Wednesday Items: Nobody loves you like Corso, baby.

-- I am going to do another liveblog this weekend. I enjoyed doing it for the USM game despite the monstrous egg laid by the Wolfpack, and I figure Doc Walker will offer up a lot of nuggets that will require immediate, real-time mockery. Please do stop by if you're in the area on Saturday.

-- To avert brawls, Terps keep eye on fights.

N.C. State will visit Byrd Stadium on Saturday for a noon homecoming kickoff, and the memory of Maryland's last melee on the football field was recalled by a few players yesterday as they shared their thoughts on the brawl this past weekend between Miami and Florida International players.

"There was some fighting on the field, N.C. State fans were throwing stuff at us on the field," said offensive lineman Andrew Crummey, who was a freshman that year. "That's a memory I'll never forget."

I will never forget it either, but it's not for lack of trying. I don't think I have ever felt worse after a game than I did after that one.

-- Kudos to the cross country teams for running well at the Pre-Nationals.

NC State’s men’s and women’s cross country teams both established themselves as legitimate national contenders by running exceptionally strong races Saturday, Oct. 14 at the 2006 NCAA Pre-Nationals. The Wolfpack women, ranked No. 5 in the latest national poll, handily won the Pre-National Women’s White Race by 59 points over third-ranked Michigan. The 13th-ranked NC State men ran in the Pre-National Blue Men’s Race and finished third behind No. 4 Colorado and No. 27 Florida State.

The Pre-Nationals, hosted by Indiana State University at the same site as next month’s NCAA Championships, annually attracts most of the top cross country programs in the nation and is the biggest regular-season race in the college cross country season.

Since that race, the women's team has moved up to #2 in the coaches' poll, while the men are sitting at #9.

-- This is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time: Lee Corso, pop star.

-- From Tom Sorensen's column today (in which he surprisingly doesn't call for anyone to be fired) comes this link. If, like me, you enjoy nerding up your sports with some statistical analysis, I totally recommend their strategy page. Most of the stuff discusses football, but they do hit on other sports as well. There's a piece on bunting strategy (which I'm tempted to email to Avent...), for instance.