The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission (GCSC) is proud to announce that Kirk Herbstreit, the analyst of ESPN’s College GameDay, will host the 2009 Greater Cleveland Sports Awards on February 3, 2010 at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

Herbstreit has been a college football studio analyst since 1996. He joined ESPN in September 1995 as a college football sideline analyst for ESPN2, has previously been a game analyst for ESPN’s Thursday night college football telecasts and is currently in the booth for Saturday night college football games on ABC. He has provided color commentary on the show College GameDay where he previews upcoming football games at various universities around the country. He is also a frequent contributor to ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, and co-host of The Big Show on 97.1 The Fan and to the WFNZ radio program Primetime with the Packman during college football season.

In addition to being an analyst, Herbstreit is a former quarterback for The Ohio State University, where he earned his degree in business administration in 1993.

Herbstreit will join the list of former emcee greats including Jim Nantz, Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Chris Rose, Roy Firestone, Greg Gumbel, Robin Roberts and Bill Walton.

(On what his kids are going to be for Halloween)- “Let’s see, we have Puss in Boots from Shrek. Yoda, that’s the one year old and Luke Skywalker, that’s Luke. Luke loves Luke Skywalker. The two oldest, they are big Star Wars fans. Jake is Han Solo and Luke is Luke Skywalker. I am usually either Darth Vader or the Emperor. It’s great. I have a Darth Vader mask in my office. I am sure the players are wondering what that is for. [It’s for] when I Skype with them, I hope nobody ever walks in when that is happening. It’s fun. I know the Star Wars Symphony is coming to Cleveland. I had to watch that documentary last Friday about the making of. Good times, good times.”

Do What We Do, a 60-minute documentary about the success that Cleveland State had during the 2008-09 basketball season, will debut on Monday, Nov. 2 beginning at 6:00 p.m. on SportsTime Ohio. A second airing will be replayed on Thursday (Nov. 5) at 8:00 a.m.. The Thursday airing will be preceded by the second edition of the CSU Basketball Insider, a three-part preseason look at the 2009-10 Viking basketball team.

Produced and edited by Dean Cummings, Do What We Do is a joint production of SportsTime Ohio and Cleveland State athletics, giving basketball fans unprecedented behind the scenes access during the 2008-09.

(Opening statement)- “Good morning everybody. How are we doing? One piece of housekeeping, David Bowens, who missed yesterday for personal reasons, he had a little boy, David Jr. It happened late Tuesday night, so he’s back with us. Everybody’s happy and healthy, so that’s good news. In terms of today, what we’re going to be working on is our third down package, offensively and defensively. We spend a lot of time on this, trying to make sure that we have a plan in place that: 1) is going to be effective against what they do and 2) emphasizes the things that we think we can really improve on and carry over, not just this week but week-to-week.

“I thought yesterday overall was a good start to the week. We added some tackling drills to continue to emphasize that. We’ll do that again today. [We are] just continually focusing on fundamentals and improving those things to make sure that even after we execute the scheme or there’s a completion or whatever it is, that we’re doing things fundamentally sound to either limit the production or to maximize the production offensively.”

Western Michigan quarterback Tim Hiller, who was born in Parma and later starred at Orville High School, is one of 16 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy. The award is a combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance and often dubbed as the "Academic Heisman".

Hiller has completed 62.4% of his passes for 2263 with 15 touchdowns this season and has Broncos in the hunt for a MAC championship. He has been even more impressive in the classroom already completing his business sales & marketing degree in August, 2008 and currently in classes for a MBA while maintaining a 4.00 GPA.

The senior standout ESPN regulars Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy are also finalists for the award. Here is a rundown of all the players who have excelled on the field and in the classroom this season and that are finalists for this prestigious award.

# JON ASAMOAH - OG - University of Illinois - 3.82

# MATT BAUMAN - LB - Brigham Young University - 3.91

# ERIC DECKER - WR - University of Minnesota - 3.42

# MOSES HARRIS - S - Fresno State - 3.56

# TIM HILLER - QB - Western Michigan University - 4.00

# PAUL JASINOWSKI - OT - Brown University - 3.70

# BEAU KILDOW - WR - Morningside College (Iowa) - 4.00

I suppose it makes sense that there could be some bumps after so many changes to the roster, but this is ridiculous. Before you get the wrong idea, no I’m not panicking. Well, not anymore at least. I actually was panicking at halftime of game 2 of this season as the Cavs sauntered off to the locker room down by 18. To the Raptors. But the team’s third quarter performance brought me back from the brink.

The Cavs’ struggles in their first game against Boston have been well documented. That’s why I was so disappointed to see them continue to make the same mistakes Wednesday night in Toronto. That first half against the Raptors was one of the worst halves of professional basketball I have ever seen. The Cavs were just a bad, bad basketball team for those 24 minutes. We’ve seen some atrocious offense from our beloved Cavaliers the last couple of years, but one thing has remained pretty consistent during that time. That’s defense. Normally, even if the shots aren’t falling, the Cavs are playing aggressive defense and trying to build off of that.

If you didn't realize exactly how hard the Cleveland State Vikings basketball schedule this year is maybe this will wake you up. Gary Waters' men will be playing 3 teams ranked in the USA Today Preseason Top 10. Kentucky comes in at 5th, West Virginia at 9th, and Butler has tabbed as the 10th best in the nation in the coaches poll. Ohio State managed to crack the Top 25 being placed at 17.

Two of the schools you can catch at the Wolstien Center. Bobby Huggins and West Virginia visit on December 19th. Butler comes in for a Horizon League showdown on February 13th. If you want to see the Vikings face the Buckeyes make sure to book your trip on the Viking Voyage.

Here is the whole rundown of the USA Today Top 25 with Kansas taking top honors: