Following a weekend in which University of Texas alums continue to bask in the glow of their university’s first National Championship football team in a generation, I pass along the following items of interest:

The flat-out cleverest piece on the UT-USC National Championship game is this hilarious Bill Simmons/ESPN Page 2 column entitled “Welcome Back, Coach Fredo.” Don’t worry, Longhorn fans. Simmons is talking about USC coach Pete Carroll with that “Coach Fredo” tag. Hat tip to Kevin Whited for the link.

As expected, the star of UT’s National Championship team — QB Vince Young of Houston’s Madison High School —
announced on Sunday that he is ending his UT career and declaring himself eligible for the NFL Draft later this year. A collective sigh of relief could be heard from the eleven Big 12 coaches other than Longhorn coach Mack Brown.

Speaking of the NFL Draft, corporate legal expert Stephen Bainbridge provides a forum for discussing who the Texans should select as the first pick in the upcoming draft. One commenter posted the following football/corporate law question regarding the recent Texans-49’ers “Reggie Bush Bowl“:

Just a thought on the football game between the 49ers and the Texans. If the team was a corporation, would the Texans have a duty to lose the game in order to secure the number one pick? Winning the game is really not a benefit to the organization itself. Curious about your thoughts.

Another favored former Longhorn QB — Major Applewhite — may be the last offensive coordinator of the Rice University football program before the university downgrades its football program from NCAA Division I-A. New Rice head coach Todd Graham is employing young assistant coaches to help him attempt to revive the program — the average age of the assistants who he has hired to date is just under 33 years old.

The star-crossed football career of former Texas Tech running back Bam Morris — fresh off a prolonged stint in Leavenworth Federal Prison — took another interesting turn as the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League hired Morris to play running back for the team. Morris was the top running back in college football during the 1993 season.

Finally, although football is a dangerous activity, it’s nothing compared to this one.