Unfamiliar with Wake Forest’s Michael Campanaro, currently a national top-15 receiver in yardage who is averaging more than 125 all-purpose yards per game? This video should fix that, indelibly. [Via @DHPIV.]

• Be warned, these people do make soup from frogs. TCU announced Tuesday that the Horned Frogs will play LSU in the 2013 season-opening Cowboys Classic. They’ll presumably face off in prime time, against Alabama and Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff.

Read More…

Rashad Greene and other FSU return men, beware! Clemson’s long snappers will haunt you once every two years! (AP)

• A very specific part of the Clemson-Florida State series is haunted. We must share this email we received from Clemson sports information, because it’s too wacky not to pass along: “Clemson long snapper Phillip Fajgenbaum recovered a Florida State punt fumble in the first half. It set up a Clemson touchdown, helping the Tigers to a 21-14 lead at intermission. It was the first fumble recovery of Fajgenbaum’s career. What made it odd was that it marked the third straight trip to Tallahassee that a Clemson long snapper had recovered a Florida State fumble.  And those are the only recovered fumbles by  Clemson long snappers in the 21st Century. In 2010, Matt Skinner recovered a Florida State fumble on a punt return and in 2008 Charles Roediger accomplished the same feat.” Florida State special teams players of 2014: HEADS ON A SWIVEL.

• Other news of the weird in our inbox. Here’s a press release excerpt we bet the Big Ten didn’t count on writing this year: “Minnesota, Northwestern and Ohio State carry unblemished records into the beginning of conference play following wins last weekend…”

• Hey, Harvey Updyke’s back! “Updyke ran into trouble again last week when attempting to return a lawnmower to a national home improvement store in Hammond.” Harvey Updyke’s post-treeslaying life is going about how you’d expect.

Read More…

Georgia’s defense stifled Vandy; the ‘Dores went 2-of-14 on third-down conversions. (Getty Images)

Snap Judgments from the Week 4 late slate. For more coverage, check out our early Snaps, midday Snaps and complete Top 25 review. Also check out our coverage of Florida State-Clemson, Kansas State-Oklahoma and Notre Dame-Michigan.

• No. 5 Georgia 48, Vanderbilt 3: “I don’t have any complaints at all,” said Mark Richt following his Bulldogs’ casual mauling of the Commodores. Nor should he: Georgia finished with 567 yards of offense in its second conference win, held the ‘Dores to a single field goal and made its opponent look not terribly unlike the Vandy of old. “The numbers show that we’re executing well,” said Richt. So, too, did the scoreboard.

The Dawgs’ latest plug-and-play tailback, freshman Todd Gurley, led all rushers with 130 yards on 16 carries, and he recorded Georgia’s first and final scores. Aaron Murray enjoyed a bit of moderate exercise, completing 18-of-24 pass attempts for 250 yards and two touchdowns. Jarvis Jones sacked Jordan Rodgers on fourth-and-eight for an 11-yard loss in the third quarter that brought the house down.

Vanderbilt had 15 first downs tonight to Georgia’s 29. It converted 2-of-12 third downs. It was very nearly tripled up in rushing yards, 103 to 301. (Did we mention Georgia had more than 300 rushing yards? Georgia had more than 300 rushing yards. We’re not the only ones eyeing that Oct. 6 Bulldogs-Gamecocks matchup with increasingly rabid anticipation.)

“We talked about how this is the first [conference] game of seven in a row,” said Richt, “and how important it is to win every single one of them to get where we want to go. But you have to take them one at a time. We have a lot of respect for Vanderbilt.” We almost believe him. [BOX | RECAP]

Read More…

• CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Now if ever there was a trophy that should be traded in for tattoos, it’s the one Ohio State would get for winning division this year.

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) September 5, 2012

There’s no way will this end in heartbreak and bitter recriminations: “Even though Penn State and Ohio State are banned from playing in the Big Ten title game or a bowl as part of NCAA sanctions, both are still eligible to win the conference’s Leaders Division and receive a trophy this season.”

• Poor Nick Saban, y’all. Managing expectations is a long game, and for Coach Avert-Your-Eyes, that game is Whack-a-Mole. Two national championships in three years, but HE’S JUST GOT ALL THESE FEELINGS.

• “For Heller and Grahn, the story starts, improbably, with a longstanding question about bears.” How did the biology of bears affect Stanford football?

• “But this is the NCAA. ‘Glacial’ is a word that comes to mind.” CBS’ Matt Norlander preaches patience and reminds us that the UNC case is still a pretty long way from being any kind of over.

Read More…

• Tim Beckman Item The First. In a series that should probably have its own blog, we give you the latest edition of College Football Coaches Singing At Wrigley Field. Coach, you have the floor:

His singing is not the strongest. Do not be alarmed. No coach is ever good at this. Admire instead his enthusiasm for the task.

Read More…

Illinois’ Tim Beckman called Northwestern “the team upstate” at Big Ten Media Days. (Reid Compton-US PRESSWIRE)

We’re watching from home as the Increasingly Inaccurately-Named Big Ten coaches assemble in Chicago for their annual carousel of preseason press conferences. Assorted highlights from the daylong media blitz follow. As with most media blitzes, not much was learned, but fun was had.

Given the wireless situation at B1G media days, you’ll probably never see this tweet.

— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) July 26, 2012

Conference to conference, some things just never change.

• Big Ten Media Day MVP: Tim Beckman. First things first: We must inform you that Beckman now coaches football at Illinois. It is entirely possible that this fact has slipped your radar. Anyway, approximately half a dozen of Beckman’s staffers were spotted in State College yesterday, and some people thought that total was kind of tacky in terms of sheer volume. So Beckman took the stage today and made very sure everybody knew that Illinois assistants weren’t actually banging on the door of the football complex: “We were in State College, but we did not go on campus. We went to two establishments outside campus and called some individuals.” That is not why Tim Beckman is our Media Days MVP of Thursday, however. This is:

Q.  Can you talk about your renewed emphasis on Illinois’s game with Northwestern and why you chose to emphasize that game in particular?

BECKMAN:  Again, being around college football for my whole life, rivalries are something that make college football so unique. And even in the Big Ten, I’ve been in those big rivalry football games, and I think it’s something that you breed through your program. We call it the team upstate. And I’m not scared to say that. That’s the school we’re going to call it. We’re going to make it a rivalry and we’re going to make it a very, very important part of our football season.

Don’t make Pat Fitzgerald’s neck angry, Tim Beckman. You wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.  

Read More…

Notre Dame’s Rev. John Jenkins is one of 12 university presidents on the current oversight committee. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• What’s all this, then? The BCS presidential oversight committee convenes in Washington today to deliberate college football playoff plans proposed by the conference commissioners last week.

• The what, now? There are a lot of moving decision-making parts controlling the college football postseason; the BCS doesn’t actually begin and end with Bill Hancock (even though he gets to say all the fun stuff). From the organization’s mission statement: “The conference commissioners and the Notre Dame athletics director make decisions regarding all BCS issues, in consultation with an athletics directors advisory group and subject to the approval of a presidential oversight committee whose members represent all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision programs.”

• So who’s in charge here? Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger is the ACC’s rep and chairman of the committee.

• Anything special we need to know about him? According to Virginia Tech, Steger “has been asked by the Swiss Ambassador to the United States and The World Bank to serve on a committee to establish a foundation in the United States to conduct research on mitigating global natural disasters.”

Read More…

Quarterbacks Nick Isham, Zach Griffith and Colby Cameron (left to right) work simultaneously during Louisiana Tech's fast-paced spring practices. (Holly Anderson/SI.com)

RUSTON, La. — The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs have their cultural Airraid bona fides intact, with Sonny Dykes at the helm, a trusty Red Bull mini-fridge installed in his office and Tony Franklin ensconced as offensive coordinator. They run their camp drills at warp speed, where top receiver Quinton Patton counts hauling in 50-60 passes as a bit of a slow practice. But run the numbers on the 2011 WAC champions and you’ll find a team that generated most of its offensive production from a pair of running backs and spent an inordinate amount of time getting bailed out by its defense.

The makeup of his offense doesn’t frustrate Franklin — or at least it hasn’t since the Bulldogs turned a 1-4 start last season into an 8-4 regular season finish, conference title and trip to the Poinsettia Bowl. ”We had more injuries to skill players last year than anywhere I’ve ever been,” Franklin said, noting the Bulldogs were pressed into sending their No. 2 quarterback out as a receiver against TCU in San Diego. “We ran out.” He estimates the Bulldogs have run the ball 60 percent of the time during his two-year tenure. ”My deal is, I just wanna win. If that means running it more, we run it more. If it’s throwing it more, we throw it more.”

Dykes also credits an increased reliance on the ground attack for the late-season success, but this spring in Ruston coach after coach pointed to off-field factors and team leaders digging in their heels when explaining the remarkable skid-to-streak turnaround. ”We’re sitting here at 1-4,” Dykes recalled.  “We lost our first conference game, and all we talked about was ‘Hey, let’s try to win one game this week.’ It really took pressure off our players. Honestly, the way to deal with a problem like that sometimes is to just not talk about it. Get better as a football team, and the problem will take care of itself.”

Read More…

Illinois players, coaches and staff helped prepare and distribute meals for the needy Friday in San Francisco. (AP)

The 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is just a day away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? Welcome, one and all, to the 10th annual Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl!

• Can they even say that when the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is exactly one year old? They can, apparently. The former Emerald Bowl turned over title sponsorship in 2010.

• Any particular reason I should feel bad for making fun of this bowl’s clunky name? There is, actually!

Once again, Kraft Foods is working with Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organization, to fight hunger but the 2011 goal is to help donate 25 million meals. Ultimately, this donation will help the more than 50 million Americans who live in food insecure households.

• Totally fine to be petrified of its mascots, though, right? Absolutely. Don’t stand with your back to any ballroom during bowl week activities, lest the Kool-Aid man and a bipedal Oreo creep up on you.

• Where will this game be played? San Francisco’s AT&T Park, permanent home of the baseball Giants and temporary home of Cal football during stadium renovations.

Read More…

Marshall shocked the Beef 'O' Brady's viewing public by upsetting favored FIU 20-10. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• Marshall 20, Florida International 10: Forget “need input,”  this game could’ve used about three times as much output. The Golden Panthers were pinned deep and often by the Thundering Herd in last night’s unacceptably lo-fi Beefobradys (currently accepted spelling after our available supply of apostrophes was exhausted in previewing this game) Bowl. FIU gained just 251 net offensive yards and was held scoreless through the entire second half, while Marshall went on a relative hot streak, piling on 10 points in the fourth quarter to put the game away. [RECAP | BOX]

• That’s a wrap on the sweatervest era: Ohio State’s NCAA sanctions in the matter of Terrelle Pryor and his Tat Five Orchestra were released yesterday afternoon: Additional probation, additional scholarship reductions, a one-year postseason ban and a five-year show-cause penalty for Jim Tressel. Read the NCAA’s statement here, and one from the inexplicably still-employed Gene Smith here. Charles Robinson hints the Buckeyes got off easy, relatively speaking; Spencer Hall hopes the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl will be worth it for the Buckeyes.

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold! Busy couple of days on the carousel: Ellis Johnson to Southern Miss is official. Hawaii native Norm Chow will return home to coach the Warriors. Yale’s coach has resigned amid an investigation into his resume. Coastal Carolina has made a very interesting hire; no word on Mr. Moglia’s feelings re: the respective football strengths of cats and dogs. Somebody tell T. Boone to shake his considerable change purse at Mike Gundy, already. Everett Withers will sign on in Columbus following the Independence Bowl. And Andy Staples has a modest proposal for Akron.

Read More…