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Doug Marrone’s ostensibly out recruiting kids, but it looks like he may need to add coaches to his schedule of meet-and-greets.

Syracuse Assistant AD Sue Edson sent out a release this afternoon confirming what FootballCoachScoop.com reported earlier: offensive coordinator Rob Spence, wide receivers coach Jamie Elizondo and defensive line coach Derrick Jackson have all been relieved of their duties.

Can’t say this is a huge surprise: Syracuse’s 21.1 points per game and 330.4 yards per game ranked second-to-last and dead-last in the league. After that eye-cringing 10-9 loss at Louisville Nov. 14, though, the Orange put up 31 points in both its win over Rutgers and Saturday’s season-ending loss to UConn.

Now, Marrone was the rock star offensive coordinator for the New Orleans the three years preceding this one, he did run the Saints offense that in 2007 set an NFL record for completions and team records for passing first downs, passing touchdowns and passing completion percentage and it’s not a leap to wonder if Marrone wasn’t calling the plays these last two weeks. It’ll be interesting to see if Marrone hires an outside offensive coordinator or decides the best candidate is the one in the mirror.

I’m back from Rutgers and navigating past an ugly accident. Why do people think rain-slick roads aren’t slick? In any case…

As if Brian Kelly wasn’t being hailed a genius already, Tony Pike added to his coach’s legend, making a helluva return and showing exactly why the hot commodity picked Pike to retain his starting job over Zach Collaros and his pinball numbers. Because Pike can put up the pinball numbers too. Courtesy of the league office, the week’s honorees…

BIG EAST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Tony Pike • Sr. • QB • Cincinnati • Cincinnati, Ohio Pike returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Oct. 15 and showed no signs of rust as he completed 32 of 46 passes for 399 yards and a school-record six touchdowns in the Bearcats’ 49-36 win against Illinois. Pike threw four touchdown passes as part of a 35-point first half that effectively put the game out of reach. Despite missing three games due to injury this season, Pike has thrown for 2,048 yards and 23 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

BIG EAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Robert Sands • So. • FS • West Virginia • Opa Locka, Fla. Sands was the catalyst on a West Virginia defense that limited ninth-ranked Pittsburgh to a season-low 16 points in the Mountaineers’ 19-16 win. Sands had seven tackles, three pass breakups and a pivotal fourth-quarter interception that allowed West Virginia to take a two-possession lead on the ensuing possession. Sands leads the BIG EAST with five interceptions and 13 passes defended this season.

BIG EAST SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Tyler Bitancurt • Fr. • K • West Virginia • Springfield, Va. Bitancurt kicked four field goals, including the gamewinner from 43 yards as time expired, to give West Virginia a 19-16 win against ninth-ranked Pittsburgh. Bitancurt scored 13 of the Mountaineers’ 19 points, including three field goals in the second half. In addition to the gamewinner, Bitancurt was successful from 20, 43 and 39 yards.  Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Cyber Monday… Seems to be the most secure job in the world; nothing’s stopping these guys… A 95-year prison sentence commuted, new charges of child rape and now the alleged execution of four police officers. Of course Gov. Huckabee has a statement… I suppose I should feel horribly guilty, but I really do want to know what the heck happened out at at the end of Tiger Woods’ driveway…

Projecting all 34 bowl match-ups… After identifying the year’s main problem. (SI.com)

Another year, another BCS fraud. Cincinnati’s this year’s victim. (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

Unless chaos reigns. (Team Speed Kills)

It would be a mistake for Brian Kelly to go to Notre Dame… He’s probably headed to the Sugar Bowl… There is one hope, though: Nebraska. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Pitt’s getting ready to play spoiler. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

If the Panthers can get over the way the Brawl went fast. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

A third straight bowl does stamp a smile on the Huskies’ trying season. (The Day)

Seems awfully cruel to see your season end with just two games to go. (Connecticut Post)

Urban Meyer’s stumping for the Louisville job. For his defensive coordinator. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

The fans know what they want in a replacement. (Rivals.com)

Steve Kragthorpe will say his goodbyes to the press today. (WHAS11.com)

Rutgers has plenty reason to fear Jarrett Brown. (Bleed Scarlet)

Coach Bill Stewart on bringing Brown up to Rutgers. And more. (MSNsportsNET.com)

West Virginia didn’t just beat Pitt because of one last-second kick, btw. (Charleston Daily Mail)

That’s why the Mountaineers have a catchphrase: Finish the Fight. (Times West Virginian)

Now if Rutgers can get past Brown and West Virginia, the Knights could be headed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl. (Home News Tribune)

The Bulls missed a big one Saturday. (Tampa Tribune)

BJ Daniels, up and down. Then again, he IS a freshman. (St. Petersburg Times)

Breaking down Syracuse’s final game of Doug Marrone’s first year… There is hope for next year. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Doug Marrone won his first Big East game in absolute attention-grabbing fashion – over Syracuse’s main recruiting rival Rutgers and in totally dominant fashion - but the first-year coach said he’s barely taken a phone call over it. Or read a story lauding it. He hasn’t had the time.

“We had a recruiting weekend (and) what happens is it takes away your time from preparation and you have to make up for it,” Marrone said. ”If I did something like that and then we went out and didn’t play well against Connecticut, I’d look at that as I was a big part of us losing. If I’m going to ask my players to focus on this football game, I have to be able to do that first and foremost.”

Ironically enough, going into that Syracuse game, Rutgers was coming off its biggest win of the season, a totally dominant drubbing of then-ranked South Florida. And while it’s essentially expected that Marrone wouldn’t give up much on getting that big first win, he was equally nonchalant about the effect that win might’ve had on all those recruits.

“There’s still a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. “Nothing’s done until Feb. 3.”

Still, the Orange did add one very impressive recruit off the win, though, Donnie Webb reported in the Syracuse Post Standard. Syracuse has 17 committments so far. And yet, Marrone just said, from his perspective, he doesn’t see the one win selling a kid who was on the fence about joining that group.

“I truly believe in what we’re doing as a program, not just on the football field but what we’re doing academically. So I always feel comfortable, I always feel great about what we stand for, what we represent,” he said. ”It’s just what I believe so when I talk to parents, when I talk to  student athletes, it’s very easy for me.”

With or without, apparently, having had that win.

South Florida officially has a sellout for this Saturday’s visit by Miami. The Bulls have already outdrawn Raymond James’ full-time tenant, the NFL Buccaneers, one weekend this year and a visit from in-state Central Florida two years ago also sold out. Still, the South Florida administration isn’t letting this audience go to waste: it’s wrapping a Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Initiative around the game.

I linked this story yesterday and I’ll do it again. South Florida offensive coordinator Mike Canales’ wife Carol – or Mama C to Bulls players – has been battling MS with the psychological help of her husband’s players. Carol Canales and head coach Jim Leavitt’s wife Jody approached the university about using a game to spotlight the disease and this is.

South Florida players are going to wear orange armbands (orange is the official awareness color of MS), there’ll be donation boxes and information pamphlets around the stadium and I think this is a great idea.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — There’s upending offensive linemen.There’s sacking quarterbacks.

And then there’s fastening a diaper on a baby girl.

“It is so hard, she fights every time,” Rutgers senior George Johnson said, shaking his head, but smiling too. Daughter Olivia Danielle was born two weeks ago, and if there’s anything the defensive end is sure of now, “It’s that everything on a football field is a lot easier to do than changing a diaper.”

Johnson’s had the football part looking easy for several years now. He started playing as a true freshman, he became a full-time starter last year and SI.com’s most recent draft spotlight had him first as “a pass-rushing terror” and then as the week’s sleeper pick.

He’s a 6-foot-4, 265-pound beast of an end, tough, fiercely strong and, according to fellow end Jonathan Freeny, constantly yapping. He has 11 tackles for a loss, 6.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and a deathly fear of little Olivia.

“I’m afraid I’m going to break her,” Johnson said. “I’m used to fighting with 300-pound linemen, not a 10-pound baby.”

“Little” Olivia is indeed 10 pounds, five ounces, and Johnson admitted he’s whispered into her crib that he wants her to play middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens. (When someone suggested that might not get her many dates, Johnson — clearly getting the dad thing — said, “That’s good.”) If she takes after her father, she may just get there yet.

Keep reading here.

The cost of getting to Grandma’s sure has changed… Baboon gangs on the loose… How do I get to one of these state dinners?

Tony Pike, the ultimate senior, returns on senior day. (Rivals.com)

Brian Kelly said coach-rumor time is the “silly season.” (AP)

Still, Kelly’s a Cincinnati man. Why doesn’t he just say it already?… Charlie Weis was told to forget that recruiting trip out West… Thanks to Bootsy Coolins, the Bearcats have a new fight song. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

UConn’s already over that biggest-in-history, program-affirming win at Notre Dame. (The Day)

The Huskies are taking a lesson from Rutgers: how not to view Syracuse. (Connecticut Post)

Big surprise: Edsall wouldn’t discuss his name being linked to Kansas, where former UConn AD Lew Perkins is the current AD. (New Haven Register)

Trent Guy has five punt and kickoff returns for touchdowns. The Cardinal can’t stop thinking about the sixth a penalty whistled back… Steve Kragthorpe’s still using “we.” (Louisville Courier-Journal)

The way fans dream sure is nice… When a Panther marries a Mountaineer. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Pitt thinks WVU QB Jarrett Brown is just as dangerous as Pat White was… Pitt’s o-line, meanwhile, is sporting bleached blong mohawks. Coach Dave Wannstedt said they better back that up. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

The whole West Virginia payback spoiler story doesn’t quite work. (Charleston Gazette)

No offensive lineman is as terrifying to George Johnson as his two-week old daughter. (SNY.tv)

Louisville’s 6-9 Josh Chichester is only the latest in a long line of mega-tall wideouts Rutgers has seen… Rutgers’ line is readying for the same blitzing Syracuse ate it up with. (Star-Ledger)

Rutgers recruiting coordinator Joe Susan is up for the Princeton job… Tom Savage is anticipating that blitz. (Home News Tribune)

Miami isn’t the only choice for Miamians anymore. (Tampa Tribune)

Miami’s AD played for Jim Leavitt at K-State. (St. Petersburg Times)

A couple South Floridians turned down the SEC for Syracuse… Mike Stenclik doesn’t need a trophy. He got The Bone. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

We haven’t yet met, but I’m starting to count on finnslig01 to give any potentially political statement its fair counterpoint. So let’s see if this one passes muster.

Ari Fleischer, President George W. Bush’s one-time White House Press Secretary, has a new job: defending the BCS. New BCS executive director Bill Hancock hired Fleischer’s communications firm this weekend. Fleischer will get to fight Democrats (President Barack Obama) and Republicans (Senator Orrin Hatch) alike on this one, but he is indeed a political insider. And he does have solid experience defending the further amassing of power for the already powerful.

In a classic move, I forgot my e-mail password. My repeated (failed) attempts to guess it resulted in the system locking me out and kept me from my e-mail yesterday. Therefore, I’m a day late on these, but hey… it’s still news.

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly is one of three finalists for the George Munger Award as the Maxwell Club’s coach of the year. The other two finalists are Temple’s Al Golden and TCU’s Gary Patterson (two other names being bandied about as Charlie Weis’ replacement at Notre Dame) and the voting starts today. It’ll close a week from Sunday, a day after Cincinnati plays Pittsburgh for the league title – and the league’s BCS berth.

While we’re talking Pitt, Panthers tight end Dorin Dickerson is one of three finalists too, for the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end. Dickerson’s a heckuva story – his dad was a basketball player at K-State and he came to Pitt having been a receiver, running back, quarterback, defensive back and kick returner in high school. He played at wideout his first year at Pitt, he moved to strongside linebacker his second year and then tight end his third. Now in this, his fourth year, he has 43 catches for 496 yards and a school record-tying 10 TDs. Florida junior Aaron Hernandex (whose big brother DJ was a quarterback at UConn) and BYU senior Dennis Pitta are his fellow finalists.

Dave Wannstedt’s clearly not afraid of anyone. Pittsburgh put out its schedules for the next four years (minus the exact dates of Big East contests, which the league will set later) and there are some fancy names on there. Even the FCS schools Pitt’s scheduled are more Appalachian State than, uh, Howard. (In fact, they’re so un-Howard-like, they both actually have wins over Greg Schiano Rutgers teams.) Take a look.

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