CHARLIE TUSSLE

"WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!" (minus the "H", "O", "U" and "E")

John Masters and Jesse Miller are the Michigan State players who helped running back Javon Ringer protect the "S" at midfield from any attempted flag plantings at the conclusion of Saturday night's game. I don't think Ringer needed the help for two reasons:

1. No attempt was made
2. Ringer is a black belt in karate.

On a somewhat related note, there's this new feature on si.com called "Jump the Q" in which NBC's Bob Costas poses questions to Sports Illustrated senior writer Jeff MacGregor. In last week's edition, it was Costas who mused about the fact that in any ninja movie, even though the ninjas have the hero outnumbered 50 to 1, they always have the courtesy to converge on the hero one at a time. He wondered how come they all don't attack at once. I was wondering the same thing about the Irish defense in the first half on Saturday.

AND YOU THOUGHT FOOTBALL POLLS WERE RIDICULOUS

Last week the ND sports information department sent out a note informing us that on Google's list of "most popular searches", Brady Quinn was No. 10 (fitting, eh?). That sounds impressive until you read who was No. 9: Dana Plato. Whatchoo talkin' bout?, indeed.

FRIDAY NIGHT SIGHTS

Have you noticed that NBC has not one but two new shows that are centered around what happens on Friday nights? I'm talking about "Studio 60" and "Friday Night Lights". Meanwhile, this Friday, NBC has an all-new edition of my favorite break-out comedy of the summer, "To Catch a Predator". That's the show in which Chris Hanson walks a tightrope between being Christopher Meloni ("Law and Order: SVU") and Ashton Kutcher ("Punk'd") as he helps trap would-be pedophiles.
The highlight of that show for me so far was when the cop suited up in the camouflage bush outfit in order to nab the pedophile as he fled the house. Was that really necessary? I mean, c'mon.
I'm hoping for a sweeps weeks special of "To Catch a Predator" in which Debbie Lafave voices the role of the teenage girl. Who would not want to see this?