4th and 1: Oregon’s Quiet Time, South Carolina Hopes to Avoid a Letdown…

Don’t yell Chip.  It’s quiet time.

1st.  Oregon has gone quiet during their off week.  Practices are closed and the players aren’t talking to anyone.  Ducks’ head coach Chip Kelly is talking, but is saying very little and not making a whole lot of sense when he does anyway.

The tactic is nothing new in football and has been used by numerous coaches before.  They think that if they can keep their team out of the spotlight the players will focus on the task at hand – winning games – and not get sidetracked.  Maybe it works.  Maybe not.

There’s plenty to sidetrack a college kid and Oregon is no stranger to trouble over the past few years.  What Kelly has to deal with now though is a team that has put itself in a position to seriously contend for the national title.  He could actually be doing the right thing here.  Keep the players sequestered and go about your business.  We’ll know for sure when they play their next game.

2nd.  South Carolina is already talking letdown.  Or talking about trying to avoid the letdown.  We’ve seen it before, team upsets a big-time opponent and then falls to a lesser one the following week.  The energy and emotion is all drained in a matter of 60 minutes.  Steve Spurrier hopes it doesn’t happen to his team, but he is aware that it could.

The Gamecocks take on a Kentucky team they should beat, but could pose some problems.  Spurrier says South Carolina follows the 24-hour rule in that every game should be behind them within a day.  No more Alabama talk, it’s time to focus on Kentucky.  Like he says though, they won’t know if there’s the chance for a letdown or not until they actually get out there and play the game.

3rd.  And just like that, Russ’ tenure is over.  Russ was the interim Georgia mascot holding down the fort until a new Uga was named.  That has happened and Uga VIII (that means eight) will be introduced this weekend when the Bulldogs play Vanderbilt.  Uga VIII is the grandson of Uga VI and goes by the name Big Bad Bruce.  You’re glad you know all of this now.  Admit it.  Impress your friends with useless mascot knowledge.

4th.  Colt McCoy will now be mentioned in the same breath as other Texas greats such as Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, and Vince Young.  McCoy will have his #12 retired by the Longhorns when Texas faces Baylor on October 30.  McCoy won more games than any other quarterback in NCAA history as a four-year starter for the Horns.

While Florida doesn’t retire numbers, it’s hard to imagine someone else wearing #15 while Urban Meyer is still around.

And 1.  There will always be a debate about whether college athletes should be paid or not.  Debate all you want, odds are that nothing will change.  You can say athletes should be paid until you’re blue in the face, but it isn’t going to happen.  At least not in the “here’s your paycheck, thank you for playing” sort of way.  Because of that, we might as well just sit back and enjoy what happens on the fields and courts.

You can get all uppity about it – as some people have – but there’s no real point.  Sure I’ll read the article about Josh Luchs when I get home today and pull Sports Illustrated from my mailbox, but only from an interest standpoint, not because I need to get on my soapbox about whether athletes should receive NCAA-mandated paychecks.  It’s a debate with no end in sight.