Rob Ambrose

The positive momentum from Towson's 9-3, CAA-championship season continued last week when coach Rob Ambrose unveiled the Tigers' 19-man recruiting class. Towson signed eight Maryland natives, plus three players from Virginia's Tidewater area. There are four Division I transfers and four Baltimore-area high school standouts. There are 11 defensive players, seven offensive players and one athlete. Ambrose spoke with Recruiting Report this week about the class. Overall, what do you like about this class?

A year after leading Towson to its first Football Championship Subdivision appearance in school history, fourth-year coach Rob Ambrose reacted angrily Sunday after his 7-4 Tigers were snubbed by the NCAA selection committee for an invitation to this season's playoffs. Despite finishing the season on a four-game winning streak, including a 64-35 demolition of playoff-bound New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., Saturday, Towson failed to be invited into the 20-team field after losing in the opening round to Lehigh in 2011.

Towson hits the road Saturday with a new coach, a freshman quarterback, a past strewn with losses and a defense that last year ranked among the worst in college football. And that's the good news. First up is Northwestern - yes, that Northwestern - a bowl-savvy, lip-smacking Big Ten team whose scrubs might give Towson fits. Is this how Rob Ambrose pictured his debut as Towson's head coach? "Sure, why not?" Ambrose said of the mismatch-to-be. "I was never big on putting one toe in the pool.

As university leaders weigh whether to cut baseball and men's soccer, Towson will be featured by the newsmagazine show "60 Minutes" as an example of a relatively unknown school trying to raise its profile with football. You can watch a preview of the segment here . Reporters for the show traveled with the Tigers to Baton Rouge to work on the story, which explains how Towson was paid $500,000 to play its game at LSU but reaped more in the way of exposure by playing one of Divsion I's best and most-popular teams.

Rob Ambrose is the son of a football man, but he is also the son of a farmer. Though vastly different, both professions helped shape the life of Towson University's head football coach. They also offer the best explanation for why, twice a week this spring, you can find Ambrose standing on the turf of Johnny Unitas Stadium — arms folded, whistle clenched between his teeth — at 5:30 a.m. That early in the morning, the Maryland sky is still pitch black. Normally the Towson University campus would be as quiet and as dark as an abandoned coal mine, but when Ambrose is there with his football team, the lights that tower above Unitas Stadium illuminate the field below.

Saturday night is Towson's homecoming football game. For Tigers junior safety Jordan Love, the entire season is a homecoming. He's playing near the city he grew up in, the city he feels closest to, the city he calls home. For the transfer from the University of Georgia, the return has been a long time in the making. Love, whose Tigers (1-1) will play Saint Francis (Pa.) (2-1) at 7 p.m., spent much of his childhood, from 2002 to 2009, in Baltimore. He attended Gilman, but during his senior year his family moved to Virginia.

Towson named Connecticut offensive coordinator Rob Ambrose, a former Tigers player and assistant coach, as its head football coach yesterday. Ambrose, a 1993 Towson graduate and a native of Middletown, has been on UConn's staff for seven years. He replaces Gordy Combs, who was fired Dec. 2 after consecutive seasons of 3-8 and 3-9. "Being named as the fourth head coach in Towson football history is a tremendous honor for me," Ambrose said in a statement. "All three of my predecessors are legends and men that I admire.

Towson athletic director Mike Waddell said Wednesday that an internal investigation into football coach Rob Ambrose's program revealed no excess in practice areas but did find issues with the coaching staff's use of profane language. “We have standards at Towson, core ideals about how we act and deal with our students,” he said. “We've talked to the entire coaching staff about that.” A letter sent to the Towson's school newspaper, The Towerlight, signed by former player Trevor Walker and 26 others who wished to remain anonymous, accused Ambrose of inaccurately recording practice hours so as to exceed limits set by the NCAA.

Leon Kinnard , who starred at Loyola High, has transferred to Towson from Connecticut and will join the Tigers in time for this football season, coach Rob Ambrose said in a news release Thursday night. Kinnard, who played quarterback at Loyola, was recruited to UConn by Ambrose when he was the Huskies' offensive coordinator. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound player appeared in five games at wide receiver for Connecticut last season. He completed one pass for 3 yards and gained 18 yards on four carries.

A year after leading Towson to its first Football Championship Subdivision appearance in school history, fourth-year coach Rob Ambrose reacted angrily Sunday after his 7-4 Tigers were snubbed by the NCAA selection committee for an invitation to this season's playoffs. Despite finishing the season on a four-game winning streak, including a 64-35 demolition of playoff-bound New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., Saturday, Towson failed to be invited into the 20-team field after losing in the opening round to Lehigh in 2011.

Ask Towson football coach Rob Ambrose what he thinks of senior wide receiver Tom Ryan and you're likely to get a quiet, reflective smile, a few comments about the player's heart and determination, and a story about cookies. The story, as Ambrose tells it, goes something like this: After every win, the coach's wife bakes cookies for the nearly 100-player team. The treats are a hit with the players, Ryan especially. Ambrose can remember one night around Christmas last year when he came home to find his wife practically crying.

Towson athletic director Mike Waddell said Wednesday that an internal investigation into football coach Rob Ambrose's program revealed no excess in practice areas but did find issues with the coaching staff's use of profane language. “We have standards at Towson, core ideals about how we act and deal with our students,” he said. “We've talked to the entire coaching staff about that.” A letter sent to the Towson's school newspaper, The Towerlight, signed by former player Trevor Walker and 26 others who wished to remain anonymous, accused Ambrose of inaccurately recording practice hours so as to exceed limits set by the NCAA.

A year after being celebrated as one of the top college football coaches in the country, Towson's Rob Ambrose has been accused by a disgruntled former player of breaking NCAA rules and making offensive remarks to help pump up his team in a pre-game pep talk earlier this season. In a letter to the school newspaper, The Towerlight, Trevor Walker wrote that Ambrose lied to the athletic department's compliance officer about the number of hours the team practiced this summer and that the fourth-year coach used inappropriate language on many occasions, including before a game against St. Francis last month.

The fall air was crisp and chilly as Towson football players practiced at Johnny Unitas Stadium earlier this week. Watching them play, it appeared as though their recent losses to LSU and James Madison were already out of their minds. In the brisk weather that was perfect for football, the athletes seemed to exude confidence and energy. "The confidence is coming from the defensive side of the ball," coach Rob Ambrose said. "There's a lot of older guys with a lot of experience, and they're feeding off each other right now. " The Tigers (2-3, 1-1 Colonial Athletic Association)

When Towson athletic director Mike Waddell broached the idea with Rob Ambrose of taking his football team down to play LSU in Baton Rouge for the fourth game of the 2012 season, the Tigers' coach was decidedly lukewarm. The initial discussion took place two summers ago before the athletic department's annual crab feast in Ocean City . At the time, Towson was coming off a 1-10 season in 2010 after going 2-9 in Ambrose's first year at his alma mater. Their turnaround 9-3 season in 2011 was still months away.

Saturday night is Towson's homecoming football game. For Tigers junior safety Jordan Love, the entire season is a homecoming. He's playing near the city he grew up in, the city he feels closest to, the city he calls home. For the transfer from the University of Georgia, the return has been a long time in the making. Love, whose Tigers (1-1) will play Saint Francis (Pa.) (2-1) at 7 p.m., spent much of his childhood, from 2002 to 2009, in Baltimore. He attended Gilman, but during his senior year his family moved to Virginia.

Colleges Joseph, Kinnard stand out for Towson in scrimmage Towson can only hope to get off to as fast a start in its season opener against Morgan State on Sept. 3 as it did in its final scrimmage Thursday, as Derrick Joseph returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. "Our return game is much, much better," coach Rob Ambrose said. "I was pleased to see Derrick break off a long return because that's what we have been scheming. The great thing is that we have tremendous depth among our return specialist.

The son of two physicians, defensive tackle Yaky Ibia has always been considered one of the most academically gifted players on the Towson University football team. Last summer, Tigers coach Rob Ambrose took drastic measures to also unlock the beast within. "Yaky used to be a big, strong, fat, lazy kid who did OK because you couldn't move him," Ambrose said. "But I don't think I've ever gotten in a football player's [business] like I got into his. " Frustrated by Ibia's lack of stamina, and perceived lack of mental toughness, Ambrose tore into the Nigerian native, berating him in front of teammates at practice.

Arnold Farmer and Charles Johnson have been teammates for seven years. The Poly alumni were both two-time All-City football selections and were among the first players to commit to Towson when Rob Ambrose was named the head coach. While both have game experience, they're among the Tigers who have been battling for starting jobs this spring. And at Saturday's Tiger Bowl intrasquad scrimmmage at Johnny Unitas Stadium, they'll be battling each other, with Farmer competing to be the starting nose guard and Johnson trying to keep his starting right guard spot.

Towson's resurgent football season ended when wide receiver Ryan Spadola had 13 catches - a Johnny Unitas Stadium record - to help Lehigh beat the Tigers in the playoffs in December. The next week, Spadola didn't even play. He'd been suspended by the NCAA because he used a racial slur in a message he sent out on Twitter prior to the Towson game. Towson coach Rob Ambrose, having seen how Twitter could hurt a team, decided to spend the first few weeks of the offseason monitoring his players' use of the social media tool and quickly decided to ban it until he felt his players had been properly educated on using it. At about the same time that Ambrose came to his decision, though, a group of Maryland legislators introduced a bill that would prevent colleges and universities from monitoring students' social media activities.