Can Nick Saban turn the Tide? Gators or Canes behind FSU?Irish or Buckeyes Saturday?

Just like that, they’re telling us Nick Saban’s Crimson dynasty is crumbling before our eyes. And I couldn’t be more surprised if I’d just watched video of a Japanese rasslin’ match on a bullet train.

Well, turns out, it’s true.

The part about the bullet train, at least.

Minoru Suzuki defeated Sanshiro Takagi with a rudimentary version of the pile driver — not much elbow room with packed rows of giddy passengers. At least I think Suzuki won. Might’ve the other way around, since my knowledge of Japanese pro rasslers has slipped a bit since the glory days of Antonio Inoki (ask your daddy).

Also … bullet train? Yep, they’ve got ’em in Japan, too, just as they do throughout Europe. Here, where nothing impedes progress like a strip of red tape, not so much.

You do get the feeling, however, if 20 years ago we’d put Nick Saban in charge of building bullet trains, we could all be eating breakfast in Samsula and speeding to grandma’s house in Raleigh by lunchtime.

Such was the mystique of Nick Saban, whose ability to maintain the status of Alabama football had a death-and-taxes certainty hardly seen since another Alabama coach lorded over the college game.

Back in the 1970s, while Bear Bryant’s run was still at full song, the NCAA imposed scholarship limits, which began a slight altering of the landscape and ushered in some small but definite semblance of parity. Granted, that scholarship limit was 105, which makes the modern limit of 85 seem downright skeletal.

AN NIL NATURAL UCF kicker Colton Boomer has the name, and leg, for today's college game | KEN WILLIS

Today’s newfound parity — or at least a newfound dismantling of the norm — involves a lack of limits, more or less. Practically a free-for-all of roster shuffling.

“Player personnel director,” a role once reserved solely for professional outfits, has become the most important piece of a college program.

Mark this down: Barring someone getting a grip on things, within another year or so, personnel managers will become what strength-and-conditioning coaches were just a few minutes ago — the hottest commodity with newly inflated salaries to show for it.

Still, at the most basic of basic levels, it’s always about X’s and O’s, Jimmies and Joes, and a new death-and-taxes certainty: You gotta have a quarterback, and the days of “caretaker” quarterbacks have apparently passed.

What in the name of A.J. McCarron is a-goin’ on here? Nick Saban can no longer run at will, pass here and there, and beat, say, South Florida by more than 14 points?

Apparently not.

Anymore, being caught without a quarterback may top the list of football’s seven deadly sins. Coaches would rather give up their courtesy Land Rover than go without a guy who can not only sling it, but sling it to guys in like-colored jerseys. You don’t know what you’re missing ’til it’s signed elsewhere … or taken the bullet train to the transfer portal.

This might be little more than a blue-chip program clearing its throat, adjusting its boxers and settling in for another run of 12-win (minimum) seasons. Or it might be something else.

If it’s something else, if it’s indeed a product of the new ways, you also get the feeling Nick Saban will eventually figure it all out and begin giving master classes in creating a new-age dynasty.

But then again, he is just several weeks away from his 72nd birthday, and maybe he doesn’t feel like girding for battle against the whimsical nature of the portal, not to mention the deeper pockets of some rival’s NIL “collective.”

Some would consider an Alabama reckoning a pleasant side benefit of the new chaos. Be careful what you wish for, because today’s pile-driving wrecking ball is rudderless and might just point your way with the next shift of the breeze.

Rank & File: Seminoles still on top, Gators leap Hurricanes for #2

This week’s ranking of Florida’s seven big-league college football programs, based on results versus expectations, current trends, and a midweek reading of volatility in the Chicago Merc’s corn futures … 

1. FSU (3-0). This week: at Clemson. Dabo Swinney had to bring an old kicker out of retirement this week. Seriously. Ever expect to see Dabo flat-footed at any position? Man, things have changed. The pick: ’Noles by 2, yep, on a missed Clemson FG.

2. Florida (2-1). This week: Charlotte at home. Should the Gators be ahead of the ’Canes here? Probably not, but such are the vibes in the wake of that Rocky Topping. The pick: Gators by 38.

3. Miami (3-0). This week: at Temple. Yes, even counting Dan Orlovsky, Tyler Van Dyke might become the best-ever QB out of Connecticut. Even if you go back to the 1930s and Dick Tuckey. You heard me. The pick: ’Canes by 26.

4. UCF (3-0). This week: at Kansas State. When plotting the season ahead, few had UCF’s Big 12 debut coming a week after K-State was upset by Mizzou. Does it mean the Wildcats aren’t as good as projected, or good and angry? The pick: Angry by 6.

5. FIU (3-1). This week: Liberty at home. Honestly, smart money was on the Panthers dropping football before ever starting another season 3-1. Not sure about the odds on "dropping program" vs. 3-2. The pick: Flames by 13.

6. USF (1-2). This week: Rice at home. By season’s end, “we scared Alabama” might not be among the Bulls’ highlights on their recap videos. But it might. The pick: Owls by 9.

7. FAU (1-2). This week: at Illinois. If you’re going to venture into the Big 10, Champaign ain’t a bad stop for lower-rung visitors. But no, it’s not happening. The pick: Illini by 10.

NASCAR QNA Is Denny Hamlin on cruise control? Not if Kyle Larson has anything to do with it

The (other) Picks: Irish and Buckeyes highlight Saturday menu

A lot of you like to make fun of Notre Dame’s schedule in those years when the annual opposition is on a downward trajectory, as is the case with Stanford, which should actually apologize to Downward Trajectories for being lumped in with them.

Man, things are bad at Stanford.

Anyway, Notre Dame. The Irish haven’t yet stumbled but also haven’t yet faced upper-rung competition. That not only ends this week, but basically ends for the next two months before ending the regular season with, yes, Stanford.

Beginning next year with the new 12-team playoff, you’re likely to see the Irish in the playoffs every two or three years. This year, we’re still at four teams, and we know how the modern ways have treated Notre Dame in January. Not pretty. So you hesitate to consider the Irish’s chances of cracking that Final Four at season’s end.

Doubtful, because the upcoming gauntlet is a lot — at Duke, at Louisville and USC are coming up starting next week. But for now, there’ll be no Irish Goodbye — Notre Dame over Ohio State by 6.

Elsewhere: Alabama by 2 over Ole Miss; Purdue beats Wisconsin; Michigan beats Rutgers by 30; Oregon by 12 over Deion; Utah by 12 over UCLA; Duke big over UConn; WVU by 2 over Texas Tech; LSU beats Arkansas; Penn State by 14 over Iowa; and the Trine Thunder, on the road near the southern Indiana bank of the Ohio River, by 9 over the Panthers of Hangover.

Oops: This just in, it’s actually Hanover, not Hangover, so let’s take the Panthers by 3.

BTW: Hanover isn’t just the hometown of the fictional Woody Boyd of Cheers fame, but Hanover College is the actual alma mater of Woody Harrelson, who played Woody Boyd.

Hanover is a rather strict affiliate of the Presbyterian church and, if you know anything about Woody Harrelson, you might be shocked to know he was friends with former Vice President Mike Pence while attending Hanover in the 1980s.

Not to say they took divergent paths post-Hanover, but while Pence pieced together an upwardly mobile political career, Harrelson became a dominoes and poker partner with Willie Nelson.

— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Can Nick Saban turn Tide? Can Notre Dame beat Ohio State? Let's see ...