Ten thoughts from the weekend

Ten thoughts from the college football weekend:

1. Clemson is making a fashion statement.

This is a rare time you'll see this observer write about uniform colors, but Clemson's run of consistent football is coinciding with a run of consistent uniform choice.

Remember the days when Clemson seemed to sport about 12 different uniform combinations a year? Dabo Swinney wasn't a big fan, and at some point he decided the Tigers needed to pick something and stick with it.

The predominant combination under him has been orange jerseys/white pants at home, and all white on the road. He has said that the past preoccupation with what to wear represented little more than needless clutter in his players' minds.

When Tommy Bowden was using all sorts of combinations during his tenure, old-school Clemson fans complained that the philosophy was different during the glory days. Danny Ford used the same combination that's being used now, making exceptions for orange pants before special games.

Does choice of attire really mean all that much? Probably not. But it's worth noting in the context of the Tigers being a more focused, stable, consistent group than their rollercoaster predecessors.

Speaking of those orange pants: Might we see them dusted off for the regular-season finale?

2. Fans should cut down a bit on the BCS talk -- for now.

Yes, everyone is understandably giddy right now with the Tigers on the doorstep of their first 10-win regular season since 1981.

Yes, an at-large bid to the BCS looks like a very real possibility at this point. Heck, ESPN's Brad Edwards called it a "no-brainer" last night, assuming the Tigers win out.

And yes, a trip to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans against Alabama, Notre Dame or whoever would be something to get excited about.

But the operative phrase is "assuming the Tigers win out." This team still has plenty of work to do.

N.C. State showed it hasn't tanked the season when it overwhelmed Wake Forest 37-6, responding to the debacle against Virginia a week earlier. The Wolfpack's passing attack will challenge Clemson's secondary, and Saturday N.C. State ran for 170 yards against a Deacons defense that has been stout against the run.

Fans are salivating at the thought of beating South Carolina for the first time since 2008, and the Tigers' receivers match up extremely well with the Gamecocks' secondary.

But Clemson still has to block South Carolina's formidable front four, something the Tigers haven't been able to do the past three years. And the Gamecocks' offense, though average statistically, will put stress on Clemson's defense with Connor Shaw a threat to run and pass outside the pocket.

Clemson has plenty of experience seeing its hopes inflated then deflated in recent years. And while this team has shown reason to believe it's different from its predecessors, it might be wise to hold off on booking trips to the Big Easy.

3. Losing out on a chance for another ACC title isn't a huge deal.

Some national pundits weighed in late Thursday night after Florida State's escape of Virginia Tech by saying Clemson fans were shattered at losing out on a chance to go to Charlotte to play for their second conference title in a row.

One should never dismiss the importance of a conference title, even in a conference that's as weak as the ACC this year. But there's so much available to Clemson even without going to the championship game.

Last season was about getting the ACC monkey off Clemson's back, and it seemed the Tigers' goal from the beginning was ending the school's 19-season drought without a conference crown. It's all the players talked about.

This season is about -- or should be about, at least -- gaining relevance and respect nationally. And that might be hard to come by playing Duke/Miami/Georgia Tech in Charlotte, then (assuming a win) playing a Big East team in the Orange Bowl.

This season will be defined by how the Tigers fare against South Carolina and in a bowl game. Beat the Gamecocks and show well in a BCS bowl, and no one will be ragging on the Tigers anymore for last year's debacle against West Virginia.

4. Chad Morris really likes the state of things right now.

A year ago at this time, Morris was concerned. His quarterback was gaining weight. His offensive line was struggling with injuries. And his players weren't doing a good job of handling the heightened expectations that came with an 8-0 start.

The Tigers were ambushed at Georgia Tech, were lucky to beat Wake Forest at home, and then completely melted down at N.C. State and South Carolina.

If Morris is apprehensive this time around, he's not showing it.

"We're playing our best football right now," he said after Saturday's 45-10 win over Maryland. "They have a lot more confidence. … There's a different mentality than a year ago. They're having fun now. There was so much pressure (last year), everyone was gripping it so tight, just waiting for the wheels to come off. This group has been there and done that. They're having fun."

Morris believes the upcoming two weeks will define this team's season, and last Monday he had a meeting with his players to underline that notion. He asked his players to reflect back on the goals they had back in August, when everything was new and fresh.

The point: A team can get distracted from its fundamental purpose during the grind of a season, as last year's team did. Morris and this staff have done everything they can to avoid a repeat of the 2011 lull.

5. What happened to Florida State's offensive line?

The talk of the Seminoles as an elite team must end until they can run the ball late in a close game.

In Blacksburg, Florida State finished with minus-15 yards on the ground. Virginia Tech's defensive front is pretty stout, but not that stout.

The Seminoles were up 20-10 and 20-17 in the third quarter, but Jimbo Fisher had zero faith in his running game and went solely to the air. That's bad news for a team that's supposed to be able to push people around.

The cracks in the Seminoles' line first showed in the 17-16 loss at N.C. State on Oct. 6, when the Wolfpack held them to 125 yards on the ground. The lack of a running game prohibited Florida State from protecting a 16-0 halftime lead.

Florida State's defense is excellent, but putting the offense solely in the hands of E.J. Manuel is a dicey proposition. And the Seminoles came perilously close to being burned again last Thursday.

6. So-called "gimmick" offenses can work just fine in the SEC.

Last year, LSU's 40-27 win over Oregon was translated into a damning indictment of the Ducks' system and its inability to roll up yards and points against an elite team from the essssss eeeeeee seeeeeeee.

Texas A&M's high-flying voyage through the SEC this season provides a compelling counter-point to that argument. The Aggies scored touchdowns on their first three possessions Saturday in Tuscaloosa and converted their first seven first downs against a supposedly great defense. Johnny Football completed 15 of his first 16 throws.

Some people, such as yours truly, thought A&M would eventually stall against the Crimson Tide as it did earlier this season in the second half of losses to Florida and LSU. But Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated pointed out last week that this was a more difficult matchup for Alabama because the Crimson Tide has bigger linebackers who aren't as equipped to cover the spread stuff.

The biggest surprise of the game might've been that Alabama only managed 24 points. Your humble scribe thought the Tide would mash them and score 38.

But check out the Aggies' offensive stats so far against SEC competition: 36.3 points per game, 531.9 yards per game, 6.57 yards per play.

Their numbers last year against the supposedly finesse Big 12: 39.3 points, 484.6 yards, 5.89 per play.

7. Man, how quickly things can change in college football.

This time a week ago, everyone was all over Les Miles for going conservative late and giving Alabama an opening for the game-winning drive. The Crimson Tide's coaches were being lauded for their genius after calling a running back screen into a blitz, producing the clinching touchdown.

Now Nick Saban and Co. are getting hammered for abandoning the run after a 54-yard pass gave the Tide a first-and-goal from the 6 with 4:18 left. On first down, A.J. McCarron scrambled for no gain. On second down, Eddie Lacy ran for 1 yard. On third down, McCarron escaped a big loss and scrambled up the middle to the 2. On fourth, McCarron rolled right and threw an interception after a pick play didn't materialize.

"I wish we would have run it, just like you, because passing it didn't work," Saban told reporters afterward. "We can sit around, and if we'd have run it, you'd be asking me why we didn't throw it."

8. Give Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit a raise.

They're the first-team pairing for big games, so why in the world were they in Chestnut Hill for Notre Dame's game at Boston College on Saturday night?

Boston College came in with a 2-7 record, 1-5 in the ACC. This had to be a record for the worst team broadcast by the Musberger-Herbstreit team.

Not a bunch of great matchups to choose from last week. But surely they could've found something better than that.

9. Some dang good quarterbacks in college football right now.

Hard to blame Dabo Swinney for railing against the lack of national publicity for Tajh Boyd.

"I don't see anybody in the country as good as Tajh Boyd," he said on his Sunday media teleconference. "Y'all need to print that in big, bold lettering. … I don't think there's any question he's playing as good as anybody out there. I don't think there's anybody out there playing as good as Tajh Boyd."

It's downright comical to see some of these quarterback rankings out there. ESPN's Brock Huard recently put Logan Thomas and E.J. Manuel in his Top 10, and stuck Boyd at the bottom of his "others receiving votes" category. Come on.

Two of the hottest quarterbacks out there are Johnny Manziel (81 percent completion rate in his past two games) and Oregon's Marcus Mariota, who has as many touchdown passes as incompletions the past two weeks (10). And then there's Kansas State's Collin Klein, who seems the leader in the clubhouse for the Heisman.

The reason these two are enjoying a higher profile than Boyd right now is because they're doing it on a higher-profile stage. Boyd will have his opportunity soon enough, so he probably serves as a good microcosm for Clemson's team as a whole.

10. Man, Tennessee's defense is bad.

It's been hard for anyone in Knoxville to drink the Dool-Aid lately, and a putrid defense is what hastened his apparent downfall.

ESPN's Stats and Info department discovered that the Vols became the first team in SEC history to allow 38 or more points in six consecutive games.

Think about that stat for a moment. Think about some of the awful defenses the past 20 years at Kentucky, Vanderbilt, even South Carolina.

That stat, by itself, might be grounds enough to give your coach a pink slip.