FanHouse Jahvid Best

Cal's electric tailback Jahvid Best, once a Heisman Trophy candidate was diagnosed with a concussion after taking a serious spill against Oregon State Saturday night. Midway through the second quarter, Best rose high into the air to hurdle Oregon State safety Cameron Collins on the way to a touchdown, but fell onto his back and neck and was left immobile from the play.

Best's helmet flew off from the impact with the ground and his arms immediately went stiff.

The running back was carted off the field on a stretcher and transported to a local emergency room for observation. According to Cal spokesman Herb Benenson, Best had feeling in all his extremities but suffered a concussion.

Best suffered what the team called a "mild concussion" last week against Arizona.

But coach Jeff Tedford said all other tests were negative.

"He's in good shape," Tedford told the media.

Video of the play after the jump.

When in doubt, play defense. That seems to be the philosophy right now at USC, which has taken an offense with nine returning starters and the nation's best offensive line and driven it into a ditch for large stretches of this season. And so it was on the road Saturday, the USC Trojans steadily outplaying the Cal Bears on the way to a 30-3 victory.

Mirroring last week's performance against Washington State, USC came out firing offensively in building a 20-0 second-quarter lead, eventually cooled, and still cruised to victory behind yet another dominating defensive performance. Strange days considering that defense was one of the best of this era last year and graduated the bulk of its talent to the NFL.

Crazy as it sounded but a few weeks ago, there is a chance neither Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy or Sam Bradford will win the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Maybe that's a good thing. Their journey of inevitability has taken on some water surprisingly early this year.

When BYU's Coleby Clawson slammed Bradford to the turf causing a shoulder injury, Bradford's repeat hopes were finished. He has still yet to play a down since then. Last Saturday against Kentucky, Tebow also sustained a concussion injury while being driven to the ground. It is unclear whether he will play Saturday against LSU in Florida's first real test this season.

Meanwhile, Colt McCoy already has five interceptions although he completed 80 percent of his passes Saturday against UTEP as the Longhorns appear to have turned a corner offensively in pouring 64 points on the Miners.

Cal might've been looking ahead to next week's showdown with suddenly vulnerable USC, but they certainly sucked all the excitement out of it after getting whipped by the throwback jersey-wearing Oregon Ducks, 42-3.

They probably did just as much harm to Jahvid Best's Heisman campagin. The Ducks shut down the star running back, holding him to 55 yards and also battered Bears' quarterback Kevin Riley into a feeble 123-yard outing.

Saturday's victory is part of a stunning turnaround for Oregon, following its opening night embarrassment against Boise, a game marred by offensive ineptitude and LeGarrette Blount's sucker punch heard 'round the world. Since then, Oregon has beaten Purdue, Utah and now California. Amusingly, the Ducks dominated Cal in a manner similar to how Boise State handled them.

Like fruit, vegetables and corn from a jar, college football is good for you. That is, unless you're a suffering USC or BYU fan, dream shattered as your team lay exposed and mocked. Meanwhile, we're perhaps witnessing a resurgent Miami and the steadily increasing hopes of a -- gasp! -- running back (Cal's Jahvid Best) claiming the Heisman Trophy. Needless to say there's a lot to talk about this week.

As usual we'll have a chat that we encourage you to join and participate (2 PM ET, Thursday Sept. 23rd), but with a twist. We're leaving the chat software 'live' so as to solicit comments and questions from you in advance. They won't be published until the established starting time but we'll catalog them and use them as the basis for discussion so jump right in and start the conversation and we'll pick up where you leave off on Thursday. Chat application after the jump.

LOS ANGELES -- Only the Pacific 10 Conference can show some muscle but take a step back on the same day.

Highlighted by Washington's victory over No. 3 USC on Saturday, the Pac-10 proved once again that it's not a conference dominated by one team. It was the fourth consecutive season that the highly-regarded Trojans -- who are 33-1 in their last 34 games against non-conference opponents -- were knocked off by an underdog Pac-10 squad.

There aren't many superlatives that accurately describe the kind of day California running back Jahvid Best had Saturday. If he wasn't already considered one of the top running backs in the country, he must be now.

Cal needed this game against Minnesota. The Oct. 3 showdown with USC wouldn't mean as much if Cal already had a loss. The Gophers were looking to make a serious statement, playing for just the second time in sparkling new TCF Bank Stadium. Thanks to Best, the Gophers were left wondering what might have been.

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, or lack thereof.

There are weeks when many of us would trade lives with Jim Tressel. This is not one of those weeks.

Not only did his Buckeyes fail to finish USC when they had the Trojans on the ropes, Tressel also saw "Tresselball" ripped apart by Chris Brown of Smart Football, faced a fan base who want him fired three days ago, had to lash back at some of those same fans, discovered that one of USC's touchdowns may not have happened, and now he has to face a Toledo team that just mashed Colorado into goo.

Yes, there are a lot of reasons why you wouldn't want to be Jim Tressel this week, but "because he's on the hot seat" isn't one of them.

Three weeks ago, I wrote that the Big Three of Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, and Sam Bradford would end up being the big two, and that the 2009 Heisman race would feature several players that were just on the periphery of the Heisman hunt in the preseason. One week in, that's already happened. Following an unfortunate shoulder sprain, Sam Bradford is out of the running. That leaves Tebow and McCoy as the leaders in the clubhouse, but guarantees that a couple of guys no one is talking about will snag invites to New York for the Heisman ceremony.

LOS ANGELES -- The enthusiasm in Berkeley is muted because the California Golden Bears have been here before, possessing the opportunity to seize the Pac-10 crown from a vulnerable USC team, loaded with returning starters and gifted skill players, including a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.

It was 2006, and Marshawn Lynch was being billed as a Heisman candidate and the Bears were ready to unseat their hated rival from the south. Instead, they were blown out by Tennessee on national TV to open the season and then lost their Rose Bowl chance with a brutal loss at Arizona in November. Cal was relegated to the Holiday Bowl, and relegated once against to second-tier status in the college football landscape.