Well, now we definitively know how Rick Neuheisel got the nickname "Slick Rick."

In a 900-page report issued last week, Colorado admitted to 40 secondary recruiting violations dating to Neuheisel's coaching tenure. Now in his fourth year at Washington, the coach apologized for his errs but called them "inadvertent."

While that may be true for many of the ticky-tack NCAA transgressions listed, there's nothing inadvertent about Neuheisel showing up on the driveway of a recruit for whom he'd already used up his one allowable home visit, calling him from the car and telling him to look out the window. Or staging a conversation with a prospect's coach loud enough for the player to hear him during a period when he can't otherwise have contact.

Sounds more like a coach trying to work around a rule of which he's clearly aware -- quite the opposite of "inadvertent."

Said Colorado coach Gary Barnett, whose perceived animosity toward his predecessor has been well documented, in an April reply to the NCAA: "The rules that were violated here are pretty black and white. And everybody knows them, so this isn't one of those rocket-scientist types of decisions you have to make. I've always felt that if any of us [coaches] commit violations, they should follow you around."

Just when you thought the annual Heisman hype war was getting out of control, in steps a blast from the past to screech the brakes.

It was revealed last week that one-time Heisman candidate and two-time Heisman candidate father Archie Manning ordered Ole Miss to halt any planned promotional campaign for son Eli. Seems Dad is still a tad bitter about how things turned out for Peyton in '97 (putting him in the same boat as the entire state of Tennessee).

Archie's move is brilliant, for two reasons. One less set of promotional coasters or CD-ROMs floating around makes the world that much a better place.

But more importantly -- and seemingly inadvertently -- he got his son's name in the news and created a storyline that could provide a season's worth of free p.r. on its own. Now all Eli has to do is ... pass for about 3,500 yards.

And all this time you thought New York City had no college football team. A year after providing pedestrians a giant billboard of Joey Harrington to gawk at, Oregon has come back with a version for receiver Keenan Howry. Plus, the school struck a deal with the Yankees' YES Network to replay Ducks games at 2 a.m. Sundays this fall. ... There's been some serious smack talk taking place at the ACC's media days in Pinehurst, N.C., directed at none other than dethroned champ Florida State. "They're not the big, bad beast they used to be," said North Carolina guard Jeb Terry. Said Virginia's Angelo Crowell: "The league's caught up. Every team in the ACC can beat Florida State." ... Speaking of the 'Noles, Bobby Bowden is going old-school this fall, installing H-shaped goalposts at Doak Campbell Stadium. The idea is to reinstitute a tradition from the late '60s when Bowden was an FSU assistant under Bill Peterson and the 'Noles ran on to the field between the goal posts. ... Georgia, which lost RB Reshard Dudley among three recruits who failed to qualify, got a late addition in RB Cedric Haywood from Macon, Ga. Haywood, a late qualifier for whom many schools shied away, could figure into the mix fairly quickly, as the Bulldogs have almost no tailback depth behind starter Musa Smith, himself recovering from a lingering hip/groin injury.

Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com.