Money, it's been said, can't buy you happiness. It also can't guarantee a Top 25 football team either.
There are at least 31 head coaches in the BCS ranks that will earn more than $1.8 million this season, according to a salary study conducted by USA Today.
Of the nation's 31 highest-paid head college football coaches in America, only nine are currently coaching teams in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll. That leaves 22 of the nation's 31 highest-paid coaches outside the AP Top 25.
Of those 22 coaches, five have a losing record this season -- Florida State's Bobby Bowden (4-5), Wake Forest's Jim Grobe (4-6), Virginia's Al Groh (3-6), Washington's Steve Sarkisan (3-6) and Maryland's Ralph Friedgen (2-7) -- and another is at .500 -- Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (5-5).
Four of the 22 coaches are in the cellar in their respective conferences -- Missouri's Gary Pinkel and Kansas' Mark Mangino (each tied for last in the Big 12 North), Michigan's Rich Rodriguez (tied for last in the Big 10) and Friedgen (tied for last in the ACC Atlantic).
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.
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.
We've already spent a good chunk of FanHouse real estate covering the Golden Bears and the likelihood of their mediocrity in 2008. But in the interest of equal time (and bet hedging), it seems only fair for us to explore the other side of the argument as well. After all, this team has spent their fair share of time in Top 25 the past few seasons, even if they have managed to lose more than a few seemingly winnable/gimme games.
Jeff Tedford's team enters this season as the prototypical wild card: (a) they've been successful the past few seasons but have seemed to struggle under the weight of high expectations, and this year will have a decidedly lower profile than they did the past couple; (b) they have some key departures, but several of the replacements for those who left could actually prove to be a substantial upgrade by the time everything shakes out; and (c) they have a schedule that sees all but one of their tough games take place at the comfy confines of Berkeley's Memorial Coliseum.
Let's take a closer look at how Cal might manage to shock the "experts" and contend in 2008.
If Mediocrity had a football team, its mascot would most likely wear a giant foam Mike Stoops head
Ahhh, mediocre college football. Three words that go together like turkey, gravy, and stuffing.
While the majority of space here at FanHouse and on every other college football publication will be focused on the Top 25, season after season a huge slice of the college football fan pie (mmmm...fan pie) find themselves supporting a team who would most aptly be described as thoroughly mediocre, at best. I'd venture to guess that for every legit contender, there are probably three teams with a couple of flaws so glaring that only those blinded by the partisanship of homerdom can pretend their team's downsides won't inevitably sabotage any hopes of playing in a bowl of even moderate respectability.
And therein lies one of the most cruel realities of the college football landscape: winning 6 or 7 games is no small feat, and yet every year coaches and players around the country will be abused for achieving that very milestone. Of course, when you play in a conference like the Pac 10 -- who rewards its third place finisher with a December 31 game in El Paso's Sun Bowl -- can you really be that surprised when fans and pundits are critical of barely topping out above .500?
Who from the Pac 10 will slide to the middle of the pack in 2008? Here's a quick rundown of the leading candidates for Pacific time zone mediocrity this season.
Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.
Oregon infamously refused to disclose the status of Dennis Dixon's knee during the bye week between games against Arizona State and Arizona, only to have their national championship hopes dislocated against the Wildcats.
But hiding a quarterback injury wasn't exclusive to the Ducks. California quarterback Nate Longshore played the nearly the whole season with a chipped bone in his ankle--hobbling him ever since the Bears beat the Ducks. Bears coach Jeff Tedford admitted yesterday, "There's a little chip in the back part of it there. I didn't get that it was a broken ankle. But Nate had talked to me about a little chip that was in the back there."
Oh, Berkeley hippies, how I love you and your quixotic quest to save a few trees adjacent to Memorial Stadium for no particular reason whatsoever. It is you and your irrelevant mountain of red tape that has delayed the renovation project Jeff Tedford demanded if he was going to stay at Cal, and now a judge has said the hippies can stay:
A judge on Wednesday refused the University of California, Berkeley's request to immediately evict a group of protesters who took up residence in an oak grove threatened by the planned construction of a campus athletic center.
In denying UC Berkeley's request for an emergency restraining order, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Keller said university officials failed to prove the tree-sitters posed an immediate health and safety menace
Several lawsuits brought forth by various interested parties, including the city of Berkeley itself(!!!) are scheduled to go to trial next month... and probably drag on well into the spring, long enough for the Michigan job to come open and for the Wolverines to pounce on Tedford before his buyout doubles when Cal puts the renovation's first shovel in the ground. Win, you ludicrous bastards, win. Uh... because of the trees and stuff. Yeah, that's the ticket. We all have deep concern for trees here in Michigan. It has nothing to do with Jeff Tedford being an ass kicking savior guy.
The California Golden Bears enter the 2007 season with two objectives: exact revenge on Tennessee and remind people that they were Pac Ten Conference co-champions in 2006. A returning combo of Nate Longshore and DeSean Jackson makes this all the more possible, and here's how we break down Cal's Golden Bears this year...
WHY THEY'LL WIN
The University of California brings what some experts are calling the best Special Teams unit in the country to the 2007 season. Wide receiver DeSean Jackson has returned nearly one in five punts back for a touchdown in his career, giving the Golden Bears an "X-Factor" advantage when evenly matched up against teams offensively and defensively. Against most of the Pac Ten, the Bears display superior talent and a coaching genius named Jeff Tedford--so special teams may not even be a factor. But if they need the edge, it is there.
WHY THEY'LL LOSE
Much has been talked about the "rivalry" between Cal's Jeff Tedford and USC's Pete Carroll, but ever since Cal out-played the Trojans five seasons ago, it seems more like the Trojans own the Bears, with four straight wins. Some of the mystique of the overtime win back in 'Ought Three is wearing off.
Cal will have to prove early on that it is a contender for anything more than the Holiday Bowl when Tennessee brings their Southern values to the Bay Area over Labor Day weekend. Last year, the Bears were embarrassed on Rocky Top dropping them from a Top-Ten team to borderline Top 20.
What's more, Cal somehow lost to Arizona last year--which doesn't take a genius to figure out that something was awry in the coaching which won't go away this season.
It seems that any week of the season, just about any Pac Ten team can beat any other, unless the former is named Stanford--and after surprise upsets in 2006 by Arizona over California and UCLA and Oregon State over Southern California the axiom proved true--setting up some good revenge matches for 2007 in addition to a quality out-of conference schedule
5. Oregon State at Southern California, November 3
In 2006, Southern California traveled to a packed house in Corvallis, gave the ball up four times and dug itself into a 23-point deficit, before scoring 21 unanswered poins only to lose on a tipped ball two-point conversion. Homecoming will have extra meaning for the Trojans this year.
Beaver running back Yvenson Bernard will be making a run at two Trojans' places in the record books, as he chases Marcus Allen and Charles White on the all-time rushing yards list.
4. Notre Dame at UCLA, October 6
Only last-second heroics by Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija could save the Fighting Irish from the jaws of defeat at the hands of Pat Cowan and the rag-tag bunch of Bruins.
In 2007, Jimmy Clausen will have to fill the big shoes of Quinn as he makes his first trip back to Southern California in the Blue and Gold. Expect no sympathy for his spurning USC's advances from an aggressive Bruin defense.
California transfer Nyan Boateng hadn't even left Gainesville for Berkeley before he found trouble, as the future Golden Bear wide receiver was arrested last week and "charged with burglary residence, battery and criminal mischief," according to the Contra Costa Times.
The former Florida Gator--and the only one in the Cal program who can claim a National Championship--allegedly attempted to enter a former girlfriend's residence last Thursday, was refused entry then kicked the door in.
Cal Head Coach Jeff Tedford is "aware of the situation" and has suspended Boateng from all team activities while he "gathers more information." Even if he had stayed on the good side of the law, the transfer would have had to sit out the 2007 season, so the news has little impact on the program other than the schadenfreude felt by Stanford alumni.
Money, it's been said, can't buy you happiness. It also can't guarantee a Top 25 football team either.
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, 
LOS ANGELES -- The enthusiasm in Berkeley is muted because the 
Were it not for all the other wackiness in College Football this season, the collapses of California and Oregon Football would be among this year's major story lines. As both teams were poised to take over the number-one ranking in the country, their quarterbacks suffered injuries which sent their seasons on a downward spiral.
The University of California brings what some experts are calling the best Special Teams unit in the country to the 2007 season. Wide receiver 
Much has been talked about the "rivalry" between Cal's Jeff Tedford and USC's 
California transfer 
