ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

More questions and comments to consider:

Ed from Lake Oswego, Ore., writes: Regarding Tyrone Willingham's comments that African Americans only get hired for downtrodden teams. I have never heard of a school looking for a new head coach following a 10-2 season except Ohio State when it fired Earl Bruce for John Cooper because they couldn't beat Michigan. I think most coaches would be thrilled with opportunities at ND or UW with their reputations, resources and history's. Having said that, there is an undeniable disparity between the number of white and African American head coaches among the BCS conference elite. By the way don't touch this subject with a 10 foot pole. 

Ted Miller: Ed is referring to this article from the Chicago Tribune in which Willingham said:

"It has always been the downtrodden that [African-American coaches] had to take over," he said. "There are a lot of things not right with those situations. The degree of difficulty is enhanced in those programs. You do the best you can with the resources around you.

"Maybe Notre Dame got it right [retaining Charlie Weis]. But we have to change that mentality with [black] coaches. Nick Saban is making it work at Alabama in his second season. But in the majority of cases, it's going to take longer to get things right and up to speed."

First, Willingham is right. Too few black men have been given FBS coaching opportunities and when they do get them, it's often a huge challenge -- like Temple, Mississippi State or Louisiana-Lafayette.

Yet the timing of this makes it seem like Willingham is making an excuse for himself and his failure at Washington, which falls 100 percent on his shoulders.

Willingham fell short as a recruiter. He fell short as a coach. He fell short as an administrator. He fell short as the leader of the program. He fell short in public and media relations.

And, of course, as of Saturday, his record with be 11-37, the worst four-year stretch in program history.

Raymond from Tucson writes: Ted, Are you coming to Tucson to watch the Dual in the Desert and watch Wilbur tackle Sparky?

Ted Miller: Actually, I'm staying in Scottsdale -- present weather: 72 and sunny -- where I will be blogging from home. The Boss is very pregnant, and she will deliver a Screaming Thing into the world any moment. Our first! So if you guys notice a sudden decline in the number of posts, know that it will be due to orders from General Poopy Diapers.

Mike from Anaheim writes: Ted, is it bad, as a USC fan, that I'm glad to see Sarkisian leave?

Ted Miller: You certainly have a right to your opinion, and plenty of reasonable people have, at times, questioned Sarkisian's play-calling.

Of course, there's always the "be careful what you wish for." I liked this paragraph from USC gadfly Scott Wolf's story Friday about potential replacements from Sark:

"[Pete] Carroll said he would consider assistant coach John Morton and then added he would also consider [Carl] Smith. It's clear he no longer wants a Norm Chow-type who might come in and be considered an equal."

So don't expect Carroll to suddenly bring in a superstar play-caller. While he's mostly known for running the Trojans defense, Carroll has his fingers on all aspects of his team, including supervising the offense. Back when Norm Chow was the Trojans OC, Carroll always went out his way to call the offense "ours" instead of "Norm's" (and not without some justification, by the way).

Jeremy from Sun Valley, Ore., writes: With Oregon State's recent loss to Oregon and the loss of our Rose Bowl dreams, how can we say this was a successful year?

Brandon from Beaverton, Ore., writes: I know what Pete Carroll has done at USC is astounding (7 straight pac 10 titles). But is what Mike Riley doing at Oregon St more impressive? 3 straight top 3 finishes, Nation's longest bowl winning streak and Beating 1, 2 and 3 ranked teams in consecutive seasons with average recruiting classes. Our recruits don't get the hype of Oregon's let alone USC's but We continue to win.

Ted Miller: Jeremy meet Brandon.

But, Jeremy, did you believe it was Rose Bowl or bust this year?

The Beavers replaced their entire defensive front seven and, during the preseason, appeared to have some issues on offense. Yet here they are, a Sun Bowl victory away from a ninth win -- that would be 28 over the past three seasons -- and third consecutive top-25 ranking in the final polls.

Sure, the "what could have been" hurts. And it's never fun to lose to your rivals.

But doesn't this feel like a OSU golden age, with an outstanding coach who appears happy to stick around for the long-haul?

Bamfo from Brooklyn writes: Now that Mike Bellotti announced that he'll step away eventually for Chip Kelly to take the head coaching reigns, obviously everyone is trying to predict when that's actually going to happen. Any chance he waits until he is the Pacific Ten's winningest coach? I'm not sure the actual number, but I know he's knocking on that door.

Ted Miller: Maybe, but he has a little ways to go to catch UCLA's Terry Donahue.

Bellotti has 72 career Pac-10 victories, which ranks third on the all-time list. Bellotti passed the legendary John McKay(70)  this season. Donahue is No. 1 with 98 and Washington's Dawgfather, Don James, is second with 97.

To hit No. 1, you'd figure Bellotti would need three more seasons.

[Edit note: I was trying to be cute here -- obviously, it would require three perfect Pac-10 campaigns. But it doesn't seem like everyone understood the quip.]

Chris from Mesa, Ariz., writes: Although USC has obviously had losses the last few years, they have always been favored to win. When was the last time that another team was favored over USC?

Ted Miller: Just last year: No. 5 Oregon was a 3-point favorite over ninth-ranked USC, and the Ducks covered in a 24-17 victory. Of course, the Trojans hadn't been an underdog in another conference game since 2001 (UCLA, three points).

No. 3 Michigan was favored over No. 8 USC before the 2006 Rose Bowl, according to USA Today, though my Phil Steele guide says the Trojans were giving a point. Of course, USC rolled the Wolverines 32-18.

The Trojans also were 3-point underdogs at No. 6 Auburn 2003, but the Trojans opened a can of whup-butt in a 23-0 humbling of a team that would dominate the SEC the following year.

And, of course, no team in the nation -- none -- would be favored against USC this year.

Pity that Florida/Alabama's or Texas/Oklahoma's [finger quotes] national championship [finger quotes] will be marred by the fact that objective, in-the-know folks won't consider any of them the best team in the nation.