[DaKCMan AP]

18. Hollywood recruiting opportunity

When a studio green-lighted a movie version of The Blind Side, both current and former coaches stumbled all over themselves to get on film.

Or at least that's how it seemed. Nick Saban, Phil Fulmer, Houston Nutt, Tommy Tuberville and Ed Orgeron appear in the film that tells the story of former Ole Miss offensive tackle Michael Oher. The movie could turn out to be a commentary on the coaching profession.

Saban, now at Alabama, had to don an LSU shirt to portray himself as the Tigers' coach. That's two jobs ago. Nutt, the current Ole Miss coach, recruited Oher while he was at Arkansas. Fulmer and Tuberville lost their jobs at Tennessee and Auburn. Orgeron, who originally landed Oher at Ole Miss as its head coach, is now an assistant at Tennessee.

The film is scheduled to be released Nov. 20, the day before Ole Miss' game against LSU. Oher? A first-round draft choice with the Baltimore Ravens.

19. From first to worst: The Greg Paulus Story

Duke's point guard hasn't played football for four years. Paulus then went through nine practices and won the starting job for the Orange. Not sure if that says more about Paulus or Syracuse.

After exhausting his eligibility with the Blue Devils, Paulus called around to see if anyone needed a quarterback for a season. Syracuse did. Paulus' arrival was less about finding a winning football program and more about finding a place, any place, to play. Just watch him on the triple option. The kid knows how to drop a dime, er, pitch out.

20. 0-4 and out the door?

Miami coach Randy Shannon is in one of more unique binds of 2009. He has one quarterback (Jacory Harris) who has taken a snap in a game. He has to guide the 'Canes through one of the most brutal schedules in the country.

He has only two years left on his contract. Recruits, Shannon says, are starting to ask if he is going to be around when they graduate. Shannon isn't sure. The administration (AD Kirby Hocutt) has refused to extend Shannon after the third-year coach won 12 games in his first two seasons.

Hocutt is probably waiting to see how Shannon negotiates a brutal opening stretch -- at Florida State, Georgia Tech, at Virginia Tech and Oklahoma. Miami could go 1-3 and be significantly improved from last season and its coach could be in trouble.

21. All-Name Team

(A special welcome to a certain Nebraska defensive tackle who is a multi-time honoree on our annual combination of tongue trippers)

Offense
QB: (tie) Ju-Ju Clayton, Virginia Tech/Kale Pick, Kansas
RB-LeGarrette Blount, Oregon
RB: Jacquizz Rodgers, Oregon State
WR: Dane Sanzenbacher, Ohio State
WR: Kito Poblah, Central Michigan
OL: Caleb Schlauderaff, Utah
OL: Sampson Genus, South Florida
OL: Selvish Capers, West Virginia
OL: Pontus Bondeson, Duke
OL: Omoregie Uzzi, Georgia Tech
TE: Michael Hoomanawanui, Illinois

Defense
DL: Cordarrow Thompson, Virginia Tech
DL: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
DL: Oscar Ponce de Leon, Tulane
DL: Jerzy Siewierski, UCLA
LB: Quillie Odom, Virginia Tech
LB: Ovid Goulbourne, West Virginia
LB: Bear Woods, Troy
DB: Ochuko Jenije, Florida State
DB: Guesly Dervil, West Virginia
DB: Knowledge Timmons, Penn State
DB: Boubacar Cissoko, Michigan

Special teams
K: San San Te, Rutgers
P: Kase Whitehead, Marshall
R: Perrish Cox, Oklahoma State

22. Four non-BCS schools in top 25

That might be a sign of parity. Actually, it's a sign of parity in the Mountain West.
Boise State is coming off its second undefeated regular season in three years.

TCU last won a conference title in 2005, but Gary Patterson might be the nation's best defensive mind. After Florida, TCU allowed Oklahoma the fewest points last season (35).

The Horned Frogs are favored to win the Mountain West after finishing No. 1 nationally in defense in '08.

BYU has won 38 games the past four years and has an 18-game home winning streak. Heisman candidate Max Hall and a loaded offense take on Oklahoma in the opener.
Utah will dip a bit after completing its second undefeated season in five years.

23. The evil coaches poll

Remember this the next time you get upset about the clandestine way the coaches arrange the national championship race.

It's easier to request someone's military records than to find out who is voting for whom in the coaches poll. In other words, you can find out who went AWOL but not who will step up in coaching profession.

This is not meant to paint with too broad a brush. As of Thursday, Air Force's Troy Calhoun and South Florida's Jim Leavitt had released their preseason ballots.

24. Twitter

If we're lucky, in six months this Miley Cyrus-meets-Silicon Valley trend will be deader than Justin Feagin's career.

The 140-character update became all the rage among coaches who used it to ... let's face it, stay in touch with recruits. It's hard to imagine anyone being interested in a 50-year-old man's lunch, but it's America and we're weird that way.

25. It's not like he's Justin Feagin or something

If Xavier Hicks can navigate the pitfalls of a big-time college career, well, anyone can.
The fact that the Washington State fifth-year senior will line up as a starter against Stanford on opening day is a bit of miracle. And stunning.

While driving home last summer, Hicks was pulled over and found to have a suspended license. Wait, did we leave out he was driving home from jail? Hicks had just served a 45-day sentence resulting from convictions for credit-card theft and intent to commit assault.

Hicks already had violated the terms of his work-release agreement by blowing off his grocery-store job in order to lift weights at Washington State. The assault charge came after Hicks put rubbing alcohol in teammate Grady Maxwell's contact-lens case. Maxwell never put on his contacts, thank God.

Naturally, coach Paul Wulff came down with a hammer, suspending Hicks for the first three games of the 2008 season. His career is alive, which leads one to believe that Mr. Hicks can play a little football too.

To sum up, the X Man has been stopped twice for driving with a suspended license, arrested in 2005 and 2007 and knows his way around cleaning chemicals.
If this season is all about Florida, call Xavier Hicks the anti-Tebow.