It took a while to get this death star operational but here we are with the return of our beloved Five Wide Fullbacks. Wipe away your tears of joy and continue reading the internet’s best 5-question article.

1. Who is the real MVP of this map of the United States with each state’s most Googled phrase?

Well, this could take up this whole post. Look at New York trying to be all smart, typical. California certainly summed up 2016 rather nicely. New Jersey, yup makes a lot of sense. I dig what’s going on in Vermont, keep it up. Ditto for Minnesota.

I have no idea what’s going on in Wisconsin. I admit I’m intrigued by Virginia. I actually Googled Alaska’s hoping for something really fun and was sorely disappointed.

Obviously, Ohio takes the cake. It’ll never get old.

2. It wasn’t a huge off-season for hirings and firings among the big schools. Now that the dust has settled what do you view as the worst new head coach hire?

Cincinnati dropped off cliff (9 losses out of their last 12 conference games going back to 2015) in a hurry during the last stages of the Tommy Tuberville era. So, the bar isn’t going to be set all that high in year one. However, I don’t think Luke Fickell is going to be a smart hire for the Bearcats.

There’s plenty of positives you could say about him, namely he’s worked under a couple of great coaches, he has a lot of big game experience, and he’s familiar with recruiting in Cincinnati. But, he’s seemingly always been the young hot assistant that no program wants to hire. Until, now that is.

A couple things I really don’t like the first being no one has given Fickell much credit for being a top defensive mind and/or coach. This isn’t the era for a modest defensive coach to build up a Group of 5 program. The second issue was that disastrous stint as Ohio State’s interim head coach.

Sure, you can say he took over a crappy situation. Still, there’s probably been no other program as consistently stable as Ohio State and he lost 7 games in one season. That’s only ever happened once in Buckeyes history. I think Fickell will flop at Cincinnati.

3. Notre Dame has welcomed 5 freshmen into the fold already as January enrollees. Which player from the group will have the biggest impact as a true freshman?

Among the haul, the Irish are bringing a pair of offensive linemen in Robert Hainsey and Aaron Banks so to the back of the depth chart you go, boys. See you in a couple years!

The other three actually have a chance to do something, which is quite rare for freshmen even if they start school early.

I’m not going to sit here and say any freshman can’t come in and play right away at safety. In that light, anything is possible for Isaiah Robertson. The staff fell in love with Devin Studstill last year and even if Robertson doesn’t draw that type of praise he’s much taller and potentially more physically ready at the same age.

The nation’s number two tight end is also on board in Brock Wright. He’s also the top recruit in the class as currently constructed. It would seem kind of silly to rule him out, right? Then again, it’d be a lot easier for him if the depth chart wasn’t packed and if Alize Jones wasn’t about to be unleashed from his suspension.

The best chance has to be C.J. Holmes, if only because of the opportunities on special teams. He also has the versatility, unlike Tony Jones last year, to play in the slot and not just in the backfield.

4. The hottest news in college football lately is a collection of high-profile players skipping their bowl games in favor of preparing for the NFL Draft. Is this okay?

Heck yes!

Actually, I don’t think it’s that cut and dry. It’s a lot easier for me to agree with when it’s not a player, and an important player at that, from my team. If you make it a little more personal then it’s easier to be a little more selfish.

I’m just glad we’re seeing a devaluing of the bowl games.

This is one of the big reasons why I support the playoff so much. We’re moving closer and closer to bowl games becoming fun little relics that no one (outside of a few hipsters on Twitter) take that seriously. I’ve always thought that at some point in the future players skipping bowl games will become so common that the NCAA will allow redshirts to play in the post-season without losing a year of eligibility. We’ll also still technically include bowl games in final records but eventually there will be a tabling system (something like, 8-4/9-4) that becomes popularized to deal with the fact that no one will care about (nearly) every bowl game.

5. Irish hoops have retired their mustard alternate uniforms in favor of a kelly green version for 2016-17. Did they upgrade?

There will always be sentimental value for the mustard uniforms and admittedly they did grow on me over time. Under Armour typically does a good job with all of their basketball uniforms in terms of using striping that isn’t too boring or too crazy. They have a nice balance of freshness that doesn’t cross the line into gauche. The mustard’s could have used some tweaks here and there but you can say that about any uniform. They made it work.

The new green ones are essentially a hoops version of the Fenway Shamrock Series football uniforms. The benefit for basketball is that there’s no Frankenstein helmet to throw everything off. I’ll still complain about the lack of white trim (the numbers/nameplates are difficult to read during live action) but the monochrome green works a lot easier in basketball. Just as long as Rex Pflueger doesn’t pair it with mint green sneakers.

It’s an upgrade.