Ben Mauk's Eligibility Gets Mauled

Ben Mauk petitioned the NCAA for another year of eligibility, but they "declined" his request. Which is a nice way of saying, "sorry buddy, your days of pulling choice trim and driving around in booster sponsored rides are over".

One sort of has to feel sorry for Mauk because he redshirted his freshman year at Wake Forest, and then missed just about the entire '06 season with a broken arm and dislocated shoulder. He never really had a chance to thrive at Wake, but in his one and only year at Cincinnati he threw for 3,121 yards, 31TD's and 9INT's. Unfortunately, he won't have a chance to build on that success at Cincy.

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

Bizarro College Football World Lives On!
Stanford won. Yes, you read that right. The Fighting Jim Harbaughs ended the nation's longest home winning streak. One that spanned over 6 years. That is pure, unadulterated craziness. Oh yeah, Illinois ended the nation's longest winning streak by beating Wisconsin. Previously unranked Kansas, now the proud owner of the #20 spot, upset K-State at home. Nebraska got blasted by Mizzou. And Miami lost to UNC. Stay tuned every week from here on out to see what the hell else happens.

Les Miles Gut Checks His Team
I've got to hand it to LSU(just like my beloved Gators did). They made plays when they needed them most, and lucked pulled out a gritty win. Going 5-for-5 on 4th downs is pretty impressive, and ensured that Colt David wouldn't have to be counted on to shank make one.

The SEC Is Proving Once Again How Tough It Is
There are currently 7 SEC teams ranked in the Top 25. Every week the teams are fighting for championship hopes. And even when a traditional powerhouse like Tennessee is having a down year a team like Kentucky steps up and helps fill the void.

Ohio State Is Creeping Up
Last year they were supposed to win it all, but maybe everyone was off by a season. The Buckeyes took apart a pretty good Purdue team on Saturday without playing great football. Their conference is weak this year, and if there was ever time to run the table this is it. They still have tough games left(at PSU/Meeechigan, vs MSU/'Consin/UI), but a perfect record is possible. Though, they would probably still get smacked around by an SEC in the championship game should they make it that far.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Cut down on the penalties. Finally, after what seemed like months and months of having double digit penalties the Gators only had 2 for 8 yards. At least that was nice.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Stop 4th down conversions by LSU in the 4th quarter. On the two 4th quarter touchdown drives for LSU in the 4th quarter they converted 3 times. One was a 4th and goal that resulted in a TD. The other two were 4th and shorts that Jacob Hester was able to pick up running straight ahead. If Florida stops any of those, then they most likely win the game.

Heismens!
Graham Harrell continues to lead the nation in passing yards and touchdowns(I know, I know he's in a pass happy offense. Whatever.)

Redshirt freshman Michael Crabtree continued to benefit from having Graham Harrell at QB by catching 10 passes for 154 yards and 3 TD's. He now has ober 1,000 yards receiving and 17 receiving TD's.

Mike Hart reclaimed the lead in rushing yards by running for 215 yards(He became UM's all-time rushing leader), and 3 TD's on Saturday.

Consider yourself debriefed!

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

Upsets, Upsets, Come Get Your Upsets!
What appeared to be a relatively docile college football weekend shook up the polls and shattered dreams. Five of the top ten lost(Oklahoma, Florida, WVU, Texas & Rutgers), as did two other ranked and previously unbeaten teams(Clemson & Oregon). It was like bizzaro college football world opened up, and started sucking in teams.

LSU Back On Top
Despite a slow first half against Tulane, LSU moved past USC into the #1 spot in the AP Poll. Both teams have the ability to put lots of points over the course of 60 minutes, but LSU's defense is much tougher. They deserved to get moved up.

South Florida Benefits From The Shake Up(So Does Kentucky)
So what FBS team from Florida is currently ranked the highest? Florida? No. Miami? Uh uh. FSU? Wrong again. UCF? Nope. It's the University of South Florida, which maxxed out their win against West Virginia on Friday night with all of the upsets on Saturday. They're currently sitting at #6, while the next closest Florida school is UF at #9. And no, that's not a typo. Kentucky has crept up to #8 in the football rankings. Andre Woodson continues to lead the Wildcats extremely well, and has them sitting alone atop the SEC East. Bizarro world indeed!

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Uh, cut down on the penalties? 7 for 44 yards was less than usual, but they came at the most inopportune times. Personal foul on special teams? Illegal formation on a successful fake punt? Gun, bullet, foot. The Gators didn't allow any sacks either. Woohoo...

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Hmmm...win?!? Actually, Florida's rushing average was way down, and when your starting "tailback" carries the ball three times for four yards things probably aren't going too well.

Heismens!
Graham Harrell put up another 5 passing TD's, as Texas Tech hung 75 points on the powerhouse that is Northwestern St. He's leading the country in pass yards, and has 24 TD's to just 2 INT's.

Mike Hart turned in another 100+ yard performance, going for 106yds and 1 TD. UCF's Kevin Smith has another monster day, rushing for 223 yards and 3 TD's. Smith has to get mentioned now, as he's third in the nation in rush yards(713) and first in rush TD's(10).

Michael Crabtree gets some space because he's racked up almost 1,000 yards receiving through five games and has 14 TD's. Sure, Texas Tech is a pass heavy offense, but those numbers are pretty impressive, especially for a freshman.

Thursday Night Is Fun Again!
After a down week last week, we get another good Thursday night matchup. This time it's the #8 ranked Kentucky Wildcats going on the road to face the #11 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina's pass defense has been pretty good so far, though their rush defense gives up an average of 200 yards per game. However, Kentucky's rush defense hasn't been any better giving up an average of 203 yards per game, and their pass defense is weaker than USC's. It should be another good SEC matchup.

Consider yourself debriefed!

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

Syracuse and Miami Are Who We Thought They Were!
Well, maybe not exactly, but Louisville and Texas A&M fans have to be residing in the same deep, dark hole right now. The Aggies traveled to the Orange Bowl for the final Thursday night game in the antiquated stadium(it's a trap!), and the 'Canes beat them down like it was 1987 and TAMU had shown up wearing Oklahoma uniforms. If Coach Fran thought his seat was hot before, he better have a fire extinguisher, a few thousand buckets of water and a flame retardant suit because it's on fiyah(!) now. I'm sure TAMU fans had to be happy seeing their bruising tail/half/elephantback Jorvorskie Lane rumble for 2 yards on 2 carries. Awesome!

And Louisville? They lost to one of the worst teams in Div.-1 football(screw the FBS, we're adverse to change!), Syracuse. They even lost in Papa John's Stadium where the only thing the Cardinals had been losing were notches on their belts because of that delicious pizza complimented by your choice of garlic or cheese dipping sauce.

The Top 5 Rolled On...For The Most Part
USC hung 47 points and 500+ total yards on Washington State. LSU struggled a bit with South Carolina by only putting up 28 points and 360 yards. Oklahoma took Tulsa behind the woodshed and did unspeakable things en route to 62 points and 550+ yards. Florida(rose colored glasses alert!) never seemed to hit on all cylinders against Mississippi as they posted up 30 points and 500 yards. And West Virginia blew out East Carolina to the tune of 48 points and almost 600 yards. Of course the two SEC teams struggled a bit because it's the toughest conference on this planet, and all of the other ones too!

Don't Look Now, But Michigan is 1-0 In The Conference
After App. State and Oregon, Michigan was getting written off by a lot of people. However, they showed on Saturday that at the very least they're interested in winning the Big 10, and hopefully screwing up someone else's season(Ohio State you're on notice!). Lloyd Carr rode Mike Hart just about until the wheels fell off(44 carries, 153yds, 1TD) as the Wolverines welcomed the Nittany Lions into their (getting) Big(ger) House, and then sent them off to do the walk of shame after getting freaky.

SEC Football Really Is Great(Homerism Warning)
Of course I'm a fan of SEC football. Who isn't? Oh you're not? Well, I'll have to report you to Homeland Security as being un-American. Seriously, the Georgia at Alabama game was one of the best this season. 'Bama scored 10 fourth quarter points to tie the game at 20, and force overtime. Then in OT Georgia holds them to a field goal, and on UGA's first OT possession Coach Richt lets Matt Stafford unleash his precision keg throwing skills for the winning TD. It was awesome, especially because I hate Dick Satan, and his gray suit. The South Carolina at LSU, and Florida at Mississippi games were closer than expected, but that just made for a better day of football(and increased pepto intake). Plus we had Kentucky scoring 21 unanswered points to beat Arkansas 42-29. After the Woodson safety, and Felix Jones kickoff immediately afterwards it looked like the Wildcats were doomed, but they battled back and won. And Andre Woodson played well again.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
They avoided a letdown loss after a big win against Tennessee the week before. Thanks to the announcers I now have seared into my brain the fact that there were 18 players on the Florida team making their first roadtrip. It was nice to see them grind out a closer than should have been win against an SEC opponent on the road. It should prepare them somewhat for heading to LSU in two weeks, and by some I mean about .0001%.

My (insert respective team Didn't Do This Well
Score, avoid penalties, cover the deep pass. Tebow put the team on his shoulders, and scored through the air and on the ground. However, the Gators racked up another 14 penalties for 127 yards, and they gave up 310 yards passing. Including a 77 yarder that brought Mississippi within 3 points of tying the game. I can still remember imploring Meyer through the picture box to put in Major Wright, and take out Kyle Jackson at least for a few plays. Of course, what happens? I get to see Joe Haden and Major Wright trying to catch Mike Wallace as he runs past them and to the end zone. Is Reggie Nelson available on Saturdays?

Heismens!
Like passing? How about these QB's? Graham Harrell's wonderful performance(46-67[67!], 646yds, 5TD, 0INT) resulted in a loss, but now he leads the nation in passing yards(1,963) and TD's(19). Curtis Painter has quietly put up almost 1330 passing yards and is second behind Harrell with 16 TD's. Brian Brohm was another losing QB this weekend, but like Harrell it's not because he couldn't help the offense put up points. Brohm went 45-65, 555yds, 4TD's and 2INT's. He's second to Harrell in passing yards with almost 1,700.

How about running? With his performance this past Saturday Mike Hart has started to distance himself from the rest of the pack. He leads the country with 655 yards, though Steve Slaton did add to his totals with 110 yards and 1TD against ECU.

Friday Night Lights!
Another week, another great weekday game. This week we get to see West Virginia travel to Tampa to take on USF. Both are undefeated, with identical 2-0 conference records, and WVU will be looking to avenge their 24-19 loss last year that knocked them out of BCS title contention. Raymond James will be rocking, and USF will be eager to add another win to their impressive list over the past few years.

Consider yourself debriefed!

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

USC Did Their Best To State Their Claim As #1
At the beginning of the season everyone was saying that Nebraska was going to be USC's first big test, and that the Cornhuskers were looking for revenge after last year's game. Well, on Saturday it looked like USC had a cheetsheat, and paid off the professor after they put Nebraska down 42-10 early and held off a comeback attempt to win 49-31. USC's offensive line dominated all night en route to racking up 313 yards rushing with an 8.2ypc average. LSU's defense is probably better, but USC can put up points with anyone in the country. Orson(and Stranko) at EDSBS have some pretty good illustrations of just how dominant USC's offensive linemen were.

LSU Is Still The #1 Team In The Country
The Tigers beat an MTSU team that put up 42 on Louisville(pay no attention to Kentucky!) by a score of 44-0. With their backup quarterback. So far, over three games, LSU has allowed 7 points, and an average of 128 yards per game. And when the offense is averaging 45pts and 480 yards per game that equals lots and lots of wins.

Michigan Got A Win At Home!(Notre Dame Still Winless)
In the game "someone has to win" of the week, Michigan took out their frustrations from the App. State and Oregon debacles on Notre Dame as they cruised to a 38-0 victory. Mike Hart made good on his guaranteed victory by rushing for 187 yards and 2 TD's. The only positive is that it wasn't a home game for ND because I don't think even Touchdown Jesus would have stayed for the fourth quarter. ND hasn't scored an offensive touchdown yet this season, and their schedule doesn't get much easier.

Defense Wins Championships
At least that's what they've always told us. It's probably why over the last few years Louisville has been a great early season pick as possible Big East champ and national title contender, but always stumble at some point. Sure they can score points in bunches, but their defense always seems to allow them in that fashion as well and this year is no different. The only difference is that it caught up to them very early this season, as Kentucky downed the Cardinals 40-34. Andre Woodson played sharp all night, and looks to be a great leader for the UK team.

Nick Saban Has Time For Winning
Saban has his team sitting at 3-0 after the Crimson Tide pulled out a win against Arkansas, and I'm sure the fans couldn't be happier. I however, am not thrilled because I'm also a Miami Dolphins fan. So from here on out, Nick Saban will be known as Dick Satan.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Won! Beating Tennessee 59-20 is good enough for me. They did everything well! If I had to pick one thing, though it would be the rushing attack. Coach Meyer knows how to get the ball into the hands of the playmakers, and that often means lining up a receiver in the backfield(Harvin, Fason, etc.). It's worked so far, and the rushing attack looks the strongest it has in years.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Penalties are still a concern(9 for 66yds), but at least there wasn't one on the Brandon James return TD!

Heismens!
Colt Brennan? Maybe you've heard of him? Hawaii rebounded from a scary close game the week before to hang 49 on UNLV. Brennan's stats: 26-32, 298yds, 2TD's, 0INT and 3 rushing TD's. The week he scores less than 4 total TD's will cause widespread panic among UH fans.

Sam Bradford. If he keeps leading OU to wins while completing almost 80% of his passes, then he deserves some type of recognition.

Steve Slaton & Ray Rice. Running backs that have the fortunate situations of their coaches giving them the ball all the time. Tied for the nation lead in rushing TD's at 8 both are strong runners. Though, it does seem that Slaton hasn't gotten off to a great start, and I expect him to pull away from the competition as the season progresses.

Don't Forget Thursday(and Friday) Night!
We've got some more Thursday night games lined up this week as Western Kentucky and MTSU face off, and Texas A&M heads to the Orange Bowl to face Miami. It will be interesting to see how TAMU does against UM, and should give us a decent idea how they stack up against an OU team that put up 51 points on the 'Canes. Whatever happens it still beats anything else that's on TV that night.

We also get Oklahoma traveling to Tulsa on Friday night in what could be considered a "trap" game for the Sooners. Tulsa has enough firepower to make it interesting, but OU should get passed them.


You've been debriefed!

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your big house stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

LSU IS The Best Team In The Land
The Tigers totally dismantled a pretty good Virginia Tech team on Saturday night en route to a 48-7 blowout. Any hopes I had of this being a good game were pretty much gone by halftime, and were really gone in the third quarter when Ryan Perrilloux stepped in to throw a long TD to Early Doucet. The Tigers held the Hokies to just 149 net yards while racking up close to 600 net yards themselves, including almost 300 yards rushing. Right now, it looks like LSU has the inside track on the BCS title game, and they should be ranked ahead of USC which played the powerhouse that is idle! Also, Oklahoma looked pretty dominant as well. Their O-line looked as good as any in the country, and Sam Bradford played great. Don't be surprised if they creep up the rankings throughout the season.

The Upsets Continue
Last week we got Appalachian State over Michigan. This week we got Washington over Boise St., South Carolina over Georgia and USF over Auburn. The Huskies always play hard at home, and Taylor Tharp throwing 3INT's didn't help Boise State. UW could be a sleeper in the Pac-10. Spurrier finally got his win against UGA as head coach of South Carolina, and Matt Stafford appeared to have done a few too many keg lifts because he was off all night(43.2% completions). USF took down another big football school with their win over Auburn. The game probably shouldn't have even gone into overtime, but USF's kicker had a little trouble keeping it between the uprights. If the Bulls can play solid defense, they could contend for the Big East this year. Louisville and WVU haven't looked outstanding, though Rutgers has played pretty well.

Not A Fan of Upsets? What About Close Calls and High Scores?
We certainly got both of those week(end). It started out with Louisville having to score as much as they could in order to get past a gritty MTSU team(58-42). Seeing 100 total points on the board with the teams only seperated by 16 at the end of game always means that at least the viewers had fun. WVU played it a little close against Marshall in the early Saturday game(11AM only encourages breakfast drinking!), but pulled away late. Nebraska barely got past a tough Wake Forest team that was without its starting QB(20-17). Cal had to hold off a late game surge by Colorado State for their win(38-24). Texas A&M needed three OT's to get past Fresno State(47-45)(The J-Train is a beast!). Hawaii had to go to OT to defeat Louisiana Tech(45-44). Even Wisconsin had to score late to pull out their victory over UNLV(20-13).

It's Going To Be A Long Year In South Bend and Ann Arbor
We all kind of knew that ND was going to have a down year this year. The inexperience at quarterback was bound to be a problem. However, losing the first two games by a combined score of 64-13 is never fun. This week they get a Michigan team that followed up an upset by Appalachian State by getting smoked by Oregon, 39-7. After last week's loss, everyone wondered how Michigan would fare against a similar offense with faster and stronger athletes. Well we got the answer Saturday afternoon, and it was "fucking horrible". Oregon, ahem "Scoregon", put up points at will, and even used a successful statue of liberty play to set up a successful statue of liberty fake. After which, I'm surprised that Lloyd Carr didn't calmly lay his headset down on the turf, and walk out of the stadium never to be seen again.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well
Well, the Gators ran the ball extremely well. Kestahn Moore has actually done a nice job as the starting back, and Tebow continues to stiffarm his way to the endzone.

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well
Pass defense(again) and penalties. The secondary got torched again for almost 300 yards passing and two TD's. The defense as a whole had trouble containing Omar Haugabrook in the second half. The Gators also racked up 11 penalties for 104 yards. They had the same problem last year, and I'm sure that Coach Meyer can't be happy about it carrying over into this season.

Heismens!
Colt Brennan makes his second straight appearance here after completing 43-61 for 548 yards, 4TD's and 1INT against LaTech. Hey everybody we're all gonna get leied!

Ray Rice makes his debut here after his 175 yard, 2 TD performance against Navy. Rice now leads the nation in rushing yards with 359(and 5 TD's).

Brian Brohm's passing performance lead his Louisville team to victory. His QB rating is 226.5 and he has 9TD's and 0INT's so far on the season.



Until next week, consider yourself debriefed.

College Football Debriefing

Each week, after all of the games have been played, I'll re-visit some of them and give my take(synonym for biased, slightly informed opinion). It's called the debriefing because whatever happened during your chosen team's game you probably felt like you were part of a crime scene, or maybe a terrorist attack. Whether you thought you were robbed by the referees, or got to witness some WMD's exploding in your big house stadium, this is where we'll re-open fresh wounds and examine the positives and negatives. But since we're all college football fanatics, probably mostly the negatives.

Most of the powerhouses roll.
When you see scores like 73-10(Louisville vs. Murray St.) or 79-10(Oklahoma vs. North Texas) it's usually a good indication that you're still in the first two weeks of the season. For the most part, the teams that should win did win(yes, that's item 2, quit jumping the gun). However, a couple of the wins were much closer than they probably should have been. Case in point, Texas: 21, Arkansas St.: 13. Sure, it was 21-3 in favor of UT at one point, but Arky St. did rack up almost 400yds of net offense. That won't work next week against a tenacious TCU team(alliteration, yeah!).

You DO NOT Want To Lose Your Home Opener To A 1-AA School.
First, this FBS/FCS madness has to stop. In fact, I'm sure that it could be partly to blame for Michigan's meltdown in their "It Used To Be A Big House But Now It's More Like A Gigantic Fishbowl". When Lloyd "karma is a bitch" Carr(don't think we haven't forget about your UF cheapshots sir!) saw FCS he must have thought it meant "Free Cheezburger Series". Unfortunately, it was Meeechigan that got lollerkatted(thank EDSBS for that hilarity). And congrats to Appalachian St., and all of their fans. Their win is truly what college football is all about.

My (insert respective team here) Did This Well.
For me it's obviously the Gators. And what did they do well on Saturday? Passed the ball. I had heard about Tebow's arm strength and his new throwing motion, but no one had seen him play as the full-time starter. He played, and played quite well. His final stats were: 13-17, 300yds, 3TD, 0INT. And Riley Cooper? Dare I say Chris Doering redux?(but with more speed).

My (insert respective team here) Didn't Do This Well.
They didn't defend the pass particularly well, especially early in the game. Sure it was the first drive of a brand new season, but UF's pass defense looked shaky on WKU's opening possession. Against a stronger opponent it would have resulted in at least a field goal, if not a touchdown. There was some pressure on the QB throughout the game, but the corners and safeties have to tackle better and make better reads(I'm looking at you Tony Joiner and Kyle Jackson). See, even when your team wins 49-3 there are negatives. Gotta love college football fans!

The Earliest of Early Heisman Watches.
Colt Brennan is still putting up monster numbers in that quarterback's paradise known as Hawaii. His stats for the weekend? 34-40, 416yds, 6TD's, 0INT, free rum runners.

Marlon Lucky ran wild on Saturday, to the tune of 233 yds and 3TD's. Consistently putting up anything remotely close to that on a weekly basis will put everyone on notice.

Earl Bennett had a great receiving day, 13 rec. 223yds 3TD's. He's coming off of an 1100+ receiving yard season, and will be Vandy's go to guy.



So there you have it, some of the stats and storylines from this weekend's amateur action. Now please put your underwear back on because this isn't that kind of a debriefing.

Arkansas Tech Still Thinking About Changing Its Nickname 20 Years Later

Arkansas Tech's men's athletic teams are known as "The Wonder Boys", and apparently they're not exactly thrilled with that, nor have they been for the last 20 years.

The unusual nickname came about when Tech upset Arkansas State in their 1919 football matchup, and was given to them by a newspaper editor. Over the years there was talk about making a change, and in the 1980's "surveys indicated that a majority of students were dissatisfied with the nickname situation". Guess it's a good thing they decided to wait another 20 years before getting serious about changing it.

School officials say that one of the reasons a change is needed is because of the negative connotations associated with the phrase "Wonder Boy".

“These connotations include slurs about an individual’s manhood or race, and the slurs have been used against Tech when recruiting,” the release said.

When asked to elaborate on that, Strasner(an assistant to the university president) said that concern came up within the committee.

“I know one thing that was said by one of the student-athletes in the committee meeting — one of the things that I’ve heard repeated several times — was that once they leave Russellville and go back home, they don’t really like to associate themselves with that name because of some ribbing they take from their friends,” Strasner said.

Used against them when recruiting? Geez, college football recruiting really is a cutthroat business.

Currently, a committee of current students, former students and school administrators are reviewing possible nicknames, and the next step would be to gather feedback via an online survey. Some possibilities include, Comets, Copperheads, Sharks and Terrapins. Yeah, because I always think of sharks when someone mentions Arkansas.

Oh well, I suppose that anything is better than "The Wonder Boys".

Oklahoma Gets Smacked By The NCAA

There's been some resolution to the Rhett Bomar scandal at OU, as the NCAA handed down its decision today. Here's what they're imposing:

-Forfeiture of all wins from the 2005 season.

-Two additional years of probation, extended the period through 2010.

-The loss of two scholarships through the 2009-10 season.

-A reduction by one of the number of coaches who can recruit off campus.

-A public reprimand and censure.

-A disassociation with the dealership manager for five years.

The forfeits sound harsh, but they're really just for show. The eight teams that they beat that year aren't going to really get anything by adding an extra win two years after the fact.

The extended probation, loss of scholarships and recruiting restrictions will hamper them, though. However, it probably could have been worse.

This does bring back the question of what ever happened with Reggie Bush's infractions involving USC? His involvement with a sports agent included his family living rent free in a very expensive house in Southern California. A few months ago it seemed like that investigation was going bust wide open, but it seems to have come to a grinding halt.

College Wrestlers, Still Dirty. Concussions, Increasing.

The NCAA released their findings of a study that covered 16 years of data, and a couple of items were pretty interesting.

First the humorous, then we'll get to the more serious ones.

"In men's wrestling, skin infections proved to be a larger problem than previously thought, with about 20 percent of practice injuries related to skin infections. The report recommended better hygiene, for wrestlers and the mats."

Remember that the next time someone tells you they were a wrestler in college, and then shakes your hand or gives you a hug. Purell, stat!

The study also concluded that "more than half of all injuries were to the lower extremities", "injury rates were two to three times higher during preseason practices than during the regular season" and that the rate of concussions has increased dramatically.

"Rates of concussions increased from .17 per 1,000 athlete exposures in 1988-89 to .34 per 1,000 exposures in 2003-04. An exposure is every time an athlete participates in a game. Authors attributed the increase in part to improved reporting and identification of concussions."

Wow, the rate of concussions has increased twofold over the past 16 years. Yes, advances in medicine that have led to better detection has probably bumped the rate up a bit. However, with athletes becoming stronger and faster every year, and equipment staying relatively the same, something obviously needs to be done. The NCAA might want to follow the NFL's approach, and make this a priority in the near future.