The college football elevator does not stop at every floor because some passengers keep going up, while others are headed down as if the cable had snapped.

 GOING UP (fourth floor — women’s clothing, Christmas gifts, electronic equipment)

 – Clemson – A team coached by a guy named Dabo Swinney has to get some attention, but it was the wrong kind of attention when the Tigers lost to a lousy Maryland team to fall to 2-3. They have won six straight since then, though, including a road game against Miami, and C.J. Spiller is getting Heisman attention.

 – Temple – The Owls had one of the worst football programs in the country for years, and they seemed to be perpetuating that image when they started 0-2, including an opening loss to Villanova, a Division I-AA team (yes, I know it’s officially called the Football Championship Subdivision, but I am not yielding to that insanity). Now, with Temple on a nine-game winning streak, Al Golden’s name is being bandied about as a possible national coach of the year.

– Sean Canfield – The Oregon State quarterback has been living in the Pac-10 shadows of Oregon’s Jeremiah Masoli and Stanford’s Andrew Lucks, but take a look at Canfield’s numbers the second half of the season. The guy is hitting better than 70 percent of his passes for the season, and he leads the conference in pass efficiency. If the Beavers beat Oregon this week, he gets my vote as the all-Pac-10 quarterback (if I had a vote, that is).

– Nebraska – Bo Pelini’s team will be playing in the Big 12 championship game, which may not sound like much considering how weak the Big 12 North is (Kansas State, which lost to Louisiana-Lafayette, is in second place, for crying out loud). But the Huskers were 4-3 after losing to Iowa State at home, and have since won four in a row.

– Jeff Tedford – The Cal coach created his own monster by making the Bears a Pac-10 contender, so Cal fans were upset with him when the Bears lost by a combined score of 72-6 to USC and Oregon to start Pac-10 play 0-2, eliminating Cal from Rose Bowl contention almost before it started. But the Bears have won five of six since then, including wins over ranked teams the past two weeks, and have a chance to finish with a share of second place. And he is 7-1 against Stanford.

 – Mike Mohamed – The Cal linebacker leads the Pac-10 in tackles with 100, and his third interception of the season, in the closing minutes against Stanford, probably transformed Cal’s season from failure to success.

GOING DOWN (basement — bargain items, work clothes, assorted cheap stuff)

– Dennis Erickson – Remember when Erickson was the toast of Tempe when Arizona State won its first eight games under Erickson and were ranked No. 6? Well, the Sun Devils are 11-17 since then, including a current five-game losing streak. Erickson does not even know who his starting quarterback will be for the finale against Arizona. Meanwhile, Idaho, the team he left to come to ASU, is 7-4 and bowl eligible. Ouch.

– Rich Rodriguez – Everything seemed fine and dandy when the Wolverines started 4-0, but they lost seven of eight after that, the only win coming against Delaware State (the Hornets also have losses to Norfolk State and Delaware, to put that in perspective). Michigan finished tied for last in the Big Ten after finishing next-to-last last season. Sure, it takes time to install a new system, but 3-13 in the Big Ten would be unacceptable in Ann Arbor if Rodriguez were suiting up only 11 players.

– Oklahoma – 6-5.

LSU coach Les Miles: Gambler or . . . ? -- Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

– Mark Mangino  – It’s not a good idea to have players complaining about your coaching methods when you lose six in a row. That mixture smells bad even in the fresh air of Kansas, and even for a guy who was national coach of the year in 2007.

 – BCS – I know. I know. It’s too easy to pick on the BCS, which has been on a downward slide since its invention in many minds. But the fact is, Boise State will probably finish undefeated and ranked in the top six and not go to one of the five elite bowls.

– Les Miles – No coach of a major program makes more questionable decisions during a game than Miles, the LSU coach. Everything seemed to work out in his favor early on, but the law of averages on dubious decisions is catching up to him after the way the final seconds of the loss to Mississippi were bungled. Ringing in my ears is TV broadcaster Verne Lundquist saying, “What are they doing?”   When risky calls work out, the coach is called a gambler.  When they don’t, he’s called . . . something else.