THE COLLEGEFOOTBALLTALK RUMOR MILL

by Michael David Smith

POSTED 1:12 p.m. EST, May 16, 2008

PATERNO FINE AFTER BRIEF HOSPITAL STAY

On Wednesday, I spoke with Joe Paterno in Chicago. He and all of the Big Ten football and basketball coaches were attending a seminar, and I was on a panel where the topic of blogs, recruiting-related message boards and other new issues in the media were discussed. I was impressed when he asked a question that showed a fairly nuanced view of  the changing face of sports media.

He looked as healthy and fit as an 81-year-old can look, so on Thursday I was surprised to learn that he had been taken to the hospital for dehydration.

But it was apparently a minor ailment. He's now out of the hospital and planning to fly to Austin, Texas today for an event honoring Texas coach Mack Brown.

"He's mad," Penn State spokesman Guido D'Elia said of Paterno. "Anything that gets in the way of getting things done, he's not happy with. He's never a good patient when it comes to these things."

It's good to hear that Paterno is just fine. It'll take more than a little dehydration to keep him down.

POSTED 4:58 p.m. EST, May 15, 2008

PURDUE PLAYER ACCUSED OF STEALING CONDOMS

Purdue safety Torri Williams was arrested last week and charged with shoplifting. The item he's accused of taking? Condoms.

And so we want to give Williams the benefit of the doubt and think maybe he's not a thief so much as he's just a guy who values his privacy to such an extent that he doesn't want the checkout girl at Pay Less Super Market to know anything about his sex life.

Unfortunately, it's harder to give Williams the benefit of the doubt because Williams was already on probation on a drunken driving case. He could be jailed for a probation violation, and he could be kicked off the team. I hope those condoms were worth it.

POSTED 1:20 p.m. EST, May 15, 2008

MEYER: NCAA RESTRICTIONS LEAD TO OFF-FIELD PROBLEMS

Florida coach Urban Meyer says NCAA recruiting rules make it harder for coaches to assess high school players' character, and therefore more likely that off-field problems will arise.

Meyer made his comments to Florida boosters days after one of his players, Jamar Hornsby, was charged with stealing the credit card of a woman who died in a motorcycle accident that also killed another Florida player.

"The NCAA is pulling us off the recruiting process," Meyer said. "I'm not allowed to go out [to visit players] anymore. I'm not allowed to text message. I'm trying to find out as best I can. You just keep re-evaluating. If you just look around and see some of the things that are going on, it's amazing. It's concerning. It's alarming. So we take a great deal of time and effort in trying to educate guys, work with them and recruit character. Are we perfect? Absolutely not."

NCAA restrictions might make it harder for coaches to learn about players before they come to campus, but Meyer's problem with regard to Hornsby was allowing him to stay on the team after repeated off-field problems. In April of 2007 he was arrested on misdemeanor charges when he threw a man onto the hood of a car during a fight, and during the 2007 season he violated NCAA rules when he sold his tickets to the Georgia game.

Meyer acknowledged that the Hornsby case made him think, "you have to reevaluate how you're doing."

POSTED 7:05 p.m. EST, May 14, 2008

PERRILLOUX TRANSFERS TO JACKSONVILLE STATE

Former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux signed today with Jacksonville State, a I-AA team where he's expected to be the starter in September.

In an interesting twist in the story, there's a spot open for Perrilloux (who was kicked off the LSU team this month) because Jacksonville State dismissed last year's starting quarterback, Cedric Johnson, for disciplinary reasons.

"We had to have a quarterback," Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe said.

Perrilloux is a good athlete with a big arm, and he instantly becomes the most talented quarterback in I-AA football. But playing quarterback is about more than just talent, and until he shows the willingness to stay out of trouble off the field and to put in the necessary work at practice, in the film room and in the weight room, Perrilloux isn't going to be the best quarterback in I-AA.

Jacksonville State went 6-5 in 2007.

POSTED 3:34 p.m. EST, May 14, 2008

LEAK SELLS HIS MEMORABILIA

Former Florida quarterback Chris Leak won a national championship in college, but in the pros he's just looking for work.

So that may explain why Leak has sold the shoes he wore in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game, and the helmet he wore in the 2003 Army All-American game.

After all, you can make some serious cash selling sports memorabilia. Leak's shoes are going on eBay for a "buy now" price of $10,000, and his helmet is going on eBay for $2,500. Considering how much money Leak made for Florida during his four years as the Gators' quarterback, it strikes me as perfectly fair that he's now making a bit of cash himself.

POSTED 7:39 p.m. EST, May 13, 2008

PERRILLOUX VISITS JACKSONVILLE STATE

Ryan Perrilloux, the onetime superstar quarterback recruit who was kicked off the LSU football team on May 1, visited Jacksonville State today as he prepares to transfer.

Three years after he was the most highly sought recruit in Division I-A, Perrilloux is now the most highly sought recruit in Division I-AA. He decided to move down a division so that he will be eligible to play immediately.

Jackson State is also interested, and its coach, Rick Comegy, said he has high hopes for landing the talented but troubled quarterback.

"We want to be in the ballpark like everyone else who's recruiting him and see what the situation is and try to see if he fits our program and those type of things," Comegy said. "We just don't want to have to play against him."

In addition to Jacksonville State and Jackson State, Perrilloux is reportedly also interested in Alabama A&M and Valdosta State.

POSTED 6:44 a.m. EST, May 13, 2008

ALABAMA'S WALKER CUTS HEAD WHILE FALLING-DOWN DRUNK

Alabama wide receiver A.J. Walker was arrested last week and charged with misdemeanor public intoxication, and his mug shot showed him with a large bandage over his left eye.

How did he get the cut? The Press-Register reports that a University of Alabama police officer saw him throwing up while sitting in the passenger side of a parked SUV. The officer says he then saw Walker open the door and fall out of the vehicle onto the ground. The police report says:

"Throwing up, Mr. Walker had a cut on his head and hands from the fall. Mr. Walker had slurred speech and reeked of alcohol."

Walker is the ninth Alabama football player to be arrested since July.

POSTED 2:51 p.m. EST, May 12, 2008

FLORIDA DEFENSIVE LINEMAN SHOT

Florida defensive lineman Matt Patchan was shot in the shoulder at a Tampa-area park on Friday. He is expected to make a full recovery.

The 6-foot-7, 265-pound Patchan is a freshman who enrolled at Florida in January after graduating from high school early. No details are known about the shooting.

Patchan was the second college football player from a Florida school to be shot last week. On Thursday, Central Florida cornerback Johnell Neal was injured in a shooting in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Few details are known about that shooting, either, although Central Florida coach George O'Leary made comments that suggested that Neal's injuries were not life-threatening.

POSTED 10:49 a.m. EST, May 12, 2008

JOEPA "SICK AND TIRED" OF MEDIA QUESTIONS

Penn State coach Joe Paterno met with the media over the weekend, and reporters wanted to talk about players getting into off-field trouble, and how much longer Paterno would be the coach.

Paterno shouldn't have been surprised -- isn't that what everyone wants to talk about regarding Penn State football these days? -- but he was agitated.

"I'm sick and tired of talking about this, that and the other thing, to be very frank with you," Paterno said, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We got a tough schedule, a good football team, and we're going to have a lot of fun and you guys all should be excited!"

The Inquirer reports that he then slammed his fist on the table in front of him and demanded, "Right?"

Well, no, coach, not right. It's not the media's job to be excited about your football team. It's the media's job to ask legitimate questions about your football team. And the questions about players facing legal trouble, and about whether you can keep coaching long enough to be there when the guys you're recruiting now are seniors, are legitimate.

As for how long he'll stay, Paterno says he's telling recruits that they should go to Penn State because it's a good school with a good tradition, not because he'll be their coach.

The 81-year-old Paterno says he tells his recruits, "I don't know whether I'm going to be here the three, four, five years you're going to be here, but I feel great and I'm intending to coach as long as I feel good."

POSTED 6:40 p.m. EST, May 10, 2008

FLORIDA BOOTS PLAYER WHO USED DEAD WOMAN'S CREDIT CARD

One of the worst stories in college football in the last year was when Florida defensive back Michael Guillford was killed in a motorcycle accident along with his passenger, a Florida student named Ashley Slonina. Two young people, needlessly dead.

Now that story has gotten even worse. One of Guillford's Florida teammates, Jamar Hornsby, responded to the tragedy by taking Slonina's credit card and using it to make fraudulent purchases. The card was used at least 70 times and at least $3,000 worth of merchandise was purchased with it. On Thursday Hornsby was charged with credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.

On Friday Florida coach Urban Meyer did the right thing, kicking Hornsby off the team. Meyer's simple statement said that Hornsby "is not part of our program."

The spokesman for the local Sheriff's Office said, "I would love to hear the explanation for utilizing the credit card of a deceased person." Personally, I don't want to hear it.

POSTED 8:55 a.m. EST, May 9, 2008

CHARLIE WEIS: "TO HELL WITH MICHIGAN"

Both Notre Dame and Michigan are expected to have down years in 2008, which, in a strange way, makes their September 13 game a big one: College football fans outside South Bend and Ann Arbor are already getting excited about heaping scorn on the loser.

Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis has gotten an early start on all the scorn-heaping, 1:20 in to this video:

"I always been one to never make excuses and not go about airing it. We're going to start on September 6 with San Diego State. I think that the first opportunity we're really gonna have to make a statement is that day.

"And then we'll listen to Michigan have all their excuses as they come running in and saying how they have a new coaching staff and there's changes. To hell with Michigan."

Weis displays a lot of bravado when he's speaking about his team, and one thing about verbal bravado in sports is that it doesn't mean much if you can't back it up on the field. Weis's team failed to back it up last year, which means he might want to hold off on the tough talk.

POSTED 5:20 p.m. EST, May 8, 2008

WHY THE APR DOESN'T MATTER

King Kaufman of Salon.com has a great column today about the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, detailing why the whole thing just doesn't add up at all.

APR, for those lucky enough not to know all the gory details, is the NCAA's way of judging schools' ability to keep their athletes in school and make sure they graduate. Schools that fail to keep enough athletes in school, and schools with low graduation rates, can be punished by losing scholarships.

So what's wrong with that? The key point is this, from Kaufman's column: "Schools have always pushed their athletes into taking easy classes and avoiding challenging majors. The APR creates more incentive to push more of them that way. More kids graduating doesn't necessarily mean more kids are getting more education."

Only two BCS conference football programs were sanctioned for their APR performance, Kansas and Washington State. That might mean Kansas and Washington State have the worst academics in big-time college football. But it more likely means Kansas and Washington State just need to learn how to sugarcoat their academic shortcomings, the way other big-time football programs do.

POSTED 11:42 a.m. EST, May 8, 2008

SEMINOLES' ROSE OUT FOR SEASON

Florida State is going to be terrible this season.

That's really the only conclusion you can draw from looking at the defections from the Seminoles, the latest of which is starting offensive tackle Daron Rose, who is ineligible for the season and will attend a junior college. Rose started 11 games last season and was expected to anchor the offensive line.

Other players who won't be around in 2008 are linebacker Marcus Bell, who plans to transfer, and, probably, star receiver Preston Parker, who is facing felony gun charges. Several players who would be starters will be benched for the first three games of the season because of a cheating scandal.

Add all of these departures to the fact that the Seminoles weren't very good anyway -- they went 7-6 last year -- and you've got to conclude that Florida State will finish near the bottom of the ACC.

As one reader mentioned in an e-mail, the current state of the Miami and Florida State programs raises an interesting question: Which college football team is the second best in the state? It's probably South Florida. It might be Central Florida. It is most certainly not Florida State -- and as Florida Atlantic continues to improve, the Seminoles might just be happy to be in the state's Top 5.

POSTED 11:42 a.m. EST, May 7, 2008

GEORGIA TECH'S HAMILTON BUSTED

Former Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton was hired on April 28 as the school's assistant director of player personnel, which is one of those catchall jobs that college football teams have where an ex-player comes around to give advice to the current players.

But Hamilton might not be the best person to be giving advice.

Hamilton was arrested on drug, alcohol and hit-and-run charges early Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Hamilton was pulled over because his black Ford Expedition matched the description of a car that had been in a hit-and-run. The officer asked Hamilton if he had been in an accident, and he admitted that he had hit another car from behind, the police report said.

Hamilton then failed a field sobriety test, registered a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit on two breath tests and was found to have an open bottle of beer and a marijuana cigarette in his vehicle, according to police.

Georgia Tech released a statement saying, "The matter is under investigation, and appropriate action will be taken upon completion of the investigation."

POSTED 6:37 a.m. EST, May 7, 2008

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER SHOT AND KILLED

Tau Sudlow, a 20-year-old offensive lineman at Allan Hancock College, was shot and killed Friday night in Santa Maria, California.

"He was a captain, he was looked up to by all his teammates and when the news hit it really shook them up," said Allan Hancock College athletic director Tom Mott.

Police say Sudlow, who was preparing to transfer to Tennessee State, got into an argument with murder suspect Tyrel Jordan at a party on Friday night.  

POSTED 1:22 p.m. EST, May 6, 2008

NO SURE THINGS IN RECRUITING QUARTERBACKS

John Walters of NBCSports.com has a great look today at the way the most heavily recruited high school quarterbacks are often failures in college football.

Walters writes that when you look at the top couple of quarterback recruits in each of the last four years, you find something rather surprising: Most of them have left the school they signed with.

Xavier Lee (Florida State), Rhett Bomar (Oklahoma), Mitch Mustain (Arkansas), Ryan Mallett (Michigan) and Ryan Perrilloux (LSU) were all either the best or the second-best quarterback in high school football during their senior years, according to Rivals.com, and they've all transferred thanks to personal problems or legal problems or coaching changes.

The three top quarterback recruits who are still on the team they signed with are Mark Sanchez (USC), Matthew Stafford (Georgia) and Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame).

The lesson here? Ohio State fans think they've got their savior in Terrelle Pryor. But if recent history is any guide, there's less than a 50 percent chance that they're right.

POSTED 12:14 p.m. EST, May 5, 2008

BOWDEN ACKNOWLEDGES LACK OF TALENT

Speaking at the school's booster club banquet, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden made a blunt assessment of the lack of talent his program has turned out in recent years.

"The draft tells the story," Bowden said. "Not having anybody in the first round, the second round, that's about the way you're playing. But I think the crowd we've got coming in, there's more big-play potential guys in there. We need another year like that and I think we'll be very solid."

Bowden was once a great recruiter who could tap into the great talent base in Florida to ensure that the Seminoles would reload every year, not rebuild. But he's not anymore. In this year's draft, only three Seminoles were selected, none on the first day.

As recently as 2006, Florida State had four first-round picks, and through the 1990s Florida State produced NFL-quality players as frequently as any program in the country. Now the talent just isn't coming in anymore. All the talk that the game has passed Bowden by is true -- but it's the recruiting game, not the game on the field.

POSTED 5:45 a.m. EST, May 4, 2008

OHIO STATE'S FIRST GAME

I have an article in today's New York Times about Ohio State's first football game, an 1890 contest at Ohio Wesleyan.

In preparation for the article I spoke to, among others, Ohio State's two-time Heisman Trophy winner, Archie Griffin, and I was impressed with the way the legendary figures of Ohio State football respect the tradition at Ohio Wesleyan, even though OWU hasn't played big-time football in decades.

As for that first game, touchdowns were worth four points and "goals after touchdown" worth two, and Ohio State won 20-14.

POSTED 8:19 a.m. EST, May 3, 2008

PERRILLOUX FAILED DRUG TEST

Yesterday we noted that LSU coach Les Miles wasn't saying what the last straw was that finally convinced him to kick quarterback Ryan Perrilloux off his team.

But ESPN's Joe Schad has the answer: According to Schad, citing two unnamed sources, Perrilloux failed a drug test. There is no information on when the test was taken, what substance he tested positive for or who administered the test.

Perrilloux apparently wants to transfer to a I-AA school, where he can play right away and not have to sit out a year. His high school coach says more than a dozen I-AA programs have contacted him about Perrilloux.

"I want to see him surface. I want to see him get on the field because he's such a talented athlete," East St. John High School coach Larry Dauterive said. "I've been doing this 39 years and I've never seen anybody do with a football what he can do. I don't know if his priorities are screwed up or what. He's the best athlete I've ever been around -- ever."

POSTED 9:23 a.m. EST, May 2, 2008

LSU BOOTS PERRILLOUX

LSU coach Les Miles announced today that he has kicked quarterback Ryan Perrilloux off the team.

Miles said the talented but troubled Perrilloux "didn't fulfill his obligation as an LSU student-athlete," but he wouldn't say, specifically, what the last straw was.

Perrilloux has been suspended from the team several times for off-field problems. In early April, we heard from people with knowledge of the situation at LSU that Perrilloux was most likely done playing football at the school, but coach Les Miles said then that Perrilloux was still on the team. Now he's done at LSU for good.

POSTED 7:04 a.m. EST, May 2, 2008

DICK BUTKUS GETS HIS AWARD BACK

After a lengthy lawsuit, the Butkus Award is now controlled by Dick Butkus.

The award, which is named after the Hall of Fame linebacker and goes to the best linebacker in college football each year, had been controlled by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando. But Butkus sued, and in a settlement, the club has agreed to return the trademark to Butkus.

"Dick is thrilled," his lawyer said.

Club officials say they were right on the merits of the case, but that they couldn't justify the expense of the lawsuit. Either way, it's good news that the man the award is named for can now give the award his endorsement.

POSTED 12:28 p.m. EST, May 1, 2008

COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS ANNOUNCED

The 15 members of the 2008 class of the College Football Hall of Fame have been announced as:

Troy Aikman, UCLA

Billy Cannon, LSU

Jim Dombrowski, Virginia

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern

Wilber Marshall, Florida

Reuben Mayes, Washington State

Randall McDaniel, Arizona State

Don McPherson, Syracuse

Jay Novacek, Wyoming

Dave Parks, Texas Tech

Ron Simmons, Florida State

Thurman Thomas, Oklahoma State

Arnold Tucker, Army

John Cooper, Tulsa/Arizona State/Ohio State (coach)

Lou Holtz, William & Mary/North Carolina State/Arkansas/Minnesota/Notre Dame/South Carolina (coach)

POSTED 7:04 a.m. EST, May 1, 2008

WASHINGTON STATE PLANS TO LOSE SCHOLARSHIPS

The NCAA has released its Academic Progress Rate statistics, and Washington State is expecting its low graduation rate to result in a loss of scholarships.

"We have to go in with a mindset that this next year we're going to play with 79 instead of 85," said head coach Paul Wulff.

Wulff, who was hired this year, hasn't been around long enough to have any effect on the team's academic progress. But the low graduation rate under prior head coach Bill Doba will prove costly, as the NCAA punishes programs that don't graduate players at a sufficiently high level by taking scholarships away.

Of course, some schools achieve high graduation rates by steering their football players into the classes of professors who gladly give all football players high grades for little or no work. And some schools are in hot water because of low graduation rates that are as much about their athletes leaving school early to play pro football or basketball as about four-year athletes failing to graduate.

But these are the rules that all the NCAA member schools have agreed to, and as it stands now, Washington State is in trouble.

POSTED 3:49 p.m. EST, April 30, 2008

34 BOWL GAMES THIS SEASON

The NCAA Bowl Certification Committee has approved two new bowl games, bringing to 34 the total number of bowls -- and raising the question of whether 68 teams can be found to play in them.

All 32 of last season's bowls will come back for 2008-09, and two new games have been added: The Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., featuring Navy against an ACC team, and the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field, which will feature a Big East team against a Conference USA team.

Organizers of a proposed Rocky Mountain Bowl in Salt Lake City were shot down in part because the NCAA is worried that it won't have enough bowl-eligible teams to play 35 bowl games. Of course, the NCAA can't be sure it will have enough bowl-eligible teams to play 34 bowl games, either. Last year 71 teams were bowl eligible, and depending on the vagaries of the schedule it's certainly possible that fewer than 68 will be eligible this year.

So what would happen in that event? The NCAA has suggested that a lack of bowl eligible teams could prevent all the bowls from being played, but I don't buy it. Much more likely, the NCAA would simply create an exemption to the eligibility rules to fill all 68 spots.

POSTED 8:55 a.m. EST, April 29, 2008

OREGON UNIFORMS HELPING WITH RECRUITING?

Call me old-fashioned, but I think Oregon's multicolored uniforms are hideous.

However, I'm at least a decade too old to fit in the demographic that Oregon and its benefactor, Nike, want to appeal to with those hideous uniforms. And it's interesting to note that younger people -- including at least one highly sought recruit -- love the way Oregon looks on the field.

LeGarrette Blount was a star running back at East Mississippi Community College who was recruited to play at Division I schools all over the country, but he chose Oregon in part, he says, because of its unique look.

"We don't wear the same thing twice -- I love that," Blount tells ESPN.com. "I don't want to play for a sluggish-looking team."

I find it awfully hard to believe that anyone actually chooses a team based on its uniforms, but there it is: Blount says it was a factor. And Nike continues to help Oregon athletics.

POSTED 5:39 a.m. EST, April 28, 2008

UCLA GETTING DESPERATE AT QB

UCLA's coaching staff has asked high school senior quarterback Kevin Prince to enter school early, as mounting injuries have made the Bruins desperate to have a few warm quarterback bodies on campus.

Patrick Cowan, who had been slated to start at quarterback for UCLA, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Backup Ben Olson is expected to be the starter in the fall, but he won't be able to practice for at least two months because of a broken foot. Junior college transfer Kevin Craft is the top healthy quarterback for now.

Even if Prince does enroll early, he might not be ready to go. Prince is rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered in the fall and hadn't planned to start practicing at UCLA until January of 2009.

As it is now, behind Craft on the depth chart are Chris Forcier and Osaar Rasshan. True freshman quarterback Nick Crissman is arriving this summer. None of them are considered good enough to start in the fall.

No team in college football has a better coaching staff for teaching young quarterbacks than UCLA, with head coach Rick Neuheisel and offensive coordinator Norm Chow. But coaches can only do so much, and until Olson's foot heals, UCLA is seriously lacking in quarterback talent.

POSTED 7:25 a.m. EST, April 25, 2008

UCF LAWYERS INTERVIEWING PLAYERS ABOUT PLANCHER'S DEATH

Attorneys for the University of Central Florida are interviewing football players about the circumstances surrounding the death of wide receiver Ereck Plancher, who collapsed after a team workout.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that football staff members informed players during a team meeting that they were required to meet individually with UCF lawyers this week before they leave campus. This is final exam week at UCF.

The Plancher family has not said whether it will file a lawsuit, but the university is taking all the steps that you would expect a university to take when it thinks it's going to get sued.

Meanwhile, Plancher's father says he has not been completely reimbursed for Plancher's funeral, which the university said it would pay for. The father says total funeral expenses were $35,000.

POSTED 7:56 p.m. EST, April 24, 2008

70 TEAMS COULD PLAY IN BOWLS IN 2008-09

Thirty-two college football bowl games were played in December of 2007 and January of 2008. And some people think that's not enough.

Stewart Mandel of SI.com reports that the NCAA's Bowl Certification Committee will consider adding three new bowl games next week. If the Congressional Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl and Rocky Mountain Bowl all gain certification, it would bring the total number of bowl games to 35.

That could pose a problem, as it would mean 70 bowl bids, and it's not a sure thing that 70 teams will be bowl eligible. (Last year the number of bowl eligible teams was 71.)

"That's cutting it pretty close," said Southern Miss Athletic Director Richard Gianni, who serves as the chairman of the Bowl Certification Committee.

Added Scott Ramsey, chairman of the Football Bowl Association, "There's a lot of concern in our association about adding even one more game. One of the worst things that could happen down the road is for the organizers of a game to spend all year preparing for it and then not have enough teams to play. It would give the bowl system a collective black eye."

Realistically, though, if they approve 35 bowls, they'll find a way to have 70 teams to play in them, even if the NCAA has to get creative with the way it defines "bowl eligible."

And as silly as it seems to have a couple of 6-6 teams from mediocre conferences playing in a bowl game, I have no real problem with 35 bowl games. If they can find teams that want to play, fans who want to go and a TV network that wants to show it, why not?

POSTED 2:15 p.m. EST, April 24, 2008

MICHIGAN LANDS A QUARTERBACK

He's no Terrelle Pryor, but a quarterback who looks like the right fit for coach Rich Rodriguez's spread option offense has committed to Michigan.

Kevin Newsome, a four-star recruit from Chesapeake, Virginia, will join Michigan's 2009 freshman class. Newsome is a 1,500-yard passer and a 600-yard rusher, and he's the third player rated by Rivals.com as one of the top 50 in the country to commit to Michigan.

"I love the winning tradition of Michigan," Newsome said. "I really believe Michigan is the godfather of college football, and that's what makes the Michigan-Ohio State game so notorious."

Expect to see Newsome and Pryor across the field from each other in a couple of those Michigan-Ohio State games.

POSTED 2:22 p.m. EST, April 23, 2008

MICHIGAN'S BEST LINEMAN TRANSFERS TO OHIO STATE

We noted last month that Justin Boren, Michigan's best returning offensive lineman, was leaving the team and trashing new coach Rich Rodriguez on his way out the door, saying that the Michigan program's "family values have eroded."

But it gets worse. (Or, if you're not a Michigan fan, better.) Boren isn't just leaving, he's leaving for Ohio State.

Boren went to high school in Pickerington, Ohio, just outside Columbus, so it's a little surprising that Ohio State ever let him get away in the first place. But after sitting out the 2008 season, Boren will play for the Buckeyes in 2009, coach Jim Tressel confirmed.

Aside from the obvious symbolic issue of a player leaving the Maize and Blue to play for the Scarlet and Gray, this is a huge development for Ohio State on the field, as Boren is a very talented player who can play center, guard or tackle. It's safe to say he'll be in Ohio State's starting lineup in 2009.

POSTED 11:10 a.m. EST, April 23, 2008

FLORIDA STATE RECEIVER BUSTED, BOWDEN CLUELESS

Preston Parker, Florida State's best wide receiver, was arrested Monday and charged with carrying a concealed firearm and possessing marijuana.

The gun charge is a felony, and the university's athletic department policy states that players charged with felonies "will not be permitted to represent FSU Athletics in a game competition until such time as the charge is resolved and all court, university and athletics department conditions for reinstatement have been met."

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said he was not familiar with the case. Although it's not clear from the Sentinel's story when Bowden said that, it's hard not to view that as an indictment of the coach: Shouldn't a coach keep close enough tabs on his program that he doesn't find out from a reporter that one of his best players is charged with a felony?

Bowden comes across as a nice guy, the grandpa to his players, but at some point he needs to take control of his football team. He comes across as clueless when he's quoted in a newspaper as saying he's not familiar with the case of one of his players being arrested.

Florida State will start the season without several players who were suspended for the first three games of 2008 for an academic cheating scandal. Losing Parker for any length of time would be another major blow to the team.

POSTED 9:02 a.m. EST, April 22, 2008

CLAUSEN SAYS HE'S 100 PERCENT

Is there a more important player in college football than Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen? The Fighting Irish are coming off one of the worst seasons in program history, and coach Charlie Weis has put all his eggs in Clausen's basket, insisting that Clausen is the right player to lead his offense.

If Clausen turns out to be the wrong, player, it's going to be another disastrous season for the most storied program in college football.

So at first glance, this quote from Clausen sounds like good news for Notre Dame fans:

"Last year I wasn't real healthy coming off elbow surgery and being hurt throughout the season. I feel great right now. I feel 100 percent back to where I'm supposed to be."

But there's just one problem. At Notre Dame's spring game, Clausen completed just 10 of his 27 passes. If that's the way he plays when he's 100 percent, isn't that a reason to worry?

Obviously, you can't take too much from the spring game. But while a healthy Clausen is a good thing for Notre Dame, what they really need is a healthy and accurate Clausen. So far there's no sign of that.

POSTED 7:55 p.m. EST, April 21, 2008

COLORADO'S RALPHIE ALMOST BREAKS LOOSE

Colorado's live Buffalo mascot, Ralphie, is one of the traditions that makes Colorado football fun. But please, CU officials, don't bring Ralphie on the field unless you're sure you've got her under control:

That clip, which Colorado coach Dan Hawkins later called "the highlight of the day," happened during the Colorado spring game, when all but one of Ralphie's handlers lost their grip on the leashes they hold, leaving one poor guy to get Ralphie under control single-handedly.  It's amazing that he managed to hold on, seeing as Ralphie weighs more than 700 pounds.

It was the first spring game for that specific Ralphie, called Ralphie V, who is a year and a half old and will grow to 1,300 pounds. The previous Ralphie, 11-year-old Ralphie IV, is not completely retired but is getting on in years and is slowly being put out to pasture.

POSTED 10:57 a.m. EST, April 21, 2008

BOSTON COLLEGE DE SMITH SUSPENDED AFTER SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGE

Boston College has suspended starting defensive end Brady Smith after he was charged with sexual assault in an incident on campus over the weekend.

Smith was also charged with breaking and entering in an incident that police said occurred either Saturday evening or early Sunday.

"Brady Smith was issued a summary suspension from the university as a result of an alleged assault last evening or early this morning," a Boston College spokesman said. "The university has a right to issue summary suspension for incidents that are deemed to be of a serious nature. That suspension remains in effect pending the outcome of court proceedings."

Smith started eight games as a freshman in 2006 and 12 as a sophomore in 2007. He had 8.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks last season.

POSTED 12:09 p.m. EST, April 20, 2008

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEBRASKA AND ILLINOIS

Illinois is coming off one of the best seasons of its football program's history, a season that included an upset at then-No. 1 Ohio State and concluded with the school's first Rose Bowl in nearly a quarter of a century.

Nebraska is coming off one of the worst seasons of its football program's history, a season that included a loss to Kansas in which the Cornhuskers gave up a preposterous 76 points,  and that concluded with a losing record for the first time in nearly half a century.

Both schools had their spring games Saturday. Illinois attracted 12,531 fans. Nebraska attracted 80,149 fans.

As an Illinois graduate, I often wonder why my alma mater has never been able to build a consistent winner on the football field, and I think those attendance figures provide a good portion of the answer: There's just something ingrained in the psyches of some schools that makes them football powers, and something ingrained in others that makes them football doormats.

Illinois was better than Nebraska in 2007, and may be in 2008. But in the long run, Illinois is never going to be as good as Nebraska, year in and year out. Some schools are football powerhouses and some schools are football also-rans, and spring game attendance -- while it may sound trivial -- probably correlates pretty well to on-field success.

POSTED 11:28 a.m. EST, April 19, 2008

FUTURE TEAMMATES EXCITED ABOUT PRYOR

Freshmen on college football teams often face hazing and always have to earn the respect of their older, more experienced teammates. But it sounds like the older, more experienced players on the Ohio State team are just as giddy as Buckeyes fans about soon-to-be freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

"When he didn't sign on signing day, it created this buzz that I've never seen before," Ohio State tight end Rory Nicol said. "Then when he signed with Ohio State, it was like, 'Wow, we got this kid who was making headlines on ESPN.'"

Added linebacker James Laurinaitis, who could have been a high NFL draft pick next weekend but elected to return to Ohio State for his senior season, "He is a very impressive kid who looks like he has all the tools to be a success."

However, there are questions. For starters, there's a chance that Pryor could redshirt. It seems a little silly to get too excited about a player who might not even step on the field for more than 16 months.

And even if Pryor does play, he has virtually no chance of beating out Todd Boeckman, a very good quarterback, for the starting job. Is it a bit disrespectful to Boeckman and his backups, Antonio Henton and Joe Bauserman, to give so much attention to a guy who's still in high school?