After impressing in backup duty last season, Eddie Lacy will be Alabama’s starting running back in 2012. (Getty Images)

A host of household names departed the corps of college football last winter. So did some lesser-known but crucial moving parts. Today, we get acquainted with their replacements. Here are 10 teams (listed alphabetically) with gaping holes to fill:

Alabama: Trent Richardson

Last year: Richardson finished the 2011 season ranked fifth nationally in rushing, averaging perilously close to 130 ground yards per contest. He ranked sixth in scoring, averaging more than 11 points per contest. About all he failed to do was follow up Mark Ingram’s Heisman with a stiffarm trophy of his own.

This year: The next guy up, if you want to get technical about it, is 2011′s No. 2 man Eddie Lacy. It’s a big dropoff from Richardson’s 130-yard average production to Lacy’s 56, but you have to like the numbers Lacy put up on such a paltry allowance of carries (674 rushing yards, 95 touches). Lacy recently returned to action following offseason foot surgery and will be a full participant in fall camp.

But like CBS’ Daniel Lewis, we are almost more intrigued by the guys coming up behind Lacy: Jalston Fowler, Dee Hart and T.J. Yeldon. These players are always fun to track at ‘Bama because, like Richardson behind Ingram, they are undeniably talented, have to wait their turn and will be endlessly clamored for on the radio and message boards the first time Lacy has an off night.

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Robert Griffin III's showing against Oklahoma was one of this year's indelible moments. (US PRESSWIRE)

It is the third full day of the 2011 offseason and the 2012 preseason. It’s really the second for me, having spent most of Tuesday trying with increasing reluctance to get out of New Orleans. By quick shoddy math, I’ve been on the road 27 days out of the last 41. I got to see a host of familiar faces this season and postseason, and meet so many of you for the first time. I get asked a lot: How did you get into this? If you know me from back home, it usually comes out Why did you get into this? I usually want to talk about Larry, but don’t. It explains things, but it takes a while. From now until August, though, we’ve got nothing but time. Time and recruiting and police blotters and calendar-cussing, and precious little else.

I grew up in a football-loving family in a football-loving town. I was pulled out of school on more than one occasion to get a head start down to Tuscaloosa or Birmingham for the Third Saturday in October. The effects of this did not show up right away, because I was a drama geek from a very young age, and to attend football games and smile through black-painted lips was to plumb the depths of human indignity. Then I went and studied performing arts at a big football university, where we didn’t have shows on home game Saturdays because the audience wouldn’t have had a place to park. This insurmountable logistical problem meant departmental drones could have it both ways, six shows a week and belting out our own operatic harmonies to Rocky Top in the student section on what was supposed to be our day of rest. (I still do this. Just not in the press box.)

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After a prolific career as a Bronco, Kellen Moore left the Boise State program in all smiles on Thursday. (Cal Sport Media)

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Kellen Moore, 50 wins in and through with the college game, is as practiced at the craft of the postgame presser as he is in the pocket. With his NCAA career wrapped, and no threat of forced running of stadium steps lurking over his shoulder, Moore had not one unkind word to say about the situation Boise State’s football team found itself in Thursday night after a 56-24 rout of Arizona State in the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas. [RECAP | BOX] The No. 8 Broncos put a flourishing touch on the winningest four-year streak in FBS history in a December game. An early  December game. Again. You know this — but you’d never know it looking at or listening to Kellen Moore.

When asked about his impact on the Boise State football program, Moore speaks only of being fortunate — that’s his keyword. “Fortunate” to have been put in the situation he was in, to be “surrounded by great people.”

“It’s a neat experience,” said the all-time winningest quarterback in FBS college football history. Since Moore toes the straight and narrow, let’s let the two coaches of the 2011 Las Vegas Bowl throw some well-deserved handfuls of glitter his way.

Dennis Erickson: “His anticipation, he made a couple throws where he threw that football, and the receiver hadn’t even come close to coming out of his break. So he breaks, and boom! The ball is there. You can’t defend that.”

Chris Petersen, settling himself in, before the first question is even voiced: “I have no idea what we’re gonna do without Kellen Moore, so don’t ask it.”

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Boise State's Chris Petersen and Kellen Moore are no strangers to hoisting the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas trophy. (Cal Sport Media)

The 2011 Las Vegas Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out Stewart Mandel’s preview.) 

• Where will this game be played? Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada, home of the UNLV Rebels and the occasional rugby sevens tournament.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, December 22. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? Currently Vegas gets the first Mountain West team off the lot and a mid-range Pac-12 team.

• What about this year? In a battle of tall versus un-tall quarterbacks, States Boise and Arizona will clash in the desert.

• Who sponsors it? The proper name of this shindig is actually the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas, like some above-itself gated community, which we guess is appropriate given the character of so many residential neighborhoods in the area. MAACO bills itself as “The premier collision center that also paints cars.”

• I liked it better when it was the California Raisin Bowl. That may be, but would you rather spend a week in Fresno or Las Vegas? Myself, I preferred the video-game sponsorships of the late 20th and early 21st century; do you think they’d even play the game if EA Sports still headlined it?

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Boise got shut out of the BCS despite finishing No. 7; the Broncos play ASU in Las Vegas. (US PRESSWIRE)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• Bowltyme! We’ve kept score of non-AQ teams’ record against programs from Big Six conferences all season (final score: 18-92). But even in the postseason, where part of the attraction is seeing non-traditional opponents face off (I’ve gotten emails from Georgia fans who’re mad because they played Michigan State in the CapOne three years ago), have vs. have-not matchups are hard to come by. The New Mexico, GoDaddy, Potato, New Orleans, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, Poinsettia, Hawaii, Military and Armed Forces Bowls will all feature two non-AQ conference teams or independents, although the GoDaddy.com pairing of Northern Illinois and Arkansas State might end up being the sleeper hit of the postseason. Four teams that will get to strut their stuff versus AQ squads: Western Michigan versus Purdue in the Little Caesars Bowl, Boise State versus Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl, Houston versus Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl and SMU versus Pitt in the BBVA Compass Bowl. Click here for our full bowl lineup and TV schedule.

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Case Keenum made NCAA history at Legion Field on Nov. 5. (Holly Anderson/SI)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of Houston’s athletic department has professed a reluctance to stage any cagey PR stunts in service of senior quarterback Case Keenum’s Heisman candidacy. There will be no billboards nor bobbleheads for the cause. The likely New York invitee and unlikely hardware winner would be hard-pressed to find humbler surroundings in which to stage his third major NCAA record-breaking performance of the season.

While a couple hundred thousand screaming faithful thronged Tuscaloosa to watch the SEC West division race come to a bitter head, an announced crowd of 13,909 (an estimation we’re going to charitably call “ambitious”) bore witness in decaying Legion Field to the fall of the all-time NCAA record for career passing yards by a player operating in just his third full season as a starter. (Keenum, devotees will recall, redshirted his first year with the Cougars and wasn’t named the full-time replacement for Kevin Kolb until more than halfway through his second season. After standout years in 2008 and ’09, he tore his ACL in the second quarter of the Cougars’ third game, a road date with UCLA, and was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.) Entering Saturday’s contest, Keenum already held the career total offense and touchdown passing records, and speculation that he might amass the 267 yards needed to pass Timmy Chang as the all-time passing yardage leader by the end of the first quarter wasn’t all that farfetched.

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Patrick Edwards caught five of Case Keenum's nine TDs in Houston's 73-34 win over Rice. (US PRESSWIRE)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• Is it that time of year already? Entering the November home stretch, let’s pause to examine Houston’s and Boise’s chances of hoisting a certain crystal football in two months and one week. In the latest AP Poll, the Broncos still hover at No. 5, while the Cougars skip from No. 18 to No. 14. This still makes them the lowest-ranked undefeated teams, in Houston’s case by nine slots. The Cougars trail the next closest team, Michigan, by over a hundred votes in the AP Poll. (Would you not pay dearly to see Case Keenum and Denard Robinson scoring at will on the Michigan and Houston defenses in a bowl game?) We will not discuss the den of iniquity that is the Coaches’ Poll, but let’s hit the BCS. Boise falls from No. 4 to No. 5 following its most recent bye; Clemson plummeted out of the top five as well, while previous No. 6 Stanford assumed Boise’s former place. Houston’s all the way down at No. 13, up from 17, and separated from the Broncos by seven one-loss teams. We’re still projecting Boise into the Sugar Bowl, but Houston’s prospects for a big-time January game look desolate.

Is there a chance for hardware glory in other races, however? Check out Cory McCartney’s latest Heisman Watch for more trophy-grubbing intel on Keenum and Moore.

• Houston a billionty, Rice 34: From Friday: “Before rain even began to fall in earnest, Houston’s Tyron Carrier returned the Owls’ opening kickoff for a touchdown, his seventh such feat, tying a previous record set by C.J. Spiller at Clemson. Rice fired back with a strong running game, returned a soggy Keenum fumble for a touchdown and seemed quite determined to hang with the Cougars until three consecutive touchdown passes from Houston put the game out of reach by halftime, 38-20.” There really was enough action and pratfalling contained within that half alone for an entire game’s worth of entertainment, but that was before Keenum decided tonight was the night for a statement game. Behold his stats, O mortals, and weep.

• Last night’s MACtion from an alien perspective: Pleas enjoy this account of Northern Illinois-Toledo from a baseball die-hard who tuned in to ESPN to watch something called the Golden Gloves and instead found himself transfixed by Tuesday night football.

• Quote of the day, non-AQ edition: “We have sacrificed tradition, live crowds, and defensive backs for your entertainment.  We hope you enjoyed our exhibition of Rust Belt Calvin-ball last night.” — alert reader and MAC sympathizer DevilGrad

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