FanHouse John Tenuta

Don't know if ESPN is jumping the gun here, but on the 9 AM Sportscenter and Gameday Kirk Herbstreit is reporting that Les Miles has been (or will be) hired by Michigan. The kicker: Miles is bringing former Georgia Tech defensive coordinator John Tenuta with him.

As Michigan fan, I can only react to this in one way suitable for a family website:

!!!

Tenuta, of course, was the architect of the good bits of Georgia Tech these last six years, consistently dragging GT to bowl games in the face of the Reggie Ball experience. If you asked the nation at large who the best defensive coordinator in the country was, he would get a significant chunk of the votes.

As an added bonus, Tenuta coached at Ohio State in the mid to late 90s, spending five years there as a defensive backs coach and, in 2000, defensive coordinator. Hello rivalry spice.

There are many teams in college football who are yet to decide who their starting quarterback is going to be this season, and one of the most high profile battles is at Notre Dame where three players are fighting for the job. Everyday after practice, Charlie Weis is bombarded by the question: Who will be your starting quarterback?

Stop asking him. He's not going to tell you.

"Let's get this now," Weis snapped on Monday after being asked if anything noteworthy came out of weekend tape evaluations of his three quarterbacks. "I'm not going to announce the quarterback before we play Georgia Tech.

"It's to my advantage and to Notre Dame's football program's advantage to do it that way for the first game," he explained Monday, pleading for understanding. "I promise you it's not because I'm trying to hold back from the (media members) that are here every day. It's that I'm trying to win the opener. I'm trying to beat Georgia Tech. It's the only game that I have this card to play and I'm going to hold it. My answer won't change. It'll be a game-time decision."

What Weis is really saying is, I'll know who my quarterback is before Georgia Tech, but I sure as hell won't tell anybody else who it is.

One thing we can probably be sure of, it's not going to be Jimmy Clausen. Not only is Clausen fresh off surgery in the offseason, limiting his arm strength at the moment, but he's a freshman. Have you ever seen a defense coached by Tech's John Tenuta? He's one of the most creative defensive coordinators in college football, and with three new starters on the offensive line, starting Clausen would probably serve as nothing more than a sacrifice.

Tech's defense would eat him alive.

What's probably going to happen is that junior Evan Sharpley will start the game for the Irish, but Demetrius Jones will get some playing time as well. Jones brings another dimension to the Irish offense with his ability to make plays with his legs as well as his arms, and would serve as a nice change of pace.

So let's just stop asking, it's a waste of all our time.