Posts by Chas Rich at FanHouse

Matt Simms looked to be the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job at Louisville next season. The redshirt sophomore, though, was not actually named the frontrunner by Coach Steve Kragthorpe. The Cardinals also gained the commitment of a junior college QB. That apparently was the final straw, and Simms has decided to leave Louisville.

Aside from being the son of former New York Giants' quarterback Phil Simms, Matt Simms had gained notoriety for his performance in the New Jersey State Championship -- specifically flipping the bird to fans of the opposing team after the game.

Matt Simms has thrown all of ten passes in his time at Louisville. Simms had also been suspended for four games this past season for the nebulous "team rules" violation, better explained by a photo that made the rounds on the internet. That was about the most noticeable thing he accomplished at Louisville. Somehow, other than hurting depth at the spot, it does not seem that the departure of Matt Simms will have much of an impact on Louisville.

The whole state of Utah seems to be losing it's mind. They are spamming AP voters. To raise the money to send the Utah band to Washington D.C. for the inauguration, they are requesting that any donations to the Utah band be for $13 or $130 (13-0, get it?). Now, the Utah Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff -- who immediately announced his donation of $130 -- has also made it known that his office is investigating whether the BCS violates federal antitrust laws.

Now, fuming over their apparent denial of a national championship after an undefeated season, he's considering launching an investigation into college football's Bowl Championship Series. Shurtleff plans to meet with some of his lawyers and investigators next week to consider building an antitrust case against the BCS.

"This game proved that it's an unfair system," the attorney general said in an interview with the Desert News on Monday. "A team like Utah will never be given a chance."

Shurtleff, a BYU grad and Utah law school grad, made the trip to Louisiana to cheer the Utes before returning to Salt Lake City to be sworn in for his third term. This isn't the first time, Shurtleff has complained about the system. He started threatening a similar thing back in 2003, but dropped the matter when Congress held hearings.

Expect a little more publicity and grandstanding from attorney generals and US Congressmen in Utah, Idaho, Hawaii, and maybe Wyoming, Nevada and New Mexico (the six states with 1-A football programs, but no BCS member teams). Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has already thrown his support (or at least press release) of a probe.

Aside from that, little else. The 2008 Utah team will still not be given a part of the BCS Championship.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

Strangely, despite both programs being big names, highly successful and loaded with talent, this game is being perceived mainly as a "money" match for the Fiesta Bowl. Not a match-up particularly desired by fans, but chosen because of how well both fans travel and the potential strength of the ratings.

Why? Well, mainly it is because of the Big Ten team everyone is tired of seeing blown out in the BCS Championship game. This is the sixth BCS bowl in the last seven years for the Buckeyes. Ohio State may have won three straight BCS bowls prior to the last two blowouts (including the national championship), but those were some fierce beatdowns in the biggest games.

The other side has a Texas team (and fans) that feels this is not the game they should be playing, against a team they shouldn't be playing. They feel they should be in that other game that will be played on Wednesday. Even if they were not going to the BCS Championship game, shouldn't the Longhorns be playing a team like Utah or Alabama or even USC? Teams that are (or were) making their own claims at being left out of the national championship equation.

Well, it's one of the last games of the college football season. It's still a big game. If Texas wants to have any standing in the "unfairness" of the system, they need to win this game. Ohio State is looking to gain some measure of redemption.

Join us around 8 pm EST for the Fiesta Bowl LiveBlog.

A few weeks ago Donald Brown announced that he would come back to UConn for his senior year. The announcement was not taken completely seriously, since most players either say something like that or carefully phrase a non-denial only to "re-evaluate" their decision after their bowl game.

Well Brown finished off the season as the nation's leading rusher by going for another 261 yards in the International Bowl. He cracked 2000 yards for the season as the UConn Huskies beat Buffalo, 38-20. At the post-game press conference, UConn coach Randy Edsall and Brown did not bother to keep the pretense going any longer.

"I'm not coming back," Brown said. "I'm going to the NFL. I know I told you guys earlier that I was coming back but that was too eliminate the distractions on our team. We had enough internal distractions going on and they didn't need that one as a burden as well so I apologize for "lying" for what I did to protect my team. They mean the world to me, so I'm willing to put my neck on the line for them."

It is something of a rarity that Brown admitted that he had made up his mind well in advance. No pretending that he had a change of heart. No "reconsiderations." Not sure how much it was to "protect" his team, though, as much as it was trying to avoid being asked about it for nearly a month.

Not much of a shock, but the fourth-leading receiver in the country, Rutgers junior Kenny Britt, has decided to skip his senior year and enter the NFL Draft.

"It's always been a dream to me to go to the NFL," Britt said at a press conference at Rutgers' Hale Center. "This year was my gateway, my opening."

Britt finished the 2008 season with 87 catches for 1371 yards. In his three years at Rutgers, he had 14 100-yard games, and with 3,043 career receiving yards, holds the Big East record. Despite Britt's fantastic numbers this year, and being the best receiver in the Big East, Britt was not even a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award.

The decision for Britt to go pro was not surprising, despite not being a first round draft pick. His numbers are almost sure to suffer as Rutgers will be breaking in a new quarterback next year because of Mike Teel's graduation. There is no clear favorite to win the job. It most likely will go immediately to an incoming freshman, the heralded Tom Savage, but that doesn't provide a great incentive to stay.

The final score of 70-54 made it look like a blowout. With 14:15 left in the game, though, it was a 40-40 tie and Pitt had never led by six. Then Pitt went on a 17-4 run over the next seven minutes to turn it into a laugher, snapping Georgetown's 29-game home winning streak (15 in the Big East) with the win in the Verizon Center. It was also Pitt's first win on the road against a top-25 team in eight tries.

Maybe it was the fact that he only played eight minutes in the prior game. Maybe he just was excited for a big game. Maybe he just was annoyed with reading nothing but hype for Georgetown's stud freshman center, Greg Monroe, the last couple days. Whatever the reason, Pitt's DeJuan Blair absolutely dominated the inside paint and made Monroe look silly. Blair had 20 points and 17 rebounds to lead Pitt to the win.

Georgetown was following the standard defensive gameplan against Pitt. Try to pack it inside to keep Pitt from feeding it inside. Make Pitt have to shoot from the perimeter.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

What? You want more liveblogging? The Rose Bowl LiveBlog wasn't enough? Well, it wasn't enough for us either. A short break, and we are coming back with the Orange Bowl.

This is the game where FOX kicks off their BCS game coverage. Announcers that have not paid any attention to college football all season opining on what they are seeing. Lots of ridiculously long and numerous commercial breaks that will totally break up the flow of the game. Needless to say, expectations are low for the production.

As for the game itself, it is Virginia Tech and Cincinnati. The champs of the ACC and Big East. The Big East, has won their last three BCS Bowl games. The ACC has lost eight straight in the BCS.

Will there be any changes to the status quo? Join us around 8:30 PM ET for the fun.

It's been an amusing little sidebar for the past couple years of the annual coaching carousel. A job would open up in Division 1-A and Terry Bowden would do what he could to get an interview or be considered for the job. Even if he didn't know a thing about the job or the region.

Now that is over with Terry Bowden assuming the reigns at North Alabama in Division II. One of the more successful D-II programs over the past few years. Bowden takes over from Mark Hudspeth who left to become an assistant coach at Mississippi State. Hudspeth had been the coach of the Lions for the past seven years, and the past four years North Alabama made the D-II playoffs and won at least 10 games.

Bowden has attributed his open pursuit of just about any job, to a burning desire to get back to coaching. Realizing how much he had missed it after being out of it since 1998. It probably didn't hurt that the money in college coaching has gotten much larger.

The problem for Bowden has been that he was out of coaching for nearly a decade and the fact that he resigned from Auburn in mid-season (though, with the recent insanity at Auburn, his departure has taken a slightly different perspective). His father, Bobby Bowden had recently advised Terry to stop shooting for big jobs, and just find a job that fit best to help rebuild his coaching reputation.

There could be one other reason for Bowden taking the North Alabama job over other possible jobs in D-II or even 1-AA. Bowden spent about five years at Auburn. The Alabama pension system only vests after ten years. If he just left the money there instead of rolling it into a IRA, then he could definitely use a few more years in Alabama (and even if he did roll it over, he likely would be able to buy back the years if he so chose).

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

It will take an epically bad game to top the putridity of the 75th Sun Bowl. Pitt and Oregon State pillow fought their way to a 3-0 Oregon State win. This was downright colossal in disturbingly bad offensive performances.

There are games where the numbers don't tell the story. This game is not one of them. Only two drives that got into the red zone, five turnovers, eleven sacks, thirteen three-and-outs, twenty punts, and less than 500 total yards between the two teams.

Admittedly both teams were diminished on offense. Oregon State was playing without the Pac-10's Offensive Player and Freshman of the Year in running back Jacquizz Rodgers, along with Rodgers' older brother -- the second leading rusher and third in receiving. Pitt was without their starting center and left tackle on the offensive line.

Predictably, neither team was going to produce big numbers. Still, this was well below any expectations.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

The Cincy football team finds itself changing hotels the night before the Orange Bowl. Not because of some plan from the Cincy coaches to avoid Virginia Tech fans trying to disrupt the sleep of the players. Not for some motivational strategy. No, it is because Fontainebleau Hotel where the Bearcats are staying will also be the location of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' New Years Eve party.

"It's just too much of a distraction," Kelly said. "We have secured another hotel. If things go the way I've seen them go in that hotel after 12 o'clock, we'll be in another hotel on New Year's Eve."

Go figure. A bunch of college athletes at a luxury hotel in Miami supposedly getting a good night's sleep in their rooms before the biggest game in their careers. All the while a huge, high-end, trendy New Years Eve Party rages below. What could go wrong?

The quote does raise other questions. When was Brian Kelly at a New Years Eve Party at the Fontainebleau Hotel that he's seen the way they go? And who was hosting that party?