ESPN College Football

1. Remember the crisp, accurate, confident Jacory Harris that began the season for Miami? Yeah, neither do I. The Hurricane sophomore quarterback finished the season beat up, limping and largely ineffective in the Champs Sports Bowl against Wisconsin on Tuesday night. Until Miami coach Randy Shannon assembles a competent offensive line, Harris will remain a maddeningly inconsistent quarterback.

2. Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli on his 5-8 teammate, freshman tailback LaMichael James, and his ability to flummox hulking defensive linemen: “There were a couple of times where (a lineman) would be about to tackle LaMichael. He would go right underneath his arms and pop through to the other side and get about 15 more yards. His stature helps out a lot.”

3. Sure, if Temple tailback Bernard Pierce had been available, UCLA might not have shut the Owls out after halftime. But give the Bruins credit. The last bowl team to qualify, playing 2,500 miles away from home in freezing, very un-SoCal weather, UCLA came back from a 21-7 deficit to win 30-21. Coach Rick Neuheisel’s team had every opportunity to mail it in, and chose not to do so.

1. The best analysis I have heard of Florida coach Urban Meyer’s resignation-turned-leave comes from Oregon coach Chip Kelly. I said I didn’t understand how going to practice could make Meyer back away from his midlife epiphany. Kelly said, “I do. The only place we want to be is game day and on the practice field. When I heard it, I understand 100 percent. All of the other stuff you gotta do? That ain’t a lot of fun. The best time I have is in practice or in the game.”

2. One line of thinking in the questions in the Rose Bowl press conferences Monday focused upon Stanford’s defeat of Oregon as a template for the Buckeyes. Toby Gerhart gashed the Ducks for 223 yards and three touchdowns. Power football and Buckeyes go hand in hand, right? Stanford won as much because of Andrew Luck’s passing (12-20-0, 251 yards, two touchdowns) as Gerhart’s running. That’s where the comparison to Ohio State fails.

3. Georgia looked like a power football team in the second half of its 44-20 victory over Texas A&M; in the Independence Bowl. It will be a nice memory on which the Bulldogs can focus as they dive into offseason conditioning, spring football, summer workouts and preseason two-a-days. But don’t get too excited. All the Dawgs proved is that the Aggies still can’t play defense. Texas A&M; gave up more than 40 points five times, including three of the last four games.

1. Urban Meyer went to Florida’s Sugar Bowl practice Sunday and had a change of heart? What happened to his health? What happened to his daughter hugging him because she had her daddy back? I don’t mean to second-guess his decision to switch from a resignation to a leave of absence. But a “spirited practice” made all of those personal and family concerns secondary? I just don’t believe this story is over yet.

2. If Meyer isn’t the most interesting story when the 2010 season opens, then USC will be. What the Trojans did against Boston College in the Emerald Bowl is what they failed to accomplish for most of the second half of the season. They took care of business. Yes, a schedule top-heavy with road games wrung out USC this season. Yes, they had a freshman quarterback and a lack of leadership on defense. Those excuses won’t be around in 2010.

3. It must be tough to be a Clemson fan. The Tigers showed so much talent against Kentucky on Sunday night. But here it is the end of the season, and the defense continued to make mental errors that cost Clemson field position and, eventually, points. First-year coach Dabo Swinney infused the Tigers with heart that they didn’t have the last couple of years. Getting them to play smart has to be a goal for 2010.

1. The longer the University of South Florida investigates head coach Jim Leavitt’s altercation with special teams player Joel Miller, the more uneasy that Leavitt and the Bulls coaching staff becomes. It would seem as if the quicker the university makes a decision, the smaller the effect on recruiting. If Leavitt stays, no worries. If the university forces him out, mid-January is not a good time to make a coaching change.

2. Ran into UConn coach Randy Edsall as we exited the No. 1 Huskies’ 80-68 women's basketball defeat of No. 2 Stanford at the XL Center in Hartford on Wednesday night. Edsall’s Huskies play South Carolina in the Papajohn’s Bowl on Jan. 2. Edsall said UConn must stop big plays and make the Gamecocks drive the length of the field. Good news: South Carolina’s minus-3 turnover margin. Bad news: UConn allowed a 67.1 completion percentage. The Huskies must make more plays than that.

3. Todd Berry returns to an FBS head coaching position at Louisiana-Monroe, which means a former Army coach is replacing a former Navy coach (Charlie Weatherbie). It’s surprising that Berry got a second chance after going 5-35 at Army from 2000-03. Ball State coach Stan Parrish needed 21 years to get another head coaching job after going 2-31-1 at Kansas State. Parrish’s Cardinals went 2-10 this season.

1. The smart first-time head coaches hire an older coach as consigliere. They need a wizened head, and if he has been a d coach himself, all the better. That’s exactly what Charlie Strong has done at Louisville in hiring recently deposed UNLV head coach Mike Sanford as the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator. The connection? Sanford, like Strong, is a former coordinator for Urban Meyer. He ran the Utah offense for Meyer in 2003-04.

2. The Pac-10 has just completed its fourth season in a full round-robin schedule. That means all 10 schools have had two seasons with four conference home games and five conference road games. Only two schools have had winning conference records in each season: USC (7-2 in 2006, 8-1 in 2008) and Oregon State (6-3 in both 2007 and 2009). Just another reason Mike Riley may be the best coach never to have won a conference championship.

3. You would think that Florida and its fans would have learned from Alabama a year ago. The Crimson Tide played for a berth in the BCS Championship Game, and when they lost, the team couldn’t regroup for the Sugar Bowl and the fans didn’t care much, either. Maybe the Gators will be ready to play Cincinnati, but their fans aren’t. Florida has some 4,000 unsold tickets out of its allotment of 17,500. That’s about $500,000 of cardboard the university may have to eat.

1. Bowl officials go to great lengths every year to entertain the players and the coaches of their respective teams. The Emerald Bowl will take the players from Boston College and USC to Alcatraz, mandatory for a trip to San Francisco. But there’s more than entertainment. On Christmas, the day before the game, members of both teams will volunteer in the kitchen of Glide Memorial Church. That’s an inspired idea.

2. Joe Paterno turned 83 yesterday. Now that Bobby Bowden will top out at 389 victories, JoePa’s 393 victories are 165 ahead of the next No. 2 among active coaches, Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech. Beamer is 63, so all he has to do is average eight wins a year for the next 20 years – to trail Paterno by five wins. Urban Meyer, 45, has 95 victories. If he wins eight games a year until he turns 83, he’ll have 399 victories. I’m guessing that won’t be enough to catch JoePa.

3. Freshmen wide receivers Morrell Presley of UCLA and Duron Carter of Ohio State didn’t make their grades in fall quarter and won’t play in their teams’ bowl games. I’m surprised that more freshmen on the quarter academic calendar don’t slip. Teams practiced for four weeks and then played three games before classes started. If you fall behind in a 10-week academic calendar, you have little time to catch up. Some guys learn that the hard way.

1. Wyoming’s victory over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl raises the Mountain West Conference’s bowl record over the last four seasons to 11-4. The 35-28 two-overtime victory is what the MWC needs in its quest to obtain national respect. Fresno State has earned that respect by playing anyone anywhere. The Cowboys, really won by coming back from 11 points down in the fourth quarter. Wyoming converted three fourth downs on the game-tying drive.

2. The lack of a tough nonconference game probably hurt Penn State. When Iowa showed up for the Big Ten opener on Sept 26, the Nittany Lions hadn’t had a tough game to prepare them. Penn State won’t have that problem next year. After the opener at home against FCS Youngstown State, Penn State plays at Alabama. With road games at Iowa and at Ohio State, Penn State has a 2010 schedule that can’t be described as soft.

3. A year ago, running backs coach Tony Alford didn’t hesitate to join Charlie Weis’ staff at Notre Dame, even though Weis might not last beyond 2009. Alford said that when he and the entire Iowa State staff got fired in 2006, “It scared me to death. Professionally, it was very traumatic. Now that I’ve been through it, you get up and find another place to lay your head.” Not this time -- Alford appears to be the only Weis assistant whom Brian Kelly will keep.

1. Penn State quarterback coach Jay Paterno proposed a new BCS formula in which the current formula would be two-thirds of the final score. The last third would be tied to the program’s graduation rate. This season, according to Paterno’s calculation, Northwestern would play Stanford. Just kidding – Alabama would play TCU, not Texas. It’s a sound idea that will not get approved.

2. Alabama claims to have won 12 national championships, which may give you a hint as to which school’s fans set up the website http://www.13championshipssticker.com/. They are selling Crimson stickers that say “13 Championships” with the suggestion that they make great stocking stuffers. I’ll have to check my calendar, but I’m pretty sure Alabama won’t win that title before Christmas. I’m also pretty sure that Texas just found another handy motivator.

3. If the Big Ten and Pac-10 really wanted a playoff game, why expand? Why not petition the NCAA to change the rule that says a conference must have 12 teams to stage a playoff? Who made 12 teams the magic number? My point is that expansion is about more than championship games. The new school has to fit with the other schools in football, in the rest of the athletic department and academically as well.

1. It’s one thing to be a coordinator at one school while preparing to be a head coach at another. Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen juggled jobs nicely a year ago as Florida won the BCS title. It’s another to be a lame-duck assistant coach trying to find a job while preparing for the Gator Bowl. If I’m one of the three Florida State assistants who won’t be retained by Jimbo Fisher, am I going to work the phones for a job or watch video of West Virginia?

2. AOL Fanhouse quotes multiple witnesses who saw USF coach Jim Leavitt attack player Joel Miller. The story also quotes Miller’s father discussing the incident. Leavitt denies striking Miller. And now that the university is investigating the incident, Miller’s father is backing off his account. Where are the multiple witnesses? Did all of them disappear, too? USF brought in an outside investigator. Here’s hoping he figures out what really happened.

3. Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said that the league will take a fresh look at expansion. Don’t get excited. It’s hard to imagine two schools that would make sense for the league that would be willing to come. The new members have to bring markets with them that are large enough so that 12 slices of the pie would be as lucrative as 10 slices are now.

1. The Big Ten and Notre Dame are like a sitcom couple. The tension between them keeps viewers coming back for more. Don’t kid yourself – at some level, each knows the other is the best for them. But they trip over themselves in the courtship. Here’s the question -- can Notre Dame sit idly by and watch the Big Ten marry a 12th team like Rutgers? Syracuse? The sitcom just got renewed for another 12 months. That’s how long the conference will study expansion.

2. Alabama set a record by putting six players on the Associated Press All-America team. No team has done that since the AP began naming offensive and defensive teams 45 years ago. That breaks the record of five set by Oklahoma in 1987 and 2003. Take heart, Longhorns. Both of those Sooner teams lost a bowl game with the national championship at stake.

3. The best sign that the ACC is on the rise is that 20 All-ACC first-teamers are underclassmen. You have to assume that one or two of them will declare for the NFL Draft. Georgia Tech alone has three juniors with pro prospects (TB Jonathan Dwyer, DE Derrick Morgan, WR Demaryius Thomas). But the future is blinding, especially with two All-ACC freshmen, TB Ryan Williams of Virginia Tech and LB Luke Kuechly of Boston College.

1. Brian Kelly said on ESPN 1000 in Chicago on Monday that had the officials not put :01 back on the clock in the Nebraska-Texas game, Cincinnati might be playing for the national championship and he wouldn’t be coaching at Notre Dame. That’s not as outlandish as it sounds. One second here and there could have changed plenty of other games and lives. Kelly is only a stark example.

2. Temple coach Al Golden told me before the Army-Navy game that he preferred the Midshipmen to win Saturday because he wanted the Owls to play UCLA in the EagleBank Bowl. Golden wanted the national exposure. It probably helps Temple that Robert F. Kennedy Stadium won’t be overrun with nearby Army fans. There aren’t a lot of Bruins on the East Coast.

3. The one thing Jake Locker didn’t have to weigh in deciding whether to return to Washington next season was what it would feel like to have some money in his pocket. Locker signed a deal with the Los Angeles Angels earlier this year in case he wants to pursue baseball. Oddly enough, the baseball money may have freed up Locker to make his decision about football purely on the merits. Practicing and starting for another year would help more than carrying an NFL clipboard.

1. Isn’t it great that the closest Heisman race ever came down to candidates who hadn’t reached blip status on anyone’s preseason radar? Obviously, with the top four candidates so closely bunched, the argument will continue long after Mark Ingram's tears dry. But that’s the essence of fandom. Ingram, Toby Gerhart and Ndamukong Suh got there based on their play. Now, if someone can explain how Kellen Moore finished only seventh, I’ll have no questions whatsoever.

2. Imagine being a Nebraska fan and hearing the news that your quarterback Turner Gill, who spent 13 seasons with the Huskers as an assistant coach, is becoming head coach at Kansas, which will play at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln next fall. That will be weird. And I don’t think Steve Spurrier at South Carolina is a valid comparison. He came home as head coach before he went to the Gamecocks.

3. “The U”, the 30 on 30 film first shown on ESPN on Saturday night, is an inkblot test on Miami football. If you love the Canes, you saw the stars of yesteryear still letting the Establishment know they could not be stopped. If you hate the Canes, you saw guys who looked like a casting call for a Viagra ad trying to sound tough and just looking ridiculous. Either way, make sure you catch it when it’s shown again.

1. The biggest surprise of the Home Depot College Football Awards Show to me was Brian Kelly. Not that word got out just before the show began that he would leave Cincinnati for Notre Dame. But that he won the Home Depot Coach of the Year. Kelly did go undefeated, not that that makes it automatic. Chris Petersen has gone undefeated in three of his four seasons at Boise State and hasn’t won squat.

2. Toby Gerhart of Stanford won the Doak Walker Award on Thursday night. Since the award began in 1990, five running backs have won the Heisman Trophy – Rashaan Salaam of Colorado (1994), Eddie George of Ohio State (1995), Ricky Williams of Texas (1998), Ron Dayne of Wisconsin (1999) and Reggie Bush of USC (2005). All five also won the Doak. I bet that streak is broken this year and Mark Ingram of Alabama wins the Heisman.

3. The chancellor of the University of Alabama system cancelled classes from Jan. 6-8 because of the BCS Championship Game. It’s a good guess that not a whole lot of studying will be going on in Tuscaloosa that week. More important, as I understand it, is that the cancellation allows Alabama to pay its players a travel stipend to California. It’s one of the few ways the NCAA allows members to put money in the pockets of student-athletes.

1. There will come a time when no one pays attention to what race a BCS head coach is, and that time may be now. Four new coaches -- Willie Taggart at Western Kentucky, Larry Porter at Memphis, Mike London at Virginia, Charlie Strong at Louisville -- are African-American. Once upon a time, we kept track of black quarterbacks. No one could tell you how many there are now.

2. Expect Stanford to announce that Jim Harbaugh has signed his contract extension before the end of the week. At the College Football Hall of Fame dinner on Tuesday night, Harbaugh discussed a honorary game captaincy sometime next season with John McEnroe. The tennis great, an NCAA champion in his only season (1978) at Stanford, attended to see friend and Cardinal classmate Ken Margerum be inducted into the Hall.

3. Syracuse coach Doug Marrone attended the dinner as well. Marrone, who grew up in the Bronx, has been spending a lot of time in the metropolitan New York area. He thinks the future of the Orange depends on its ability to reconnect the recruiting ties that existed a generation ago. “We’re going to sign eight kids from Manhattan and Long Island this year,” Marrone said.

1. About That Pass: Colt McCoy said that he knew that he had time to throw the ball out of bounds. One problem, though. Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis taught him that the clock would stop as soon as the ball sailed out-of-bounds past the first-down marker. By rule, the clock didn’t stop until the ball hit a railing on the stands. “Coach Davis called me yesterday and said, ‘I’ve been coaching it that way for 37 years. I’m going to teach to throw it in the dirt,’” McCoy said.

2. Members of the College Football Hall of Fame are notified of their election by delivery of a congratulatory football. In New York for the black-tie dinner Tuesday, Class of 2009 member Grant Wistrom of Nebraska said his wife opened the box, saw the football and handed him a marker, thinking it was an autograph request. Auburn’s Ed Dyas knew exactly what the football meant. “I was crying,” Dyas said. “My wife was crying. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened.”

3. Oregon coach Chip Kelly got a kick out of having one first-team All-Pac-10 player – tight end Ed Dickson. “I can’t complain about (Oregon State quarterback and first-teamer) Owen Canfield,” Kelly said. “He’s a good player. The rest of the backfield is (Heisman finalist) Toby Gerhart and ‘Quizz’ (the Beavers’ Jacquizz Rodgers). Can’t argue with that.” The Ducks’ Rose Bowl foe, Ohio State, also had only one all-conference player. That game looks more and more interesting.