Top Early-Season College Football Stories We Really Miss

The college football season is entering its final full month, and conference title races are heating up. Especially with LSU vs. Alabama in Tuscaloosa, many of the early-season stories have faded away.

Florida State appeared to be headed back to prominence before the season as a potential national championship contender. There were rumors that Denard Robinson was going to be the dropback passer that Michigan sorely needed with its change in coaching staff and offense.

The teams that most of the nation loves to hate, Notre Dame and USC, were expected to buck their recent trends. Neither of these stories have come true; Brian Kelly is still fighting for respect, and the Trojans continue to earn theirs.

The following slides will provide an overview of some early-season college football stories that have slowly disappeared and the reasons therefor.

Notre Dame Appeared to Be Relevant Again

Notre Dame is the most polarizing program in the country. The team is revered among its followers, and no team inspires as much hate as the Fighting Irish.

The folklore and tradition surrounding the program evokes loyalty from its fanbase but jealously from outsiders. Additionally, Notre Dame's individual television rights deal with NBC gives it an air of arrogance.

The program that inspired the movie Rudy evokes the total range of emotions. It is difficult to be indifferent about them.

Notre Dame's Slide Back into Mediocrity

Notre Dame's lack of relevance is making it hard to hate or love the current state of the program.

It began the season ranked No. 16 in the AP poll and received BCS hype prior to the opening kickoff against South Florida. 

After kickoff, everything changed.

Notre Dame wasn't able to overcome its turnovers in the loss to USF. After the Irish made similar mistakes against Michigan, their season seemed over before it started.

They did rebound with a solid win over Michigan State en route to four straight wins, but a crushing home loss to USC undid all that good will.

Notre Dame is now a team that is going to be average at best. This mediocrity leads to a lack of interest by either side.

Quite frankly, it's no fun when Notre Dame is irrelevant.

Brady Hoke's Hope Hasn't Completely Come True for Michigan

The Brady Hoke era has not gotten off to a poor start at Michigan. It just hasn't had the feel of real success.

Hoke was not the first choice for the Michigan faithful, but he is probably the best fit. He turned heads with his ability to recruit, and there is no doubting his love for everything blue.

His hiring of Greg Mattison has improved the defense, but the offense has a large question looming at quarterback.

Denard Robinson struggled in the spring game, yet the coaches continued to sing his praises and laud his potential as a dropback passer. The coaching staff was at least smart enough to keep elements of the spread offense to allow Robinson to run the ball.

Denard Robinson's Season Mirrors Michigan's

The Denard Robinson experiment as a traditional passer has been mediocre at best.

He is only completing 53.5 percent of his passes and has thrown just as many interceptions (11) as touchdowns. The integration of backup quarterback Devon Gardner leads one to believe that the coaches are losing faith in Robinson's ability to develop as a passer.

Michigan's season has been more successful but also lacks true substance.

The Wolverines have benefited from a schedule that has only provided two real challenges so far. Michigan State was able to corral Denard and expose his inability as a passer by sealing the game with an interception returned for a touchdown.

Michigan's dramatic win over Notre Dame was big for the program, but it wasn't exactly earned. The players did make plays, but they were handed that game due to continual turnovers by the Irish.

Michigan's seven wins were mostly against obviously inferior competition, but they are wins nonetheless.

The Wolverines will continue to pick up a few more wins this year, but they are a year or two away from reaching the hype bestowed upon them earlier in the season.

The Reports of USC's Demise

USC has been under intense scrutiny since Vince Young finished off the Pete Carroll dynasty in early 2006.

USC's resurgent golden era saw it collect two national titles while being compared to the all-time great teams. Carson Palmer, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart also brought home three Heisman Trophies.

All of that success bred envy.

Fans reveled in the exposure of the Trojans when Reggie Bush and his family were found to have accepted illegal benefits.

The NCAA handed down sanctions that included the loss of 30 scholarships over the next three years and a two-year bowl ban.

The Reports of USC's Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated

It was assumed that USC couldn't hold on to any semblance of the glory it had earned in the beginning of the century. The old axiom regarding assuming was proven true.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley has been stellar, completing 67.3 percent of his passes, throwing for 22 touchdowns and only five interceptions.

The team has followed him to a 6-2 record.

The peak of the season was a closely contested loss to the Stanford Cardinal. The game was back and forth throughout much of the night, and USC did quite well to make Heisman favorite Andrew Luck at least look human.

They may not be able to play for a conference championship this season, but the Trojans' overtime thriller in Los Angeles served notice that USC will not go softly into the night.

Kellen Moore's Heisman Campaign

Kellen Moore was being trumpeted by the experts as a legitimate candidate for the Heisman Trophy, and rightly so.

Last season, he averaged over 10 yards per attempt while throwing for an astounding 35 touchdowns to only six interceptions.

There was little doubt that he would still continue to impress despite the losses of wide receivers Titus Young and Austin Pettis to the NFL. Boise State seems to roll on every year regardless of the personnel turnover.

The hype machine was running at top speed after he collected 12 touchdowns in the first three games.

Moore's Campaign Has Gone the Way of Boise State's Title Hopes

Boise State begins every season inspiring analysts to write long essays denouncing the BCS system and pleading for a playoff to allow Boise State a title shot.

Its season-opening win over Georgia seemed impressive, but the passage of time has caused everyone to forget.

Most importantly, the voters in both polls have let the memory fade.

Boise State began the season ranked No. 5 in the country, and it sits in the exact same position in both polls today despite losses to higher ranked teams. It would seem to be fair considering the caliber of teams that Boise has played since taking down the Bulldogs.

Every season appears to imitate the prior season for Boise State.

The Broncos never have enough to get over the hump, and the lack of weekly competition every year kills any national title or Heisman talk.

Florida State's Resurrection

The preseason buzz was that head coach Jimbo Fisher was going to lead Florida State back to the lofty status it enjoyed during the 1990s.

Florida State was ranked No. 5 in the preseason USA Today poll and No. 6 in the AP poll.

NBC Sports' website, College Football Talk, even had the team ranked at No. 2, which essentially favors Florida State to make the national championship game.

The traditionally weak ACC should have provided little challenge.

As long as the Seminoles were able to knock off the Oklahoma Sooners in an early-season showdown, the crystal football trophy was theirs for the taking.

Florida State's Resurrection Has Been Delayed

Unfortunately for Seminole fans, Florida State was not able to come through when it mattered most.

The Seminoles rolled over a couple of patsies to start the season but quickly ran into trouble. Oklahoma (then No. 1) came to town and handed FSU its first loss of the season by a final score of 23-13.

It would be three more weeks before the Seminoles would get another win.

They followed that loss with a pair of 35-30 defeats to Clemson and Wake Forest. The rise of Clemson this season has severely dampened any hopes of FSU challenging for the ACC title, but there are still a few games left to be played.

It may not happen this year, but Jimbo Fisher, much like Brady Hoke, appears to have the program back on the right track.