This college football season has had more false starts than UCLA had at Oregon State on Saturday (seven).
This was finally going to be Georgia's year.
(Wrong.)
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz's days are numbered after last year's lousy 7-6 season.
(Iowa is No. 8 in this week's Associated Press poll.)
First-year Florida coach Jim McElwain got stuck with a team picked to finish fifth in the SEC East.
(Florida just clinched the SEC East.)
USC should be the team to beat in the Pac-12 South.
(Utah is the team to beat.)
Texas A&M will not be the same team that faded last year after a 5-0 start.
(These are the same Aggies after a 5-0 start.)
Stanford's opening loss at Northwestern was a playoff killer.
(Stanford is the only undefeated team left in Pac-12 play and has the clearest shot to the playoff.)
Watch out for South Carolina after Steve Spurrier's team beat North Carolina in the season opener.
(It should have been watch out for "North" Carolina.)
Spurrier resigned before making it to November, while the Tar Heels have won eight straight and suddenly pose the most serious threat to undefeated Clemson in the ACC.
Oklahoma botched its playoff chances with a horrible, inexcusable defeat to downtrodden Texas.
(Hold that thought.)
The Sooners debuted at No. 15 in last week's first College Football Playoff ranking and can jump back on the playoff contention front burner with a win at Baylor.
UCLA can't win the national title with a true freshman, Josh Rosen, playing quarterback.
(True, maybe, but Baylor might with true freshman Jarrett Stidham.)
Don't take Oklahoma State seriously after a 7-6 season and a non-starter nonconference schedule that included two "Central" prefixes: (Central Michigan, Central Arkansas).
(Take Oklahoma State seriously.)
Oregon is finished after losing quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. to a broken index finger on his throwing hand.
(Oregon is not finished.)
The Ducks (6-3) have won three straight with Adams back behind center and head to Stanford next week with some serious spoiler momentum.
The incredible part is the Ducks, who played in last year's national title game, are still receiving no points in the AP poll.
Don't voters consider injuries at key positions?
Alabama's home loss to Mississippi will make it hard for the Crimson Tide to make the playoff because Ole Miss controls its destiny in the SEC West.
(Alabama's defeat was a mosquito bite.)
The Crimson Tide has roared back to become the hottest one-loss team on the playoff market after its 30-16 win over Louisiana State.
It didn't matter that the team Alabama lost to, Mississippi, lost Saturday to an Arkansas team that lost to Toledo, which just lost to Northern Illinois.
In fact, Mississippi's loss was a godsend as it handed SEC West control back to Tuscaloosa.
It also matters little that Memphis, which also defeated Ole Miss, lost to Navy.
Tears shed after regular-season home defeats to Mississippi, in fact, have paved SEC national title courses as recently as 2008. That was the year Florida lost at home to the Rebels, which prompted quarterback Tim Tebow's postgame ("Promise") speech. The Gators won out and claimed the Bowl Championship Series title with a win over Oklahoma.
The acquisition of DirecTV by AT&T will soon lead to a resolution with the Pac-12 Networks.
(No, it didn't.)
The Pac-12 Networks still are not on DirecTV, and it could cost the league a shot of producing another Heisman Trophy winner.
How so?
Stanford's Christian McCaffrey produced 220 more all-purpose yards in Saturday's win at Colorado. McCaffrey even tossed a 28-yard touchdown pass.
The problem was Stanford at Colorado was a 10 a.m. kickoff on the Pac-12 Networks.
Later, on CBS, announcers Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson painted a prime-time portrait of a Heisman race that boiled down to SEC running backs: Leonard Fournette (LSU) or Derrick Henry (Alabama).
The narrative was as calculated and brilliant as it was shallow and myopic.
Marching orders: the second Fournette falters, pick up the drumbeat for Henry.
Last week, only West Coast fools could have doubted Fournette's inevitable coronation.
Then Fournette was shut down, held to 31 yards in 19 carries, while Henry rushed for 210 in 38. Danielson promptly chimed that he believed Henry was now the Heisman front-runner.
And so what if he's right?
Arizona State would be in the four-team playoff, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit boldly predicted.
(Maybe in a parallel universe.)
Arizona State careened to 4-5 after a 38-24 loss at Washington State. Coach Todd Graham was accused last week, by his Pac-12 brethren, of play-signal poaching.
Last week, Oregon raised giant bedsheets on the sideline to shield their plays from Arizona State's prying eyes.
Play stealing is actually legal so long as you don't use recording devices to do it.
Washington State coach Mike Leach called for a Pac-12 investigation into the issue but, more than likely, put the matter to rest at Saturday's post-victory news conference.
What were the keys to victory?
"In the first half," Leach quipped, "we stole a bunch of their signals."
About the Author
