• Hawk Talk, quiet desperation edition. Denver Westword (the alt-weekly that made news earlier this month by advertising for a marijuana critic) has Colorado coach Dan Hawkins' weekly press conference off last Saturday's loss to Kansas State in its full, rambling, awkward glory, and it is not for the faint of heart -- or the faint of attention span, thanks to Hawkins' 20-plus-minute opening statement, in which the embattled coach begins reading supportive letters from fans and former players that feel more like character references submitted in a trial:

Hawkins has a relentlessly positive personal philosophy that doesn't openly concede desperation, but hurtling toward his third losing season in four years at 2-5 and unable to solve the game of musical quarterbacks between his son, Cody, and Tyler Hansen, yeah, he seems a little desperate here, to put it mildly. A loss Saturday against Missouri (which is 3-0 against Hawkins' teams by an average score of 47-8) would all but assure CU of another losing year and set up one excruciating month on the hot seat. (Hat tip: Orson)

• Huskies are so street. Here's a general rule of thumb: No matter how much Wu Tang you've listened to, how much you identify with The Wire or how you're not terrified to drive to the other side of the Interstate, if you can be accurately described as "a University of Connecticut student," you probably don't have what it takes to pull off the "Stop Snitchin'" thing:

HARTFORD, Conn. – A University of Connecticut student committed an act terrorism by posting Internet messages telling people to "stop the snitching" after the stabbing death of football player Jasper Howard, university police said Thursday.
[...]
"STOP the snitching and post the names of anyone you know who gave information to the cops," read one profanity-laced posting on the ESPNU site. "jazz didnt deserve do die the person who killed him didnt intend to kill HIM anyone who snitched should face the social consequences."

The "social consequences" for 18-year-old Christopher Mulcher: felony charges of hindering prosecution and committing an act of terrorism, along with several misdemeanors. Stunningly, after arresting four suspects, including one (non-student) charged with Howard's murder, police determined that Mulcher "had no link or relation to others arrested in this case and his threats were termed empty threats." He's due in court Nov. 10.

• A brief visual summary of continuing woe. In his weekly "By the Numbers" column, the Mobile Press-Register's Mark Inabinett notes that Auburn's point total has declined each of the last four games, the first such skid over as many as four games on the Plains since 1914. (Mmmm, that's time-consuming research.) To put that into some context:

Auburn is 2-3 in the SEC and underdogs Saturday against Ole Miss, but even if the downward spiral continues vs. the Rebels, look on the bright side, Tigers: Furman gets you to bowl-eligibility next week, which makes this season more of a step forward from the disastrous end of the Tuberville era than a lot of people expected. Baby steps, silver linings, etc.

Quickly ... Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike hasn't been ruled out of Saturday's game at Syracuse, but it would surprise everyone if Cincy pushed it for the sake of beating the Orange. ... USC tight end Anthony McCoy won't make the trip to Oregon because if a sprained ankle. ... Ohio State lineman Justin Boren will sit against New Mexico State with a foot injury. ... SMU quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is a game-time decision at Tulsa. ... The Rose Bowl's dream scenario is to bring each of the top four teams to Pasadena in January. ... San Diego State defensive coordinator Rocky Long meets up with his old team when New Mexico comes to town. ... North Texas received approval to build a new a stadium. ... Monte Kiffin ain't retiring any time soon. ... And now that Terry Bowden actually has a job in coaching again, his name is hotter than ever as the annual coach-swap rumors begin to heat up.