SEC Depth alert. It is widely known that Alabama is in a depth crunch this year due to their probation from a few years back. They’ll be back to full strength throughout the classes in their program next year. What isn’t as widely discussed is the fact that Ron Zook signed 49 players in the 2003 and 2004 recruiting seasons for Florida. Despite the fact that these classes were ranked very highly by the various recruiting analysts, only 23 of those players are still Gators. A combination of some misjudgments by Zook and his staff and Urban Meyer’s preference for having “his guys” around has led to over two-dozen guys from those two classes being shown the door or otherwise fading away.

By now you know that Miami rushed for 2 yards and Florida State for 1 yard Monday night. College rushing yardage includes quarterback sacks, fumbles/bad snaps for a loss, which can present an inaccurate depiction of rushing yards at times. But it wasn’t all that inaccurate here. Florida State non-quarterback runners combined for 5 yards in 18 carries and their Miami counterparts combined for 24 yards on 17 carries. It was just really, really ugly. Following win over the Hurricanes in Miami, Florida State plays 8 of their remaining 11 contests at home. Only three road games after Labor Day is a nice schedule to have.

Having too much talent and depth can be a mixed blessing at time. In the closing minutes of Southern Cal’s 50-14 win over Arkansas, Trojan true freshman tailback Stefan Johnson cried tears of frustration after not getting into the game. "I feel as if I didn't contribute or anything," Johnson told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. In their upset win over Notre Dame in 1976, Georgia Tech ran a single pass play. When 5-8½ QB Gary Lanier was sacked by Notre Dame All-American Gary Lanier for an 8-yard loss, Tech coach Pepper Rodgers vowed to not throw another pass the rest of the way. The Jackets didn’t, and the 14-3 upset was earned without the benefit of a single pass. It is safe to say that times have changed, although Tech’s Calvin Johnson-less second half offense in their loss Saturday night to Notre Dame roughly resembled the 1976 effort at times.

Worth noting that the sainted ACC notched an 0-3 spread mark against the lowly Big East in Saturday football as part of a rough weekend for the ACC folks, which included the off-board loss by Duke to 1-AA Richmond. Pitt blew out Virginia, Rutgers upset North Carolina, and Wake Forest failed to cover against Syracuse despite holding the Orangemen to a piddling 136 yards of total offense. It looks like my weekly appearances on First Team on Fox with Steve Czaban will be Thursday mornings on Fox Sports Radio stations nationwide and XM channel 142.

For most preseason bettors, the player rotation and intention of the coach as to his team’s effort, is almost everything. Falcons coach Jim Mora announced in his news conference that starters were likely to play almost the entire first half in their preseason finale against Jacksonville. Instead, after pre-game warm-ups Mora told his charges that the starters actually wouldn’t be playing at all. The result was a Jags win and disgruntlement among Falcons bettors who took Mora at his word. Add that to the list of reasons I don’t play the exhibition season.

Let’s take at a look at an NFL total this weekend. Buffalo’s JP Losman has shown some signs of life in the preseason, and in his now-or-never season there are some who feel that Losman is ready to emerge as a competent quarterback. If he isn’t, the Patriots are as likely as anybody to take his mistakes and turn them into points going the other way. The Patriots play their share of high scoring games before the weather gets ugly in Foxboro. Tom Brady at quarterback New England’s over the total at a 6-0 clip in the month of September. Look for this game to be more wide open than expected and the potential of a high scoring game to be in the offing.

I like Utes coach Kyle Whittingham, but his QB juggling against UCLA was questionable. Ute QB Brent Ratliff got into a good rhythm, throwing a TD pass called back by the slightest of illegal procedure calls (was a penalty, but no advantage was gained, but it had to be called) on one possession and then leading an efficient 80-yard TD drive on the next possession to tie the game 7-7. Instead of seizing the momentum, Whittingham puts Oklahoma transfer Tommy Grady in. On his third snap, Grady forced a dreadful throw that was returned for a TD by one of UCLA's freshman DB's. As Utah’s all-purpose star Eric Weddle said, “That was big.” Don't put Grady in and there's a chance that's a competely different game. The “pick six” killed Utah's momentum, gave UCLA a gift TD, and the confidence that is such a fleeting thing early in the season with young players on the field for both clubs. But that's college football and it really probably didn’t decide the outcome, as UCLA looked much better than we thought they would on both sides of the ball (we had the Utes). Ben Olson, no relation to last year’s QB Drew Olson, looked phenomenal for the Bruins in his first game action since his 2001 high school season.

Good coaching move of the week was TCU holding preseason practice during the daytime to acclimate to the 91 degrees in Waco on Sunday. The Horned Frogs shut out Baylor 17-0 in the second half to stretch out to a spread-covering win. TCU Coach Gary Patterson “They had their hands on their hips, they were tired,” TCU Coach Gary Patterson told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “Our practicing at 4 o’ clock, it showed up in the third quarter,” Patterson said. “We weren’t cramping up and they were.”

There’s theme of “I’m smarter than the other coach” in Patterson’s comments, but we’ll simply file that knowledge away for Baylor’s 2007 season opener at TCU. We’re quite sure that Baylor mentor Guy Morris will do the same.

Lots of folks noticed that Montana State (different than, and not as good as Montana) knock off Colorado in Boulder last week, but not as many folks noticed that Portland State, previously 1-20 in 21 games against 1-A opposition, held New Mexico without a touchdown in a 17-6 stunner in Albuquerque. New Mexico lost some key players from last year’s team and it showed on Saturday night. The Lobos are clearly struggling with the transition from a more conservative offense to offensive coordinator Bob Toledo (former UCLA head coach) and his more wide-open offense. Like New Mexico, their cross-state rivals the New Mexico State Aggies only return in the range of 9 or 10 starters, but the turnover in Las Cruces is more positive. Out are the guys from the Tony Samuel era of run-first football; in are the guys who fit Hal Mumme’s pass-happy attack. And there is a lot more speed on the defense. NMSU should be improved and UNM could continue to struggle. Generous points may be worth taking in Aggie Memorial Stadium on Saturday with NMSU.

Thanks for reading Sports & Gaming News this week. Good luck and be careful. For a free copy of our 2006 Maximum Profit Football Annual visit www.FootballAnnual.com You’ll also get a free email subscription to this Sports & Gaming News column when you arrange to get your free football annual by visiting www.FootballAnnual.com.