But he is a very bald, very intense individual, who broke is contract with the Vandals before his job was done.

Before Coach Holt (that's how he introduced himself during his Moscow days) became a Washington's new multi-million dollar defensive coordinator, and before his time as USC's defensive coordinator, and before he agreed to coach with the St. Louis Rams but changed his mind to return to the Trojans, this guy was going to save the University of Idaho from itself and make winning part of the Vandal Football tradition. It didn't actually work out that way.

He came to town after Tom Cable (now head coach of Raiders) fumbled his way through a disappointing tenure. Holt came in with high expectations. Let's remember what interim Idaho president/former Albertsons CEO Gary Michael had to say about it:

"I'm going to put this in my obituary, that I'm the guy that hired Nick Holt and brought Idaho back to prominence."

Well, Gary, things didn't work out that way. Your obituary is going to read that you stuck it to your customers by making them sign up for one of those stupid grocery discount cards. And Holt's obit is going to tell of a remarkable 5-18 record across two seasons.

I had no idea! Writer/actor/director/auteur Tim Carr's 82 minute opus on the NFL flameout/former Wazzu star is entitled simply "Leaf," and has been shown several times on the East Coast this year. Tonight it makes its West Coast premiere in San Diego. Bring it to the Pacific Northwest, Mr. Carr!

Mizzou reportedly just locked him up with a raise and extension.

The loveliest Apple Cup you'll see this year.

I thought last year would be bad, but this season has made 2007 seem downright impressive.

For the cross-state matchup, I predict a 26 - 7 blowout of the Cougars in tomorrow's Toilet Bowl/Apple Cup giving the Huskies their only win of the season. Both defenses give up yards like party favors but Wazzu tends toward letting their opponents convert by the first or second down while UW can hold out until the third. So on that highly untechnical and totally unscientific basis, I have this game going to the Huskies. Because it's in Pullman and because the Cougar offense finally realized the ball is supposed to go forward, the Cougars should score at least once.

But my favorite prediction, I unfortunately can't take credit for. Seely speculated earlier that one of the quarterbacks would actually trip in their own end zone, go down for a safety, and the whole tragic spectacle of 2008 Washington state college football would end 2 - 0 in Pullman. Wah wah waaaah.

Of course, last year the matchup of two equally terrible teams turned the game itself into one of the most exciting Apple Cups in recent memory so maybe we'll get a great show tomorrow.

There's not a lot to cheer about in Vandal Nation these days. Our football team's 2-9, we just lost to our arch-rivals BSU, and we were unable to put a Vandal in the White House. But, friends and fellow Vandals, there's still a grin on my face. Why? Because we've still got a better record than the Huskies and our smug Palouse neighbors, the Cougs. And we don't drop millions of dollars on a coaching staff to lose games.

Kinda reminds me WSU's homecoming game in 2000. In 1999, the Vandals beat the Cougs for the first time in generations. With the Palouse rivalry game set for homecoming weekend, WSU pricks decided on the ominous theme: "Vandal Victory is Ancient History."

I was a freshman Vandal that year, playing quads in the Sound of Idaho (marching band). And when we beat the Cougs that afternoon in Martin Stadium, I knew I'd never fly the banner of a winning football team. I knew the Cougs would come back and clobber us in subsequent seasons. But, I'll always have "Vandal Victor is Ancient History."

Over at Bleacher Report, a Notre Dame fan named CFB360 runs down the list of Ty Willingham's recruiting failures, the result of which is "scorched earth" for whatever coach follows him. (It seems like there might be an analogy to our national situation...) In addition to being generally lazy on the recruiting trail, says CFB360, Willingham has a strange aversion to recruiting offensive linemen. The article is quite thorough and worth a read. Check it out.

According to the 2008 NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations. Pages 122-124.

Key excerpt after Saturday's 28-27 loss by the Huskies to the BYU Cougars:

2. After a score or any other play, the player in possession immediately must return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot. This prohibits... (c) Throwing the ball high into the air.

Section 2. Noncontact Fouls
Unsportsmanlike Acts

ARTICLE 1. There shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct or any act that interferes with orderly game administration on the part of players, substitutes, coaches, authorized attendants or any other persons subject to the rules, before the game, during the game or between periods.

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BYU mascot Cosmo the Cougar rolls hard at a parade.

My friend Matt grew up in the Seattle area and has been an intensely devoted BYU Cougar fan as long as I've known him. Recently, though, his critical eye has provoked the ire of his fellow Cougs. So I figured, who better than he to offer insights on tomorrow's BYU/UW matchup and the schools' respective football cultures?

Despite being in the middle of a business road trip, he agreed to answer a few questions on his Blackberry:

Tell us a little about your history as a fan of BYU football

It started when I was born. I was raised in a Mormon family and my parents met at BYU. Every Saturday in the fall meant Cougar football. Before we had home satellite TV, we would go to the local church building and view the games using the church satellite. We would sit in a meeting room and order pizza and drink root beer while we watched the games. I would be dressed in full Cougar gear, all the way down to BYU socks.

Is it true that you are serving a lifetime ban from the BYU fan site, cougarboard.com? If so, why did they ban you?

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I realize the fact that Wazzu is going to begin serving liquor pretty much everywhere on campus, including at football games and in the CUB, is going to start the Cougar-hater joke train rolling (and I went to UW, people), but really, this is genius. If the tight-asses who ran my alma mater would have deigned to even serve beer at football games back when the Hawks needed some new digs, they'd have a fan-fucking-tastic Paul Allen-financed stadium to play in right about now, instead of having to beg the statehouse for hundreds of millions of dollars it doesn't have to spare. UW needs to follow Pullman's lead, for once.

Nike released its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchanged Commission today announcing a 10 percent jump in profits over last year, about $359.4 million. Announcement that the Oregon football team will now have motivational pedicurists on full-time staff is expected to follow.