College Football Matchups - NYTimes.com Oh, what might have been. This was supposed to an epic Saturday with seismic collisions between unbeaten teams in Baton Rouge, La., and Los Angeles. It has not worked out that way, but Louisiana State and Southern California will still provide stiff tests for the top two teams in the nation. Pittsburgh (4-4) has a decent offense, but it does not travel. Of the Panthers' 29 touchdowns, only 4 have come on the road. That offers the star Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o an opportunity as golden as the sunset in his native Hawaii to burnish his Heisman credentials. Can a linebacker win the award? The usual skill position contenders are an uninspiring bunch, and the words "Notre Dame" still pack a punch with voters. Speaking of votes, if Te'o wins the Heisman and President Obama is re-elected Tuesday, it would arguably be the best year for the Aloha State since Elvis Presley filmed "Blue Hawaii" there in 1961. 3 WILDCATS Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein remains the Heisman front-runner, so long as the third-ranked Wildcats remain unbeaten. Klein has accounted for 20 touchdowns in conference games, and no interceptions. Beating unranked Oklahoma State (5-2) will not be easy. The Cowboys have the nation's top-ranked offense, at 586.1 yards per game, and give up fewer yards per play than Kansas State, whose defense throttled a potent Texas Tech a week ago. Oklahoma State has gone from Brandon Weeden, who starred last season at age 28, to two freshman quarterbacks, Wes Lunt and J. W. Walsh, who together are less than a decade older than Weeden. Lunt will start and will need a sublime effort to pull off the upset. 2 Oregon is crushing teams early, leading at halftime by an average score of 36-7. The freshman quarterback Marcus Mariota - also from Hawaii! - might be a Heisman candidate if he weren't sipping Gatorade for long stretches of blowouts. 18 U.S.C. has the athletes to run with Oregon, especially wideout Marqise Lee, who had a hard-to-believe 345 yards receiving yards last week. The Trojans conjured a way to lose despite Lee's production, thanks largely to a lack of self-discipline. U.S.C. has racked up 10.4 penalties per game, by far the most in the nation, proving that Coach Lane Kiffin brought at least some of his experience with the Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles. Only clean, precise football can defeat Oregon, and even that might not be enough. 1 Alabama leads the nation in scoring defense, quarterback A J McCarron is tops in passing efficiency, and the Tide gain more than 5 yards a carry. Nick Saban is less a coach and more the foreman of a ruthlessly efficient production line, maximizing the number of widgets that get churned out each hour. L.S.U. is still recovering from the whipping the Tide put on it in the Bowl Championship Series title game, and while the Tigers are still potent, especially on defense, the gap between the teams has widened. Hopes for an upset ride on L.S.U.'s home-field edge and on Les Miles's summoning enough offbeat genius to trigger a feedback loop in the Alabama machine - sort of like how Captain Kirk was able to beat Spock in 3-D chess, only the pieces are 330-pound defensive tackles.