Each Wednesday during the season, we'll gauge whose stock is up and whose is falling while also examining the state of the conference award races. Since there are no games, the stock portion this week will be pretty light.

Stock up

1. Bilal Powell: Louisville coach Charlie Strong called the senior running back "the face of the program" because of how hard Powell works and how humbly he does it. Powell even seems to have supplanted Victor Anderson as the Cardinals' No. 1 back.

2. Greg Lloyd: From a redshirt season to starting middle linebacker against Michigan in one fall camp. I'd say the UConn senior's stock is on the rise.

3. Stedman Bailey: The redshirt freshman receiver has drawn raves during West Virginia's fall practices for his hands and route running. Doesn't hurt that Geno Smith was his high school quarterback, either.

Stock down

1. Rutgers' receiver health: Tim Wright is out for the season. Quron Pratt is sidelined for four weeks. J.T. Tartacoff went down with a leg injury. Mark Harrison got dinged in the head again. Talk about your deadliest catch.

2. The Doak Walker Award: Including Powell on the preseason watch list was nice. But excluding Delone Carter and Isaiah Pead? The award that inexplicably snubbed Donald Brown in 2008 got it wrong again.

3. South Florida's running game: Skip Holtz said he would probably play four running backs in the opener against Stony Brook. Then he acknowledged something Bobby Bowden used to say: "If I have four tailbacks, it just means I don't have one great difference-maker."

Player of the year race: Offense

1. Dion Lewis, RB, Pitt: As "The Wire" once explained it: "The king stay the king."

2. Noel Devine, RB, West Virginia: The No. 1 challenger to Lewis.

3. Zach Collaros, QB, Cincinnati: Should put up crazy numbers.

4. Jon Baldwin, WR, Pittsburgh: Best receiver in the league, maybe the country.

5. Jordan Todman, RB, Connecticut: Don't underestimate potential of No. 1 back in UConn's offense.

Player of the year race: Defense

1. Greg Romeus, DE, Pitt: The co-king stays the co-king?

2. Robert Sands, S, West Virginia: Most dominating defensive back in the league.

3. Lawrence Wilson, LB, Connecticut: Had 140 tackles last year, but fellow linebacker Scott Lutrus is back and will take some of those.

4. Derrell Smith, LB, Syracuse: Was incredibly disruptive before injury in '09.

5. Lutrus.

I'll also rotate other categories each week throughout the year. And I'll be following some individual battles, like Lewis vs. Devine and Tom Savage vs. B.J. Daniels. I'm also thinking of having a last-turnover pool for each team and quarterback.

So let the games begin.