“Family’s are always rising and falling in America, am I right?” - Billy Costigan, The Departed

In a line from the movie ‘The Departed’, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character tries to explain his desire to be a Massachusetts state trooper despite coming from a family of malcontents and crooked criminals. Nathaniel Hawthorne originally made this comment in his novel, ‘The House of Seven Gables’, but he didn’t finish there.

“Families are always rising and falling in America. But, I believe, we ought to examine more closely the how and why of it, which in the end revolves around life and how you live it.” - Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables

Hawthorne probably never thought his quote would fittingly describe the state of a number of college football programs across the country in 2009. Teams like Florida State, Michigan and Notre Dame are all re-revaluating their place in the college football landscape while others such as West Virginia, Oklahoma and Georgia are starting to realize that many of the programs in their conference have caught up to them. At the opposite end of the spectrum, schools like Georgia Tech, Cincinnati and Oregon are all seated at the top of their conference with the enviable task of figuring out how to remain there.

Florida State has lived their life on the edge during Bobby Bowden’s entire tenure in Tallahassee. When he was winning championships and putting together the greatest string of 10-win seasons - 14 in a row from 1987-2000 - in the history of college football, Bowden’s teams were labeled ‘Bad Boys’, had their share of run-ins with the law and brought that same arrogant off-field swagger with them to the game on Saturdays. They overpowered opponents and ran in-state recruiting. But like everything else in life, college football is cyclical. Miami won four national titles from 1983-1991 and Florida has put together one of the greatest runs in college football history recently, but during those 14 years of dominance, the Seminoles were college football’s most feared team and consummate title contenders. They finished in the top five of both the Coaches and AP poll for 14 consecutive seasons, never losing more than 2 games in a given year.

That stretch of dominance, along with 15 more years of honorable service, has rightfully given Bowden a long leash and has probably extended his career a few years too many. With a loss to Florida and another in their bowl game, Florida State is in danger of finishing under .500 for the first time since Bowden’s first year with the Noles. Bowden has unfortunately seen the Florida State program come full circle and they are in desperate need of change, now more than ever. The culture has changed as FSU, from a program that didn’t belong on the same field with Wake Forest and Boston College to a team that struggles to keep stride with those same programs. Stagnancy can do wonders.

The same can be said for Notre Dame and Michigan. Notre Dame refuses to give their coach an equal playing field with the rest of the country in terms of academic standards and admissions. They ask their coach to win national championships against SEC ad PAC-10 schools, yet hold them to the academic standards of a Patriot League university. There is a reason Vanderbilt, Stanford and Northwestern struggle to consistently put together a winning team but Notre Dame still can’t seem to figure it out. Until the culture at Notre Dame changes, their head coaching job will remain a death wish.

Michigan is at a point in its program’s history where they are playing catch-up with the rest of the Big Ten. Rich Rodriguez is struggling to implement an offense that requires an athletic quarterback that can beat teams with both his arm and his feet, playmakers on the outside and an offensive line that has enough athleticism to pull and get to the second level. It’s not something that can happen in two years, yet all indications point to Michigan boosters not having the patience to let this thing fully develop. Again, Rodriguez can implement whatever type of offense he pleases but until the culture changes the Wolverines will have trouble.

In the cases of West Virginia, Oklahoma and Georgia, they can look at themselves in the mirror admirably and honestly say they raised the bar inside their own conference. By doing so, they have given other programs within their conference the blueprint to recruit, gameplan and succeed. They are all victims of their own success and their spoiled fan bases are going to hold them to the standard that they have set over the past few years, rightfully so.

Each one of these programs were victims of serious losses over the past two seasons at the two most key positions in college football, head coach and quarterback.

West Virginia fans began the season by clamoring over the level of the athletes Bill Stewart has been able to sign even though they have been out-recruited by Pittsburgh and Rutgers in recent years. The Mountaineers and the rest Big East also have to contend with South Florida in the Sunshine State, not only having to convince recruits that they are a better program than Jim Leavitt’s Bulls but also convincing them to walk away from the beautiful weather and women they are used to down south.

There’s going to be a natural fall off at West Virginia after losing Pat White and Rich Rodriguez but it’s never welcome in a place like Morgantown, nor should it be. Stewart was a long-time assistant at West Virginia and was loved by players when he took the job. Fans also hold a place for Stewart in their hearts but it will be interesting to see how long that lasts once Rodriguez’s recruits are no longer in the mix. Building a high-profiled program in West Virginia is a lot tougher than Rich-Rod made it look and Mountaineer fans are going to find that out the hard way.

Oklahoma and Georgia were decimated by injuries and early departures to the NFL Draft this season but 6-5 records at both schools are unacceptable, especially when both schools have put together top ten recruiting classes over the last three years. Bob Stoops and Mark Richt are going to face an abnormal amount of pressure in the offseason to bring their programs back to prominence in 2010. If that doesn’t happen we might be looking at coaching vacancies in Norman and Athens, something Brian Kelly, Jim Harbaugh, Randy Edsall and Pat Fitzgerald should keep in mind during their busy offseason.

Speaking of Brian Kelly, the job he’s done at Cincinnati has elevated his program to national prominence but has left them in a position to maintain that level of play. In college football that means money, time and boosters, things that are valued more than ever in small towns across America right now. It’s assumed that Kelly is going to take the Notre Dame job after this season and the Bearcats are going to be left with an interesting decision. Do they go out and sign a big name coach, or let themselves become a stepping stone program for hot young coaches? Everything is good when you’re at the top but there is a high price to pay in order to stay there.

Oregon never has to worry about paying that price. With Phil Knight’s Nike money keeping the program loaded, Oregon has become one of the PAC-10’s most consistent teams. They now have to find a way to stay at a level with USC for the foreseeable future. It might sound easy considering the facilities and the success the Ducks have had over the last few years, but one poor year for a program like Oregon could change the culture at a school known more for its jerseys than its trophies. Chip Kelly did a great job avoiding that this year when he guided the Ducks through rocky waters at the beginning of the season after the LaGarrette Blount incident. Now the pressure will be on Kelly to take the program to the next level in 2010 considering the talent he has returning.

Georgia Tech has never been known as a football school but Paul Johnson and his dominant offensive system has changed the way people think about the Yellow Jackets. Johnson’s biggest friend and biggest enemy on the recruiting trail will be his offense for the rest of his career. Sure his system racks up points and puts players in a situation to succeed but how many big time recruits will Tech be able to sign in an offense that preaches more of a team first attitude than anything else. The backs in Johnson’s offense put up big numbers but also face questions about their ability to translate to the next level. Johnson will never get a true quarterback at Tech, nor does he want one, but not since Tommy Frazier led Nebraska to a title has a team running the option been able to contend for a national title. Any ACC coach Johnson recruits against will make those points and more in order to keep players away from that demoralizing offensive system.

It comes to a point when leaving a program like Northwestern, Boise State or UConn isn’t really worth it. While it can be financially rewarding in the short term, the long term stresses and pressure might not be worth it. A head coach at Notre Dame will be able to make $3-4 million a year but if he doesn’t live up to unreasonable expectations he’ll be fired in four years. From there his resume is usually soiled and a character makeover is necessary. Not to mention the toll it takes on a man’s family at certain schools when his wife and kids have to hear his name used in between every abusive word in creation.

Who would have thought, in 2009, that the most secure jobs in college football would be at programs with minimum expectations that lacked a real football history? Certainly not Hawthorne, and he did a lot of thinking.