Pitt’s Dion Lewis was held by Utah to 75 yards on 25 carries and 1 TD.

TCU held Jacquizz Rodgers of Oregon State to 75 yards on 18 carries and 1 TD.

So far, it seems like the MWC is this year’s Heisman Buster.

Maybe Kellen Moore should be careful next week in Laramie

If the Heisman Trophy people want to make some sort of statement to express their dismay, well, people seem to love doing that sort of thing. But if they take away Reggie Bush’s Heisman because they believe that their award represents something pure and virtuous and innocent, well, that’s where I get off this crazy thing. And if that happens, if they really do take away Reggie Bush’s Heisman, well, I hope someone does some sort of deep investigation to find out just how many Heisman winners were paid while in school. The Heisman people just might find themselves with a room full of repossessed trophies that used to mean something before they tried to make it mean something.

Keep the can of worms closed.  It’s not worth it.

1. Kellen Moore

2. Terrelle Pryor

3. Ryan Mallett

4. Case Keenum 

5. John Clay

6. DeMarco Murray

7. Denard Robinson

8. Patrick Peterson

9.  Christian Ponder

10. Andrew Luck

—More and more teams are using the Pistol formation.  Hawaii went to it on Thursday night, Illinois was running it, UCLA had its best success against Kansas State with it, Alabama runs a lot of plays out of it and, of course, teams like Indiana and Nevada use it almost exclusively.  It looks like the Pistol could be the new Wildcat.  The best thing about the formation from what I can tell is that it still allows for downhill running (since the running back gets a better head start from being lined up behind the QB and can take a handoff to either side) while incorporating the read option and the shotgun passing game.

—Some really good quarterback debuts.  I’ve long thought Aaron Murray was going to be a heckuva player and he got off to a great start in Georgia’s opening win.  I had no opinion on Penn State’s Robert Bolden but he was impressive as well.  Of course the star of the day was Michigan’s Denard Robinson.  He looks like he could be a very special player.  You won’t find many quarterbacks who have ever run a 10.44 in the 100 meters.  Thanks to Robert Griffin’s recent injury problems, I’d have to say he is the undisputed fastest quarterback in the country right now.

—What I think ails the Florida offense:  It has yet to adjust from its overeliance on Tim Tebow.  In trying to win another title last year, the Gator leaned too much on Tebow and it seemed like few other offensive options were able to develop.  Now that he’s gone, there’s a tremendous void in the offense and it will probably take a while for Meyer to figure out how to find a new identity.  The Gators aren’t a good passing team right now and they have a bunch of speedy smurfs in the run game…not a fearsome combination.

—TCU looks like a well-oiled, well-coached machine.  By no means is Oregon State a major power, but they have good talent and are a solid program, so this is a quality win.  The Horned Frogs never seemed to doubt they were going to get the victory, which is usually half the battle for non-BCS squads when it comes to these type of matchups.  TCU is well past that point and thinks it can play with anyone.  I agree.  National title contender?  You bet.

—Do you think maybe the Oklahoma players were reading a little too much Phil Steele in the offseason? 

—Some players who stood out to me (besides the ones everyone is talking about):  Iowa’s Adam Robinson, Arkansas receiver Joe Adams,  Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and running back Michael Dyer, Notre Dame running backs Armond Allen and Cierre Wood, Michigan State freshman back Le’Veon Bell, Kansas State running back Daniel Thomas, UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers, OSU’s Kendall Hunter and the BYU two-headed quarterbacks Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson.

—How good would Oregon have been with Jeremiah Masoli?  As it stands, getting LaMichael James back from suspension may not make much difference after Kenjuan Barner’s torrid start.

— Maybe Mississippi’s stunning loss to Jacksonville State was just what the doctor ordered.  By that I mean, Masoli was finally made eligible by the NCAA (the proper decision), the NCAA was embarrassed (for making a mockery of its own rules and dragging the thing out), the Rebels got a legit quarterback to run their team (they really needed a talent like Masoli) and, finally, the loss was a nice, karmic way to punish Houston Nutt for stooping so low as to add a thrice-arrested player to his roster.  Now we can move on.

—Tough loss for Navy and Ricky Dobbs, good rebound by Maryland.  Whatever faint Heisman hopes existed in Annapolis can now be extinguished.

Hope you all are enjoying your extra day off, I’ll be back in a few with a round up of the weekend’s action.

Heisman Hopes Up

Andy Dalton, TCU–Leading a tough win over a quality opponent gives some push to his candidacy despite his relatively underwhelming numbers.

Heisman Hopes Down

Jake Locker, Washington–Had a two chances to lead a fourth quarter comeback against BYU, but came up short. 

Jacquizz Rodgers, Oregon State–Subpar numbers in a  high-profile game means a blown chance to make a weighty first impression.

John Brantley, Florida–Led one of the worst offensive showings by a major power in years.

Noel Devine, West Virginia–Didn’t do anything particularly wrong, but missed a chance to put up big numbers against a soft opponent.

Heisman Hopes Unchanged

Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State
Jacory Harris, Miami
Christian Ponder, Florida State
Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
John Clay, Wisconsin

All the above players did what they needed to do to hold serve as they put up good numbers against weaker opponents.

Names to Keep an Eye On

Denard Robinson, Michigan–Wow.  186 passing yards on 19 of 22 throwing, 197 rushing yards, 2 total touchdowns against a quality opponent.  Do something similiar next week against Notre Dame and he’ll be a real Heisman candidate.

Daniel Thomas, Kansas State–Rolled his way to 234 yards and two touchdowns.  Nation’s premier power back also has amazing feet.

Cameron Newton, Auburn–186 yards passing, 171 yards rushing, 5 total touchdowns in sparkling debut. 

Kendall Hunter, Oklahoma State–Looks like he has returned to All-American form of two years ago as he put up 257 rushing yards and four touchdowns against WSU.

DeMarco Murray, Oklahoma–Looks to be back and healthy after rushing for career-best 218 yards to go with two scores.

Patrick Peterson, LSU–Had 244 return yards, including an 87-yarder for a TD, in the first half alone againt UNC.  If a cornerback is ever to have a chance to make noise in the Heisman race, he’d better be more than a cornerback, and that’s what Peterson is.

—Both Terrelle Pryor and Jacory Harris looked sharp in their tuneups…should be a great Heisman-type matchup on Sept. 11 in Columbus.

—South Carolina finally broke through a bit on offense, though the defense looks to be of the bend-don’t-break variety–at times, Southern Miss moved the ball quite well.  Sophomore wide receiver Alshon Jeffery is going to be a star for the Gamecocks. 

—I’m not sold yet on Marcus Lattimore…he looks good to me, but not special.  He was supposed to be the No. 1 back in the country out of high school, after all.  Now, he’s big and strong and he can catch the ball, but to me he lacks the burst needed to be a great back.  Maybe I’m wrong and he still hasn’t found his legs yet….we’ll see.

—Stephen Garcia had the early play of the day on his Tebow-like touchdown run.  But he really is an infuriating player to watch at times.  There are plays where he seems to have no awareness in the pocket and others where it’s like he has eyes in the back of his head.

—Utah controlled much of the game against Pitt, but the Panthers stuck around because of a bunch of Ute mistakes.  Pitt almost pulled it out and Utah was lucky to escape with the win.  Good win for the almost-Pac-10!

—It looks to me like the Dion Lewis Heisman run will have to be deferred until 2011.  He is clearly a special player, but until Pitt’s passing game takes some of the pressure off him, he’s going to have a tough time against most decent defenses. 

—I’m looking forward to that Utah-TCU matchup later in the season.  The Utes could be 8-0 at that point.  If they get by the Horned Frogs, they’d be 9-0 heading into South Bend and maybe playing for a major BCS berth.

—Jordan Wynn looks like an emerging star for Utah.  Tino Sunseri has a ways to go for Pitt.

—The USC-Hawaii game was a weird one.  It seemed to last six hours and the Warriors shredded the Trojan defense for 588 yards, mostly behind a former walk on who used to deliver pizzas.  In between, Lane Kiffin snapped at Shelly Smith.  USC looks like it could be in for a long season.

—The Hawaii offensive scheme is special.  How many other schemes could insert a third-string quarterback and have him immediately throw a 65-yard touchdown pass?

—Got to love those Hawaii receivers Salas and Pilares, too.  Both of them are great with the ball in their hands.

—USC looked very athletic on offense.  David Ausberry threw a Hawaii cornerback aside like a rag doll on his way to a long TD catch-and-run.  I don’t think he’ll be doing much of that against Pac-10 corners, though.

—If Hawaii doesn’t get burned out of a touchdown by the refs and if one of its receivers doesn’t drop a sure TD pass, that game might’ve turned out differently.  I wonder what happens if June Jones is still at Hawaii.  I think we know.

—Why was Lane Kiffin going for two after every touchdown?  This is the guy who’s supposed to be a ‘bright young coach?’  Even more interesting was how the ESPN announcing crew seemed to make nothing of it.

–The best thing about last night is that it was only the first of five straight days of football….

Hit me up at Twitter.com/heismanpundit

There have been NCAA sanctions and investigations, conference realignments, players suspended and denied waivers, plus a school going independent–and veiled threats of more to follow.

This all leads me to believe that the power structures currently governing college football–the conferences and the NCAA–are living on borrowed time.

BYU is now independent.  Conferences are being shook loose from their moorings, with the Big 12 getting scavenged, the WAC and MWC decimated and the Big Ten splitting traditional rivals Ohio State and Michigan into opposing divisions.

It seems everyone wants a TV network and/or a conference championship game at the end of the season.  Network coverage of college football looks to be on its last legs.  The slide toward a de facto playoff appears inevitable.

Meanwhile, the NCAA’s corrupt and cynical nature is being exposed on a daily basis.  Its ticket scandals, conflicts of interest and blatant disregard for its own rules and bylaws has opened the eyes of many a fan, coach and university president.

What’s bound to happen is that, one day, the major schools currently making most of the money–I’m talking Oklahoma, Texas, USC, Notre Dame, Florida, Alabama, etc.–are going to band together and decide that they don’t need the NCAA, or the conferences.  They’ll go independent and form their own coalition, with their own rules.  And what can the NCAA do about that?  Nothing.

I think that however it all shakes down–and it will take some time–we’ll look back on the summer of 2010 as the year the cracks in the NCAA edifice started to show.  It’s no coincidence, by the way, that this all happened concurrently with the Great Recession (Depression?), with financial pressures and worry over future revenue governing these very sudden moves.

This may be one of the last college football seasons to still hearken back to the old traditions.  Enjoy it while you can.

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