As the season winds down, some of the most popular topics of discussion in college football revolve around head coaches. In this edition of the CBSSports.com College Football Podcast, I sit down with Adam Aizer to preview the holiday weekend ahead and talk about the best of the best when it comes to head coaches in 2011. Is Bill Snyder the frontrunner for his revival in Manhattan? Or do coaches like Les Miles and Lane Kiffin deserve extra consideration for all they have overcome this season.
We also discuss the status of the North Carolina job, currently being held by interim head coach Everett Withers. The school recently made the official posting of the job position, and Adam and I run down some of the popular names associated with the opening. We also take some listener questions, tackling Utah's first season in the Pac-12 and why people hate on the SEC.
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Man - The Bulldogs have been playing their best football of the season over the last month, and though things were a bit close against Kentucky last week I think that had a lot more to do with Georgia not taking the Wildcats all that seriously. Which isn't going to happen with their rival. Pick: Georgia
Man - Wisconsin has been the best team in the Big Ten all season, with its only two losses coming via prayers at the end of consecutive games. That's not going to happen in Madison, and I don't see the Penn State offense as being capable of exploiting the weaknesses in the Wisconsin defense. Meanwhile, Wisconsin has a couple different ways to beat you on offense, and their names are Montee Ball and Russell Wilson. Pick: Wisconsin
Man - After covering every spread for over a year, Stanford has gone 0-2 against the number the last two weeks. So am I going to go against the Cardinal this week? No, because, you see, this is a Notre Dame spread and Notre Dame spreads never resemble reality. Pick: Stanford
VIRGINIA TECH WILL WIN IF: They can jump out to a lead and continue to press for four quarters. The Hokies have struggled at times this season scoring late in games, allowing some conference opponents to climb back into games in the fourth quarter. Just ask Florida State how that worked out for them in the 14-13 loss on Saturday. You cannot let Virginia hang around in this game because they have demonstrated a tenacity and grittiness that makes them dangerous late in games. Virginia Tech needs to rise to the occasion and end this game early. If Logan Thomas and David Wilson have big games and are able to keep drives alive with third down conversions, even the Cavaliers' impressive run defense will wear down by the fourth quarter. 
VIRGINIA WILL WIN IF: They win the battle up front and establish their bruising rushing attack. Virginia Tech is thin on both the offensive and defensive line because of injury, and Saturday is the opportunity for that physical style of play to shine on the biggest stage. Mike London's team has beat up conference opponents on their division title chase, and benefited from some hard running from Perry Jones and Kevin Parks. Florida State was able to limit both backs early, but the Hokies' rush defense has declined recently - giving up 477 yards on the ground in their last three contests. By comparison, the unit averaged only 84.6 yards in their first eight games. 
SEC 
BIG 12
PAC-12 
BIG TEN 
ACC 
BIG EAST 
CONFERENCE USA 
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE 
WAC 
MAC 
SUN BELT 
The coaches/SIDs have the Hokies 4th, the AP has them 6th and they're sitting pretty in the BCS ranked 5th. Everybody was touting this team as a dark horse national title contender in large part because of one thing: weak schedule. If you want to know how a team rises into the top five when their best win is Georgia Tech, you have your answer. The loss to Clemson looks even worse after seeing them humbled by N.C. State on Saturday as well.
Wilner finds his way back into this space for putting Oklahoma 8th and Houston 20th. I know the Cougars defense isn't great but they're undefeated so why 20th? Also, Boise State is 13th behind 11th ranked Kansas State. Wilner is the only voter to put Arkansas behind Oklahoma State. I know it's slim pickings but still, Oklahoma 8th?
There's so much wrong with Sargeant's ballot, it's hard to figure out where to begin. Houston is 4th and Georgia, yes Georgia, is 6th. He also has TCU ranked higher than anybody (10th), Penn State 13th (for beating Ohio State? Ok...) and has USC 17th and Oregon 18th, the lowest out of anybody. Notre Dame is higher than anybody at 19th and Oklahoma falls to 21st. Yikes. Also, Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times has Oregon ranked 4th and USC 16th. Not sure how that happened.
4/5. Stanford
Upset Saturday was the Cardinal's best friend as they rebounded from the defacto Pac-12 championship game - a loss to Oregon - to beat Cal in the annual Big Game. Thanks to losses ahead of them, Andrew Luck's squad moved up four spots in the AP to number four and up to fifth in the Coaches. Given that Virginia Tech doesn't have the strongest resume, Arkansas plays LSU and Stanford will have plenty of eyes on them with a primetime match up with Notre Dame, it's very possible this team can climb even higher after this week and into prime BCS talk.
All things considered, falling back just five spots and likely hosting the first ever Pac-12 Championship game are two comforting thoughts for Ducks fans after the loss to USC. At this point, Oregon figures to go forward as the top two-loss team in the country and is still being given a good amount of respect after beating Stanford. The quacks out of the Pacific Northwest aren't as loud as they were last Friday but they're still audible.
Welcome back, welcome back. I know it's tough to think Lane Kiffin is a good coach but he is and the talented Trojans have returned to the top 10 after their big upset win over the Ducks. Eight spots seems like a big jump for a team that lost to Arizona State but really isn't when you consider the magnitude of the win in Autzen and what happened in terms of upsets.
- Matt Barkley hit Randall Telfer for a touchdown to put USC up 38-14 over Oregon.
North Carolina, with an interim head coach and not much to play for, gave Virginia Tech a fight with two touchdowns in the 4th quarter before the Hokies decided to pay attention on defense. It was an off night for David Wilson, who never could get going, but a solid one for quarterback Logan Thomas. He tossed two touchdowns and ran for a third to provide most of the Hokies scoring to setup a showdown next week with rival Virginia for a trip to the ACC championship. The late comeback from UNC should have been a warning that no one was safe, home or road, regardless of the conditions.
'Every week is a playoff' is the line you'll see often in BCS literature. If that's the case then, Alabama would not be sitting at No. 2 in the country and set to play LSU - again - for the national title. They lost their playoff game at Bryant-Denny in the Field Goal Festival of the Century. Talk of another rematch involving Oregon was put to bed thanks to the conquering Trojans but had they won, they should have taken note that no, they can't be playing in New Orleans after losing a game earlier in the season.
Leaning this way