Two-minute drill

USC's biannual meltdown in Corvallis on Thursday night was the perfect kickoff to a wacky weekend of football. Three of the nation's top five college teams were knocked off, the Dallas Cowboys lost at home to the Redskins in a huge upset and Rice University now has the most prolific pass-catch combo in NCAA history.

All of it unbelievable. Let's get into it, from the cheap seats as it were:

1st Down: Well, the bloom is certainly off that Nov. 1 showdown between Florida and Georgia. In fact, Florida will face a virtual BCS elimination game against LSU on Oct. 11. But all of a sudden the matchup between Oklahoma and Texas became extremely important to the national title chase. Just as the Red River Shootout should be.

2nd Down: Once again, my hatred of the spread offense was justified when Tim Tebow was stopped short on the pivotal 4th-and-1 in Florida's 31-30 loss in Gainesville. Look, if you can't turn around and handoff the ball to a tailback and get one yard, then you're not a title contender. Especially if you can't get that yard against Ole Miss. That said, the Rebels pushed the Gators around on both sides of the line all day long. I can't imagine Florida posing a serious threat for the SEC championship with front lines that soft and an offense that predictable.

3rd Down: Speaking of soft, how about Georgia? Sheesh. Of course, I pointed out that the Bulldogs were frauds way back when the polls first came out. Looks like the two best teams in the SEC are Alabama and LSU. Good thing they can resolve this on Nov. 8, assuming they can navigate their schedules. Which is far from a guarantee.

4th Down: Bad day for Green Bay. The other, less-obvious downside of jettisoning Brett Favre is that no one quarterback in NFL history has ever been as sturdy and reliable as No. 4. Now the Pack will likely have to go with one of two rookie quarterbacks with a team built for a Super Bowl run. Good luck with all that.

Turnover on downs: There's no way to explain how bizarre and unfathomable it is that Rice's Chase Clement and Jarrett Dillard set the new NCAA standard for touchdowns by a quarterback-receiver tandem. Not because of the players. But because it's Rice.

Understand that I grew up in Houston, played against Rice in college and even briefly covered them as a sportswriter during the Ken Hatfield era. Few people were as committed to the conservative triple option offense as Hatfield. If the Owls threw more than five passes a game, it was a certified shootout. This was as recent as 2005.

And now they're flinging it around like Don Coryell is dialing up the plays. What a 180.

Also, here's a great story about a former Texas schoolboy quarterback legend turned rock star turned 27-year-old backup Tarleton State quarterback. I also learned a lot more about Creed than I would have expected.