Amidst all the discussion of diversity in the coaching ranks of Division 1-A football, Navy has hired what is believed to be the first polynesian head coach in the league’s history by promoting assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo to the academy’s top football job. Niumatalolo is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, where he was a three time letterman at quarterback and led the Rainbow Warriors to their first postseason bowl game in 1989.

Karl Dorrell has been officially fired by UCLA.  The Bruins schizophrenic season pretty much mirrored the chaos of the football season overall, but even his near miss at the Rose Bowl wasn’t enough to assuage the Bruin nation (think that loss to Notre Dame hurt a bit?).  So who will be the next coach forced to face off against Pete Carroll and the Trojans?

Defensive Coordinator DeWayne Walker will serve as interim coach for the teams bowl game against BYU.

Not sure how this hasn’t been posted as a CNN alert yet, but an ongoing hostage situation is underway at Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Rochester, NH.  Senator Clinton is in Washington and has canceled her schedule for the day.  More info here.

A story came out of Korea a few days ago, reported on by the blog Engadget, about the death of a quarry worker that was being initially blamed on his cellphone.  According to the story he was found dead with the remains of the burned cellphone in his pocket.  Of course it all sound a little suspicious and investigation by the local authorities found that the mans injuries were too extensive to have been caused by a possible exploding battery.  How extensive you ask?  Well since the actual cause of death was being backed into by a 15 ton hydraulic rig driven by a coworker, i’m guessing there were pretty severe. The co-worker who fabricated the story of hearing an explosion and finding the body, later admitted to the crime and is being charged with manslaughter.

So there you have it, even if your cellphone explodes it probably won’t do so with enough force to give you injuries equivalent to being hit by a 15 ton vehicle.  Don’t you feel much better now?

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr will announce his retirement Monday after 13 seasons at the helm of the Wolverines. Carr had early success, including a 1997 National Championship and a 5-1 record against rival Ohio State through 2000, but in recent years the Maize and Blue have struggled, dropping four straight to the Buckeyes for the first time ever and becoming the first ranked team ever to lose to a I-AA opponent.

Speculation is that LSU coach Les Miles, a former Bo Schembechler player, would be the top choice to replace Carr, but a clause in his contract with the Tigers would cost him $1.5 million for fleeing to Ann Arbor. In addition, there are rumors that Carr, who still carries a significant amount of influence, is not favorable towards Miles.

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Oregon quarterback and Heisman hopeful Dennis Dixon is done for the season after tearing his anterior-cruciate ligament in Thursday’s game against Arizona. Dixon will need to have surgery with a recovery time of six months.

I haven’t paid much attention to the Thursday night games this year, but with tonights game featuring current #2 Oregon it looks a lot more interesting to Pac-10 fans. Oregon is taking an agressive approach to the game so far and its working for them. Dennis Dixon scrambled 40+ yards on a 4th and 3 to score a touchdown and then they quick snapped for a 2pt conversion. Will Arizona be able to respond? Apparently not as Oregon just intercepted a Tuitama long pass on the Wildcats second play of the night.

Box score here, game is on ESPN.

UPDATE Oregon QB Dennis Dixon, a leading Heisman candidate is likely done for the night after taking a bad step and wrenching his injured knee. The question now is whether he is done for just the night or done for the whole season. Can Oregon win out with Brady Leaf stepping in at QB?

UPDATE x2 Following Dixon’s exit from the game Arizona has been on fire especially on special teams and now lead by 17 points going into the half.

UPDATE FINAL Arizona wins the upset 34-24
Oregon becomes the 5th #2 team to lose to an unranked opponent this season. I imagine Coach Stoops (Arizona) will be getting a good phone call from Coach Stoops (Oklahoma) after this game. Dennis Dixon continued an unlucky streak for west coast quarterbacks, we’ll see if he is back for next weeks game, but Oregon is out of the picture when it comes to the national championship, can they make it to the Rose Bowl? According to the announcers this will be the first time since 1998 that Arizona has won back to back Pac-10 home games. Yikes.

Official update during the broadcast of the UW game. UW QB Jake Locker, who earlier left in an ambulance, has been released from the hospital and is returning to the game. Presumably he won’t be playing anymore tonight, but with the results from the hospital negative and his being released, looks like there is hope for his return next week. Meanwhile the UW has pulled within 6 points of the Beavers with 7 minutes left in the game. Lets go Dawgs!

UPDATE: The Huskies get a lucky break from what is a horrible call by the refs, who gave the Huskies a fumble recovery on a play where OSU running back Bernard was CLEARLY down at the 3 yard line. However they were able to snap the ball before anyone could call for a review.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Washington lost, 29-23.

Meanwhile, Locker wasn’t the only quarterback out west who suffered a scary helmet-to-helmet hit in one of yesterday’s late games. Hawaii’s Colt Brennan — who has a showdown with Locker’s Huskies on December 1 — suffered a mild concussion in the Warriors’ win over Fresno State:

The Warriors are now 9-0 and 6-0 in the Western Athletic Conference, one of just two unbeaten teams left in the nation. But much of the talk was about Brennan’s status after the hardest hit many watching had ever seen in a football game.

The crushing blow (shoulder first, no flag) dealt by Bulldogs linebacker Marcus Riley left Brennan unconscious briefly, and with what was initially diagnosed as a grade 3 (the most severe) concussion. It was later described as “mild” by a UH official, and several people said Brennan was back to normal after the game.

Brennan did not talk to reporters afterward, but did release a statement.

“I’m doing fine,” he said through a UH spokesman. “I’d like to thank everyone for the support they gave out there. I’m looking forward to getting back on the field for next week’s game against Nevada.” …

[A] UH official described Brennan as “day-to-day” when it comes to football duties. Brennan did not require hospitalization.

Coach June Jones said he does not expect Brennan to miss Friday’s game at Nevada.

Illinois was able to hold off Ohio State and came away with an amazing 28-21 win in Columbus to ruin their undefeated season and likely keep them out of the National Championship game.

Who will be #1 next week? LSU, Oregon, or undefeated Kansas?

Update: Heh, looks like someone over at SI.com needs to do some fact checking, their football page currently has the following link: Illinois snaps No. 13 Michigan’s win streak.

Good afternoon sports fans! With Brendan out celebrating Tennessee’s win over Arkansas, a little guestblogger updating on todays football action.

As Brendan mentions below Wisconsin upset Michigan, but a Wolverine win over Ohio State next week would send them to the BCS game (presumeably the Rose Bowl) in January as the Big-Ten representative.

Meanwhile, despite striking early with a touchdown in the first 13 seconds of the game, #1 Ohio State is trailing unranked Illinois 28-21 at home. An Illini win would likely set up a 1 loss team as the new #1 with #2 LSU strong favorites against Louisiana Tech and #3 Oregon having a bye this week (they take on Arizona on Thursday night).

In the SEC, Mississippi State upset 22nd ranked Alabama and became bowl eligible. The scoring in the game consisted of 2 touchdowns and 5 field goals with a final score of 17-12 in traditional SEC style.

Clemson crushed Wake Forest to stay within striking distance of the ACC-Coastal title, they would need to beat Boston College next week and would likely face the winner of the Virginia/Virginia Tech game in the ACC Championship.

Down in the Big 12, Missouri is doing its part to make sure their last regular season game against Kansas would be for the Big 12 North title with a win today over struggling Big 12 South opponent Texas A&M.

#16 Connecticut’s Cinderlla season in the Big East is in trouble as they trail unranked (but 7-2) Cincinatti 20-3 in the 3rd quarter. Connecticut would still sit atop the Big East, tied with W Virginia, but the Huskies still have to play the mountaineers at home.

In the Pac-10 #9 ASU is attempting to hold off the schizophrenic Bruins who led early but now trail the Sun Devils by 4 in the 3rd.

USC will take on Cal at 8pm EDT in a game that many had thought might decide the Pac-10 title when the season started.

Finally, Charlie Weis continued to show his patriotism as the Irish lost at home to a strong Air Force team, despite an improved performance from Jimmy Clausen in his return as a starter. The Irish drop to 1-9 for the first time ever but hope remains for their final home game as they take on perennial doormat Duke (who, of course, suck).

Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Carrie, those are horror movies, but Bambi?!?

Network World has an article with pictures from NASA highlighting the California wildfires (in red) and the immense smoke plumes.

While Brendan’s away, the guestbloggers will play :D

USC pulled itself together in the 4th quarter to come away with a 20-13 win against Arizona. It wasn’t pretty but a wins better than a loss. Sanchez played well in his first start, going 19/31 and a 130 yards including his first pass for a TD, but the two interceptions helped Arizona early on. Arizona’s QB Tuitama was amazing through the air going 30/43 and 233 yards, but the Arizona ground game was non-existent and the Trojans were able to contain the Wildcat passing game in the 4th quarter to come back and win.

Notre Dame trails Boston College 27-14 with less than 6 minutes remaining in the fourth.

UPSET ALERT

#1 LSU and #17 Kentucky are tied going into overtime 27-27 after LSU missed a 57 yard field goal. Will we see ANOTHER number 1 team next week? #2 Cal is playing the unranked Beavers of Oregon State at home. #3 Ohio State easily won against Kent State, #4 Boston College leads Notre Dame, and #5 South Florida crushed Central Florida on Friday.

UPDATE

Boston College held on to beat Notre Dame 27-14.

LSU and Kentucky are going into a 3rd overtime. Both scored TD’s in the first, and FG’s in the second.

UPDATE 2
Kentucky beats LSU 43-37 in the third overtime.

Kentucky has twice before beaten a #1 team, the last time was in 1964.

Chimpy McBushitler for real!!!

Obligatory disclaimer:  The above post is a joke.  Anyone who takes it seriously is also a joke.  We now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.

Are you a Tibetan lama?  Want to re-incarnate?  Better make sure you have all your permits in order!

In a move to tighten its grip on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, the Chinese government is attempting to crack down on allowing the traditional searches for reincarnated lamas within Tibet, at least without an official OK from Beijing.  This move seems to be specifically aimed at the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India since the Chinese occupied Tibet nearly half a century ago.  The Dalai Lama has stated that, should he die while the Chinese still occupy his country, he will be reincarnated outside of Tibet, setting up a possible schism between the Lama in exile and a Chinese-approved Lama from within the country.