The Dean's List

In today's Dean's List, we'd like to remind Kanye that it's the large bodyguard's job to smash the expensive cameras. His job is simply to hang, look cool and post bail.

• What would you sacrifice for your team to win? Your vocal chords? No doubt. Your liver? You do it every weekend. But how about your knee? That's what Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis offered up to the Gods as his Fighting Irish beat Michigan 35-17 in their home opener. As the first half was winding down, Notre Dame punted the ball and all eyes, including Weis', were on the punt return. That's when a Wolverine shoved Irish defensive end John Ryan out of bounds and into Weis' legs. In slow motion, the hit's on par with the clip of the Hungarian weightlifter who blew out his elbow during the Olympics. Weis' left knee pretty much snapped, tearing both the ACL and MCL. But the coach doesn't seem too upset. In fact, he was downright giddy in interviews after the Irish beat Michigan and avoided losing to the Wolverines for the third year in a row for the first time since 1908.

• If I were to ask you which active men's basketball coach has the most wins in the NCAA, would you answer Don Meyer? Probably not, but it's true, Northern State's basketball coach has won 891 games, giving him more wins than Coach K (803), Jim Boeheim (750) or anyone other than Bobby Knight (902). He also has cancer. But, on the grand scale, things could have been worse for Coach Meyer. Back in September, as he was driving with his team, Meyer's car ran head-on into a Semi. During one of his multiple emergency surgeries, doctors discovered the cancer, which would've gone undiscovered otherwise. The 63-year-old coach hopes to be back on the Wolves' bench sometime this season.

• There might be no crying in baseball, but it's not really an issue in football. Mike Sanford knows that, which is why the UNLV coach had no problem opening the flood gates after his Rebels' pulled off an improbable overtime upset over Arizona State, 23-20. UNLV's defensive lineman Malo Hercules Taumua blocked Arizona State kicker Thomas Weber's35-yard field goal attempt in the first overtime to win the game and all but ruin any chance Arizona State had at joining the national title hunt. Of course, Sanford's lacrimal discharge isn't surprising. To understate, he's an emotional coach. Back in 2006, Sanford ordered his team not to leave the field after losing to Iowa State on an incomplete pass he felt warranted an official review. His 7-29 record while at UNLV probably has something to do with his volatile emotional state.

• If there's a problem with football in the fall, it's that the game can become all-consuming. I know this because the dainty form of my posterior is permanently molded into my girlfriend's couch. Sometimes, I forget about other sports but, as Willy Loman's wife said, "Attention must be paid." So this week, we're paying attention to field hockey -- more specifically, to Lindsay McNamara, the all-time leading goal scorer in Bowdoin College field hockey history. Last season, the senior forward scored nine goals in the D-III tournament and led the Polar Bears (great mascot) to their first NCAA title in any sport. This year, McNamara's at it again. She's scored 10 goals in three games to increase her career tally to 70. And, more importantly, McNamara's team is undefeated in its last 23 matches.

• Your college's football team just pulled off the biggest upset in school history. Life is good. It's time to celebrate! Maybe not. After East Carolina smacked West Virginia around like an ugly step-child, the ECU students rushed the field in celebration only for over-zealous police to brutalize them. The state of North Carolina is investigating the incident. Video posted on Youtube shows local law enforcement randomly tackling Pirates fans. To add to the issues, Conference USA also announced it will be fining ECU $10,000 for violating a policy that prohibits fans from rushing the field before visiting teams and officials are safely locked away in their cages. This sounds like one of the worst ways to reward a school for boosting the reputation of an often-disregarded conference.

• It's got to be nice to have Pete Carroll as your coach. The guy goes all out for his players, like Shareece Wright. A day before the big game against Ohio State, the junior USC cornerback was charged with felony resisting a police officer in connection with a hometown party the weekend before. But that didn't keep Carroll from sticking with Wright, who started against the Buckeyes and had three tackles in a 35-3 USC victory. Now, nobody really knows what went down at the party, but we do know that it was a gathering in honor of someone who will soon be deployed to Iraq and that Wright wasn't initially arrested at the scene. Despite his coach's support, Wright is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday. Now, I'm no legal expert but waiting a week to arrest a kid seems dubious at best.

• It's too bad that after a week in which Duke announced the basketball team's three captains and pulled off a rare victory on the football field, the big news coming out of Durham concerns Rudy Giuliani's son. Apparently, he's not very pleasant to be around. In a court filing last Wednesday, Duke defended Andrew Giuliani's dismissal from the golf team, claiming the former New York Mayor's son broke a golf club in a tournament, yelled at his coaches and beat up a teammate. So many positives and all we can focus on is an entitled brat who was the worst golfer on the Duke team last season.

• If your team can't score a touchdown in 60 minutes of football, does it deserve to be considered a top 10 team? That's debatable. Auburn beat Mississippi State 3-2 on Saturday and is currently ranked 10th nationally. I know what they say, defense wins championships, but that's only true if the offense can score a touchdown every now and then. And Auburn was unable to do just that against the Bulldogs, going 3-16 on third-down conversions. Wait. I lied. The Tigers did find the end zone once. Mississippi State's only points came when Auburn center Ryan Pugh was called for holding in his own end zone.

Recipes? Lehman stock? Send all comments to Jacob.Osterhout@gmail.com.