1. Coaches no longer automatically redshirt freshmen. If he’s good enough to play, he plays. One side effect of that, Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin learned, is that leadership isn’t limited to seniors. In fact, a senior displaced by a younger player may not lead at all. “I used to be a guy who put all his stock in the senior class,” Sumlin said. “It’s changed. You’re playing so many young guys now, older guys can get disgruntled with their roles. You don’t talk about seniors as leaders. You talk about players with experience.”

2. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is “disgusted” with the state of intercollegiate athletics. The money, he told KTAR Radio in Phoenix, “is destroying, really, any semblance of the word amateur in college sports.” What’s "destroyed" -- college athletes get $250,000 educations. But McCain added that the U.S. government shouldn’t be the place to find a solution. “I’m embarrassed that Congress would have to get involved in something like this,” McCain said. “There’s neither the talent nor the expertise residing in Congress.”

3. Texas Tech has had three field goals blocked in each of the last two games, narrow losses to Texas A&M and Kansas State. Red Raider head coach Tommy Tuberville said Monday he thinks it’s mostly an issue of focus. So, in Sunday meetings, Tuberville has begun to show video of all phases of the kicking game to the entire team, coaches included. “I want the players on special teams to understand the importance (of it),” Tuberville said. The secret power of video is, as it always has been, public humiliation.