Well, that didn’t take long.

Charlie Weis has named Jimmy Clausen – true freshman Jimmy Clausen – Notre Dame’s starting QB.

That means Jimmy Clausen – recovering from arthroscopic surgery to have a bone spur removed from his throwing elbow Jimmy Clausen – will get his first start against Penn State. On the road.

I’m positive that Charlie Weis will insist that starting Jimmy Clausen – sharing the snaps in fall practice because of elbow surgery and because his head coach wanted to play pointless head games with Georgia Tech and the media Jimmy Clausen – does not mean that the Irish are in a rebuilding mode in 2007.

Sure it doesn’t.

Crawling from the wreckage

Short Attention Span Theater – as soon as everyone gets done taking shots at the entire Michigan program post-Apocalypse Carr (I guess that was my shot), the next target looks to be the polls.

Here’s a sampling of what’s already starting to bubble up through the primordial ooze of the ‘Net.

• One blogger’s opinion.   “The fact that the Wolverines currently sit at #5 in both polls is, in my opinion, an indictment on the system as a whole. I believe the err to be so great, that we should immediately suspend both the AP and USA Today Coaches’ Poll from the record. These organizations should refrain from releasing any further polls until such time as enough games have been played to accurately determine which teams have earned top 25 designation.”

• These guys are probably feeling a little smug right now for not having their first poll come out until this Sunday.

• ‘Bama fan’s take:  at least we beat our cupcake.  Rank us, baby!

• Forget those preseason polls.  How come nobody’s complaining about those preseason player watch lists?  (Uh… here’s a hint – nobody qualifies for the BCS based on a player watch list.)

• And, while we’re at it, don’t forget about Clemmins-FSU.

I thought Bayesian was a soccer-style kicker from the 70’s.

The initial Sagarin ratings for ’07 are out. I took a peak just to see if he ranks Appalachian State higher than Michigan (he does).

But here’s the thing. Does anyone really understand how he scores and ranks the schools? His explanation reads like badly written operating instructions for a Korean DVD player. This is what I’m talking about:

"For the first few weeks of the season, the starting ratings

have weight in the process(BAYESIAN), but once the teams are

all CONNECTED, then the starting ratings are no longer used

and all teams are started equal and the ELO-CHESS is then

done in an UNBIASED manner from that point on."

Say what?

You know, I like to think I’m a reasonably intelligent person. I’ve got a post-graduate degree. And I don’t have a clue what that means.

But I’ve got to question any formula that ranks a Chan Gailey-coached team third in the nation.