Cast A Vest Vote. Although it seems the various Coach of the Year awards are allergic to Jim Tressel, the fans actually have a say in helping him earn a spot as one of 15 finalists for this year's Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award. Do your part by voting once a day at coachoftheyear.com in order to advance Tress to the Evaluation Phase of this drawn out award. While the award itself isn't exactly Heisman prestigious, a victory would give Tressel $50k for his favorite charities and another $20k for the alumni association.
On another Tressel note, The Lantern is surmising who might take over for JT when he hangs up the sweater vest. All the usual suspects are mentioned including Fickell, Hazell, Pelini, Meyer and Brewster. Nothing new there and while this isn't new either, I guess I never really thought about it: When Tress does call it quits (safely assuming it's his call), he'll be the first Buckeye head coach since Carroll Widdoes in 1945 to leave on his own terms.
Speaking of Cash...A Fanhouse study says the Buckeyes are back to back champions as college football's biggest spenders. The Buckeyes rolled up $31.76 million in expenses last year, slashing about $500k off the 2008-09 school year. Considering all the surgeries this year, and the $100k of whistle peas exhausted by Shugarts' false starts, a three-peat could be in order.
Alabama took home 2nd place ($31.11 mil), leading five other SEC schools in the top 10 while the Big Ten placed just two teams in the top 10 with Iowa holding down the 9th spot at $18.46 mil, good for an $8 mil drop from the previous season. Michigan took the 20th spot at $18.32 mil, or $3.66 million per victory.
I'vy Got A Stupid Question. Why does anyone think it's a good idea to play a football game at Wrigley Field considering how the field fits into baseball's most overrated park? Somebody must, as Northwestern and Illinois are set to play the first college game at Wrigley since 1938 despite the fact one endzone is just about a foot from the brick/ivy wall at it's closest point. Not that it's shocking safety takes a backseat to gettin' that paypa.
Nick Fairley Needs Introduced to Waterboarding. Cam Newton may be at the center of Auburn's soulless quest for a national title but DT Nick Fairley tops the BCS classless rankings. College football's dirtiest player straight thugged out against Georgia with a host of incredibly sketchy plays. Then, after his dirty deeds drew the ire of the Bulldogs triggering a few late game skirmishes, Fairley strutted around the field like a parolee just outta the yard, practically encouraged all the while by the Auburn coaching staff. Of course, Auburn and the SEC took no action against Fairley, I mean how could they? Auburn next plays Alabama in two weeks. At least the NCAA rule against throwing blows will land two fellow Tiger defensive linemen on the sideline for the first half.
I used to want Auburn to win out so when Newton was ruled ineligible it would really sting their fans but after catching Fairley's act, I don't even want Auburn to get that far. Roll Tide, I say. As in roll up on Fairley's knee and give him a dose of his own antics.
Troy's Golden Opportunity. Depsite Alex Smith's return to health, Mike Singletary announced Troy Smith will start for the 49ers against Tampa Bay this week. The move comes as no surprise as Singletary really had no choice after Troy won back to back games with zero turnovers adding 356 yards passing this past week against the Rams.
The good news keeps on coming as Troy has clearly won over the locker room and with Alex Smith in the final year of his contract, Troy has a real shot to solidify his job not only for the rest of this year, but into next season as well.
The GBU Report. Good: The Bengals signed Aaron Pettrey to replace the injured Mike Nugent. Bad: Rob Bolden is so bad he couldn't replace Matt McMoxie on the PSU depth chart this week. Ugly: Have you seen Oregon's hoops floor yet? Looks like midcourt was ground zero for a 50 ton diaper.
