• James said it means a lot to him that Saban is succeeding in his career.
• Saban said his team has struggled in rivalry games, but showed resiliency.
• Saban said the SEC Championship game is a one-game season.
• James said Florida’s defense is tough and Saban agreed.

Who goes to the Rose Bowl?

John Robinson: I think Oregon has played just a bit better all year. And with Masoli, the quarterback for Oregon, you can’t find the ball. It is incredible the coaching job done at Oregon State. They don’t bring in highly wanted guys, but they certainly bring guys who can play.

Mike Riley is an excellent QB coach and his players have flourished under him. I was up there with those Civil War battles. And Oregon is a finesse teams and if Oregon State can force fumbles and create their opportunity, they could win.

Don James: I was really impressed with the Pac-10 with 5 teams in most top 25 polls who have to play everybody. On another note, I wanted to compliment Boise State playing through that weather vs. Nevada. I have been very impressed with that team and how well they are coached.

What does Nebraska do well that could help win the Big 12?

Fisher DeBerry: Defensively they are pretty good, but offensively they are just solid. I think they will be ready and we will just have to wait and see. I think all and all I have to say their defense is pretty good. I was impressed with Texas and offensively they are a darn good football team. I was also impressed with A&M’s growth this season.

Who will win the ACC Championship game?

Vince Dooley: I don’t know how good Clemson is on offense. I said early in the year Georgia Tech was only average on defense. They had no answer for Georgia, and I think they caught Georgia on and all time emotional high and Georgia Tech couldn’t keep up with them. Who knows what Paul Johnson will do versus Clemson.

I think both teams will be ready to play. And Georgia’s offensive line finally played like they were capable of doing and shut down Tech on the inside. I think the line of scrimmage is the key to the game.

I think Clemson can get the penetration on Tech.

Pat Dye: Alabama’s playing Auburn Saturday, but I don’t think that will affect the game in Atlanta.  Auburn’s in the same category as Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina. If Auburn is going to beat Alabama they’d have to help them a lot and Alabama hasn’t been helping anybody.  They don’t get many penalties and they do what they’re supposed to do to be a great football team.  I still think Alabama’s the best and they’re going to play to find out.

Who should be No. 1? Alabama or Florida?

Vince Dooley: You can argue strongly for both of those teams.  The thing FSU has been doing is scoring but I don’t think they’re going to score a lot against Florida.  They’ve given up a lot so I don’t think it’s going to be much of a test.  Trying to pick who is one and who is two, the only thing I think is the difference is that Tebow is still there and as long as he’s there I’m going to pick Florida.  The other kid (McElroy) is a little inconsistent.  That might be the difference.

Do you expect an upset this weekend?

Don James: I don’t think there’s any question who we think are the best but we have to remember these are all big rivalry games.  We’ve seen over the years what can happen in big rival games.  I’d take Florida, Alabama, and Texas to win but Florida State, Auburn, and Texas A&M are going to come in there flying.

Why has Texas dropped in your eyes?

Gene Stallings: I’ve watched them on the television and it seems that they’ve abandoned the running game.  I don’t know what they’re going to do against a good football team.  Unless their running game picks up I don’t think they have much chance to win it all.

Did Pete Carroll’s assistants leaving for new jobs have an impact on the team?

Don James: I didn’t think so but maybe it’s true.  Pete Carroll is the defensive coordinator.  The offense hasn’t changed, the coaches have changed.  Maybe with them coming in from Denver, they had a difficult time with it.  They weren’t very dynamic.  They don’t like to run the ball.  They will very seldom run the ball twice in a row.  They’re a great offensive team when it’s going.  This is the first time the quarterback and the receivers (they lost their best receiver) didn’t get it going.  They didn’t have other people to come in there.  I think that probably made a difference, a combination of things.  Not a good year.

Frank Kush: USC has the talent, but they just don’t have their act together offensively or defensively.  It seems like one of those internal problems where the coaches don’t know who to play.  We’ve got the same problem here at Arizona State.  We’ve gone through three quarterbacks and we still don’t know what we want to do.  It’s unfortunate because it’s affecting the team in general, psychologically in my opinion and certainly offensively here at Arizona State.

John Ralston: I feel the same way, I think Stanford is the best team in the Pac-10.

John Cooper: I was talking to the Ohio State coaches and they still think USC was the best team they’ve played all year for what it’s worth.

Robinson: I think a number of things worked against them.  They’ve had a change in the coaching staff and that got them off a little bit.  Their overall squad isn’t as fast as it used to be.  You don’t get a sense of that speed.  You look at some of these teams and say “Wow, they’re fast” and you just don’t say that about USC this year.  They’re good, they’re physical and all that, but that never happened.  They got caught up early too in the quarterback thing.  They were going with the freshman starter and than he got hurt.  It seemed like it used up all their attention and the rest of the team didn’t come along.  They didn’t do well.  You’ve got to have some perspective.  They’ve been champions seven year in a row in the Pac-10 and contending to be national champions so this is an aberration in that regard.  I don’t think there is dissension or discontentment.  They just aren’t doing it.  John Ralston made the point that Stanford is really good.  Maybe the rest of the Pac10 has come up and is not afraid of them.

Jim Harbaugh is a guy who says, “I’m not afraid of you, I’m going to kick your ass,” and he did.

And then there’s Oregon.  No one wants to play Oregon.  They’re like Georgia Tech.  You just don’t want to play those guys that are crazy.  They run all over the damn place and you don’t know where the ball is.  A lot of things have conspired against USC, but there’s no falling off the mountain.  They may have slipped down from the top, but they’ve got their hiking boots on and they’ll get their ass back up there.

Terry Donahue: I think one of the things to me that has been the most interesting about USC over the last couple of years is that they have kind of moved away from the really hard, physical running game USC traditionally has always had.  It was one of those things they always had.  They would pound on you with good backs and really good offensive linemen.  It doesn’t seem like that philosophy is ingrained at USC any longer.  It seems that they’ve gotten away from that and it seems to me they’ve become so reliant on the quarterback position to play.  They’ve had Heisman Trophy winners and first round picks at quarterback and they’ve been really good in the past.  But still in terms of leading with the run and countering with the pass, I think they do more of the opposite now.  When you have a young quarterback who makes a few mistakes things can blow up on you.

Ralston: Stanford’s red-shirt freshman quarterback has come on strong.   A guy who is a red-shirt freshman playing with the varsity you would expect not to be very good, but he’ll keep Stanford up there as long as he’s there.  We keep talking about their running back but their quarterback is as good as anybody.

How would No. 4 TCU match up with No. 3 Texas?

RC Slocum: TCU played a good Texas team a year ago and played them close for a half. Then Texas pulled away.  You know playing Texas, obviously they’re a good team and a lot of it hinges on the quarterback.  If I were playing them I think we’d match up pretty good because TCU is a pressure, quick pressure defense and they’d probably give Texas some problems.  You’ve got to do something to disrupt their quarterback and don’t let him get into a rhythm.  If you affected the production of the quarterback you would greatly slow their offense down.  They’re not a great running team.  The quarterback opens things up.  Shipley is a great player but if you get the quarterback you don’t have to worry much about Shipley except on special teams.  I think it would be a good match up.

What is your impression of TCU?

Slocum: I think TCU is a very good football team and over the years they’ve lined up and played Oklahoma and played Texas and teams like that.  This year they went to Clemson and beat Clemson.  That impresses me because I think Clemson is pretty good.  When you look at Boise or someone like that, you don’t see the same caliber athletes that you see at some of the big time SEC schools and other schools like that…and that’s where I think the matchup is significant to me, that a team like TCU, who you might question their talent and say they’re just a Boise, you know they went into Clemson against one of those big physical teams.  TCU, to their favor, played that kind of team and matched up pretty well.

Don James: That’s their last tough game — Utah this week.  If you look at their schedule there’s not much left

Fisher DeBerry: Having played TCU for many, many years I think it would simply boil down to the fact that Texas’ defense would make a lot of difference because I don’t think that TCU’s got quite the offensive people on that side of the ball that they have on the defensive side of the ball.  Like R.C. said, they’ll put some pressure on McCoy and if his offensive line can hold up and he can hold up because they’re a defensive pressure blitzing team, they’ve got people who can run on defense and keep up with anybody in country and I guarantee you that.  But I think Texas would eventually wear them down, and I think the difference would be at the quarterback position.

Would Texas would wear down TCU?

Pat Dye: Texas has got to be good.  Even though their schedule has been in their favor.  They’ve got to be good.  You can build up all kinds of statistics against weak football teams.  Top-ranked defense, tops in passing and the quarterback can stand back in the pocket and hold the ball all day long.  Auburn’s quarterback against Furman Saturday was 17 for 18 and he ain’t that good.  So your competition percentage has a lot to do with the way you look.  But I think they would wear down TCU.

• James believes it will be a huge upset if Georgia beats Florida.
• Billingsley believes Florida will be focused, based on the negative media surrounding Tebow.
• James said Tebow must be banged up, because even Jake Locker at Washington is beat up.

• Billingsley has Iowa No. 4 and the Legends have Iowa No. 7.
• James says he doesn’t give Iowa much credit for wins over Northern Iowa and Arkansas State.
• James says Barkley could be the key to the game for USC against Oregon.
• Billingsley said Boise State will not be hurt in his poll if Oregon loses to USC.

• James evaluates his ballot from week-to-week.
• James coached Nick Saban at Kent State.
• Billingsley says he would probably rank Texas No. 1 if he had a human vote.
• Billingsley has Alabama, Florida and Texas ranked No. 1 – 3.
• Billingsley disagrees with the way the NCAA ranks strength of schedule.

Slocum: Texas is winning every week and you have to give them some credit for that, but they’re just inconsistent.  Early on (in the season) I thought they weren’t playing very well on defense and I worried about their special teams. But the other day they won the game on special teams and defense. So, we’ll find out this week.  They’re playing Oklahoma in the biggest test they’ve had.  It appears to me that Colt McCoy is turning the ball over.  He’s playing like he did the year before last — just kind of an average guy.  Last year he was the difference in their team.  This year he’s had a less than spectacular start.

I don’t think Texas has the defense — ranking these teams I had Texas at No. 3. They don’t have a defense like Florida and Alabama, I don’t think they can run the ball like Florida and Alabama.

Donahue: The best teams I’ve seen so far are Florida and Alabama.  I’ve done (color commentary) Alabama twice and Alabama is a team to me with no apparent weaknesses.  They’ve got a whole lot of athleticism everywhere around their football team.  Their offensive line is very good, maybe not as good as Florida’s, but certainly good.  They’ve got a whole group of running backs they can throw at you.  The quarterback is better than I ever thought he would be after watching him in the opening game against Virginia Tech.  Greg McElroy is really playing well for them.  He’s good with the ball.

Florida’s offensive line is the most impressive line I’ve seen in a lot of years.  I’d have to go back to some of the great lines, you know, over the years to see a better one than Florida’s offensive line.  So those are the two best teams I’ve seen.

Slocum: I’m kind of curious about the LSU game.  I was impressed with LSU’s speed and everything and I’m curious about in the poll if you play Alabama who we all have as number two and you get beat 13-3, I don’t know why you drop so far.  You know, you play a team ranked ahead of them and you think the team ahead of them should win and they won by a fairly close margin so I didn’t mark them down much.  I think LSU is one of the better teams around.

Don James: Well, one thing is they didn’t play that well out here in Washington, you know.  They played a very average football team and struggled to win.  That was just the opener and we all know how openers are so we all know how openers are.

Bill Mallory: I think the big question with LSU is their offense.  I’m still not sure how good of an offense they really are.

Vince Dooley: I think the quarterback (Jordan Jefferson) is still inexperienced and that’s a problem with them.  I think they have great athletes and they’ve won a lot of close games which is part of winning I guess.  Despite the fact that they got beat 13-3 I thought Florida was a much, much stronger football team.  Everything was going for LSU in the ball game, but Florida still played well.

Slocum: When you play the No. 1 team in the nation and lose 13-3, you probably played pretty well.  They’re a one-loss team now, and I compare them to other one-loss teams.  Southern Cal lost to a Washington team that’s not very good.  So USC with one loss compared to losing to the No. 1 team in college football, I didn’t mark them down as far.

“It was just an absolute downpour the whole game,” he said. “You just cannot believe the rain. They had like five inches in a little over 24 hours.”

Mizzou dominated the first three quarters of the game, before fall aparting at the seams. However, their offense did not look impressive.

“Missouri got Blaine Gabbert hurt, their quarterback,” James said. “But they’re a team with five receivers out and no backs. And when they had one back out there, there’s no deception when Gabbert’s hurt. So, their running game was just shot.”

Gabbert did have one rushing touchdown late in the first half, as Mizzou went into the locker room with a 9-0 lead.

“For three quarters, it looked like Nebraska would never score,” James said. “Missouri had it won, then Gabbert started throwing it to Nebraska. And Zac Lee for Nebraska really started to play. And their defensive kids made some good plays. The defense should have five interceptions where the ball was thrown right to them. They caught two.”

Nebraska’s Lee finished 14-for-33 passing with three touchdowns — all three coming in the fourth quarter. Gabbert’s two interceptions were the first of his career. Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh — a Lott Trophy candidate — made one of the interceptions. His pick led to the go-ahead touchdown for Nebraska.

“They hit a post route and that was the ball game,” said James. “It was a miserable, miserable night to play.”

James joked that he was fortunate to be inside for the game out of the elements. The loss marked the first time Mizzou has fallen to Nebraska at home since 2001.