FanHouse LeGarrette Blount

Saturday was to be the college football return for embattled Oregon tailback LeGarrette Blount, but a funny thing happened along the way -- the Ducks never found a need for him in an impressive 44-21 victory over Arizona State.

The 44 points marked the fourth straight game Oregon's red-hot offense has scored 42 or more. Meanwhile, the cold night at Autzen Stadium seemingly prompted the Duck coaching staff to give Blount -- suspended since Sept. 4 for punching a Boise State player and refusing to leave the stadium peacefully -- the cold shoulder.

'The Punch' wasn't a knockout after all.

Oregon reinstated running back LeGarrette Blount Monday afternoon, just more than two months after he was suspended for punching Boise State defensive end Byron Hout following the Ducks' Week 1 loss to the Broncos in Idaho.

"I'm grateful to Coach Kelly that he cares enough to offer me this second chance," Blount said in a statement released by the school. "Now it is up to me to prove to people that their lasting impressions of me are not what they saw in Boise."

Blount's suspension was originally announced to be for the season, but on Oct. 2, roughly a month after the Sept. 3 incident, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly said that the running back might returning, pending the senior meeting several conditions.

LeGarrette Blount, the Oregon running back who became the talk of college football when he punched a Boise State player on the field after the Ducks' season-opening loss, apologized today for that punch in an open letter published by Oregon's student newspaper. Blount accepted full responsibility, and he said nothing said by Boise State's Byron Hout justified Blount punching him.

Cal might've been looking ahead to next week's showdown with suddenly vulnerable USC, but they certainly sucked all the excitement out of it after getting whipped by the throwback jersey-wearing Oregon Ducks, 42-3.

They probably did just as much harm to Jahvid Best's Heisman campagin. The Ducks shut down the star running back, holding him to 55 yards and also battered Bears' quarterback Kevin Riley into a feeble 123-yard outing.

Saturday's victory is part of a stunning turnaround for Oregon, following its opening night embarrassment against Boise, a game marred by offensive ineptitude and LeGarrette Blount's sucker punch heard 'round the world. Since then, Oregon has beaten Purdue, Utah and now California. Amusingly, the Ducks dominated Cal in a manner similar to how Boise State handled them.

Pac-10 teams begin their second week of play on Saturday, highlighted by No. 3 USC's trip to Columbus to play Ohio State. It means nothing but consensus leans heavily towards the Trojans despite it being a cover of darkness road game before what Eleven Warriors calls 105,000 of college football's best hooligans, despite starting a true freshman quarterback in Matt Barkley and despite Ohio State having the tiebreaker of all tiebreakers in Terrelle Pryor.

Yeah, USC's loaded. The rest of the conference lineup Saturday is a mixed bag filled with one big road trip to SEC country, a couple middling names and a handful of regional cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes. Wait, no, bad Pac-10. Time to bag some fresh game out of say, Knoxville? Hmmm, maybe not.

LeGarrette Blount has been suspended for the remainder of Oregon's football season for punching Boise State's Byron Hout in an ugly post-game incident that has been played over and over again on ESPN and YouTube. But in all those re-playings of the incident, we still haven't learned what Hout said to Blount to provoke such an act. And there's speculation that Hout said something every bit as ugly as Blount's reaction.

Shortly after the last season's college football calendar wrapped up, the game's rules committee kicked around a few ideas to make its version of football a little kinder and gentler, to borrow an old phrase. Specifically, it wanted to crack down a little more on unsportsmanlike acts like taunting and showboating.

It considered treating such offenses during a game as live-ball fouls that could wipe out a play, including a touchdown. It pondered revising its guidelines on sportsmanship to include harsher penalties for offenders and make coaches more responsible for their players' behavior before and after games, not just during them. It even discussed encouraging conference officials to be more willing to discipline their coaches and member schools for such boorishness.

Luckily for Boise State coach Chris Petersen and one of his defensive ends, Byron Hout, the college football rules committee tabled their discussions until after the season that just kicked off. Otherwise, Peterson would be forced to punish Hout for Hout's role in Thursday night's ugly meltdown in Boise, Idaho, as Boise State kicked off this season against Oregon.

Well, that sure restored my faith in humankind. It was a wondrous burst of idealism, the preconceived concept that two college football teams could shake hands at midfield and act like normal, respectful people. But when the season's first national telecast explodes into a hideous episode, I don't like civility's chances in this day and age.

College football fans had plenty to say about Thursday night's Boise State-Oregon game, which turned ugly afterward when Oregon's LeGarrette Blount responded to a taunt from Boise State's Byron Hout by leveling him with a vicious punch.

Blount is now suspended for the rest of the season, and that led to a lot of interesting questions and comments for my college football Twitter mailbag, which is below.

It's funny how the level of sportsmanship can be viewed depending on which side of the field you stand.

Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount was completely wrong for his actions following Boise State's 19-8 victory over the Ducks on Thursday.

No one can question that Blount's knockdown punch on the Broncos' Byron Hout and his follow-up act that caused him to be dragged off the field deserved punishment. And, Oregon's season-long suspension of Blount may be stern but not out of line.

But people should also question Boise State's decision to not suspend Hout and to only discipline him internally.

Doesn't sportsmanship go both ways?