College football's coaching carousel is gaining speed. Below the power conference level, the firings have commenced.

Florida Atlantic jettisoned former Houston and Texas coach Tom Herman after just two seasons. Charlotte cashiered Biff Poggi. UMass dismissed Don Brown. Temple terminated Stan Drayton.

Those schools have joined East Carolina, Ball State, Rice and Southern Mississippi in vetting candidates to become their new head coach. Across the industry, many power conference coordinators and position coaches are in play,

Do they want a shot at running their own program? Opportunities will abound as the dismissals mount.

Former Florida coach Jim McElwain is in peril at Central Michigan. Former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn is losing altitude fast at Central Florida.

At the power conference level, folks are waiting to see if 900-year-old Mack Brown retires at North Carolina and creates a major opening.

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The Southeastern Conference is stable for the moment. Florida has committed to Billy Napier for another season and the ever-likable Sam Pittman seems likely to survive for another season at Arkansas.

Mark Stoops is facing unrest at Kentucky and Brian Kelly is under duress at LSU, but they should get the opportunity to rebound given their massive contracts. The same goes for Brent Venables at Oklahoma.

Jeff Lebby is off to a terrible start in his first season at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are 2-8 with a loss at home to Toledo on the ledger and tough games remaining against Missouri and Ole Miss.

"We have an opportunity to finish the way we need to finish," Lebby said Monday. "Creating that vision and that understanding with these last two games on the schedule is an unbelievable opportunity. It's a really good team at home this weekend. For us, that was the focus, handling what we have a chance to handle, and finding a way to play our best football of the year this Saturday."

That's some serious coach speak right there. Lebby should get another year or two in Starkvegas because, well, that's always going to be one of the toughest power conference jobs in the nation.

THE GRIDIRON CHRONICLES

Here is what folks have been writing about college football:

Bill Connelly, ESPN.com: "San José State led No. 13 Boise State by 14 and had the ball at the BSU 2 just 20 minutes in. Wisconsin led top-ranked Oregon heading into the fourth quarter. Arkansas had the ball and a chance to take the lead on No. 3 Texas with 13 minutes left. Boston College had the ball and a chance to take the lead on No. 14 SMU with two minutes left. Pitt did take the lead on No. 20 Clemson with 1:36 left. I predicted jump scares in my Week 12 Preview, and we got loads of them. Boise State, Oregon, Texas, SMU and Clemson all survived with varying degrees of dramatics, but others weren't so lucky. No. 6 BYU and No. 16 Kansas State were the latest to fall victim -- again, in K-State's case -- to the chaos demons in the Big 12. LSU not only lost in Gainesville to an inspired Florida team, getting all but eliminated from CFP contention in the process, but the Tigers were also so drastically outplayed that they were lucky to lose by only 11. New Mexico scored its first win over a ranked opponent since 2003, ending whatever CFP hopes Washington State had. Hell, down in Conference USA, the conference title favorite (Western Kentucky) lost, and two other leaders (Jacksonville State and Sam Houston) nearly did as well. If you bet on every underdog to cover Saturday, you'd have won 62% of your bets. It was as delightfully strange a day as I had hoped, even if we didn't see quite as much carnage as we could have."

David Ubben, The Athletic: "The Bubble speaks with a drawl. When the smoke cleared on Week 12, BYU's home loss to Kansas eliminated the Big 12's chances of landing an at-large bid. Louisville's loss at Stanford dinged SMU's and Miami's resumes enough that whatever small chance the ACC had of being a two-bid league might have shrunk to zero. Meanwhile, in the SEC? Georgia stayed alive by beating Tennessee and dragging the Vols squarely onto the bubble. But the Vols played the Bulldogs close enough between the hedges to keep their own resume Playoff-worthy. That was a week after Ole Miss routed Georgia in Oxford to keep the Rebels' at-large hopes alive. The SEC keeps stacking bubble teams, with six teams in the top 15 with two losses or fewer, and everyone outside the Big Ten keeps popping their own bubble with ugly losses. Here's the bad news for any other teams eyeing a chance to sneak onto the right side of the bubble: Texas and Texas A&M are the only teams among that group of six teams that still face one another. And their regular-season finale and resumption of a hostile, high-stakes rivalry that's been on ice since 2011 is between the only two SEC teams with one loss in conference play. A loss would likely eliminate the No. 15 Aggies, but Texas -- at No. 3 -- would stay alive with a loss despite having the most modest resume of any of the SEC's bubble teams. Texas has the best record in the SEC, but zero CFP Top 25 wins. If any of the league's other teams play their way out of the field, it'll have to come via a shocking upset, which the SEC has mostly avoided this year, save Ole Miss' home loss to Kentucky, Tennessee's ill-fated trip to Arkansas and Alabama's Diego Pavia-fueled loss at Vanderbilt."

Eddie Timanus, USA Today: "The at-large pool for the 12-team field is limited to seven teams as currently constructed. It is largely accepted that three of those seven slots will go to Big Ten teams, barring some truly shocking results over the final two weeks. That will give the conference four playoff participants in all, including the eventual league champ. Unsurprisingly, most of the loudest voices questioning the resumes of the projected Big Ten invitees are coming from SEC territory. We'll address that league's case in a moment. But we'll say this much for the Big Ten foursome currently occupying 80% of the top five in the . . . Coaches Poll. They've all avoided damaging losses against the conference's mid- and bottom-tier teams. We'll also add this. One frequently heard argument runs along the lines of, for example, Alabama would absolutely be favored in a game against Indiana. Even if that were true, the committee does not consider that - at all. Oddsmakers set lines based upon public perception. Their purpose is not to predict the final margin but to equalize the wagers on both sides. The fact that underdogs frequently win outright anyway, so the notion that a team potentially being favored in a given matchup carries no weight in seeding or bracketing discussions."

John Talty, CBSSports.com: "With a successful track record to fall back on, a confident Brian Kelly was bullish this would be LSU's big year. Year 3 was an undefeated regular season and Big East title at Cincinnati. He took an undefeated Fighting Irish team to the national championship game in his third season at Notre Dame. He expected the same this year in Baton Rouge . . . Instead, Kelly is caught on camera screaming at players, the fanbase is revolting (just check out the message boards), and Florida is trolling him on social media. It's been a disastrous four-loss season. LSU still has two regular-season games left (Vanderbilt, Oklahoma) and yet is already out of the College Football Playoff race in a year where four or five SEC teams could make the field. That's utterly unacceptable at LSU, given the resources invested in the program, including a $10 million annual salary for the head coach."

Brad Crawford, 247 Sports: "Ohio State's had Saturday's showdown against unbeaten Indiana circled for weeks and credit to Ryan Day's team for not taking their foot off the gas since the close win at Penn State. This is an opportunity to flex for the Buckeyes against an elite opponent and continue their march toward a first-round home game if they're unable to avenge a previous loss to Oregon in the Big Ten title game next month. They can't look ahead, however. There's still Indiana and Michigan to deal with the remainder of the month."

MEGAPHONE

"Certainly any time that there's some losses, people are going to ask questions. But we've been in constant conversation with our recruiting class. If you're just starting to pick up the phone now and talk to them, you're going to lose them. We look at all the schools in the SEC; there's going to be additions and deletions in these last couple of weeks, and that's just the nature of where we are today with NIL, the revenue sharing that's coming onboard. But relationships are really what this is at the core, and if you've got the right relationships, you're going to hold onto your players regardless of the situation."

LSU coach Brian Kelly, remaining upbeat on the Paul Finebaum show.

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