Making the morning rounds.

• What was he thinking? Part one. USC coach Lane Kiffin said Sunday he was “shocked” that Notre Dame sat on all three timeouts in the fourth quarter of a 31-17 Trojan win, which ended with USC running off the final 6:48 on ten straight runs by tailback Curtis McNeal. “I didn’t know what was going on,” Kiffin said. “Obviously we were happy. I was scared they were going to call them, and I didn’t know what we were going to do kicker-wise. … The game was far from over. But I’m not complaining.” Linebacker Chris Galippo was somewhat more straightforward: “They just quit. That’s what Notre Dame football is all about. They’re not anything like ‘SC.”

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” Kelly said in response to Galippo. “To the victors go the spoils. We probably would have said the same thing last year [after Notre Dame's upset win over USC in Los Angeles]. How we evaluate our players, we didn’t play the kind of football we wanted to play.” [Orange County Register, Chicago Tribune]

• What was he thinking? Part two. In other late time-out news, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s Doug Lesmerises defended Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema’s decision to use two timeouts on defense in the final minute of the Badgers’ loss to Michigan State, giving the Spartans time to pick up an additional first down and throw up the game-winning Hail Mary as time expired. “At that point, Bielema was operating with what he should have thought was one of the best teams, and certainly one of the best offenses, in the nation,” Lesmerises writes. “Getting quarterback Russell Wilson the ball with any time on the clock would have been worth it. The Badgers were too good to play scared and settle for overtime.

” ‘We were going for the win,’ Bielema said afterward, and really, that’s all that needed to be said.” [Cleveland Plain-Dealer]

• D-Day Rock M-Day. Today could mark the beginning of the end for Missouri and the Big 12, according to PowerMizzou.com, which cites three separate, anonymous sources who say university chancellor Brady Deaton will announce the Tigers’ official withdrawal from the conference at a Big 12 Board of Directors meeting in Dallas. On Friday, Mizzou’s Board of Curators authorized Deaton to act on conference realignment and execute all relevant contracts with a new league — presumably the SEC — and Deaton is scheduled to attend this afternoon’s meeting in person.

“On Saturday, and again today, I’ve talked to all sorts of people familiar with the situation both at Missouri and elsewhere,” wrote the Kansas City Star’s Mike DeArmond on Sunday, “and every single one anticipates Missouri and the SEC will announce Mizzou as the 14th member of the SEC at some point this week.” [PowerMizzou.com, Kansas City Star]

• One of us, one of us. In somewhat less solid speculation, the Big East is reportedly being asked to consider joining the forthcoming Mountain West-Conference USA merger to create a sprawling superconference incorporating between 28 and 32 teams. According to a document (origin unknown) obtained by the Boston Globe, the plan would divide the country into four seven or eight-team divisions — the West, Mountain, Central and Big East — whose winners would then stage a mini-playoff for the league’s automatic bid to the BCS. The Big East would actually consider this in order to ensure it keeps its automatic bid to the BCS.

Notably absent from both the 28 and 32-team versions of the plan? West Virginia, which is presumed to be first in line to replace Missouri in the Big 12. [Boston Globe]

• Tate calls it a year. Maryland linebacker Kenny Tate, an All-ACC pick last year as a safety and likely a future draft pick, will undergo season-ending surgery for an undisclosed injury and seek a medical hardship to return for a fifth year in 2012. Tate led the team in tackles through four games but has missed the last three — all Maryland losses — for reasons the school isn’t clarifying.

“It is certainly a blow to our team to lose a player and leader of Kenny’s caliber, but we want to do what’s in his best interest,” said coach Randy Edsall, who expects Tate to miss six to nine months. “Our medical staff determined that surgery was the best way to proceed so that’s what we are going to do.” [Washington Post]

• Tragedy. As rumored on Saturday, the body of an Akron student was found inside the university’s stadium on Saturday morning, an apparent suicide. A spokesman for Akron said the body was found in the stadium’s bleachers around 10 a.m., but declined to release his identity or any details of the ongoing investigation. The Zips’ game against Ohio kicked off as scheduled at 3 p.m. the same afternoon, ending in a 37-20 Ohio win. [Associated Press]

Quickly… USC running back Dillon Baxter may have missed the Notre Dame game to be with his girlfriend as she was giving birth. … Three new injuries Saturday could leave Virginia Tech‘s defense without five opening-day starters for Saturday’s trip to Duke. … Police responding to a noise complaint use a stun gun on two Montana players. … ACC officials teach Florida State an incorrect lesson about punt returns. … Steve Spurrier calls his flap with local writer Ron Morris “history” and says Morris will be allowed at regular press conferences. … Virginia Tech adds another gravestone to its cemetery of road wins over ranked teams. … FX had had some minor technical difficulties at the start of the Oklahoma State-Missouri game. … And Bill Blankenship sings OMC.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Perusing the weekly lines for a straight-up shocker or two — for entertainment only, of course. This week’s guest: Spencer Hall, of Every Day Should Be Saturday and SBN.

CHRIS BROWN, Smart Football and Grantland: Washington (+20) over Stanford.
I don’t feel great about this pick, but Sarkisian’s Huskies have steadily improved over the season and UW quarterback Keith Price leads by far the best opponent Stanford has seen — as of today, none of the victims on the front half of the Cardinal’s schedule has a winning record. Stanford just hasn’t been challenged, and I simply think they won’t be expecting the Huskies to come out gunning or to outplay them early. If the Cardinals get a lead they should be able to strangle and bludgeon Washington, but if Washington gets out early — which I think it will — I think it’ll be a longer evening than Andrew Luck is used to.

Bonus Pick: Louisiana Tech (+6½) over Utah State. Because why not?

GRAHAM WATSON: Missouri (+7.5) over Oklahoma State.
A lot of pundits have called this a trap game for the 6-0 Cowboys, and while I’m not sure about it being a trap, I do think Missouri has the offense to keep pace with an Oklahoma State team that tends to play very little defense. However, the Tigers can’t get into a track meet with the Cowboys. They need to slow the game down, run the ball against an Oklahoma run defense allowing 176.7 yards per game, and keep the ball out of the hands of the Oklahoma State offense. Easier said than done.

Missouri fancies itself as a quick-strike offense, so slowing the game down won’t come easily, especially with pressure from the home crowd to score quickly and score often. The Tigers also need to limit turnovers. Mizzou had three giveaways against a lackluster Iowa State team last week, and turnovers contributed to their loss to Kansas State. Oklahoma State ranks second nationally in turnover margin, so that could be a major turning point in the game.

MATT HINTON: N.C. State (+5½) over Virginia.
Virginia is coming off its biggest win in two years under coach Mike London, a 24-21 upset over previously unbeaten Georgia Tech that moved the Cavaliers two games above .500 in October (4-2) for the first time since 2007. In four games against FBS competition, N.C. State is 1-3 and allowing 37 points per game. The Wolfpack also remain unusually banged up on defense, and without their best running back.

Before stunning the Yellow Jackets, though, the same Cavaliers needed a furious fourth quarter comeback to win at Indiana, lost to Southern Miss at home and had to hold off a two-point conversion in overtime to beat Idaho. Thursday night debacle at Cincinnati notwithstanding, N.C. State has scored at least 27 points in every other game, has a quarterback with a legit arm (Mike Glennon) and a legit target in T.J. Graham. When in doubt, a second-class ACC team basking in a brief turnaround in its fortunes is never a bad one to bet against.

SPENCER HALL, Every Day Should Be Saturday and SBN: Maryland (+18) over Florida State.
You go right ahead and laugh at Randy Edsall. You can’t hurt a man with nothing to lose, and you certainly can’t hurt a team that has been on the verge of beating someone clearly better than they are for the past two weeks in close losses to Georgia Tech and Clemson.

If anything should reassure you about this pick consider this: Which team will actually attempt to do things on offense? Florida State? That’s right, and that makes FSU the team that loses by shooting itself in the foot. This is the ACC. We didn’t make the rules. We just observed and wrote them down as they appeared.

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Perusing the weekly lines for a straight-up shocker or two — for entertainment only, of course.

MATT HINTON: Ohio State (+3½) over Illinois.
The Buckeyes’ Jekyll-and-Hyde routine at Nebraska may have left them reeling with most of their usual goals — a Big Ten championship, a BCS bid, a 10-win season — effectively off the table, but it also left them with an opportunity: Before freshman quarterback Braxton Miller‘s exit in the third quarter, the offense seemed to have found an identity it can live with for the rest of the season, and maybe win a few games with. Miller is expected to start in Champaign, sore ankle notwithstanding, and with the Wisconsin death machine steamrolling into Columbus next week, this looks like a drop-dead point for OSU to salvage anything resembling a successful season.

Besides, how comfortable are we really with the idea of the Illini matching their best start since the early days of the Eisenhower administration with Ron Zook on the sideline? I whiffed on Illinois as my upset victim a few weeks back, by the slimmest of margins, but at some point the time has to be right.

Bonus pick! Mississippi State (+3) over South Carolina. Mississippi State is a dramatically better team at home, South Carolina may be distracted this week by inner turmoil and the SEC West still owns the East. The Bulldogs need this kind of win to restore some of the preseason luster that’s been missing since opening night.

CHRIS BROWN, Smart Football and Grantland: Wake Forest (+7) over Virginia Tech.
The Hokies’ 38-35 win over Miami last week was one of the most entertaining games of the season, but it revealed some disturbing trends: Virginia Tech’s “Lunch Pail” defense gave up over 500 yards of total offense, and mistake-prone ‘Cane quarterback Jacory Harris looked stunningly efficient, throwing for 267 and three scores and no picks, while Miami tailback Lamar Miller churned out 166 yards on 9.2 per carry. This a week after being throttled at home by Clemson — and Virginia Tech is a few timely Logan Thomas miracles away from losing both games.

While Wake was significantly aided in its victory over Florida State by five FSU turnovers, the Demon Deacons still handled business and this game is in Winston-Salem. Every few seasons Jim Grobe seems to put together a team that can shock some people, and this season looks to be it.

GRAHAM WATSON: Baylor (+9.5) over Texas A&M.
The Aggies’ terrible secondary, currently allowing an NCAA-worst 336.8 yards per game, welcomes Robert Griffin III, owner of the nation’s best completion and touchdown percentages, and Kendall Wright, the national leader in touchdown receptions, in what has the makings of a major, extremely high-scoring upset by the Bears. Even though Baylor has only beaten the Aggies twice since 1985, this is a potent offense that has more than enough firepower ability to create one of those second-half comebacks that have plagued A&M all season.

This week’s guest…
STEWART MANDEL, Sports Illustrated: Virginia (+7) over Georgia Tech.
It may be crazy to put faith in a Virginia team last seen squeaking by Idaho at home, 21-20. But it seems like the Yellow Jackets’ off-the-charts offense has been regressing back toward more normal outputs since they entered conference play. They’ve played just two road games, at 1-4 Middle Tennessee State, the other a closer-than-it-should-have-been win at N.C. State. Two key elements work in the Cavaliers’ favor: a) The all-important bye week to prepare for the triple option, statistically proven to be Paul Johnson’s kryptonite. And b) It’s Al Groh’s return to Charlottesville. Enough said.

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Now in its seventh year, the College Football BlogPoll is a weekly effort of dozens of college football-centric Web sites representing a wide array of schools under the oversight of SB Nation. As always, this is an ever-evolving snapshot meant to judge teams exclusively on their existing resumés. It pays as little regard as possible to my guess as to what’s going to happen over the course of the season, or what would happen in a make-believe game “on a neutral field” or anywhere else. It’s subjective, but ideally, it’s not a guess: It’s a judgment on the evidence that actually exists. It is not a power poll.

I never refer to my previous ballot when drawing up a new one, so there is no specific explanation for why LSU “jumped” Alabama into the top spot this week. In fact, I like the idea of alternating the Tigers and Crimson Tide in and out of the No. 1 slot on a weekly basis, because I still see no point in distinguishing between them until the Day of the Crimson Tiger on Nov. 5.

Both have won big road games outside of the conference, both have blown Florida to smithereens, both have avoided anything resembling a letdown. Between them, they represent the only loss(es) over the first six weeks for five different teams. So both remain 1a and 1b for another week.

• Yeah, I think that qualifies. Oklahoma‘s effortless swatting of Texas Saturday makes it the closest thing to a 1c — the Sooners were alternately surgical on offense and brutish thugs on D — though it is tougher to account for their close call at Florida State in the wake of FSU’s loss at Wake Forest. As a group, all of the dozen remaining undefeated teams (excluding 6-0 Houston, which has played and will play no one of consequence) have a lot to recommend them, and forecast some potentially epic showdowns if they keep winning over the second half of the season:

Oct. 29: Clemson at Georgia Tech.
Nov. 5: LSU at Alabama.
Nov. 12: Oregon at Stanford.
Dec. 3: Oklahoma at Oklahoma State; Wisconsin/Illinois vs. Michigan (Big Ten Championship Game).

Farfetched as it is to expect the landscape two months from now to look anything like it does today, the BCS championship race is essentially down to the winners of those five games — and only four if Oregon beats Stanford. (Sorry, Boise.)

• Patience, please. Speaking of the Ducks, it may look like a snub to leave them sitting all the way down at 15th with their point-a-minute offense actually generating right around a point a minute over the last four games. But the biggest gap between my perception of a team’s actual merit and the reality of its resumé to date is concerning Stanford. The Cardinal’s schedule — San Jose State, Duke, Arizona, UCLA, Colorado — is so mediocre that their complete dominance over it has barely registered outside of insomniacs.

If you ask me who among the Undefeated Dozen is most likely to be standing with perfect record intact in December, though, I’d probably say Stanford: I think the Carinal are as physically dominant as anyone in the country, including Alabama and LSU, and the only real obstacles to 12-0 are a trip to USC and November visits from Oregon and Notre Dame. Keep on winning, kids, and your day will come.

• So you’re… not evicting Florida, then. Yeah, that’s right. You got a problem with that?

The Gators are part of a respectable two-loss quintet I stuck at the bottom of the poll as a nod to outfits that don’t deserve to be defined by taking their lumps against A-plus competition: Of the ten losses suffered to date by Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Georgia, Florida and Auburn, six have come at the hands of undefeated teams I have ranked in the top ten, and the other four have come against teams that have only lost once. (And two of those defeats are courtesy of Arkansas, whose only loss is to Alabama.) Florida’s back-to-back flops against Alabama and LSU were grisly, lopsided beatdowns, yes, but against Alabama and LSU, there doesn’t seem to be any alternative.

• Proof. This week’s resumé grid for public consumption:

L: Losses
PPG: Average margin of victory (points per game).
YPP: Average margin per play (yards per play).
Sked: Strength of schedule (as calculated by Jeff Sagarin).

As always, everything will be completely different next week.

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Wake Forest 35, Florida State 30.
Last week, surveying Florida State‘s 2-2 start in light of its… let’s say, inconsistent track record over the last five years, I said we won’t be able to make a call on the Seminoles until well into November, at the earliest. Today, I stand corrected: We know exactly where FSU is headed, and it’s straight to the bottom of the ACC standings.

Losing to Oklahoma and Clemson by a combined 15 points is one thing. Committing five turnovers en route to your fourth loss to Wake Forest in six years? That’s a Florida State thing. Coming into this season, the Seminoles had been bounced from the polls following an early loss in four consecutive Septembers from 2007-10. Today’s loss in Winston-Salem only missed extending the streak to five years by a bye week on FSU’s schedule. It was the ‘Noles’ seventh straight loss as a ranked team against an unranked road underdog dating back to 2005. Read that sentence again.

So: No, despite the highest expectations in nearly a decade from the preseason polls, this is not the year that FSU makes its move toward rejoining the national elite. Barring a dramatic turnaround — accompanied by a dramatic collapse by still-undefeated Clemson, which is never out of the question — it’s not even the year FSU rejoins the ACC elite, if there is such a thing. It’s just another year that they’ve failed spectacularly to meet expectations with the most talent in the conference, by losing to a team with arguably the least talent.

That’s especially deflating in 2011, the second year under head coach Jimbo Fisher, because the “underachiever” rap was supposed to go out with Bobby Bowden and his over-the-hill coaching staff. Last year, with the Atlantic Division title, blowout wins over Miami and Florida and a convincing bowl win over South Carolina, looked a clear step forward. Recruiting is on the upswing. The defense finished September ranked in the top 10 nationally in yards allowed. The next five games on the schedule looked like gimmes. Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia Tech are nowhere to be found. Starting quarterback E.J. Manuel was healthy and back in the lineup.

There are no excuses. For now, there’s only a slot alongside Boston College and N.C. State in last place.

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Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Attention sports radio hosts: Don’t talk trash about Tennessee coach Derek Dooley. His mom will find you.

Knoxville sportswriters Andrew Gribble and Dave Hooker learned that the hard way when Barbara Dooley crashed “Newsmakers with Tim Bryant,” the radio show on which the two were appearing Thursday afternoon.

“At some point, one or the other speculates on Derek Dooley and the temperature of the seat beneath him,” Bryant told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “Turns out Barbara Dooley was listening, and she lives right around the corner.”

So Barbara, who also has a show on the Athens radio station, decided to pay a little visit to the studio and defend her son.

“She just about kicked the door in,” Bryant said.

Barbara took issue with criticisms leveled by Gribble and Hooker, who both cover Dooley, and notes that back when her husband Vince was the coach at Georgia, they never battled the media.

“I want to ask you guys something,” Barbara said. “Back when I was in coaching with my husband, the press was our best friends. Now all y’all want to do is beat the coaches to hell and back.”

Barbara also couldn’t believe that Gribble said her son was on the hot seat after just one full season in Knoxville. Gribble denied saying that initially, but later said his use of the words “hot seat” was taken out of context.

“Let me say this: Derek Dooley walked into kind of a mess. Florida, [coach Will Muschamp] walks into talent just oozing out of their ears. Jimbo Fisher walks into FSU with talent. And y’all are telling me that Derek Dooley is on the damn hot seat? Are you crazy?

“Oh, come on, get out of here! You’ve got Mama’s rile up now, buddy.”

The entire exchange lasted only a few minutes because Congressman Tom Graves was on the other line (“He can just wait. Football is important.”), but Barbara wanted to be heard and assure Tennessee fans that her son was the best man for the job.

“I just want you to be nice and fair and know that you probably have the best coach in the country and he’s going to be there 25 years,” she said.

Obviously, it’s too early to tell about Dooley, whose record in Knoxville sits at 9-8 barely a month into his second season. Barbara is right when she says Dooley didn’t inherit as much talent from the Lane Kiffin administration as some of his peers,  quickly discovering tumbleweeds where Kiffin’s only recruiting class was supposed to be. And even in rebuilding mode, the young Vols have shown flashes of sky-high potential.

Still, it has to be a little embarrassing to have your mother come to your defense at 43 years old, even if your mom is as outspoken as Barbara Dooley.

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Curtsy (the female version of a hat tip) to the Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Making the morning rounds.

• He’s OK, folks! In case you went to bed before the end of Oregon‘s 43-15 rout over California Thursday night, or immediately after, that is indeed Duck running back LaMichael James, describing for reporters how he personally popped his dislocated right arm back into place on the field following a ghastly injury on the second play of the fourth quarter. Defying all immediate, wincing assumptions that he was likely done for the season, James showed up at the postgame press conference sounding more upbeat than anyone whose arm just briefly turned to jelly has any right to be, and pledged to return within a few weeks.

“I’m good. I will be in an Oregon uniform this year,” he said, adding that once popped a dislocated arm back in place in high school, too, and played the following week. “You know, it’s not a season-ending injury. I’ll be fine. I’m tough, I’m a warrior, I’m never going to quit on my team.” [Eugene Register-Guard, Associated Press]

• Come together, right now, over cash. On the same day the informally added TCU as a tenth member, Big 12 presidents and chancellors unanimously approved a new revenue-sharing plan that — like the agreements in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC — will finally divvy up all television money equally among all members for at least sixth years. The proposal passed unanimously, with one exception: Missouri, which abstained under advice from legal counsel and admirably restrained itself from interrupting the teleconference by randomly chanting “S-E-C!” [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]

The conference also reached a “compromise” with Texas to prohibit all high school-related content on the Longhorn Network, even news-style highlights that had been given the green light by the NCAA. This is a “compromise” in the sense that Texas gave in to the rest of the league’s demands, and the rest of the league accepted. [Orangebloods.com]

• Another one bites the dust. Birmingham-based attorney Glennon Threatt filed a motion Thursday requesting a withdrawal as counsel for Harvey Updyke Jr., making him at least the fourth defense attorney to beg off the case since Updyke was charged with two felonies and multiple misdemeanors for allegedly poisoning a pair of venerated oak trees on Auburn‘s campus last year. Since Threatt took the case in the spring, Updyke has claimed to have been attacked after his preliminary hearing (police turned up no evidence); taken up a bizarre presence on Twitter; and given multiple, lengthy interviews to ESPN and regional radio ringmaster Paul Finebaum, to whom Updyke apologized on the air last week — barely four months after entering a not guilty plea in court. “I just don’t feel I am the person anymore,” Threatt said. [Opelika-Auburn News]

• Quote of the Day, Part One. Missouri defensive end Jacquies Smith, on dealing with Kansas State’s septuagenarian pace on offense under 72-year-old Bill Snyder: “Who even huddles anymore? They play like their coach.” [The Missourian]

• Quote of the Day, Part Two. Jeff Driskel‘s high school coach, on Driskel’s baseball prowess while growing up in Japan: “He was called the white Babe Ruth.” [Gainesville Sun]

Quickly… Cliff Harris briefly breaks his media silence to apologize to Oregon fans. … Indiana bids adieu to two tailbacks and a defensive tackle, and suspends a backup cornerback for drunk driving and possession of marijuana. … Point: Of course TCU is a great fit in the Big 12. … Counterpoint: TCU should have stuck with the Big East. … Forget the standings: Texas-Oklahoma is a big day for recruiting, too. … And Derek Dooley’s mom thinks his orange pants are “awful.” I still like them, coach, but then, I’m not going to hijack a radio show on your behalf.

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