Bobby Petrino's return to Louisville started with a phone call

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1. The problem at No. 5 Ohio State is not merely that quarterback Braxton Miller's right shoulder is refusing to cooperate. It's that this season, unlike last, the Buckeyes don't have a Kenny Guiton to step in and make everything OK. Guiton, who replaced Miller when he hurt his knee last season and put up better numbers, is a member of Arena Football's Los Angeles Kiss. And if Miller's shoulder continues to hamper him, the Buckeyes can kiss the College Football Playoff good-bye. Think of Oregon losing Marcus Mariota last season. The AP poll isn't 48 hours old and it already may be obsolete.

2. The only four teams to gain 90 percent of the first-place votes in the Associated Press preseason poll have done so since 2007. Florida State joins USC (2007), Florida (2009) and Alabama (2013). That the first three failed to finish No. 1 is not as interesting to me as the rise of groupthink. Maybe now that we the media cover college football 12 months a year, we are more likely to lock into a storyline until the games prove us wrong. Which they usually do.

3. ACC Coastal champ Duke is scrambling to replace middle linebacker Kelby Brown, out for the year with a knee injury suffered this month. Weakside linebacker David Helton shifts to the middle, which means two positions are not what they were. After that, head coach David Cutcliffe told me and Rece Davis on the Championship Drive podcast Monday, the Blue Devils are trying out different personnel combinations, looking for solutions. The team that won four games in the fourth quarter last year has seen the first bounce of 2014 go hard in the wrong direction.

Ohio State has already had months to work on a backup plan.

Odds are, the Buckeyes were always going to need it in some capacity. Depending on the severity of a new shoulder injury for star quarterback Braxton Miller, they may have to rely on it much earlier than expected.

Already limited through much of training camp as the Buckeyes eased him back from a February surgery on his throwing shoulder, a source confirmed on Monday night to ESPN.com that Miller left the practice field in pain after a throw in an afternoon workout -- just hours after again declaring himself 100 percent and ready for the opener on Aug. 30 against Navy.

The program hasn't publicly commented, and there hasn't been any confirmation of results of medical examinations on his shoulder at this point. Ohio State has a media availability scheduled for Tuesday morning, and the coaching staff should be able to shed more light on an injury that could just be another minor setback or perhaps a devastating blow to its title chances.

To read the rest of Austin Ward's story, click here.

August 18, 2014