Notebook: Not everybody's All-Americans, just mine

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The Football Writers Association of America will convene its All-America committee meeting early next week with some tough decisions.

Such as, whom do you like at quarterback -- Eli Manning or Jason White? Larry Fitzgerald is a lock for one receiver position, but who gets the other? How many spots does dominating Oklahoma deserve?

Can Southern California be on track to play in the national championship without one first-team All-American?

These are important questions, because the FWAA traditionally serves as a template for all the other major All-America teams. For example, if Oklahoma's Mark Clayton is picked as a first-team receiver over Southern California's Mike Williams, then look for Clayton to pop up on the other teams.

And look for Clayton and others to benefit from the honor on their first NFL contract. All-America honors have to be worth a few shekels, no?

Anyway, a lot of these questions have to be answered this weekend. For example, White's last FWAA All-America statement comes this week against Baylor. Mike Williams goes against Arizona, while Oklahoma State receiver Rashaun Woods plays against Kansas. Eli Manning is off, leaving the most significant victory of his career (Saturday vs. Auburn) as the final statement.

Kellen Winslow II has issued his apology, before playing this week against Syracuse. We haven't even mentioned the nation's leading rusher, North Texas' Patrick Cobbs, who has rushed for 1,126 yards in only eight games. Tough decisions, indeed.

One FWAA member's selections (for now) ...

Offense

• WR -- Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh
• Best player in the country. Hand him the Heisman.

• WR -- Mark Clayton, Oklahoma
• Already has set school records for yards and touchdown catches.

• OL -- Robert Gallery, Iowa
• Best overall offensive lineman in the country, say Big Ten fans.

• OL -- Shawn Andrews, Arkansas
• Best overall offensive lineman in the country, say SEC fans.

• OL -- Vince Carter, Oklahoma
• Started as a true freshman center.

• OL -- Tony Pape, Michigan
• Carving out yards for Chris Perry.

• OL -- Jake Grove, Virginia Tech
• The reason Kevin Jones is having a career year.

• TE -- Kellen Winslow II, Miami
• Look past the locker room blast to the awesome talent.

• RB -- Kevin Jones, Virginia Tech
• School record in rushing Saturday vs. Pittsburgh.

• RB -- Michael Turner, Northern Illinois
• Nation's No. 3 rusher. Remember, he defeated three BCS defenses.

• QB -- Jason White, Oklahoma
• Two good knees. One golden arm.

• PK -- Jonathan Nichols, Mississippi
• Missed only one of 24 field goals this season.

• KR -- Antonio Perkins, Oklahoma
• Needs one more touchdown return to set new NCAA single-season and career record.

Defense

• DE -- Darnell Dockett, Florida State
• A big reason why the FSU defense rebounded this season.

• DT -- Tommie Harris, Oklahoma
• Great motor. Unstoppable.

• DT -- Dave Ball, UCLA
• Breakout season as the Pac-10 sack leader.

• DE -- Jorge Cordova, Nevada
• Made his bones with an incredible game in an incredible upset of Washington.

• LB -- Grant Wiley, West Virginia
• Best linebacker in the East?

• LB -- Demorrio Williams, Nebraska
• Has become a star under d-coordinator Bo Pelini.

• LB -- Derrick Johnson, Texas
• Except for Oklahoma, has dominated sideline to sideline.

• DB -- Stuart Schweigert, Purdue
• Should be the Big Ten defensive player of the year.

• DB -- DeAngelo Hall, Virginia Tech
• Blocks kicks, returns punts, shuts down receivers.

• DB -- Derrick Strait, Oklahoma
• Best lock-up corner in the country.

• DB -- Sean Taylor, Miami
• Despite team's recent downturn, he is still playing at a high level.

• P -- Dustin Colquitt, Tennessee
• Great field-position punter; among top five in the country.

Blowout protocol

How do you think Baylor feels this week?

Oklahoma is coming off a 77-0 victory over Texas A&M. The Bears already have had 73 scored against them by the Aggies. They face Oklahoma with the Big 12 South title on the line. Uh, not for Baylor, for Oklahoma.

Does that make the Sooners a 150-point favorite?

Don't laugh. Oklahoma's performance against A&M asked the immortal question -- how much is enough? The Sooners' performance was picked apart, because it apparently violated the 11th commandment -- though shalt not embarrass the other millionaire.

"We're all big boys here," Bob Stoops said. "I just got done watching Baylor (on film). I just watched A&M put 73 on them. I saw them throw a 45-yard bomb to get up 66. We're all in the same conference here competing for the same recruits."

That last statement more than anything explains best why Oklahoma has beaten Texas and Texas A&M by a combined score of 142-13. The results were all about recruiting, which Mike Lupica didn't understand. The New York columnist has gotten into a running feud of sorts with Stoops this week, accusing him of running up the score against A&M.

Oklahoma goes head-to-head in Texas with those two schools for some of the nation's best players.

When those players see the two Texas schools lost by an average of 71-6.5, it just might tip the scales in favor of the Sooners.

"I think it's all related to recruiting at some point in time," said Oklahoma State coach Les Miles, who got smacked by Oklahoma 52-9.

For the record, quarterback Jason White was out at halftime. The No. 1 defense was still in late in the third quarter when Derrick Strait picked up a fumble and scored to make it 77-0.

"Anyone who saw the game knew that we did everything we could to keep the score down," Stoops said. "You get your twos and threes in the third quarter. Other than telling them to get in there and fall down. We didn't throw any passes, after early in the third quarter. We sat on the ball, tried to use the clock. Nobody wanted it to get to that point.

"Dennis (Franchione) understood. He cut me off. He said, 'Bob, I know.'"

Stoops didn't get to be one of the best coaches in the country without being able to manipulate his philosophy. In other words, he can eviscerate an opponent and do it politely.

"Part of the responsibility with a game that gets out of hand, is with the team on the down side," Franchione said. "We're not pointing any fingers."

Disaster averted

Wayne Duke was sitting around the house in Chicago on Friday, it turns out, a few hours before the SEC came to its senses.

Duke is the former Big Ten commissioner who had to administrate an ugly chapter in conference history in 1973. That was the year athletic directors voted to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl over Michigan. The teams tied in the standings after tying their annual game 10-10. Per conference rules at the time, ADs voted on who went to The Grandaddy.

The general perception was Michigan was the better team, but in the Ohio State game, Wolverines quarterback Dennis Franklin broke his collarbone. That threw into doubt which team was the "most representative," the words used by the Big Ten directed toward the voters. Ohio State was the pick 6-4.

"This really tore us asunder for a while," said Duke, who is now retired. "When I went to my office in the next day or so, there was the biggest screw I've ever seen in my life, and it had a maize and blue ribbon on it. It must have been 10 inches long. The next year everybody saw it was the dumbest thing to have a vote of directors."

Duke was fretting before the SEC decided Friday to take a possible three-way tie in the SEC East out of the hands of voting ADs. The SEC decided Friday the highest-ranked BCS team will go to the conference title game if Florida, Tennessee and Georgia tie.

Duke said ill feelings still linger today over the 30-year-old vote. He said Bo Schembechler accused Duke of orchestrating the vote in Ohio State's favor. An subsequent investigation exonerated Duke, who retired in 1989 after 18 years as the league's commissioner.

"I wasn't received too well in Ann Arbor as you can imagine," said Duke, 75. "They were all very disturbed."

It sounds like things would have been worse this time.

"The SEC is much more contentious, they're going to have problems," Duke said before the SEC decision. "If Alabama was in this ... Lordy Pete, there would be a Civil War among the South."

Cast aside

It's got to be hard to pour yourself into a school for decades, and then have it taken away from you in an instant. It happened to Mike Kruczek on Monday at Central Florida. It might happen soon to Nebraska's Frank Solich.

Kruczek was fired amid a flurry of suspensions and a losing record after 19 years at the school, 13 as head coach. It came down to the same old reasons. The program that had developed Daunte Culpepper only five years ago was mired in a 3-7 season. Barely beating Buffalo and losing to Eastern Michigan didn't get it done for Kruczek, who left with a 36-30 record.

Since signing day in February, 20 scholarship players have left the team because of suspensions, ineligibilities, injuries and arrests. The problems came to a head last week when starting quarterback Ryan Schneider's career was ended by a suspension stemming from a class attendance issue.

Athletic director Steve Orsini acted decisively, firing Kruczek with 4½ years left on his contract. Kruczek had signed a new deal in April, and the school will now owe him $900,000. A tidy sum for a school that averages 22,736 per home game.

Meanwhile in Lincoln, there are growing signs Frank Solich is on the outs. That's the same Frank Solich who is 8-2, whose team is ranked 18th and faces a Big 12 North showdown this week against Kansas State.

Last week, the school held two elaborate news conferences to announce a $40 million capital campaign that will add a new indoor facility, weight room, locker room and 5,000 new seats at Memorial Stadium. You would think the head coach would be invited to promote the projects and press the flesh with boosters.

Solich was nowhere to be found, and his absence spoke volumes. The new Nebraska athletic complex will be named after Nancy and Tom Osborne, the man who handpicked Solich to replace him.

Letters and videos of the project made no mention of Solich either. His fate could be sealed sometime following Saturday if Nebraska doesn't beat Kansas State. Solich wouldn't be let go until after the season, but how awkward would it be a guy with a .760 winning percentage is cleaning out his desk after losing the Big 12 championship game Dec. 6.

There are still lingering bad vibes from last season's 7-7 meltdown. If anything, the offense is worse than last year, even though victories are up. Much of the credit goes to defensive coordinator Bo Pelini -- who has been mentioned as a possible replacement, along with Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris.

Athletic director Steve Pederson left Pittsburgh this year to take over at Nebraska.

Hoodlums at KU

Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins made an announcement during Saturday's game, apologizing to "our guests from Nebraska."

Apparently, several cars bearing Nebraska license plates were vandalized Friday night at Lawrence hotels. Thirty vehicles had their tires slashed.

Veteran followers of Nebraska are almost used to that kind of treatment. It has happened from time to time in other road venues. At least the Huskers got "revenge," winning 24-3 and setting up this week's Big 12 North showdown with Kansas State.

Quick hits

• There is scuttlebutt in Tucson that Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Mike Stoops is the strong favorite to take over at Arizona. Although no formal interviews have been made, barriers have been cleared. Stoops and the school are agreeable to coaching through the Sugar Bowl while a staff is assembled. Bob Stoops supposedly has endorsed the job. If Mike leaves, then brother Mark Stoops, defensive backs coach at Miami, will either go to Oklahoma to replace Mike or follow him to Arizona.

• More for the BCS godzillas. There are five teams from non-BCS leagues currently in the AP Top 25 -- TCU, Boise State, Northern Illinois, Miami (Ohio) and Bowling Green. Since the BCS was created in 1998, the most non-BCS teams to show up in the final poll was three, in 2002.

• There are only four teams with fewer than two losses in BCS conferences (Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, LSU). The fewest number like that in any full season was 1999, when there were eight.

• SMU, Army, Iowa State, Penn State, Illinois, Temple and Vanderbilt are the only I-A teams that have yet to win a conference game.

• Since 1992, there has been only one year (1997) when at least one of the Big Three from Florida didn't play in a game that decided a national championship. With Miami, Florida State and Florida out of the championship mix, it looks like it is going to happen again.

• Give credit to Mike Price for not being a wallflower (this time). The defrocked former Alabama coach is in the middle of a national media blitz to get his name out there for coaching jobs. He has formally applied for the Arizona job even though the school's president said weeks ago that Price will not be considered. Price apparently is feeling his oats after depositions in his lawsuit against Sports Illustrated were released by the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

• Seen on the Notre Dame campus Saturday: Perhaps the first sign the fans are getting fed up with Tyrone Willingham. A teenager wearing a Notre Dame jersey and a bag over his head, scrawled with the words, "We stink, go Irish basketball."

• Joe Paterno has lost more games in the past four years than in the whole decade of the '90s, 28-26.

• It was bound to happen. There is now a keepronzook.com website.

• Memphis (6-3) is looking for its first seven-victory season in 27 years when it goes to Louisville this week. Coach Tommy West was not exactly a popular choice when he was promoted from defensive coordinator in 2000. Everyone wants offense. But the Tigers have scored 40 or more points five times.

• The two hottest names at Mississippi State are LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and Green Bay Packers assistant Sylvester Croom. Croom was basically ignored in the Alabama search. The school seems serious about at least considering a minority. Packers quarterback Brett Favre is rumored to be pushing Croom.

• South Florida became the first team to win three overtime games in one season after winning last week at East Carolina. The game marked the 12th time a team had played three overtime games in a season. Only Utah State (2002), North Carolina State (2000), Fresno State (1999) and Mississippi (1998) had won two of them. The Bulls also beat Louisville and Cincinnati in OT.

• Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky was evasive this week about the conference's bowl revenue distribution formula. This is significant because the conference stands at the brink of a $13 million windfall if TCU makes a BCS bowl. The only thing we know is the money will be shared with Army (leaving to become an independent), Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida (leaving for the Big East).