This week, a little small ball.

This Week's List
• Since predicting who is going to be "this year's Boise State" seems to be the parlor game of choice in college football, how about this: Boise State is the next Boise State.

• So, the way it looks from here, their next opponent is either a country singer or a first-growth Bordeaux: Appalachian State plays Lenoir-Rhyne this week.

• OK, everybody, Fred has spoken -- cancel all the newspaper and television coverage for the rest of the year: Lenoir-Rhyne coach Fred Goldsmith -- that's head coach to you -- told the viewers of "First Take" that everybody should just leave Lloyd Carr and the Michigan players alone.

• Another thing you can learn from watching "First Take": Troy head coach Larry Blakeney taught me some new word usage -- he says Florida's football team is "well-personneled."

• In other words, roll your pant legs up and get to work: Joe Paterno made good on his May promise to make his team clean up Beaver Stadium after home games this year as punishment for a group of them getting into an off-campus fight in April.

• If this guy ends up being considered for the Heisman, he should get a couple of points for his coach's sportsmanship: Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan didn't play in the second half against Northern Colorado, even though he could have stayed in and finished with eight or nine touchdowns.

• And now we take you so far inside the huddle you're going to have to spend a second picking the grass out of your mouthpiece: If USC's pass rush doesn't get any better than it was Saturday night against Idaho, there might be two or three teams with a good chance of knocking off the Trojans.

• And foremost among them: Cal.

• The opening weekend of the NFL, with all the pomp and fanfare and hype and overhype, except for: Detroit at Oakland.

• Now that JaMarcus Russell and his agent have taken their guaranteed-money beef into the regular season, when do we get to start asking this question: Is he on his way to becoming one of the worst draft picks ever?

• If you close your eyes and pretend real hard, you can almost remember the days of Keith Jackson doing "Monday Night Baseball": On Monday the Yankees started Roger Clemens, who was relieved by Mike Mussina.

• He plays it real cool during and after the games, but you get the idea he goes home every night and laughs for about 45 minutes straight: Greg Maddux, 11-9 with a 3.75 ERA.

• Sounds like a really contrived idea for a housing development outside of Green Bay, Wis.: The Football Championship Subdivision, in which Appalachian State and the other former Div. I-AA teams compete.

• Apparently, for all this time Big Z has been thinking baseball fans are unique in their altruism, philanthropy and overriding concern for their fellow man: After another poor outing, Carlos Zambrano answered those Wrigley fans who commemorated his loss with boos by saying, "They showed me today they just care about them."

• As any woman can tell you, it's an age-old problem: Zambrano seems to be just another guy who wants to be shown love but doesn't see the need to show it back.

• Nostalgia corner: C.C. Sabathia's success head-to-head against Johan Santana recalls Dave Stewart's mastery of Roger Clemens.

• Why it's not easy being Bochy: With Barry Bonds and his historically bad defense and baserunning being phased out by the Giants, fans who go to the games -- sometimes paying beefed-up ticket prices as part of a Bonds package -- have a reason to be chafed.

• This is clearly an improvement, since its old drug policy consisted of standing next to a coffin and denying there's a problem: The WWE suddenly discovered that 10 of its wrestlers were in violation of the organization's wellness/drug policy.

• A cynic might suggest that we're dealing with a guy who has an unquenchable need to be noticed: Tiki Barber has written a book in which he claims he might still be playing if Tom Coughlin wasn't coaching the Giants, and that he saved Coughlin's job with his performance last year.

• Further Barber revelations coming to a medium near you: (1) He told Joe Namath what to say before Super Bowl III, (2) He negotiated the merger between the NFL and AFL, and (3) He advised the 49ers to draft Joe Montana in the third round of the 1979 draft.

• If I were Ned Yost, I'd have a hard time deciding whether I should ask for a raise or sell my house: Brewers owner Mark Attanasio gave a statement Monday stating his confidence in manager Ned Yost and wondering why more people aren't asking him whether he's going to pick up Yost's option for 2009, but then he said he couldn't guarantee Yost would be back in 2008.

• And finally, here's a programming idea: Mark Attanasio -- "Fact or Fiction -- or Both?"

Tim Keown is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Sound off to Tim here.