"If Penn State makes it to Miami I'd be happy to drive.  I've got a hell of a good shortcut -- right through Savannah along the water." - W.T. SHERMAN

Systematic pirates of innovation that we are, The Rivalry, Esq. is borrowing a page from our Secsch friends at Team Speed Kills.  Each week we'll feature the best our team specific bloggers have to offer in neatly-packaged abstractions.

"It could have been worse."

That's what Around the Oval had to say about Ohio State's tight rope loss to Penn State.  ATO's coverage does a particularly nice job of excavating the controversial aspects of Buckeye play: why Boeckman sat, why Pryor is too hard on himself, if Offensive Coordinator Jim Bollman should take a hike, the defensive dexterity, Ray Small's thesbian tendencies, and the crowd pleasers.  If you're a Buckeye fan that still feels sour in the wake of Saturday's shortcomings, this is as good as Zantac.

"Those blowouts were compelling in ways words cannot describe, wins that were positively Wittgensteinian."

Black Heart, Gold Pants makes the most of a bye week by marinating and barbecuing Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times for making "too many stupid statements for a generic response."  Admittedly, we're all sort of hung up on this whole stand-up-for-the-conference crusade.  But, as long as you're in the mood, this is killer fodder.

"Who are these douchebags?"

After an afternoon in an ice-bath, the boys from Black Shoe Diaries stage a pre-emptive attack on the Texas Longhorns in true if you can't beat 'em, join 'em fashion.  The Hate Manual is chack full of all sorts of nasty preconditions: like, if Penn State faces the Horn's for it all, should they abandon the Spread HD and go to the run to keep the ball out of Colt McCoy's greasy fingers?

"I don't think so."

Says Maize n Brew on the subject of a potential Cal/Michigan rivalry.  Don't get them wrong: the 6-packs like the Golden Bear uniforms, Jahvid Best, even Berkeley.  It's just Michigan Men don't have to travel west of the Mississippi to get action.  Scandalous?  Just wait until you read the kicker: California isn't "loss worthy."  Hey Elaine, how about a sponge? 

"I would have expected this incredible start to translate into more verbal commitments than we could handle."

The Daily Gopher, sneaks a peek at the future of Rodent Recruiting.  Although the committment floodgates haven't opened just yet, GopherNation remains cautiously optimistic.  Check out his Top 10 wish list.  And it's not even December.