riparian \rih-PAIR-ee-uhn; ry-PAIR-ee-uhn\, adjective:
Of or pertaining to the bank of a river or stream.

We might detest the football team that calls it home, but the riparian location of Neyland Stadium does make for one of the coolest traditions in all of college football.

small beer \small beer\, noun:
1. Weak beer.
2. Insignificant matters; something of little importance.

adjective:
1. Unimportant; trivial.

After Dubose's unfortunate misunderstanding of what a head coach's job actually entails, it's nice to have a coach that considers playing golf and hobknobbing with the boosters small beer annoyances to be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

fustian \FUHS-chuhn\, noun:
1. A kind of coarse twilled cotton or cotton and linen stuff, including corduroy, velveteen, etc.
2. An inflated style of writing or speech; pompous or pretentious language.

adjective:
1. Made of fustian.
2. Pompous; ridiculously inflated; bombastic.

Jimmy Clausen's fustian announcement that he would play for Notre Dame didn't result in an equally impressive display on the field.

sub rosa \suhb-ROH-zuh\, adverb:
1. Secretly; privately; confidentially.

adjective: 1. Designed to be secret or confidential; secretive; private.

Lost in all the faux outrage and intimations of dirty dealings over the sub rosa intricacies of just how the staff plans to fit all the recent signees on the roster is the fact that, should Saban reveal his plans simply to assuage the masses he would also be revealing personal and private information about his current and future players, something far more sinister and unethical than anything that has gone on so far.

parvenu \PAR-vuh-noo; -nyoo\, noun:
1. One that has recently or suddenly risen to a higher social or economic class but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class; an upstart.

adjective:
1. Being a parvenu; also, like or having the characteristics of a parvenu.

After the shocking and sudden loss to marriage of the McPhee and the scandal ridden Girl Fight tournament to choose her successor, the parvenu Snow continues to rankle many of the blog regulars in her role as Official Sweetheart.

lenity \LEN-uh-tee\, noun:
The state or quality of being lenient; mildness; gentleness of treatment; leniency.

The Tide players who approached their duties over the past few seasons with a careless lenity learned a tough lesson on draft weekend.

importunate \im-POR-chuh-nit\, adjective:
Troublesomely urgent; overly persistent in request or demand; unreasonably solicitous.

In her defense, an importunate bladder full of Miller Lite has caused more than one person to "warm the Gulf waters."

epigone \EP-uh-gohn\, noun:
An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

Other fan bases may have an artist to capture on canvas their team's greatest moments, but they are all epigones of our own Daniel Moore.

nascent \NAS-uhnt; NAY-suhnt\, adjective:
Beginning to exist or having recently come into existence; coming into being.

Counting the impressive haul of defensive line talent brought in on signing day, the nascent depth on the Tide's defensive line is promising but inexperienced.

...does anyone know what the green "V" that's on the back of Fresno State's helmets and on the mascot's collar means?

Update [2008-4-27 22:0:12 by Todd]:

Several folks have e-mailed in to shed a little light on the "V" on Fresno State's logo. From Fresno's website (you'd think I would have checked there first, wouldn't you?):