Lane Kiffin has thought about being a high school football coach. He wasn't serious about that career path, according to the Associated Press' Ralph D. Russo: 

College coaching is a grueling job. That's why the best coaches haul in seven-figure salaries. But people who are happy in their jobs usually don't fantasize about a lower-level job unless the stress of their job is getting to them. There is no escapism if one doesn't feel a need to escape.

Kiffin has to be feeling stress. All of those off the field distractions last year. That 7-6 record including a stunning loss to Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl. UCLA out-recruiting USC. The constant pressure to fix this year's team.  

Each little incident associated with Kiffin last year wasn't a big deal. But Kiffin's public persona magnified everything. From Russo:  

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Receivers bring out the best in college football fans. They bring us to our feet when a deep ball is thrown and bring us to our knees when the ball is caught. Or dropped.  

The Pac-12 consistently provides college football with some of the best receivers in the country and this year is no exception.

One Pac-12 receiver is on a notable Heisman watch list. But Oregon State and Washington's stars may throw a wrench into his Heisman campaign. 

Washington State and Oregon State were the only Pac-12 teams that had the nation's top 20 passing offenses last year. That doesn't mean there is not an abundance of receiver talent in the league. 

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They are the only remaining FBS teams to have never scheduled an FCS team. And they have done so with pride.

It is mentioned in the schools' media guides. It's talked about among their fans in an almost reverent tone.

It needs to stop. 

With the rollout of the College Football Playoff starting in 2014, USC, UCLA and Notre Dame need to swallow their pride and schedule an FCS team. If they don't, a Fresno State will beat one of the holdouts and keep it out of the national semifinals. 

In a strange way, losing to a Fresno State could actually be more damaging to a team's playoff hopes than losing to an FCS school. Why? Simply because a loss to a legitimate FBS school like Fresno State could be viewed as something more than an upset. Maybe Fresno State really is better.  

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Who is the best quarterback in the Pac-12?

Some teams have not named their starter, so the quarterbacks on those teams will be placed at the back of the pack for now. 

Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota may be on everyone's Heisman list this season, but he's going to have serious competition from quarterbacks on a few teams from the Pac-12 South and at least one from the North. Who is that guy?

Let's take a peek at what the Pac-12 quarterbacks are ready to unleash this fall.

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When USC lost to Notre Dame and UCLA last year, head coach Lane Kiffin's job was thought to be in immediate peril, but USC athletic director Pat Haden spared him the pink slip.

Subsequent staff changes—defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is out, and Clancy Pendergast is in—have led to peculation that if the defense doesn't improve, Lane Kiffin will probably be out of a job.

But the defense's performance won't decide Kiffin's future. If USC's defense underachieves, yet the team goes to a BCS bowl, all is forgiven, isn't it?  

Kiffin's cloudy future has more to do with USC losing to its two rival schools and failing to secure a higher-tiered bowl berth.

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Pac-12 football has concluded all of its spring games and now the questions surface leading up to fall camp. 

Who will start at quarterback at USC and Washington State?

Does Oregon look any different under new head coach Mark Helfrich?

Has UCLA's defense improved?

Is Arizona State the biggest sleeper in the Pac-12? 

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With the College Football Playoff only a year-and-a-half away, conferences that have a nine-game conference model might want to take a second look at their scheduling practices. Why schedule nine conference games when the ACC, Big Ten and SEC only play eight?

Three years ago, the Pac-12 did not have a conference championship game. Its conference scheduling format made sense at that time. Every team played nine conference games to equal the number played by the ACC and SEC champions.

But for the last two years, the Pac-12 has held a conference championship game, with the winner having played 10 conference opponents. 

Playing an extra conference opponent can bolster a team's strength of schedule, but it can also lead to another defeat that could take a team out of the College Football Playoff. And with the semifinals in play next season, the Pac-12 should be placing its champion in the best position to make the final four.

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Some way-too-early offshore betting lines have been released for the first week of college football and USC is a heavy favorite over Hawaii. 

The Trojans play the Warriors at Aloha Stadium on Thursday, August 29, and as of now, USC is a 19-point favorite. That will probably change and go up as opening week draws closer. But does a 19-point spread put the team under the gun?

USC beat Hawaii 49-10 last year at the Los Angeles Coliseum, so a 19-point spread this year seems a little on the low side. But for a team going on the road in its first game of the season under a new quarterback, new center, a green secondary and a cloud of disappointment, maybe that spread is about right.

In fact, it might be a little generous.

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