DeWayne Walker set the coaching carousel spinning once more with his late departure from New Mexico State. (AP)

Tommy Tuberville’s sitting by the phone* and Jimmy Sexton’s got that particular sparkle in his eye. It can mean only one thing: The coach firin’ season is upon us once more. We’ll be tracking the carousel of progress, right here, for as long as it takes to stop spinning. Raise a glass to times past, won’t you? * Well, not anymore, but never tell us we don’t have the gift of very specific prophecy through throwaway jokes.

New Mexico State [updated 02.01.2013]

• Who’s out: DeWayne Walker, who jumps to the NFL with less than two weeks remaining between now and Signing Day. And not even for a coordinating gig: Walker will coach defensive backs for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Walker released the following statement through the athletic department: “I really appreciate the opportunity that Dr. Boston and New Mexico State gave me to be a Division I head football coach. Unfortunately, I did not get the program as far as I would have liked from a wins and losses standpoint. But, we do have a better locker room, better kids and a better foundation for the program moving forward. There are a lot of people that I want to thank for their support and will be reaching out to those individuals in the coming days. They have helped me in moving the program forward. I am excited about starting a new chapter in my coaching career, as is my family. I wish New Mexico State great success in the future and wish everyone the best. Go Aggies!” • Who’s in: Doug Martin — the one who played at Kentucky, not the one who played at Boise State. Although if Martin The Younger is really so opposed to his excellent nickname, we’re gonna refer to Martin The Elder as coach Muscle Hamster instead. It’s been a whirlwind courtship for Martin and the Aggies: He was announced as offensive coordinator on January 17, temporarily promoted to interim head coach on January 24 and will be officially announced as DeWayne Walker’s successor on Monday, February 4. Martin’s previous head coaching experience consists of a seven-year stint at Kent State, from 2004-2010. Read More…

Just imagine Oregon’s mascot tackling one of these things. (AP)

• BEE CEE ESS. The latest BCS standings are here, and your freshly hatched BCS No. 1 is Kansas State; the post-Week 11 AP Poll is here, too, and Oregon is the new No. 1. Dan Wetzel explores an upside-down universe in which Notre Dame needs to catch a break.

• Bowling season draws nigh. A second FBS team has locked in a postseason bid, as BYU has accepted an invitation to the Poinsettia Bowl. This season hasn’t gone as smoothly for the Cougars as they might have hoped, but there are certainly worse places to while away a few winter days than San Diego. Stewart Mandel updates SI.com’s bowl projections, this week featuring Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Missouri and SMU.

• The Marquess Wilson thing. Just so we’re all caught up, here’s what we know right now: Washington State suspended star receiver Marquess Wilson, who subsequently announced he was leaving the team and dropped accusations of abuse on his way out. Here’s a StoryStream from our friends at CougCenter, tracing the winding path of these developments. Here’s a Spokesman-Review interview with Dennis Simmons, Wilson’s position coach, on Wilson’s allegations. And here’s Washington State’s president asking for both an internal investigation and one from the Pac-12.

Read More…

Assorted bests and worsts from college football’s week that was:

• Best throwback (see what we did there?): Can’t go wrong with a classic, can we, Aaron Murray?

• Unofficial Heisman winner of our hearts: AJ McCarron, but not for the football-related reasons you might think. No, Alabama’s quarterback won our undying allegiance much earlier in the day, after dropping this little number on GameDay:

AJ McCarron to ESPN on handling wrath of Saban: “I always mess with him. I always say it kind of makes you feel as small as him.”

— Jon Solomon (@jonsol) November 3, 2012

Read More…

Oregon in the top five means we get to post pictures of the Ducks’ mascot all the time. We like it when Oregon is in the top five. (AP)

• Brace yourselves for a largish shock. Alabama tops the AP Poll for the 10th consecutive week, with Oregon holding steady at No. 2. Your BCS top five, in descending order: ‘Bama, Kansas State, Oregon, Notre Dame and Georgia. The Toledo Rockets make what we call an overdue appearance in the BCS standings this week, along with UCLA and Northwestern. Dropping out: Boise State (breaking a 40-week streak), West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma State. Stewart Mandel updates SI’s bowl predictions and … is that hope for Louisiana Tech we’re seeing on the horizon?

• Coach firin’ season! No updates to the carousel as of noon Monday, but ominous rumblings are sounding out of Colorado, and we are really enjoying imagining Rex Ryan at Kentucky.

• Injury report story hour. What to make of Collin Klein’s Oklahoma State game injury? … leading Georgia receiver Marlon Brown is finished as a Bulldog after tearing his ACL against Ole Miss, although the program’s director of sports medicine indicated Sunday that “a full recovery is anticipated that will enable him to continue his career in the future” … perpetual South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels is through with the Bulls after sustaining a broken ankle against UConn … Arizona’s Hank Hobson is out of the hospital …  and Maryland announced Monday the loss of starting MLB and leading tackler Demetrius Hartsfield to a torn ACL, which Patrick Stevens calculates makes five torn ACLs for the Terps this season and the fourth lost team captain in two years.

Read More…

Because Florida State is not ‘back,’ and we are just as tired of pretending they are ‘back’ as you are of reading that they are ‘back.’

• Rooting out in-Grohn tactics at Georgia Tech. Per a GT press release: Yellow Jackets secondary coach Charles Kelly will serve as interim defensive coordinator; defensive line coach Andy McCollum switches to coaching inside linebackers, inside linebackers coach Joe Speed (GEORGIA TECH HAS A COACH NAMED JOE SPEED) switches to coaching outside linebackers and special teams coach Dave Walkosky adds defensive line duties to his job description. This all seems like one of those puzzles where you slide little plastic tiles around to make a picture of a dinosaur, but the important takeaway here is that there is a college football coach named Joe Speed, who should be up for every vacant coaching position at the end of the season, because JOE SPEED. We would be excellent athletics directors.

Read More…

• Georgia State has a night game this weekend. The Panthers play UTSA at 6 p.m. ET, a fact you will not forget, because they went and made this video to remind you. Please change your mind about retirement, Bill Curry. Please?

• Injury report story hour. Duke defensive end Justin Foxx had hand surgery on Tuesday and will be out indefinitely.

• Teams that will not be featured in injury report story hour: USC has de-banned Scott Wolf from practice, but remember yesterday when we said barring reporters from reporting on player injuries sounded like a move characteristic of a team much worse at football than USC? Good morning, Washington! Local sportswriters, your thoughts?

Read More…

Fan-altered Notre Dame helmets, coming to an ACC stadium near you. Huzzah, realignment news! (Landov)

• News that is mostly not about football. From a fresh ACC release: “The Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept the University of Notre Dame as a new member. The Irish will compete as full members in all conference sponsored sports with the exception of football which will play five games annually against league programs.” Pete Thamel has more, including the thorny issue of the Fighting Irish’s exit date for its sports currently operating in the Big East. We now return to football things.

• It is also a secret music box that plays “Afternoon Delight.” In yesterday’s Profiles in Profiteroles column we mentioned that the new trophy for the Toledo-Bowling Green Battle of I-75 rivalry hadn’t been completed in time for last year’s game. It’s more than ready now, making a splashy entrance with its own hype video, complete with four Toledo football players flexing their acting chops.

• Injury report story hour. Jordan Wynn impresses in his retirement press conference … Robert Marve has, you might have suspected, torn another ACL … TCU defensive end Ross Forrest is likely out the rest of the season  with a knee injury … Syracuse receiver Jeremiah Kobena is out for several weeks with what the school is calling “an upper body injury that required surgery.”

Read More…

Cincinnati quarterback Munchie Legaux, seen here in a fair approximation of most of last night’s game. (AP)

• Cincinnati 34, Pitt 10.  “We need to play our type of football,” Paul Chryst said in his halftime interview. With respect, we would suggest that Pitt’s current type of football has given up 65 points and scored 27 within the past calendar week, and that the Panthers should perhaps try another kind instead.

Munchie Legaux recorded 322 all-purpose yards and two touchdown passes, both of them tossed to the Downton Abbey-ishly named Ralph David Abernathy IV. George Winn scored two rushing touchdowns for the Bearcats, including a 58-yard run on Cincinnati’s first offensive play. Pitt’s Tino Sunseri was sacked six times and threw a field goal as the clock ran out on the first half that was cruelly ignored on the scoreboard.

For more on the actual football played Thursday night, you may click on the following helpful links. Have a great day. [BOX | RECAP]

Read More…

Nick Saban only yells because he loves you, and also because he is angry all the time. (AP)

• Poll Tide, or something. Alabama and USC have swapped places in the  first AP Poll of the regular season. The rest of the top 10, in descending order: LSU, Oregon, Oklahoma, Florida State, Georgia, Arkansas and a West Virginia-South Carolina tie. Boise State disappears from this week’s poll entirely, and Notre Dame makes its debut. ‘Bama also bounces up to the top of the Coaches’ Poll (all together now: “Which We Are Apparently Still Insisting Is A Real Thing”), and Bill Connelly, the smartest football person we know, wonders aloud (well, via a column) why we bother with polling in September. We wonder, too. We wonder a lot. We suppose it has something to do with this.

• Like Saban, like spawn. As if on cue: “[Less] than 24 hours removed from its dominant performance against the then-No. 8 Wolverines, Alabama’s players were called into a team meeting room, where coach Nick Saban essentially told them that they weren’t as good as everyone was saying they were.” And  let’s hear from an acolyte: “‘Most teams never reach their dreams because they overestimate the event and underestimate the process,’ Dooley said.”

• Copyright-infringing trash talk, adieu.  According to a billboard in Gainesville, Texas A&M is “The best academics & cleanest program in the SEC.” The Aggies’ trash talk game is beyond perfect for their new conference, by which we mean it is gleefully inaccurate and broadcast in giant letters. The billboard has apparently already been taken down. BOOOOOO.

Read More…

Assorted bests and worsts from college football’s opening weekend:

Desmond Howard’s fashion sense was on full display this week on GameDay. (Image courtesy of Keri Potts, ESPN)

• Best dressed (individual). Desmond Howard took full advantage of the last Saturday in August to rock a white suit before Labor Day. Knowing the weather patterns around Dallas this time of year, Howard’s compatriots were surely envying his cooler selection by 10 a.m. or so.

• Best dressed (couple). Lulu and Junior, you’ve been replaced. Thank you for your service and meet your successors:

@jaysonswain from the game on Friday. This is a middle aged couple. twitter.com/kyleRbryant/st…

— Kyle Bryant (@kyleRbryant) September 2, 2012

• Best air show. The NCAA single-game passing record was eclipsed Saturday by Division III quarterback Sam Durley of Eureka College, who completed 34-of-52 passes for 736 yards. Best of all, he wasn’t keeping track: “I thought maybe high 300s.”

Read More…