college football

LOS ANGELES -- You have to admire the pluck.

If only UCLA's football program can manage a few touchdowns to back up the bluster. So, just how long can you hold your breath?

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- If a North Carolina wide receiver catches a pass of 50 yards or more this season, left guard Kyle Jolly said recently, "he'd better score."

Once there was a simple way to pick the favorite in the Pacific-10 Conference football race: Look for the most talented senior quarterback. Now there's a new way: Look to the USC Trojans. The Trojans enter the 2008 football season as overwhelming favorites to win their seventh straight Pac-10 championship and are among the top contenders for another national title.

Capsule previews for this weekend's season-opening college football games. All times Eastern and all rankings Associated Press.

SATURDAY:

No. 17 VIRGINIA TECH (0-0) vs. EAST CAROLINA (0-0), in Charlotte, Noon, ESPN.

FAVORITE: Va. Tech by 10.

A new college football season kicks off Thursday night with 19 Division I teams playing games with pretty much everyone else set for Friday and the rest of the weekend.

It will close on Friday night, Jan. 8, at Dolphin Stadium where the nation's two best teams will clash in the 2009 BCS Championship Game.

Or so we hope.

If you're scripting a 2008 college football season that's even half as crazy as last season, the opening scene must show I-AA champion Appalachian State knocking off defending I-A champ LSU Saturday in Death Valley.

The endless wait is over. Months of recruiting hype, scrimmage nonsense, unsupervised drills speculation, arrests, suspensions and the tedious fall two-a-days are history.

College football is back. And what America's most traditional sport does for an encore after a 2007 season that redefined zaniness is anyone's guess.

There have been nights this summer when Virginia football player Clint Sintim has had trouble falling asleep. That's the degree of his excitement about the Cavaliers' opening game Saturday against visiting third-ranked Southern California.

The family dog probably wasn't safe at the Pretorius house in Durban, South Africa. After all, the kid, Ryan, would kick anything. A soccer ball was the early favorite. Then he followed his dad, a rugby coach, around and by the age of 3 he could kick that goofy thing from flat off the ground over the posts.

A preseason look at the University of South Florida.

The Bulls return 10 starters on offense, including dual-threat quarterback Matt Grothe, from an offense that averaged 34.7 points and 414 yards per game.

Grothe led the Bulls in rushing (872 yards) and passing (2,670 yards). He enters his junior season with 29 career passing touchdowns and 19 rushing scores.