I'm an expert on broken pinkies. This is important because Erik Ainge goes into the Cal game with a broken little finger on his throwing hand.

I broke mine while running on Thanksgiving 2004. Fell on some ice, braced myself and the rest is medical history.

The point is, I can't imagine throwing a football with a broken pinkie. Mine was on my left (non-throwing) hand. When the swelling didn't go down, I went to the doctor, got it X-rayed and saw where the bone had chipped away.

The doc gave me one of those pliable, padded aluminum splints. There wasn't much more he could do for it. It wasn't painful unless I tried to bend it. It was uncomfortable typing for a few weeks but that was about it.

Comparing my situation to Ainge is rather amateurish, I admit, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want with it. Apparently, Ainge injured the digit taking a snap on Monday.

I'm sure for this Cal game, they'll shoot it up and try to immobilize it as best they can. But just for grins go out and try to throw a football without using your pinky. The ball gets a lot of its spin from the force applied by the small finger.

I guess my point is, there is mounting mojo against Tennessee in the weekend's only game between two ranked teams. Cal has the revenge motive, a healthy team and home field.

Ainge has a sore pinkie. Trust me on that one.

•  The Tommy Blake case is going to have to be resolved soon. TCU's All-American defensive end has participated in only three of 17 practices. All we know is that he is hospitalized with an undisclosed ailment.

He might be released in time for TCU's opener Saturday against Baylor. Coach Gary Patterson said his hoss could still play.

But what really is going on? Privacy issues prohibit the school from commenting further. Blake is a big part of the reason TCU is considered a BCS buster. And with a week to go before a season-altering game at Texas, the Horned Frogs quest just took a big hit.

•  Sylvester Croom might have led one of his last pep rallies. Mississippi State looked putrid Thursday in a 45-0 home loss to LSU.

It would be a shame if the game lost another African-American head coach. Croom's way to become the first black SEC head coach was paved by the likes of John Blake (Oklahoma) and Tyrone Willingham (Notre Dame).

Those two men took over the most prestigious programs ever by African-Americans. They both were ultimately fired, falling short of their goals. Because they had "failed" at those big-time schools it was feared presidents would go down their usual path of institutional racism. Let's hope that Croom's firing doesn't give presidents further reason not to hire minorities.

•  Watch the Big 12 closely this weekend. It went oh-for-14 last season against ranked teams in non-conference games.

There are three biggies this week: Oklahoma State at Georgia, Kansas State at Auburn and Baylor at TCU.

•  It looks like Big 12 associate commissioner Dan Beebe is going to get the job left open by Kevin Weiberg this summer.

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky dropped out of the running, an indication that he wasn't going to get the job. The MAC's Rick Chryst and Sun Belt's Wright Waters also interviewed.

Beebe is the logical candidate having served the conference well. He is a former athlete, commissioner (Ohio Valley) and NCAA enforcement officer.

• Thursday morning. Stuck in the Dallas airport during yet another flight delay. What's going to come first, this plane or Notre Dame's quarterback announcement?

• You wonder how long Jeff Tedford is going to stick around Cal.

His extension last year (to 2013) was predicated on the school breaking ground on a massive facilities upgrade. But when fans walk up to Memorial Stadium on Saturday they will see a bunch of tree huggers.

Literally.

The city of Berkeley sued the schools' board of regents in December trying to halt construction of a $125 million sports training complex. The city claims the center would be built on the infamous Hayward Fault. The U.S. Geological Survey has determined otherwise.

The suit is part of one that is trying to save 42 oak trees on the construction site. A dozen activists have been around or in the trees since Dec. 7. An eight-foot fence will be erected around the trees by game time due to safety concerns.

A temporary restraining order has kept the school from beginning construction on the project that included a retrofitting of 78-year-old Memorial Stadium. The stadium does lie on the fault and is in dire need of improvement. Cracks can be seen in the stadium where previous earthquakes have shifted columns.

Meanwhile, construction costs have risen. A hearing to ban construction permanently will be heard Sept. 19.

Cal is trying to reach a settlement with the city. If not, Tedford might find a quick way out of town if his building of the football program is not met with improvement of the facilities.

"My commitment is unwavering. My commitment is 100 percent to Cal. I'm not panicking. I'm not fazed by this at all," Tedford said earlier this year.

• There are left tackles and there are left tackles. Oklahoma's Phil Loadholt will become the tallest starter in school history Saturday against North Texas. Loadholt is 6-foot-8, 350 pounds. The OU line averages 6-5 and 316.6 pounds.

• Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne was asked during a recent web chat if A&M would "respond" to Mack Brown's raise and extension at Texas.

"No," he wrote, "but I'll be happy to respond if (Texas AD) DeLoss Dodds gets one.

• Counting down to Thursday's openers and I couldn't believe this: Mississippi State quarterback Michael Henig is being coached how to go down. Henig apparently doesn't know how to in a timely manner all the time. That led to him fracturing his collarbone twice last season.

Coach Sylvester Croom told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that he used campus ROTC students to teach Henig "how to fall and absorb blows."

• Kirby Freeman got the quarterback job Tuesday at Miami. That tells me more about Kyle Wright than it does Freeman.

Wright was a hotly recruited California guy who might have ended up at USC if John David Booty didn't. It has been sad to see this kid regress.

• More Miami: Randy Shannon has commitments from three of the top six players in the state and 11 of the top 100 according to the Orlando Sentinel.

• I'll say this again: How did Miami get left out of the top 25 and FSU is solidly in? Both teams finished 7-6 last season. Both struggled offensively. Both conducted quarterback battles. Both play brutal schedules. The tiebreaker for me? FSU plays only five home games and has to travel to Wake, BC, Virginia Tech and Florida. I guess what I'm trying to say is that neither team should be ranked.

• BYU is said to be so upset at the failure that is The mtn. (Mountain West network) that it is considering leaving the conference and going independent.

• Texas has a great flair for public relations. The week of the season opener it chooses to announce Mack Brown's contract extension. Nice. So is the fact that, with bonuses, Mack could make $3 million per year. My question is: What took so long?

• Leftovers from the Sammie Stroughter story:

Taking over for Stroughter will be junior Chris Johnson and freshman Darrell Catchings. Career catches: 4.

Coach Mike Riley went told that Stroughter might be the second-best player in the Pac-10 (if you believe John David Booty or DeSean Jackson is first):

"Based on his production, he would have to be in the top five in this conference. He's caught 80 something balls (actually 74 last season), third-leading punt returner in the nation. Our split end should catch 80 balls.

On Stroughter's pro potential: "Unfortunately when scouts start to look at it, I don't know if they'll think he's as good as I do. He's fast but he's not 4.3 fast. And he's not big." (6-feet, 189 pounds)

On his academics: "He took 18 hours in spring, 16 in the summer. He's a focused, hard-working, detailed guy. There's not a lot of guidance he needs."

Even God believes in the sanctity of Notre Dame's quarterback secret, it seems.

Portions of 80/94 leading from Chicago to South Bend were washed out Friday by recent flooding. At least one Chicago newspaper was shut out from Jimmy Clausen coming down from Mystery Mountain and uttering his first public comments since high school.

The Big Guy should have sent a plague of some sort to keep us all away. The first Clausen presser since the golden boy stepped on campus in January contained a lot of double-speak and contradictory statements.

We finally learned that J.C. did indeed have elbow surgery for bone chips after spring practice. He is now day to day. That's good news because in eight of those days ND will kick off the season against Georgia Tech.

With Clausen in the thick of the quarterback battle what exactly does "day to day" mean? Apparently, he's practicing so that's not it. As a wise man once said: We're all day to day.

Just another smokescreen for the most scrutinized quarterback derby this decade. Charlie Weis did his "Nyah, nyah, I've got a secret routine," on Thursday, saying that he knows who the starting quarterback will be but isn't telling.

Spare us, Charlie. Whoever it is, he will be thrown to three ravenous defenses to start the season -- Georgia Tech, Penn State and Michigan. For the sake of his elbow, ND Nation better hope it's not J.C.

This guessing game is fooling no one. So you don't want Georgia Tech to know who the starter is. Why? It isn't like Chan Gailey has film of any of the three contenders. They've never played.

The guess here is that Evan Sharpley will get the job. He is the most experienced (OK, he played -- two pass attempts last season). That allows Clausen to be the savior in, say, a month when the elbow is healed and Notre Dame is 2-3.

Back to the sacred truth of J.C. After refusing to speak more about the elbow and his recent legal run-in he actually said: "That's why I'm here today. I want you guys to get a chance to know who I am as a person."

Really? After eight months on campus and a refusal to speak about the two most important developments in your short career, Jimmy, how are we supposed to get to know you during a 30-minute news conference?

The last time you held a formal news conference you got out of a stretch limo, were trailed by an ESPN film crew and started promising national championships. All that just to announce you were committing to Notre Dame.

Why so coy all the sudden?

"Some people like me, and some people hate me. I just have to deal with that," he said. "I'm just living life being a Notre Dame quarterback and being at a prestigious school like this.

"It's not that frustrating, because ... they (public) don't really know me. And if they did know me, they wouldn't hate me. It's a two-way street. Once they figure out who I am, they'll know I'm a good person and everything like that."

If we knew you, the school wouldn't have sheltered you from the media, coached you on every word you say and hidden a surgery from the public.

There are two divergent messages coming out of Ohio State.

Jim Tressel told USA Today that, "We won't be settled at quarterback going into the season because no one will have done anything in a game."

That's the reason I included Ohio State among the superpowers involved in quarterback decisions (Miami, Notre Dame and Florida State are the others) in the 25 Things to Watch story.

Don't go crazy, Buckeye Nation. I understand that redshirt junior Todd Boeckman is the favorite and will likely start against Youngstown State.

But Tressel countered that by saying even if Boeckman is the starter "you know we're going to play more than one quarterback in the first couple of games ..."

• Some interesting Mountain West streaks that didn't make it into the 25 Things story ...

Utah has won six consecutive bowl games. The Utes' last loss was to Wisconsin in the 1996 Copper Bowl (38-10).

Each of the past three MWC champions have finished the conference slate at 8-0 (2004, Utah, 2005, TCU, 2006, BYU).

TCU has won 48 straight games when holding its opponent to 17 points or less.

BYU has scored first in 12 straight games heading into the 2007 season. The last time an opponent scored first in a game was Arizona (field goal) in the 2006 season opener.

BYU has led at the half in 13 straight games. The Cougars have outscored their opponents 268-57 in the first half of play in those contests.

Utah has gone 13 straight games without a 100-yard rusher for either itself or its opponent.

Colorado State has lost seven games in a row for the first time since 1981.

New Mexico has won 13 consecutive games when the team does not commit a turnover. The Lobos are 16-1 in such games under head coach Rocky Long.

UNLV has lost 16 consecutive road games, dating back to a 24-20 win at BYU on Oct. 8, 2004.

Keep 'em coming. Love those streaks.

• I'm going to mop the floor with Freeman on Friday. Log on to see why, how and how bad.

Hawaii no longer will perform the traditional "Haka" warrior dance during warmups and postgame. If you've ever seen it, it will scare the bejeesus out of you. I'm trying to find an example on the Internet. Ah, here it is. At Kansas State they call it The Norwood.

•  There's something strange about that Jimmy Clausen incident. The Notre Dame quarterback was cited for "transporting alcohol," a violation I frankly had never heard of.

Apparently, JC, 19, drove a 23-year-old to a liquor store to get some booze. When I was underage I didn't drive many 23-year-olds to make a beer run. Not much in it for me. However, when I was 19 I was known to ask someone of age to buy beer for me.

Hey, wait a minute. Maybe Clausen was ... nah, couldn't be.

•  Thank you, Miami, for doing the right, and safe, thing.

The school has decided it is playing its final season in the venerable, but decrepit, Orange Bowl.

Miami will play next season in Dolphin Stadium after signing a 25-year agreement this week. The move ends a 70-year stay in one of the nation's most famous football palaces. Well, palace might be too strong a word.

The place reeked of history but it is also just reeked.

The Orange Bowl game continues to be played at Dolphins Stadium. Will we miss the Orange Bowl stadium? Speaking on behalf of those who tried to park there and navigate nearby streets, no.

I'm beginning to worry about the polls. Yeah, and the sky is blue too.

The Associated Press preseason poll was released Friday. The suspense almost killed me, especially when the AP voters picked the exact same 25 teams as the coaches.

Not only that, the media picked 13 teams in the exact same spot as the coaches (see list below). Coincidence or conspiracy? That's the most exact matches since at least 2001.

We, the media, like to beat up the coaches for giving as much thought to their ballot as their walk-ons. But who is kidding whom here? It looks like the average AP voter picked up the coaches poll, released a couple of weeks ago, and copied it down. Is there such a thing as poll plagiarism? Seven of the top 10 were slotted in the same spots, for gosh sakes.

It's impossible to believe that there are only 25 teams in the country worth ranking this season. I've been saying this all summer: There are about 20 teams that could fit into my bottom five.

So it's strange that the final four teams in each poll were the same too (though not in the exact order): TCU, Boise State, Hawaii, Texas A&M.

It's especially strange that Texas A&M and Hawaii are consensus Top 25. Why are they so much better than everyone else? As I've mentioned before, Hawaii is playing two I-AAs. A&M has Texas and Oklahoma ahead of it in the Big 12 South.

Boston College won 10 games last season and has the best quarterback in the ACC (Matt Ryan).

Georgia Tech (9-5 last season) played in the ACC championship game and is favored by many to return there.

Wake Forest won 11 games, the ACC and has 14 returning starters.

Has BYU (11-2) fallen off that much?

What about South Carolina, Clemson, Missouri, even Notre Dame?

It's more understandable that the two polls agreed on 24 of the final top 25 in the final 2006 poll. (AP included Arizona at No. 24; the coaches had Alabama in that spot). The bowls have been played. The lines of delineation are clearer. The polls agreed in January on the slots of six teams (1. Ohio State, No. 13 Louisville, No. 18 Clemson, No. 19 Penn State, No. 23 Tennessee, No. 25 Texas Tech).

That's understandable. What happened this month isn't. Either the writers are getting lazier or the coaches have the ultimate understanding of football. I shudder to think that either is true.

Exact matches in the preseason coaches and AP polls:

1. Southern California
2. LSU
4. Texas
5. Michigan
7. Wisconsin
8. Oklahoma
9. Virginia Tech
12. Cal
13. Georgia
15. Tennessee
16. Rutgers
22. TCU
25. Texas A&M

Exact matches in previous five preseason polls:

2002: 9
2003: 6
2004: 5
2005: 8
2006: 6

More poll nonsense:

•  This is the fourth consecutive year the polls have agreed on the starting spot for Tennessee. (No. 14 in 2004, No. 3 in 2005, No. 23 in 2006, No. 15 in 2007).

• This is the sixth time USC has opened as the preseason No. 1 in AP. Oklahoma is No. 1 all-time (nine) followed by Ohio State (seven).

• Miami, Notre Dame and Alabama have combined for 17 national championships based on finishing No. 1 in the AP poll. None of the three were ranked in the preseason. At least one has been ranked in the past 14 preseason polls.

• Only two teams have gone wire-to-wire in the AP poll, both in the past eight years: Florida State in 1999 and USC in 2004.

• Eleven of the 18 teams that have played in the first nine BCS championship games opened the season ranked 1 or 2 in AP.

• West Virginia message boards are blowing up over the arrests of junior corner Ellis Lankster and redshirt freshman linebacker J.T. Thomas on Saturday night. They were charged with possession of stolen property, apparently a computer.

Both were expected to challenge for starting jobs. They didn't participate in the team picture Saturday.

This could be a huge loss for the nation's No. 3 team. And particularly for a defense that was 109th against the pass.

• That's one reason they're feeling good at Louisville. The other is linebacker Willie Williams. The former Miami bad boy is tearing it up.

Williams started ahead of second-team All-Big East linebacker Malik Jackson in a recent scrimmage. He's also covering kicks.

Williams is the notorious Miami recruit who had good grades combined with multiple arrests. The school went to the wall to admit the kid, then Williams didn't put in the work. That's why he ended up transferring to Louisville. So far, no work ethic issues.

Emmanuel Moody transfers from USC and the world yawns.

I'm surprised it took this long for the fissures to develop in RB depth chart. Ten scholarship running backs can't co-exist. Some will change positions, some will redshirt, some will be happy playing third string. Others will transfer.

If Moody had transferred from, say, Oklahoma. This would be huge news. At USC, the loss of the school's No. 2 rusher in '06 shouldn't raise an eyebrow. Nor will it matter.

• I'm going to miss Donna Lopiano. If you don't recognize the name, you don't know women's sports in this country.

Lopiano stepped down earlier this week as executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation. Donna has helped me as a source on countless stories. She has tried to set me straight on Title IX. She has succeeded when I look around at women's sports -- the WNBA, the massive growth of NCAA women's basketball, the limitless opportunities these days for women in sports, the incredible impact of Title IX.

I don't think I'd offend her if I called Donna a bulldog. She was as tenacious an advocate as there was. She woke up every morning representing the rights of 50 percent of the population.

When Donna started, not only were women's sports not recognized, they were a nuisance. Don't forget that the NCAA itself fought Title IX itself shortly after its passage. Everyone from Pat Summitt to Maria Sharapova owes their career to Donna.

Me? I owe her thanks for being so professional and enlightening.

• Scary that Houston offensive lineman Jerrod Butler apparently suffered a heart attack Monday while lifting weights. Butler passed out but was attended to, then rushed to the hospital.

•  Remember Oklahoma getting screwed at Oregon last season? Remember Bob Stoops blowing a gasket? Remember Stoops saying he wouldn't honor a contract with Washington in '08 unless the Pac-10 changed its policy of using its own officials at non-conference home games?

That threat apparently hasn't been addressed. Oklahoma is still scheduled to travel to Washington in 2008. Huskies AD Todd Turner told SportsLine.com this week that Pac-10 officials will be used: "It's in the contract."

• Who would you rather be today -- Dave Wannstedt or Mike Riley?

How about neither?

Wanny, the Pittsburgh coach, lost all-conference receiver Darrell Kinder to a knee injury on Saturday. Not good for a coach and program beating their heads against a cement ceiling in a Big East composed of West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers and -- yes, I said it -- South Florida.

Pittsburgh was a .500 team with Kinder. We're taking guesses on what it will be now.

Riley, as you may or may not know, is the football coach at Oregon State University. Introductions out of the way, Beaver Nation is sweating the return of receiver Sammie Stroughter who continues to be out because of personal reasons.

This is important because Stroughter could be the second-best offensive player in the Pac-10. (Either John David Booty or DeSean Jackson are No. 1.) The Beavers are coming off a 10-win season during which Stroughter, a senior, caught 74 passes for almost 1,300 yards.

• The Notre Dame and Oklahoma quarterback jobs remain tighter than Woody Austin standing over a putt.

During Oklahoma's Saturday scrimmage the three quarterbacks each had basically the same stats. Sam Bradford, Joey Halzle and Keith Nichol each led a scoring drive.

Jimmy Clausen was the only Notre Dame quarterback who didn't throw downfield during Saturday's open practice at Notre Dame. Read into that what you will. Evan Sharpley and Demetrius Jones each threw downfield at least once.

That probably meant little during Saturday's open practice. Charlie Weis tries to keep that public show about as vanilla as a Dairy Queen shake.

Like it or not, you'll just have to deal with it When I saw that headline Wednesday morning somewhere, I lost it. That snippy command pushed me over the edge. Mostly, I had bottled up my utter disgust at Barry Bonds' illegal, cheating path to the home run record.

No, that last part isn't true. Hank Aaron still holds the home run record. Roger Maris is still the single-season record holder. You are not allowed to even argue those points until you have read Game of Shadows cover to cover. You do realize also, don't you, that Mark McGwire -- the man whose single-season "record" Barry broke -- did not get into the Hall of Fame?

We're not talking about guilty until proven innocent. This is not a legal battle. I care less about possible perjury and/or tax evasion charges than what I know. What you know deep in your heart of hearts.

This is a battle for the soul of the game. I'm trying like hell to have my 10-year-old grow up believing Bonds is a dirtbag. You see, if Bonds is the standard then there really are no standards. Only records to be broken like a piñata at a birthday. Without the blindfold.

The excuse I hear most often is that everyone is doing it. Good. Right. Throw them all out. Take Gaylord Perry out of the Hall of Fame. Just because everyone was on steroids (they weren't) doesn't cancel out the fact that Bonds cheated and broke the law to get the record.

Bonds not only as insulted our intelligence he has shown up the players (hopefully still the majority) who played it straight. Why? Hubris. Pride. Jealousy. If you read Game of Shadows, this started with McGwire and Sammy getting all that love in the summer of '98. Bonds wanted a piece -- his piece.

It ended, for now, in a surrealistic scene at AT&T Park. Could the celebration have been more muted? Giants teammates on kind of a forced-walk Barry march to home plate to congratulate Big Head.

No Selig. A prerecorded image of Henry Aaron who looked like a hostage, with a gun aimed at his temple just off camera. Read it! Read every word, American dog! It wasn't a heartfelt moment. It was a moment that felt forced and flat. Like we walked into a table read for The Life of Prairie Dogs on PBS.

While San Francisco sycophants cheered wildly, the anecdotal reaction around the country is just starting to pour in. Major- and minor-league crowds booed lustily when the feat was announced.

No, I don't have to deal with it. Josh Gibson and Sadaharu Oh hit more home runs than Bonds. Oh did it in the Japanese major leagues. Gibson did it in the Negro Leagues, within baseball's hateful cocoon of racism. Both without performance enhancers. Doesn't make their achievement more impressive than Bonds?

Apologists pay attention: One of your arguments is that, we'll never know what affect beef 'roids had on your hero's record. Consider Oh and Gibson: We'll never know how good they would have been if they played (it straight) in the majors.

There are those who will tell you that Gibson was better than Bonds. So let's get rid of that argument right away too. Bonds is not the best of all time. Not even close. I like the Bob Costas argument: Would any one of us in 1999, only eight years ago, even remotely considered Bonds the best player in the game? Not a chance.

We have such of-the-moment tunnel vision that Who's Better becomes "Who's Now" (Oh God, please not that). There is no perspective. No critical, reasoned discussion.

Presented here is a partial list of players better than Bonds:

Hank Aaron
Johnny Bench
Roberto Clemente
Joe DiMaggio
Josh Gibson
Ken Griffey
Willie Mays
Stan Musial
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams

There, that's 10. Shall I go on? What happened Tuesday night was the culmination of a freak show pursuit that was calculated, illegal and premeditated.

I've said this before: Baseball players are the least educated, in general, of all pro athletes. Baseball clubhouses can be vulgar places. They've also proved to be filled with incredibly stupid people. Steroids in baseball? You can almost rationalize them in football. But in the 'roid era of baseball, the syringe changed the strategy and culture of the game.

Hit homers. Get paid.

The long ball dumbed down a dumbed-down sport. We believe because we want to believe, like slack-jawed yokels staring at a meteor and thinking it's a UFO.

There really are two Bonds in this discussion. The early five-tool kid who could do everything (except perhaps throw, see Game 7 of the 1991 NLCS) and the one-trick pony who did three things well -- walk, hit home runs and insult our intelligence.

Bonds hasn't tested positive because he doesn't want us to know he's using. That, and he is a member of a union that has fought testing every step of the way. After you read Shadows, lob a call to Dr. Catlin, the former director of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. He's been the guy chasing the drug cheats worldwide trying to find the new drugs they use and the substances that mask them. He's behind. He will tell you that.

That means guys like Bonds are always ahead. That's why Big Head could be juicing as we speak. One of the biggest benefits of these drugs is their ability to keep the body fresh, free from injury. It's not just about muscles, it's about longevity. It's more of an indictment of Bonds than the Giants that he is still San Francisco's best player at age 43.

You'll just have to deal with it No I don't. I knew I had to write this blog when I watched back-to-back shots of Aaron and Bonds on TV. When Aaron hit 715, he ran, fast; literally, running for his life if you believed the death threats.

When Bonds hit that falsified 756, he struck a pose and admired his shot like he usually does. Oblivious to his incredible cockiness. Rubbing it in our face one more time.

The bosses are going to be upset that I had enough time to do this, but check out this experts roundtable (featuring your favorite bald hack) on collegefootballnews.com:

http://cfn.scout.com/2/665998.html
http://cfn.scout.com/2/666001.html
http://cfn.scout.com/2/666004.html

LaMarcus Coker apparently can't stay off The Tree.

Phil Fulmer's program was significantly impacted when the sophomore tailback was suspended indefinitely on Tuesday. Fulmer, of course, isn't giving a reason but one message board reported Tuesday that Coker was suspended for a "drug policy violation." And apparently it wasn't his first time.

This is a guy Tennessee needs to compete in the SEC this season. His 6.4-yard average suggests breakaway speed. Coker had a couple of 80-yard runs last season.

"I have tried, the administration has tried and we all will continue trying to help him, but at this point he must help himself," Fulmer said.

If I'm Fulmer I tell the kid to switch to beer during the season. Judging by Fulmer's comments, the weed thing (or whatever it is) is looking addictive. Schools are a lot less tolerant of a guy who tests positive for Natural Light.

•  When did South Carolina become the Harvard of the South? Not only did the administration hang those two recruits out to dry, it embarrassed the school.

I'd love to know in what areas these kids were deficient. They qualified under NCAA standards, which means they passed the Clearinghouse. Does South Carolina want its recruits to play football or split the atom?

Spurrier was absolutely right for ripping the school for casting those two kids adrift. It was wrong on so many levels. It's not fair to the kids who had to transfer to East Carolina and Bethune-Cookman at this late date. No doubt rival recruits will remind kids they might not qualify at South Carolina -- even if they qualify.

•  Missouri's leading rusher Tony Temple tweaked his knee in practice on Tuesday. This could literally be the difference between the Big 12 North title and the Independence Bowl. Oh by the way, that's a big thing.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- I saw him. I really, really saw him.

I was within -- oh, I don't know -- about 30 feet of Jimmy Clausen on campus Monday. A bunch of us were here for ND's media day. There was The Super QB, without a body guard, walking to practice. He looked almost, well, human!

For the record, he was wearing a red T-shirt that exposed his midriff (easy girls, and confused boys). The celebrated right arm that supposedly has been operated on hung comfortably by his side.

That's news in itself. Weis said earlier in the day that his prize quarterback is throwing. We didn't know that after reports that he had undergone surgery to remove bone chips.

More Weis:

"He's out there practicing today (Monday) like I said he would be. Would I say when we're teeing off on Sept. 1, would Jimmy Clausen be capable of being our starting quarterback and slinging it 30 or 40 times, the answer would be yes."

Yes, that was Duke getting a single vote at No. 25 in the coaches preseason Top 25.

Yes, 0-12 Duke which has been to one bowl game since a certain Young Ball Coach led the Blue Devils to a share of the 1989 ACC title.

Steve Spurrier struck again Friday, saving a vote for the school that had a little faith in him 20 years ago. That Spurrier is the coach at South Carolina now matters little. Spur Dog has said publicly on many occasions that he saves a soft-spot-in-his-heart vote for Duke. USA Today keeps giving him a ballot, so if it's OK with the multi-color, it's OK with me.

Now if you really want to get me torqued off, let's talk about Tressel withholding his vote at the end of last season.

Observations:

• It's amazing that Florida is rated so high (No. 3) even though it is defending national champs. That says the Gators are overwhelming favorites over Georgia to win the SEC East. We'll see.

• Penn State at No. 18 is curious. As I said in Thursday's JoePa story, the Nittany Lions aren't expected to win the Big Ten and I've seen them unranked by a lot of preseason polls. The Big Ten isn't very good this year. Placing its fourth-best team (according to the coaches) at No. 18 is a too much respect for the Big Ten.

• I'm shocked Hawaii is ranked (No. 24) with its schedule that includes Charleston Southern and Northern Colorado. Starting the season ranked means the Warriors have a fighting chance to get to, gulp, the Sugar Bowl if they run the table.

• No surprise: The SEC has five of the top 15 and six teams overall.

• West Virginia is the team to watch at No. 6. I doubt that teams 2-5 (LSU, Florida, Texas and Michigan) can get through undefeated. The Mountaineers can, at least more easily that the teams in front of them.

• The hardest thing all year for me was to pick teams 20 through 25. There is a group of about 20 schools that deserve consideration. The coaches had pity on Houston Nutt for his offseason (Arkansas, No. 20); took care of Bobby Bowden (FSU, No. 21); underrated the best mid-major (TCU, No. 22); respected the WAC (Boise, No. 23, Hawaii, No. 24) and picked a name out of a hat at No. 25 (Texas A&M).

• Wow, no Miami.

CHICAGO -- The dean of Big Ten coaches is about to become the dean of all coaches.

When Penn State kicks off against Florida International on Sept. 1, Joe Paterno will be starting his 42nd season as head coach at the school. That will break the record for most years spent at one school. He currently shares that mark with Amos Alonzo Stagg who spent 41 years at the University of Chicago.

Paterno's future remains open ended despite a contract that expires after the 2008 season. He's showing neither signs of slowing down nor signs to the administration that he intends to slow down.

That was clear in the offseason when Joe, once again, was Joe. He doesn't always do the expected. Heck, that's part of his greatness. After a rash of arrests in the offseason, Paterno assigned his players janitorial duties after home games. The entire squad will help clean up Beaver Stadium on Sundays.

He is probably the only coach in the country who could pull that off without hurting recruiting. He is certainly the only coach with enough brass to penalize his team the right way.

Just can't envision Bobby Bowden having his vintage Crimi-Noles grab a Hefty bag on Sundays.

Paterno had enough after six players were charged in an off-campus fight. I criticized Joe at the time, saying that the charges were serious enough that he should at least consider suspensions.

Predictably, I was bombarded with e-mails reminding me of due process and the fact that the charges were dropped on four of the players. I still thought they all should have been suspended and that Joe wasn't acting strong enough.

This latest action proves otherwise.

"I didn't ask them, I told them," Joe said at the Big Ten media days. It's not exactly a democracy. Maybe someone will be smart to say next time, hey, knock it off.

"It's easy to just dismiss them. I've had to dismiss some kids. Let me say this without getting carried away, 'My job is not just discipline, it's rehabilitation.

"You can't have a good football team if people don't care for each other.

"I was a college kid once believe it or not. If you said to me, 'Did you ever get in a fight in a fraternity or something.' I could lie to you.

"The only thing I could think was ... 'We do things together.' If they're not accountable for each other, they're not going to have a good football team."

BCS rumblings

Memo to all of you who assume that a plus-one or playoff is coming. You might want to check with the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said last week his league would "secede" from the BCS if it added a plus-one (a championship game populated by two winners of the major bowls. Which two teams is the catch.)

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany wasn't quite as strident but did say any talk of a plus-one or seeded playoff is a non-starter with his league.

"I think secede is a very strong word," Delany said. "I'm trying to be more (political).

"The best way to say it we're going to honor the agreements we have with both the BCS and the Rose Bowl. If there is an effort to change the structure of the BCS, that will just have to be evaluated."

Less than a year from now we should know which way the BCS is headed after current contracts expire in 2010. Negotiations most probably will begin midway through 2008.

BCS rights-holder Fox (Fiesta, Sugar, Orange) most likely will re-up with whatever format the commissioners decide. There seemed to be momentum toward a plus-one recently but the comments from Delany and Hansen lead me to believe things might stay the same (double-hosting) for the terms of the new contract, most likely through 2014.