The Wiz of Odds

Maryland's Heyward-Bey Fastest of the Fast

The NFL job fair known as the scouting combine ended its six-day run Tuesday and as always, there were several interesting developments.

One came in the 40-yard dash, where Darrius Heyward-Bey of Maryland, pictured above, smoked the field with a time of 4.3 seconds. The only players to come close to that time were Mike Wallace of Mississippi (4.33) and Johnny Knox of Abilene Christian (4.34).

Offensive guard Louis Vasquez of Texas Tech was tops in the bench press, lifting the 225 pounds 39 times. Defensive tackle Terrance Taylor of Michigan was second with 37 reps. One interesting note: USC kicker David Buehler had more reps (25) than 27 offensive linemen, including Mississippi's Michael Oher (21).

Because It's Never Too Early to Sell Tickets

Hawaii brings back Davone Bess, Colt Brennan and Ryan Grice-Mullen to crank up ticket sales for 2009. Thanks to the UH Football Blog.

Reporters Notebooks

Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times: USC's Pete Carroll is the highest-paid private university employee in the U.S. in 2006-07, with a salary of $4.4 million, four times as much as university president Steven B. Sample, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. "I'm humbled by it," Carroll said of his position atop the national list.

Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times: The window of opportunity for Carroll and Florida's Urban Meyer to jump to the NFL has apparently closed with the league's current trend of hiring inexperienced and relatively inexpensive coaches who can relate to players better than the high-profile leaders with the whopping price tags.

Adam Pruiett, Northwest Florida Daily News: Tim Tebow helped raise money last weekend for charities by auctioning off a package of four tickets to the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville. Tebow got $5,500 for the tickets, sealing the deal by saying: "Four tickets to come watch us beat Georgia again."

Ferd Lewis, Honolulu Advertiser: More trouble ahead for Hawaii's athletic department. Despite a $300,000 surplus for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, an auditor's report showed an accumulated net deficit of $5.4 million compiled over a five-year period. Athletic director Jim Donovan has said the current fiscal year, ending June 30, may run a deficit of an additional $3 million.

Shandel Richardson, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Miami opens spring practice Tuesday with the spotlight on quarterback Jacory Harris, who becomes the full-time starter after sharing duties last season with Robert Marve. What to watch.

Mitch Sherman, Omaha World Herald: David Oku, a top running back recruit from Midwest City, Okla., transferred three months before he was scheduled to graduate. He's now enrolled at Lincoln East High in Nebraska. Tennessee, Auburn, Mississippi and Syracuse are still trying to sign Oku.

Texas Continues to Crank Out the Quarterbacks

In the past three recruiting classes, 73 quarterbacks from Texas have signed with Division I-A teams. And 15 of the teams that finished in the top 25 this past season signed quarterbacks from the Lone Star State in the past three recruiting classes.

This fabulous bit of information comes from Map Game Day, which plugs the recruiting data provided by Division I-A teams into a database and produces a visual representation using Google maps like the one above.

After the jump are two charts that list the quarterbacks.

Reporters Notebooks

Michael Rothstein, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Former Penn State receiver Derrick Williams said Nittany Lion players are scared that Joe Paterno might actually die on the field. "The things that spook us out as players is that we think Joe is going to be buried on the field," he said. "Everyone is going to come to the stadium and if he does go, it's just going to be a big funeral at the stadium."

Dwain Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Mike Leach scored big on all four sticking points that nearly derailed his stay in Lubbock. The Texas Tech coach's new deal does not include a buyout clause and he can interview for another position without getting permission from athletic director Gerald Myers or chancellor Kent Hance. Pdf of new contract.

Gil Lebreton, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Leach launched an air attack to get what he wanted, appearing on TV to outsmart his boss, Myers.

Tom Kirkendall, Houston's Clear Thinkers: It wasn't the best of weeks for International Marketing Group, which nearly cost Leach his job.

Brent Schrotenboer, San Diego Union-Tribune: Former San Diego State coach Chuck Long is now working on "projects" and "analysis" for the university. His contract called for him to be reassigned at SDSU if he were fired as coach — hence his new job. Thanks to Mike.

Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: Plenty of cupcakes to go around in the Big Ten. Penn State has an awful lineup of Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois. Northwestern is not much better with Miami (Ohio), Towson, at Syracuse and Eastern Michigan. Michigan trots out Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan and Delaware State.

Angela Pattersom, Tennessean: The Music City Bowl has paid the price for inviting the hometown Vanderbilt Commodores and Boston College to the 2008 game. Officials announced the game had a $9.97 million impact on the local economy — a decrease of more than $17 million from 2007's bowl. "It was really a worst-case scenario," said Scott Ramsey, Music City Bowl president. "You have a home team, a team that doesn't travel and a bad economy."

Don MeCoy, Oklahoman: The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to auction a slew of Oklahoma memorabilia that was part of property seized for back taxes. Footballs signed by Barry Switzer, the 2000 national championship team and Jamelle Holieway are among the treasures to be offered.

The 2009 Map Game Day Guide to Recruiting

Where do all the recruits who signed earlier this month with Big 12 teams come from? As you can see from this map, a majority the players are clustered in the backyards of Big 12 teams. It's part of Map Game Day's 2009 guide to recruiting.

Each year, Richard Crout of Map Game Day plugs the recruiting data provided by Division I-A teams into a database and produces a visual representation using Google maps. The database allows you to search by team, state or conference and produce a Google map. You can click on any blue pincushion and get data on a specific recruit.

We have four charts to help break down the information.