That one guy from Oregon that punched the white guy from Boise State might return to the team that suspended him for his senior season. Running back LeGarrette Blount was suspended after punching Boise State lineman Byron Hout after his Oregon Ducks lost to the Broncos in their opening game at Boise.

Kelly planned to speak to the media “to discuss elements of his plan that has been in place with senior running back LeGarrette Blount that could include Blount’s potential reinstatement prior to the conclusion of the 2009 season,” the school said in a statement Friday.

The suspended running back will have an opportunity to be reinstated to the program later this season, provided he continues to follow a plan set in place after the first game, a source told ESPN on Thursday. via.

You mean to tell me that a football team is planning to reneg on the suspension of its best player? Well I never. But seriously, I don’t know if this removes the “undraftable” tag that some experts hung on him after the incident. Hell, you’re not drafting a dance class. I’m surprised Al Davis hasn’t tried to sign the kid already.

UPDATE: Blount has been suspended for the year; his career as an Oregon Duck is over. There’s always the UFL, kid.

It wasn’t bad enough that Oregon had to cost me money by marching out of Boise State with a bizarre 19-8 loss on ESPN last night. No, we had to watch some senior awesomely lose any sense of composure and totally coldcock some white guy. Yeah, running back LeGarrette Bounte, who ran for 1,000 yards last year by the way, basically ruined Byron Hout’s poop before almost coming to blows with his own teammates and being restrained from fans by stadium security. Lotta pride in that feller there, and one can only speculate how severely Oregon will act to discipline him.

“I tell you what, that will never happen again,” Blount continued. “I will never lose my head again. … I should have handled that situation a lot better than I did.” via.

But let’s not forget that this whole thing was touched off by Hout slapping Blount on the shoulder pad and getting into his ear. We can see Boise State head coach Chris Petersen returning the favor before Blount delivers a Nike swoosh of his own to Hout’s chin. Should Hout be suspended for touching a guy’s shoulder pads? No, he should be suspended for running his mouth without wearing his helmet. Stupidity like that deserves a punishment all its own.

Oh, and South Carolina won last night, 7-3. No. 19 Utah also won, and the rest of the games were kinda blah. Thanks, Joel, for the vid, and you’re right: Emilio Estevez would never let his Ducks do this.

The NCAA Football Bullsh`t Subdivision opens play tonight with a nine-game slate, headlined by No. 16 Oregon heading to the blue turf in Idaho to face No. 14 Boise State. Wow, Boise State’s ranked 14th? Since when does a non-power conference school start getting plaudits from the media? Anyway, the Oregon Ducks will look to avenge a loss to the Broncos from last September, one of three games Oregon lost in 2008. If Boise State wins, it will be their 50th consecutive regular-season win at home.

The Broncos return 12 starters - six on offense, six on defense - and that’s enough to make them the favorite to win their seventh WAC title in eight years. Coach Chris Petersen, though, just wants his team to concentrate on the Ducks.

“You win enough they’re going to pay attention to you,” said Petersen, who was the receivers coach at Oregon from 1995-2000. “You step out of your conference and play teams like that and you can get something done, you’ll make more of a statement, without question.” via.

Leading off tonight is South Carolina at North Carolina State at 7 PM Eastern, along with a handful of other games you probably don’t care about, and then the big tilt kicks off at 10:15 PM Eastern. And then two games on Friday and a full slate on Saturday. Football is here, everyone. And it’s about damn time.

There are benefits to having Nike as a marquee contributor to your athletic department. Like having three underwater treadmills, a waterfall, and a juice bar in your training center. That is a training center, right, and not some posh Portland hangout? That looks like the kind of place where they’d hand me a white terricloth robes that are more expensive than half the clothing I own, and then some 19-year-old Swedish girl puts rocks on my back. Hey, what’s the deal, Ingrid? Do I look like a Japanese Zen garden to you? via.

Nike’s proud tradition of visually raping Oregon football fans continues for another season, as the Ducks athletic department has just rolled out another uniform set for the 2009 season. And these things have wings! Just like your little sister’s sanitary napkin. And lemme guess, these new unis are like 12.2 percent lighter or something and I’m supposed to care.

Laminate anti-abrasion shoulder reinforcement, in the form of wings, takes the place of “diamond plate” on the current jersey, a 200-percent savings in weight differential between materials. A lighter weight fabric has also been introduced for non-critical panels, trimming the weight from 7.46 ounces down to 5.5 as 75-percent of the panels from last year’s jersey have been replaced.

Just think of all the times that 2 ounces came between a team and the national championship. Oh, and the Ducks have two white sets of jerseys this year. And they have a new helmet style they’re calling “carbon,” which, I hate to say it, kicks all kinds of ass. Look at it. That’s a helmet I want to drive through somebody’s chest. Good job, Oregon. You, the proverbial blind squirrel, have found your polypropylene acorn.

|via Juiced Sports|

I actually kinda watched part of last night’s Holiday Bowl, and it wasn’t not entertaining.  For something on in the background, anyway.  For those of you who had better things to do, Oregon rallied to score five second-half touchdowns in beating Oklahoma State, 42-31.

I include the video highlights above because three of the TDs are pretty sweet: Jeremiah Johnson’s 76-yard run, quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s safety-flattening 41-yard score (one of his three rushing TDs), and the game-sealing 29-yard run by LeGarrette Blount, who hurdled a defender, then carried several more on his back the final ten yards into the end zone. Good stuff. Also, anything bad that happens to the state of Oklahoma has to be good. How else could I love tornadoes so much?