One of the marks of a good college football coach is what he encourages his players to do off the football field. No, check that - what his players actually do off the field. It’s not like coaches at discipline-troubled schools actually tell their players to commit crimes and cheat on test. But a coach who has his players acting right and making a difference in the community? That is a good coach.

Brian Kelly, for example, is a good coach. Aside from the Bearcats’ considerable success on the field (21-6 for the last two seasons, Orange Bowl bid in 2008, 5-0 and ranked 8th this season), the program is squeaky-clean, a welcome development after the eyebrow-raising regime of Bob Huggins on the Cincinnati hardwood. So as they prepare for their biggest game of the season - a road test at #21 South Florida tonight - they do so with the help of Mitch Stone, the 12-year-old cancer patient that they’ve “adopted.”

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For a team that is likely to go 0-12 after this weekend’s obligatory loss to California, there sure are a lot of people interested in coaching at the University of Washington.

Mike Leach, who was just named Big 12 Coach of the Year, was reportedly on a commercial flight to Seattle yesterday (way to cut costs, there, UW). Fresno State’s Pat Hill has been mentioned as a candidate. And Jim Mora, Jr., who created a stir two years ago when he openly pined for the UW job when he was still employed by the Falcons, is perhaps considered the front runner. Leach’s trip yesterday is maybe the strangest, considering these kinds of trips are usually made on private planes so as not to arouse suspicion.

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• Turns out it was Jason Smith that was the anonymous Sixer who made merry with Mary Carey.

• Motorcross racer Sophia Paull is sure to rev some engines.

• Congraualtions, Larry Fitzgerald! You’re officially a proud papa!

• Here’s photographic proof that Michelle Wie & Robin Lopez are an item.

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