CMU/Toledo: In the news

First of all, let's clear some air. ESPN's Graham Watson reports Dan LeFevour is to start Saturday against Toledo. Which is all fine and dandy, except for one thing: We expected him to start against Western, too. Guess how many snaps he got in that game? Zero.

This is why we're being so cautious about LeFevour starting: We were told one thing last week, then senior Brian Brunner played the entire game, leading us to believe the right ankle injury LeFevour suffered was more serious than originally thought. Honestly, I don't expect him to play Saturday, either, with what I'm hearing. A lot of that DOES have to do with Brunner's success as the man running the offense, but that leads me to my next point...

There is no quarterback controversy. After covering this team for the second year, I'm not quite sure how this came up. As good as Brunner played last week, LeFevour has already shattered multiple career school records as CMU's quarterback despite not even being a senior. He's 16-2 against the MAC, led the team to two MAC Championships, two Motor City Bowls and is the poster boy of the program (as evidenced by the Comerica Park billboard). He hasn't done a thing to lose his starting job and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. It's just a matter of getting him 100 percent before the toughest stretch of the season goes underway, that's all.

On another note, though, here's a story by Saginaw News' Hugh Bernreuter about sophomore wide receiver and returner Antonio Brown. In particular, toward the end, it mentions Brown's intention to play for Jones no matter what- whether at West Virginia or CMU. Again, I think this goes to show just how powerful CMU's recruiting classes are starting to get. This year's class, looking at Scout.com's ratings, is looking like the best yet, with one four-star recruit and two three-star guys. I remember evaluating the 2005 and 2006 recruiting class and seeing all one- and two-star guys! Coach Butch Jones and his staff definitely know how to recruit talent and dig in the pipeline states. 

There's more to come prior to the Saturday coverage at Toledo. Expect an NCAA 09 prediction tomorrow- it's now 4-2 on the season after missing its Western pick last week. I picked CMU 41, Toledo 24... I haven't missed a single game yet (7-0), but then again, there's a first for everything.