ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. The Florida offense scored only 13 points Saturday night at LSU but don’t let that fool you. Usually a national power is among the best in the nation at running (Tom Osborne’s Nebraska) or passing (Steve Spurrier’s Florida) but not both. Urban Meyer’s Gators are second in the nation in rushing (284.6 yards per game) and third in passing effiency (170.18 rating). So much for Meyer’s spread option being unable to run the ball in the SEC.

2. Notre Dame shocker: the faculty, which usually does few favors for the football team, granted coach Charlie Weis’s request and allowed the players to have last Thursday and Friday off during the team’s off week. That gives the team a four-day weekend. The rest of the campus will have its fall break the week of Oct. 19, when the Irish will be busy preparing for Boston College.

3. This sounds familiar. Greg Paulus starts with great fanfare and performs to match it. But as his career progresses, he doesn’t improve. That is what happened over four years as a point guard at Duke. He only has a year to play quarterback at Syracuse, but halfway through his “career,” Paulus got benched Saturday against West Virginia. Coach Doug Marrone said that Paulus, not sophomore Ryan Nassib, who threw two touchdowns in the second half, remains the starter.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. This from Brad Edwards and the ESPN research fiends: Florida has lost at least one game to an SEC West team in each of the past 10 years. Under coach Urban Meyer, the Gators are 6-6 against the West in the regular season, 2-0 in the league championship game. You could blame it on the familiarity that conference teams have with one another, but Meyer is 20-2 against the SEC East. Go figure.

2. Oregon began the season with three seniors in the secondary. T.J. Ward sprained his ankle at Boise State, and now both Walter Thurmond and Willie Glasper have suffered season-ending knee injuries. Ward came back to practice this week, which is good news. But which UCLA quarterback will the Ducks see? Kevin Prince, out four weeks with a broken jaw, is practicing. Omen alert: the Ducks’ last 3-0 start in the Pac-10, 2001, had a BCS finish (Fiesta).

3. There is no better tradition in college football than the Army-Navy postgame, when both teams stand in front of the respective student bodies and sing each alma mater. Maybe it will spread. Tulane coach Bob Toledo had his team stand with the Black Knights and sing after the Green Wave won, 17-16, at West Point last week. “I was doing it out of respect for them,” Toledo said. “I have great appreciation for those guys and what they stand for.” Very cool.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. The big question regarding Tim Tebow on Saturday is who handles third-and-short for Florida? By my count, in the first four games the Gators had third-and-short (3 yards or fewer) seven times with Tebow in the lineup. On six of those plays, Tebow kept the ball and got the first down. On the seventh, tailback Chris Rainey got stopped for no gain. You have to figure that LSU will force some third-and-shorts. What will Florida do?

2. The NCAA wants to appeal the decision of a Florida court to compel Florida State to release the documents regarding the academic fraud case that may cost Bobby Bowden 14 victories. It never ceases to amaze me that the NCAA, which represents institutions of higher learning, would devote its significant resources to stanching the free flow of information. It’s not only stupefyingly bad PR, but it goes against everything education is supposed to support. Tin ear, anyone?

3. The problem with higher expectations lies mostly in failing to reach them. Ask Oklahoma State. The opening defeat of Georgia convinced fans that the Cowboys had arrived. But Houston embarrassed Oklahoma State, top tailback Kendall Hunter got hurt, and now All-Big 12 wide receiver Dez Bryant has been declared ineligible. The next four games (at Texas A&M, Missouri, at Baylor, Texas) are critical for coach Mike Gundy and the fans alike.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. Wisconsin is 5-0 because the Badgers have their old-school bust-‘em-up running game back in working order. But another reason that the Badgers are winning is the steady hand of junior quarterback Scott Tolzien. He leads the Big Ten in passing efficiency with a 154.6 rating. The last time the Badgers had a quarterback finish a season with that high of a rating: Darrell Bevell in the Cinderella, Rose-Bowl-winning season of 1993.

2. North Carolina has scored 10 offensive points or fewer in three of four games against FBS opponents. Tar Heel coach Butch Davis, referring to his inexperienced o-line, said, “If you see anything new, there’s a certain period of time that it paralyzes the players on offense. How am I supposed to block this? It’s a new front. It’s a new blitz. It’s a new front. It’s a new alignment. And guys that have a wealth of experience and knowledge…they handle those things.”

3. Speaking of offensive struggles, California has gone eight consecutive quarters without scoring a touchdown, getting a field goal in each of its blowout losses to Oregon and USC. To show you how incredible that is, the Bears’ lowest two-game point total in their previous 92 games under coach Jeff Tedford is 24. No team needed an off week more than Cal this week.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. Joe Paterno had four losing records in five years at Penn State, the last in 2004 at age 77. Since then, Paterno has won two Big Ten titles and gone 44-12. It is possible that Florida State’s fate under Bobby Bowden is irreversible. It is also possible that the Seminole fans are panicking the way that fans do. Florida State has lost a step, yes. But they still haven’t had a losing season since 1976. Bowden deserves to make the decision to coach or not on his own terms.

2. The offensive renaissance produced by Auburn coordinator Gus Malzahn can be measured with ease. The Tigers have scored 207 points. Last season, in 12 games, Auburn scored 208. Malzahn coaches in front of the home folks on Saturday at Arkansas. He won the 2005 state championship at Springdale High, a few miles from Fayetteville, before coaching the Hogs’ offense in 2006.

3. Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli didn’t practice Monday after sitting out the second half of the 52-6 rout of Washington State with a knee injury. Eugene Register-Guard columnist George Schroeder tweeted that Masoli moved gingerly at practice, and later described it to me that he Masoli “stood and hobbled”. Ducks coach Chip Kelly said he expects Masoli to practice this week and that Masoli will travel to UCLA on Saturday.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. I’m not sure what’s more amazing, that Bob Stoops is only 4-8 in games decided by three points or fewer in his 11 seasons at Oklahoma or that he has had only 12 games out of 137 decided by no more than a field goal. Pete Carroll is only 5-8 in three-point games at USC. Maybe dominant coaches struggle in close games? Then I looked at Mack Brown. He’s 17-4 in three-point games at Texas and has won his last 14 dating out of 15 to the 2001 Big 12 Championship Game. Wow.

2. With North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson’s streak of passes without an interception cut at 379, the next-longest streak belongs to Texas A&M junior Jerrod Johnson. He has thrown 186 passes without a pick dating to the fourth quarter of the 11th game last season. But Johnson may not celebrate. He lost two fumbles against Arkansas on Saturday, and Jerry Franklin returned one 85 yards for a touchdown that broke open a close game in the second quarter.

3. Jake Locker has spoken about how much better he feels after dropping 10 to 15 pounds under new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian. Locker said he feels more athletic, more fluid than he did when he played bulked up the last two seasons. The results indicate Locker is better off thinner. But the Huskies’ seven second-half snaps at the Notre Dame 2- or 1-yard-line without scoring a touchdown make you wonder if that extra weight would have helped.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel

1. The best thing about the spread offense is that it has given the little back a second lease on college football. Noel Devine, all 5-foot-8, 176 pounds of him, makes breaking off a long run look so easy that you wonder why he doesn’t do it more often. Devine had a 77-yard touchdown run and a 56-yarder that set up another score in the first half alone Thursday night against Colorado. That makes seven rushes of more than 50 yards in the junior’s career.
2. Stanford is promoting 235-pound back Toby Gerhart with a photo of him pounding downfield in the rain. What’s striking is a big, strong Stanford player wearing No. 7. That’s John Elway’s number, yet Stanford never retired it. Here’s the stranger thing: Gerhart wears No. 7 not because of Elway, but because of Steve Campbell, a quarterback who preceded him at Norco (Calif.) High. Gerhart did say he’s “honored to share it” with Elway.
3. Mike Locksley contributed to Ralph Friedgen’s early success at Maryland and Ron Zook’s success at Illinois. He is known as an A-list recruiter. That’s one of the reasons why New Mexico hired him. In his first year, Locksley has had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him and slugged an assistant coach. His offense is in the bottom-three nationally in five categories and the Lobos are 0-4. They should use Locksley in MBA textbooks. Subject: How not to lead.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. You want to make the South Florida scout team? Too bad -- coach Jim Leavitt eliminated it this season. Leavitt said it’s hard to get enough talent to give your starters a true-to-life picture of the opponent. He also said that watching scout team video is a sure cure for insomnia. On a tip he got during a ball-talking visit earlier this year with Washington coach Steve Sarkisian, Leavitt has his second team do the scout-team work and run the opponent’s stuff against the starters. If it works, you’ll see a lot of coaches eliminate scout teams.

2. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, relaying keys for his defenders, revealed tips for fans watching a game, too. “There are not a whole lot of teams that are going to release the receivers downfield and run the ball. If I am keying the tight end and he is running a pass route, most likely it is a pass play. They usually don’t do that and run the ball. ... The ball is going to take you where it is going.” That last sentence is almost Zen.

3. The devastation wreaked by the tsunami in the Samoas will be felt by those West Coast teams who have actively recruited over there. SMU coach June Jones, who was Hawaii's head coach from 1999-2007, tweeted (CoachJuneJones) throughout the day Wednesday, and reading them will break your heart. This story will get worse before it gets better.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. Clemson senior C.J. Spiller leads the nation in punt returns (36.4 yards per) and is third in all-purpose rushing with 214.3 yards per game. Neither of those stats sets the hearts of Heisman voters aflutter. Voters aren’t crediting the Tigers for one-play losses to No. 25 Georgia Tech and No. 11 TCU. Spiller’s shot at acclaim depends upon Clemson excelling in ACC play. Next up: Maryland and its woeful defense (202 rushing yards allowed per game). Spiller may be the next hot name.

2. How can Georgia have a 3-1 record with a minus-nine turnover margin? That’s 115th in the nation. The next highest-ranked team with a winning record? Penn State and BYU, both minus-four, are tied for 98th. Dawgs coach Mark Richt dodged the question Tuesday, emphasizing the won-loss record instead of the turnovers. One thing Richt pointed out: Georgia held Arizona State to minus-13 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter Saturday.

3. Coaches, too, are having trouble figuring out who’s good. Oregon coach Chip Kelly emphasized that talent isn’t as important as healthy talent. “You look anywhere in the country,” Kelly said Tuesday night. “Tebow is hurt. Bradford, the linebacker from Alabama (Donta Hightower). The teams who win are the ones who have the opportunity to stay healthy.” There’s usually a correlation between a small amount of starts lost to injury and a BCS bid.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. I don’t mind the coaches poll. The AFCA likes to see its name in print. I get it. I just mind that we have to take it seriously. Houston and Iowa win at Oklahoma State and at Penn State, respectively, yet trail the teams they beat. The coaches rate No. 19 Cal six spots ahead of Oregon. Why is Nebraska way down at No. 24? And these guys help pick the national champion. With every vote, there’s more evidence that the BCS should appoint a blue-ribbon panel to pick the teams.

2. Stanford sophomore Chris Owusu has returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the last two games and has three for the season. He already has tied the Pac-10 season record. Opponents are getting smart, though. Owusu has returned only six of the 12 kickoffs that the Cardinal has received. The NCAA season record, by the way, is five, set by Ashlan Davis of Tulsa in 2004.

3. Does the spread offense lead to more ball-handling players getting injured? Does playing in space lead to more high-speed collisions? I have no idea. I’m just asking. My All-Injured team could kick your All-American team’s butt. Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Robert Griffin III at quarterback; Michael Floyd at wideout; Jermaine Gresham and Rob Gronkowski at tight end; Thomas Weber at kicker. And that’s just some of the offense.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. Not all the news in the 21-10 loss to Iowa turned out bad for Penn State. Linebacker Navorro Bowman is back from a groin injury. The All-Big-Ten junior made 13 tackles, three behind the line. He also eased the absence of all-conference senior Sean Lee, who missed the Hawkeye game with a bruised knee. The limping jog that Lee used when he came onto the field before the game told you he wouldn’t play. Lee, who missed the 2008 season with a torn ACL, and Bowman have never started together. That will be fun to watch.

2. The second biggest offensive mystery at Oregon after quarterback Jeremiah Masoli may have been senior tight end Ed Dickson. The most experienced player on the offense caught only four passes in the first three games. It may be a chicken-and-egg (Duck-and-egg?) deal but it’s no coincidence that Masoli pulled out of his slump when he found Dickson. The tight end caught 11 passes for 148 yards and three touchdowns, all career highs, in the 42-3 rout of Cal.

3. Bring back the Southwest Conference! Four old SWC members finish September among the 17 undefeated FBS teams. The sad legacy of the league’s 1994 implosion is that the four teams -- Texas, Texas A&M, TCU and Houston -- are spread among three conferences. They’re winning in different ways. Texas has the best talent on both sides of the ball, A&M the best schedule, TCU the best defense and Houston the best offense.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. For evidence of new Miami offensive coordinator Mark Whipple’s effect on the Hurricanes, check out the passing game on first down: Jacory Harris is 21-of-28 for 394 yards and three touchdowns. The first-down rushing stats: 33 carries for 114 yards and two touchdowns. First-down passes are customary in the NFL, where Whipple spent the past five seasons. So far, that pro strategy is working well in the college game.

2. No. 5 Penn State had to rebuild its offensive line this season. It remains a work in progress. Only two starters returned, and neither returned to the position he played last season. After two games, 322-pound Johnnie Troutman replaced 290-pound Matt Stankiewich at left guard, and the increased bulk seemed to help. The Nittany Lions rushed for a season-high 186 yards against Temple. If the line struggles against Iowa’s defensive front, the Nittany Lions will struggle.

3. A reader reminded me Thursday of Arkansas’s 24-23 triple-overtime victory over Alabama in 2006. Freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain led the Hogs. Freshman kicker Leigh Tiffin, who missed two field goals and, in overtime, an extra point, cost the Tide. Three years later, Mustain is so far down the USC depth chart that his name hasn’t surfaced during the Trojans’ current quarterback issues. Tiffin is 8-of-10 on field goals this season. Who woulda thunk it?

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. From 2002 through 2005, USC finished a total of plus-78 in turnover margin. That’s an average of 19.5 per season. From 2006-09, the Trojans are a total of plus-12, including minus-one through three games this season. That statistic doesn’t indict just the inexperience of quarterbacks Matt Barkley, a freshman, and Aaron Corp, a redshirt sophomore. The defense shares the blame in that one, too.

2. Has anyone had a more varied career than Arizona State linebacker Mike Nixon? The 26-year-old senior played quarterback/safety/kicker at Phoenix Sunnyslope High, then spent four seasons in the Dodgers’ farm system. Last season, Nixon tied for the Pac-10 lead with five interceptions. And now that Sun Devil kicker Thomas Weber is out for five weeks with a groin injury, Nixon may replace him Saturday at Georgia. Nixon, apparently, can do anything -- besides hit a curve.

3. It wasn’t a matter of if the College Football Hall of Fame would leave South Bend but when. South Bend provided a lifeline to the Hall when it needed it in the mid-1990s, but the Hall only fills up on the weekends of Notre Dame home games. Atlanta is the biggest city that lives and breathes the sport. The Hall will be in the same area as the Coca-Cola Museum and the Georgia Aquarium. May this be the Hall’s last move.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald is a huge fan of Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker, and Fitzgerald doesn’t sound as if he’s buttering up Decker for their Big Ten opener on Saturday. “What does he do well? Everything,” Fitzgerald said. “He runs good routes. He blocks. You see a lot of really good receivers take plays off when they’re not getting the ball. He’s a complete player. I like watching him play when we’re not playing them.”

2. Speaking of Northwestern, the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 on Nov. 3, 1962, when Nebraska sold out Memorial Stadium for a 13-12 defeat of Missouri, That game began a stretch of sellouts in Lincoln that will extend to 300 straight on Saturday, when the Huskers play Louisiana-Lafayette. How long is a 47-year streak? Nebraska athletic director and former coach Tom Osborne was a g.a. on that team. Not to mention that Northwestern was No. 1.

3. Jeff Tedford, head coach of Cal and former Oregon offensive coordinator, on the advantage that the Ducks will hold Saturday when they play the Bears at Autzen Stadium: “The difference is Autzen’s (noise) is continuous,” Tedford said earlier this week. “…“The biggest mistake people made going in there was trying to instiage crowd and say, ‘Bring it on,’ because they brought it on and usually it was followed by three illegal procedure penalties.”

Posted by ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel

1. The UCLA offense has improved a little over last season. The UCLA defense has improved a lot, at least if you judge by points allowed after turnovers. The 3-0 Bruins have committed six turnovers, yet allowed only one score, a touchdown, off the giveaways. A year ago, the Bruins committed nine turnovers in their first three games and allowed six touchdowns and a field goal on the ensuing drives.

2. I don’t question the anecdote reported at EveryDayShouldBeSaturday.com that when a smart-aleck Oregon fan wrote Duck coach Chip Kelly to ask for a refund for the fan’s trip to Boise, where he saw Oregon lose Boise State, 19-8, Kelly wrote out a personal check for $439.

A) Kelly would be impressed by the gumption; B) He would understand that by calling the guy’s bluff, he would turn the situation to his advantage, C) No one’s a bigger wiseass than Kelly. Oregon refused to comment on the story.

3. No. 14 Cincinnati is a prime candidate for Controversial Crystal Football Contender. The Bearcats are 3-0 with a 10-point win over an AQ team (Oregon State) three time zones away. Of their next eight games, the tough ones (Fresno State, UConn, West Virginia, Illinois) are at home. The toughest road opponent in that stretch, USF, lost four-year quarterback Matt Grothe (torn ACL) Cincinnati could be 11-0 at Pittsburgh on Championship Saturday (Dec. 5).