CollegeFootballDigestfrom CooperSearch

The 2010 season

Auburn finished No. 1 in the final AP poll, 14–⁠0 under Gene Chizik, after it beat Oregon 22–⁠19 in the BCS National Championship. The biggest game by the rankings: No. 1 Auburn 22, No. 2 Oregon 19 (Jan 10, 2011). Two FBS teams finished unbeaten. 52 ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents.

Heisman Trophy: Cam Newton, QB, Auburn, who also won the Maxwell, Walter Camp, Davey O’Brien and Manning.

The Heisman vote: Cam Newton 2,263 points, Andrew Luck 1,079
PlayerPoints1st2nd3rd
Cam Newton QB, Auburn2,2637292428
Andrew Luck QB, Stanford1,07978309227
LaMichael James RB, Oregon91622313224
Kellen Moore QB, Boise State63540165185
Justin Blackmon WR, Oklahoma State10512356
Denard Robinson QB, Michigan8461634
Ryan Mallett QB, Arkansas4101119
Colin Kaepernick QB, Nevada310717
Andy Dalton QB, TCU304312
Owen Marecic FB/LB, Stanford16315

First-, second- and third-place votes (3, 2 and 1 points), from the season’s Wikipedia article, as published.

Scoreboards

Final AP poll

1Auburn (56)Southeastern Conference
2TCU (3)Mountain West Conference
3OregonPac-10
4StanfordPac-10
5Ohio StateBig Ten
6OklahomaBig 12
7WisconsinBig Ten
8LSUSoutheastern Conference
9Boise StateWestern Athletic Conference
10AlabamaSoutheastern Conference
11NevadaWestern Athletic Conference
12ArkansasSoutheastern Conference
13Oklahoma StateBig 12
14Michigan StateBig Ten
15Mississippi StateSoutheastern Conference
16Virginia TechAtlantic Coast Conference
17Florida StateAtlantic Coast Conference
18MissouriBig 12
19Texas A&MBig 12
20NebraskaBig 12
21UCFConference USA
22South CarolinaSoutheastern Conference
23MarylandAtlantic Coast Conference
24TulsaConference USA
25NC StateAtlantic Coast Conference

Biggest upsets

Oct 16, 2010Texas 20, 5Nebraska 13
Sep 25, 2010UCLA 34, 7Texas 12
Oct 9, 201019South Carolina 35, 1Alabama 21
Oct 9, 2010Oregon State 29, 9Arizona 27
Oct 16, 201018Wisconsin 31, 1Ohio State 18
Oct 16, 2010Kentucky 31, 10South Carolina 28
Nov 26, 201019Nevada 34, 3Boise State 31
Sep 18, 201024Arizona 34, 9Iowa 27
Oct 23, 201018Missouri 36, 3Oklahoma 27
Nov 6, 2010Texas A&M 33, 11Oklahoma 19
Sep 11, 2010James Madison 21, 13Virginia Tech 16
Oct 2, 201024Michigan State 34, 11Wisconsin 24

Ranked teams that lost as the betting favorite, the longest shots first, with the winner’s odds on the line; before lines are on file, ranked teams beaten by unranked or lower-ranked ones.

The AP poll, week by week

The AP poll’s top 10 in 2010, week by week1510152025Wk 1Wk 3Wk 5Wk 7Wk 9Wk 11Wk 13Wk 15FinalAlabama: Wk 1 No. 1, Wk 2 No. 1, Wk 3 No. 1, Wk 4 No. 1, Wk 5 No. 1, Wk 6 No. 1, Wk 7 No. 8, Wk 8 No. 7, Wk 9 No. 6, Wk 10 No. 5, Wk 11 No. 11, Wk 12 No. 10, Wk 13 No. 9, Wk 14 No. 17, Wk 15 No. 15, Final No. 1010 AlabamaBoise State: Wk 1 No. 3, Wk 2 No. 3, Wk 3 No. 3, Wk 4 No. 3, Wk 5 No. 3, Wk 6 No. 4, Wk 7 No. 3, Wk 8 No. 2, Wk 9 No. 2, Wk 10 No. 2, Wk 11 No. 4, Wk 12 No. 3, Wk 13 No. 3, Wk 14 No. 9, Wk 15 No. 10, Final No. 99 Boise StateLSU: Wk 1 No. 21, Wk 2 No. 19, Wk 3 No. 15, Wk 4 No. 15, Wk 5 No. 12, Wk 6 No. 12, Wk 7 No. 9, Wk 8 No. 6, Wk 9 No. 12, Wk 10 No. 12, Wk 11 No. 5, Wk 12 No. 5, Wk 13 No. 6, Wk 14 No. 11, Wk 15 No. 11, Final No. 88 LSUWisconsin: Wk 1 No. 12, Wk 2 No. 11, Wk 3 No. 11, Wk 4 No. 11, Wk 5 No. 11, Wk 6 No. 20, Wk 7 No. 18, Wk 8 No. 10, Wk 9 No. 9, Wk 10 No. 7, Wk 11 No. 6, Wk 12 No. 6, Wk 13 No. 5, Wk 14 No. 4, Wk 15 No. 4, Final No. 77 WisconsinOklahoma: Wk 1 No. 7, Wk 2 No. 10, Wk 3 No. 7, Wk 4 No. 8, Wk 5 No. 8, Wk 6 No. 6, Wk 7 No. 6, Wk 8 No. 3, Wk 9 No. 11, Wk 10 No. 11, Wk 11 No. 19, Wk 12 No. 16, Wk 13 No. 14, Wk 14 No. 10, Wk 15 No. 9, Final No. 66 OklahomaOhio State: Wk 1 No. 2, Wk 2 No. 2, Wk 3 No. 2, Wk 4 No. 2, Wk 5 No. 2, Wk 6 No. 2, Wk 7 No. 1, Wk 8 No. 11, Wk 9 No. 10, Wk 10 No. 8, Wk 11 No. 8, Wk 12 No. 8, Wk 13 No. 8, Wk 14 No. 6, Wk 15 No. 6, Final No. 55 Ohio StateStanford: Wk 1 unranked, Wk 2 No. 25, Wk 3 No. 19, Wk 4 No. 16, Wk 5 No. 9, Wk 6 No. 16, Wk 7 No. 14, Wk 8 No. 12, Wk 9 No. 13, Wk 10 No. 10, Wk 11 No. 7, Wk 12 No. 7, Wk 13 No. 7, Wk 14 No. 5, Wk 15 No. 5, Final No. 44 StanfordOregon: Wk 1 No. 11, Wk 2 No. 7, Wk 3 No. 5, Wk 4 No. 5, Wk 5 No. 4, Wk 6 No. 3, Wk 7 No. 2, Wk 8 No. 1, Wk 9 No. 1, Wk 10 No. 1, Wk 11 No. 1, Wk 12 No. 1, Wk 13 No. 1, Wk 14 No. 1, Wk 15 No. 2, Final No. 33 OregonTCU: Wk 1 No. 6, Wk 2 No. 4, Wk 3 No. 4, Wk 4 No. 4, Wk 5 No. 5, Wk 6 No. 5, Wk 7 No. 4, Wk 8 No. 4, Wk 9 No. 4, Wk 10 No. 4, Wk 11 No. 3, Wk 12 No. 4, Wk 13 No. 4, Wk 14 No. 3, Wk 15 No. 3, Final No. 22 TCUAuburn: Wk 1 No. 22, Wk 2 No. 21, Wk 3 No. 16, Wk 4 No. 17, Wk 5 No. 10, Wk 6 No. 8, Wk 7 No. 7, Wk 8 No. 5, Wk 9 No. 3, Wk 10 No. 3, Wk 11 No. 2, Wk 12 No. 2, Wk 13 No. 2, Wk 14 No. 2, Wk 15 No. 1, Final No. 11 Auburn
The top 10 of the final AP poll and where each stood every week before it; a gap is a week out of the Top 25. Hover or tab to a line for its weeks.

Climbed

  1. Stanfordunranked → No. 4
  2. AuburnNo. 22 → No. 1
  3. Nevadaunranked → No. 11
  4. LSUNo. 21 → No. 8
  5. Oklahoma Stateunranked → No. 13

Fell

  1. FloridaNo. 4 → unranked
  2. TexasNo. 5 → unranked
  3. IowaNo. 9 → unranked
  4. MiamiNo. 13 → unranked
  5. NebraskaNo. 8 → No. 20

From the season’s first AP poll (the preseason poll) to the final one.

National leaders

Passing yardsBryant Moniz (Hawai’i)5,040 yds
Passing touchdownsBryant Moniz (Hawai’i)39 TD
Passer ratingKellen Moore (Boise State)182.6
Rushing yardsLaMichael James (Oregon)1,731 yds
Rushing touchdownsChad Spann (Northern Illinois)22 TD
Yards per carryOnterio McCalebb (Auburn)8.5
ReceptionsRyan Broyles (Oklahoma)131 catches
Receiving yardsGreg Salas (Hawai’i)1,889 yds
Yards per catchKris Adams (UTEP)22.8
Receiving touchdownsJustin Blackmon (Oklahoma State)20 TD
PointsDan Bailey (Oklahoma State)149 pts
Points per gameMikel Leshoure (Illinois)13.6
Total offenseBryant Moniz (Hawai’i)5,142 yds
Total offense per gameBryant Moniz (Hawai’i)367.3
Punt return averageShaky Smithson (Utah State)19.1
Kickoff return averageNick Williams (UConn)35.3

The NCAA’s official leaders; our own top-five lists are hidden for 2010, because our source’s player stats miss players for too many teams that season to rank the nation fairly. From Wikipedia’s yearly NCAA leader lists for passing, rushing, receiving, scoring, total offense and returns.

Conference champions

FBS

Atlantic Coast Conference
Virginia Tech
Big 12
Oklahoma
Big East
Pittsburgh, UConn and West Virginia (shared)
Big Ten
Michigan State and Wisconsin (shared)
Conference USA
UCF
Mid-American Conference
Miami (OH)
Mountain West Conference
TCU
Pac-10
Oregon
Southeastern Conference
Auburn
Sun Belt Conference
Florida International and Troy (shared)
Western Athletic Conference
Boise State, Hawai’i and Nevada (shared)

FCS

Big Sky
Eastern Washington and Montana State (shared)
Big South
Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Stony Brook (shared)
Colonial Athletic Association
Delaware and William & Mary (shared)
Great West Conference
Southern Utah
Ivy League
Pennsylvania
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M and South Carolina State (shared)
Missouri Valley Football Conference
Northern Iowa
Northeast Conference
Central Connecticut and Robert Morris (shared)
Ohio Valley Conference
Southeast Missouri State
Patriot League
Lehigh
Pioneer Football League
Dayton
Southern Conference
App State and Wofford (shared)
Southland Conference
Stephen F. Austin

Division II and below

Lone Star Conference
Abilene Christian
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
St. Thomas (MN)
Northeast-10 Conference
New Haven
Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
Mercyhurst

From each program’s Wikipedia article, with the conference’s name that season. Titles come from the articles of today’s FBS and FCS programs, so a title shared with a school outside them lists only one champion.

Consensus All-Americans

28 playersAll 12 selectors’ teams

Players picked by enough of the major selectors to count as consensus, shown in bold in Wikipedia’s 2010 All-America article. Every selector’s teams, first to last, are on the 2010 All-America teams page.

The 2010 awards

Every award

Player of the year

By position

Defensive player of the year

Scholarship and character

Coaches

The champion’s staff

Every title staff

Auburn 40 on the staff list

  • Gene Chizikhead coach
  • Gus Malzahnoffensive coordinator, quarterbacks
  • Trooper Taylorassistant head coach, wide receivers
  • Ted Roofdefensive coordinator, linebackers
  • Jay Boulwareassistant coach, special teams coordinator, tight ends
  • Jeff Grimesassistant coach, offensive line
  • Curtis Luperassistant coach, running backs
  • Tracy Rockerassistant coach, defensive line
  • Phillip Lolleyassistant coach, secondary
  • Tommy Thigpenassistant coach, secondary
Support staff (30)

Analysts and quality control

  • Eliah Drinkwitz offensive quality control
  • Casey Woods offensive quality control
  • Dustin Landry defensive quality control
  • Erik Link special teams quality control

Strength and conditioning

  • Kevin Yoxall head strength & conditioning coach
  • Ryan Russell Asst. strength & conditioning coach
  • Jesse Kelley G.A. strength & conditioning coach
  • T.J. Graham G.A. strength & conditioning coach

Operations and recruiting

  • Scott Fountain football operations coordinator
  • Wayne Bolt director of football relations
  • Ben Thomas director, player development
  • Chad Lunsford football operations video coordinator
  • Brent Thomas football video coordinator
  • Joyce Boles executive Secretary, football
  • Claudia Gleaton recruiting Secretary
  • Sue Locklar on-Campus recruiting coordinator
  • Laura Meadors executive assistant to the head football coach
  • Jeremy Roberts director, athletic Operational support services

Sports medicine and nutrition

  • David Walsh manager of Plainsman Park Physical Therapy
  • Joe-Joe Petrone director of sports medicine
  • Clark Pearson head football athletic trainer
  • Kirk Nielson assistant athletic trainer
  • John Walters assistant athletic trainer

Equipment

  • Dana Marquez director of equipment operations
  • Mike Boniol assistant equipment manager
  • Brad Rapacz assistant equipment manager

Video, communications and other staff

  • Kirk Sampson assistant A.D. for media relations
  • Matt Crouch associate media relations director
  • Brad Gust associate media relations director
  • Bob Grant assistant media relations director

The staff as the school listed it that season, roles in the source’s words (students and graduate assistants left out). Names link to coach pages where we have one, else to Wikipedia. Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages.

Final BCS standings

1Auburn13–⁠0
2Oregon12–⁠0
3TCU12–⁠0
4Stanford11–⁠1
5Wisconsin11–⁠1
6Ohio State11–⁠1
7Oklahoma11–⁠2
8Arkansas10–⁠2
9Michigan State11–⁠1
10Boise State11–⁠1
11LSU10–⁠2
12Missouri10–⁠2
13Virginia Tech11–⁠2
14Oklahoma State10–⁠2
15Nevada12–⁠1
16Alabama9–⁠3
17Texas A&M9–⁠3
18Nebraska10–⁠3
19Utah10–⁠2
20South Carolina9–⁠4
21Mississippi State8–⁠4
22West Virginia9–⁠3
23Florida State9–⁠4
24Hawai’i10–⁠3
25UCF10–⁠3

The last standings of the season, released December 5: the Bowl Championship Series’ formula of polls and computer rankings that matched No. 1 and No. 2 in the title game, 1998–⁠2013. From Wikipedia’s season rankings article (CC BY-SA); records as it lists them.

Bowls and playoff

Scoreboard
Dec 18, 2010BYU 52, UTEP 24New Mexico Bowl
Dec 18, 2010Northern Illinois 40, Fresno State 17Humanitarian Bowl
Dec 18, 2010Troy 48, Ohio 21New Orleans Bowl
Dec 21, 2010Louisville 31, Southern Miss 28Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg
Dec 22, 201010Boise State 26, 20Utah 3Maaco Bowl Las Vegas
Dec 23, 2010San Diego State 35, Navy 14Poinsettia Bowl
Dec 24, 2010Tulsa 62, 24Hawai’i 35Hawai’i Bowl
Dec 26, 2010Florida International 34, Toledo 32Little Caesars Bowl
Dec 27, 2010Air Force 14, Georgia Tech 7Independence Bowl
Dec 28, 2010NC State 23, 22West Virginia 7Champs Sports Bowl
Dec 28, 2010Iowa 27, 14Missouri 24Insight Bowl
Dec 29, 2010Maryland 51, East Carolina 20Military Bowl
Dec 29, 2010Illinois 38, Baylor 14Texas Bowl
Dec 29, 201016Oklahoma State 36, Arizona 10Alamo Bowl
Dec 30, 2010Army 16, SMU 14Armed Forces Bowl
Dec 30, 2010Syracuse 36, Kansas State 34Pinstripe Bowl
Dec 30, 2010North Carolina 30, Tennessee 27Music City Bowl
Dec 30, 2010Washington 19, 17Nebraska 7Holiday Bowl
Dec 31, 2010South Florida 31, Clemson 26Meineke Car Care Bowl
Dec 31, 2010Notre Dame 33, Miami 17Sun Bowl
Dec 31, 2010UCF 10, Georgia 6Liberty Bowl
Dec 31, 201023Florida State 26, 19South Carolina 17Chick-fil-A Bowl
Jan 1, 2011Texas Tech 45, Northwestern 38TicketCity Bowl
Jan 1, 201115Alabama 49, 7Michigan State 7Capital One Bowl
Jan 1, 2011Florida 37, Penn State 24Outback Bowl
Jan 1, 201121Mississippi State 52, Michigan 14Gator Bowl
Jan 1, 20113TCU 21, 4Wisconsin 19Rose Bowl
Jan 1, 20119Oklahoma 48, 25UConn 20Fiesta Bowl
Jan 3, 20115Stanford 40, 12Virginia Tech 12Orange Bowl
Jan 4, 20116Ohio State 31, 8Arkansas 26Sugar Bowl
Jan 6, 2011Miami (OH) 35, Middle Tennessee 21GoDaddy.com Bowl
Jan 7, 201111LSU 41, 18Texas A&M 24Cotton Bowl
Jan 8, 2011Pittsburgh 27, Kentucky 10BBVA Compass Bowl
Jan 9, 201113Nevada 20, Boston College 13Fight Hunger Bowl
Jan 10, 20111Auburn 22, 2Oregon 19BCS National Championship

Rule book changes

Every rule book

There’s no 2010 rule book in the dataset. The changes in the 2011–⁠12 book took effect in 2010 or 2011.

Only the first sentence of each article is compared, so a change deeper in an article (most penalty clauses, the overtime procedure) doesn’t show here, and a change that shows may be rewording. No rule text is kept: only numbers and headings. Rule books: NCAA, via Pierce’s provision dataset (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0).