Five Step Drop: Possible Progress for Minority Head Coaches

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1. The grades are in: The Black Coaches and Administrators have graded 34 FBS and FCS schools for how they' handled minority hiring last year and have awarded 13 "A" grades to FBS schools. Hopefully a sign of improvement: just one of the 20 FBS schools was given an "F" grade. Of some intrigue, the more progressive Pac-10 does not have a black head coach although Tyrone Willingham left Stanford for Notre Dame several years ago and Karl Dorrell struggled at UCLA. As I'll continue to emphasize now and into the future, the key to achieving more minority head coaches is to produce a ton of high quality minority coordinators. Most head coaches are hired from the coordinator ranks and it becomes increasingly hard to bypass or ignore minorities for head coaching gigs when the applicant pool increases in talent, experience and diversity.

2. News out of Atlanta is that Boise State will play a pair of SEC teams in upcoming Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classics. The Broncos will play Mississippi in 2014 and rematch with Georgia next year. Great news, although the tone from the post tells the story – demanding more visits to the south from teams around the country without any subsequent road trip from the southern school. Fix this and nobody will ever again be able to complain about the SEC's supposed dominance. Not that the conference would ever be up to the task.

3. Bowl season is swiftly approaching and Rivals.com breaks down the possible gap between bowl-eligible teams and bowl openings. Currently there are 64 "bowl eligible" schools available for 70 bowl slots. Yeah, we know, there are way too many bowl games, but occasionally a good game emerges from the muck and above it all these remain great civic showcases. Just uh, memo to the Sun Belt, Pac-10 and Big East: buck up and fill those pre-arranged tie-ins.

4. Dr. Saturday notices a few missing names from the announced finalists for the Doak Walker Award given to the nation's best back. Wisconsin's John Clay is a quality player but probably should have been left off the list. As a guy on the Big East beat who has seen Jordan Todman rush for over 100 yards in several games in person, he's plenty deserving of mention. His normally team-focused coach even broke character to go to bat for him during last week's Big East coaches' teleconference. He's not the most exciting guy around but few players in all of college football have been better in the fourth quarter.

5. The Los Angeles Daily News' Scott Wolf asks an interesting question of USC officials: would the ruby from the jeweled Shillelagh given to the winner of the USC-Notre Dame game in 2005 be removed? A USC official answered no, but given the NCAA's particular glee in confiscating any and all prizes from the Trojans' 2004 and 2005 seasons, perhaps they spoke too soon?