Looking Back at college football’s weekend

Strong wants his team to win first down./STEVEN MUNCIE

Thursday, 4 a.m.

5 Observations

1. Here's a stunner. College football really doesn't change from one season to the next. Take last year's four playoff teams: Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Oklahoma. They're all undefeated and ranked in the top seven nationally. Next year, I'll wager that they're all firmly in the top 10, too. And the year after that.

2. Of the highest seven paid coaches in America, only Jim Harbaugh (third) has not taken his team to a national championship game. Behind that first cluster, Florida's Dan Mullen is eighth and FSU's Willie Taggert is 12th. USF's Charlie Strong is 82nd (according to USA Today).

Content beyond this point is for members only.

Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!

Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.

3. I see where UMass has made it to third in someone's Bottom 25 ranking. That happens when a team is bad and its coach (Mark Whipple) compares an official's call to rape.

4. So what do you do if Nick Saban is stomping all over your legacy? Well, if you're former Alabama coach Mike DuBose, you shoot yourself. That's what Dubose did this week -- accidentally. His wound is not considered life-threatening.

5. I understand the heat that is coming towards Jimbo Fisher after he grabbed a player's facemask last weekend. It was a bully move for a guy who walks around surrounded by state patrolman. If a player grabs a coach, it's anarchy. Here? It's just a power trip by a guy who has a lot of it.

They Said It

"I don't think you need any bulletin board material for a game like this. Picking at our bag, we had our own fans picking at our bag. So those things don't matter to us. (The turnover bag) is a bag that we like and we appreciate and we're proud of and we're going to continue to be proud of it. So we don't need any of that, just go out and play ball."

-- Willie Taggart, FSU coach, on FSU's Turnover bag

"I thought N'Kosi played very well. He made some beautiful throws. He made some down-the-middle throws. The first pass of the game was a beauty, went right down the middle and hit the receiver on a dead run. And he had a couple of touch passes, one in the red zone area and others throughout the ballgame. Threw some bubbles, threw some slants, threw some down the middle. He had some touch passes in the end zone. I thought he threw well. There was a couple of misreads. He was looking at one side of the field when he should have been looking at the other. At least once on a play that probably would have been an explosive play.

You want to get those back sometimes, if you can. But it happens to everybody, whether you're a veteran or a rookie. But I thought he was comfortable. And I thought that for the most part he made very good decisions and was very accurate."

-- Mark Richt, on the play of N'Kosi Perry

"I love having those guys around the team, I love having former players around the program. I have made a big deal about having former players around, whether it was Spurrier guys or guys from the last 10 years. That helps the players that are here. When they see guys that have gone through what they are doing."

-- Dan Mullen, on Tim Tebow returning to campus

"We need to start fast. We need to play fast. We need to play physical. We need to win on first down and we need to get in a rhythm, get into a flow of the game. I know right now they're struggling, they're 2-4, but they're still a really good, solid football team,"

-- Charlie Strong, USF coach, on UMass

"There's a lot left out there for us offensively. We can be way more efficient, way more effective. That's true in all three phases. We're just, again, we're four games into doing what we're going to be. We have a lot of room for growth and development. Good teams do that throughout the year. Teams that go win championships get better every single week."

-- UCF coach Josh Heupel

Player of the Week

Ian Book went into the Stanford game listed as Notre Dame's second-team quarterback. That's okay. He isn't second-team anymore.

Book passed for 278 touchdowns and four scores in an impressive 38-17 victory over a very good Stanford team. Book threw only five incompletions all night.

Team of the Week

For a lot of fans in Florida, quarterback Will Greer is just a bad memory. He came, he got busted and he left. But Greer wasn't done yet. He transferred to West Virginia, and he's blossomed. These days, Greer is a Heisman candidate for a top 25 team.

On Saturday he led the Mountaineers to a 43-34 victory over 25th-ranked Texas Tech. Along the way, he threw for 370 yards and three touchdowns.

The Computer Ratings

                Colley          Billingsley      Sagarin        Massey       Average

Miami             18                15             14            21             17

UCF               15                18             19            11            15.7

Florida           25                16             17           22            20

USF               12                34             58            33             34.2

FSU               66                49             49            50             53.5

FAU               86               64             99           72             80.2

FIU               71               94            102           90             89.2

5 Bowl Projections

(From Jerry Palm, CBSsports.com)

UCF vs. Stanford                            Fiesta Bowl

Michigan State vs. Florida           Outback Bowl

Miami vs. TCU                                Camping World Bowl

USF-Troy                                        Cure Bowl

FAU-Cincinnati                            Gasparilla Bowl