Just Imagine if He’d Kept It in Park

How do you get in shape for football season? Pushups are a common exercise. Purdue fullback Mike Alstott is an extremist. He pushed a Jeep Wrangler.

“It was a crazy idea,” said Alstott, who pushed the Jeep along with teammate Jayme Washel. “We would put it in neutral in the lot behind the football stadium. Then we would take turns pushing it 100 yards and steering, and do eight to 10 reps.”

The unconventional conditioning drill paid dividends for Alstott, a 6-foot-2, 240-pounder. His school-record 1,436 rushing yards this season gave him the Purdue career record, breaking Otis Armstrong’s mark of 3,315.

Trivia time: Who were the last consensus All-American football players for Army and Navy?

Intra sport: Jeanette Lee, at 23 the No. 1 women’s billiards player in the world, will marry George Breedlove, one of the top players on the men’s tour.

Lee’s Jan. 6 wedding plans were made public this week during the women’s tour stop at the Bicycle Club Casino in Bell Gardens, an event that ends Sunday.

The couple will live in Long Beach, presumably in a house with his-and-hers pool tables.

Baaaa: Wide receiver Irving Fryar of the Miami Dolphins, commenting to Steve Hershey of USA Today on whom to blame for the team’s collapse, a 6-6 record after a 4-0 start:

“Blame? [Don] Shula’s the head coach. When God looks down at a church, he holds the pastor accountable for what’s happening to the flock. He’s the pastor; he’s the one leading us. We’re the sheep.”

Commentary: Joe Gilmartin in the Phoenix Gazette on luxury boxes: “When nobody had ‘em, nobody needed ‘em. But the minute somebody had ‘em, everybody needed ‘em. And where in the beginning they needed ‘em to get richer than they already were, now they need them just to survive.”

The nowhere man: Portland Trail Blazer center Chris Dudley played 12 minutes Wednesday against Golden State. He took no shots, had no free throws, no rebounds, no assists, one turnover, one blocked shot--and six fouls.

FYI: Army holds the NCAA Division I-A record for the highest scoring average in a season--56 points in nine games in 1944, including a 59-0 rout of Notre Dame.

Looking back: On this day in 1950, USC defeated Notre Dame, 9-7, at the Coliseum, the Trojans’ first victory over the Irish since 1939. Nonetheless, USC Coach Jeff Cravath was soon fired after a 2-5-2 season.

Trivia answer: Bill Carpenter of Army in 1959 and Napoleon McCallum of Navy in 1985.

Quotebook: Mark Purdy in the San Jose Mercury News: “The Raiders always belonged in Oakland because that’s where their soul resides.”