Blogtoberfest: for the reader who always hurries their team to the line press A press A press A NOW!!!

TWO IMPORTANT SITE NOTES FIRST!!!

1. Taking SEC Media Days reports all day.
2. Looking for someone to work some video for us. Someone with chops.

That is all.

Pittsburgh defensive end Joe Clermond turned the Wannstache into a Weedstache for a day with his arrest for pot possession.


Sir, may we search your car?

Considering the cloud of acrid, slate-gray smoke we’ve seen at most of the hip-hop shows we’ve been to, Clermond could have been charged with this simply with a quick blood test, since the THC load of a casual bystander at a show is probably enough to prosecute.

Clermond led the Panthers in tackles for losses with 16 and a half last year.

SMQ looks at the mercurial life of Oklahoma’s quarterbacks. Judging from the offers dangling in front of their faces, the most difficult part of being quarterback at Oklahoma would be turning down the generous benefits provided by handy and helpful local businesses. One unsurprising but nevertheless salient and important trend emerges: senior quarterbacks are something you want.

Also: Oklahoma’s qbs, per the piece, have been far more consistent than one might think despite the turnover created by snapping ligaments and scandal. Again, the Hayden Fry coaching tree strikes again.

Given that USC, Tennessee, Michigan, and Miami may all lower their dosage of Paxil for the moment. Okay, maybe not Miami–with offensive coordinator Patrick Nix coming in, Wright should get familiar with the qb draw fast. Speaking of…

Miami’s taking the names off their jerseys. It’s part of Randy Shannon’s attempt to reinstill a sense of team identity on the fractured ‘Canes offense. Without names on the jerseys, however, there’s no telling who Kirby Freeman’s going to throw it to now in practice.


Kirby!

ACK! Is Anthony Morelli the best quarterback in the Big Ten? Brian’s having an aneurysm looking at the data, which points to an odd and unsettling truth: he may be the second-best.

Conquest Chronicles suggests that Les Miles is “writing checks his body can’t cash” by continually taunting the Pac-10 and Pete Carroll in particular. Miles can talk for the moment, however, since he’s 2-0 against the state of Arizona since falling into the driver’s seat at LSU, just as USC can talk all they like after embarrassing blowouts of Arkansas in ‘05 and ‘06.

If any of this WWE jawing–I TELL YOU WHAT PEOPLE–leads to one of the teams getting a folding chair over the head in a bowl game or OOC game during the season in 2010, then bueno. It’s more than message board tinder, though–it’s politicking of the most venal variety. This whole prestigious national title thing is still a matter of fleshy, weak humans voting someone a national title (or at least giving them the shot.) And if perception is reality, coaches will do everything to drill home their message and hope their team will back it up on the field.


Perhaps repeating this will help. Perhaps repeating this will help. Perhaps…

USC absconding with Joe McKnight during recruiting this season straight out of Les Miles’ backyard can’t have helped this, however. Outrageous theft is part and parcel of recruiting, though, and Miles’ hyperreaction reeks of the Hayes/Schembechler School of Extremely Personal Coaching, Public Reaction handbook. (Urban Meyer is a certificate holder from the program, if not a graduate.)

The source is biased, of course, but FSU’s own version of Friday Night Lights has had some difficulty getting off the ground. The most damning detail of all for the event: Bowden didn’t even show up.

4. Bobby Bowden did not even show up. They played a pre-recorded interview on the Jumbotron. I knew it was him because he used his normal catch phases “Howdy Y’all”, “Dadgumit”. It was so funny to see him using these fake Bobby-isms and you could tell he was straining to read the cue card.

But they’re working on the details again at FSU! The NYT said it!

NB: Bowden was being inducted into the college FB hall of fame. That’s a decent excuse, we suppose.

And yes… Charlie Weis did continue Notre Dame’s run of postseason frustrations. The Wiz covered the fuck out of this, so go read him. After all the attention he paid to this story, he could probably GoogleMap you out of Charlie’s duodenum without even looking it up online.

(HT: Paul.)

And if you really, really hate Tim Tebow, perhaps you’d like to join in the fun over at the Commission. We’re too busy typing this from a comfortable seat on Tebow’s right shoulder, which has great wireless reception. BTW–it always smells like cookies and Coppertone up here, and the breeze is lovely.