50 things to ponder as college football kicks off

NOT ONLY WILL this report tell you who Brian White is, it also will tell you what he's about to do for the first time in nearly 2 years.

Lane Kiffin is under everybody's skin, USC might be vulnerable in the Pac-10 and BYU is hoping history repeats itself.

While 2009 figures to be the year of Tebow, one LSU guy warns us not to forget about his guy. With that, here are 50 things to help prepare for the college football season:

1 By virtue of Tim Tebow's winning it as a sophomore, this is the first time in history that two Heisman Trophy winners are active in a college football season. And, with the return of 2008 winner Sam Bradford, and runners-up Colt McCoy and Tebow, it's also the first time the top three Heisman finalists are back the following season.

2 Bradford, on his relationship with McCoy: "If you would have told me 5 years ago I was going to become friends with the quarterback at Texas, I would have looked at you a little strange." Third-ranked Oklahoma plays second-ranked Texas at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 17.

3 The Southeastern Conference and Big 12 have early conference bragging rights after placing three teams apiece in the Associated Press preseason Top 10. The only two interconference regular-season games between the two are Georgia at Oklahoma State (Saturday) and Arkansas vs. Texas A & M (Oct. 3).

4 The Arkansas-A & M game is actually at the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium, and Arkansas is claiming it as a home game, since Dallas owner Jerry Jones is a Razorbacks alum.

5 The Big 12 title game also is at Jerry Jones' house the next 2 years, which really isn't sitting well with those in the league's North Division. Kansas State's Bill Snyder is among those who would like to see it moved around, especially when it comes up to Kansas City. "I like for people to come out of the nice, warm weather and play in the snow and the cold weather." He's not wrong.

6 There's plenty of BCS talk involving Virginia Tech, even though the Hokies lost star running back Darren Evans for the season with a knee injury. VaTech's September has land mines that include a trip to Atlanta to take on Alabama and visits from Nebraska and Miami.

7 "If we're not practicing or playing during the holidays, everybody will be miserable," said Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez, whose team tries to rebound after going a school-worst 3-9 last year.

8 Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson's nickname is "Shoelace," which he picked up as a 7-year-old because he never tied his cleats.

9 The last time Michigan beat Ohio State was in 2003, when Robinson and his fellow freshmen were in seventh grade. The Wolverines host the Buckeyes on Nov. 21.

10 Talk about times changing. Nebraska fired Frank Solich after he went 9-3 in 2003. After Bo Pelini guided the Cornhuskers to a 9-4 mark last year, they are ready to make him governor.

11 Former Notre Dame quarterback Demetrius Jones is now a linebacker at Cincinnati.

12 Baylor probably won't win the Big 12 this year, but it will upset somebody. Sophomore quarterback Robert Griffin is a slightly smaller version of Terrelle Pryor and a world-class hurdler. He still might make a run at the 2012 Olympics in London.

13 Bobby Bowden ruffled some gator scales when he compared Tebow and former Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward, the 1993 Heisman winner and national champion. "People keep asking me about Tebow," Bowden said. "I don't know if he's better than Charlie. I don't think he runs better than Charlie. I don't think he throws better than Charlie. And Charlie only played 2 years for us."

14 Florida State is at Florida on Nov. 28 in what will be Tebow's final game at the Swamp. Should be quite a show.

15 This could be a big year for Nevada, which is picked second behind Boise State in the Western Athletic Conference. The Wolf Pack opens at Notre Dame on Saturday in what might be the biggest game in program history. "We're not going to Notre Dame just to be competitive and keep it close," quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. "We're going there to win."

16 Kaepernick, a high school pitcher, was drafted in the 43rd round by the Cubs this year. A number of schools were after him to play baseball out of high school, including Notre Dame.

17 BYU is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1984 national title team. That team was unranked when it stunned No. 3 Pittsburgh in the season opener. This team is ranked 20th and opens its season against No. 3 Oklahoma on Saturday at Cowboys Stadium.

18 New Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin has managed to offend just about everybody in the SEC. "I've got nothing to say to that guy," Florida offensive lineman Matt Patchan said. "He's a bozo." Nice. Tennessee is at Florida on Sept. 19.

19 No one enjoyed summer practice more than Illinois defensive tackle Josh Brent, who spent 30 days in Champaign County Jail for a misdemeanor DUI offense. "You get a new outlook on life and some of the mistakes I've made," said Brent, whose playing status remains undecided by coach Ron Zook. "You realize a lot of things [while in jail]; how naive and dumb you can be sometimes."

20 Mississippi quarterback Jevan Snead, the guy the South Carolina people originally selected for all-conference ahead of Tim Tebow, originally attended Texas but split after Colt McCoy emerged. Out of high school, he was headed to Florida before the Gators landed Tebow.

21 LSU tackle Ciron Black says this about Tigers sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson: "People talk about Tebow and people talk about Snead in our conference, but people are going to look at Jordan. They're going to know what type of quarterback he is before it's all over, said and done."

22 Clemson coach Dabo Swinney's first name is William. "Dabo" is a derivative of when his kid brother used to call him "Dat Boy." Can't believe we charge only 75 cents for this thing.

23 Cal running back Jahvid Best is the leading returning rusher. He was second in the nation in all-purpose yards to Missouri's Jeremy Maclin.

24 Three other guys not named Bradford, McCoy or Tebow who could end up in New York as a Heisman finalist: Cal's Best, Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark and Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

25 Florida assistant Brian White, who was at 0-12 Washington last year, is likely to see an unfortunate streak end Saturday. If the Gators beat Charleston Southern, Florida Times-Union writer Michael DiRocco points out that it will be White's first victory in 686 days. White was an assistant with Syracuse in 2007 when the Orange lost their final four games.

26 Boston College's Frank Spaziani, 62, is a head coach for the first time. The longtime defensive coordinator was a star defensive end at Penn State in the late 1960s and got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant for Joe Paterno in 1969.

27 Miami's first four games are at Florida State (ranked 18th), vs. Georgia Tech (15th), at Virginia Tech (seventh) and vs. Oklahoma (third). The Hurricanes are unranked.

28 The Hurricanes tightened their financial belts and are busing to their games at Central Florida (Orlando) and South Florida (Tampa). The trips will save the athletic department about $140,000.

29 The average season-ticket price for Michigan seats was reduced from $53.57 to $50. "In this challenging time economically, this is our way of thanking our fans who have supported us for decades," athletic director Bill Martin told the Associated Press. "Unlike most schools, we had an opportunity to lower prices for 2009." Yeah, and going 3-9 last year had nothing to do with it. Puh-leez.

30 Michigan State, which went 9-4, including its first win over Michigan since 2001, raised general public season tickets from about $41 per to $44.

31 Former USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian takes over for Ty Willingham at Washington, which went 0-12 last year. In fact, the Huskies are one away from tying the Pac-10 record of 15 consecutive losses, set twice by Oregon State in 1990-91 and 1995-96. Washington opens with a visit from LSU, which is a 17-point road favorite.

32 Golden Tate, Notre Dame's leading returning receiver, with 58 catches and 1,080 yards, hit .329 for the baseball team this spring. Brings to mind Jeff Samardzija a little, doesn't it?

33 Expect to see sophomore linebacker David Posluszny get some time for the Irish this year. David is the younger brother of former Penn State great Paul Posluszny, now a linebacker with the Buffalo Bills.

34 Jack Elway, a redshirt freshman at Arizona State and the son of you-know-who, walked away from the game in the spring. "He's just tired of football and wants to do something else with his life," coach Dennis Erickson said. Understandable.

35 Texas has converted stud linebacker Sergio Kindle to defensive end to help compensate for the loss of NFL first-round pick Brian Orakpo. Kindle had an unfortunate mishap in June when he crashed his car into an apartment building while texting, causing $8,700 in damage.

36 "There are 88 playoffs run by the NCAA. It is very curious in the most lucrative of sports the NCAA has stepped out of the picture and allowed this separate [BCS] cartel to function," said Barry Brett, an antitrust attorney who represented the Mountain West Conference at Senate subcommittee hearings.

37 G.A. Mangus, who built Delaware Valley into a Division III power, is the quarterbacks coach at South Carolina. His primary mission will be to help highly recruited sophomore Stephen Garcia commit fewer turnovers.

38 The expectations around Georgia are slightly lower than last season's preseason No. 1 ranking. Fifth-year senior quarterback Joe Cox will take over for Matthew Stafford, and his top target should be A.J. Green, the conference's freshman of the year in 2008.

39 If there was going to be a year USC would get a challenge in the Pac-10, this is it. The seven-time defending champs are breaking in a new quarterback in freshman Matt Barkley, have virtually all new personnel on defense and play at top conference contenders Cal (Oct. 3) and Oregon (Oct. 31).

40 Pat White's Big East career record for total yards (10,529) doesn't figure to stand very long. South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe needs 288 yards to break the record and will play two games before the former West Virginia star makes his regular-season rookie debut with the Dolphins.

41 Pittsburgh is the Big East preseason favorite for the first time in program history. The Panthers probably would be in the AP Top 25 if LeSean McCoy wasn't wearing midnight green.

42 Troy linebacker Bear Woods is not only a Sun Belt preseason all-conference selection, he also has too good of a name to leave out of this preview. Actually, his name is Jonathan Mark Woods.

43 Alabama lost a lot on offense, but returns eight starters from last year's suffocating defense. Well, it was suffocating up until the final two games. "We didn't finish last year," linebacker Rolando McClain said. "We lost to Florida and Utah, so we've got to finish as a team and - more importantly - as a defense."

44 Kansas is the best bet to come out of the Big 12 North, but . . . "We can't hide from the fact we need to win some of those games against Oklahoma and Texas," Jayhawks coach Mark Mangino said. "Who are we trying to fool? We can be good, be a lot of things, but if we want to compete for championships, we have to win some of those games."

45 Air Force linebacker Ken Lamendola played just about all of last season with a separated shoulder. "It sucked," he said. "Especially filling a fullback head-on."

46 Memphis senior Carlos Singleton likely will break every school career receiving record by season's end. What's most intriguing, at least as it pertains to the next level, is that he's 6-9.

47 Cincinnati, which rode its defense to an Orange Bowl appearance, is switching from a 4-3 alignment to a 3-4 in response to the proliferation of spread offenses around the country.

48 True freshman Derek Carr is in the running to be the starting quarterback at Fresno State. His big brother, David Carr, played at Fresno State and was the No. 1 overall pick of the Houston Texans in 2002.

49 Want a sleeper to root for in the Big 12? Texas Tech's Taylor Potts is a 6-5, 220-pound behemoth who will take over for record-setting Graham Harrell. Detron Lewis, whose 76 catches behind Michael Crabtree would have led some NFL teams, is the Red Raiders' top returning receiver.

50 The pick: Texas will avenge last year's championship-game snub and beat Florida in the BCS title game. Oklahoma, which will have beaten Texas in the regular season, will wonder why it's playing Mississippi in the Fiesta Bowl. *