FanHouse Rich Rodriguez

Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins announced a few moves on his staff this week, the biggest being that he will add the role of receivers coach to his duties this upcoming season.

Hawkins will coach the Buffaloes as he prepares 13-year NFL defensive back Ashley Ambrose to take over the wide receivers position for the 2010 season. Ambrose, who is carrying the title of defensive technical intern this season, will be able to observe Hawkins but is prohibited from coaching the players until after the season when he will be named a full-time assistant.

A couple months ago, Steven Threet decided to leave Michigan. The quarterback started eight games for the Wolverines a year ago, but was obviously not a good fit for new coach Rich Rodriguez and the spread offense he brought from West Virginia.

Threet took his time looking over his options, and he found some potential suitors who still ran some sort of pro-style offense.

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

It's not often a traditional power like Michigan can be called be called overlooked, but a 4-8 season will do plenty of things to a program other than just riling up the fanbase. In this case, it makes the Wolverines primed for a surprise season.

And they're not alone.

We'll even invite Florida State to the party dadgummit. Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Texas are laughing but inevitably they'll have their season(s) of woe. Until then, some big programs are giving us material in this feature on programs on the rise.

First, the Green Bay Packers expressed interest in Greg Paulus, the former Duke University point guard and high school All-American quarterback. Then, University of Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez had a meet-and-greet with Paulus about the possibility of playing in Ann Arbor this fall.

And today, there's this: Duke also wants in on the Paulus action. But unlike the Wolverines -- who could envision him as a quarterback in their spread offense -- Blue Devils football coach David Cutcliffe has no such plans. Nope, he'd like to kick the tires on Paulus, college wide receiver.

Greg Paulus made headlines galore recently when it was rumored that the Green Bay Packers were interested in his football services. And now the four-year basketball player for the Duke Blue Devils is shocking folks again. It turns out that Paulus visited Ann Arbor with the possible intention of playing for the Michigan Wolverines football team.

Yes, that's correct. Michigan could suddenly find itself starting Greg Paulus at quarterback next year. But it might be more plausible than you think.

Sooner or later, you would expect Rich Rodriguez's luck to turn around at Michigan. It looked like things were headed in that direction when Rodriguez landed a very strong recruiting class back in February, but apparently the universe has some more kicks to the crotch in store for the Wolverines' second-year coach.

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, quarterback Nick Sheridan suffered a serious leg injury during Michigan's spring practice on Tuesday. College Fantasy Football Insider speculates that Sheridan broke a bone. The Michigan Daily seemingly corroborates that notion, saying that Sheridan was seen walking with crutches around campus, a large boot on his right leg.

UPDATE: The Free Press is reporting that Sheridan fractured a bone in his lower leg, and will miss four-to-six weeks. If that's the case, the impact of this is pretty minimal, seeing as how the season doesn't start in May.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Rejoice! Er, potentially rejoice -- Last week the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported speculation that FOX might extricate itself a year early from its BCS coverage commitments. Besides the rarely disputed notion that FOX's BCS coverage is woeful -- thank you, Thom Brennaman and endless band shots -- the network seems to realize they've been dealt a weak hand for their 2010 games.

Michigan quarterback Steven Threet, a redshirt freshman who started eight games in 2008, has announced that he's transferring, dealing a significant setback to Rich Rodriguez's program.

Threet's statement didn't say much, other than he's on the way out.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, smart guy. You're thinking this post should be one letter long, and that letter should be 'F.' It's true that the Big Ten did little to advance its reputation during the season, and even less during the postseason. In spite of it all, there are still a few diamonds among the, um, whatever else it is the diamonds are scattered among.

They're scattered among things like 35-3, a 1-6 bowl game record, the fall of the Michigan dynasty, a tragically unwarranted and completely unjustified preseason overrating, several regressions to the mean, and the worst sendoff since the last episode of "Seinfeld."

So we'll go through the league team by team, painful as that is, to build up the successes and try to understand the failures of Big Ten football in 2008. Yes, I used "success" and "Big Ten football" in the same sentence without the connecting phrase "lack of." Deal with it, Buck. Every team gets an overall grade and a quick look at its prognosis for the 2009 season. For you Big Ten fans, I promise you it's not all bad news; for you Big Ten haters, I promise you it's not all good.

I talked today to Desmond Howard, who won the 1991 Heisman Trophy at Michigan, about 2008 Heisman winner Sam Bradford and about the coach at Howard's alma mater, Rich Rodriguez:

"I thought that Sam was the most deserving of all the college athletes this past season," Howard said. "It rewards you for your body of work and Sam, even in the one loss he had to Texas, still played an outstanding game. So he had an outstanding season throughout. So I thought it was well deserved. He deserved the trophy."

As for the Michigan program, Howard said, "The state of the program right now seems to be at its lowest point. It's been the worst football season in the history of the University of Michigan. So it can only go up."

When I asked what kind of team Michigan will have in 2009, Howard said, "I do not know."