By STEVE SUSI
One Great Season

Here's a quick look at some of the stories the One Great Season crew will be working on over the weekend.

+ Manny Ramirez Can't Figure Out How To Start White Sox New Employee Videotape

+ NFL Chief Reduces Roethlisberger's Name To Four Syllables

+ Survey: More Americans Believe Clemens Attorney Is Really Jerry Jones After Falling Out Of Moving Pickup

+ ND Rewards Brian Kelly For Unbeaten Pre-Season With 10-Year Extension

+ Parents Of Oregon State's Jacquizz Rogers Investigated For Accepting Crystal Meth Before Naming Son

+ Japan Surprises Hawaii In Little League World Series Final That Will Live In Infamy

+ Sanchez Dirtied In Jets Pre-Season

+ Lew Alcindor, Cassius Clay Not Sure Where They Stand On NYC Mosque Issue

+ Tiger Sexting Pavin For Ryder Cup Selection

+ Titans' RB Chris Johnson Projected Last Overall In 2010 Fantasy SAT Draft

Click here for Steve's bio and an archive of his previous stories.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

The first night of college football games is in the books, and here are my thoughts:

+ Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor helped his Heisman bid with a splendid performance in a blowout win over Marshall. But his passing mechanics still looked a tad gimpy on a couple of plays, and I'll be surprised if he enjoys similar success next week against Miami if he doesn't adjust. He threw one of his three touchdown passes from his back foot and heaved up some unusual third-and-long prayer that was nearly picked. Overall, though, he was close to excellent and it was nice to see Jim Tressel open things up slightly and call 25 passing plays for Pryor in barely more than three quarters' work. If it's true that players and teams make their largest improvements between Week 1 and Week 2, then Pryor and the Buckeyes should look pretty solid against Miami on Sept. 11.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Remember that World Cup Pub Crawl that you thought was so fantastic with its 35 cities?

Well, the One Great Season research crew (huge thanks to every one of you!) has labored the last few weeks to compile this list of the best bars for college football merriment. Here's where you can drink and watch in EIGHTY THREE U.S. cities! And if you feel we left your town off, or if you have a different opinion on things, suggestions are always welcome here:

Albuquerque
Coaches Sports Grill
1414 Central Avenue SE | (505) 242-7111
Website | Google Map

Ames
Welch Avenue Station
207 Welch Avenue | (515) 292-2334
Website | Google Map

Ann Arbor
Scorekeepers
310 Maynard Street | (734) 995-0100
Reviews | Google Map

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By JOHN P.‪ WISE
One Great Season

Just hours before Terrelle Pryor's Ohio State Buckeyes begin their quest for a national championship Thursday night against Marshall, I've re-evaluated my take on the quarterback's Heisman candidacy.

Pryor, who's somehow spent fall camp going from mere Heisman contender to frontrunner in the eyes of experts, definitely will not win college football's highest honor come December.

During his freshman and sophomore seasons, writers often referred to him as a dual-threat quarterback, but that gave him twice as much credit as he deserved. Just because a quarterback was able to beat you with his feet doesn't make him doubly dangerous. In order to fit that description, he still has to beat you with his arm, and Pryor seldom did that in 2008-09.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Of all the tight races expected in college football this year, and there will be many, the PAC 10 looks to be the most wide open.

Depending on injuries, luck and a bounce or two here or there, any one of seven teams could conceivably win the conference in 2010. Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Arizona, California, Stanford and even a depleted USC team will contend for the league's BCS bowl bid.

Four of these teams will be led by star quarterbacks. Washington's Jake Locker has been touted as a potential No. 1 NFL draft pick for two years now. Stanford's Andrew Luck, only a sophomore, is a legitimate Heisman candidate and many think he'll continue to flourish under popular coach Jim Harbaugh despite the loss of Toby Gerhart.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Among power conferences, the Big East has become the butt of jokes in some college football circles, but what folks overlook is that it's actually been a pretty good league.

Thanks to three different teams, the Big East has had five squads finish in the AP top 10 in the last five years. The PAC 10, thanks mostly to USC, also has produced five and the ACC, the league to which former Big East brothers Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech bolted, has sent only three teams to such a lofty perch over that period.

Remember 2006, when Rutgers, West Virginia and Louisville all were ranked in the top 10 with a combined record of 25-2 at one point in November? That same week, only the mighty SEC had a comparable mark, with Florida, Arkansas and LSU also among the AP elite at 26-4. Not bad company.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

ESPN host Rece Davis had a very nice answer Wednesday to the age-old question, "Does anybody have a bigger bag of hate mail at ESPN than Mark May?"

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

After the Capital One Cup announcement Wednesday, the advisory board members were nice enough to make themselves available for one-on-one interviews. Thank goodness for that, because otherwise I'd never have learned that ESPN host Rece Davis can do a decent Lou Holtz impression.

Davis, who seemed a quite likable fellow, doesn't stay with the impression too long, but shared some other tidbits about Dr. Lou's game-day footwear and his preferred smoking apparatus.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

"What's in your wallet?" is the question asked in those terrible Capital One viking commercials, but thanks to the credit-card company, two universities each year will be able to answer it with one simple reply:

"Two hundred thousand dollars."

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EXTRA: Images From Today's Announcement

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Corporate sponsor Capital One and the NCAA have teamed up to create the Capital One Cup, which will be awarded every July to the most accomplished men's and women's athletic programs. Each of the winning schools will receive a check for $200,000.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I'm certain that I'll be leaving some sites off this list entirely by accident. This is my first college football season with the new laptop, and I told myself six weeks ago, when I started to plan the OGS college football preseason section, that I didn't want to import my Favorites from the old computer; I wanted to collect a great group of sites a little more organically.

Obviously, many of the sites listed below weren't new discoveries; overall, these are many of the best sites in college football. In addition to the regular five-star sites, however, I did stumble across a few new gems ... and I keep going back!

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Even without Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska's defense will again be outstanding enough to win the Big 12 North in 2010, and the South will again come down to Texas-Oklahoma.

Just in case the Longhorns and Sooners feel like phoning things in, however, Texas A&M will play the role of the third wheel this season and is quite capable of surprising one of those teams.

But that's just it; Oklahoma is pretty darned hungry after last year's injury-plagued 8-5 debacle, so it's hard to see the Sooners take even one play off in 2010.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

You've read the five things that will happen in college football this season. Now here are a few guarantees of things that won't happen in 2010.

1. The talk about Joe Paterno's age or health will not end.

2. Jeremiah Masoli won't be a backup for long. Mississippi coach Houston Nutt knew his decision to bring in the former Oregon star would be controversial, so why keep him on the bench?

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Everyone likes to make what they call their bold or fearless predictions before a new college football season begins. OGS, however, is not in the business of making predictions. We do, however, enjoy sharing the following truths with you, listed in no particular order:

1. Michigan will win seven games and advance to a lower-tier bowl and that will buy coach Rich Rodriguez another year.

2. A sophomore will again win the Heisman Trophy. Between Stanford's Andrew Luck, Pittsburgh's Dion Lewis, Virginia Tech's Ryan Williams and Oregon's LaMichael James, there are Heisman votes aplenty.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Many friends and even strangers have asked over the last few months about the One Great Season book. My college football tour last year was the best thing I've done in my life and certainly worth a larger-scale effort, but the truth is, there will not be a book.

I'm very excited, however, to share the kinds of stories that would have gone into a book right here on this site every Monday. Each week I'll describe to you as personally as I can what that tour was like. The stories won't all be about football. Instead, I'll let you know what kinds of successes or failures I encountered as an unemployed guy on the road trying to find his way around America all by himself for four months.

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By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

There's been plenty of offseason talk about the Big Ten's strong showing during last winter's bowl season and how it might be a harbinger for the league's fortunes in 2010.

It was indeed a noteworthy change to see Ohio State and Iowa win BCS bowls, as well as to see Wisconsin surprise Miami and Penn State top LSU from the almighty SEC.

But those games were a long time ago. By the time these squads take the field for their season openers this week, eight months will have passed. By now, no one cares what you did for Christmas.

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