Golden Nuggets: Breaking Down ESPN's College Football Confidential

ESPN recently polled 135 (?) anonymous college football players and asked a variety of interesting questions.  The results are fishy, though; several of the numbers simply do not add up.  Either they're bad at percentages, or that is not the true size of their sample.  Anyway, they asked separate questions for each conference and these are some of the results from the Pac-10 players.  Based on the numbers, it looks like 9 Pac-10 players participated in the survey.

Here is some of what they said:

Best Coach: Jim Harbaugh, 4 of 9 voted for him (4 also voted for Harbaugh's team to win the Pac-10 this year).  On the converse, 3 of the 9 said Lane Kiffin is the last coach they'd ever play for.

Best Player: Jake Locker won with 3 votes.

Worst Mascot:  4 players said they wanted to get rid of the Tree.

Loudest Stadium: The Autzen Zoo, which earned 7 of the 9 votes.

Because the results are only available to ESPN Insider subscribers, Ted Miller did us a favor and posted some of the more interesting results.  Here's what he said about the national votes:

Turning to a national perspective, guess whose uniforms rate No. 1. 

This was an Oregon landslide (53.7 percent). One Big Ten star was particularly blown away. "I don't even have to think about that one," he says. "I almost wanted to transfer there just for those uniforms." As for worst unis, winner Wyoming's brown-and-yellow jerseys elicited 18.9 percent. Wonders one player: "The worst colors ever? What is that, piss and poop?"

Ah, the generation gap. Traditionalists make fun of Oregon's uniforms. But players love them. 

As for best coach, that's Alabama's Nick Saban, which I'd second, though Florida's Urban Meyer has to be 1B. But a Pac-10 coach did get mentioned. 

As for the last coach you'd ever want to play for, players aren't rooting for USC's Lane Kiffin (29.6 percent). "He's an awesome football coach," says one O-lineman. "But he took a program for one year, talked a lot, then left them out to dry."

After the jump Cal's revenue sports earn more radio coverage, the Ray Guy award (by mistake?) leaves Bryan Anger off the list, Wilner looks at Pac-10 revenue distributions, and, as usual, a variety of outlets report from practices four and five of fall camp, including yesterday's full-pads practice.

Football

• Cal has agreed on an extension with KGO, allowing the network to broadcast games through 2012.  KNEW will introduce some new Cal-related programming this season (click the link to find out where to listen to Cal football broadcasts throughout the state).  Meanwhile, broadcasts for men's basketball and women's basketball have found new homes on Bay Area radio.
• Practice #4:  Jeff Genyk continues to try to push the kickers to excel under pressure by involving the entire team and offering rewards (often, less running) for good performances.  Yarnway and Sofele split reps on the first team offense, as Vereen continued to sit out with a strained hamstring.  Vereen participated in light drills.  Nnabufie's performances continue to remove any doubt that he will start at cornerback this season.  Coleman Edmond and Jeremy Ross will likely return punts this season while Isi Sofele and Steve Williams will return kicks.  Linebacker-sized punter Jed Barnett was named the backup punter.
• Practice #5:  Wednesday featured the first full-pads practice.  Tedford said Yarnway and Sofele have begun to separate themselves from the rest of the RBs.  Tedford specifically mentioned Yarnway's power as a benefit in goal-line situations.  Conte and Cattouse talk about how the Pendergast defense will benefit the secondary this year.  Tedford and Mike Mohamed have singled out David Wilkerson and Nick Forbes as two freshman LBs who could make a push for playing time this season.  MikeyMo says about half of Pendergast's defensive playbook has been installed during fall camp.  Austin Hinder appeared to be the most impressive QB after Riley.
• Mike Mohamed talks about balancing football with the work of being a student at the Haas School of Business.
• Wilner has an interesting look at Pac-10 revenue and what it might mean for the division split.  In the two seasons 2007-08 and 2008-09, Cal came in at fourth in most revenue received from the conference (behind, in order, USC, Oregon, and UCLA).
• Ted Miller says Cal is in "great shape" with Bryan Anger as punter.  Despite being in the Ray Guy watch list the last two years (and being named a semi-finalist in 2008), Bryan Anger is nowhere to be found on the 2010 Ray Guy watch list.  Someone made a big oversight.
  
• Sports Illustrated provides a handy index of changes in bowl games starting this year.
• Mel Kiper chooses Cameron Jordan over Mike Mohamed as Cal's top pro prospect for the 2011 NFL Draft.
• ESPN poll explores players' opinions on a playoff.