Interesting developments

With my daughter trying to talk to me through her BabyCall monitor, I'm downstairs looking for anything interesting in college football land. Lo and behold, I found some things. Hope you enjoy.

* I have never been a big South Florida believer, and I think Jim Leavitt is overrated as a coach. However, I'm shocked to learn that there is a website calling for Leavitt to be fired. More attention has been heaped on the Bulls because the past two years they have been impressive enough to crack the Top 10 only to fall apart in the second half of the season. Saturday's embarrassing 49-16 home loss to Rutgers seems to have fired up the fringe USF fans. Leavitt built this program from nothing. Think Syracuse wouldn't take Leavitt? Relax folks.

* It may seem like a gag or some odd trivia questions, but Vanderbilt and Mississippi are both bowl eligible. Auburn and Tennessee, however, are not. What's going on in the SEC? The Commodores are bowl eligible for the first time since 1982 and Ole Miss for the first time since 2003. Auburn's only chance of getting into a bowl is by upsetting top-ranked Alabama. Not likely, so the Tigers will miss a bowl for the first time since 1999. The Volunteers are missing out for the second time in four years.

* I still can't believe it has been more than two years since Miami was in the Top 25. The Hurricanes, following a 16-14 victory over Virginia Tech, cracked The Associated Press poll at No. 23. Miami is very young, but improving with each game. Randy Shannon deserves a ton of credit for recruiting well. Now he must continue to coach them up if they want to remain a factor.

* With all of the coaching changes it seems Utah State's firing of Brent Guy (did you really know he was the coach?) totally went under the radar. Guy went 8-38 and is 2-9 this season. He will coach the final game. However, what's interesting about this job is the Aggies are trying to lure former Louisville and Michigan State coach John L. Smith to Logan, Utah.

* In another coaching change, New Mexico's winningest coach, Rocky Long, stepped down today following 11 seasons. Instead of the normal coach-speak reasons for leaving, Long was very frank. He was quoted on ESPN.com as saying, "I want this program to be on top. I wanted it be on top as a player. I wanted it be on top as an assistant coach. And I wanted it to be on top as the head coach. I don't see it happening with me as the head coach."