Matt Hayes

Think about the statement, and take in the enormity of it all.

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham on TCU: "I have been a coach for five years, and that is the best team I've faced." Utah has faced a handful of BCS teams in Whittingham's tenure, but the one that stands out was Alabama in last season's Sugar Bowl. The same Alabama team that was a handful of perfect throws by Florida quarterback Tim Tebow from playing in the national title game.

We all know what would've happened in that game — and we all know what Utah did to the Tide in the Sugar Bowl. That only gives more weight to Whittingham's comments after TCU's dismantling of Utah — and further clouds the non-BCS question:

Does unbeaten TCU, a member of the non-BCS Mountain West Conference but playing better than anyone in the nation, deserve to play in the BCS national championship game? "All we can do," said TCU quarterback Andy Dalton, "is continue to play as well as we can and see what happens."

Don't panic
No. 3 Texas. If TCU was going to make a significant jump in the BCS poll — and possibly pass the Longhorns — it was going to be this week. It didn't happen, and now the road is clear for Texas: win out and play in the BCS national title game.

Start to panic
No. 4 TCU. Yep, the Frogs are playing better than anyone, but the final two games of the season — Wyoming and New Mexico — won't provide near enough juice for them to move into one of the top two spots in the poll.

No. 18 USC. Unless a cataclysmic series of events happens and leaves a group of Pac-10 teams at 6-3 (one of those events would include Washington State beating Oregon State), the Trojans' chances for an eighth straight BCS bowl are history. And now, it has come to this: coach Pete Carroll complaining about another coach running up the score.

Two thoughts:

1.) How do you like them apples?

2.) It's your job to stop them.

Underrated
No. 17 Stanford. There were eight other Pac-10 programs full of players and coaches absolutely giddy when hearing Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh tried a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter of the beating his team handed USC.

The bigger picture: How are the Cardinal behind Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Iowa, Oklahoma State and … Oregon, a team it beat by 7,000 touchdowns last week?

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Ask any coach what he fears most, it's a team that can dictate tempo with a power running game. No one wants a piece of the Cardinal right now.

No. 9 Pitt. I'm going to call it right now: Pitt is beating Cincinnati. The Panthers are terrific on defense, and the trifecta on offense — QB Bill Stull, TB Dion Lewis, WR Jonathan Baldwin — is the best in the nation.

Overrated
No. 1 Florida. I'll buy Urban Meyer's statement that the Gators get everyone's best game — but that doesn't mean Florida shouldn't get ready and know it's coming. We still haven't seen this team's best game. If not now, when?

No. 10 Ohio State. Big Ten champions have lost to USC and Purdue. And frankly, I'm not sure USC could beat Purdue right now. The Buckeyes' best win? Against equally overrated Iowa.

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