PSU

Power 4 conferences demand quick results

The national rankings are signaling that change is good.

The upper half of this week's Associated Press Top-25 is populated abundantly with teams which introduced new head coaches prior to the start of the 2022 season.

And those coaches are producing wins aplenty at nine schools in the top-13.

Now in their fourth year are Mario Cristobal at No. 2 Miami, Joey McGuire at No. 8 Texas Tech, Dan Lanning at No. 9 Oregon, Brian Kelly at No. 10 LSU and Brent Venables at No. 13 Oklahoma.

Brent Key is in his third year at No. 12 Georgia Tech.

Second-year coaches are Curt Cignetti at No. 3 Indiana, Mike Elko at No. 4 Texas A&M and Kalen DeBoer at No. 6 Alabama.

The cumulative success that this collection of coaches is experiencing could be coincidence, the product of enlightened hiring practices, the net effect of fresh leadership or all of the above.

Or maybe these head coaches are simply master manipulators of the transfer portal who benefit from the expertise of a brilliant staff.

Obviously, the skill sets that these coaches possess have been translated into superior performance by their teams.

At LSU, year four of a coaching tenure seems to be a barometer of achievement. Nick Saban won a national championship in Baton Rouge in his fourth season. Les Miles and Ed Orgeron accomplished the feat in three years.

The root cause of James Franklin's downfall at Penn State was not a three-game losing streak this season.

It was sustained near-greatness.

In Franklin's 12th season, Penn State's third national title remained as elusive as Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest.

Joe Paterno did not win his first national championship until his 17th season as head coach, but his teams went undefeated in 1968, 1969 and 1973 and lost a national title showdown with Alabama on New Year's Day 1979 after completing another undefeated regular season.

At some stops, the pursuit of a national title is more aspiration than reality.

Kirk Ferentz succeeded Hayden Fry at Iowa in 1999 and has yet to produce a Top-5 ranking in the Final AP Poll.

Mike Gundy had 20 full seasons at Oklahoma State to capture a national championship and reined in only one Top-5 ranking.

Kyle Whittingham has a No. 2 final ranking to show for 20 years at Utah, but that was way back in 2008.

In this era of ever-exorbitant coaching compensation, patience is a luxury that few fanbases or athletic administrations are willing to concede.

The message concealed within the current AP rankings is that the five-year rebuilding plan is a thing of the past.

Undoubtedly, new head coaches of Power 4 conference teams are expected to win now and win big.

Badgered and beaten

The coaching countdown clock at Wisconsin may be ticking off the final seconds, after Iowa dominated the Badgers, 37-0, for its first shutout in Madison since 1929.

"We got beat in every phase of the game," said head coach Luke Fickell, who now sports an overall record of 15-17 at Wisconsin. "They out-physicaled us, they out-rushed us. All those things."

The Badgers have lost eight straight Big Ten Conference games over the last two seasons. Three of Wisconsin's final six games are against ranked opponents.

Ram-ping up the effort

After losing four of its first five games, Colorado State rewrote the script and produced a 49-21 upset of Fresno State last Friday.

Following their traditional outing to the movies on the eve of a game, Rams head coach Jay Norvell opted to deliver a pep talk to his team.

"I usually don't talk to them after we go to the movies, but I did last night," Norvell said. "And the one thing that I told our team was that the cavalry's not riding in to save us. We have to save ourselves. And so, we have to make plays. We have to go out there and make plays. Nobody's going to feel sorry for us."

The Rams led 14-0 after the first quarter and 35-14 at the half. Fresno State entered the game at 5-1.

"I told them that the product that was out there today was not us," said Fresno State head coach Matt Entz. "We are going to wish we had this game back at some point in the season."

Notables

≥ With a 24-yard scamper on his 329th career carry, Jeremiyah Love became the second-fastest Notre Dame running back in the modern era and fourth-fastest in program history to reach 2,000 career rushing yards. The player who holds the record is George Gipp who achieved the feat on his 304th carry in 1920.

≥ In a 35-20 win over Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech held an opponent without a third-down conversion for only the second time in program history. In 1988, Chattanooga failed to convert on 12 third-down tries, four more than Virginia Tech.

≥ Temple fumbled away its distinction as the only FBS team not to commit a turnover when quarterback Evan Simon lost the ball during a second-quarter sack against Navy.

≥ A loss to Wake Forest dropped Oregon State to 0-7 in its worst start since the 1991 season when the Beavers opened with ten straight losses. The latest loss cost head coach Trent Bray his job.

≥ It only took five games for North Carolina's athletic department and Bill Belichick to issue a joint statement affirming mutual commitment to their working relationship. In three losses to Power 4 conference teams, the Tar Heels were outscored 120-33.

≥ Washington's Demond Williams Jr. became the second Big Ten quarterback and 16th player in FBS history to pass for at least 400 yards and rush for at least 100 yards in a game, as the Huskies defeated Rutgers, 38-19

≥ BYU has posted 6-0 starts in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.

≥ SMU has won 19 consecutive regular-season conference games which is a program record and the nation's longest-active streak. Ten of those wins have been recorded since the Mustangs joined the ACC.

Quotables

"My message was stop beating Notre Dame. That was the message."

-- Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman recounting halftime remarks to his team which led 10-7 at the time enroute to a 36-7 victory

"I thought our redzone offense showed up about as much as the student section did today. Very similar."

-- Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin lamenting an

11 a.m. start time and his team's failure to score on its first drive after making a first down at the Washington State 11-yard-line

"I'm not walking out of here thinking that these guys are in a different league than us. Where the Mustang program is going, I have a lot of respect for where that program is going. But I'm not walking out of here thinking, -- 'Well, they're just better than us.'"

-- Stanford interim coach Frank Reich after a 34-10 loss to SMU

Jim Caltagirone, a former member of Penn State's sports information department, comments on the national scene for Gameday. He can be reached at jimclion4ever@gmail.com