FanHouse

Really, it's Christmas in early October when your opponent cans its offensive coordinator midweek. Frustrated Arkansas took the news in stride, piling up 400+ yards in a 25-22 victory over Auburn tonight.

At one point midway through the fourth quarter, Auburn had cobbled together just 109 yards of offense before a pair of desperation drives pushed the Tigers to a whopping 193 yards on the night. Not good.

At College Football FanHouse we're still scratching our heads over Auburn's decision to terminate spread whiz offensive coordinator Tony Franklin. With or without him the results are the same, and look particularly problematic when they may not have actually run much of his offense while he was there. To Auburn's credit, they did make use of spread-friendly quarterback Kodi Burns.

Obviously, Texas-Oklahoma takes the spotlight on this day. However, LSU-Florida, Penn State-Wisconsin, and many other (maybe) second-tier games would like to grab some attention.

We'll be here to cover all of them. Join me after the jump. I'll have John Radcliff, Mark Hasty, Brian Grummell, and many others along for the ride throughout the day.

The fun starts at 12pm Eastern, 11am Central, and 8am Alaska time.

He's a sneaky one, that Kirk Ferentz. He seems almost Mister Rogersish with his low-key demeanor and his dry sense of humor. You'd have a much easier time believing he was the chair of the English department at some small liberal arts college, not a coach in a BCS conference.

Let it be said, however, that the man is now responsible for not one but two of the cockiest decisions I've ever seen a head coach make. The first happened four years ago, when he took an intentional safety against Penn State, effectively telling Joe Paterno "You're not going to get the ball in field goal range." Ferentz put the Hawkeyes' fate on the backs of his defense, and they responded. They picked off Michael Robinson on the very first play.

The second happened in today's Iowa-Indiana game. It's hardly a secret that Ferentz has been on every hot-seat list from coast to coast and in all four corners of the Internet. Iowa fans in the know, however, have been aiming the poison arrows at Ken O'Keefe, Ferentz's offensive coordinator and long-time friend. (O'Keefe gave Ferentz his first job in coaching, at a Connecticut prep school.) Ferentz has heard his critics, and today he answered them.

Leading up to the game with North Carolina, Notre Dame fans were voicing their displeasure that their team was 4-1 and unranked. This was the first time the Irish have been4-1 and unranked. Well, North Carolina made that point moot today with a 29-24 victory. And they had a lot of help from Notre Dame not being able to hold on to the ball. Notre Dame turned the ball over five times, while the Tar Heels had zero turnovers.

Irish quarterback, Jimmy Clausen had a strong day passing the ball for 384 yards and two touchdowns. But one of his two interceptions was taken back for a touchdown. That play, at the start of the third quarter tuned the momentum of the game. From then on out, North Carolina looked and played like the better team, outscoring Notre Dame 20-7 in the second half.

On the next to last play of the game, Clausen hit Michael Floyd for 24 yards at the North Carolina 19. Floyd fumbled the ball on the play and North Carolina recovered. With the crowd going wild and both teams walking on to the field to shake hands, the play was reviewed for what seemed like 10 minutes before a ruling that the play on the field stood. It was a weird scene waiting for the results, and kept the final outcome in question with Notre Dame so close. But the luck of the Irish ran out today, and Notre Dame fans can go back to worrying about things other than their team being ranked.

North Carolina, on the other hand is right in the mix for a shot at the ACC title game. With Virginia, NC State, Duke, and Maryland still on the schedule, things are certainly looking up. Also, with backup turned starter Cameron Sexton coming on strong at quarterback and not making mistakes while moving the team, questions about the offense might be put to rest.

Welcome to RFK Stadium where I'm waiting for the start of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier between Team USA and Cuba. For all the preliminaries from Mike Cardillo, click here. For a short interview I did with Maurice Edu and Sacha Kljestan of Team USA, click here. And be sure to be back here at 7:00 p.m. sharp when we start our live blog coverage of the match. Look for our live blog box after the jump.

Despite an inspired effort by the Tennessee defense, Fulmer and the Volunteers are now 2-4 after a 26-14 loss to Georgia. The culprit in this loss, like all the other losses is the Tennessee offense. Here's some stats to chew on, one yard rushing, 10 first downs, 209 total yards of offense, and not a Krispy Kreme in sight. This is also the third straight game that Tennessee has failed to gain more than 10 first downs. When you consider that Tennessee played Norther Illinois last week, that ain't good. Unfortunately for Fulmer and the Volunteers, David Cutcliff doesn't look to be getting fired anytime soon at Duke.

Earlier this week, Auburn fired their offensive coordinator due to failure to perform. Obviously a move to save Tommy Tuberville's job. Considering that Tennessee fans are calling for Fulmer's firing, it might be the last hope Fulmer will have to save his job. Although there doesn't look to be much hope that even that would improve the sputtering Volunteer offense.

Georgia played well, controlling the clock for nearly 25 minutes longer than Tennessee. They won in every way possible, except in the turnover battle. Where, surprisingly, Tennessee had no turnovers. But when you can't move the ball, holding on to it might do more harm than good.

The phrase "bowl eligible" and Vanderbilt have not been together since 1982. It will have to wait a little longer. The 5-0 Commodores went into Starkville and came away with their first loss. The minimalist offense and shaky QB play finally caught up with them as Mississippi State held on for the 17-14 win.

Vanderbilt's offense was worse than even the score indicated. They had only 109 yards of total offense -- with over half the yardage coming on one scoring drive. The Commodores averaged just over three penalties per game, committed ten. Vandy had seven, three-and-outs and only held the ball for just over 23 minutes.

The quarterbacks combined for 8-19 for 62 yards and two very costly 4th quarter interceptions. The first inside their own 15, that the Bulldogs converted for a touchdown. The other with just over 2 minutes left, that allowed Mississippi State to ice the game. That Vandy even had a chance late in the game is a testament to their defense and the play-not-to-lose offense of Mississippi State.

Some credit for the Vandy offensive woes should go to the Bulldog defense, but the Commodores were not helping themselves. The Bulldogs notch only their second win overall, and their first in the SEC.

The expectation for the Golden State Warriors in the Monta Ellis kerfuffle was to lay down a light punishment or no punishment at all. NBA teams aren't in the business of pissing off their best players for dumb but largely benign mistakes. For every Ellis, I have no doubt dozens of ballers ride motorcycles, snowboard, base jump, run with scissors, microwave floppy disks and do other assorted silly things which could fall under behavior clauses in their contracts. Basically, there's little to gain in terms of material benefit or future deterrence in slapping Ellis with a punishment. Ellis will stop riding mopeds whether you punish him or not. Punishing Ellis isn't likely to make an impression on Anthony Randolph, though.

The Warriors disagree. Tim Kawakami reports the team has suspended Ellis without pay for 30 games. The guard expected to be out a few months, and would likely miss 30 games regardless. But the fine comes out heavy, almost $3 million. That's about 28% of this year's pay. (The Lakers took 10% of Vlad Radmanovic's cash when he injured himself snowboarding and lied to the team about it.) For a cat who'd only made minimum second-round scale money up to this point, that hurts.

Kawakami notes Ellis isn't around to answer questions, which leaves open the possibility Ellis and his camp aren't on board with this. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine Ellis' agent working with the franchise to come up with the right "statement" to protect Golden State's stature while keeping the guard from losing too much. Based on the size of the fine and the lack of an Ellis presence in Oakland right now, it does not appear to be the case that Monta's camp is cool with this penalty.

(It's all worth noting that a Kawakami column from last week quoted Don Nelson and Chris Mullin as appearing to stand against significant punishment. The decision on the $3 million penalty came from team president Robert Rowell, Mullin's boss.)

Every young kid who makes bad mistakes in the NBA gets a second chance. Most at least attempt to come off as sincere when they get a chance to announce a new path. David Harrison is exceptional in this regard, which is to say he is the exception.

Talking to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the big dude, who last year got suspended for his third weed violation in four years and then told the media he thinks the NBA should stop giving drug tests, offered this "promise" to Wolves fans.

At age 26, he intends to display a newfound maturity in what he calls perhaps a last chance to "resurrect" his professional life. Oh, and he wants to demonstrate one other thing, too.

"That I'm not a pothead, I guess," he said.

If a friend gets fired for being lazy, hotheaded and a pothead, and your friend tells his next employer that he wants to demonstrate "that I'm not a pothead, I guess" ... how much stock do you put in his assertion? Little? None? Yeah, none sounds right.

This isn't to disrespect Harrison; the cat is actually passable when he can stay out of the doghouse. That's what has made his notoriously bad work ethic and completely coincidental weed usage frustrating.

Another Rutgers loss, this time to Cinci in a 13-10 whimper. A game where Cinci had more penalty yards than Rutgers had rushing (115-62).

Rutgers still remains winless on the season versus 1-A teams. In their past 3 losses it has been by a combined 12 points. Close each time, but just not making the plays late. Whether on offense or defense, the Scarlet Knights could not handle the pressure.

Rutgers has major problems on offense. They lack leadership on the team and confidence. Without running back Ray Rice, the running game has not been a threat. Quarterback Mike Teel, continues to show that he cannot handle the pressure of being the focus of the offense. Whether it is poor throws, a lack of touch or accuracy, or holding onto the ball too long to take sacks. The receivers have hardly helped with numerous drops and just not wanting to get the ball.

Credit, though, should be given to a quietly impressive Cinci squad. Despite now being on their third quarterback in six games due to injuries, the Bearcats are 5-1 going into a bye week. They have continued to have a balanced offense and the defense has been a strength. How Coach Brian Kelly isn't mentioned more often on the coaching carousel for jobs sure to come open is a surprise.