For more than a decade, every weekday during the college football season I have written 3-Point Stance, three short notes to entertain, make you think or maybe even both. Rob Gronkowski Patriots Jersey . This season, as Kickoff Week begins Thursday night, we move to seven notes, twice a week. The mathematically inclined will note that means one fewer note per week. You are getting slightly less for the same price. Which, by the way, is nothing. And have you taken a look at your half-gallon of ice cream lately? Its not a half-gallon.But I digress. Lets get on with the season: It is here, by god. It is here.Tide will overwhelm the Trojans on the line Its always dangerous to assess this years team by how it did last year. But when I look at No. 20 USCs chances against No. 1 Alabama on Saturday (ABC, 8 p.m. ET), I think of how Stanford dominated the line of scrimmage last season, held the ball for 35:42 and rushed for 262 yards against the Trojans in the Pac-12 championship game last December. The Trojans have a young defensive front. The Tide have three returning starters on the offensive line, including Cam Robinson, who might be the best left tackle in the country, not to mention a veteran defensive front.Fun fact from the Group of 5 San Diego State, which won its last 10 games a year ago, has the second-longest active winning streak in the FBS behind Alabamas 12-game streak. In the first six years of this decade, Northern Illinois four home losses are tied for the fewest in the FBS, with Alabama, Boise State, Clemson, Florida State, LSU and Stanford. And really, the Huskies lost only two at home. The other two home games were at Soldier Field. If you need to prove your Power 5 knowledge, mention that Florida State has won 21 straight home games dating to 2012.Tar Heels forced to backtrack after fumbling with appointment of Beckman North Carolina chancellor Carol L. Folt, on the short tenure of Tim Beckman as a Tar Heels volunteer coach: Moving forward I dont expect this situation to recur. I dont know Folt, but I know that a lot of university presidents are academics who couldnt find the football stadium with a campus map. Folt is a scientist who came to Chapel Hill after spending 30 years on the Dartmouth faculty. Between the ongoing NCAA investigation and the tone-deaf hiring of Beckman by head coach Larry Fedora, Folt has gotten a crash course on the dark side of the football team being the universitys front porch.Babers spread will thrive in Carrier Dome Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert spent three seasons (2012-14) on the staff of Dino Babers at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green. Babers plucked Gilbert out of Temple (Texas) High to help install Baylors spread offense. Now Babers is at Syracuse, and Gilbert believes he will turn around the Orange because the Baylor spread is made for the Carrier Dome. To be able to play probably half or more than half their games in a controlled climate? Especially up there? It will be huge to run this offense in that kind of conditions, Gilbert said.K-State will try and catch McCaffrey if it can Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder, asked about the task of slowing down Stanford back Christian McCaffrey, last years Heisman runner-up, gave a tutorial on defensive preparation. Being able to identify where he is and why hes there becomes important, Snyder said. He can line up in a lot of different positions, and [we must] not get baited out of position because of where his linemen are. They have to understand what he can, but also equally important, what he cant do from certain positions. Of course, everyone is waiting to find out what McCaffrey cant do.Beamer ball alive and well at Virginia Tech?Virginia Tech will award its special teams player of the week with the honor of wearing the No. 25 jersey, the retired number worn by former Hokies head coach Frank Beamer, in the next game. Another cool special teams honor: Because Duke quarterback and team co-captain Thomas Sirk has re-injured his Achilles tendon, he will be replaced at the coin toss in each game by a special teams captain of the week. Four-year long snapper Thomas Hennessy gets the honor when the Blue Devils open Saturday against North Carolina Central.Looking for signs of life from the Buffaloes Yes, Colorado has won two Pac-12 games in head coach Mike MacIntyres three seasons. But here are some things to think about as the Buffs try to snap their streak of consecutive seasons with a losing record at 10. Four of Colorados five losses to Pac-12 South teams last year came by seven points or fewer. Eighteen starters return. Senior quarterback Sefo Liufau has started 29 games, thrown for nearly 7,400 yards and 49 touchdowns. It might be too much to ask against a schedule with road trips to Michigan, Oregon, USC and Stanford in the first eight games. But the Buffs just might show some life. Tom Brady Patriots Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Jacoby Brissett Patriots Jersey .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. http://www.patriotsfootballfans.com/Black-Nate-Solder-Patriots-Jersey.html?cat=871 . Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. side, put it all into perspective. "We know whos in charge," he said. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Tag Ridings shot a 6-under 65 on Friday for a share of the second-round lead with Martin Flores in the Web.com Tour Finals Nationwide Childrens Hospital Championship.The 42-year-old Ridings was 52nd on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list and entered the third of four series events 36th in the race for 25 PGA Tour cards with $9,493.I think everybody that hasnt done their job so far in the first two weeks or first part of the year definitely feels that pressure, Ridings said. You want to get it done as quickly as possible to take the heat off.Starting on No. 10, he chipped in for birdie on his opening hole and had five birdies and a bogey on his first seven. He added birdies on the two front-nine par 5s.Well, this is kind of my favorite thing to do is play long, tough conditions and tough golf courses, Ridings said. So, why that is, I wish I knew, but probably more under par after two rounds on this golf course than I was anywhere all summer. It makes you think a little bit. If you mess up, youve got to take your punishment and get out of there and I did that a couple of times the last two days.Flores bogeyed the final hole for a 66 to match Ridings at 8-under 134 on Ohio States Scarlet Course. Already guaranteed a PGA Tour card with a fifth-place finish on the Web.com money list, the 34-year-old Flores birdied five of the first six holes on the back nine, making four in a row on Nos. 12-15.Im very happy, Flores said. I gave myself a lot of opportunities for birdie. I hit it close, hit it well, so extremely happy. I hit the shot I wanted to there (on 18). James Develin Patriots Jersey. I thought I hit a good drive, but thats just kind of how it goes sometimes.He won the Lincoln Land Charity Championship in July for his first Web.com Tour title.The series features the top 75 players from the Web.com regular-season money list, Nos. 126-200 in the PGA Tours FedEx Cup standings and non-members with enough PGA Tour money to have placed in the top 200 in the FedEx Cup had they been eligible.Flores and the other top-25 finishers on the Web.com money list earned PGA Tour cards. They are competing against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting in their totals .The other players are fighting for 25 cards based on series earnings. The last PGA Tour card went at $33,650 in 2013, $36,312 in 2014 and $32,206 last year.Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton was tied for third at 6 under after a 69. He was 173rd in the FedEx Cup standings and is 63rd among the players vying for the 25 cards with $4,000.South Koreas Whee Kim, the first-round leader, had a 71 to drop into the group at 6 under along with Nicholas Lindheim (68), Xander Schauffele (68), Jason Millard (67), Grayson Murray (67), Kevin Tway (70) and Bobby Wyatt (69). Lindheim and Murray have locked up PGA Tour cards through the Web.com money list. In the fight for the 25 cards, Schauffele is 25th at $15,395, followed by Wyatt (33rd, $10,603), Kim (35th, $9,975), Millard (42nd, $8,175) and Tway (52nd, $5,975). Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' '