-10 media day, the annual event held at the LAX Sheraton.

It’s always a good time and a simple way to stock up on team media guides for free (now easier since the guides are so much smaller these days).

Some observations:

–To a man, the rest of the Pac-10 seemed very excited about USC possibly being vulnerable. Usually, people tend to be pretty optimistic at these events. But this year, everyone is starting out 0-0 instead of 0-1. Pop the cork!

–Another theme that came forth was the offensive firepower of the Pac-10.

As many of you know, I’m very interested in the evolution of offensive schemes and systems in college football and the reasons certain conferences gravitate toward distinct styles.

I wrote the following in September of 2005:

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the wide-open style of offense as a counter to quick, attacking defenses began to be utilized. The Washington and Arizona defenses of that era created havoc in the Pac-10, forcing schools in that league to go to a more multi-dimensional attack. By 1992 and 1993, Mike Riley was tutoring a 3,000-yard passer at once-run-happy USC and Washington State was spreading the field with Drew Bledsoe.

By the mid-1990s, many of the offensive innovators we see today were beginning to craft their philosophies. Jeff Tedford was helping the Oregon Ducks get on their run, while Bobby Petrino was helping Jake Plummer lead ASU to the brink of a national title. Teams that ran wide-open, sophisticated offenses were beginning to make smaller, quicker defenses defend the entire field, mostly by creating mismatches and spreading them out.

And so I saw Oregon coach Mike Belotti sitting alone at a table and I figured it was the perfect time to ask why it was that the Pac-10 had become such a cradle of innovation.

“It’s all cyclical,” said Belotti. “When I first came here, it was a defensive conference. Washington and Arizona were pretty dominant. Then we got some new coaches and better quarterbacks in place and offense started to take over. We got rid of two-back offenses and played with one back and started to spread the field out.”

But why, I asked, is this more common out West?

“I think the weather is an issue,” he offered. “Back East you have regions with wind and rain, so offenses played things a little closer to the vest. Out here, the weather is not an issue, so the offenses can be more open. There are some leagues where you can just play defense and special teams and win, but the Pac-10 isn’t one of them. It’s not that there is a lack of defense, it’s just that the quality of the offenses is just so good.”

One of the earlier tomes

Now, that’s a pretty good theory on why the West Coast styles are so wide open. But USC’s Pete Carroll doesn’t buy into it as much as he does the coaching factor.

“The coaching quality on offense in this conference is second to none,” he said between bites of a breaded chicken breast. “We have the best offensive coordinators around.”

But why do these coaches and styles seem to congregate in the Pac-10 instead of in other conferences?

“I don’t know that they do,” said Carroll, seemingly countermanding his previous statement.

Well, then, why are the offenses so good out here?

“Who knows?” he shrugged. “Perhaps its the availability of skill guys and the emphasis many of the high schools place on wide open offenses.”

Fair enough.

Another thing I’ve wondered over the past couple years is how much scheme plays a factor in offsetting the talent gap between two opponents. Last season, I thought that the Boise State scheme would enable it to compete with Georgia. Turns out I was waaaay off.

Later in the year, though, West Virginia beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl with a less-talented team thanks to a scheme that gave the Bulldogs fits. The answer, seemingly is out there, though maybe very difficult to quantify.

The coaches I talked to had very strong opinions on the matter.

“Talent is more important than scheme,” said Carroll, who would know since his teams have more talent than anyone. “Without it, you have nothing. Ideally, though, you would have both talent and scheme.”

Said Jeff Tedford: “It comes down to philosophy. Our philosophy is to try to be diverse on both offense and defense, while having really good talent.”

Added Belotti: “It’s ultimately about coaching. Talent alone does not get you there. You have to combine talent with scheme and team chemistry. The best coaches find ways to adjust the scheme to the talent.”

“Why don’t teams from conferences with great talent maximize that talent by running more wide open schemes? Why do they run this vanilla stuff?” I asked.

Belotti’s eyes twinkled with the answer, but he remained mum.

Mike Stoops of Arizona agreed with Belotti’s last statemtent, though.

“Look at Texas,” said Stoops, who was racing away to catch a plane. “They won a title once they found a way to take advantage of Vince Young’s abilities.”

In my opinion, having a lot of talent is ideal, but as we all know, not all teams can reach that ideal. I see scheme as being a great safety net for a program in case the talent gets hurt or doesn’t pan out. A good scheme can keep a team afloat in hard times.

Cal last year is a good example. If you look at it, most teams that lose their starting quarterback early on are in for a rough season, regardless of the league. And it’s almost always certain to be a bad year when the backup who takes over completes less than 50 per cent of his passes.

And yet, Cal finished 8-4 and lost three games by a touchdown or less in the final minute. Tedford’s very sound system enabled the Bears to avert complete disaster and now, with pretty good talent in place and more experience, Cal may be a darkhorse in the national title race this year. Had they gone 4-7, that might not have been the case.

Ohio State senior quarterback Troy Smith is currently No. 3 on HP’s Heisman list.

Always a good runner, he made tremendous improvement last season as a passer, helping to turn Ohio State into perhaps the most complete team in the country by season’s end.

He’s a rock-solid 6-1, 215-pounds and one of the most exciting players in the country to watch.

I had a chance to chat briefly with Smith the other day and here’s what he had to say:

HP: What’s it like to be mentioned as a Heisman candidate?

TS: It’s an honor to have that type of accolade applied to me.

HP: How do you handle such a special accolade?

TS: I think about it a little and then let it go right on out the window. Getting that award is a team process. Without the team, it wouldn’t be possible.

HP: What has your summer been like as far as preparation goes?

TS: It’s been extra, extra, extra hard work. I also was a counselor at the Elite 11 quarterback camp and that helped me to fine tune a lot of my skills. (Note: Smith was an Elite 11 participant in 2002)

HP: How has the summer gone for your team?

TS: We just got a new strength coach (Eric Lichter), so we had to make sure our attitude changed for the better. But he got us in tip-top shape and we all accepted him. He’s a great person.

HP: Are you looking forward to a certain game in early September down in Austin?

TS: (laughs) I’m thinking about Northern Illinois and Garrett Wolfe.

HP: Have you gotten any advice from Archie Griffin on being a Heisman candidate?

TS: He told me to stay focused, take it one game at a time and to put the team first.

HP: Any particular goals this year?

TS: I just want to lead my team to the national championship and be the best player I can be.

He’s ready

Word is now that Ole Miss signee Brett Schaeffer still has one class to pass at College of the Sequoias and its last day is August 3, which means that he is guaranteed to miss at least a few days of Rebel training camp.

Better get those backups ready….