It looks like Chris Bell has sort of landed on his feet in Norfolk State closer to where he grew up in southern Virginia. And it appears he has his act together having learned from his mistakes. He's also become quite the philosopher.

Bell says he's ready to make a fresh start.

"I was sitting in history class the other day going over Socrates and Plato, reading, 'No human intentionally tries to do wrong,' " the junior said as he prepared for 7-on-7 drills. "I rebelled and I acted out there, but I also learned a lot.

"This is the first blemish ever on my record."

Except for that HUB fight thing this is the first blemish ever on his record. Oh, and there was the little thing about getting suspended from the team for poor grades. Other than those things this was the first blemish ever on his record.

"I don't have anything bad to say about Penn State," Bell said. "Being at Penn State, you have to do a lot of things. I think I was only doing about 75 percent of it. I would go to class, do my work, but really, I wasn't interested. Because I wasn't interested, I wasn't motivated."

Devon Still is thankful that Chris Bell wasn't motivated enough to finish out that last 25%.

This Just In: Paterno Old

Another day, another article about Joe Paterno's age. This one comes from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, though it does have a few interesting bits. Among them, the assistant coaches are out there telling high school coaches and players that the next Penn State head coach is already on the current staff.

"The last four years, Penn State has really been cleaning up down here and it's all because of Larry Johnson," said Oxon Hill High School coach Kevin Wolfolk, whose receiver, Brandon Felder, is among the verbal commitments for 2009.

Wolfolk, whose parents are from Pittsburgh, played for Penn State offensive coordinator Galen Hall in the Arena Football League. Wolfolk believes Johnson would be a good choice to replace Paterno.

"The answer Larry gave us when we asked was that they were going to promote from within, but he didn't give us any hints," Wolfolk said. "Brandon, his family and I are comfortable with all the assistant coaches there. As long as those pieces stay in place, I believe it's going to be fine."

They also managed to score some quotes from Eric Shrive, who gives insight into what some other programs are saying about Paterno and Penn State.

Shrive had 32 scholarship offers and made 12 visits. He said a few schools weren't too kind to Paterno or Penn State.

"On some of my visits, schools tried to put both of them down," he said. "I told them I didn't like negative recruiting and it stopped, but it was too late. Penn State is two hours away from me and it was an easy choice.

"You can't base your decision on whether coach Paterno's going to be there or not. You have to realize that anywhere you go, you can play for a guy who's 40 years old, and he gets an NFL offer, and the next day he's gone and he's not there for you, either. This is a similar situation."

It's Official: Duke Sucks

Several years ago the fine universities of Duke and Louisville signed an agreement to play four football games against each other. The first game was played in 2002 with Louisville winning in big fashion, 40-3. The remaining three games were supposed to be played in 2007, 2008, and 2009, but Duke pulled out of the series prior to their game last year leaving Louisville scrambling to find an opponent. Not surprisingly, the Cardinals were upset about losing their sure fire wins and having to find a replacement at the last minute, so they took Duke to court seeking $450,000 in damages. But Duke used an interesting argument in court.

A Kentucky judge has confirmed what Duke fans have known for years: their football team is as bad as it gets.

Bad enough that Louisville should have to find another football team to replace the Blue Devils without penalty after Duke pulled out of the final three games of a four-game contract last season.

In a lawsuit filed late last year, Louisville asked for $450,000 in damages and any additional damages the court saw fit.

But Duke's lawyers argued that the Blue Devils' performance on the field was so poor that any Division I team would suffice as a replacement. Duke is 6-45 over the past five years, 13-90 since 1999.

Judge Phillip J. Shepherd of the Franklin County (Ky.) Circuit Court agreed, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

"At oral argument, Duke [with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty] persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower," Shepherd wrote in a summary judgment issued Thursday, according to the paper. "Duke's argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville."

The Blue Devils' law school must be so proud.

Etcetera

It's a sad day today as both George Carlin and The M Zone are no longer with us.