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Morning Linkage

Mullen on Northwestern St. - But not really. Mullen began his weekly press conference yesterday with his standard opening spiel about the dangers that await the team in the next opponent. (Seriously, he said this in reference to trials posed by Northwestern State: "We are going to have to execute at a very high level and just handle all of the different things that are going to be thrown at us on Saturday. Being at home is going to help.") He then proceeded to answer  20 minutes' worth of questions about the LSU game. After the jump, you can watch the whole press conference or read the transcript of the highlights. Some interesting stuff in there, including Mullen falling on his sword re: the clock management fiasco at the end.

Dak being Dak off the field - Bobby C wrote a nice piece on Dak's life off the field. Similar in some ways to Pete Thamel's SI story on Dak over the summer, if you're familiar with that one. (If you're not, you should give it a read, too.)

Tom Luginbill on State's Offensive Weirdness - ESPN's recruiting and college football analyst Tom Luginbill, who was also part of the television crew that called the game Saturday, spoke with Bo Bounds yesterday about a number of things, including Mississippi State's inability to run the ball against LSU and the lack of runs from Dak Prescott. Pretty interesting listen. His observations from the game lead him to place a lot of blame for the rushing woes on the offensive line. He also mentioned that right after the half, he asked Mullen about the O-Line's play. Mullen's explanation was this: 1) we were busting a lot of plays, and 2) we were getting physically whipped. Check it out if you've got a few minutes.

Catch-22 Excerpt of the Day

"I don’t understand why you buy eggs for seven cents apiece in Malta and sell them for five cents."

"I do it to make a profit."

"But how can you make a profit? You lose two cents an egg."

"But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for seven cents an egg. Of course, I don’t make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share."

Yossarian felt he was beginning to understand. "And the people you sell the eggs to at four and a quarter cents apiece make a profit of two and three quarter cents apiece when they sell them back to you at seven cents apiece. Is that right? Why don’t you sell the eggs directly to you and eliminate the people you buy them from?"

"Because I’m the people I buy them from," Milo explained. "I make a profit of three and a quarter cents piece when I sell them to me and a profit of two and three quarter cents apiece when I buy them back from me. That’s a total profit of six cents an egg. I lose only two cents an egg when I sell them to the mess halls at five cents apiece, and that’s how I can make a profit buying eggs for seven cents apiece and selling them for five cents apiece. I pay only one cent apiece at the hen when I buy them in Sicily."

"In Malta," Yossarian corrected. "You buy your eggs in Malta, not Sicily."

Milo chortled proudly. "I don’t buy eggs in Malta," he confessed, with an air of slight and clandestine amusement that was the only departure from industrious sobriety Yossarian had ever seen him make. "I buy them in Sicily for one cent apiece and transfer them to Malta secretly at four and a half cents apiece in order to get the price of eggs up to seven cents apiece when people come to Malta looking for them."

"Why do people come to Malta for eggs when they’re so expensive there?"

"Because they’ve always done it that way."

"Why don’t they look for eggs in Sicily?"

"Because they’ve never done it that way."

"Now I really don’t understand. Why don’t you sell your mess halls the eggs for seven cents apiece instead offer five cents apiece?"

"Because my mess halls would have no need for me then. Anyone can buy seven-cents-apiece eggs for seven cents apiece."

"Why don’t they bypass you and buy the eggs directly from you in Malta at four and a quarter cents apiece?"

"Because I wouldn’t sell it to them."

"Why wouldn’t you sell it to them?"

"Because then there wouldn’t be as much room for profit. At least this way I can make a bit for myself as a middleman."

"Then you do make a profit for yourself," Yossarian declared.

"Of course I do. But it all goes to the syndicate. And everybody has a share."

Because I couldn't find the one about store-bought dirt