COTTRELL COLUMN: Oregon pulls complete 180

Just two weeks in, Oregon’s season looked deader than dead.

The Ducks had an ugly loss at Boise State. Their top running back was suspended for the season after doing his best Ron Artest impersonation. It looked like the athletic director and former coach was undermining the current coach. And to top it off, they nearly lost at home to an awful Purdue team.

That sure seems like the distant past now.

Since then, the Ducks have beaten a good Utah team and absolutely decimated very good California and USC teams, and now find themselves in the top 10.

If you watched Saturday night’s drubbing of the Trojans, you know it was no fluke.

Oregon was the better team, and manhandled USC in the second half.

Head coach Chip Kelly absolutely deserves to be in the running for coach of the year. This could be the most improvement out of a team from Week 1 to Week 9 in the history of college football.

And who knows, if things get just crazy enough over the last few weeks of the season, the Ducks could find themselves in the title picture.

Things would have to be really crazy, though.

As for USC, it was already fairly apparent the team just didn’t have it this year. They’re too young and lost too much from last year.

Next year, however, they will most likely be back.

This Modern World
We may be about to see the greatest experiment yet in just how much the business of college football has changed.

Heading into the season, there was already some fan disenchantment with Georgia coach Mark Richt, and after eight games of what may be a disastrous season it seems to be growing.

There is a better-than-decent chance the Bulldogs could finish the season 5-7, the first time in Richt’s nine-year tenure his team has finished with fewer than eight wins.

The program seems to be stagnating, the team never seems to play up to its potential and player discipline has been an issue in recent years.

Will Georgia make a change?

It would be hard to justify it under the usual metrics, considering Richt has been as successful as anyone in college football this decade.

But there are some new variables at play here.

Fans these days want to win, and win now. Richt has done plenty of winning, but future prospects don’t look as bright as they have in the past.

Recruiting has also become important, and with the likes of Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Lane Kiffin — and maybe even Gene Chizik — peeling off Georgia recruits, there will be even more pressure to make a change.

And, of course, there’s the business aspect. If donations and ticket sales go down, there could be even more pressure from different circles for athletic director Damon Evans to do something.

Regardless, if Richt does stay for another year — which he should — he will be squarely on the hottest seat in the country in 2010 — as he should be.

Dogs and Cats Living Together
Want some evidence it could be the end of the world as we know it?

—Duke is currently tied for the lead in the ACC Coastal Division with Georgia Tech. Their game Nov. 14 could decide the division.

—We could be looking at five teams finishing the regular season undefeated for only the second time since the 1970s.

—And, perhaps most crazy, Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt — Wannstache, as the kids say — was just added to the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year watch list.

Tim Cottrell is sports designer of the Opelika-Auburn News. He will write a weekly column on college football during the season. You can also read him on the O-A Sports Blog at oanow.com. He can be reached at 737-2511 or .