These 8 p.m. kickoffs make for long days of waiting before kickoff, so for those of you not already inebriated beyond the point of blog-reading, I offer up all kinds of game-day links to help the hours pass like minutes -- nay, seconds!

-- Nobody gets Bulls fans in a tizzy like the Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi, who writes about the USF-WVU game and says that "boosters and fans don't really care if their school is recruiting questionable characters and taking academic risks. Not as long as those risks result in victories." I think Mike get some e-mails from this one.

-- National press clippings -- can you call stories that only appear online clippings? printings? -- continue to come in, such as SI.com's Austin Murphy,

-- West Virginia clips ... the Charleston Daily Mail talks to ESPN's Sean McDonough, who can boast actually visiting Jim Leavitt in the old trailers. McDonough says "Florida has been turned into kind of a four-school state." Columnist Jack Bogaczyk makes more cigar puns than you can snuff out! Hey, do you have Prince Albert in a can? I link to the Wheeling News-Register if only in amusement that they put (New York) before Yankees, so readers wouldn't confuse them with, um, generic Northern stereotypes.

-- Curious phrase of the day: the Ocala Star-Banner's Dwight Collins says USF is "no longer an illusion performed with smoke and mirrors." When exactly were the smoke-and-mirrors years?

-- More coverage from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, with a preview story from Alan Dell (the guy sits next to me in the press box, so I've got to throw him a link), from the Bradenton Herald's Bulls 101 story and George Selvie feature; and from the Lakeland Ledger, which has a great pic of the couch and clever sign "SAVE A COUCH. BEAT W.VA" that's been on a trailer driving around campus all week. Pat Zier tries to build a story around Jim Leavitt quotes, a challenge for any writer.