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A "weekly must-read"
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--- ESPN's Bruce Feldman compiles notes from around the nation.

Color me shocked:

Props to the Sun Belt: Troy thrashed Oklahoma State; FAU beat Minnesota and Arkansas State pounded SMU all on the same weekend. Someday, and it might happen in a year or two, this league might not be the worst one in 1-A football.

Also: Top 10 biggest surprises three weeks in, conference mailbag time, weekend picks (nice call on Kentucky), Huskers lose USC fear factor and week three's top storylines.

--- ESPN's Ivan Maisel returns with his weekly feature: I-Formation

Also: USC mimics the past as it marches on.

--- ESPN's Pat Forde offers instant first-half analysis of Kentucky's upset of Louisville.

Also: Bedlam in the Bluegrass State. Solid stuff from Forde here.

--- ESPN's March Schlabach takes a look at the history behind Clemson's "Howard's Rock".

Legend has it that in either 1964 or 1965, S.C. Jones, a Clemson alumnus, made a trip to California. While driving through Death Valley, he stopped and picked up a large, white flint rock.

Earlier, Presbyterian College coach Lonnie McMillan had described Clemson's Memorial Stadium as "Death Valley," because that's where his teams annually went to die. Tigers coach Frank Howard began using the same moniker to describe his home field soon thereafter.

Jones brought the rock back to Clemson and presented it to Howard. The rock sat in Howard's office for a couple of years. While cleaning out his office before the 1966 season, Howard saw the rock and told Gene Willimon, executive secretary of the school's booster club, to "take this rock and throw it over the fence, or out in the ditch … do something with it, but get it out of my office!"

Instead, Willimon arranged for the rock to be put on a pedestal at the top of the hill above the east end zone. The rock was unveiled on Sept. 24, 1966, and the Tigers rallied from an 18-point deficit with only 17 minutes to play to beat Virginia 40-35.

The following season, Howard told his players "If you're going to give me 110 percent, you can rub that rock. If you're not, keep your filthy hands off of it."

The rock soon became "Howard's Rock" and a Clemson tradition was born.

Also: Schlabach's regular feature - On and Off The Mark, '07 Gators even better than title team, Florida-Tennessee instant analysis and Fulmer, Tennessee face biggest test at Florida.

--- ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski tells the story of Nebraska fans' generosity towards young soldiers (particularly Husker fans in the services).

Also: Notre Dame goes back to find its future.

Usually these postgame talks last a handful of questions. Weis didn't budge from his seat for the next 25 minutes. When a Notre Dame sports information department official tried to end the extraordinary session, Weis politely cut him off.

"No, no, we're not going to be in a hurry," he said. "I'm going to stay here and take it."

And he did, orchestrating the order of questions and reminding everyone, "I'm not going anywhere, fellas. Relax."

--- ESPN's Bill Curry, writing from the coach perspective, says Lloyd Carr and Charlie Weis must battle the "monsters" who place unrealistic demands on their programs.

--- Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel says USC's offensive line dominated its matchup with Nebraska.

Also: The Mailbag, week three power rankings and week three pickoff.

Also: Mandel's blog.

--- Sports Illustrated's Austin Murphy observes USC's practices and find them tougher than the actual games. Solid read.

--- Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn found Tim Tebow's SEC debut met expectations.

--- Sports Illustrated's Cory McCartney profiles Georgia Tech tailback Tashard Choice whose patience has helped him flourish.

Last season, Choice finally received the bulk of the carries, but not the bulk of the attention. The cornerstone of the offense was All-America wide receiver and Biletnikoff winner Calvin Johnson. Again toiling in the shadows, Choice led the ACC with 1,473 yards and had 12 touchdowns on 297 carries. At season's end, he didn't even make the conference's first-team, honors that instead went to Clemson's James Davis and Virginia Tech's Branden Ore (Choice was relegated to the second-team).

"That's like a kick in the face," Choice said. "James Davis and Branden Ore are good running backs, but I led the conference in rushing, so I've got a chip on my shoulder. I want to go out and really prove myself."

So far he's doing exactly that. Choice is consistent (Saturday marked his ninth straight 100-yard game) and a workhorse (only five backs carried the ball more than him in '06). The one real knock on Choice coming into the season was a lack of game-changing speed with his 4.57 time in the 40-yard dash and a career-long run of 46 yards. He worked to change that in the offseason, though, and showed he has the ability to break the big one with his long touchdown run against Samford.

"They knew I could catch the football [and] run between the tackles, [but] they wanted to see me break longer runs," Choice said. "So in the summer, that's really what I emphasized on -- working on speed, making sure I'm conditioned to break longer runs."

Choice possesses a skills set that makes him one of the nation's best all-around running backs, but his name rarely fits in with the likes of Arkansas' Darren McFadden, Michigan's Mike Hart, West Virginia's Steve Slaton or Rutgers' Ray Rice when debating the top runners. He has a solution that would most certainly solidify his place in the conversation: a 2,000-yard season.

"[Getting] 1,800 yards is what my linemen told me [was the goal]," Choice said. "My coach told me if I get 1,800 I might as well get 2,000, so I'm on the pace."

--- CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd sees a 2003 flashback coming with USC, LSU and Oklahoma near the top of college football.

Also: Sunday 7, after week off, USC is back, weekend watch list, Keller buries past pain and focuses on revenge, Notebook: Stoops works his QB alchemy once more.

--- CBS Sports' Spencer Tillman finds several teams changing their tunes, other just hitting sour notes. 

--- The Sporting News' Matt Hayes returns with another round of Inside Dish.

The reason that Boston College QB Matt Ryan has taken a huge step this fall: his freedom within the offense. Under former coach Tom O'Brien, the plays were scripted and there were few, if any, audibles. Jeff Jagodzinski and his staff have given Ryan complete autonomy, and he can change plays at the line of scrimmage at any point during presnap reads. Plus, as well as Ryan has played, things should be even better. BC coaches have counted more than 10 drops from receivers this season, including three in last week's win over Georgia Tech -- when Ryan played flawlessly against Tech coordinator Jon Tenuta's aggressive, unorthodox blitzing schemes.

Also: Week three winners and losers, is Woodson better than Brohm?, Gators make sure Harvin gets his fill, LSU is better with Flynn than Russell, 10 things to watch this weekend.

And more than anything, that's what this sport is all about: arguing. My pal Austin Murphy spent some time with USC last year and penned a book "Saturday Rules". At the end of the book, Murphy talks to Chris Huston of HeismanPundit.com, and I don't think I've ever read a better description of why the college game is so unique -- and so perfect.

"In all these debates about who's the best team, which is the fastest conference, the deepest conference, the toughest conference -- or in (Big Tem commissioner Jim) Delany's case, the dumbest conference -- one thing remains constant: Nothing is ever resolved," Huston says. "It's like a never-ending constitutional convention."

--- The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart says welcome to Nebraska's nightmare.

Also: Could this be Carroll's best USC team?, Week three awards, Blog Fog, the chance for Big Red to matter again, Dreamy thoughts heading into big-game Saturday, Conference Call, College Football Soup (lots of good coaching scoop).

--- Yahoo Sports' Terry Bowden offers up Terry's Takes and an updated Sweet 16.

--- Yahoo Sports' Gerry Ahern analyzes USC's victory over Nebraska. 

--- CSTV's Brian Curtis pens some Sunday morning thoughts.

--- CSTV's Trev Alberts returns for his weekly Mailbag.

This is going to sound like I'm a weenie, but I watch games now and think to myself, "You've got to be kidding me."

The collisions that go on, the speed and the size of these players...I mean these guys are playing linebacker at 270 pounds and running 4.5 40s.

These kids are so strong nowadays, going to these training sessions in seventh and eighth grade. I never even lifted a weight until I got to college. We didn't have a weight room in my high school. The first time I ever squatted was at Nebraska. I did 225 and I could barely walk. I didn't even know what a squat was. I could hardly lift a thing.

Kids are testing their bodies to such an extent that I'm surprised there aren't more catastrophic injuries to be real honest.

--- Rivals.com's team of Olin Buchanan, Steve Megargee, Mike Nuguenin and David Fox continue to cover all angles.  Check the archive.

--- Sun Sports TV's Whit Watson offers up a Weekend Roundup of all the goings-on in Florida sports.  Fan-tastic reading, too much good stuff to excerpt here.  Pay particular attention to the UCF talk.

--- USA Today's Kelly Whiteside says the road to stardom nearly led Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson to quit.

Also: Linebackers making noise for top-ranked Trojans, Pooch Kicks: Barometer games can bring the heat, What big game? Nebraska plays it cool. 

--- The New York Times' Pete Thamel says an elite class of teams has emerged to dominate the championship chase.

Also: Behind Tebow, Gators show they haven't lost a thing, at Nebraska, quarterback commits to last-chance season.

Also: Thamel's blog - The Quad.

--- The Dallas/Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Wendell Barnhouse finds South Carolina feuding with ESPN GameDay host Lee Corso over remarks made two years ago.

Something as simple as the center-quarterback exchange can have intrigue. Against Georgia, Gamecocks’ quarterback Blake Mitchell fumbled on the third play of the game. The reason: a wet football. The reason the football was wet: South Carolina center Web Brown, who sweats like Albert Brooks anchoring in Broadcast News.

“We change his pants two or three times a game, because Web sweats a lot,’’ coach Steve Spurrier said. “A lot of teams do that. That’s what you do, if his butt’s soaking wet, he’s going to give him a wet ball. So we have to do that two to three times a game.’’ And now you know. Even if you didn’t want to know.

Also: Veteran's Day isn't a Navy celebration, A lopsided loss to No. 1 USC has Husker fans seeing red, patience pays for Georgia Tech back Tashard Choice, for college fans, there's no place like home, College Football Insider.

--- As always, be sure and peruse the blog of Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Tony Barnhart.

Notable: Who says we don't have a playoff?

--- The Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi says UCF's home loss to Texas was a big winner for the program.

"We expected to win this game," UCF quarterback Kyle Israel said.

Nobody else expected it. We thought this would be an extraordinary occasionsimply because of the stadium opening. We thought it was going to be amemorable event. Little did we know the Knights would also make it a memorablegame.

Can you believe it? We went to party Saturday and an actual football gamebroke out.

If not for all the turnovers, UCF probably wins this game.

--- The New York Post's Lenn Robbins is taking a second look at his preseason rankings and provides some recommendations.

IN the words of an Amer ican icon, Gordon Gekko (no, not the insurance lizard), greed is good. And there's no money in not having a preseason college football poll. It generates too much attention.

But after reviewing my preseason Top 25, which included six teams that dropped out after two weeks, changes must be made.

1. Publish a preseason poll before teams report in August. This would give us time to see which teams suffer significant injuries (OT Ed Wang at Virginia Tech) and which have unanswered questions (Michigan's defense, Notre Dame's offense).

2. We'd learn which teams under third- or fourth-year coaches are ready to make their move (it usually takes 2-3 seasons to shop for groceries, throw out the trash, rearrange the schedule, and sweet-talk the neighbors). This season that could be Washington (Ty Willingham), South Carolina (Steve Spurrier) and Nebraska (Bill Callahan).

3. The first meaningful poll gets released the first week in October. By then we'll have learned which upsets weren't upsets and which undefeated teams are frauds.

--- The Tuscaloosa News' Cecil Hurt says Alabama's comeback victory against Arkansas was the rarest of wins at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

--- The Mobile Press-Register's Neal McCready says Les Miles may be That Girl for LSU fans.

You remember that girl.

Perhaps you were in high school. Maybe you knew her in college. Maybe she was a friend of a friend. But you remember her.

You were on the rebound, having just been dumped by the girl of your dreams. She was sweet, always there for you, and a good cook who understood you didn't have the cash to wine and dine her. She liked football, enjoyed a cold beer and a steak, and didn't mind when you went golfing with the fellows on Saturday afternoon and called hours after you said you would.

She just wasn't perfect. She was a couple of sizes too big and other guys weren't exactly beating down her door. She wanted you to love her, but you got bored and wanted something more. You moved on, only to discover that she got over you in aerobics class, cut out the fried food, developed a killer body and suddenly attracted the attention of more than a few of your single pals. Suddenly, you wanted her back, but it was a little too late.

OK, maybe it's a stretch, but that girl -- in a very metaphorical sense -- is Les Miles.

--- The Birmingham News' Kevin Scarbinsky thinks Alabama and Auburn passed in the night.

It's hard to see the big picture when you're rubbing your eyes because you can't believe what you just saw.

It's hard to be the voice of reason when your ears are ringing.

But here goes.

Write down the date. In ink. Bright red indelible ink. Circle it and don't forget it.

Sept. 15, 2007.

The day everything changed.

The day the Tide and the tide turned.

It was plain to see, from the Capstone to the Plain, from Breakfast with Kodi Burns to Late Night with Nick Saban.

Also: Give Tommy Tuberville the thumb?  Let's not go crazy.

--- The Mobile Press-Register's Paul Finebaum finds Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville in need of a quick turnaround.

If you want to keep up with a coach's popularity, take a look at empty seats in the stadium and the demand for tickets. There were plenty of seats to be had Saturday at Jordan-Hare -- despite a chamber of commerce day -- and you will be guaranteed your own section this weekend for the game against New Mexico State. After that, home games loom against Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Tennessee Tech.

You can bet good tables at Lee County's finer restaurants and plush luxury suites at area inns will be easy to find for that collection of stinkers.

One can only imagine the misery of the Auburn fan on Saturday. After suffering through the humiliation of losing to a program like MSU (everyone's preseason pick as the SEC's worst), the only salvation would be watching Alabama lose to the Hogs.

However, before the fried chicken could be gobbled and the sweet tea downed, the Tide was out to a 21-0 lead and seemingly putting the game away at 31-10. Then, the reversal of fortune and adrenaline rush of watching the Hogs pour 28 points on Saban. For the first time all year, Auburn fans were able to take pleasure in someone else's misery.

Then, the dagger through the heart as Bama pulled out the last-second heroics.

For all the bravado from folks about Tuberville's 3-2 mark against Saban, which coach do you think Auburn fans would rather have today?

Also: Certitude wanes on the Plains.

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To read articles and blog entries from many other college football writers, be sure and visit CFR's "The Punditry" links. You can either bookmark that link or find it via CFR's College Football Links section on the menu at left.