A few items of note from around the college football world…

Ivan Maisel reports that USC does not encourage freshmen “going Booty” and enrolling early on campus. Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian thinks that instead of burying themselves in the Trojan playbook, 17- and 18-year-olds’ priorities should lie elsewhere:

“I think your senior year of high school, that time of your life, enjoy it,” Sarkisian said. “Go to prom. Go to winter formal. Play baseball, whatever you do.”

He added, “You’ll ride the pine like Booty did, but yeah, follow your heart, enjoy those high school girls, do whatever you want, we don’t care. Slacker.”

After talk that the storied rivalry would take a hiatus, Michigan-Notre Dame will remain on the schedule through 2031, by which point the Irish would have finally paid off Charlie Weis’s extension and the Big House will have a capacity of 465,000.

Thanks to Fanblogs for bring to our attention the lofty goals Randy Shannon has set for his first season at Miami. They may have taken the last names off the Hurricanes’ jerseys and banned guns from the program, but Luther Campbell is back and they’re aiming for the big prize in Coral Gables.

”We’ve made a commitment to get it done . . .,” Shannon said. “This team is enthusiastic. We’re excited. With you guys coming on like you did today, this is going to be a great year, where all we’re thinking about are championships — not ACC championships, the national championship!”

We won’t know they’re really serious about restoring tradition to The U until they show up wearing combat fatigues.

Indiana tight end Blake Powers was busted for hitting a cop with a water balloon. He came to Bloomington as a QB but switched to tight end, and after this showcase of accuracy, look for the Hoosiers to return him to his original position.

And on to the Les Miles segment of the program…

The good news for LSU is that they’re the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC. The bad news, as Scooter Hobbs of the Lake Charles American Press points out, is that the favorite never wins the conference. Did LSU just get the kiss of death? It’s a good thing Les Miles is a mild-mannered guy who takes things in stride and never shoots off his mouth, otherwise he’d have some choice words for those voters.

Not everybody down south is convinced that Lester will bring another SEC banner home to Baton Rouge. Columnist Stephen Dawkins of the Clanton (Alabama) Advertiser thinks they have one obvious weakness.

L.S.U.’s biggest liability is their head coach. Les Miles has recruited lots of good players during his two-year tenure, but my dog, Lucy, would probably have some success in this area as well because of the number of prospects in the state of Louisiana who have only one choice if they want to stay in the state and go to a college with a major football program. Also, despite having the conference’s best array of talent during his stay, Miles has found a way to lose two games each of his seasons in Baton Rouge.

Not that a columnist from the state of Alabama would be biased in any way toward LSU.

You may have heard some not-so-flattering comments Miles made about Alabama a few months back. He feels really bad about that:

“At the end of a recruiting season when there was some hearsay and innuendo, I had an emotional reaction,” Miles said. “I regret any choice of words that I made. I am in no way trying to be derogatory towards Alabama. I look forward to competing with Alabama and their head coach.”

He’s not done backpeddlin,’ though. He says he was just showing his SEC pride when he took a shot at the “juggernauts” of the Pac-10:

“I don’t feel like I called out USC in any way,” he said. “I was just sticking up for the quality of the SEC. I just think it’s easier to [get to the BCS championship] from a conference that does not have a championship game.”

In all seriousness, Miles is one of the most entertaining coaches in the game, one of the few who actually speaks his mind. Just imagine what he’d say if he actually won his conference, or even the national championship. His head would probably explode… and still find a way to talk trash.

The alleged burglary saga of UCLA receivers coach Eric Scott continues, as his attorney Milton Grimes says he wasn’t involved in any crime.

Grimes said Scott, wearing a UCLA sweatshirt and shower shoes, was in the car, parked “two doors down” because of crowded parking on that part of Pioneer Boulevard, while he waited for two others, Jesus DeAlba and Timothy Williams, both of whom were also arrested.

How very L.A.: even alleged robbers have trouble finding a parking spot. Too bad they shut down that UCLA handicapped parking placard cartel.

And finally…

Staying with our friends in Westwood, we bring you this immensely entertaining SI profile of UCLA’s star basketball recruit Kevin Love. Reading the story we couldn’t imagine what would have convinced him to go to UCLA. Maybe it’s the beaches?

“I’ve never been to Malibu before,” admits Love, the nation’s best high school basketball player and newest member of the UCLA Bruins. “It’s an amazing beach this house is crazy. The sunshine is great, the food is great, the women are great, everything is great right now .”

Or maybe it’s the proximity to Hollywood?

His first taste of the off-the-court limelight came a couple weeks ago when he walked the red carpet at the ESPYS, posed for photographers and talked to reporters who asked him the obligatory “who are you wearing” questions after he had been named the Gatorade national high school athlete of the year.”… “Walking the red carpet and experiencing what that was really a shock for the first time, but I think I could get used to that,” he said. “It was a lot of fun going out there and meeting different stars. I got to meet Candace Parker. She’s very fine, very good looking. The women there were great.”

He gets in a nice jab at Matt Leinart, but maybe it was the chance to follow in Leinart’s footsteps and excel in the nation’s number one college sports media market?

His comfort level around celebrities in these plush settings almost resembles that of a certain USC Trojan that once ruled this town. “Hopefully I could do it big like Matt Leinart but not get in trouble with my girlfriend like he did,” said Love. “I’ll take what he got. As far as that goes, I’m going to take whatever comes to me and see what happens. The women out here are very nice, there’s a lot to choose from.”

Memo to Steve Sarkisian: maybe those high school kids willing to bypass prom aren’t coming out to L.A. early just to learn your playbook.

Twenty nine days until the season begins…