TCU’s Devonte Fields earned Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors in 2012. (Max Faulkner/ZUMAPRESS.com)

By Zac Ellis

TCU sophomore defensive end Devonte Fields has been suspended for the first two games of the 2013 season, the team announced Wednesday.

In a short release, the Horned Frogs said Fields’ suspension comes on the heels of a “violation of university and team policy.” TCU coach Gary Patterson offered no comment on the suspension.

Field will miss TCU’s season-opening matchup with LSU at Cowboys Stadium on Aug. 31 and the team’s home opener against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 7. The suspension leaves the Horned Frogs with even less experience across the defensive line, where they had already lost starter Stansly Maponga to the NFL.

Fields started all 13 games for TCU as a freshman last season and recorded 53 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, garnering Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors and landing on the All-Big 12 First Team. But Fields struggled this spring and had been one of the players singled out by Patterson for his efforts during workouts.

Pitt dismissed tight end Drew Carswell (6) and defensive back Eric Williams on Tuesday. (Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Pitt has dismissed junior tight end Drew Carswell and junior defensive back Eric Williams, the school announced on Tuesday. Carswell and Williams, along with junior defensive tackle Khaynin Mosley-Smith, were indefinitely suspended last week by coach Paul Chryst for their involvement in a drug-related incident.

All three players were detained on April 25 after being found in a house invaded by SWAT personnel. Per a CBS Pittsburgh report, “Detectives say they seized 20 bags of heroin, a marijuana bong and a copper grinder,” at the scene.

Mosley-Smith remains on indefinite suspension.

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Los Angeles football will be short two McDonald brothers next season, with T.J. departed for the draft and Tevin for parts unknown. (AP)

The UCLA Bruins have announced the dismissal of starting safety Tevin McDonald for the Ever-Popular-And-Mysterious Violation of Team Rules. McDonald, last seen missing the Holiday Bowl for failing a drug test, is the brother of USC safety and NFL draft hopeful T.J. McDonald, and the son of former Fresno State and current Jets position coach Tim McDonald. Also officially be-goned are lesser-known wide receiver Ricky Marvray and Jerry Rice Jr., whom some of you may have heard of. Those two players intend to transfer.

Or, In Which We Should Have Known Better Than To Try And Go Out Of Town Today:

Recruiting wise, this is a star-studded arrest. Four players totaling a combined 18-star rating. #Bama—
SB Nation Recruiting (@SBNRecruiting) February 12, 2013

Johnny Manziel thwarts Alabama once again, gentle readers. Young Master Football’s Heisman Trophy victory means the Tide will be unable to complete the celebrated Switzer Sweep of winning the BCS championship, Fulmer Cup and Heisman Trophy in a single year, as Auburn did not too long ago. But ‘Bama’s making up for missing out on the third element of the Slam by going after the second as it does on the football field: With alarming depth and relentless tenacity.

Crimson Tide running back Brent Calloway, linebacker Tyler Hayes, defensive lineman D.J. Pettway and safety Eddie Williams have all been arrested and charged in connection with an incident in which two students were robbed, and a credit card obtained in the attack was used to purchase … vending machine snacks? College! Charge details, per the Associated Press:

 Pettway and Hayes were charged with second-degree robbery. Williams was charged with fraudulent use of a credit card and second-degree robbery. Calloway was charged with fraudulent use of a credit card.

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There is no such thing as a compelling photo of NCAA COI deliberations, so here is Sebastian in a vaguely menacing posture. (AP)

Assorted items of varying degrees of interest which you may have missed while grudgingly watching playoff football and sending surly tweets to the Golden Globes:

• The NCAA is Lucy, and Miami football is the football, and we are Charlie Brown running toward it, or something? This metaphor holds up only to demonstrate how very much we wish for this all to be over, but here we go: The Miami Herald is calling the release of NCAA allegations against the Hurricanes football program “imminent,” just short of the investigation’s two-year anniversary. Bylaw Blogger John Infante lays out all the ways this process could still be stalled, and how the Miami case might affect Oregon’s.

• Mike Stoops also a fan of Hi Haters Friday! Friday night, 6:06 p.m., Tulsa World‘s John E. Hoover posts a transcript excerpt of a Mike Stoops radio interview, specifically a question regarding Johnny Football: “They’re gonna be tough to deal with. If they can keep him out of jail or keep him eligible, he’s gonna be pretty good.” Friday night, 10:37 p.m., Tulsa World post headline: “Mike Stoops regrets controversial comments on Manziel.” Had Stoops’ defense possessed that kind of on-the-fly adaptability in the Cotton Bowl, perhaps Manziel would not have scored four touchdowns against it, PAAAOWL.

• Roster blotter. In better news for Miami: Seantrel Henderson, Brandon Linder and Curtis Porter announced Monday morning they all intend to return to the ‘Canes in 2013 … in even better news for Profiteroles fans, Dri Archer will stay on for his senior season at Kent State … Iowa State quarterback Jared “That Kid Who Beat Oklahoma State” Barnett and linebacker C.J. Morgan intend to transfer … Texas defensive tackle Brandon Moore will enter the draft … also declaring is USC corner Nickell Robey, whom we will dearly miss watching because of his too-perfect defensive name … Oregon linebacker Anthony Wallace will transfer … Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks have been reinstated at Texas … and Casey Pachall returns to the Horned Frogs.

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Stefphon Jefferson has clearly just caught a look at the New Mexico Bowl scoreboard here. (AP)

• My god, it’s full of stats. Just for funsies, and maybe also because we’re football-free until Thursday, here is a list of NCAA bowl records broken by Nevada and Arizona in the 2012 New Mexico Bowl, via Wolf Pack sports info:

-Most plays (combined, both teams): Nevada-Arizona, 188 (Previous, 187, by Auburn-Northwestern in 2010 Outback Bowl).

-Most first downs: Nevada, 39 (Previous, 36—Oklahoma (48) vs. Virginia (14) (Gator, Dec. 29, 1991) (16 rush, 18 pass, 2 penalty); Marshall (64) vs. East Carolina (61) (2 ot) (GMAC, 2001) (9 rush, 25 pass, 2 penalty).

-Most first downs, both teams: Nevada-Arizona, 70 (Previous: 62—North Carolina St. (56) [34] vs. Kansas (26) [28] (Tangerine, 2003).

-Most first downs rushing: Nevada, 28 (Previous: 26—Oklahoma (40) vs. Auburn (22) (Sugar, Jan. 1, 1972); Navy (51) vs. Colorado St. (30) (Poinsettia, 2005).

-Most first downs rushing, both teams: Nevada-Arizona, 38 (Previous: 36—Colorado (47) [24] & Alabama (33) [12] (Liberty, 1969); Miami (FL) (46) [16] & Texas (3) [20] (Cotton, 1991).

An auspicious beginning to the postseason, no?

• Further bowltyme antics. In case you missed it last week, follow along with Stewart Mandel’s Bowl Pickoff right over here.

• Actual playoff happenings. Mount Union continues to do Mount Union things, gaining another D-III championship on Friday night … Valdosta State wrecked Winston-Salem State in the Division II title game … Sam Houston State and North Dakota State will face off for the FCS championship.

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Highlight video of the ballyhooed 1992 RU/VT game. And there is NO QUESTION it was made in 1992. youtu.be/UIlIsa2zphg

— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) December 3, 2012

We would like to politely request at this time that all footage of the 2012 Rutgers Athletic Bowl adhere to these same retro production values. For continuity, you see.

• Assorted trophy happenings. Your 2012 Heisman finalists, who are somehow still not called “Heis-men,” which will apparently never be satisfactorily explained: Johnny Manziel, Manti Te’o and Collin Klein. Klein has also been bestowed with the Johnny Unitas Award, and Te’o with the Nagurski Trophy. In non-Heis-men news, Notre Dame’s Bob Diaco is the 2012 Broyles Award winner, and Matt McGloin takes home the Burlsworth Award.

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• By the time you see this post, all of this information will be out of date. Just keep this soothing mantra in your minds, and we’ll all get through this together:

When it all boils down, we’re all members of the Human Race Conference. #footballhugs

— Good Bull Hunting (@GBHunting) November 28, 2012

Change begets stress, and even good stress is stress, our mama has always said, so continue those deep, cleansing breaths while you read these releases from Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic announcing their intent to join Conference USA in 2014. Karl Benson is making solar puns in all caps, so give him a little hug if you see him. And our pal Steven Godfrey finally realizes why Rutgers cut him off for a story a couple weeks back.

The Sun Sentinel is reporting that Western Kentucky and New Mexico State may be next, so if it’s all right with y’all we’re going to wait until next week to re-revise our handy realignment graphic.

• Bowltyme! Our postseason schedule is up and running, with new bowl teams added as they’re announced. It’s also in a font large enough for you to read first thing in the morning without your glasses a couple weeks from now, when you sit upright in bed and are terrified you have overslept into the New Mexico Bowl.

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Will Kent State’s Dri Archer earn a return to his home state of Florida this postseason? (AP)

• Peasants at the gates! Utah State and San Jose State make their first appearances in the BCS rankings, while Northern Illinois enters the BCS Top 25 for the first time in 2012. Are we in for some surprise gate-crashers in the big-money bowls after all? Maybe. Allow SMQ to explain it all for you: “So even for the winner, the potential stakes in the MAC title game range from the Orange Bowl to the GoDaddy.com Bowl, with nothing in between.” And remember not to overlook this Friday’s NIU-Kent State showdown while penciling the Golden Flashes in for a trip to Florida.

• Cajuns to New Orleans to repeat legendary tailgating feats. Bowl invitations issued over the weekend: Utah State to a second consecutive Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Nevada to the New Mexico Bowl and the Ragin’ Cajuns to their second New Orleans Bowl. Now, we didn’t see the Cajuns in their postseason appearance in person last year, but we have been to New Orleans for college football games, and been to tailgates in Lafayette, and this game just became our first mandatory trip of the postseason. Stewart Mandel’s latest bowl projections can be found here, freshly updated with all invited teams.

• Coach firin’ season, continued. Jon Embree tells the Denver Post he’d been told just last week that his job was safe … one Post columnist calls Embree’s ouster shameful and unjust … Marshall’s defensive coordinator has resigned … and Ellis Johnson’s press conference has been canceled, with a team meeting scheduled for 4:00. Nothing to see here!

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Have a touchdown pass, America. Bryn Renner has so many of them to spare at the moment. (AP)

• North Carolina 37, Virginia 13. That sure got away from us in a hurry, didn’t it? A 36-yard interception return by UNC’s Tre Boston late in the first half broke the game open at 20-10, and apart from a lone third-quarter field goal the Cavaliers would not threaten again. Bryn Renner wrapped up the evening with 29-of-36 pass attempts completed, good for 315 yards and three touchdowns. His favored target, Quinshad Davis, recorded 178 receiving yards on 16 catches, and Gio Bernard added 57 yards rushing and 47 receiving yards with one score. Erik Highsmith caught two of Renner’s three scoring passes. UVA is out of postseason contention but could still prevent Virginia Tech from going to a bowl with a win next Saturday in Blacksburg. [BOX | RECAP]

• This holiday season, give the gift of vintage sanctions. The COI has imposed a few additional penalties on Tennessee for violations dating from the Lane Kiffin era, which we’re only mentioning here because Dave Hart saying ”We will finally close the chapter on the prior actions of members of a previous football coaching staff,” very shortly before he creates a second coaching staff he’ll have to call “previous,” gives us the grim giggles.

• What a nice gesture from a nice person. Per a Kansas sports info release: “In an effort to send his 2012 senior class out with a fitting farewell, Kansas football head coach Charlie Weis is offering to foot the bill for all KU students seeking admittance to Saturday’s ‘Senior Night’ game versus Iowa State.” Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. No word on whether journalism students are included in the invitation.

• Shiny! The 2012 Nagurski Trophy finalists were announced Thursday. Still in the running for college football’s National Defensive Player of the Year: Jadeveon Clowney, Jarvis Jones, Dee Milliner, Manti Te’o and Bjoern Werner. Winner to be announced on December 3.

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