New Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas has sent a letter to season ticket holders (which is also posted on fightingillini.com) detailing his search for a new coach. Of course, no names are mentioned.

Here's a sampling from the letter:

I'm about to turn in my vote for the Doak Walker Award finalists. We are given 10 semifinalists and asked to rank them from 1 to 10.

Here's my top five. Let me know what you think:

1. LaMichael James, Oregon. The nation's leading rusher showed his stuff against Stanford.

2. Montee Ball, Wisconsin. He's got 27 touchdowns. No need to write anything else.

Interesting to see photos and videos from outside Joe Paterno's State College home. Less than two weeks ago, Marcus Jackson and I were at the same place, taking a picture the Friday before the Illinois-Penn State game.

I contacted the Big Ten office today and asked about a couple of the officiating/game management situations that happened during Saturday's Illinois-Penn State game.

The News-Gazette was asked to be on the selection committee for the Davey O'Brien Award, which goes to the nation's top quarterback. On Sunday, we turned in our 16 semifinalists. Here's who made the cut:

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No. 1: Nathan Scheelhaase, quarterback.

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No. 2: Jason Ford, tailback.

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No. 3: Jeff Allen, offensive tackle.

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No. 5: Derek Dimke, kicker.