The week in news- Sticks vs. Nick, Closed Trojans and Camp Kelly

I have been writing a ton this week. Unfortunately the vast majority of that writing was work related and not here at OFD. It is one of those things that I will later classify as a good thing to have done but for the time being it is painful. I prefer writing here where there are less rules and the topic is considerably more interesting.

One of my buddies put it best yesterday when he vented about all the research and writing we have been doing. "You ever see that movie Beautiful Mind where he stares at papers and sees all kinds of patterns and stuff that no one else can see? That's happening to me right now. I’m looking at this paper and I think I just saw a squirrel, the Dairy Queen logo and Che Guevara all staring back at me." That pretty much sums up my week. Somewhere in there I still managed to make note of a few college football items I wanted to comment on. Welcome to the week in news.

Sticks versus Nick just took an interesting turn in Lubbock. Texas Tech QB Steven Sheffield has aggravated a foot injury that he suffered at the hands of none other than Ndamukong Suh last season and will miss the remainder of spring practice. That leaves the door open for incumbent starter and Teen Wolf lookalike Taylor "Nick" Potts to temporarily secure the starting job in Raiderland heading into the summer. The Tortilla Retort has the details.

I have to admit as a guy with a passive interest in what might become of the Raiders under Tommy Tuberville I’m a little partial to Sheffield for two reasons. First and foremost you have to root for a kid called Sticks. Second that comeback against Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl a couple of months back was one of my favorite bowl performances of the past season. Best of luck to Sticks on a speedy recovery. In other Raider news a deal appears to be in the works for the Raiders to open the 2012 season against none other than Alabama. The only holdup is that Nick Saban is scared. That is interesting considering that the Raiders typically open the season playing a local high school team.

Urban Meyer apparently thought better of his flame up last week with Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler. Urban made nice with Fowler and invited him over for a little Chianti and a hug. As a side note what the hell is Hannah Storm wearing in that video clip that plays when you follow the link? Is that a camouflage dress? Nice.

An unnamed veteran NFL scout talked to NBC sports this week and had nothing nice to say about ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay. The quote "Most people at my level feel he is a joke." Damn, that’s about as rough as it gets. Meanwhile McShay is probably laughing his ass off. That chooch probably makes a healthy six figures on pretending to wax intellectual on national TV about the detriments of Jimmy Clausen’s character and a whole host of other sensational BS he makes up as he goes.

In the post Pete Carroll era Lane Kiffin has made the command decision that all manner of life forms will no longer be admitted to Trojan practices. Does that include Snoop? The USC website has the PC version of the scoop. For a much more entertaining conjecture on the decision check out this post from Sailor Ripley at Barking Carnival.

Mira, Mitch Mustain isn’t dead yet! Mitch has taken on the role of any bad guy killer in a cruddy horror movie. When you think it is over and he’s finally dead he springs back to life for one last scare. I almost have a soft spot for the kid at this point. He decided to go to ND way too late and Weis wouldn’t take him because he already had two QB commits. As a side note Jimmy Clausen came along one year later and we all know how that turned out. Meanwhile Mitch went to what some refer to as "Are Kansas" where he had a solid freshman year then flaked out and transferred to USC. He has since been toiling away buried on the depth chart at USC where he was last seen getting beat out by freshman Matt Barkley and current Richmond transfer Aaron Corp. Now Mitch is back at work trying to compete with Barkley once again. Lane Kiffin says the QB competition is open but I have a feeling this go around won’t turn out any better for Mitch save a Barkley injury. That said he still might end up being the next Matt Cassel.

The Blue-Gray Sky hung up their jerseys this week. They set the bar for all other Notre Dame bloggers very high at BGS and they will be sorely missed.

LB Coach just finished up a great series of posts here on OFD about the Notre Dame transition to the 3-4 defense. In the wake of his masterpiece I thought you might enjoy a piece on Coach Kelly's spread offense from blueandgold.com

Brian Kelly had very little good to say after the third spring practice at Notre Dame on Wednesday. I have to say that for a guy with no military experience Brian Kelly is thus far demonstrating a pretty solid understanding of the psychological aspect of Marine Corps Recruit Training. This is a point that really deserves its own post and I will make an honest effort to get that done. In the mean time I will just say that I approve wholeheartedly with what he’s doing. This is exactly what the program needs from a mental standpoint. I will also try to comment on all other things related to spring practice at Notre Dame in the next few days.