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The concept of right and wrong is oftentimes subjective. When it comes to coach firings, there's rarely an easy answer. Take Penn State, for example.

A few weeks ago, the Nittany Lions were a Top 5 team and pushed fellow Big Ten power, Oregon, to the brink in a double overtime loss. The loss was nothing to scoff at. If you'd asked anyone in the moment, it felt like one of a string of shortcomings, sure, but one that would, in all likelihood, be rallied from.

Fast forward two astonishing weeks, and the Nittany Lions dropped back-to-back stunners to Big Ten doormats UCLA and Northwestern. Then came the biggest stunner of them all: Penn State fired James Franklin. It all begs the question... was Penn State right to move on from their coach?

I think the situation in Happy Valley had become untenable. When you build a team up to compete for a national title and those dreams come crashing down by mid-October, I imagine it's difficult to reconcile a collapse of that magnitude. More than anything, I think it was less about the losses themselves and more about how things unraveled. 

Struggling to get off the mat after a heartbreaker? That's understandable. We've seen teams do that before. But to get bludgeoned and show little signs of life against two teams you have an obvious talent advantage over? That's an entirely different story.

Many words have been written about James Franklin and Penn State. My main takeaway from the James Franklin Era is that he seems like a decent man, won a lot of games, and did a lot of good things for Penn State.

But the cruel truth of college football is that good isn't good enough when everyone around you expects great. Franklin simply wasn't good enough for where Penn State expects to be.

Early-season Heisman Trophy ballots don't mean much, but if I had a vote, Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer might've been my pick.

Mateer plays like a quintessential college quarterback. He's fun as hell, incredibly flawed, and does a handful of things per game that make you say WOW, for better or worse. 

But after a hand injury and a bad loss to rival Texas, things are starting to look dreary for a once-promising Oklahoma team. With one loss already on the resume and a grueling schedule the rest of the way, I think it's fair to question how the Sooners shake out.

Oklahoma has six regular-season games remaining, five of which come against ranked teams. The lone non-ranked team? South Carolina, which boasts a quarterback who can flip a game on its head. The Sooners will travel to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday to square off with the Gamecocks, before games against Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and LSU. That's a murderer's row if I've ever seen one.

Perhaps the loss to Texas won't cause the Sooners to spiral out of control. Maybe Mateer gets healthy, and OU wins a few of those tough ones still on the schedule.

But maybe the Sooners won't. And much like Mateer's Heisman Trophy candidacy, perhaps Oklahoma's 2025 season revival will be nothing more than a fun, early-season storyline.

Six games in, UNLV is a cotton candy team with all sugar and perhaps a lack of staying power. The offense is a sugar rush, lighting up the scoreboard and scoring with ease. But the defense is air and empty calories, allowing 29.7 points per game, good for 110th in the FBS.

On Saturday, the Runnin' Rebels will travel to Boise, Idaho, to take on defending Mountain West champs Boise State, which has won the league five times since 2013. It should be a game that asks probing questions of UNLV's readiness to compete with a conference powerhouse.

UNLV's offense, led by quarterback Anthony Colandrea, does a nice job of causing headaches for opposing defenses. Running back Jai'Den Thomas is no slouch either, having ripped off almost 600 yards and six touchdowns through six games. Colandrea and Thomas provide a nice one-two punch and should be major factors in the outcome on Saturday.

UNLV head coach Dan Mullen is known as a program builder. He worked wonders at Mississippi State, even taking the Bulldogs to tops in the country if only for a moment. At Florida, he struggled on the recruiting trail, and wins fell off. With a second bite at the proverbial coaching apple, Mullen is doing things his way once again.

In typical Vegas fashion, he's gambled that his offense can overwhelm teams. Perhaps they'll get away with it again versus Boise State. Or maybe they won't. But his team's chances of winning the Mountain West and maybe making the College Football Playoff? That'll likely hinge on a better defensive showing than we've seen so far this season.

The scoreboard read 37-0, Iowa over Wisconsin. The chorus of boos filled Camp Randall, but the real noise came from what wasn't said, with athletic department leadership gone silent.

Just a few years ago, Luke Fickell was seen as a slam-dunk hire. He was fresh off an insanely impressive run at Cincinnati and looked poised to lead a proud Wisconsin program back to relevance. But injured quarterbacks, befuddling losses, and a lack of belief have pushed the Badgers into a new low of Big Ten mediocrity. 

Looking ahead, I don't see a path forward for Fickell. The Badgers are 2-4 this season and have a remaining schedule that includes Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota. It's very likely Wisconsin loses out. 

If we're grading Fickell's current predicament on a scale of raw to cooked, I'd say he's damn-near fried to a crisp. Fickell seems like a good man, and by all accounts, is a good coach. But things have gone horribly wrong for him at Wisconsin, and sooner, rather than later, I suspect he and the university will part ways.  

This college football season has felt especially topsy-turvy. The SEC has a lot of good, but maybe no great teams. Ohio State and Indiana are leading the Big Ten, but Penn State has already imploded. The ACC has storylines abound, chief among them being Clemson's early-season struggles and whatever is happening over in Chapel Hill.

All would be forgiven if you hadn't had a keen eye on the early MAC standings. But holy cow, I've been thoroughly surprised by early results.

We all know nothing really counts in the MAC until Tuesday and Wednesday night games roll around. But even by wacky 2025 college football standards, this has been a strange start to the season for one of my personal favorite conferences.

Perhaps WMU will keep up its hot start and ride it to a conference title game appearance in Detroit. Or maybe my preseason title pick (Buffalo) or Miami-Ohio keeps rollin’.

Either way, buckle up. This conference race could be headed for pure, unadulterated chaos. Just how we like it!

Can you believe it's already Week 8? We forge ahead with our big preview of Week 8 games with the appropriate audio treatment for an enormous Holy War between Utah and BYU in Provo. Plus, we unpack significance of Georgia Tech vs Duke as an ACC title tiebreaker, the road danger for Oklahoma and LSU -- two SEC teams that cannot run the ball -- traveling to South Carolina and Vandy, the underrated aspects of Texas Tech's quick rise, and the debate over whether Auburn can finally get a big win. And finally, some rapid fire picks, under the radar games, your Window of Opportunity and ideal quadboxes, and a Pat League Lightning Round for the ages as Lafayette might have a shot to upset an FBS opponent.

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