FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

Yes, here's another moment you just knew was coming.

Anything I can possibly say about how awful it is that Ohio State lost back-to-back BCS Title Games must, of course, be tempered by the mandatory statement about how unbelievably hard it is to make it to one such game, let alone making it to two in a row. Thus if we're going to hail on the Buckeyes for giving a new layer of meaning to the term "epic fail," we owe them ... well, we owe them 50% of the respect we give to the early-90s Buffalo Bills. Or the same amount of respect we give to Bob Stoops' Oklahoma Sooners, who have the same resume (one title, back-to-back title game losses).

So you can't say the Buckeyes are bad, not even if you're an SEC fan, and you can't say that Jim Tressel isn't a very good coach. You can, however, wonder what went wrong. The answer: Lots. In both 2007 and 2008, the Buckeyes were undone by a combination of bad execution (which was within their control) and an imploding hype machine (which wasn't).

High school All-American offensive lineman Matt Patchan was shot at a Tampa-area park Friday night, but should be okay.

"Matt Patchan was a gunshot victim Friday night at a Tampa-area park," Meyer said in the statement. "He was a bystander and shot in the left shoulder and is expected to fully recover in three weeks."

Patchan's injuries are described as "non-lifethreatening" (obviously) and doctors chose to leave the bullet lodged in "soft tissue." As the old saying goes, bullet goes in, bullet stays in.*

The true freshman has been a standout in spring practice, even considered by some local beat writers to be among the most impressive players on the Gators' defensive roster. (Patchan was moved to defensive line by coaches after his arrival and is currently expected to remain with the defense.) Patchan is 6'6" and listed at 265 lbs., but an injury sustained during his senior year of high school caused him to report in to Florida underweight at 238 lbs.

Gator fans are leery of bad news after Jamar Hornsby's felonious use of a dead woman's credit card, leading to his dismissal from the team last week. Meyer's quick support of Patchan makes it seem likely that Patchan was an unfortunate victim in the wrong place at the wrong time.

*Actually not an old saying, but a dumb saying that was just invented. By me.

(Former?) Florida safety Jamar Hornsby is in trouble. Trouble with the law, yeah. But you have to wonder about the soul of this guy -- this is pretty disturbing stuff.

Florida football players wear a black circle on their helmets with the word "Sunshine" on them. Purpose: honor the memory of fallen teammate Michael Guilford, who died in a motorcycle accident last October. That accident also claimed the life of his passenger, Ashley Slonina, who was reportedly the girlfriend of cornerback Joe Haden.

Somehow, in the aftermath of the accident, Slonina's credit card found its way into Hornsby's hands. EDSBS claims Hornsby stole the card when he was helping Haden clean out Slonina's apartment shortly after she died. Precisely however or whenever Hornsby managed to pilfer the plastic is not officially known, but what we do know is that Hornsby used the card 70 times, the first being the day after Slonina's death, and racked up $3,000 worth of debt for Slonina's grieving parents over the course of the past six months.

When a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, Hornsby surrendered himself, was briefly jailed, and subsequently released "own his own recognizance." His status with the football team is uncertain at this point.

"Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

Step back in time with me, college football fans, to an earlier era. Here we have the Seminoles of Florida State taking on the Florida Gators in 1973.



This is pre-Ben Hill Griffin stadium stuff, so that's just Florida Field. Note that the Swamp is highly recognizable. Back then the stadium was painted blue rather than orange but "This is... Gator Country!" is still scribed on those trademark vertical walls rising out of the east and west stands. The press box was a tad smaller back then, too, as you might notice.

Florida's mascot was in a woeful state in those days. "Albert E. Gator" looked like an inflatable green jalapeno with teeth and a tail.

As for the game itself? Florida routed the Seminoles 49-0. For the rivalry, it was an era which favored the Gators, who won 9 straight from 1968-1976. Today, Florida leads the overall series, 30-19-2, but FSU is 17-15-1 against the Gators under Bobby Bowden.

FanHouse is counting down the 10 best, 10 worst, and 10 weirdest moments in Big Ten football history.

There wasn't a more disappointing team in the Big Ten last year than the Michigan Wolverines. Players like Chad Henne and Mike Hart sacrificed twelve months of NFL-sized paychecks to stay in Ann Arbor for one more year, sincere in their belief that 2007 would be a special season.

Of course, "special" and "wonderful" are two completely different words. "Non-wonderful" would be a better way to describe how the 2007 season turned out for Big Blue. They entered the 2007 season ranked fifth in the nation, only to lose to ... well, I think you know what happened in the first game of the year. And the second. The Wolverines did manage to win eight games in a row after that, but closed the regular season with losses to Wisconsin and, of course, Ohio State. The day after the OSU loss, Lloyd Carr told his team he would be retiring after Michigan's bowl game.

When the bids came out and the college football world learned that Michigan would be facing the Florida Gators (defending national champions with the eventual Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow starting at quarterback) everyone figured Lloyd Carr would go out a loser. The only real question was how many points Michigan would lose by.

Just stop in your local Hooters establishment and you might stumble across a Heisman Trophy Winner, his offensive line, and some of his speedy receivers:



This photo was taken at the Hooters in Gainesville, Florida -- as evidenced by the Gator helmet and Gator-head table -- and comes to us courtesy of our friends at SportsByBrooks.com. No word on whether Tebow likes 'em mild, hot, or super-spicy.

The wings, that is.

You. Why aren't you as fast as Harvin? Oh, I guess "I am not a mutant" is a pretty good answer.

You may remember Carl Moore from Urban Meyer's winter of discontent. He was the five-star JUCO wideout whose gymnast girlfriend got to know Meyer's recruiting pitch for UF real well. This is kinda sorta maybe against NCAA regulations and momentarily got Meyer in trouble before he was cleared of all wrongdoing, as per usual.

So you'd think he'd have to be awesome, right? Well, uh... no:

Florida receiver Percy Harvin, one of the most explosive playmakers in college football, can spot a speedy player. And he knows transfer receiver Carl Moore is not fast.

Although Moore, who played at Sierra (Calif.) Community College in 2007 and is listed by rivals.com as running a 4.45-second 40-yard dash, might not win any sprints the next few weeks during the Gators' spring football practices, the five-star recruit could earn a spot on Florida's first-team offense.

All this drama for a possession receiver? What, Chris Doering wasn't available?

Harvin, for his part, is using his speed on the Wii or something: he's got a heel injury that will keep him out this spring, but since his coaching largely consists of "you should run considerably faster than anyone on the field and many champion racehorses," Florida should not be unduly affected this fall.

Redshirt freshmen guards don't have people take their pictures, so here's Urban Meyer pointing at something.

Redshirt freshman guard James Wilson has decided that Florida isn't for him:

University of Florida offensive lineman James Wilson, a former Nease High School standout, is unhappy in Gainesville and will transfer. Wilson said Friday that he asked for a release from his scholarship but did not know which school he wants to attend.

"I've got a few schools in mind," said Wilson, who redshirted as a freshman last season after undergoing surgery on his left knee to repair loose cartilage.

"It [UF] really just wasn't for me. "[Coach] Urban [Meyer] tried to convince me to stay. I was supposed to start [in 2008] but my heart's not there anymore."

Unless you're a Florida fan who's into recruiting (or a jilted USC fan), you've probably never heard of James Wilson, but this is kind of a big loss for the Gators: Wilson was the nation's top-ranked guard a year ago and the #12 player nationally. Now he's transferring to somewhere like Wake Forest.

Recruits go busto all the time, but usually not after just one year, and offensive line is one of the few spots on Florida's team that might be something of a concern next year. Two starters are gone and would-have-been starter Phil Trautwein is returning from a stress fracture and did not play in 2007. Wilson was a sizable bullet in the chamber for Florida they no longer have.

The early theme of the offseason has been "uncomplimentary things said by or about Urban Meyer" -- for examples see the "Previously" section of the post -- and we've got another one for the pile.

This comes from Notre Dame recruit Braxton Cave after being asked what was the most interesting thing that happened to him during his recruitment:

"(He) had me talk to his wife, so that was kind of interesting," Cave said.

The context of the conversation didn't exactly wow Cave.

"Basically, the weather and how they were on the boat and all this stupid crap," Cave said.

If you couldn't already guess by his name, Cave is an offensive lineman. Who doesn't go in for your stupid hippy crap about boats and weather, thank you very much. Next time Urban should try that pitch on Michigan AD Bill Martin.

Previously On Fanhouse:
Urban Meyer Is Suddenly Concerned About Patrick Johnson's ACT
Urban Meyer Will Keep Tim Tebow From Winning Another Heisman
Urban Meyer's Recruiting Adventures

One of the more recent trends in college football recruiting has been for coaches to bring groups of players to their homes. Those visits tend to involve leisure (time at the family pool, perhaps), recreation, dinner and time with the coach's family and maybe several assistants and their families.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is a big practitioner of this recruiting method. Others I'm aware of doing so include Florida's Urban Meyer and Georgia's Mark Richt. The goal, perhaps, is for coach and recruits to all get to know each other a little more in a relaxed setting. It also probably helps quiet the alarm bells in concerned parents' heads who would rather their boys be staying out of trouble and in the care of adults than spending a night out on the town.

This also blends well with the more sanitized world of official visits detailed earlier. And so sometimes the most *interesting* stories emanating from formerly lurid trips is talk of a coach's prowess at . . . ping pong.

consider the wildest part of the biggest visit weekend at Georgia this recruiting season. On the night of Dec. 6, some of the nation's top players gathered at the home of Bulldogs coach Mark Richt and played ping-pong. That's right, ping-pong.

"[Richt] is pretty dominant. He didn't lose the entire night," said Bryce Ros, a Kennesaw, Ga., tight end who will officially sign next week to play for a coach who apparently is the best American table tennis player since Forrest Gump.

So there you go. Mark Richt will own you in ping pong. I'm not sure that's a good thing when trying to stroke the 17-year-old ego and encourage him to commit to your school, but it's safe and right in the wheelhouse of a sensible and decent coach and man like Richt.

Previously at FanHouse

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NCAA Recruiting Tag