(USA Today Sports Images)Mostly, we think of Alabama's Nick Saban as a football coaching robot. And he plays it up many times.

There are always those weird attempts by certain media outlets to portray him as a normal happy-go-lucky guy, and Saban awkwardly grits his teeth and gets through it. Then he'll answer another question about how he refuses to take any days off or sit through another feature on how he didn't smile through the Gatorade bath at the title game, and move on.

He's not a secretly joyous practical joker. He's a focused, intense individual. That's how he presents himself in just about every setting. It works for him and his profession. But, this week we are seeing a bit of his human side.

Florida assistant Tim Davis referred to Saban, who he worked under for three years, as "the devil himself." And even though Saban never likes to show emotions, having a former assistant say that clearly hurt him.

"It's just disappointing," Saban said, according to The Sports Xchange. "If somebody has a problem with me, I'd appreciate it if they'd tell me. If I'm doing something to offense somebody, I'd certainly like to do whatever I have to do to fix it. It's not our intention. It's not what we try to do. We're in a tough business. It's very competitive. Sometimes you've got to demand that people do things that maybe they don't want to do, but it's not personal."

Saban appeared on the

(USA Today Sports Images)Since finishing one of the greatest college football careers of the past couple decades, Vince Young has been a bit of a lightning rod.

He started his NFL career in a promising way, winning the NFL offensive rookie of the year award. And it never really got much better after that. Due to some admitted immaturity, Young clashed with Titans coach Jeff Fisher, and his departure from the Titans was messy. His most memorable moment during his season in Philadelphia was a regrettable "dream team" comment, and he was cut by Buffalo before last season started. He's still trying to make a comeback but hasn't gotten a team to give him a chance yet.

But whatever has happened with Vince Young since he left Texas, he's providing a good example for all college football players. One day before his 30th birthday, Young will walk across the stage and graduate from the University of Texas.

About to get this workout in before my big graduation day thanks for everyone who supported me through the good and bad. HookEm

— Vince Young (@VinceYoung) May 17, 2013

Young had a heck of a football career at Texas, including a starring role in one of the sport's all-time great games, the national title win against USC. But he told

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We shouldn't be all that surprised when an elite athlete performs a feat in another sport that most people aren't capable of.

Still, seeing Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel hit a batting practice home run before a Padres game at Petco Park (which, by the way, has the reputation of being the toughest park in the big leagues to hit home runs) is pretty remarkable.

Johnny Football might just be Johnny Everything.

Here's the video of Manziel's home run, from the Twitter feed of his quarterbacks coach George Whitfield Jr.:

(USA Today Sports Images)The Big Ten is perceived as the old curmudgeon on the college football block by many, and in some ways perception is important.

The Big Ten is looked at as a run-first league without much "SEC speed." When Joe Tiller came with his spread/bubble screen heavy offense to Purdue many years ago, some viewed it like they would if a spaceship landed in their front yard. Rich Rodriguez tried bringing his own spread offense to Michigan, and he was pretty quickly run out of town when it didn't work. Not one Big Ten quarterback was among the FBS' top 27 in passing yards last year. On the other hand, three players had more than 350 rushing attempts in FBS last year, and two were from the Big Ten.

The uniforms remain mostly unchanged. For most teams, a game from 1992 doesn't look much different than a game from 2012 (you can add a joke about Big Ten offenses here). And there's something good about that, but there's a downside too. Tradition might be the name of the game in the Big Ten, but there's a reason Oregon attracts a lot of recruits. Even the entire Legends and Leaders division name debacle was mocked mostly because it seemed like it would fit better in the 1950s. Other conferences are Les and Nick, this one is still Bo and Woody. Tradition is great, but it doesn't always resonate with high-school recruits or students who come out to games.

At least one Big Ten athletic director seems to realize that the conference might need to spice things up a bit to get away from that reputation of being stodgy.

(USA Today Sports Images)While there's debate about which side is right in the latest Penn State controversy, one clear outcome was coach Bill O'Brien sounded very unhappy to be talking about it.

While talking to reporters on a conference call about a Sports Illustrated story that claims changes in Penn State's medical staff have resulted in worse care for athletes, O'Brien's voice was raised for most of his answers. He sounded angry. Perplexed. Emotional. Defensive. Frustrated. He got so angry at one point he asked the Penn State spokesman how many questions were left. He was told six remained. He snapped back that no, there would be just three more (though he ended up sticking around for some extras, even though he had his son's little league game to get to).

The call went on for almost 22 minutes. Ben Jones at StateCollege.com posted the audio clip of the conference call, so listen for yourself:

O'Brien stepped into perhaps the most difficult situation for a coach in recent college football history. Maybe ever. Penn State football not only had the crushing (and arguably unfair) NCAA sanctions from the Jerry Sandusky scandal, it placed itself in a position to be open to more scrutiny than most programs, especially after promising full transparency. And he was replacing a legend in Joe Paterno.

You have to wonder, as O'Brien has to answer questions about a controversy no other coach in America has dealt with this offseason, if the situation is even more difficult than he figured.

(@LSUHerbVin)

You probably went on a couple cool field trips in grade school, maybe to the zoo or an art museum.

Perhaps you had a field trip as great as the kids pictured above did, but it's doubtful.

LSU senior associate athletic director for external affairs (hopefully the kids didn't have to memorize his job title) Herb Vincent tweeted out some pictures of a first grade class having a field trip at Tiger Stadium.

The picture above of the kids running through the tunnel is about as good as it gets.

Memories of a lifetime for 1st graders: running out the chute in Death Valley @lsufootball twitter.com/LSUherbvin/sta…

— Herb Vincent (@LSUherbvin) May 15, 2013

This certainly was a stroke of genius for some adult to take the kids on a field trip they will never, ever forget. Now watch all the field trip requests that will pile into

Jacquese Kirk (Rivals.com)Nothing warms the heart like two football players from the same school getting together to talk about old times, at least until a fight starts and one stabs the other with a pocket knife.

Last month, according to a police report obtained by the Tennessean, then-Vanderbilt receiver Jacquese Kirk stabbed former Vanderbilt player Justin Cabbagestalk at a Nashville bar on April 7. News broke a week ago that Kirk was transferring, and now we know why.

No charges will be pressed and the case is considered closed because Cabbagestalk “wanted to let the matter die” and “would not assist in prosecution," the Tennessean said, referring to the police report. He suffered only minor injuries.

The trouble on April 7 started when Cabbagestalk, who the Tennessean said last played in 2010 (Kirk's first season with Vanderbilt was 2011), saw Kirk at The Tin Roof bar in Nashville.

According to the report, Kirk told police he saw Cabbagestalk, who made hand gestures at him across the bar. Cabbagestalk asked him to step around the corner to talk. Kirk claims Cabbagestalk hit or pushed him in the head after he declined, and the Tennessean explained what happened next:

According to the report, Kirk said he pulled out “a little pocket knife, stabbed the victim, closed the knife and put it back in his

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Brady Hoke's response to Notre Dame getting out of its series against Michigan was to lob some grade-school playground taunts at the Irish.

Notre Dame canceled games against Michigan from 2015-2017, and the Wolverines publicly responded that Notre Dame was solely responsible for that. The schools had previously agreed to not play in 2018 and 2019, and perhaps Hoke is trying to drum up interest in reviving the series after that.

"The Notre Dame game, that rivalry, which they're chickening out of," Hoke said during a West Michigan Sports Commission luncheon, according to MLive.com.

No word on whether Hoke strutted around calling, "Bwack, bwack, BWAAAAACK!" about the Irish (or if upon the mention of chicken he yelled out, "I ate the bones!").

"They're still gonna play Michigan State, they're gonna play Purdue, but they don't want to play Michigan," Hoke said, according to MLive.com. "I don't know how they made that decision ... I really do ... But anyway, that's a great national rivalry game. It's a great game."

Aside from the juvenile taunting, Hoke does have a point. The fact that the rivalry is going away is bad for everyone.

College football has precious few great non-conference rivalries, especially ones that play early in