Washington’s Kasen Williams provided one of Thursday’s only moments of offensive flash. (AP)

• Washington 17, No. 8 Stanford 13. Will this be one of those delightful years that sees every highly regarded team picked off, one by one? What, like you don’t want to see a Minnesota-Oregon State Rose Bowl? Cartoon beavers and gophers, clutching flower stems in their teeth! Don’t hate this beautiful inevitability.

We do not quite credit Stanford’s Trent Murphy with the elusive FAT GUY TOUCHDOWN, but he certainly is burly, and his interception return provided some of the only entertainment to be found in Thursday night’s matchup. Stewart Mandel, bless him, actually watched the whole thing and wrote some words about it. Honor him. [BOX | RECAP]

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Central Michigan scored a win for the MAC by knocking off Iowa in the final seconds. (Matthew Holst/Getty Images)

Our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome:

This will mark our fifth season tracking the record of non-AQ programs against teams from power conferences, for no other reason than liking to watch where the numbers go. We’re not sure we’ve ever seen a weekend produce a winning record for a mid-major league that involved more than one or two games. But glory be to the MAC, which played seven games against BCS-favored opponents, and won four. (Yes, we’re even including Northern Illinois’ win over Kansas, even though Kansas is Kansas. COUNT IT.)

MAC teams beat one Big Ten team, two Big East teams and one Big 12 team. Directional Michigan schools had a particularly grand weekend, with Central Michigan knocking off Iowa and Western Michigan laying out UConn. Eastern Michigan also acquitted itself admirably, putting up a dogged fight against Michigan State.

The fifth big winner of Week 4 was the gaudiest: Louisiana Tech, a team with qualities we have been relentlessly touting since last December or so, mowed down Illinois on the road, 52-24. The Bulldogs currently field the nation’s third-ranked scoring offense and have two more high-profile nonconference matchups in the next three weeks: at Virginia and home against Texas A&M. Stay tuned; they’re our favorites behind Ohio to finish the 2012 regular season undefeated.

Speaking of the Bobcats: They’re through their nonconference gauntlet after a Week 4 win over Norfolk State and received 40 votes in this week’s AP Poll. The only other non-AQ teams on that list are Boise State at No. 24 and Louisiana Tech, which received seven votes.

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Tracking the zeitgeist of college football’s fourth weekend through social media:

How about ULM’s two biggest fans tonight – Willie (Duck Dynasty) and SBC commish – go Warhawks twitter.com/kbcommish/stat…

— karl benson (@kbcommish) September 22, 2012

House of Pain, color-out attendance, weeknight kick, no running backs… OMG Monroe deep fried the MAC.

— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) September 22, 2012

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What wacky antics will Kent State football provide for our viewing entertainment this week? The answer may surprise you! (AP)

• MACtion, MACtion, we want some MACtion. Welcome, brothers and sisters, to the first of those glorious weeks of the 2012 season where there is only one day without football. That day is today, so once y’all stagger out of bed on short rest after last night’s interminable Monday Night Football game, put on your game faces. All evening errands must be run, all loved ones and pets reminded you are aware of their existence, all today. Tomorrow brings the first Wednesday-night MACtion of the year in the form of Kent State-Buffalo; Thursday is BYU-Boise State and Friday features Baylor-ULM. You wouldn’t want to disappoint the Warhawks by missing kickoff for a trip to the hardware store, now would you? You know how they get when they’re angry.

• In defense of not wanting one’s arm to fall off. The backlash to the backlash to James-Franklin-The-Player’s decision not to shoot up his shoulder and play against the Sun Devils is well underway in columnist circles; here’s the Post-Dispatch’s take.

• Assorted bowl updates of varying degrees of importance. Could the number of postseason bowl games be creeping up already? … the Orange Bowl wheels and deals … and UCF’s appeal of its postseason ban is official.

• Monteé Ball case update. Three people have been charged in the August assault of Monteé Ball; all are Wisconsin students.

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“Oh, really?” said Jawan Jamison. “No, not really,” said South Florida’s defense, allowing him to pass unimpeded. (AP)

• Rutgers 23, South Florida 13. Ask us again how goofy we feel for having picked the Bulls to win the Big East. We will tell you, free of sidestepping or correct grammar, way more goofier than we did at this time yesterday. The Crystal Ball Curse, which we have made up, lives and breathes of its own accord.

Making Thursday night worthwhile viewing all by himself was Rutgers tailback Jawan Jamison, whose spin move here is fun to watch in .gif form. But it was gasp-worthy in HD. Find video if you can. It was a truly beautiful moment in a game almost entirely devoid of them. Jamison wrapped up his evening in Tampa with 151 yards and a touchdown, his fourth consecutive 100-yard game. Jamison’s 41 carries broke a school record that had stood since 1972. [BOX | RECAP]

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Tracking the zeitgeist through college football’s opening weekend.

I like that when we play overseas, we send Navy. Just in case.

— Brody Logan (@BrodyLogan) September 1, 2012

Mark Richt has lost control of my bougainvilleas.instagr.am/p/PC6_QMrv3n/

— sarah sprague (@sarah_sprague) September 1, 2012

Casual Todd Blackledge is disconcerting, like seeing your teacher at the grocery store

— Bobby Big Wheel (@BobbyBigWheel) September 1, 2012

Somewhere, I imagine Derek Dooley’s mom visibly seething that her son is on national television with his shirt untucked like a heathen.

— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) September 1, 2012

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Tell us you wouldn’t love to see Frank Solich back in a big one. Imagine the glowers! (AP)

While we’ve been neglecting this space over the past week or so, we’ve been working behind the scenes helping to prep SI.com’s preseason packages. You can view all 2012 preseason content here; below, we’ve excerpted passages from our five non-AQ conference reports. Yes, we think Ohio could go undefeated. Stop that chuckling, chuckleheads.

MAC

Can Ohio really enter the BCS discussion? Ohio didn’t receive a single vote in the AP Poll. Not so much as a courtesy nod in the No. 25 spot from a single voter. So you might be wondering about our 12-0 crazypants prediction. Well: The Bobcats return 14 starters and are fresh off a Famous Idaho Potato Bowl victory. (Stay with us here.) They catch a Penn State squad that will likely be reeling at least a little bit early on, have Marshall as their only other remotely viable out-of-conference opponent and then settle into a conference slate which features not a single team that produced a winning record in 2011. Of course, we also had Washington as our sleeper national title game pick in 2010, so expect the Bobcats to lose to UMass or something, and expect that to be our fault. [Read the rest]

C-USA

Houston? Again? Seriously? Maybe? The Cougars have big names to fill, position-wise, and also lost their head coach, but promoting Tony Levine from within makes for a smoother transition. And apart from the above-mentioned Louisiana Tech game, here’s what Houston’s schedule looks like from September to November: Texas State, UCLA, Rice, North Texas, UAB, SMU, UTEP. That’s a lot of practice snaps. [Read the rest]

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Clearly, the UMass Minuteman cannot wait to partake in some MACtion. And really, who can blame him? (AP)

You didn’t ask, but we answered:

• What’s all this, then? On July 1, a crop of the realignment changes we’ve been so resistant to took effect. Among the movers was UMass, which joins the MAC as a transitional member, replacing Temple.

• So we still have a 13-team conference? We do! The MAC prefers to think of itself as “prime.”

• What do we, as MAC fans and/or schedulers of profiterole paycheck games, need to know about UMass before we see it on the opposite sideline this fall? First and foremost, that UMass’ nickname is the Minutemen, and that they’ll be playing their home games at Patriots memorabilia-encrusted Gillette Stadium. So, let that Revolutionary War smack talk fly. “More like Jamarion Smith! He slipped through that defensive line like the Swamp Fox, Gary! Back to you in the studio.”

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MORE PRIMERS: ACC | Big 12 | Big East | Big Ten | Pac-12 | SEC

It won’t be too many more seasons until “mid-majors” are a dated concept, but until then, we present assorted burning questions for non-AQ conferences and independents heading into spring ball:

Independents

Dual-threat redshirt freshman Everett Golson could beat out Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix for Notre Dame's starting job. (US PRESSWIRE)

Time once again for everybody’s favorite game show, “Name! That! Irish! Quarterback!” A familiar question for Notre Dame, with a couple familiar answers. The oft-maligned Tommy Rees returns, as does Andrew Hendrix, both of whom you’ll remember from the 2011 position race. In hot pursuit: dual-threat redshirt freshman Everett Golson, who topped Bruce Feldman’s Tuesday Top 10 “most intriguing” list, and shiny recruitnik brass ring Gunner Kiel, whose chest has been insulted by Les Miles. Standout veteran tailback talent Cierre Wood will alleviate some of the pressure to produce yardage, but star receiver Michael Floyd won’t be around to make whoever wins out look pretty anymore.

Conference USA

Will changes at Houston hobble forward progress? Pinball wizard Case Keenum isn’t walking through that door, and neither is Kevin Sumlin. Gone, too, are Bryce Beall, Michael Hayes, Tyron Carrier, Justin Johnson and Patrick Edwards. Newly installed head coach Tony Levine is running right at these vacancies, and creating a few more, announcing open competition at every position with a cheeky depth chart graphic. Look to last year’s leading rusher Charles Sims to shoulder the bulk of offensive production as the rest of his unit readjusts. Also re-acclimating: A defense that didn’t spend enough seasons in Brian Stewart’s 3-4 to build a full complement of players to run it and is now flipping back to the 4-3 under promoted former linebackers coach Jamie Bryant. Whee!

What the Cougars do have, apart from Sims, is a poppin’ fresh, patisserie-made schedule that should allow them plenty of room to flex and grow into Levine’s regime. And then some. Get past Louisiana Tech on September 8 and they won’t face another team that finished 2011 with a winning record until SMU on October 20. Tulsa and Marshall are Houston’s only other opponents not currently smarting from sub-.500 seasons. It’s a nice lull in which the Cougars can get their feet set as a team before they head off to the Big East, which will provide marginally fewer pushover teams.

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The Idaho Potato Commission sponsors the Idaho Potato Bowl, formerly known as the Humanitarian Bowl. (PRNewsFoto)

The 2011 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is just days away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out Matt Dollinger’s Potato Bowl preview).

• Where can I watch it? Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 17. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Who does it feature? Don’t be fooled by that fluffy sour cream-topped logo, surely the finest of any postseason football contest. This is the game you know better as the Humanitarian Bowl, and this is actually not the worst name the bowl has ever had. (Crucial.com, we see you!) The current official pairing is MAC-WAC.

• What about this year? The Ohio Bobcats (9-4), losers in the MAC title game to Northern Illinois, will take on the 7-5 Utah State Aggies, who finished second in the WAC to Louisiana Tech.

• Who sponsors it? The Idaho Potato Commission, which has kindly provided a hungry audience with something called the “Dr. Potato Blog,” a publication you should be reading with regularity if you want to, say, make your own ribbon fries at home.

• Can we go back the logo for just one second? Majestic, isn’t it?

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