Here's a nice story for all BEast fans - not just for Rutgers fans...

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-foot...h-ray-rice

And in case you missed it, here's Athlon's Heisman Watch story on Pat White...

http://www.athlonsports.com/college-foot...-pat-white

Their story on Steve Slaton has yet to come out.

I think they're doing these stories on the order they think the voting will turn out. That means Slaton's will come out next to last. For some strange reason everyone seems to think an Arkansas RB will win it.

Stupid huh?

Here's an article from USA Today. It's a bit old. But I figured somebody has yet to see it, so I put it here...

USA Today Wrote:Football field is canvas for Rutgers RB Ray Rice
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
Updated 2d 2h ago


Ray Rice enters the 2007 campaign as one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy.
By David J. Phillip, AP

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — THE LARGE OIL PAINTING of Ray Rice leaning on an easel at the Rutgers football facility is impossible to miss, but at the moment the running back himself is focused on his text messages as he walks and types. Rice glances at the painting for the first time, says it's nice and goes about his business on this spring day.

In real life, Ray Rice is anything but a still life. Run, Ray, Run. That's the sign held by fans in the stands and the slogan printed on T-shirts. That's also the essence of Rice's brilliance, simple as it sounds. Run, Ray, Run.

No major-college player carried the ball more than Rice last season — 335 attempts, nearly 26 times a game. And no current major-college player ran for more yards in 2006 — 1,794 yards, a Big East record.

Though Rice is always rushing, patience is what defines him. "Ray is a natural 'dot the I' tailback,' " coach Greg Schiano says. "He does very, very well because he's got such patience. He knows to fall into a hole and then … "

Schiano lets out a gap-toothed whistle as he motions with his hand, meaning Rice is gone.

Focus on the line of scrimmage when Rice is handed the ball. Watch the usual chaos that ensues, and then, just as the blocks become defined, Rice appears, ball snuggled under a bicep, legs churning, and nothing turns into a 5-yard gain.

"As a running back, your eyes have to be on a swivel," Rice says. "They have to move fast. If I see a crack, I just have to hit it full speed. You have to be patient, because if you run at it too fast, then it opens and closes right away."

The junior from New Rochelle, N.Y., is charitably listed at 5-9 — "I'm low to the ground," he says. Put Rice behind 6-8 left guard Mike Fladell, and good luck finding him.

"He doesn't need this much room to run," Schiano says, holding his arms out wide. "He just needs this much," he says, his hands now as far apart as a shoe box. "He just kind of squirts through, and he's really strong and he can break an arm tackle and get out into the open field."

At 200 pounds, his power comes from thighs the size of sequoia stumps. With only two runs of 50 yards or longer, he earned every inch of his 5.4 yards a carry. Equally impressive: He lost only 37 yards on 335 carries.

Rice has avoided significant injury, only missing this April's spring game after bone chips were removed from an ankle. "Rarely do you ever see him really get hit," Schiano says. "Just before contact he has a way of just getting a little bit turned, and he's always falling forward."

AT THE START of last season, Rutgers promoted fullback Brian Leonard as its Heisman candidate, which was more symbolic than realistic. After all, Leonard unselfishly stepped aside as the team's lead back and moved to fullback when Rice arrived on campus. In 2005, the two shared the backfield when Rice ran for 1,120 yards as a freshman. Last year, Leonard became more of a blocker as Rice ran for a league-best 20 touchdowns and finished seventh in the Heisman voting.

With Leonard in the NFL, how will Rice's role change this season? "Just like Brian was the tailback his first two years and then moved to fullback, we're going to move Ray to fullback," Schiano says, perfectly deadpan.

Indeed, much has changed. Rice is the face of the team. The focus of the stories. The one with the preseason All-America honors. He says it's nice and goes about his business.

"I think what prepared him for this is he was a star player in high school and he's very even keel as far as all this attention he's getting. You don't know until you go through it, but I think he's going to be just fine," Schiano says.

Just as he barely noticed the painting of his likeness (by noted artist Daniel A. Moore and part of an award the school was given in late May), Rice also has little clue about his own achievements. After two seasons, he is only 200 yards from tying Rutgers all-time rushing leader Terrell Willis. Mention this record to Rice, and his face resembles a blank canvas.

"To him, it's like another walk in the park," says his mother, Janet Rice. "He doesn't look at it like everyone on the outside is looking at it. That's what allows him to achieve the goals he has been achieving. With awards, to him it's, 'OK, that's nice. Here, Mom, another one.' That's Ray."

When Rice handed his mom his bowl rings — Janet wears them around her neck at all times — she says her son "never looked back twice at them."

Rutgers will introduce a SeeRayRun.com site to promote Rice for the Heisman. But in a way, his girlfriend, Scarlet Knights point guard Matee Ajavon, launched his campaign in March. During her postgame TV interview after the Big East title game, Ajavon, the tournament MVP, shouted into the camera: "Ray Rice for the Heisman!"

The couple, arguably the best male and female athletes on campus, have dated since freshman year. Rice, a star point guard on his high school team, and Ajavon have plenty in common. They have similar family backgrounds and a singular focus on their sport. If a day goes by without a phone call, the world, and certainly their relationship, will not end, Rice says. They can relate, given their demanding schedules and coaches.

"If they think I'm a tough coach, whew, she makes me look like a softie," Schiano says of women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer. "I love her. But they had a nine-hour practice on New Year's Eve!" (Actually it was six, but everyone stopped counting after five.) Schiano continues, "Nine hours? Can you imagine me taking a team out and nine hours later saying, 'OK, men, now take it in.' "

RICE SAYS HE LEARNED plenty from watching Stringer's underdog team advance to the national title game and the controversy that ensued afterward from racial and sexist comments made by radio host Don Imus. "Seeing how they handled that dude Imus, they are stronger from it. No one lashed out. They held their heads high," he says.

Now Rice hopes to match what his girlfriend did and lead the Scarlet Knights to a Big East title. After the Scarlet Knights got their first bowl win in school history against Kansas State in the Texas Bowl and finished 11-2 with a No. 12 ranking, their place in the college football world certainly has shifted. They should begin the season ranked, with 13 starters returning, including six from a unit ranked No. 4 in total defense last year. They also have the school's first legitimate Heisman candidate as well.

"It's an exciting time with all the fan support (season tickets sold out for the first time) and all the predictions," quarterback Mike Teel says. "But we need to put in the work. We need to do what we've done to get to this point plus more. All the media hype and respect, if you go out and lose your first two games next year, you're right back down the tubes."

Rice understands this well. During his four years in high school, the Scarlet Knights won 12 total games. "We've gone from nothing to something," he says.

Now that Rutgers is no longer everyone's gimme on the schedule, now that a Heisman candidate will attract even more attention from defenses stacking the line, now that success has brought expectations, Rice knows he has to work harder. "If anything he's putting the pedal down more," Schiano says.

Rice has plenty of goals. A primary one has four walls and a garage. Rice wants to move his mother from the housing complex in New Rochelle, where she has lived her entire life, to a house of her own. "I say, 'Don't worry about it, son, it's going to happen, it's going to be all right,' " Janet says.

"They have a neat relationship. They really hold each other up," Schiano says of mother and son. Rice was only 1 when his father, Calvin Reed, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Janet raised her four children as a single mom. "It hasn't been easy for them," Schiano says. "They come from the tough part of New Rochelle, but together they got through it. She's a special lady."

Janet works with special-needs children at a New Rochelle school. "Not everybody has that kind of patience," Rice says. It's a trait he admires, and whenever Rice gets the chance and is home for a few days, he visits schools or just drops in on his mom's students. During a two-week break in May, Rice visited four schools in his hometown.

"The principals from all the schools know him and they reach out to him and he never says no," says Janet. "Anything for the kids, Ray will do." With the older students, he emphasized the theme of hard work, determination and dedication and with the younger ones, he simply joked around.

"Maybe because he's short, but kids are comfortable around him instantly. He knows how to muck it up with them," Schiano says. "He's one of our best representatives of the program, whether it's recruiting or with kids, he's just got a way about him, a star quality, charisma, whatever you want to call it, he's got it."

Rice inherited more than just his mother's patience. He inherited her size. Janet Rice is barely 4-11, which is why, Schiano says, "You'll hear her before you see her." On game days, at the end of the team's Scarlet Walk into the stadium, Janet's voice rises above the marching band and cheerleaders.

"Come here, Coach," she'll say.

"Then she puts one on me," Schiano says with a laugh.

As part of the routine, Janet flexes her muscles at Schiano and Schiano does the same in return.

"Oh, Ma," Ray will say, shaking his head at his mother's exuberance.

Janet can't help it. "Oh, boy, on game days, my adrenaline is very high. My heart palpitates even faster because I'm ready to play," Janet says, then lets out a series of rapid-fire giggles.

Janet sits a few rows behind the team bench and out-shouts her entire section. "Sometime I have to calm her down," Ray says. "She gets too excited and she screams when nobody else is screaming."

When her son gets tackled, Janet shouts encouragingly, "All right, get up." If he lingers under a pile, she raises the motherly volume to "GET UP!" When he reaches the sideline, he lifts two fingers to indicate he hears her.

Then Rice is back in the game doing what he does best. Run, Ray, Run.

THE RICE FILE

Ht.: 5-9
Wt.: 200
Yr.: Jr.

Stat line: 1,794 yards and 20 touchdowns as a sophomore. Career average of 5.5 yards a carry.

Heisman pros: Seventh in the Heisman voting, the best by a Rutgers player. Last season's production demonstrated he is a potential 2,000-yard rusher in a Bowl Championship Series conference. He also plays in the largest media market.

Heisman cons: Third in the Heisman voting among sophomore running backs, behind Darren McFadden of Arkansas (second) and West Virginia's Steve Slaton (fourth). Against such competition, Rice's hopes might hinge on Rutgers repeating last year's success.

ON NEWSSTANDS NOW

USA TODAY Sports Weekly's 64-page preview profiles the top five running backs in the Heisman Trophy race and projects matchups for the five BCS bowl games with Division I-A conference previews, schedules for every Division I-A and I-AA team and a Q&A with Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer. Expectations are high for the Hokies, and Beamer knows his team also will be on a healing mission this season in the aftermath of April's shooting tragedy at the school. "Being together in that stadium for a common cause is good medicine," he says.

Schedule of running back features to be released online:

June 27: Darren McFadden, Arkansas
July 4: Steve Slaton, West Virginia
July 11: Mike Hart, Michigan
July 18: Ray Rice, Rutgers
July 25: Ian Johnson, Boise State