Five Things To Look For

1. Heisman Trophy tracking poll. A Heisman Trophy tracking poll? The week after Labor Day? Apparently, in the 24-hour news cycle, folks can’t get enough early information about an award that won’t be handed out until December. The Scripps Howard News Service releases weekly Heisman updates, based on regional surveys with 10 voters. This week’s scuttlebutt is that Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey has moved ahead of Northwestern tailback Damien Anderson. Of course, Dorsey has the advantage of actually having played a game. Northwestern opens the season tonight at Nevada Las Vegas. FYI: UCLA tailback DeShaun Foster is listed among candidates “also receiving votes.”

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2. Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden taking a step closer to breaking Bear Bryant’s major college victory mark of 323. Hey, wasn’t Joe Paterno supposed to break this record first? That was the premise, but we’re beginning to wonder. Paterno is stuck on 322 and has a bye week. After the rest, Penn State plays at Virginia, hosts Wisconsin, goes to Iowa, hosts Michigan and Ohio State.

Bowden, meanwhile, should notch win No. 317 Saturday against Alabama Birmingham, which would leave him only five behind Paterno and six behind Bryant. If Bowden wins 10 games this year, almost a cinch, Paterno will have to win four games to finish the season as the all-time leader. That’s no cinch.

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3. Toledo at Temple. We’ve formed the West Coast chapter of the Temple fan club, for all the obvious reasons. For its general football ineptitude, Temple is being kicked out of the Big East Conference after this season. We couldn’t imagine a better way for Temple to go out than to ... finish with six victories and go to a bowl game. The Owls are 1-0 after a season-opening win over Navy and have 25 returning starters who could not have been very thrilled about the Big East eviction notice. We’ve already found the five additional wins Temple needs to become bowl-eligible: Toledo, Connecticut, Bowling Green, Rutgers and West Virginia. Go Owls!

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4. South Carolina at Georgia. No one poor-mouths his own team better than Lou Holtz, who naturally gives his 1-0 team little chance this weekend at Athens, even though South Carolina defeated Georgia last year: “We got pretty beat up last week against Boise State,” he says. “I have no idea how our team is going to play on the road. Sometime, you have to step up and play well on the road and we haven’t won a big road game in quite some time. Georgia has a very good team, it’s at their place and they still have last season fresh on their mind.”

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5. Mack the Coach. North Carolina visits Texas on reunion weekend. Mack Brown coached 10 years at North Carolina before taking the Texas job in 1997. Brown had just led North Carolina to a 10-1 record and a top-five ranking when he bolted Chapel Hill for Austin. The folks in North Carolina were so thrilled, they wouldn’t let Brown coach the Tar Heels in the Gator Bowl. Two coaches later, North Carolina still is looking for Brown’s replacement