Here's the story of what happened to Fresno State linebacker Ryan Machado this offseason. In this blog headline I wrote "sources" because it makes it sound cooler, like maybe wire taps and C.I.A. spies were involved, but it was really just coaches and PR people and someone involved with medicine. How's that for vague?

Apparently, Machado slipped on a step at the Save Mart Center and -- these are the words of Steve Weakland, the Fresno State director of media relations -- "re-did some damage" to the ACL he tore last year at Nevada. I do not know when this occurred or what event he was attending at the Save Mart Center. Billy Joel concert? Women's basketball game? Tattoo exhibition? I have no idea. My sources aren't big on details. I'm trying to find new sources as we speak.

Wednesday was the first spring football practice and Fresno State coach Pat Hill wouldn't say that Machado is out for the season. Since the injury happened midway through last season, it was going to be tight for Machado to return anyway, so you'd have to assume he won't play in 2008. I could be wrong. He's a farm kid, and farm kids are tough. I'll ask again at practice today and see if I can get a dirty look, not that that will help us figure out who will be playing linebacker for the Bulldogs.

Right now the three starting linebackers will probably be Ben Jacobs in the middle, Quaadir Brown on the strong side and then a redshirt freshman on the weak side. I assume the better linebacker always plays on the strong side, but I honestly don't know that for sure. Here are the two leading contenders ...

Kyle Knox - 6-1, 215 pounds; Hometown - Los Angeles.
At one point Kyle was known as Kyle Smith, and I'm not sure why it was changed. Maybe because Kyle Knox sounds tougher. Absolutely everyone loves Kyle Knox, the player, not the name. He's the Jon Stewart of the 2008-2009 Bulldogs. No one is anti-Kyle Knox. I'm sure he's got a great "motor" or "upside" or whatever nonsense football coaches say when they're trying to compliment a player without sounding mushy. Just once I want to hear a coach say, "He hardly ever forgets to screw the gas cap back on after filling up. A lot of guys you'll see driving down the street with the flap closed and the gas cap just dangling in the wind. Not Kyle Knox. He's better than that. And that's why we love him."

Austin Raphael - 6-2, 225; Hometown - Jamestown, Calif.
Austin got hurt last summer in a high school all-star game of some sort. It was a shoulder, maybe an elbow. "Upper body" injury of some sort. (Again, sources are being flogged.) So he didn't play at all for the Bulldogs last fall. The media guide says Austin has great "explosiveness" and "playmaking ability" and "a 13-foot python that once got loose and ate 20 pounds of dogfood." OK, I made that last one up.

You might remember Brown had a run-in with the law last year, and some injuries, so he's perhaps not the most reliable. If Ben Jacobs gets hurt, the entire season is on the Titanic. Hill should put bodyguards around Jacobs at all times, even in practice. No one goes within a 10-foot halo of Jacobs, not even to hand him a water bottle. Not that you want to know this, but Jacobs back-up at this point is sophomore Nico Herron (6-3, 240), who missed half the season last year, and then played some special teams. He's probably a great player and even better guy, but no one on the coaching staff wants to see Nico starting at middle linebacker.

OK, off to practice where we will get some answers to these and other pressing matters concerning a season that is six months away.