Gene Chizik

You just knew a quote like this was going to come out of a Week 1 matchup like Utah State at Auburn. "If felt like we were stronger than them. I felt like we were faster than them. " Of course. After all, Utah State came into Saturday having lost 43 consecutive games on the road against teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25. Beyond being ranked No. 23, Auburn is defending national champion. So who said it? Auburn Coach Gene Chizik ? Nope. Auburn running back Mike Dyer , last season's Bowl Championship Series title-game MVP?

Coaches say the darnedest things. OK, maybe it was kids. But it could have been coaches. There is something about a season's third week - maybe the tipping point aspect to it - that makes our squadron leaders so prickly and paranoid. Jimbo Fisher, Florida State: "We'll have to play a great game this week in order to compete. " Florida State is favored by 271/2 points over Wake Forest. Nick Saban, mastermind of Alabama's 35-0 shutout against Western Kentucky, bristled, "Nobody here should be feeling warm and cozy.

It was a rough week around Ames, Iowa, with the Big 12 Conference backed into a corner as speculation swirled that the league's best football programs might be headed for new homes. All the while, the local team, Iowa State, wasn't being wooed or coveted by anyone. It was simply mentioned among the leftovers after the megaconferences swooped in and picked off the prime targets. But the town's mood improved appreciably Saturday after the Cyclones stunned Iowa, 44-41, in a triple-overtime thriller that was the highest-scoring of the 59 games played between the heated intrastate rivals.

You've heard this before - the sun rises in the east and sets in the SEC West. The division was so good last season's national champion, Alabama, finished second in it. The SEC West has claimed the last three BCS titles and five championships since 2002. Last year's SEC West sucked up all college football's oxygen. It forced us to watch 9-6 overtime games in Tuscaloosa and an all-SEC West national title game in which the game's only touchdown was inconsequential to the final outcome.

Oregon and Auburn, a combined 25-0, led by coaches Chip Kelly and Gene Chizik, are going to meet for the national championship. Two years ago, not even the Psychic Network would have made that prediction. Kelly was Oregon's obscure offensive coordinator, possibly years from supplanting Mike Bellotti at the top. Chizik had just completed his second season at Iowa State. His record was 5-19. Things twisted dramatically when Kelly ascended to head coach after Bellotti abruptly resigned, and Auburn shockingly hired Chizik to replace Tommy Tuberville.

Auburn has gone on a rampage, outscoring opponents 84-20 since spotting Alabama a 24-point lead on Nov. 26, and fully transformed from preseason rankings afterthought to everyone's No. 1. The Tigers are playing out of their stripes now, but their season was mostly a game of Mouse Trap. Auburn from September through November was one rubber-band bust from never making it to Jan. 10. This kind of performance precariousness makes the Bowl Championship Series what it is ? and you can fill in the blank there.

The Times' Chris Dufresne unveils his preseason college football top 25, one day (and team) at a time. No. 18 Auburn Going 8-5 at Auburn the same year Alabama goes 14-0 and wins the national title might seem like time to plan a Hawaiian trip for the sole purpose of jumping into an active volcano. Yet, strangely, it wasn't all daggers and doom on the Plains. Auburn fans are just glad it's not two years ago, when things were really bleak. That's when the whole Peyton Place turned on Coach Tommy Tuberville after he had the audacity to post his second losing season in 10 years.

The offenses are high-powered. Both seemingly score at will. But the outcome of Monday night's Bowl Championship Series title game between Auburn and Oregon could come down to one huge defensive play. Auburn Coach Gene Chizik has seen it before. Chizik was Texas' defensive coordinator when the Longhorns played defending BCS champion USC in the 2006 BCS title game at the Rose Bowl. The Trojans held a 38-33 lead late in the fourth quarter. They faced a critical fourth-and-two situation at Texas' 45. If USC converted, the game was essentially over.

Just days after Auburn lured Iowa State's head coach, Gene Chizik, to take over its football program, Iowa State has returned the favor, naming Paul Rhoads, Auburn's defensive coordinator this season and a former Cyclones assistant, to succeed Chizik. Rhoads, who will try to revive a program that is coming off a 2-10 season in which it did not win a Big 12 Conference game, has never been a head coach.