Paul Johnson and Jon Barry won the 2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament. Paul Johnson is clearly as bewildered as we are to learn he excels at the serene sport of golf. (Abell Images)

The Chick-fil-A Bowl’s annual charity golf tournament kicks off this weekend, forcing 16 ACC and SEC skippers to mute their phones (probably), partner up with celebrity alums from their current programs and battle for scholarship dollars in the carefully sculpted wilds of Georgia. The pairings for the main event have been released. We have some thoughts.

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Why, yes, this will be our go-to Randy Edsall photo until the Earth stops spinning on its axis. Be his backup quarterback Valentine. Or else. –>

The Maryland press release announcing the cessation of transfer hostilities between Randy Edsall and the latest Terps pining to play elsewhere landed in our inbox, and all we could think was, ”This would look fantastic above a gallery of 20 or so laughing animals.” Can everybody see the camel in the second row here? Read on, and see if you don’t make that exact face.

“While at first I thought it was important to limit the institutions to which they could transfer, I have since reconsidered my decision” Edsall said. “At the end of the day, I want what’s best for these guys and I wish them well in their futures.”

When the history of Edsall is written, this gem will be enshrined in his gilded irony pantheon, alongside this passage uttered upon his departure from UConn:

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Happy Hearts Day, from our families to yours.

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Isaiah Crowell's 2011 Signing Day announcement has yet to be topped, but should be an inspiration for all future recruits. (AP)

The fact that we’re still discussing Isaiah Crowell’s puppy-bearing 2011 Signing Day announcement a year later proves that, no matter what turns the running back’s career in Athens might take, the moment was a smashing branding success for the University of Georgia. This year’s haul of signing ceremonies has been light on pageantry, although one Mississippi State commit did involve an actual human baby in his announcement. So wags the world away. In a fit of wishful thinking, we got to fantasizing about blue-chip athletes swanning about campus with jars full of stinging insects and elite high school prospects piloting heavy machinery through school property, and before too long we had this list of schools whose commits we would very most like to see follow in Crowell’s footsteps and introduce a wee young mascot at their Signing Day ceremonies. Those  Top 25 teams are as follows:

25. Big Cat Schools. Your Wazzus, your FIUs, your LSUs. Perhaps unfairly dinged because there are just so many Big Cat schools, and if this becomes a trend we’ll soon have a Signing Day entertainment market saturated by baby lions and bobcats. Any LSU prospect bringing along a white tiger with purple eyes to match the Bayou Bengals’ latest Pro Combat unis, however, will receive an instant and much-deserved rankings boost. (This being LSU, we estimate this is at most three years from happening.)

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This long-burning question finally has an answer: Washington State. (Icon SMI)

• We have our heading: CBS’ Bruce Feldman had it first, and had it correct: The Dread Cap’n has docked in Pullman and intends to stay a spell. And we owe a debt of gratitude to Larry Scott, whose blockbuster Pac-12 media rights deal facilitated the triumphant return of Mike Leach to the ranks of active college football coaches. Triumphant? At Washington State? You bet your barnacles. Stewart Mandel has a much longer column up on this topic, but let me just add to the chorus: Leach is inheriting a talented passing offense from Paul Wulff. He’ll have the money to hire some talented assistants. He’s well-known enough to garner media attention for his team even if ESPN decides in a fit of entirely plausible petulance to plunge the program into a total Worldwide Leader media blackout. (What will become of the GameDay flag?)

Apart from all that, it’s just a win for fans of the game. College football is more interesting with Mike Leach in it than without, and since it’s just Washington State and it can’t possibly threaten your team’s livelihood for months at least, those of you without active rooting interests in the Cougars have plenty of shady cover beneath which to become ravenous sidewalk alumni.

• Rest in peace, Tiger: Chester McGlockton, former star Clemson defensive tackle and current Stanford assistant coach, died Wednesday of what’s being reported as a heart attack. McGlockton, 42, was finishing up his second season on the Cardinal staff. Our sincere condolences and best wishes to his family and the Clemson and Stanford football communities.

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Get ready to see plenty of this look from Houston's Kevin Sumlin, assembled Conference USA media. (Cal Sport Media)

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold: Newsy bits involving the staffing and de-staffing and re-staffing of various programs:

- Kevin Sumlin is this season’s hot hiring flavor, and having been in a room with him once before when he was asked a question he didn’t care for, I cannot wait for some reporter at the C-USA title game to attempt to discuss which visor Sumlin will don next year instead of breaking down the Cougars’ matchup with Southern Miss. Guy gets a flat, shark-eyed stare going that’s practically Sabanian in its chilling effect.

- Not a lot of “football minds” on Penn State’s search committee to replace Joe Paterno, which has a couple ex-Nittany Lions worried. I thought the same thing looking at PSU’s offensive statistics all year, guys.

- ”The great thing about WSU and being a Coug is that we don’t do it like everybody else. We stick together and we don’t eat our own. I believe the innocence of Wazzu has been lost today.” – Paul Wulff, who held a press conference of his own yesterday after the one announcing the onset of the hunt for his successor.

- “The only job that I am worried about, and the job that I have got all my heart and soul and attention on, is Maryland.” — Randy Edsall, whose heart and soul could really use some help putting together a coherent defense. Which organ is responsible for that? Pancreas? [Via the Post.]

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Ole Miss AD Pete Boone (left) will be following Houston Nutt out the door after all. (AP)

• Rebs can’t repel failpower of that magnitude: From the “surprising sweeps that were much needed but still managed to surprise” department: Ole Miss AD Pete Boone will, in fact, follow Houston Nutt out the door in Oxford. Not a moment too soon for some Rebel partisans, but if they’d just installed Admiral Ackbar as mascot as God intended, this never would’ve happened.

• Home for the ruptured: Dan Persa plans to be back in action for Northwestern this weekend. Same for John Brantley at Florida. Over at Tennessee, Tyler Bray has his cast off but won’t be recovered enough from his broken thumb in time to start against Arkansas. And in a bad blow to Texas A&M, Christine Michael has had another season cut short by injury, suffering a torn ACL.

• Roster blotter: Chas Dodd will start at quarterback for Rutgers against Army. LSU’s quarterback decision is less certain. UCLA corner Aaron Hester catches an official reprimand.

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