Smokey Links: Bo Pelini and John Daly

Here's a collection of items and stories from around the World Wide Web:

Illinois State football coach Brock Spack found his new starting place-kicker at Kinnick Stadium.

I saw Sean (Slattery) and said ‘that guy's from my hometown (Rockford) and he's pretty good,' Spack said in The Pantagraph. They didn't have a scholarship for him, so we recruited him right off that camp.

From the same newspaper, Illinois State linebacker Teddy Corwin is both a terrific linebacker and a fun guy.

Former Nebraska coach Bo Pelini wouldn't talk to Dirk Chatelain of the Omaha World-Herald when Dirk was in Youngstown, Ohio recently, where Pelini is the new head coach at Youngstown State.

Did it matter? Not really. This story is well worth your time.

Six Big Ten Network and BTN.com folks held a Big Ten fantasy draft. Each person picked a quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver, a tight end, a kicker and a defensive player.

Of the 36 slots, just one was filled by an Iowa player, tight end Jake Duzey. Who still is on the mend from a knee injury.

And two Ohio State quarterbacks were among the six selected.

Here's a pretty damning opinion piece in the New York Times by Joe Nocera entitled 'Baylor, Football and the Rape Case of Sam Ukwuachu.'

Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood could be in hot water. (Groan.)

'It's about Kyle trying to circumvent the process and trying to get the kid (player Nadir Barnwell) eligible,'' a university official told NJ Advance Media.

This story is almost two weeks old, but I can't recommend it enough.

Former Wisconsin and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland walked away from football while he could. ESPN.com's Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada have written quite a profile of Borland.

Some knucklehead wrote an essay for PersuadeIowa.com called 'A Rocky Path in the Granite State.”

If you've been waiting for that moment to cap your experiences on Earth, perhaps this is it: John Daly sings 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door.”

Daly collapsed at a Mississippi golf tourney last week and was diagnosed as having a collapsed lung. Part of his response in this USA Today story:

'They thought I had a heart attack. But I only smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, not three, so I'll be all right.”