FanHouse LSU

MEMPHIS – After Roy Williams answered his last question Sunday night at the press conference following his Tar Heels' easy 72-60 win over Oklahoma to advance to next weekend's Final Four, a North Carolina sports information official barked out some trivia for the departing media: the Tar Heels won for the first time all season with forward Tyler Hansbrough, the defending player of the year, and shooting guard Wayne Ellington failing to score in double figures.

Even if you phrase it as carefully as a major leaguer testifying before Congress, ask Kansas coach Bill Self who he thinks should be the national coach of the year and you're likely to get about the same answer as if you'd just asked him to explain the economic stimulus plan.

Which is to say a whole lot of stammering and more tap dancing than Broadway's spring season.

Score one for the Bayou Bengals. It has been announced that LSU will play Mississippi State in a rare early season SEC league match to kick off the 2007 season. LSU coach Les 'The Hat' Miles can be seen to the right celebrating with one of the moves from Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. To the surprise of nobody the game will be televised on ESPN Thursday August 30.

ESPN notes that this "continues a tradition" - started last year. Oy.

The Bulldogs were woeful in a 15-0 shutout loss to South Carolina in last year's opener. The game's MVP was Gamecock punter Ryan Succop which says about all you need to know for how that game went. Both starting quarterbacks were knocked out of action early leaving hapless backups to carry already pedestrian offenses through the remaining game action. The game's real drama was in the supposed confiscation of MSU's famous cowbells. Of little surprise many fans snuck the devices into the stadium making a mockery of the policy.

Although without the services of departed quarterback JaMarcus Russell, LSU is a strong favorite to win in a romp here. At least we can save the date, so to speak. I'm just going to pretend there aren't well over six more months until college football. Because if I knew that to be true I'd cry in misery. And I'm not in the mood for misery.

Anyhoo ... the reasoning escapes me at the moment, but those kickoff classic type games were eliminated a year or two ago, robbing college football fans of some great early season shows. Off the top of my head I remember Penn State's Curtis Enis torching the USC defense a while back, I remember the wild Cal/Kansas State shootout that the Bears lost but signaled something positive for the Jeff Tedford era. I remember Reggie Bush scoring three touchdowns against Virginia Tech in a game that catapulted him onto the national stage.

It'd be nice to have that type of game back. Y'know, compelling national matchups and all? Early season battle of titans. This is nice but it's just another SEC league game played out three weeks premature.

Until the fun games return it's LSU/Mississippi State starting the season off with more of a whimper than a bang. But I'll take it, it's football. Just around the corner. Riiiiiight.

Someone alert Les Miles so he can drop an f-bomb: LSU recruit Terrance Toliver, a Texan who is one of the top wide receivers in the country, was apparently the subject of frequent negative recruiting from the Florida Gators:

"Every time (Florida recruiters) came, they just said LSU doesn't qualify their players," Toliver told FOX 26's Mark Berman Wednesday. "About (how) their academics are not all that. It kind of had me confused."

Eventually a bewildered Toliver asked his football coach Rick Sargent and Hempstead instructional coordinator Tina Johnson to go to Baton Rouge to find out the truth about LSU. The two went last weekend. "They went and checked (LSU'S) academics out and their facilities," Toliver said. "They just came back and told me whatever Florida was saying about the academics wasn't true."

I'm shocked, shocked that there's negative recruiting going on in the SEC, but what is interesting is that recruits are becoming more open about it. The Toliver accusations were preceded by a Washington Post article on Illinois recruit Arrelious Benn, who received a series of insulting text messages from then Notre Dame QB coach Peter Vaas:

"FYI, ILL is telling Robert Hughes that they will build their offense around him? Didn't they tell you that? Coach Vaas," Vaas wrote Benn on Dec. 17.

Earlier that month, Vaas left this voice message on Benn's phone: "You don't want to do anything except bury your head in the sand. . . . I guess you're not tough enough to compete at the big level."

...against all the service academies instead of, you know, Michigan and Ohio State.

Moral of the story: be prepared to have kids rat you out if you're a poopyhead.

Per the request of our fine editors at AOL corporate, us NCAA Football types at the FanHouse were asked to list 2007 "impact recruits". Seeing as how National Letter of Intent Day (aka Signing Day) is tomorrow, this request is timely.

What defines impact? A John Madden-like BOOM ? Nahhh.

The instructions from our bosses are intentionally vague which I like. So what follows are the first five of ten impact recruits. My main criteria is to name players people will be talking about. So while some recruits may be better or more interesting, these are ten guys who will get noticed.

• John Chiles, Athlete (Texas) - Chiles played quarterback, running back ... pretty much everything in high school. He's fast, has ball skills and makes plays. Colt McCoy probably has the quarterback position locked down for a few years so look for the Texas staff to creatively find ways to get the ball in his hands. Video.

• Chris Galippo, Linebacker (USC) - Galippo was last seen making somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 tackles at the US Army High School All America game in January. He's already college size (6'-3"/235 pounds) with speed and the ability to play inside, outside or even defensive end. Oozes leadership as he doggedly helped recruit several future teammates. Video.

• Ryan Miller, Offensive Tackle (Colorado) - Had offers from literally everyone of significance, but chose the hometown Buffaloes. Should be able to make an Andre Smith-like impact on an otherwise modestly talented Colorado line.

• Terrance Toliver, Wide Receiver (LSU or Florida) - Toliver is expected to be the next great "big and athletic" receiver in the mold of Dwayne Jarrett and Charles Rogers. Runs fast, has a big body, can make plays in the air, he can do a lot of things and should have a fantastic college career. Video.

• Willy Korn, Quarterback (Clemson) - Korn saw his stock drop a bit over the course of the fall but he's got a chance to start next year for Clemson. Korn can scramble as well as throw the ball. With Clemson's tremendous backfield his burden will be lightened. Could be leading one of the country's best offenses from the word go. People will definitely be talking about him if he wins the job and plays well early. Video.

Coming up: Impact National Recruits Part II