For those of you who were with us last year for ESPN's much more publicized and overblown 25 hours of college football, we had a pretty good time. Mostly it turned into a bunch of sleep deprived smart-asses sabatoging ESPN's up-all-night live chat with questions such as these:

David Duffey: (3:46 AM ET ) Colin will be contributing an audio piece for us this fall. Look for the first edition of Herd Mentality tomorrow. It will run every Monday during the season.

Bill (Los Angeles): Will Colin be contributing an original piece, or will it mostly be taken from blogs and other sources he read?

David Duffey: (3:51 AM ET ) It will be a weekly original take

And my lame questioning...
 

Rece's Bed (Bristol, CT): Yo, where are you?

Rece Davis: (1:53 AM ET ) not close...for quite some time.

So yeah, let's enjoy some ESPN chat shenanigans and allow Lou Holtz and Mark May to "enlighten" us, as only they can. Maybe Lou can give US a pep talk.

I'm sure pretty much everyone who has ever played sports has gotten stuck with at least one coach who was a complete jackass. A coach that just rode the whole team into the ground because he was on some kind of power trip.

It gets to the point where, as a player, you don't even care about how well or how poorly you play. All you want to do is kick the coach where the sun don't shine when he lets his guard down for half-a-second.

Now, as someone who played sports at a variety of levels, including college, I have what you'd call a sixth-sense for spotting jackass coaches. Like this video here of Tony Sparano, head coach of the Miami Dolphins. It took me approximately 5 seconds to determine that not only is he an absolute power hungry, insufferable idiot, but also that the Dolphins won't win 3 games this year.

Why? Because they suck AND they already hate their coach. Nothing like telling your #1 draft pick - who'll be protecting the punching bag you put at quarterback - that all he learned at Michigan was the fight song. Can't wait to play for you now, coach!

I'm not sure what the hell Sparano spent last year doing, but it obviously wasn't watching Tom Coughlin become a player's coach and win a Super Bowl in the process.

So, after this video, how long do I give Sparano at the helm of the Dolphins? Less than a year. Only to be replaced by an even bigger jackass - Bill Parcells.

Enjoy the season, Dolphins.

Tony Sparano doesn't seem like a players coach [Shutdown Corner]

Today's blog goodness

1. What are the top conferences in college football this year?
2. Predicting the 2012 Team USA Basketball squad.
3. Jay Mariotti moves on. Chicago rejoices.
4. The Mets are starting to collapse again. Right on schedule.
5. Kobe Bryant rules China.

Today's other FanIQ site goodness

1. Better get your college football picks in for Week 1 of the Plasma Screen TV Contest.
2. Since the SEC is supposedly the best conference in America, might as well make some predictions on it.
3. Usain Bolt is a dance machine.

Tonight's TV goodness

We have some early round U.S. Open action and a chance to see how A-Rod follows up his astounding awful 0-5 with two double plays game from last night. My guess is he goes 0-11 with eleventy hundred strikeouts.

Major League Baseball: Boston at New York Yankees (ESPN, 7 p.m.)
Tennis: U.S. Open, men's first round and women's second round, at New York (USA, 7 p.m.)

In my Greatest College Football Quotes post earlier this week, included was this classic from Knute Rockne:


Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey qualifies. Rainey may be a lot of things, namely ridiculously fast, but he's not smart.

Rainey is a redshirt freshman, who has yet to see the field, but when it comes to quotes, he's a bloggers dream. Let's see, he's already been accused of accepting illegal gifts in high school, refers to himself in the third person and most notably, made is public that he prefers white girls.

Via The Sporting Blog, the All-American career in quotes continues. You see, Rainey signed up for a sex class, but it's not exactly what he had in mind.

Rainey: I'm taking sex classes.

Reporter: Six classes?

Rainey: Sex classes.

Laughter erupted from the twenty-some reporters crowding around him.

He's not the only one who enjoys taking the sex class at UF.

"It's a lot of people," Rainey said. "It was all the way to the door when I got in. My back was touching the door."

And even with all those students in the room, the subject matter was not at all to Rainey's liking.

"It's boring," Rainey said. "I thought it would be fun, like you see on TV. But it ain't like that."

We eagerly await the debut of Chris Rainey on the field Saturday, we doubt any Hawaii Warriors will catch him, but we can't wait for the first reporter to catch him after the game. Whenever he speaks, I shall listen... dumbfounded.
 

Florida's Chris Rainey Was Under the Assumption That This Was a Film Class [The Sporting Blog]

Ken "Tomato Can" Shamrock might not pass his physical before his scheduled fight with Kimbo. Five straight knockouts will do that to you. [Fanhouse]

NBA sideline reporter gives us one of the weirdest and most hilarious stories you'll hear in a long time. [Mouthpiece Sports]

Just in case you were counting, Chris Mortensen has gotten an astounding EIGHT breaking news stories wrong in two years. Good lord, that's a lot. [Awful Announcing]

How come Cliff Lee is never mentioned among elite pitchers in baseball? Guy's been great for 5 years now. [The Angry T]

Is Albert Pujols now one of the best hitters to ever play the game? [I'm Writing Sports]

Soccer club Chelsea looks at the Yankees penchant for spending money on over the hill star players and instantly raises them $200 million. [Deadspin]

Donovan McNabb's mom is now unemployed. [You Been Blinded]

Seems Aaron Rodgers is now wearing Brett Favre's number. That should go over well in Green Bay. [Stock Lemon]