Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football (Get-Back Coach sold separately in South Bend, where Brian Kelly joined the hands team on a USC onside kick Saturday):

[More Dash: 5 best things we’ve seen | Who’s next at USC? | Angry coaches]

SECOND QUARTER

NOW, THE NEGATIVE

The five worst things we have seen in college football this season:

The Mark Dantonio intransigence (12). When the Michigan State coach dismissed a reasonable query Saturday about his failed offseason staff decisions as a “dumb-ass question,” it underscored the mentality that got him into this mess. Namely, stubbornness and ego.

There was an abundantly clear fix to the Spartans’ offensive ineptitude last offseason, and Dantonio refused to do it. He needed to fire some assistants and bring in new ideas, but instead he just shifted around some job titles and kept everyone onboard. Doing what's best for the program was sublimated in favor of Nobody Tells Me What To Do arrogance.

In three games against ranked opponents, Michigan State has averaged 5.7 points and 279 yards — and, of course, lost them all. Now, Wisconsin may be fielding a generationally great defense, and Ohio State could have its best defense in years as well. But the Spartans were utterly futile against both — their longest play of the day against the Badgers was a 20-yard run on a fake punt, for crying out loud. And then there was the seven-point home dud against Arizona State.

Michigan State’s national rankings offensively are incrementally better than last year — but they needed to be dramatically better. And dramatic improvement wasn’t going to come with keeping the same staff and same philosophy.

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio looks on during the second half of a blowout loss to Wisconsin on Saturday. (AP) More

The Year 2 hype (13). You heard it from fans all offseason — with a second year in Coach X’s system, we’ll start to see results on the field. The culture (so much talk about culture) has been built. The payoff is near.

Here’s the update on that: It’s not working for Scott Frost at Nebraska. Or Chip Kelly at UCLA. Or Willie Taggart at Florida State. Or Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee. Or Chad Morris at Arkansas. Or Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State. Or Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Their combined record in Year 2: 18-25. Their combined record against Power Five competition: 8-19. Their combined salary in Year 2: $31.35 million, or roughly $4 million per Power Five victory thus far.

(It is, however, working for Sonny Dykes, 6-0 at SMU. And Dan Mullen, 6-1 at Florida. And Herm Edwards, 5-1 at Arizona State.)

The persistent ranking of Texas A&M (14). Aggies fans are still waiting for their breakthrough in the SEC West, but two groups sure seem like believers in the program — the voters in both the AP and coaches’ polls. Texas A&M began the season No. 12 in the AP poll and No. 11 with the coaches. It has since proceeded to lose three times, twice at home, while trailing by double digits for 88:48 of 90 second-half minutes in those losses. In other words, the Aggies were not close to winning any of them. They did, however, beat powerhouses Texas State, Lamar and Arkansas (all of whom are winless against Power Five opponents).

And yet this week is the first time the Aggies have fallen out of the Top 25. They did, however, still receive votes in both polls. Beating mighty Mississippi this week might be enough to get them back into the rankings.

Quarterbacks eternally running backward (15). When Georgia’s Jake Fromm was pressured in the second quarter Saturday against South Carolina, he kept retreating and threw the ball off his back foot, serving up a pick-six interception — a huge play in a huge Gamecocks upset. With the line of scrimmage at the Georgia 47, Fromm took the snap at the 42, retreated to the 37 and set his feet — then fled another three yards before throwing the ball with all his momentum going backward.

Story continues