By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

Not long ago, it seemed the regular season might end with a logjam of undefeated teams at the top of the BCS standings.

Who was going to be beat Wisconsin? Or Clemson? And wouldn’t Oklahoma waltz into Stillwater on Dec. 3 for a Big 12 battle of unbeatens against Oklahoma State?

Now after two weeks in which the number of undefeated teams has dropped from 10 to six, one loss doesn’t seem like a death sentence for a team’s national title hopes. Hear that LSU and Alabama fans? And Boise State getting into the BCS championship game isn’t such a long shot anymore, either.

The fifth-ranked Broncos nearly had one of the great off weeks in the history of college football.

Landry Jones and No. 7 Oklahoma throttling Kansas State 58-17 was good news, but certainly not unexpected. Kansas State raced to a 7-0 start by making the most of a roster that has some limitations. The Sooners exploited those shortcomings and the Wildcats might be looking at more of the same at No. 3 Oklahoma State on Saturday. Jones threw for 505 against the Wildcats. Conservatively pencil Brandon Weeden in for 350.

Still, any time an undefeated team from an automatic-qualifying conference loses Boise State fans should smile.

The Broncos had to be glowing for a while Saturday night. Tevin Washington and Georgia Tech’s option offense confounded No. 11 Clemson in a 31-17 victory in Atlanta.

The Tigers, who were poised to pass the Broncos in the BCS standings, now move to the back of the line.

It would have been noteworthy, too, that Ohio State beat Wisconsin on a late long touchdown pass, but considering Michigan State did the same to the Badgers a week earlier only the Big Ten race was further muddled by the conference’s latest fantastic finish.

Speaking of the Big Ten, the only team undefeated in that league is No. 16 Penn State (8-1, 5-0). Who saw that coming three weeks ago?

As Clemson was coming apart, Southern California had Andrew Luck and No. 4 Stanford teetering. A rare telegraphed throw by Luck was returned 33 yards for a touchdown by Nickell Robey to give USC a 34-27 lead with 3:08 left.

Luck, not in the least bit flustered, led Stanford back to tie, then to a 56-48 win in triple overtime.

“We talked about fighting adversity,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “I didn’t know there was going to be this much adversity, but the kids fought through, and I love them to death for it.”

If form holds, Oklahoma State and Stanford will jostle for a spot in the national title game against the winner of Saturday’s mega-showdown between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

But Stanford’s defense had issues against USC and Oklahoma State’s defense has had issues against pretty much everyone – ranked 111th in the nation.

Oregon (7-1), which plays at Stanford on Nov. 12, and Oklahoma (7-1) will be serious threats to knock off their unbeaten conference rivals, and if they do, the Ducks and Sooners are right back in the championship race. Along with the loser of Tigers vs. Tide.

And then there’s Boise State. The only daunting game left on the Broncos’ schedule is a home date against Mountain West Conference rival TCU on Nov. 12. No team, other than maybe Houston in Conference USA, has a better shot at finishing the season unbeaten.

That hasn’t been enough to get the Broncos in the national title game before, but now, it doesn’t seem like such a stretch.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Washington running back Chris Polk scored five touchdowns in a 42-31 victory against Arizona on Saturday night and became the first player in Washington history with 100 yards rushing and receiving in a game.

Polk is far from an unknown commodity. He was second-team All-Pac 10 last year and he’s now had three 1,000-yard rushing seasons, matching Napoleon Kaufman as the only player in school history to pull off that feat.

Still, for a guy who is so talented and has already done so much, Polk doesn’t seem to get much attention nationally.

“Chris Polk is just a fantastic player,” Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I think you guys can start to write articles about Chris because he deserves it.”

OK, consider this a start.
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QUICK HITS
- New Florida coach Will Muschamp is trying to jam spread-offense parts into pro-style holes and his frustration with the shoddy results – the Gators have lost four straight for the first time since 1988 – was apparent after the 24-20 loss to Georgia.

“We’re not close,” Muschamp said. “It’s very difficult to run a power running game with who we have. I like the guys we’ve got, but it’s just the bottom line when you look at some situations of where we are. It doesn’t take anybody real educated to figure it out right now. Sometimes it does.”

- According to the Big Ten, Penn State is the first team in the 116-year history of the league to win five straight games, all in conference play, by 10 points or fewer.

- At this point, it would be shocking if second-year Kansas coach Turner Gill keeps his job past this season. The Jayhawks had three first downs and 46 yards in a 43-0 loss to Texas. Kansas (2-6, 0-5) has lost six in a row. Remember when there was so much consternation among some fans when Auburn hired Gene Chizik instead of Gill?

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LOOKING AHEAD

Have you heard that there will be a 1 vs. 2 game in Tuscaloosa on Saturday?

Aside from the LSU-Alabama game, No. 8 Arkansas (7-1) is at No. 10 South Carolina. The Gamecocks lead the SEC East but a loss here could put second-place Georgia in the driver’s seat.

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For all the storylines going into the Florida-Georgia game – Will Muschamp’s first game as a head coach vs. his alma mater, Florida’s domination in the series, Mark Richt’s now-lukewarm seat – one emerges as most important for the Gators. Lose this game and Florida is out of the division race.

At 2-3 in the SEC, the Gators no longer control their own fate in the race as both South Carolina and Georgia are 4-1 in conference play. They’re not out, but they’re least likely of the three teams to win the Eastern Division. So what needs to happen? A few things:

• Beat Georgia and South Carolina. This is a must as wins in those games gives UF a tiebreaker should there be a tie at the end of the season. If Florida loses either, it is out of contention. Wins by the Bulldogs or Gamecocks against UF guarantee that those teams can finish with no more than three losses while Florida would have four in the conference.

AND

• Get help from the rest of the conference. Even if Florida beats both teams ahead of it
  in the race, they would still have to lose to another team for the tiebreaker to matter. South Carolina plays at Tennessee (3-4, 0-4) this week before traveling to Arkansas (6-1, 2-1) on Nov. 5. Georgia plays Auburn (5-3, 3-2) on Nov. 12 and Kentucky (3-4, 0-3) on Nov. 19. Basically, Florida needs South Carolina and Georgia to each go 1-2 over their final three games with one of those losses to UF.

As an odd corollary, Florida could technically still win the conference without winning the rest of its SEC games. Play along for a minute.

Florida wins vs. Georgia and South Carolina + Vanderbilt win over Florida + Georgia losses to Auburn and Kentucky + South Carolina losses to Tennessee and Arkansas = 4-4 for all three teams, with the Gators holding the tiebreaker.

That’s the unrealistic scenario. Florida hasn’t lost to Vanderbilt since 1988 and has lost to the Commodores in Gainesville only once, in 1945. So it’s safe to assume that’s a win.

Of the three teams in contention, it’s clear that Georgia has the easiest road left. Kentucky hasn’t shown itself capable of competing with its three conference losses coming by an average of 39 points. Auburn seems like Florida’s best hope for help, but the Tigers haven’t won in Athens in their past two trips there.

South Carolina’s path to a second consecutive division title seems just as tough as Florida’s, with two tough games and another vs. team from the bottom half of the division. Assuming the Tennessee game this week is a win for the Gamecocks, the Nov. 5 matchup against the Razorbacks seems like a game S.C. could lose. That might not have been the case a couple weeks ago, but without RB Marcus Lattimore, who is out for the year with a knee injury, it gets a little more treacherous for South Carolina.

For Florida, hope is not lost yet. There’s still a chance if the Gators can get some help, but, of course, that won’t matter if the Dawgs win on Saturday.

According to the Nike Blog, Kentucky will wear these uniforms against Mississippi State this weekend. Mississippi State has also joined the football fashion show and will wear new uniforms later this season against Ole Miss. Kentucky will play Miss State at home this weekend and it will be a night game, so the university is calling for “black out” game from fans. Here’s what Joker Phillips said regarding the new uniforms:

“Anything that we can do to generate some excitement is good. I think there will be more excitement if we are making plays in those black uniforms. We explained to them that these uniforms don’t make plays and that the players wearing them have to prepare themselves and have the right attitude. If we don’t play well then we won’t see them again. They know that.”

“I have been in places where we had had uniforms like this and they are sharp-looking and kids like them. This is the way of the world and we just wanted to find the right time and if we were able to make it happen too.”

Posted at SaturdaysDownSouth.com

What’s your opinion on Kentucky’s black uniforms?

Comment below:

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)—It didn’t matter who was launching long passes to Rueben Randle and it certainly didn’t matter that LSU was missing three key players.

Randle caught scoring passes of 42 yards from Jordan Jefferson and 46 yards from Jarrett Lee, and No. 1 LSU once again overcame off-the-field distractions in style with a 45-10 victory over 19th-ranked Auburn on Saturday.

“It just seems like no matter who goes down or who’s out, we have guys who are ready to step in … and not just to fill a spot but to go in and dominate,” said LSU center T-Bob Hebert.

BATON ROUGE, LA – OCTOBER 22: …
Getty Images – Oct 22, 7:54 pm EDT

LSU was without star cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, leading rusher Spencer Ware and defensive back Tharold Simon—all suspended one game for violating the team’s drug policy. They watched the game on TV, teammates said, after being told to stay away from Tiger Stadium.

Yet LSU continued to make team history with its eighth double-digit win in as many games this season, a streak that started with a season-opening triumph over Oregon without then-suspended Jefferson and receiver Russell Shepard.

LSU wide receiver Rueben Randle (2) scores on a 42-yard touchdown reception as Auburn defensive backs Robenson Therezie (27) and Demetruce McNeal (12) pursue during the second quarter.
(AP)

“I almost feel like everybody else makes a bigger deal about it than we do,” Hebert said of the periodic lineup upheaval, and the public scrutiny of the misbehavior that has caused it.

“It’s not distracting to us. This team is so good about staying focused, one-track mind, not letting anything on the outside get to them because we don’t want to have any regrets.”

Off next week, LSU (8-0, 5-0 SEC) will be unbeaten entering what is bound to be a highly hyped showdown at No. 2 Alabama on Nov. 5. The Crimson Tide were playing at home Saturday night against struggling Tennessee.

The beneficiary of Ware’s absence was freshman Kenny Hilliard, who scored the first two touchdowns of his career while rushing for 65 yards on only 10 carries.

Randle finished with five receptions for 106 yards.

“We all know our roles on this team and we know if we come out and do our jobs that we are going to be tough to beat,” Randle said. “Kenny came in and really stepped up when we needed him.”

Lee was 14 of 20 for 165 yards and two touchdowns, the second a 10-yarder to Shepard. Jefferson completed two of three passes for 54 yards.

“I feel really comfortable with the rhythm that I have with both quarterbacks,” Randle said. “That was shown in both touchdown passes today.”

With Michael Ford leading the way (12 rushes, 82 yards), LSU gained 174 yards on the ground.

Even without two key defensive backs, LSU held Auburn first-time starter Clint Moseley to 145 yards passing, sacked him six times and intercepted him once.

“It’s really difficult to really assess how he did,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said of Moseley. “That was an anemic job of protecting the quarterback. We have a lot of work to do and a lot of research to do to figure out how to stop the bleeding in that regard.”

If anyone questioned how deep LSU could really be at defensive back, it was none other than Mathieu’s replacement, Ron Brooks, who made the interception and returned it 28 yards for a score that made it 42-3 only half way through the third quarter.

Shortly after Brooks scored, the message: “I see you Ron baby!!! THATS WHAT WE DO …” appeared on Mathieu’s Twitter page.

“I just tried to keep myself calm, not try to do too much and just play within the game plan and do what the coaches were asking me to do,” said Brooks, a senior who has been part of LSU’s six-defensive back formation for three seasons.

Auburn (5-3, 3-2) was held to 87 yards rushing, led by Michael Dyer’s 60 yards.

“The reality of it is we got beat in just about every phase of the game,” Chizik said. “They did a lot of whatever they wanted.”

All season, LSU has appeared increasingly galvanized by each potential pitfall and coach Les Miles even mentioned several weeks ago that adversity seems to strengthen his tight-knit team’s resolve.

“That is the mark of a great team,” Miles said.

It’s getting pretty hard to argue with that, considering LSU responded to its latest crisis with the most lopsided victory by either team in the 46-game history of the LSU-Auburn series. It was Auburn’s worst loss since a 51-10 demolition at the hands of then-No. 1 Florida in 1996.

Wearing special edition uniforms, LSU defenders and coverage teams swarmed to the ball like blazing streaks of white, delivering crushing hits that provoked collective gasps from the Death Valley crowd.

One such hit was delivered by safety Eric Reid, who jarred the ball from kickoff returner Tre Mason. LSU’s Tahj Jones found the football while losing his helmet, rising in celebration with his dreadlocks aflutter at the Auburn 22.

That set up Hilliard’s second score on a 1-yard dive to make it 35-3.

Hilliard’s first touchdown came on a 9-yard run on game’s opening drive, giving LSU the lead for good. The Tigers still have not trailed since the second quarter of their season opener against Oregon.

Auburn was threatening to tie it at 7, but Barkevious Mingo’s second sack of the game forced Auburn to settle for Cody Parkey’s 42 field goal.

That was as close as it ever got.