College football coaches spend a night in Saddam’s palace

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Some coaches are called tyrants, others actually live like one. Kinda.

Seven college football coaches spent a night sleeping in one of Saddam Hussein’s old palaces. All were hunkered down in the same room -- in bunk beds. Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

Rick Neuheisel (UCLA), Jim Tressel (Ohio State), Mack Brown (Texas), Jim Grobe (Wake Forest), Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Houston Nutt (Ole Miss) and Tommy Tuberville (previously with Auburn) are on a mission to visit U.S. troops in the Middle East and return Thursday after stops in Germany, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Djibouti and Spain.

UCLA intern David Raih has been writing about the experience on the school’s website, including a comprehensive preview and mid-trip update.

Is anybody else wondering what Tressel looks like in a Kevlar sweater vest?

-- Adam Rose