11 Lessons Learned: Grieving UConn now feel-good story

I'll start this week's wrap-up with a rhetorical question: Which traditional power would you least like to be a fan of right now, Michigan, Notre Dame, Georgia, Oklahoma or LSU? I'm just saying, it's a tough time to be a fan of any of these programs, especially given what happened on Saturday.

Andre Dixon and UConn pull off an uplifting upset of Notre Dame. (Getty Images)

It has become one painful month of November. Not just because of what happened to these teams and their woe-be-gone fan bases, but also because this month used to be so entertaining, but looking at the schedule of teams at the top of the polls, this month is starting to look more like September. Yuck!

Let's get to the lessons.

Lesson 1: We learned there might be no better feel-good story in college football than Connecticut.

The Huskies have overcome everything -- and I mean everything -- so far this season, to put themselves in bowl contention. Five brutally tough losses (by 15 points), the death of Jasper Howard and a couple of horrible calls that cost them two touchdowns Saturday at Notre Dame. But UConn made enough clutch plays to add to Charlie Weis' misery with a riveting 33-30 overtime win.

It also gave us the best postgame interview ever, when coach Randy Edsall told NBC's Alex Flanagan, "So Angela, Henry and David, I hope you guys are watching 'coz we're bringin' the game ball home and sending it to you. Because I tell you what, that No. 6 is up there and Jazz, this one's for you, God Dangit!"

Lesson 2: When Coach says that you've got the wrong guy in charge, believe him.

Charlie Weis in 2004: "The fact of the matter is you've got a 6-5 program right now. If you want a .500 team, you've hired the wrong guy."

Charlie Weis in 2009: His team is at 6-5, and 60 minutes of a certain loss to Stanford away from being .500. I hate to pile on Weis while everyone else is, but this certainly cements things for the once-great assistant coach.

Don't worry Chuck, you'll be a great assistant again soon.

Lesson 3: Mark Mangino's impending firing is most certainly a witch hunt.

OK, so Kansas got killed by Texas. But the best point of the entire weekend was Robert Smith's analysis of the Kansas situation between coach Mangino and athletic director Lew Perkins. In case you missed it, he said, "Let's be absolutely clear on this, Lew Perkins is trying to do all this to get Mark Mangino fired. And that's because Mangino's contract is fully guaranteed, so he needs to fire him 'with cause' so he does not have to pay the balance of this contract. He's going so far as to dig up old parking violations and parading some old players out to complain about him, trying to embarrass the school and give him just cause to fire him."

And who says college football isn't all about money.

Lesson 4: If you go to a movie this week and can't see the screen it's probably because Les Miles is wearing his dunce cap in front of you.

You saw it. I saw it. We all saw it. And a Pop Warner football coach would've known better. You can't give up 16 seconds of free time before the fourth-down miracle catch and then not have your field-goal team ready to kick the game winner. Just can't.

And call me crazy, but didn't it seem after Jordan Jefferson spiked the ball and time ran out, Miles turned and appeared to say "Is there a time out?" as he was talking to Jefferson? Somehow, it seems to me that Les thought there was still time remaining.

Lesson 5: We learned Miles wasn't the only noodle-minded coach out there this week.

Two other examples:

• Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh ordered his team to go for it on fourth-and-8 from their own 22 with 3:32 left in the game. Keep in mind he had all three timeouts remaining. Cal stopped the Cardinal and kicked an insurance field goal with the short field.

• Yale coach Tom Williams had a 10-7 lead with 2:37 left in the game vs. Harvard and on fourth-and-22 from his own 25-yard line, he orders a fake punt. The resulting reverse gained only 15 yards. Harvard took the ensuing drive in for the game-winning TD.

Lesson 6: We learned why Houston Nutt is a good coach, but will never be a great coach.

Was Dexter McCluster the most underused talent in the country earlier in the season? If McCluster had been put at running back since Day 1, he would be that Heisman frontrunner we are all looking for this season. Did you see his performance against the lightning-fast LSU defense? Went for 149 on the ground, caught three passes and even threw a touchdown pass of 27 yards to Shea Hodge. But Coach Nutt, teach him that it is his duty to cover an onside kick after 10 yards.

Lesson 7: That loud crack you heard at 11:57 p.m. ET was the sound of Arizona Wildcat fans' hearts collectively breaking all at once.

Oregon ruins Arizona's best shot at going to its first-ever Rose Bowl with a late-night 44-41 win that was high-stakes drama in the desert. After watching slogfests, borefests and bone-headfests all day, this riveting double-OT win by Oregon was great theater. Too bad all those students who gathered on the sidelines near the end of the game, thinking they had victory in hand, had to withstand Jeremiah Masoli crushing their dreams. Ouch.

Lesson 8: All those Alabama, Oklahoma, Air Force and Nebraska teams from the 70s and 80s need to eat their hearts out.

During its 63-20 drubbing at New Mexico State, Nevada became the most prolific running team in history. Never in the annals of college football has a team managed to get three players to gain 1,000-plus yards in a season, until now. Here's the breakdown: Luke Lippincott has 1,028, Vai Taua has 1,185 yards and QB Colin Kaepernick now has 1,129.

And by the way, my vote for the most bizarre score of the season goes to Nevada's Week 1 loss at Notre Dame, 35-0. If that game were played now, the score would probably be reversed.

Lesson 9: Whoever is responsible for giving college coaches their contracts should try to get a union for Walmart workers instead.

Who are these idiots? Clemson's Dabo Sweeney was reportedly given a million dollar raise for winning the Atlantic Division of the ACC today. You mean they're going to give this guy a cool million for being better than lame fish like Boston College and Florida State? Oh and then there's the fact that Charlie Weis still has six years remaining on his contract thanks to a deal reached after the "Bush Push" loss to USC back in 2005. In the words of Frank Zappa, pheeewwwww! What a freakin' piece of crap!

Lesson 10: We learned that Florida and Alabama can go ahead and take the grocery bags off their heads.

(I know, we did this the last two weeks, but it needs to be said again). Just like Auburn, Kentucky, Georgia and Ole Miss from two weeks ago and LSU and Arkansas last week, what are these teams doing playing awful non-conference tomato cans like Florida International and Chattanooga? The SEC is ruining the month of November with these throwaway games.

Lesson 11: We discovered five additional statements we can make about this weekend.

1. Pat Fitzgerald just coached Northwestern to two wins over ranked opponents in the last three weeks. Wow, just imagine if he did that for Notre Dame?

2. New Mexico finally won (beat Colorado State, 29-27). So Eastern Michigan (0-11) and Western Kentucky (0-10) are left still wearing the golden sombrero.

3. Toby Gerhart had his best day of the season. But sadly, and erroneously, Heisman voters don't vote for players on teams that lose. But they should here.

4. Maybe I'm biased from seeing him take heads off in the Oklahoma game, but Ndamukong Suh (9 tackles, 2 for loss, 1.5 sacks, 2 pass breakups vs. KSU) is still the best no-hype football player in the country.

5. The worst comment of the week: ESPN's George Smith, when asked how the crowd was after Notre Dame lost, said, "It was eerily quiet... I was in the press box and it was silent." Ummm, George, ALL press boxes are silent. Get down on the field when you cover games bro.