The Fake Lonnie Finch

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/17046/settlement-allows-usf-leavitt-to-move-on Should have been done last year. But, as predicted, he settles so he can get on with his career: He and his attorneys had planned a long, protracted fight that would have had Leavitt and the school air a lot of grievances in a public setting, which wouldn't have left either party looking good. Exactly. If the (Festivus) grievances had been aired, it may have further damaged his career. I think what happened is Leavitt saw the light, heard from potential employers about how the hanging lawsuit was a hindrance, and saw Mike Leach passed over for good jobs as well. With all of the current upheaval, it will be interesting to see who takes him. My guess is he won't be unemployed much longer. Looks like Tulsa needs a DC...and a head coach!

The starter graduates, but they seem to have a ton of guys there, including a transfer from Florida. Won't be easy for him, that's for sure.

I'll be the first to go on record and say that Graham will be in over his head at Pitt. What shocks me most is that Tulsa was paying him $1.3 million and Pitt initially passed him over because of that! Now, they're going to have to pay him more! As for Tulsa, I'd be surprised if Kragthorpe or Malzahn aren't Graham's replacement. My money would be on Kragthorpe since he's already living in Tulsa. He's had a taste of AQ level BCS football. Malzahn hasn't. My guess is Malzahn holds out another year and waits to catch a BCS conference opening. And...I'd still be pleased if either hire Todd Dodge. Although, if the scuttlebutt was already Dodge to Tulsa with Graham, I don't see why it wouldn't be Dodge to Pitt with Graham. The other thing that is shocking me is the number of BCS schools taking chances with non-BCS coaches. Maybe they didn't see Kragthorpe struggle at Louisville? But, you've got Jerry Kill from Northern Illinois to Minnesota, Brady Hoke from San Diego State to Michigan, Todd Graham from Tulsa to Pitt...and Texas hiring Harsin from Boise to lead their offense and Diaz, who had only one season as a BCS-level DC, to lead their defense. Few are taking the "hot coordinator" from a BCS-level school route this year - Florida taking Texas' Will Muschamp, Indiana taking OU's Kevin Wilson, and Maryland taking UConn head coach Randy Edsall. I'll argue that the only sane hirings I've seen are Muschamp to Florida and us hiring Dan McCarney. I think OU's Kevin Wilson is a dicey hire because he won't draw as many OU-type recruits to Indiana to run his type of offense which thrives on speed. And, Edsall is the perpetual 7-8 win coach...not much different than Ralph Friedgen who was kicked to the curb.

Right this down and fold it up and keep it in your wallet: If we have a winning season in 2011, Arkansas State will be an afterthought to us. One winning season with this new stadium and this new coaching staff will be the end of losing battles to schools with lesser facilities and fewer opportunities to move to better conferences.

Ho-lee crap! Conference USA would be a perfect fit for Todd Dodge. TU's G.J. Kinne was night and day better this year with former Lake Travis HC coaching him. Todd Dodge would be great as well for Kinne. If you can say one thing about Tulsa's Todd Graham, it's that he isn't afraid to hire former high school coaches - and the most successful ones at that: Gus Malzahn (Springdale, AR), Bill Blankenship (Tulsa Union), Chad Morris (Lake Travis). Throwing Todd Dodge into the mix would be great. Malzahn and Morris have moved on to Auburn and Clemson after short stints with TU. It's unlikely Blankenship will ever leave because he's been in Tulsa his whole life as a player (former TU QB), and coach (Sapulpa and Tulsa Union, TU). He briefly coached in Edmond (OKC suburb) and his hometown, Spiro. Two of his son played football at TU and a third played for former TU OL Denver Johnson at Eastern Illinois. For whatever reason, high school coaches seem to do well with Todd Graham. As a graduate of both UNT and TU, I'd be very happy to see Todd Dodge hired as Chad Morris' replacement. On the whole, Dodge's high school career was better than both Malzahn's and Morris, and somewhat better than Blankenships. All won state titles or multiple titles and were in the hunt every year. I truly believe Dodge has a ton of upside, but needed to be an assistant first. How crazy would this hire be? Todd Dodge helping coach against UNT the year after he's fired!

Todd Dodge at an FCS school, waiting to be picked up by another FBS school.

Those two have always belonged at a school like SFA; I've argued it for years. Hear me now, believe me later. Riley wouldn't have taken 1/19th of the pounding he did here if he'd have been honest with himself (and his dad with him...and our athletic driector to us) and signed with SFA, or Sam Houston, or Texas State, or Eastern Washington right out of the gate. Why, he might be playing in the FCS championship games this week in Frisco, Texas like Bo Levi Mitchell will be with that Eastern Washington outfit! And, Todd Dodge, too. He needed to be ripened on the vine like Gus Malzhan and the high school coach/guy that went to Tulsa last year from Lake Travis and is now interviewing for the Clemson OC job...along with TCU OC Justin Fuente. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, Baby! It hurts to be right!

Toothings: (1) There are too many bowl games. (2) If they are going to have too many bowl games, attendance will always be a problem in the crappy bowls if they pit teams with indifferent fan bases in bowl games hundreds of miles away from the campus...and during a recession...oh, I'm sorry Obama-sniffers - during a "weak recovery." Rock me.

Agree. LSU and Oklahoma, regionally, will be looking to replace their coaches as they continue to tank this season.

I don't think so. This haka is a rare event. Therefore, this posting was courageous. Texas Douches are ubiquitous. In fact, I saw some Texas Douches last week at the Dallas Stars hockey game. Oddly, the Texas Longhorns weren't skating against the Stars that evening. And, yet, there were a handful of Texas Douches scattered throughout the AAC.

Thank you for your courage!

Philosophy major?

This is the kind of controversy we need in the Fresh New Topics mindset of the 2010s! Goodbye 20-Aught topics!

The day after win #4? Or, wait until the season ends?

...even if the Mean Green lose a game? And, if so, what's your address?

Now that we're convinced that we're going to get replica jerseys, whom? I say Lance Dunbar and Brandon Akpunku. Those who love offense will don the #5; those of us who understand that defense wins championship will have the #47.

Nike chaps...that'd be something. Will they be on sale with the Nike replica Lance Dunbar jerseys? And who among us will purchase said chaps?

Led by Coach Canales and Casey Schutza?

Is RV wearing white chaps in this scenario, or just a cowboy hat?

Y'Barbo has the right jersey number for a center.

Jamize Olawale? Brandon Akpunku? I'm personally hoping it's AK-47 myself, running through a haze of dry ice smoke and flashy pyrotechnics with the Green Texas flag and planting it in the middle of the field.

Craig Robertson?

Leppo again?

As posted somewhere a couple of months ago, about some OK prep QB, ULM's Todd Berry has long, deep ties into Oklahoma: -He grew up in Oklahoma -Played his college ball and graduated from the University of Tulsa -Was an assistant and Tulsa and Oklahoma State Many guys he grew up with and played with and against in high school and college are now also in their late 40s/early 50s and coaching in Oklahoma. So, I wouldn't freak out over ULM getting some guys out of Oklahoma; it's just Berry going back to his home base. We hope our coaches are doing the same thing where they have old recruiting ties.

Leach is busy with his lawsuit, so he doesn't have time for football. Tommy Tuberville matched Leach's 8-win per season average. They'll get better because Tuberville will eventually mold the defense into a force the way most consistent big winners do. More impressive to me, overall, is that Texas Tech just rang up their 16th consecutive winning season. Let the Pirate stay in his boat. He isn't as needed as everyone thought he was after all.