It’s truly haunting to read that Sullivan was indeed scared before that final gust that brought the lift down.  But I’m not about to be the type of person to use those tweets against him and ask why he didn’t demand that the lift be lowered.

He was doing a job and by all accounts it was a job he performed well.  My guess is that even in those difficult conditions, he wanted to keep doing it.  Anyone who blames a victim is pretty much a douchebag, but blaming the victim in this instance would be douchebaggery times a thousand.

It’s still not clear what exactly transpired among the Notre Dame football’s chain of command in the moments before Sullivan was raised up.  The details concerning who ordered what and who may have ignored the weather conditions that day have yet to come out.

Numerous experts have been asked in the wake of this tragedy about exactly how much wind a scissor lift like the one Sullivan was on can actually take before it becomes unsafe. The consensus is that once wind gusts reach 25 miles an hour, the lift shouldn’t be used. Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune weighs in on how windy it was that day:

We do know there was a wind advisory in effect until 9 p.m. Wednesday, and at 3 p.m. that day, 45 minutes before practice started, sustained winds being measured at the South Bend Regional Airport were at 29 mph with gusts up to 38. The airport is located four miles from the Notre Dame campus.

At 4 p.m., the winds were at 22 with gusts to 44. At 4:30, the sustained winds were 30 with gusts to 53. And at 4:50, one minute before Swarbrick estimates the accident occurred, the sustained wind reading was 33 mph with gusts up to 51.

“It never crossed my mind that it was unique in some way,” (Notre Dame athletic director Jack) Swarbrick said of his observation of the wind when he entered the LaBar Practice Fields at about 4:47. “The nature of my brief experience, walking over, watching what I think was probably three plays, couldn’t have been more normal — both in terms of weather conditions at the time and the nature of what I saw. Normal plays being run, passes being completed.” (South Bend Tribune)

In terms of Swarbrick’s role in the tragedy, Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports views him as a dude who’s in total ass covering mode.  Whitlock also thinks Irish head coach Brian Kelly should be fired immediately:

This is worse than a recruiting violation or a sex scandal or even academic fraud. This is a 20-year-old kid who lost his life when he absolutely didn’t have to. This is a fundamental failure.

Notre Dame and athletic director Jack Swarbrick have no choice but to remove Kelly from his position. On Thursday, during a news conference, Swarbrick seemed most interested in making sure he retained his job and minimizing the public-relations damage.

Swarbrick made it clear that he was at practice less than four or five minutes before the lift holding Sullivan fell over. Swarbrick told reporters that he was on a conference call before he walked over to practice — the inference being he wasn’t there long enough to tell Sullivan to come down from the lift. (FoxSports.com)

It will be fascinating to see how this story evolves over the coming weeks.  While a good many people share Whitlock’s view, I know a lot of folks who also feel that it’s extremely premature to call for anything as extreme as Kelly’s firing.

But how the aftermath plays out is of little consequence right now.  A young man was cut down in the prime of his life, so say a prayer for Declan Sullivan’s family. I can’t imagine the grief and heartache that they’re enduring right now.

◊ Something’s gotta give when Auburn visits Ole Miss tomorrow

A couple of trends will meet head on when Auburn takes its #1 BCS ranking to Oxford tomorrow to tangle with Ole Miss. One is more recent in nature, that being that top ranked teams in the BCS have been falling like flies this season.

The other trend is much more historical in nature: no Auburn team that’s started 8-0 has failed to improve to 9-0. Coincidentally, the last Auburn team to start 8-0 also played it’s ninth game in Oxford. That was 2004, with Jason Campbell leading the Tigers to a 35-14 win.

The term “trap game” is being thrown around freely in discussions involving this one and I can definitely see that being a possibility.  Jeremiah Masoli is more comfortable as the Rebels’ quarterback and to be brutally honest, this is a win that head coach Houston Nutt desperately needs.  Should be a good one.

◊ This has to be a joke

Yesterday I read the stupidest description for a movie that I’ve come across in a long time, and that includes everything that Samuel L. Jackson has ever acted in:

According to local Gold Coast Paper Tweed News, Xavier Samuel (“The Twilight Saga : Eclipse”), Julian McMahon (“Nip/Tuck”) and Sharni Vinson (“Step Up 3D”) have parked themselves on Coolangatta beach where they’re filming Aussie killer shark movie “Bait”.

The Russell Mulcahy directed movie follows a group of tsunami survivors trapped inside a flooded supermarket with a pack of man-eating sharks. Producer Gary Hamilton said the film would take the 3D reality of shark attacks to the next level. (moviehole.com)

If you don’t mind, please skim back over that brief plot description one more time.  Okay…a supermarket…gets flooded in a tsunami…and there are survivors…who are pursued by sharks.  If I could, I would punch the studio exec who greenlighted this thing right in his or her suckhole.

◊ Rarefied air for Michigan State football

The past 15 or so years haven’t exactly been kind to the Michigan State football program.  Since Nick Saban showed up in 1995 to clean up the wreckage left by George Perles, the Spartans have averaged 5.7 losses a season.  Therefore, even the great genius himself didn’t exactly light the world on fire in East Lansing.

In terms of a truly special season like the one Mark Dantonio’s team is working on right now, you’ve got to go back quite a ways to find the last time Michigan State had one.  That would be 1966, the year of the 10-10 tie with Notre Dame.  That Spartan team finished 9-0-1, marking the last time the program has produced a season of one or fewer losses.

Although it’s not talked about a whole lot, the Michigan State defense has been the key to the team’s 8-0 start.  The Spartans are tied for eighth in the country with 20 takeaways and are ninth with a turnover margin of plus 1.13 a game. The 20 takeaways are six more than last season’s total in 13 games.

◊ Kenny Powers = not quite as funny this time around

I loved the first season of “Eastbound and Down,” I thought the show steadily picked up steam as it chronicled the demise, redemption and re-demise of Kenny Powers.  But so far, I haven’t really been feeling season two.  Putting Kenny in a self imposed Mexican exile and essentially jettisoning the rest of the cast for most of this season has felt a little odd to me.  Hopefully, this thing will finish strong.

However, the show did provide one great moment this season when Kenny’s girlfriend Vida, played by Ana de la Reguera, belted out a Spanish language version of Bob Seger’s “Still the Same.”  When it comes to the Seger catalog, this one is always overlooked:

How does Boise State stack up to ‘84 BYU, the WAC’s only party crashing national champ?

Yup, everyone outside of Idaho has pretty much settled into having a smoldering, intense hatred of Boise State football. If the Broncos were to stumble before the regular season is over, the intensity of the celebration amongst BSU haters would rival any given Led Zeppelin after party on their ‘71 American tour.

In a season where there’s clearly not a truly dominant team among the BCS automatic qualifying conferences, you would think that most everyone would just shrug and let Boise State join the party. On the contrary, the velvet rope keeping the Broncos out might as well be a brick wall.

Did college football fans have this kind of backlash back in ‘85 when BYU was anointed national champ, becoming the only WAC team to ever do so? I honestly don’t recall there being anything near the collective disdain there is today toward Boise, but maybe my memory is failing me. But while I’m on the subject, let me compare the two and see how Boise State stacks up.

That BYU team started off its ‘84 campaign the same way Boise State started this one off: a WAC team on the road against a highly regarded opponent that wasn’t as highly regarded as the season wore on. Back then, BYU notched a 20-14 win over a Pitt team that started off 0-4 and ended up 3-7-1.

Granted, Virginia Tech won’t end up losing 7 games this season, but nobody’s giving Boise State an ounce of credit for beating that team in D.C. in the opener. Still, advantage to the Broncos for having a tougher opening game tilt than BYU.

In terms of which of these teams faced stiffer competition from within the WAC, that’s a tough question considering Boise State’s season is still a work in progress. Now back in ‘84, BYU’s biggest challengers in the league were Hawaii and Air Force, with a steep dropoff in the WAC following that. BYU beat both of those teams by 5 points.

How good were Hawaii and Air Force back then? Well, Dick Tomey did what he could with his undermanned Rainbow Warrior squads, but in ‘84 the best he could muster up was a 7-4 record. Fisher DeBerry had some pretty good Air Force teams in the 80’s, but that particular season the program was in between 10-win campaigns, finishing 8-4 after an Independence Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

Boise State, on the other hand, faces somewhat stiffer resistance in this version of the WAC than BYU did back then. Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada still loom on the schedule for them. People are quick to point out that these three teams aren’t exactly Alabama, LSU and Auburn in terms of on field excellence, but the trio helps to create a tougher conference for Boise State to navigate than the one BYU sailed through.

What about quality wins in preceding seasons? Did BYU have bigger wins in the years leading up to ‘84, thus building more clout? Back then, Lavell Edwards created the cradle of quarterbacks in Provo, and nobody slung it around like BYU. In the four years leading up to the ‘84 title, Edwards led the program to a 42-8 record.

In ‘82, BYU took Georgia and Heisman winner Herschel Walker to the limit in Athens before succumbing by a 17-14 count. The next season, the Cougars went to Pasadena and beat eventual Rose Bowl winner UCLA, 37-35. But because the WAC champion was locked into going to the Holiday Bowl, none of those teams ever performed under the bright lights of a January bowl.

Boise State has fashioned a 49-4 record over the previous four seasons, and included among those victories are two wins in BCS bowls. On that basis alone you have to say that Boise State has built up more clout than BYU did leading into the 1984 season.

But while Boise State sports a better opening win, plays in a tougher WAC and has more clout, that ‘84 BYU team had a huge advantage in one all important category: national landscape. Back in ‘84, Miami was the defending national champion. But that season was the first on the job for Jimmy Johnson, and he led the ‘Canes to a roller coaster 8-5 finish.

While Miami wasn’t a factor in defending its title, several other national powers fell off the pace that season.  Alabama?  They were 5-6.  Auburn?  They were 9-4.  Penn State?  They finished 6-5.  Texas?  7-4-1 under Fred Akers.  Clemson?  They were 7-4.  BYU was the only team in Division I to finish the season unbeaten and untied.

Once the dust had started to settle, it was Oklahoma, Nebraska and Washington that were the teams with the best chances to knock BYU from the top of the polls.  When an 8-1-1 Oklahoma team beat a 9-1 Nebraska team in the season finale for both, that locked up the Big 8 title and cliched an Orange Bowl berth for the Sooners.

The opponent in Miami for Oklahoma was a 10-1 Washington team that wasn’t playing in the Rose Bowl by virtue of a second place finish to USC (which finished 9-3 on the season) in the Pac-10.  In the game, the Huskies took advantage of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Sooner Schooner to block a Tim Lashar field goal attempt in the 4th quarter en route to a 28-17 victory.

A full ten days before that game took place, BYU had completed its season with a 24-17 Holiday Bowl victory over a Michigan team that had entered the contest with a 6-5 record. Under the current system (with all of its imperfections), BYU most likely would have competed for the title on the field in ‘84. But in the end, the Cougars captured it with a win over one of Bo Schembechler’s worst teams.

Back then, a good many voters felt that Washington was in fact a better team than BYU.   But not enough people could vote an 11-1 team as #1 over a team that finished 13-0.   That goose egg in the loss column made a HUGE difference, regardless of the quality of the opposition the two teams faced.

Today, Boise State can benefit from no such luxury.   While it remains to be seen if the likes of Michigan State, Auburn and Missouri can remain perfect and grab spots in the BCS title game, it doesn’t require perfection to keep Boise State out.   An Alabama team with a single loss would jump Boise State in the final BCS rankings, and a 1-loss Oklahoma team could probably do the same.

There’s also MWC teams like TCU and Utah hanging around out there as well.  If one of those teams finishes unbeaten, there’s no guarantee an unbeaten Boise State could stay ahead in the rankings.

In the final analysis, I think there’s little comparison between the WAC’s only previous national champion and the league’s current best bet to win another.  Boise State in 2010 is a better football team than BYU was in 1984.   But BYU didn’t have to contend with the BCS, which for Boise State is much tougher than any opponent it will see on the field.

Alas, Bob Stoops is a “quitter” under any circumstance

All hail Dan Wetzel for shouting for the death of the BCS.   But in taking every opportunity he can to poke holes in the system, his logic appears to get screwy at times.  Take the following from the Death to the BCS web site, which is a companion to the book he co-authored with Josh Peter and Jeff Passan:

Trailing Missouri 36-27 with 2:24 remaining on Saturday, Oklahoma had the ball and at least some hope of springing a miracle comeback.  This is college football after all, and while the Sooners chances were slim, stranger things have happened.

Bob Stoops saw it differently.  Facing 4th and 10 from deep in his own territory he punted, effectively conceding the game to Missouri.  The Sooners flat gave up.  He did it for one reason: he feared that if OU was stopped, Mizzou would punch in another score and extend the margin of defeat.

A 16-point loss would look worse to poll voters that make up two-thirds of the BCS formula.  So rather than try to win, he went with a new concept: running down the score. (DeathToTheBCS.com)

I completely understand Wetzel’s point and thing there’s a whole lot of credence to it. However, here’s my issue: would Stoops have acted any differently if an honest to goodness playoff system was currently in place?

Think about it, his team is sitting pretty in the Big 12’s South Division heading into that tilt with Missouri.  Now let’s say Wetzel’s preferred 16-team playoff format is the method being used to crown college football’s champion.  This playoff would bestow an automatic bid to five or six conference champions (depending on how much love the WAC and MWC get) and leave a double digit number of at-large bids to be gobbled by others.

Would such a system compel Stoops to go for it on 4th and 10 when his team is down by 9 with 2:24 remaining?  I really don’t think it would.  With that many bids out there, why bother?  He can shut it down, keep Oklahoma in the top ten of the polls, coach the team up coming down the stretch and probably end up with a nice tournament seeding.

What if the tournament were much smaller, say, just eight teams?  Would Stoops suddenly grow a set under those circumstances?  Hell, that’s all the more reason for Stoops to try his best to run down the score.  An eight team tournament makes it even more imperative that a team stay as close to the top of the polls as possible.

In the pre-BCS way of doing things, there would be nothing to compel an Oklahoma coach to act differently than Stoops did, either.  If it’s 1987 and Barry Switzer is at the Sooner helm, he’s absolutely got to keep that score down. After all, staying near the top of the polls was all important back then if you had any designs on the national title.

But maybe that’s Wetzel’s point, maybe his logic isn’t screwy after all.  Perhaps he’s saying that if the motivation doesn’t dramatically change then there’s no harm in chucking the flawed system and putting in another one.

Regardless of what Wetzel was getting at, I’m convinced that nothing short of his family being held hostage would’ve compelled Stoops to go for it against Missouri.  And I sincerely hope I didn’t just give a wackjob Sooner fan a crazy idea.

The Larry King-ish Stream of Consciousness Column for 10/26

In this edition of the LKSOC you’ll learn how to tell your ass from a hole in the ground, read about a cowbell conundrum and meet the world’s most dangerous pepper:

◊ Another season of painful irrelevance for Notre Dame

Here’s a great little factoid you can share with your friends and relatives: After last Saturday’s 35-17 victory, Navy has won 3 of the last 4 against Notre Dame after losing its previous 43 vs. the Irish dating back to 1964.

Think about that for a second.  Even in the darkest days of the Gerry friggin’ Faust regime, Notre Dame still found a way to beat Navy.  Hell, even if you include the 18-17 nail biter back in ‘84, Faust beat Navy by an average score of 30-11 in his five games against them as Notre Dame’s coach.

Now, the more knuckleheaded of you out there will probably counter that this is a pretty good Navy team under the direction of Ken Niumatalolo.  You’ll also offer up Midshipman quarterback Ricky Dobbs as one of the more under-appreciated talents currently toiling in college football.

I won’t disagree with any of that, but at the end of the day, it’s still NAVY.  An undersized team from a Service Academy shouldn’t be whipping a team that has its own television contract and recent recruiting classes that were pretty highly regarded by multiple scouting sites.  Hell, even Georgia Southern held Navy to 13 points earlier this season.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is in his first year on the job, so I understand he needs to be cut a little slack.  After all, it took him a couple of years to whip Central Michigan into shape.  But did anyone think his first Irish team would be sitting at 4-4 with a pretty solid shot at finishing 6-6?   I sure didn’t.

Adding to Kelly’s woes is the fact that at least one of his players decided to be a world class a-hole during that loss to Navy.  In the video below, pay close attention to #56, Irish linebacker Kerry Neal:

Remember what an unruly douchebag Lou Holtz became back in ‘91 when Huntley Bakich started fighting with a Michigan State player after the whistle blew?  Bakich’s indiscretion didn’t just result in a personal foul penalty, it also resulted in Holtz leading him toward the bench by his facemask and giving him one of the greatest in-game dress downs ever caught on film (YouTube has most everything else, but not that one).

Kelly took no such action with Neal, maybe because he didn’t see the incident or maybe because Neal wasn’t whistled for a penalty on the play.  But if Kelly doesn’t give that kid the business this week in practice, then he and Notre Dame deserve to wallow around in the putrid stench of mediocrity that’s settled on the program.

Oh, and leave it to one of the least accomplished football writers on the interwebs to miss a dirty play even after IT’S PUT IN SLOW MOTION.  Fox’s Lisa Horne weighed in on the video above with the following:

Geez, Lisa, you can’t be a homer for both Southern Cal AND Notre Dame, that’s just insane.  But all that aside, let me help you figure out how to assess the obvious by recommending the following book:

◊ The great cowbell compromise is at an end

The SEC banned the ringing of cowbells at league stadiums way back in 1974.  But the rule really only applied to Mississippi State, where the practice had been a decades long tradition.

I can only assume the action was taken because Bear Bryant bitched about it.  I bet the ringing sound in his ears reminded him too much of the hundreds of Sunday morning hangovers he’d endured dating back to his days at Maryland.

Well, despite the rule, the practice pretty much continued on unabated until this year, when the SEC said in June, “Remember that cowbell stuff from 1974?  Let’s revisit that.”  I don’t recall the ringing of cowbells at Mississippi State home games having been a hot button issue, but who knows, maybe they had run out of things to talk about at the SEC summer meetings.

The Great Cowbell Compromise of 2010 basically said that Bulldog fans could ring them before the game, at halftime, during timeouts and after scores.  But c’mon, if you’ve gone to the trouble of sneaking a cowbell into a game, are you really going to adhere to those rules?  If it was me, I would ring it continuously as if I had a Salvation Army donation kettle next to me.

Now that Mississippi State fans have apparently violated the Great Cowbell Compromise of 2010, the league is threatening to get tough:

The Southeastern Conference has told MSU officials of violations of legislation the school introduced in June that allows cowbells to be used during certain times during games at Scott Field.

The SEC is expected to levy financial penalties against MSU at the end of the year, MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin said.

Stricklin says fans “have not managed it right to this point,” when discussing cowbell etiquette during MSU’s first two SEC home games.

The fine structure penalizes MSU $5,000 for the first offense, $25,000 for the second offense and $50,000 for the third offense. (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

Am I the only one who finds the term “cowbell etiquette” to be absolutely hilarious?  In closing, because it’s an unwritten rule that any story related to cowbells in any way must reference a certain SNL skit, here goes:

◊ Going DEEP into the depth chart

What does a team do when it loses its top three quarterbacks to injury?  In the case of Richmond, you trot out an 18-year old true freshman who’s at the school because a former NBA player recommended it to him.

The quarterback in question is Montel White, who also played basketball last year at Surry County High School with Johnny Newman Jr.  It was the senior Newman, a Richmond grad whose NBA career spanned an impressive 16 seasons with multiple teams, who strongly recommended his alma mater to White after hearing the school was recruiting him.

Most of the other schools pursuing him backed off when White suffered a right knee injury while making a tackle as a safety.   But Richmond persisted and he signed his letter of intent with the school this past February.  With USC transfer Aaron Corp and the experienced John Laub ahead of him on the quarterback depth chart, White settled in to what appeared would be an uneventful season as a fourth stringer.

However, when the guys ahead of him started falling like flies, White was forced to start two Saturdays ago on the road at UMass. For the first 58 minutes of that contest, he attempted exactly one pass that really wasn’t a pass at all.  It came when White lateraled the ball out of bounds to avoid being sacked.

But with 1:51 left and his team down by a 10-5 count, White did what appeared to be unthinkable to that point: he completed a pass.  And then another.  By the time the drive was over, he’d found Tre Gray in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown pass with only nine ticks remaining.  Richmond pulled out an 11-10 win on a drive in which White completed 4-of-5 passes after not having attempted a legitimate one the entire game.

This past Saturday, he got the call again and led Richmond to a 28-6 homecoming win over Towson. While his throwing stats weren’t impressive (6-of-10, 73 yards and 1 TD), the number that most matters is his 2-0 record as a starter.

It’s unclear at this point whether Richmond coach Latrell Scott will have third string quarterback Nick Hicks available for this week’s Colonial tilt with Villanova.  Hicks has been nursing a concussion since a 17-0 loss to New Hampshire on October 9.  But if White does get the call and leads Richmond to victory, he’ll pretty much become a cult hero to Spider fans.

◊ Why’d you have to throw it at THAT guy?

As a Bears fan, it pained me to no end to watch Jay Cutler throw four interceptions in that 17-14 loss to Washington this past Sunday.  But you know what made it hurt just a little more?  The fact that all of those picks went to that insufferable shit DeAngelo Hall.

I would rather be strapped to a chair Clockwork Orange style and be forced to watch Darrell Green’s punt return TD against the Bears in the ‘87 playoff loss on a continuous loop than have to watch another replay of any of Hall’s picks.  Thanks a bunch, Jay.

In case you don’t recall, Green tore rib cartilage on that return…and stayed in the game. I tend to forget what a stud that guy was.

◊ My bout against the ghost pepper will take place this week

Late in the summer, I planted some ghost pepper seeds in a container to see what the fuss is all about. Despite some cold nights, I’ve got two of these bastards that are almost ripe. But I’m still not sure if I should even try to add these to my chili recipe. Watch this and you’ll understand my trepidation:

The Larry King-ish Stream of Consciousness Column for 10/22

In this edition of the LKSOC we have how to finish off a Twitter fight, hopelessness in Ann Arbor and even more hopelessness for Urban Meyer:

◊ Desmond Conner says you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly!

Seems that my favorite AP college football poll voter, Desmond Conner, has been mixing it up pretty good in the Twittersphere over his strange voting practices. A special thanks to @ehudhoops for making me aware of the exchange below between Conner and multiple tweeps and a bigger thanks to @GochFaceKiller for providing the transcript:

@CFTalk: Does @desmondconner have an explanation for his AP vote? http://bit.ly/cpCfHL Bama 3, Auburn 8, S. Carolina 13? Wow.

+ @GCN7897: @CFTalk @desmondconner Of course he doesn’t. He writes for the Hartford Courant. Guys like that shouldn’t have a vote

@desmondconner: @GCN7897 Just voting the way I want - not the way anybody else wants. Thanks for checking me out though

+ @GCN7897: @desmondconner I mean, if I were the only person that questioned your logic, I could be understanding. However, I see that I’m not

@desmondconner: @GCN7897 you, 2 others. So much going on in the world; so many issues 2 use your voice and freedom of speech. Wasted on stuff like this. Sad

+ @GochFaceKiller: @desmondconner That’s about the most hypocritical thing ever tweeted. You waste your voice writing about a bad football team. Make that 3…

@desmondconner:  @GochFaceKiller what a joke!

+ @GochFaceKiller: @desmondconner It took you a full 2 days to respond with that gem? How do you find work? I’m a blogger and more qualified to vote than you.

@desmondconner: @GochFaceKiller yeah but you’re not voting - take a hint will ya?

@desmondconner: @GochFaceKiller and I was responding to your comment. I was responding to your picture. Your comments aren’tworth responding to

+ @GochFaceKiller: @desmondconner You have ZERO room to bring appearance smack. You look like Starr Jones with Down’s syndrome.

@desmondconner: @GochFaceKiller that’s fairly funny, I guess. In all that still look better than you - gosh what a mug! Lol.
Take care…what a waste

+ @GochFaceKiller: @desmondconner Wasn’t about being funny, I bring truth. Lol, you’re better looking than me? Only to the
blind and dead, maybe.

@desmondconner: @GochFaceKiller later UGLY

Whoa partner, did Conner drop the U-bomb to finish off that exchange?  He most certainly did!  Then again, this is the guy who brought the world the following:

If “UGLY” isn’t strong enough of a comeback for you to finish off that nasty Twitter fight you’ll inevitably find yourself in, then Conner recommends trying, “You are a straight knucklehead!” or the much more blunt, “Sit on it!”

◊ Michigan fans have so little to live for

A few weeks ago, Denard Robinson was American’s Heisman favorite of choice. But as Michigan started sliding closer to another season of RichRodian mediocrity, Robinson’s Heisman stock began to fall. That sucks to no end for Big Blue Nation, which was hoping for something, ANYTHING to feel good about this season.

You can see the bitterness oozing through the comment this Michigan fan left on Dennis Dodd’s article concerning the current Heisman flavor of the week, Auburn’s Cam Newton:

“Dont get me wrong, Newton can make huge plays and take a broken play and turn it into something amazing. But we have all seen that Denard just has that grab your attention ability. I think Cam Newton is a great QB and a great player, but he is just one bad game away from being 7th on the next weeks heisman ratings.” Oh, diehardblue7, cheer up, things will get better. Someday.

◊ What an Urban Meyer email to Dan Mullen might sound like today

“Hi Dan, it’s me, Urban. Let me congratulate you for coming into the house we used to share together and kicking my ass this past Saturday. At first I was sad, then angry, then confused, then a little constipated. Now, well, now I just miss you, bro. I miss you a ton.

I know you have your own gig now and everyone in Starkville loves you, but you remember the good times we used to share, don’t you? We were the kings of the world, nobody could touch us. Now I’m a Starsky without a Hutch, a Cagney without a Lacey or a Hardcastle without a McCormick.

You can tell Addazzio doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. At this point I’m surprised he can remember his way to the stadium when we have home games. What do I have to do to get you back here in my life? Just tell me, man.

I was going to send you a super mix CD with a compilation of songs that most convey my feelings for you, but I know you don’t have that much time these days. So I am attaching a simple audio clip that pretty much sums it all up. Click it, and write me back if you feel the same…”

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