Oregon makes its points — repeatedly — in opening win

We’ve only just passed the halfway point in college football’s extended Labor Day weekend, and Oregon already has scored 72.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so we hope you were impressed:

— No. 6 Texas Christian gave No. 3 Boise State — and the nation — something to think about Saturday with its 30-21 win over No. 24 Oregon State. Boise State must now beat No. 10 Virginia Tech on Monday night or else TCU becomes the “little guy” with a legitimate chance to make a BCS title run.

— It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but Hawaii Coach Greg McMackin and USC Coach Lane Kiffin both had same concerns coming out of Thursday night’s Honolulu lulu.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” McMackin said after his team gave up 524 yards in a 49-36 loss.

Kiffin?

“We’ve got a lot work to do,” he said after his team gave up 588 yards in a 49-36 win.

The game ended at 3 a.m. Friday in the East, which may prompt Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott to convene a graveyard, night-watchman East Coast media blitz next season.

A win is a win, of course, unless it’s one where USC gives up 588 yards to a team in the WAC, which is melting away faster than the WWW (Wicked Witch West).

Fictional tabloid headlines conjured to capture the essence of USC’s defensive effort included:

— Diamond Shred.

— Men of Poi.

— Tampa Toothless.

— Monte’s Flying Circus.

— Cockle-shelled.

There’s nothing about USC’s defense that can’t be fixed with a 12-step tackling program.

Meanwhile, UCLA’s hard slog into Rick Neuheisel’s third season began with a predictable — predicted in last Sunday’s Times — loss at Kansas State.

UCLA made a great goal-line stand early only to be foiled by a penalty for having 12 men on the field. Kansas State took the second chance and scored en route to a 31-22 win.

UCLA did some good things in defeat, and some not-so-good things, and has six days to fix things before the Pac-10 opener against Stanford.

— Best weekend game so far: Utah’s overtime win over Pittsburgh on Thursday was the leader until Mississippi stopped playing in Oxford with a 31-10 lead against Jacksonville State and ended up a big, double-overtime loser.

It was a terrific victory for Jacksonville State, a Football Championship Subdivision team out of the Ohio Valley Conference, and a slingshot wound to the mighty Southeastern Conference.

The Sporting News picked Jacksonville State to finish third in the OVC this year behind Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois, but as of now there are two schools nicknamed Gamecocks standing at 1-0 in the SEC.

Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was cleared by the NCAA just in time to contribute to an embarrassing defeat on the same day the team he could have been leading on a national title run, Oregon, beat New Mexico, 72-0.

Most impressive team performance: Chris Fowler of ESPN posted on Twitter that he thought it was Michigan after its home win over Connecticut, but we’re going with the webbed-footers from Eugene.

Oregon entered the season with last season’s quarterback in Mississippi and the star running back, LaMichael James, serving a one-game suspension.

With Darron Thomas in place of Masoli, Oregon duck-walked over New Mexico, 59-0. And that was the halftime score. Kenjon Barner, subbing for James, had five first-half touchdowns.

Oregon amassed a school-record 720 yards. Florida Coach Urban Meyer, after whiz-banging his offense to 26 yards through three quarters against Miami of Ohio, reportedly jumped on a jet to Eugene to get some pointers on the modern-day spread.

Oregon travels next week to Tennessee, where presumably the yards will be tougher.

— Notre Dame already looks better under first-year Coach Brian Kelly and Michigan, now that it’s complying with NCAA rules and not practicing so much, looks better under third-year Coach Rich Rodriguez.

— Tigers who made the weekend cut: Missouri, Louisiana State, Auburn, Clemson and Woods.

Tiger that missed the cut: Memphis (a 49-7 loser to Mississippi State).

— It was strange watching Notre Dame on NBC without the USC athletic director providing color commentary.

— The replacements. Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher cruised in his first game in place of Bobby Bowden, with the Seminoles beating Samford, 59-6.

The three quarterbacks replacing Tim Tebow at Florida, Sam Bradford at Oklahoma and Colt McCoy at Texas … all won (sort of).

John Brantley struggled in Florida’s ugly win, but mostly because he spent much of the game trying to retrieve poor snaps. Landry Jones, taking over for McCoy, squeezed Oklahoma past Utah State and Garrett Gilbert led Texas over Rice.

— Worst contemplated training camp move: USC tailback Marc Tyler to linebacker.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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