1. Georgia’s Defense: In Marc Richt’s first 95 games as Georgia head coach, his Bulldogs gave up 37 points or more twice.   In the last 12 games his Bulldogs have given up 37 or more points 7 times.   Recruiting gurus always rave about the talent and speed that matriculates to Athens.  That’s why the heat is on defensive coordinator Willie Martinez.  

2. Oklahoma State’s Offense: The one game that the UGA defense played well was against supposedly high-powered Oklahoma State. Houston (#101 defense last year) and Rice (#113 defense last year) have also slowed down the Cowboys.  Despite all their returning weaponry, the Cowboys have dropped from 487 yards per game last year to 364 yards per game this year.  On Saturday, Okie State gained only 351 yards against Rice, who gave up 516 yards to UAB (UAB?) and 560 yards to Texas Tech.   The Pickens Football Project has some injuries, but the lack of production against three defenses nobody will compare to the ‘85 Bears is startling.

3. USC’s Efficiency: There’s nothing wrong with USC that not being -3 in turnovers against a good team won’t fix.   Rushing yardage was 250-56 in favor of USC with Trojans going for 7.6 yards per rush to 1.7 for the Huskies.  That’s why a lot of smart people are betting on USC (even at the giant number against Wazzou) and against Washington this week.  The non-entity status of Mitch Mustain is just flat out strange. A solid starter for Arkansas as a true freshman, and the nation’s top QB recruit at the time, now he’s just buried on the Trojan depth chart.

4. East Carolina (and Skip Holtz’s Shot at the Notre Dame Job):  East Carolina knocked off West Virgina and Virgina Tech early, had a lull due to injuries, then shocked homestanding Tulsa in the CUSA championship game. Barely squeaking by always tough 1-AA entrant App State in their opener wasn’t alarming.  And losses to West Virginia and North Carolina are understandable on the surface.  But the combined 484-941 yardage deficit in those two games less so.   12th year senior Patrick Pinkney is averaging only 4.8 yards per pass attempt, down from 7.4 last year.  No matter how high Lou Holtz piles the pressure of expectations on Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, if Skip doesn’t turn it around, he won’t be in line in South Bend.

5. The Traditional 1PM Start Time: Lots of old-timers here in the South miss the traditional 1PM start time.  Knowing this, and free of TV dictating a start time, Clemson tried kick off the TCU game at 1PM.  Negative reaction from fans, presumably tailgaters, led Clemson to move it to 3:30 EDT.  With nearly every game televised somewhere (am I still paying for GamePlan?  If so, why?), how is a matchup as attractive as TCU/Clemson only available online?

6. The Job Security of Coaches: Washington hires Steve Sarkisian and knocks off USC after being 0-12 under Ty Willingham.  Syracuse, outgained by 3.8 miles in the previous 4 years under Greg Robinson, is now competitive and fighting hard under Doug Marrone, beating a 9-win Big 10 team that returned a lot of starters on Saturday.   No big influx of talent at either place, just a new attitude under a new sheriff.  Message board dwellers and boosters are watching, all ready to rachet up the pressure on the administrators responsible for the fate of their school’s football coach.  Patience with a guy like Frank Beamer (24-40-2 in his first 6 years at Virginia Tech) is a thing of the past.  Beamer would be a special teams coach somewhere right now if he had been born a dozen years later.

7. Paul Johnson’s Offense Against Athletic Defenses: PJ’s still a Top 5 head coach in my book, but it’s tough to ignore a single offensive TD against Clemson and 95 yards rushing against Miami.   Legacy note: Navy earned only 218 yards in losing to Pitt Saturday.  Are defensive coordinators catching up to the triple option?  If so, Johnson’s smart enough to adapt.

8. The Sanctity of Double Digit Favorites: Remember when being favored by double digits meant something? New Mexico is 0-3, has been outscored 122-29, outgained 1466-692, and is favored by 10 over New Mexico State.  Could the Lobos be the worst double digit favorite in college football since 0-10 Cal was favored by 12 at Rutgers to conclude the 2001 season?  The Bears won but didn’t cover that day.  Before you get too excited about taking points with the Aggies, realize that NMSU was down 31-0 after 3 quarters to UTEP, and were never really in their home loss to Idaho.  Sandwiched between those defeats, they beat Prairie View A&M (ranked 214th by Sagarin) by a field goal.

9. Las Vegas Booking College Football:  Most Vegas sportsbooks have no interest in taking a significant bet on a college football side or (especially) total until the initial battles are fought offshore at online sportsbooks.   Meanwhile, corporate consolidation means fewer unique lines are available.  If you’re heading to the desert, the Hilton and the M are the most aggressive books in town and have the most propositions to shoot at. 

 10. Male Sideline Reporters:  Tokenism, thy name is Jack Arute.