Can’t lose what you never had.

Scheme transitions are a bitch, ain’t they?

What would make this situation perfect would be if Muschamp and Weis were to fumble around for a few years and get canned by Foley… who would then turn around and hire Dan Mullen.

Lest we forget, there’s still a whale of a season going on.

Paul Myerberg does a nice job reminding us that there’s more to college football right now than the Penn State scandal.  Including, among many other things, this:

In Athens, a coach left for dead is making a run. It was too easy to write Mark Richt and Georgia off after the Bulldogs opened 0-2; it was so easy, in fact, that pundits tripped all over themselves in penning their obituaries. Seven games later, the Bulldogs are 7-2, 5-1 in the SEC, and looking at a date with L.S.U. in the SEC title game. It’s time to pump the brakes on Richt’s demise — rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated.

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BCS Haters gonna hate.

Hey, you gotta admit I haven’t mentioned the P-word in a while.  Bill Connelly pulls me back in with this post.

This is pretty much spot on:

In mid-October, when there are somewhere between about eight and 15 undefeated teams remaining, everybody projects the most fantastical, least-likely, every-conference-ends-up-with-an-undefeated-team scenario. “THIS will be the year everybody gets screwed and the BCS blows up!”

In mid-November, once a supposedly great team has lost a game or two (preferably to other great teams), everybody mourns the fact that they are probably ineligible for the title despite the fact that they are clearly great. By late-November, we have poked every hole we can find in the “The current system is great because every game matters” truism. In early-December, every person with an Internet connection has shared their idea of the perfect playoff, gives examples, and tells you why their way is clearly better than the current system.

Anyway, Bill describes himself as an agnostic on the subject, but goes on to list a long number of variations on the them.  The thing is, his list reinforces something that’s already clear to anyone who’s voted in the Mumme Poll this season, namely that there aren’t ten élite teams in college football this year.  So exactly why do we need a big playoff?

Thursday morning buffet

The buffet will try to rise above the muck and mire this morning.

• What a difference a year makes – ESPN article about mediocrity at the bottom of the SEC mentions Florida, omits Georgia.
• A couple of days pass, and the Ole Miss rumor mill is already delusional.
• “No one wanted to be that team at Georgia that ended the Mark Richt era.”
• If you’re interested, the “1980 Dawgs” folks are putting on a “Bulldog Legends” Film, Photography & Cocktails  event for Georgia fans this coming Saturday, November 12th, both before and after the Georgia vs. Auburn Game at the Hotel Indigo in Athens.
• Georgia 34, Auburn 19.  And Steele says Georgia 34, Auburn 17.
• Aaron Murray, you threw five touchdown passes in a half!  What are you going to do next?  “I’m going to Disney World Mellow Mushroom with my family to watch the Arkansas-South Carolina game.”
• Ray Ray Armstrong, Tweetin’ dumbass.
• And Central Florida tries to slip its NCAA troubles in under the Penn State cloud cover.
• This is as close as you’ll ever hear Mark Richt tell the media to kiss his ass.
• I presume this means Craig James is in town.

Not with a whimper, but a bang.

So JoePa is gone.

I don’t really see where Penn State’s board of trustees had a choice, especially after being challenged by the man in his retirement statement not to spend a minute debating his fate.

Somehow I doubt the victims and their families agreed.

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UPDATE:  The best way I can describe much of the Penn State student population today is detached from reality.  Here’s a comment made by one of them after a quasi-riot broke out in response to the announcement that Paterno’s coaching career had been terminated:

“They let him go by calling him on the phone,” said Downs, a 21-year-old senior from Baltimore, noting that Paterno’s home was a short walk from campus. “I think that’s just an awful way to treat a man.”

As awful goes, it sure beats anal rape.

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UPDATE #2:  Sad to say, I have to wonder if this wasn’t in the back of Paterno’s head when he made the offer to retire after the season’s end.

… Had Joe Paterno led the 8-1 Nittany Lions this weekend against Nebraska, he would’ve set another record, for most games coached in a career.  Instead he will remain tied with Amos Alonzo Stagg at 548.

It wouldn’t be inconsistent with what went on.