Massachusetts quarterback Liam Coen will lead the Minutemen against Southern Illinois tomorrow.

AP / Joe Giblin

Here are four quick hits for the final weekend of the 2007 college football season.

•Jamie Silva and Boston College. Silva, the safety from East Providence, and the Eagles (10-2, 6-2) are in Jacksonville, Fla., for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game tomorrow against Virginia Tech (10-2, 7-1). BC defeated the Hokies, 14-10, on Oct. 25 on Matt Ryan’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Andre Callender with 11 seconds to play. Silva said the crowd for that game in Blacksburg was the loudest he had ever heard. BC is ranked No. 12 and Virginia Tech No. 6. The Eagles’ defense is second in the nation in rushing defense (65.6) and fourth in interceptions (20). Silva is first-team All-ACC and one of three finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the national defensive back of the year. He has five interceptions this season and leads the team and is sixth in the league in tackles with 110. He is an All-American candidate.

The game will feature BC quarterback and Heisman hopeful Ryan, who has thrown for 3,953 yards and 28 touchdowns, and Virginia Tech’s QB combo of freshman Tyrod Taylor, a scrambler, and junior Sean Glennon, a classic drop-back passer.

•Liam Coen and Massachusetts. Coen, the quarterback from La Salle, and the seventh-ranked Minutemen (10-2) are in Carbondale, Ill., to play fourth-ranked Southern Illinois (11-1) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision tournament.

Coen, a finalist for the Walter Payton Award as the best player in the FCS, is a redshirt junior and holds UMass records for passing yards (7,861), completions (596) and touchdown passes (63). He needs eight attempts tomorrow to break the career mark of 933.

Coen has passed for 300 yards three times this season and last week threw for 419, a school record, against Fordham. He passed for 728 yards in his last two games. As gaudy as his stats are, Coen’s biggest asset might be his durability and drive. He has played most of the season on a sore knee, and he has played sick.

Coen will try to take the Minutemen back to the FCS championship game. They lost to Appalachian State in the final last year. The 16 seniors on this year’s team have won 36 games together, tying the school record.

•URI search committee. Athletics director Thorr Bjorn has his panel. Now all he needs is a football coach.

Charged with helping him solicit, collect and review applications, are Gregg Burke, deputy director; John Vanner, associate director; Barbara Luebke, journalism professor and NCAA faculty representative; Brittany Manseau, president of the URI Sudent Alumni association; Michael Rollins, assistant strength coach, and Wes Lessard, president of the 5th Quarter Club.

The group was confirmed this week. Bjorn says he is contacting people about the position but has declined to name the candidates. One former URI coach has contacted the university administration. Floyd Keith, who replaced Bob Griffin in 1993 and resigned in 1999, is urging URI administrators to consider a black coach.

Keith is executive director of Black Coaches and Administrators, the renamed Black Coaches Association. Keith is in Baltimore for the Army-Navy game tomorrow. He said by cell phone that the Rhody job “is a good job, and I think somebody can win there . . . .”

•A Division I schedule for Bryant. A few days after the Bulldogs lost to Southern Connecticut in the NCAA Division II Tournament, athletic director Bill Smith asked coach Marty Fine to start seeking opponents for 2008 and beyond.

The Bulldogs next season will begin the four-year transition to full Division I membership and will play as an independent. They will be ineligible for championships in their new conference, the Northeast, until 2012. So far, Fine has arranged games at Wagner, Monmouth and Central Connecticut, all NEC members, for next year. He is also calling schools that were on La Salle’s schedule because La Salle dropped football. The challenge for ’08 is finding teams that will visit Smithfield.

Fine is staying in contact with his Northeast-10 colleagues and may entice one or two to come to Rhode Island. Smith confirmed that Bryant will start awarding 30 athletic scholarships, the NEC limit, for football. They will replace the need-based Bulldog Dollars that football players and many other Bryant athletes received. At this time only men’s and women’s basketball players receive athletic scholarships.

Fine will be able to spread the equivalent of 30 full scholarships to as many players as he wishes.