Towards the end of his battle with cancer, former NC State head coach Jim Valvano, delivered the speech (below) at the 1993 ESPY awards.

Tunkel highlights the three things that Valvano said everyone should do everyday.

"No. 1 one is laugh. You should laugh every day," he began.

"No. 2 two is think. You should spend some time in thought," Valvano said.

"No. 3 three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy," he continued.

Valvano's last words are required reading [Daily Trojan]

1. Which coaches are clearly on the hot seat at this point? Who is surprisingly not?
Dirk Koetter is gone. Done. Hasta la vista. Fin. And he put the final nail in his own coffin with that punt against the Trojans in the final 2 minutes of the game. Larry Coker is totally f.u.b.a.r. too, after this weekend's brawl. But on a positive note, he's got a promising career ahead in Chuck Norris's World Combat League.

On the "surprisingly not" side -- Ty Willingham is doing a heckuva job up in Washington. Since he gave the Trojans their last home defeat, we shouldn't be surprised by this; but yet, after his Notre Dame display, nothing seems more improbable. So kudos to Ty.

2. Pick three of the undefeated teams and state your case as to why they won't run the table.
UNO...West Virginia -- Louisville ends their unbeaten streak.
DOS...Rutgers -- Louisville ends their unbeaten streak.
TRES...Michigan -- Because they have to go into Ohio State.

3. Which conference is playing the best football right now?
This one is really tough. The Big 10 may have the best two teams in the country, but from #3 on down they are kind of a mess. The Pac 10's got 3 solid BCS teams at the top, but Washington and Washington State's losses this weekend showed the rest is pretty even (all decent but a bit rough around the edges, except downright shitty Stanford). The SEC is just beating the hell out of each other, with only a few early season nonconference games to provide any sort of context. Can we pass on this one?

4. Which team is playing above and beyond your expectations this season?
Michigan. We straight-up overlooked them and how much solid experience they bring to the table. And we're big M Zone fans too. Whoops.

5. Which team is crashing and burning in regards to your expectations?
Arizona. We knew coming in there was a good chance we overrated them by considering them a Top 25 team, but yikes. There's a case to be made that they're the 2nd worst team in the Pac-10 this year.

6. Is your pre-season BCS championship game prediction still alive?
USC vs. Ohio State -- you bet your sweet ass it is.

Blog Poll Round Table -- Mid-Season Edition [My Opinion On Sports]

Florida. Still not believing, even if Journey frontman Steve Perry is telling us to. Also, Louisville is like the Black Knight from Monty Python at this point. No Michael Bush, and now Brian Brohm goes down for a few weeks. It's got to be only a matter of time before somebody takes a killshot, right?

2. By that same token there are several schools hanging around without a loss that all of a sudden look like surprise contenders. There are also a few one loss teams with a legit shot at getting back into it. Looking at the rankings who's the team no one's talking about with the best shot at crashing the party ?

Oregon's looking good; sure they needed a litany of bad late-game calls to win a game, and Adrian Peterson lit them up for 200+ yards, but their offense is starting to click (wasn't Oklahoma's defense supposed to be tough?). Now here's the rub -- their next two games are at ASU and at Cal; they manage to come out of those two games 5-0, and they'd be very serious BCS contenders. But we know, easier said than done.

3. Every team has their quicksand away game. You know. That place you should win but somehow find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or at least scare the &*%^ out of you every year. Did you know that over the last 21 years Kentucky wasn't won once in Knoxville? Where is your team's yearly sandtrap?

Three places -- Berkeley, Eugene and South Bend. After having to go on the road last year for all three, this year we get to entertain all of them at the Coliseum. Sucks for us.

4. Now that you've looked into the darkest place in your football soul, free Escalades aside, turn and look into your crystal ball. Conference play is either just starting or a single game in. Based on what you've seen so far, give the order of finish in your conference, and if you've got a Conference Championship game tell us who the winner will be. Independents must predict the remainder of their schedule. The results your predictions will be held against you at the end of the season.

That's easy -- just follow our weekly Action News Power Rankings.

5. In keeping with the spirit of Maize n Brew, name your beverage of choice on game days and why. It need not be alcoholic, as there are some of us who choose not to imbibe on game day. Further, it need not be limited to a single brand/type/category. If you enjoy drinking PBR and Kraft Turkey Gravy at the same time (which I have personally witnessed), please, elaborate. Finally, if you should feel so inclined, and this is not a requirement, add an anecdote involving said beverage choice.

Stone IPA 10th Anniversary. This goes beyond being a "liquid poem to the glory of the hop." When trying this Northern San Diego brew, it not only feels good (thanks to a 10% alcohol volume), it sings Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor to your mouth.