A weekly look at the weekend’s high profile losers and other tales of shattered ambition.

Blue vs. Blue. In times of strife, the Michigan Internets look to blogging virtuoso Brian Cook for guidance and perspective, a clearheaded light in the fog of anger of confusion. When a home loss to 1-4 Toledo -- the first loss to a lowly MAC team in Wolverine history, just a week after the Rockets were shut out by Ball State – leaves the proud program at its lowest point in more than 40 years, Cook's inimitable MGoBlog can serve as the anchor for level heads seeking to take the long view. Its summary of the state of Michigan fandom following the Toledo loss:

In other words, it’s civil war in Ann Arbor, between the horrified multitudes already clamoring for Rich Rodriguez's hide on one side, and the patient, Rod-loving defenders -- of which Cook is the beachhead – who keep repeating "rebuilding year," "rebuilding year," "rebuilding year ..." Yes, they're throwing things inside the Big House:

He was angry. I was angry.

I stooped to pick up whatever flingable bit of detritus I could find, seized upon an empty water bottle, and chucked it at the booer. I missed, lightly damaging an older man a row behind him. But I did get his attention. And the old guy looked like he was on The Other Side, so eff him.

The Detroit News helpfully point readers in the direction of FireRRod.com, which offers the spectacular Countdown to the Expiration of Les Miles’ Contract at LSU clock. Don’t worry, Rod-haters: only four years to go!

Welcome to rock bottom. Wait, on second thought, I don’t even want to consider rock bottom. This particular version of Washington State is the worst major conference outfit in recent memory – worse than Syracuse, worse than the familiar Duke fiascos, worse than Minnesota last year, none of which allowed 60-plus points in three of their first four conference games, a distinction that belongs solely to the Cougars after Saturday’s 66-13 debacle at Oregon State -- and it's hard to put it all on Paul Wulff. The Wazzu alum not only inherited clearly the least talented roster in the Pac-10, but he’s had to watch it buried under an avalanche of pain: the Cougars have lost six games by an average of 41 points, more than two dozen true or redshirt freshmen have started for the first time, only one offensive lineman has started every game, and the top two quarterbacks both left the only win, over I-AA Portland State, with serious back injuries.

And so, improbably, cruelly, the Cougars’ misery deepened Saturday. When Wulff held an open call for a quarterback last week, the “winner,” Peter Roberts, was only supposed to run the scout team. But Oregon State pounded redshirt freshman Marshall Lobbestael into submission, sacking the poor kid five times, hitting him on almost every dropback and finally knocking him out with an MCL sprain in the fourth quarter. The coaches threw in fourth-string walk-on Daniel Wagner, and the prospects for the position went downhill from there:

Even Wagner couldn’t be spared from the injury issues. He rolled his ankle on a play and was limping around in the final minutes and never got to attempt a pass.

“They told me just to manage the offense and not get hurt,” Wagner said.

So that leaves [J.T.] Levenseller and recently recruited scout quarterback Peter Roberts, who was selected after an open student body tryout, as the only completely healthy quarterbacks in the program.

The third-team redshirt freshman goes down, the end-of-the-bench walk-on starts hobbling around, and suddenly the not-even-on-the-bench guy the Cougars literally pulled off the street six days earlier is about two series and another missed blitz pickup from actually getting into a live Pac-10 game. The original backup, senior Kevin Lopina, is scheduled to return to the lineup this Saturday against … oh lord, no: USC. If ever there was a game that really, really did not need to be played, for the physical safety and futures of the young men on the Cougar sidelines, this has to be it.

Petrino will have Tuberville’s seat yet. Oh, the terrible irony of Auburn’s loss to hapless Arkansas, and Tommy Tuberville’s faltering employment status at the hands of Bobby Petrino:

It's been five years since anyone felt compelled to ask Tuberville about his job security. Five years since Jetgate. Five years since Bobby Petrino was prepared to take his job.

Of all people.

The same Petrino who, as the Louisville coach, snuck off to an airport to meet Auburn's secret agents of change, returned as the Arkansas coach to author this upset. It will come as no surprise if his first SEC win as a head coach helps set those runway wheels in motion again.

This is what the beginning of the end could look like: Auburn loses to a Vanderbilt team that turns around and loses to Mississippi State. Auburn bounces back by getting bounced by an Arkansas team that lost its three previous games by 108 points.

And the ugliness isn't confined to the offensive possessions or the final scores.

Open week, meet open wound.

At least some Auburn fans are willing to stand by their man, but Tuberville’s own answers to questions of his potential demise probably sound more halting and unsure than he intended – “I hope, you know, to be here” – and he clearly recognizes the whole train wreck of an offense thing. He tried tocreate a spark by ditching coordinator Tony Franklin, and now that that move resulted in the worst total yardage output in the season against the Razorbacks, Tubs is apparently going to shake up the quarterbacks. Neither Chris Todd nor Kodi Burns has provided a spark with any aspect of their game, so it looks likely that true freshman Barrett Trotter will spend the off week as the favorite to start at West Virginia next Thursday night in the Disappointing Offense Bowl. If not Trotter, the Tigers may reach further down the depth chart for Neil Caudle, another tall, pocket type they’ll hope flashes the arm Todd has not, and burns was never expected to.

Elsewhere in disillusion … Missouri’s loss to Oklahoma State was like paying for Hulk Hogan and getting Dusty Rhodes. … Crimson and Cream Machine sorts through Oklahoma’s loss -- seriously, everything -- to figure out what went wrong in the Cotton Bowl. … And you can say "if if if" all day, but you can't take away Notre Dame's five turnovers at North Carolina.

The Doc apologizes to everyone who must now go to YouTube to excise "I am a Real American" from their heads. Fight for the rights of every man …