College football news and notes

These days, there's more to college football than, well, football. There's marketing, of course, which seems more Playgirl than playbook. The Wall Street Journal reported on a growing trend: beefcake photos. At some schools, the newspaper reported, many players strip to their uniform pants and flex their pecs — often with a variety of exotic props. These unofficial team photos are printed in small numbers for the players. But lately, the pics have been surfacing — of course — on the Internet. Tennessee is credited for being one of the pec-shot pioneers. Last season, Eric Berry, now a safety with the Chiefs, posed shirtless with his pants unbuckled and a heavy chain around his neck as he leaned against the side of a Lamborghini borrowed from a local dealership. (Tennessee's then-strength coach said he wanted the car to symbolize the team's speed.) Last season, Georgia Tech players chose a Transformers theme. They posed around a yellow Camaro like the one that morphs in the movie. "I know for a fact that the girlfriends like it. Mine didn't complain," Tech C Sean Bedford said, adding his mom ordered 15 prints. Colts star QB Peyton Manning said that when he played for Tennessee, the players would arrive at the weight room early on photo day to make their muscles bulge. "There was a lot of baby oil involved," he said.

Butterflies are free to fly

Florida State's Jimbo Fisher makes his coaching debut today against Samford. And although he has maintained his transition from an assistant to the top job since Bobby Bowden left has been smooth, he expects to be nervous. As usual.

"There were butterflies every game I was the offensive coordinator," he said. "They'll definitely be butterflies when you're the head coach. … Like I tell our kids, hopefully, you always have nerves and you always have butterflies. That's part of why you play the game; the excitement and you want to do well. But if you've prepared for that situation, then you relax and go back on your preparation."

Brian Landman, Times staff writer

Geography 101

Today's USF opponent, Stony Brook, is a Division I-AA school from Long Island, N.Y. So obviously, it plays in …

The Big South?

This week, the Seawolves announced a four-year extension to remain a football-only member through 2015.

Stony Brook joined the Big South in 2008 after rejecting the Northeast Conference's new scholarship restrictions. The Big South needed to expand to have enough teams to get an automatic bid to the I-AA playoffs. Perfect, well, imperfect fit, but it works.

Stony Brook competes in the America East in other sports.

Retired Colonel sparks debate

A big, yellow-beaked bird known as Cocky will be the only mascot strutting along the sidelines when Mississippi takes the field today in Oxford.

And he's rooting for the other team.

The Rebels host Jacksonville State, and their fans had hoped to have a new mascot to succeed the long-gone Colonel Reb by the season opener.

It has been seven years since Colonel Reb — a caricature of an Old South planter — was kicked off the field as one of the South's oldest public universities sought to distance itself from plantation-era reminders.

The decision to find a successor to Colonel Reb set off heated discussions between those who viewed the gray-haired mascot as part of the school's heritage and those who were ready to move into a new era.

"Spirit is what college football is all about, and the mascot is one of those elements that makes it exciting," Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said. "It represents your school and, in particular, the students. I'm so glad our students are taking the lead in this process."

Information from the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal was used in this report.

A look at this week's college football scene. For more, check out colleges.tampabay.com.