CURIOUS INDEX, 2/8/08

The voting for the CFBAs has been postponed until Monday to get the voting widget prepared. Plus traffic is heaviest on Mondays anyway, since the dedicated United States workforce typically enters the work week at a full stumble rather than a sprint.

Mike Stoops apologizes for calling Arizona State "a junior college." Booooooooooo! Rivalry never apologizes! Then again, Mike Stoops has lost three straight to Arizona State, so rivalry may be a strong word at this point. (Remember: for the ADD-stricken, two's a trend, three's a fact.) The verbiage:

"Yesterday in my annual signing day news conference I regretfully made some comments about sister institution Arizona State University," Stoops said in a statement. "These remarks were dutifully reported by the media, and not necessarily taken out of context -- which was within some of my heartfelt observations about the recruiting process and what it entails for individuals and college football programs. But it was a personal mistake and one for which I apologize."

Again: booooooo!!! Though calling them a "sister" institution could be interpreted as a proper use of the terminology and a dig at the same time, if you're just looking for a dig somewhere in there.

Dienhart says Florida co-DC Greg Mattison is gone, gone, gone. The storyline is that Mattison, one half of the defensive coordinator spot at Florida along with Charlie Strong, wants to bank a few years primo NFL salary before retiring. Mattison's a very good recruiter, and that's a loss, and also served as a good mentor of defensive linemen, his specialty. It's leaving a hole, and the timing blows goats. If only the decision had been made earlier, we could have had a shot at...you know.

Ah, but for the timing.

Recruits receiving fake letters telling them Ohio State was withdrawing their scholarship offers?

"I looked at them like, 'What the heck? This is fake,' " Mobley said last night. "There were all these misspellings, and you couldn't even read the signature, it was like, 'Jim, scribble-scribble.' ..."I sure hope the person who did it wasn't 30 years old or something, because it's embarrassing," he said.

No, Brian's not 30, and he wouldn't misspell anything, either. so take him off your suspect list.

Number one, twenty-four. Whatever, dude. Scout analyst Miller Safrit says that when it comes to recruiting rankings, he's pretty Ecclesiastes-ish about the whole thing. "All is vanity! Vanity!"

"For us, the difference isn't very significant," said Scout's Miller Safrit. "When you're combining mathematical formula with opinion, it's not really something where you can say, 'We are better than you.' We could tweak the rankings tomorrow and end up with Southern Miss ahead if we wanted."

That may be, outside of references to Armageddon and Genesis, the only other Biblical reference we're comfortable throwing out, since we spent most of our CCD time looking up dire, Old Testament God-threats like "YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE EATEN" and drawing modern stores and businesses into the maps of Jerusalem in the back. Besides that, if it wasn't mentioned in a Faulkner book or other piece of modern lit, we won't recognize it.

(Oh, and Song of Solomon, but only because it will totally get you laid with Bible literate bookish types. "The joints of thy thighs are like jewels?" Works every time.