Les Miles can sympathize with Steve Spurrier.

Earlier this week, Spurrier had to kick quarterback Stephen Garcia off the team after Garcia failed an alcohol test. Spurrier had given Garcia multiple chances to stay on the team, but the failed test was a violation of his fifth reinstatement and Spurrier couldn’t give him any more chances.

Miles has been there.

In 2008, he went through something similar with quarterback Ryan Perrilloux. Perrilloux was the MVP of the 2007 SEC championship game, but in May 2008, after three suspensions, Miles had to do what was best for the team and let Perrilloux walk, leaving the Tigers with little experience at quarterback.

“It’s a difficult decision,” Miles told Gannett reporter Glenn Guilbeau when asked about Spurrier’s decision to part ways with Garcia. “It’s not one that I look forward to in any way. You’re hammering wishes and goals and dreams. You’re hammering futures. And it’s a miserable event whether it’s a quarterback or anybody in your program.”

Perrilloux was able to play two seasons at Jacksonville State and had a short stint with the NFL’s New York Giants. Garcia might not be so lucky. He’s a fifth-year senior and while he’ll get a chance to work out for NFL scouts, his trouble at South Carolina will definitely be a concern.

Spurrier said on his radio show Thursday that he hoped someone gave Garcia a chance.

“Heck, I hope he has a chance to play pro football somewhere,” Spurrier said.

While of course Spurrier wants the best for Garcia, he had no choice in his decision to boot him from the team. After multiple chances, Garcia continued to break team rules and in order for the team to move forward, it had to do so without its starting quarterback.

Miles knows this all too well. Perrilloux had been suspended three times and gone through another incident in May before Miles had to weight the good of the team over trying to rehabilitate one player.

- – -
Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham.
“At some point in time, the player is who he is or he adjusts and complies and becomes a greater part of your team,” Miles said. “It becomes clear at some point, and then you have to make the decision. I have no magic there, I promise you. I’m no better equipped to make those decisions.”

Read the Article »

Penn State quarterback Rob Bolden only completed 3 of 7 passes during the Nittany Lions’ 13-3 win over Iowa, but his final completion might go down as the greatest of his career.

And it was totally by accident.

While under pressure by the Iowa defense, Bolden badly misfired a pass in the vicinity of freshman Bill Belton and it literally kicked off an official’s foot to a streaking Andrew Szczerba for a 19-yard gain. The drive resulted in a field goal.

The play didn’t quite have the drama of the Immaculate Reception, but it was probably one of the more interesting passes in Penn State history.

Unfortunately for Bolden, the magic didn’t last long. He was benched in favor of Matt McGloin, who went on to lead the 13-3 victory with just a little help from the Nittany Lion defense.

- – -
Curtsy (the female version of a hat tip) to Lost Letterman
Graham Watson is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow her @Yahoo_Graham.

Read the Article »

Making the morning rounds.

• From the mountains, to the other mountains. The newly slimmed-down Big 12 is considering multiple expansion scenarios that would boost membership to ten or twelve teams — each of which, according to the San Jose Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, attempts to account for Missouri’s possible defection to the SEC. Plan A, per Wilner: Adding four new members — specifically, Boise State, BYU, West Virginia and Louisville — to bring the magic number to twelve after Missouri‘s departure, and to inadvertently hasten the disintegration of the Big East. (Including the Broncos and Mountaineers, that alignment would give the Big 12 six teams ranked in the current polls.) Plan B: Adding one school to get back to ten if Mizzou stays, or two schools if Mizzou leaves.

As Wilner emphasizes — and as anyone who has followed realignment over the last two years knows well — nothing is done until it’s done. The clear goal, however, is to get back to an even dozen, reconstitute the divisions and resurrect the Big 12 Championship Game, which the conference sees as essential to remaining on par with the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC. [San Jose Mercury News, Associated Press]

• I know nothink! USC coach Lane Kiffin pled ignorance Tuesday to any knowledge of a relationship between NCAA-targeted scout/”mentor” Will Lyles and assistant coach Willie Mack Garza when Garza was on Kiffin’s staff at Tennessee, despite the fact that UT’s connection to Lyles apparently began in early 2009, shortly after Kiffin’s arrival, when the university paid $15,000 to Lyles’ company, Elite Scouting Services. That was a few months before Garza allegedly wired $1,500 to Lyles to pay for an unofficial recruiting trip for Lyles’ prize player, five-star running back Lache Seastrunk, according to a Yahoo! Sports report that produced (with Lyles’ cooperation) both the money order sent by Garza and the plane tickets purchased for Seastrunk and his mother. At least three other schools — LSU, Oregon and Cal — paid Lyles for information on recruits, at least two of which got back obviously shoddy materials in return.

“All I can say on that, the alleged incident, I had no knowledge of [it], or knowledge of a relationship at all [between Garza and Lyles],” Kiffin said. “I have been and always have been committed, wherever we’ve been, to doing things the right way, cooperating with the NCAA. So that’s all I’ve got on it.”[Orange County Register, Knoxville News-Sentinel]

• What did we do to deserve this? Elsewhere on the NCAA front, Boise State said Tuesday it plans to appeal sanctions levied against the football program, which was hit earlier this month with minor reductions in scholarships and practice time as part of a wider, more severe verdict against multiple sports and the BSU athletic department as a whole. On the football side, Boise was accused of arranging for dozens of recruits (63 in all) to crash with active Bronco players during recruiting trips, amounting to a grand total of $4,934 worth of “improper benefits.” [Idaho Statesman]

• From one freshman to another. Auburn receiver/return man Trovon Reed, a former top-50 recruit who’s second on the team in receptions through four games, is out indefinitely with a bum shoulder. Both the No. 2 receiver and punt return roles for Saturday’s trip to South Carolina will fall to true freshman Quan Bray. [al.com]

Quickly… The Arizona Republic audits the Orange Bowl. … Vanderbilt loses a starting linebacker for the season to an apparent ACL tear. … Randy Edsall asks for patience. … Texas plays the revenge card. … Jimbo Fisher will talk about Greg Reid when he has something to say about Greg Reid. … Georgia may be on the verge of losing a cornerback to transfer. … Mike Locksley joins a very, very long list. … And forget the SEC standings. Alabama and Florida are playing for blue-chips, man.

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

It took about a year longer than originally expected, but all signs Sunday night pointed to the same reality: Larry Scott‘s vision of a 16-team super conference spanning the entire Western half of the continent is back on the table. No, this is not a repeat.

Despite his insistence to the contrary, officials from both the Big 12 and Pac-12 told the New York Times that the Pac-12 commissioner took advantage of Saturday’s Texas-UCLA game in Los Angeles to meet with UT president Bill Powers and athletic director DeLoss Dodds over the weekend, informally reviving the audacious plan that appeared set to bring the Longhorns and the rest of the then-extant Big 12 South under the Pac-[X] umbrella last summer. That deal fell apart at the last second for reasons no one quite understood, leaving the Big 12 shaken and vulnerable following the losses of Colorado and Nebraska.

Now, with Texas A&M on the verge of a defection to the SEC and regents from both Oklahoma and Texas expected to set the gears into official motion this afternoon — and with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech prepared to follow the Sooners’ and Longhorns’ lead — the Big 12 finds itself on the gallows again, with no escape route in sight.

A few points, based on what we know (or think we know) so far:

Texas isn’t going to the ACC. The unexpected “Longhorns to ACC?” meme picked up steam over the weekend, when the ACC officially added Pittsburgh and Syracuse to swell its ranks to 14 schools, possibly on the way to sixteen. Per the New York Times, however, “those conversations appear to be over.”

This is going to take awhile. Whatever the regents do at today’s board meeting, Texas isn’t going to run a Pac-16 flag up the pole this afternoon. The NYT reports the process is “expected to play out over the next 7 to 10 days”; the San Jose Mercury News says “It could be a week, or weeks.” Both list three specific hurdles before the deal is done: a) Ironing out a divisional structure to accommodate the unwieldy geography of a conference that extends from Seattle to Austin, b) Integrating Texas’ fledgling Longhorn Network into the forthcoming Pac-12 Network, and c) Getting a seal of approval from the Pac-12′s university presidents, some of whom apparently have some qualms about the academic reputations of prospective newcomers Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. (As opposed to, say, Arizona State.) In the wake of the colossal television deal the conference just signed, at least one may also pose the question, “Um, why do we really need to expand, again?”

A 16-team Pac-[X] would be organized into regional “pods.” Instead of the familiar two-division format, everyone reports the discussion is trending toward creating four “pods” to reduce long road trips. As explained by Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com:

The Pac-16 would most likely be divided into four-team pods with Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in one pod; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in another pod; Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State in another pod; and USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford in the other pod, the sources said.

The sources said the schools would play every other school in their pod and then face two other schools from the other pods (with those two teams from the other pod rotating every two years, so there would be home and away games) to form a 9-game conference schedule.

Other than the term “pod,” this seems like a workable solution, although every school — particularly Colorado and the Oregon-Washington quartet — will be adamant about playing at UCLA and USC as often as possible, for recruiting purposes.

The Pac-[X] Network and the Longhorn Network cannot co-exist. At least, not in their current (proposed) formats. Everyone agrees the LHN will have to be “modified”; they do not agree how. The Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls offers the scenario most favorable to Texas:

The Longhorns would be able to keep all of their revenue from the network if that amount is greater than one-sixteenth of what the entire Pac-12 receives for its third-tier rights. However, if one-sixteenth of the money the Pac-12 receives from third-tier rights ends up being a larger amount, the schools would divide the revenue evenly and everybody would receive the same amount, the source said.

“Nothing has been definitively confirmed. But that’s in the zip code,” a source very familiar with the realignment discussions said Sunday. “This is not yet a done deal. It appears that (Pac-12 commissioner) Larry Scott is going to be able to work some magic and help Texas keep the Longhorn Network and their revenue stream.”

The San Jose Mercury News’ Jon Wilner specifically disputes that as “misleading,” at best:

For one thing, the Longhorn Network would have to be folded into the Pac-12 regional model — it wouldn’t exist as a separate entity.

What’s more, there is no chance that any school will have more than 1/16th of the revenue that comes from the conference’s first, second or third-tier rights. NO CHANCE.

We’re more likely to see USC give up football and join the Big West.

If the negotiations fall through, the Television Problem is the most likely deal-breaker — just as it reportedly was last year.

The Pac-[X] is not desperate for Texas. Unlike last year, when the entire deal seemed to live and die — and ultimately did die — with the whims of Bill Powers and DeLoss Dodds in Austin, the delegation from the Big 12 isn’t moving in lockstep: Scott and Co. appear prepared to add Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to move to 14 members, with or without Texas. In which case, let a whole new round of bidding for the Longhorns begin.

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Making the morning rounds.

• I honestly don’t know how this could have happened. Robert “Bobby” DiGeronimo, a Cleveland-area businessman and Ohio State booster, admitted to the Columbus Dispatch Tuesday that he was responsible for $200 cash payments to three Buckeye players who were subsequently suspended for the season’s first two games, though he stopped short of saying he personally provided the payments. According to DiGeronimo, former OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor (surprise!) handed cash envelopes to three teammates — running back Jordan Hall, cornerback Travis Howard (right) and cornerback Corey Brown — at a Feb. 19 fundraiser for a charity named for DiGeronimo’s grandson, for which DiGeronimo serves as a member of the board of directors.

“However Mr. Pryor got the money, I take responsibility,” he told the Dispatch, adding that the money was intended as reimbursement for travel. “I am responsible for those kids coming up here from Columbus. I handled it wrong. I should not have handled it the way I did.”

Hall, Howard and Brown were all officially cleared by the NCAA Tuesday to play this weekend at Miami, a little less than a week after Ohio State reported (incorrectly) that they’d be available to play last Saturday against Toledo. [Columbus Dispatch, Cleveland Plain-Dealer]

• Always be prepared. The board of trustees for Florida State University is forming a committee to explore possibilities for conference realignment, according to board chairman Andy Haggard, who said Tuesday that FSU is prepared consider a defection from the ACC to the SEC or the addition of Texas to the ACC. “If you are going to four conferences of 16 teams we certainly want to be ready,” Haggard told the Palm Beach Post. “If the ACC is included in that we want to be sure we are included and have a say so in regard to the teams that are coming into our conference.” [Palm Beach Post]

• Let the backtracking begin. A felony charge against Florida linebacker Dee Finley for allegedly resisting an officer with violence has been reduced to resisting an officer without violence, a misdemeanor. Finley was arrested Monday after being pulled over on his scooter for driving around a barricade outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, jerking his hand away from the officer and “squaring” to the officer while still straddling his scooter, at which point the officer brought out a taser and Finley complied with the arrest. The same officer was part of a group of university police officers involved in a controversial shooting of a foreign doctoral student in his campus apartment last year, and had also been disciplined for handcuffing a jaywalker to a stop sign. [Gainesville Sun]

• You’re the Mannion now, dog. Oregon State has officially named redshirt freshman Sean Mannion its starting quarterback, at least temporarily exiling incumbent Ryan Katz to the bench on the heels of an 0-2 start. Katz has started the Beavers’ last 14 games, but was didn’t last long in Saturday’s 35-0 loss at Wisconsin before ceding the reins to the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Mannion, who was 25 of 28 passing for 244 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in his first significant action. [The Oregonian]

• Broken Badger. As feared, senior Wisconsin cornerback Devin Smith is out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his left foot. Smith, a part-time starter from 2008-10 who had moved into a full-time role this fall, will apply for a medical redshirt with hopes of returning to Madison next year. [Associated Press]

• Cracking down on cracking skulls. The WAC has suspended Fresno State safety Terrance Dennis for one game for a helmet-to-helmet hit he delivered Saturday on Nebraska tight end Kyler Reed with four seconds remaining in the first half of the Cornhuskers’ eventual 42-29 win in Lincoln. Dennis should have been ejected, according to commissioner Karl Benson, and will sit out this weekend’s visit from might North Dakota. [Associated Press]

Quickly… Missouri gives a backup cornerback the boot following his arrest for leaving the scene of an accident. … Figuring out how to split an expanded Pac-14. … Bronco Mendenhall feels kinda weird playing Utah in mid-September. … Injuries could force USC to start a true freshman on the offensive line. … Doug Marrone is really excited about the idea of playing a Syracuse game in London. … A really dumb argument against Urban Meyer calling the Auburn-Clemson game. … Brock Osweiler needs to pay more attention in English class. … And that one shirt favored by certain West Virginia students? You know, that one? Yeah, West Virginia’s going to have to go ahead and ask them not to wear that anymore.

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Making the morning rounds.

• Eligible… Ohio State has reinstated three players who were briefly ruled ineligible for the Buckeyes’ opening-day win over Akron for accepting less than $300 worth of improper benefits at a charity event, including a pair of projected starters, running back Jordan Hall (right) and cornerback Travis Howard. They will not, however, step right back into their old jobs. “Those three guys will be available to us,” said coach Luke Fickell. “There’s three practices ahead of us, and we’re going to make sure those guys are competing. … They’ve got to come in and beat [guys who played in the opener] out now. So I think we all understand the situation.” [Columbus Dispatch]

• Eligible… USC has reinstated senior tailback Marc Tyler, who sat out the Trojans’ opening-day win over Minnesota after delivering a drunken monologue to the ever-vigilant cameras of the tabloid show TMZ back in July. His return leaves USC with its usual four-man rotation in the backfield, alongside D.J. Morgan, Curtis McNeal and Dillon Baxter, who’s beginning to look like the odd man out. [Los Angeles Times]

• …Ineligible. Oklahoma State senior Johnny Thomas, a full-time starter last year at free safety, has reportedly been declared academically ineligible by the NCAA for the entire season. (OSU held Thomas out of the Cowboys’ opening-day win over Louisiana-Lafayette for “unresolved eligibility issues,” but has declined to elaborate.) If reinstated, he could return as a fifth-year senior in 2012. [Tulsa World]

• Tell us what you know about… the cookies. Also ineligible at the moment: Florida defensive lineman Sharrif Floyd, who sat out the Gators’ opener against Florida Atlantic and went in front of the NCAA Tuesday for a hearing to determine his eligibility. Floyd’s high school coach, who was asked to write a letter attesting to Floyd’s character for the meeting, said the NCAA’s concern was due in part to a bake sale organized by coaches and a school guidance counselor to pay for Floyd’s travel expenses to the 2009 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. “Supposedly that’s part of it. That’s why I was questioned. I know the cookie sale was still being brought into it,” Ron Cohen told the Gainesville Sun. “A lot of people helped him because he had nothing. He didn’t have two pennies to rub together. I had to give him money to eat sometimes.” The NCAA didn’t reach a verdict on Tuesday. [Gainesville Sun]

• Rainball Wizard. As expected, Notre Dame named sophomore Tommy Rees its starting quarterback for Saturday’s must-win date at Michigan, exactly two weeks after giving the nod to Dayne Crist for the season opener. Crist lasted two quarters in Saturday’s 23-20 loss to South Florida, tossing an ugly interception into the end zone in the first quarter and leading three consecutive three-and-out possessions in the second before being yanked on the other side of a lengthy lightning delay. Rees led three second half touchdown drives, but was picked off twice himself. [Irish Illustrated]

• Injured Orange. Syracuse defensive end Chandler Jones is out until further notice with an unspecified “lower body injury,” robbing the Orange of arguably their best player on either side of the ball. Two other players, cornerback Ri’shard Anderson and safety Orlando Fisher, are also out indefinitely with vaguely-defined (“upper body” and “lower body,” respectively) injuries. [Syracuse Post-Standard]

Syracuse is also attempting to resolve an eligibility issue that held one of its top freshmen, safety Durell Eskridge, out of last Thursday’s opener against Wake Forest. “Durell comes from a really unique situation,” said coach Doug Marone. “He was just caught in red tape. We believe that through the process of the NCAA that eventually he’ll be cleared.” [Syracuse Post-Standard]

• Tyrann Mathieu <3s haters. Or at least his feet do:

That is all. [@DerekPonamsky]

Quickly… Greg Reid is one of two Florida State players suspended against Charleston Southern for an unspecified violation of team rules. … Bob Stoops trolls the Big 12 press corps by suggesting realignment may suspend the Oklahoma—Texas series. … Colorado‘s presidents says he’ll “make a lot of noise” if the Buffs find themselves playing Oklahoma and Texas schools again in an expanded Pac-[Insert Number]. … The Kansas schools want to hang together in realignment, or they will surely hang separately? … Realignment could spell the end of the Longhorn Network. … LSU is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. … Texas Tech loses a defensive linemen for “several weeks,” at least, due to a collapsed lung. … Syracuse fans hilariously imagine a spelling bee organized by the BCS. … The South Florida Sun Sentinel has an awesome ad director. … The Wall Street Journal drops the College Football Grid of Shame. … Hawkeye sin F-15s! … And did Maryland steal those helmets from the Charm City Roller Girls?

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Making the morning rounds.

• Eligible… Ohio State has reinstated three players who were briefly ruled ineligible for the Buckeyes’ opening-day win over Akron for accepting less than $300 worth of improper benefits at a charity event, including a pair of projected starters, running back Jordan Hall (right) and cornerback Travis Howard. They will not, however, step right back into their old jobs. “Those three guys will be available to us,” said coach Luke Fickell. “There’s three practices ahead of us, and we’re going to make sure those guys are competing. … They’ve got to come in and beat [guys who played in the opener] out now. So I think we all understand the situation.” [Columbus Dispatch]

• Eligible… USC has reinstated senior tailback Marc Tyler, who sat out the Trojans’ opening-day win over Minnesota after delivering a drunken monologue to the ever-vigilant cameras of the tabloid show TMZ back in July. His return leaves USC with its usual four-man rotation in the backfield, alongside D.J. Morgan, Curtis McNeal and Dillon Baxter, who’s beginning to look like the odd man out. [Los Angeles Times]

• …Ineligible. Oklahoma State senior Johnny Thomas, a full-time starter last year at free safety, has reportedly been declared academically ineligible by the NCAA for the entire season. (OSU held Thomas out of the Cowboys’ opening-day win over Louisiana-Lafayette for “unresolved eligibility issues,” but has declined to elaborate.) If reinstated, he could return as a fifth-year senior in 2012. [Tulsa World]

• Tell us what you know about… the cookies. Also ineligible at the moment: Florida defensive lineman Sharrif Floyd, who sat out the Gators’ opener against Florida Atlantic and went in front of the NCAA Tuesday for a hearing to determine his eligibility. Floyd’s high school coach, who was asked to write a letter attesting to Floyd’s character for the meeting, said the NCAA’s concern was due in part to a bake sale organized by coaches and a school guidance counselor to pay for Floyd’s travel expenses to the 2009 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. “Supposedly that’s part of it. That’s why I was questioned. I know the cookie sale was still being brought into it,” Ron Cohen told the Gainesville Sun. “A lot of people helped him because he had nothing. He didn’t have two pennies to rub together. I had to give him money to eat sometimes.” The NCAA didn’t reach a verdict on Tuesday. [Gainesville Sun]

• Rainball Wizard. As expected, Notre Dame named sophomore Tommy Rees its starting quarterback for Saturday’s must-win date at Michigan, exactly two weeks after giving the nod to Dayne Crist for the season opener. Crist lasted two quarters in Saturday’s 23-20 loss to South Florida, tossing an ugly interception into the end zone in the first quarter and leading three consecutive three-and-out possessions in the second before being yanked on the other side of a lengthy lightning delay. Rees led three second half touchdown drives, but was picked off twice himself. [Irish Illustrated]

• Injured Orange. Syracuse defensive end Chandler Jones is out until further notice with an unspecified “lower body injury,” robbing the Orange of arguably their best player on either side of the ball. Two other players, cornerback Ri’shard Anderson and safety Orlando Fisher, are also out indefinitely with vaguely-defined (“upper body” and “lower body,” respectively) injuries. [Syracuse Post-Standard]

Syracuse is also attempting to resolve an eligibility issue that held one of its top freshmen, safety Durell Eskridge, out of last Thursday’s opener against Wake Forest. “Durell comes from a really unique situation,” said coach Doug Marone. “He was just caught in red tape. We believe that through the process of the NCAA that eventually he’ll be cleared.” [Syracuse Post-Standard]

• Tyrann Mathieu <3s haters. Or at least his feet do:

That is all. [@DerekPonamsky]

Quickly… Greg Reid is one of two Florida State players suspended against Charleston Southern for an unspecified violation of team rules. … Bob Stoops trolls the Big 12 press corps by suggesting realignment may suspend the Oklahoma—Texas series. … Colorado‘s presidents says he’ll “make a lot of noise” if the Buffs find themselves playing Oklahoma and Texas schools again in an expanded Pac-[Insert Number]. … The Kansas schools want to hang together in realignment, or they will surely hang separately? … Realignment could spell the end of the Longhorn Network. … LSU is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. … Texas Tech loses a defensive linemen for “several weeks,” at least, due to a collapsed lung. … Syracuse fans hilariously imagine a spelling bee organized by the BCS. … The South Florida Sun Sentinel has an awesome ad director. … The Wall Street Journal drops the College Football Grid of Shame. … Hawkeye sin F-15s! … And did Maryland steal those helmets from the Charm City Roller Girls?

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Snap judgments on Saturday’s best.

IMPROV • Joe Adams, Arkansas, and Kaleb Mueller, Missouri State.
By the middle of the third quarter Saturday night, Missouri State had already punted on six consecutive possessions and trailed 37-0 in a blowout even more lopsided than the score suggested. The perfect time, in other words, to just start making stuff up on the fly:

Put yourself in Kaleb Mueller’s shoes. Your team is trailing by 37 points to a top-15 outfit that paid your school hundreds of thousands specifically to beat your team by roughly 37 points. At some point in the middle of a chaotic play, your helmet comes off. If your reaction at that point is still to truck 60 yards in frantic pursuit of an All-SEC returner you have no hope whatsoever of catching, well, something tells me there’s a spot in an underground Midwestern wrestling circuit with your name on it.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP • Stephen Garcia, South Carolina.
Surprisingly relegated to the bench after 28 consecutive starts, Garcia watched as sophomore Connor Shaw drove the Gamecocks’ into a 14-0 hole against East Carolina on four first quarter drives that ended with two fumbles and two punts. Properly motivated, Garcia proceeded to lead Carolina into the end zone on six of their next eight possessions over the final three quarters, running for two touchdowns and throwing for another on the way to a 56-37 rout that sealed the SEC’s resident Bro Montana as the full-time starter.

PHILANTHROPY • Oregon and Notre Dame.
Saturday’s most high-profile upset victims both fell as a result of their extreme generosity, combining to give the ball away nine times in losses to LSU and South Florida while generating just one turnover of their own. In South Bend, three of Notre Dame’s five turnovers came in the red zone, including a goal-line fumble returned 96 yards for South Florida’s first touchdown en route to a 23-20 USF win. In Arlington, LSU converted three Oregon fumbles into three short-field touchdowns en route to a 40-27 beatdown, including a second quarter strip-n-score by Tyrann Mathieu for the Tigers’ first touchdown.

Honorable Mention: Clinging to a late 13-7 lead in a game that had featured a single offensive touchdown through the first three-and-a-half quarters, Ole Miss quarterback Zack Stoudt got generous with the ball at the worst possible time and place on the field:

Kyle Van Noy’s recovery and the subsequent PAT put the Cougars up 14-13, which is right where it ended a few minutes later after two more failed Rebel drives.

FASHION HISTORY • Kellen Moore and Doug Martin, Boise State.
Fans of old-money schools complain that there’s no sense of tradition at Boise State, but stars Moore and Martin looked right at home in vintage leather helmets after subjecting Georgia to an old-fashioned butt-kicking in the Georgia Dome. Insert your own “Bronco Nagurski” joke here. Kellen Moore will respond with a polite, crooked grin while wordlessly sending you into unconsciousness with a swift pinch to the neck.

COUNTERINSURGENCY • Brandon Herron, Michigan.
With the score tied at 7-7 and Western Michigan driving inside the Wolverine 10-yard line in the second quarter, Herron abruptly turned the tables by reining in a tipped Alex Carder pass and racing 94 yards to paydirt, completing the longest interception return in Michigan history and sparking a 27-3 Wolverine rally before the game was eventually called on account of bad weather. Herron contributed to the run again in the third quarter, when he took a Carder fumble 29 yards for another touchdown that effectively put the game on ice, regardless of the weather.

ARCHITECTURE • Utah State‘s Offense.
Starting a true freshman on the road as 23-point underdogs, the Aggies methodically constructed four touchdown drives consisting of at least 14 plays en route to a stunning near-upset on the Plains. For the game, Utah State ran 84 plays to Auburn‘s 54, outgained the Tigers by 84 yards and held the ball for nearly 39 minutes to Auburn’s 22 — and still lost in dramatic fashion, 42-38.

NUTRITION SCIENCE • Jessica Mendoza, ESPN.
Following up on last year’s groundbreaking investigative work by CBS’ Tracy Wolfson, ESPN sideline reporter Jessica Mendoza tested BYU’s theory — taken from “pioneer journals back in the 1800s” — that pickle juice is good for maintaining hydration by taking a big swig of pickle juice on national television during the Cougars’ win at Ole Miss. The results were predictable, taste-wise, and probably didn’t do anything to keep Jessica hydrated. But she clearly won some points with Bob Davie.

MATHEMATICS • Sacramento State.
After allowing a touchdown to heavily favored Oregon State in the first overtime session, Sacramento State answered with a six yard touchdown pass from Jeff Fleming to Brandyn Reed to pull within a point, 28-27. Shrewdly deducing that two points are better than one, the Hornets opted to eschew the extra point for another all-or-nothing throw into the end zone, which Reed hauled in for the conversion and the final nail in a 29-28 upset.

MEDICAL SCIENCE • Kevin Prince, UCLA.
Prince is no stranger to the training table, having already endured a litany of injuries including a broken jaw, back and shoulder issues, at least one concussion and a knee injury that cost him the final six games of his sophomore season last year. Every one of which was back in play Saturday according to the amateur physicians on Twitter who saw Prince take a hit from a Houston defender that left him briefly motionless on the UCLA sideline:

A reader in the Game Day Live Blog also suggested Prince had suffered damage to his duodenum. The actual diagnosis, according to the Orange County Register: A “mild” concussion. Prince will likely be fine and back at full speed soon, though the same probably can’t be said for the Bruins’ season after a 38-34 loss in a game they really needed to win.

POP CULTURE • Arsenio Favor, Southern Miss.
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Southern Miss backup quarterback Arsenio Favor, for some reason hanging a towel out of his shoulder pads like a cape on a pair of goal-line snaps against Louisiana Tech:

Favor only took two snaps in place of briefly banged-up starter Austin Davis in the Golden Eagles’ eventual 19-17 win, and didn’t even get the offense into the end zone. But I suspect a phone call from a certain GQ reporter may be in his near future.

CATCHES OF THE YEAR OF THE WEEK
First prize this week goes to UCLA senior Nelson Rosario, who went the full Prothro to open the second half in the Bruins’ 38-34 loss at Houston:

Not to be outdone by his crosstown rival, USC sophomore Robert Woods really used his head out there for the most spectacular of his school-record 17 receptions in a 19-7 win over Minnesota:

Meanwhile, everything went more or less according to script in Ohio State’s mundane, 42-0 rout over outmanned Akron, until true freshman Evan Spencer turned in a bit of one-handed garbage-time magic in service of fellow freshman Braxton Miller’s final stat line:

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Making the morning rounds.

• So we meet again. NCAA investigators are reportedly on Miami’s campus today to inquire about the various activities of Nevin Shapiro, aka “Miami’s Caligula,” a former ‘Cane booster who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June for allegedly swindling $930 million from investors in a massive Ponzi scheme. Shapiro — known around the program as “Little Luke,” after legendary ‘Cane sugar daddy Luther Campbell — had a suite at Miami home games and a player lounge named in his honor, but told the Miami Herald last year he wrote a tell-all book in prison, “The Real U: 2001 to 2010. Inside the Eye of the Hurricane,” because players “turned their back” on him and treated him “like a used friend” after going pro.

At the time, Shapiro planned to use proceeds from the book to help pay back $80 million he owes to jilted investors — if he could find anyone to publish it. His relationship with the program reportedly began in 2001, when Larry Coker was promoted to replace NFL-bound head coach Butch Davis, and according to Shapiro involved “no less than 100 former players.” “Larry Coker was blissfully ignorant (to Shapiro),” an anonymous source told InsidetheU.com, “and Randy Shannon hated that guy and didn’t want anything to do with him.” [South Florida Sun-Sentinel, InsidetheU.com]

• The eyes of Texas still can’t see our programming. While all eyes in the Big 12 will be on College Station this afternoon, Texas has another sticky situation on the horizon: Less than two weeks before the scheduled launch of the Longhorn Network on Aug. 26, the network has yet to be added by a single cable, satellite or telecom carrier operating in the state. An ESPN spokesman said the network is still “in active discussions” with carriers — most notably Time Warner, the largest cable operator in the state, which coincidentally remains the lone holdout against carrying the NFL Network — but these sorts of negotiations are routinely pushed to the eleventh hour. [Dallas Morning News, Kansas City Star]

• Take it where you can get it. Michigan‘s woebegone kicking game may be handed over in full to a true freshman, Matt Wile, who is already gaining a foothold as a placekicker, punter and kickoff man. Coach Brady Hoke — who knew Wile, a San Diego native, as head coach at San Diego State — said he’d “be very comfortable” with Wile in all three roles. “This is a big stage, and there’s a mental part of it going out there and getting on Main Street in front of 110,000, and you’ve got to see where a guy is at,” Hoke said Sunday at Michigan’s media day. “But he’s very consistent. He’s one of those guys who knows his technique and fundamentals and can do a good job of coaching himself. He’s taken all three phases on right now to some degree.”

After last year, most Wolverine fans would be comfortable with that scenario, too: Returnees Seth Broekhuizen and Brendan Gibbons combined to hit just 4 of 14 field goal attempts, easily the worst rate in the country. [Detroit News, Detroit Free Press]

• Ailing Orange. Syracuse offensive lineman Sean Hickey will miss the entire season with a torn ACL, adding another casualty to the list of more than 20 players who sat out the second practice on Saturday with various injuries. In the last week alone, the Orange have lost at least three players to concussions, another to a broken jaw and another to a hamstring injury, forcing them to take some extreme measures to fill the gaps. [Syracuse Post-Standard, Troy Nunes Is an Absolute Magician]

• Happy trails. Rice safety Travis Bradshaw — a three-year starter who came in for second-team All-Conference USA honors as a junior — is giving up football due to an undisclosed injury. “It has been an accumulation of years playing this game,” coach David Bailiff told the Houston Chronicle. “He has a long and prosperous future ahead of him and the risks are not worth it.” Bradshaw is scheduled to graduate in December with a degree in chemical engineering, and was spotted at a weekend scrimmage in street clothes and a neck brace. [Houston Chronicle, Associated Press]

Quickly… The South Bend Tribune provides the most detailed account of a frightening seven-hour standoff involving former Michigan player / Notre Dame defensive coordinator Corwin Brown at his home. … The New York Times goes deep with Gordon Gee. … Ron Zook has a new boss at Illinois. … Virginia Tech loses a defensive tackle to a knee injury. … Colorado State loses three players to suspension and two more to academics. … Bo Pelini’s nephew, a walk-on, is in the mix for playing time on Nebraska‘s offensive line. … Houston‘s sports dietician explains how she categorizes foods as “Go!” “Slow” and “Whoa.” … A Texas fan decodes “tortious interference” as it relates to Texas A&M‘s efforts to join the SEC. … Boise State‘s defense takes the offense behind the woodshed. … Chris Fowler has been rockin’ since before you were born, punk. … And will anyone survive the current state of anarchy in the NCAA?

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »

Indiana football: It’s bad. You know it. I know it. I’m pretty sure most Indiana fans know it. The ten consecutive head coaches who have left Bloomington with a losing record there certainly know it.

Indianapolis radio hosts Dominic Zaccagnini and Jack Trudeau, aka “Zakk and Jack,” know it, too. Which is why Trudeau, a former Illinois quarterback who went on to a long career in the NFL, probably didn’t think twice about making a light crack as the Indiana fight song played before an interview with first-year Hoosier head coach Kevin Wilson earlier this week: “Of course, when I played Indiana, they didn’t play this song very often, because I don’t remember them even scoring against us. Ha ha.” Because Indiana is kind of terrible, am I right?

Turns out there’s one guy who doesn’t know it: First year Hoosier head coach Kevin Wilson, who immediately took things in a very awkward direction. Read Wilson’s lines in the following transcript with the most impatience and disdain you can muster, and you might get some idea:

- – -

Zaccagnini: You sound like you’ve been doing some screaming at practice, coach. Are we yelling at the players already?

Wilson: No, we’re yelling at media guys that don’t have a clue. Anyway, what’s happening?

Trudeau: You’re not referring to us are you, coach?

Zaccagnini: No, let me ask, though, I gotta know —

Wilson: Y’all were referring to fight songs, I remember [Indiana] putting 61 on the Illini back when I was at Northwestern and they kind of stunk at the time, too. Anyway, I got some things to do, guys. What do you guys need?

Zaccagnini: Ho-ho! You already getting rid of us, coach? What’s happening?

Wilson: Very much so. So what’s happening?

Host: Did he say “very much so”?

Wilson. Yeah. I don’t have time to listen to guys talk about fight songs and Indiana and no tradition. So, uh, the tradition of 2011 is we’re working hard, getting ready to roll and looking forward to… Preseason’s going a good way. Looking forward to Ball State, looking forward to Big Ten play. So how can I help you guys?

Zaccagnini: Here’s how you can help us. Tell us how you’re going to get IU into a bowl game. They haven’t been in three straight years —

Wilson: I think the magic number’s winning six games —

Zaccagnini: — I don’t want to define your tradition so you do that.

Wilson: —and the key to doing that is scoring more points than the opposition, playing defense and [the] kicking game.

Host: You know, coach, I — you know, you’ve got a job to do and I appreciate that. You know, we were joking around simply because we’re trying to talk about a program that’s not been very good. And you understand that. So to come on here and have an attitude with us is not very fair, coach.

Wilson: [unintelligible] Every year is a different year. Every year is a different year. Every season is a different season. Past successes, past failures have nothing to do with the future. The young men are working pretty hard. … We look forward to the challenges. It’s not climbing Mount Everest. I just don’t like being [unintelligible] with guys cracking jokes about our program.

Take me not being at Indiana long, but I take a little pride in what we do. I take a little pride in winning at Northwestern, winning a Big Ten championship. Take a little pride in being at little Miami [Ohio] and beating North Carolina and Virginia Tech and Northwestern when they’re ranked. Take a little pride in doing a good job up here. That’s what we’re looking forward to doing.

Trudeau: Coach, I don’t appreciate your attitude, really. We do have a radio show and we do have to entertain and if you don’t understand that, then… I’m a little disappointed in a school that needs to have some publicity, some good publicity go your way. I’m a little surprised at your attitude, coach.

Zaccagnini: I’m a little shocked too—

Wilson: I’m trying to take a little pride —

Zaccagnini: — I’m not sure how much in demand you are with the media.

Trudeau: I can have pride in my school, too. But you know what, there are time when there are other things going on in the world and you know, to come on our show and have an attitude, I’m shocked. I’m absolutely shocked.

Zaccagnini: Yeah, we’re going to let you go coach…

- – -

Listen to the entire interview here.

Obviously, it wasn’t the finest moment in ambassadorship in the name of a hard-luck program. The worst part: After his token “I never heard that fight song in my day” joke, Trudeau a) Became the first person in decades to reference the possibility of Indiana playing for a Big Ten championship, and b) Said he has two kids at Indiana and attends a lot of Hoosier games. That was before the interview.

After the interview? “I’m sad my kid’s going there.” And “If that’s his attitude, and he was really honest with us there, if that’s the way he’s going to be, he’s got no chance.” And “He’s in over his head.” And “Anybody who heard him would go, ‘That guy’s an ass.” And “I’m calling [Illinois coach] Ron Zook today, I’m gonna tell him to pound Indiana.”

Well, maybe Wilson just had a bad day. It wouldn’t be his first: The last time he was in the national news, he was apologizing for cursing at a pair of resident assistants at an IU dorm a few days after he was hired last December. Maybe he was inspired by Nick Saban. Maybe he’s been possessed by the suffer-fools-lightly spirit of Generalissimo Bob Knight.

Just one small tip, coach: The no-nonsense routine may come across a little better next time if you actually, you know, have Saban and Knight’s win-loss records behind you. Good luck with that.

- – -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Read the Article »