Firings Galore As Coaches Go Down

* The regular season is not yet over and already there are major firings in the college football ranks. Major firings that have happened already are Dennis Franchione at Texas A&M, Chan Gailey at Georgia Tech, Bill Callahan at Nebraska, Ed Ogeron at Ole Miss, Bill Doba at Washington State, Ted Roof at Duke, Sonny Lubick at Colorado State, and Jeff Bower at Southern Miss. Lloyd Carr resigned at Michigan last week as did Houston Nutt at Arkansas this week. Nutt has already been hired by Ole Miss. Texas A&M has this week hired former Packers head coach Mike Sherman.

* Nebraska is close to hiring a new head coach. Nebraska "interim" athletic director Tom Osborne and university chancellor Harvey Perlman arrived back in Lincoln on Monday night after a two-day swing that took them to Baton Rouge and Atlanta in search of a successor to fired coach Bill Callahan.

* Seems that Greg Robinson at Syracuse is safe despite a dismal record. The reason is that it would cost Syracuse University around $3 million to buy out the remaining two years of his contract .

* And who said there is no humor in college football? Tulsa has filed a formal complaint with Conference USA over the Rice marching band's performance of "Todd Graham's Inferno" during halftime of Saturday's football game in Houston. Graham left Rice for Tulsa after just one season. His Golden Hurricane defeated Rice 48-43 to win the C-USA West Division title. The band's show depicted a search for the former Owls coach through different circles of Hell -- based on Dante's "Divine Comedy." Tulsa must have no sense of humor.

* Virginia exercised an option to add a year onto the contract of coach Al Groh, who guided the Cavaliers to a 9-3 record this season. Groh's deal will now run through the 2011 season.