FanHouse RonEnglish

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, or lack thereof.

There are weeks when many of us would trade lives with Jim Tressel. This is not one of those weeks.

Not only did his Buckeyes fail to finish USC when they had the Trojans on the ropes, Tressel also saw "Tresselball" ripped apart by Chris Brown of Smart Football, faced a fan base who want him fired three days ago, had to lash back at some of those same fans, discovered that one of USC's touchdowns may not have happened, and now he has to face a Toledo team that just mashed Colorado into goo.

Yes, there are a lot of reasons why you wouldn't want to be Jim Tressel this week, but "because he's on the hot seat" isn't one of them.

Picture a team that was one Jeremy Ito field goal away from a shot at the national title in 2006. Most of the major contributors were back on offense in 2007 and expectations were for a similar year. I'm not going to recap the season for you. I will say that I was probably more surprised at the outcome than most of the Cardinal faithful. Seems I have some sort of Brian Brohm flinch reflex.

Fast forward to six months after the season, and I think reality is sinking in on Tom Jurich.

"We're definitely in a rebuilding process," Jurich told the school's Athletic Association's board of directors. "We're very limited from a depth standpoint. The next two years ... I just want to get through them."

The team lost 12 starters and 5 draft picks. But I think this whole rebuilding thing started about the time Middle Tennessee State put up 42. There's no way a 5-7 team from a mid-major conference should be able to do that. It shows how quick your fortunes can change.

Having said that, I don't think the rebuilding process is going to be nearly as painful as Jurich. I think Hunter Cantwell is a fine quarterback that has shown the ability to lead the team. I'm interested to see if Victor Anderson will step up this year at running back. He was good enough for Rich Rodriguez to offer him a scholarship as a junior.

The defense will surely be better with the addition of Ron English as defensive coordinator. There's going to be a lot of youth on both sides of the ball. But that's not always a bad thing. It makes for a short memory. The change in expectations might actually be a good thing for the team. What Louisville truly lacked last year was an identity. The defense was constantly guessing. The offense did put up some big numbers, but the consistency was way off previous years.

Maybe all this bonds the team together, and the coaches learn from their mistakes. Stranger things have happened. Louisville hasn't set the world on fire recruiting over the last three years, but 47th, 26th, and 43rd isn't exactly anything to cry about either. West Virginia has proven that you can win with that kind of recruiting in the Big East. And so has Louisville for that matter.

As the University of Michigan begins it's search for Lloyd Carr's replacement by interviewing current coordinators Ron English and Mike DeBord, one possible candidate has taken his name off the list.

Former Michigan quarterback, and current Stanford head coach, Jim Harbaugh wants everybody to know he isn't interested in the job.

"As far as the opening they have, the Michigan people will do a great job in selecting someone to carry on that tradition," Harbaugh said. "It's not going to be me. I am happy where I am."

It's pretty nice of Jim to let us all know he doesn't want the job, especially when you consider he was probably never going to get it anyway. He's only in his first year at Stanford, and even though the Cardinal upset USC this season, Harbaugh hasn't really done anything in Palo Alto to catapult himself up the list of possible replacements.

There is also the fact that Carr and the school aren't exactly thrilled with Harbaugh right now anyway. After the comments he made earlier this season about the school's academic standards (even though they're true for the most part), Bo Schembechler probably has a better chance of rising from the dead to take the program over, than Harbaugh does of getting the position.

Besides, every interview the school makes is just to kill time until Les Miles finally leaves LSU.