Fall Camp Opens This Week, Bret Bielema Is Fine With Nodding Significantly, Plus Other Items

-- I don't know what it is about the flip from July to August, but it immediately makes me feel like we're ten times closer to football season. After this month comes the month that has football in it! NC State opens camp on Tuesday with a practice that will be open to the media; here's the scrimmage schedule for later in the month.

-- If you were wondering what Carter-Finley looked like as a soccer venue, here you go. GoPack's photo album also includes a couple of shots of the new videoboard in action.

-- The Big Ten held its media day last week, so of course there's been plenty on Russell Wilson over the last few days. Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema did a masterful job of sandbagging/playing politics and kept a straight face the whole time:

Nevertheless, UW coach Bret Bielema continues to insist it is not guaranteed Wilson will beat out redshirt sophomore Jon Budmayr for the starting job.

"I was very open with Russell during the recruiting process," Bielema said. "You will have an opportunity to come in and show us what you can do . . . 

"That's what we said: 'Come in, have this opportunity, take full advantage of it (and) you'll be the guy that reaps the rewards.'

"I haven't seen Russell Wilson compete one snap competitively in practice. I think I might now what will happen, but until it happens, that's where we're at."

Obviously he can't disrespect the other quarterbacks on the roster, but it would have been great if he'd said, "I'll get to that as soon as this highlight video on YouTube stops buffering ... hot damn, this is the guy I got?" *fires pistols into the air*

In my mind every college football coach is a Texas oil baron.

As this whole ordeal has developed, one of the more amusing aspects to me has been the concern from media members over whether or not Russell Wilson could integrate with his new teammates under these somewhat awkward circumstances. Knowing what kind of person Russell is, it hasn't been hard to figure the answer to those concerns. And wouldn't you know it, Wisconsin's players have nothing but nice things to say about him.

-- The latest edition of the R&R podcast is a special installment that we hope is just the start of a long-term partnership with Amedeo's. I met up with James, Austin, and Derek to record the episode at the restaurant on Thursday, and apparently missed a chugging contest at the bar, but had a lot of fun even so. Many thanks to Amedeo's for giving us the opportunity and for being so accommodating. I learned that it's much more fun to be in the room recording with those guys and also that I shouldn't make anymore Spaceballs references.

-- Over the weekend, NC State received a commitment from DE Joe Wright.

-- Can UNC play big-time football and preserve its integrity? How many QEDs does it take to get to the center of that article?

-- Seems my fellow ACC bloggers here at SBN aren't too keen on the Wolfpack this year. For the record, I picked us to finish 3rd. Can't really fault the poll since I could see places 2-5 in the Atlantic shaking up every-which-way.

-- George O'Leary wouldn't mind if "Gator-Knights" or "Seminole-Knights" helped support his program.

-- The Pac-12 is creating a national television network along with six regional networks (one for each geographic pair), which is just more proof that Commissioner Larry Scott is a badass from the future.