Following the weekend's conquered favorites and other notables through the stages of grief.

Denial. Have you considered how weird it is to be a Southern Cal fan right now? Inexplicable early-season losses to unranked, overmatched opponents have become so predictable that Trojans backers have learned to prime themselves for it. But big-game losses to other ranked, BCS-contending opponents have been so rare -- and in the case of Saturday night's tire-iron-to-the-cranium from Oregon, unprecedented under Pete Carroll -- nobody can quite believe it. L.A. Daily News blogger Scott Wolf reports that the players themselves were utterly mystified:

"I could never imagine this in my career at USC," safety Will Harris said.

"I can't remember a game where a team pushed us around the field like that." -- USC safety Josh Pinkard

"Before the season I never thought this would happen," USC quarterback Matt Barkley said.

Trojan fans are equally stunned, of course, though in the case of SC fan Brendan Loy from The Living Room Times, that has more to do with the margin of defeat (27 points, worse than the margins of all seven of USC's prior losses since 2004 combined) than the defeat itself. The unprecedented beatdown had the Orange County Register (echoing the Doc's sentiments) declaring the end of the Trojans' seven-year reign in the Pac-10, Wolf comparing Pete Carroll unfavorably to Paul Hackett and at least one Trojan blog wondering if Carroll was maybe too distracted by his charity work to work the team into its usual big-game froth.

Still, as both Loy and L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke already seem prepared to concede, the most unthinkable indignity may still be yet to come for the Trojans, in the form of a trip to the -- gasp! -- Holiday Bowl?

Acceptance. Michigan lost to Illinois on Saturday in big, hopeless fashion, joining mighty Illinois State as the only skins on the Illini's wall this year. The response from the UM fanbase -- a cynical, Eeyorish bunch even in the best of times -- ranged from the somewhat militant love-it-or-leave-it manifesto at Wolverine Liberation Army to the traditional post-defeat critters at MGoBlog to a more philosophical take over at The Hoover Street Rag, which took the well-worn path of zen losers everywhere, via Bill Watterson:

Perspective? Have you ever met a Michigan fan? We have, and in Ann Arbor, "pointless, temporary existence" practically qualifies as a pep talk, especially when their team has dropped four straight Big Ten games to fall into a three-way tie for last place as the cold months set in and the Rich Rodriguez "hot seat" chatter begins anew.

Depression. Black is the color of mourning, and so it was for Georgia, which marched into Jacksonville Municipal Stadium wearing previously unheard-of black helmets and pants and marched out grieving over its seventeenth loss to Florida in its last 20 tries and, for all practical purposes, the death of the Bulldogs' 2009 season. If the black uni accoutrements did little to inspire the players, they did even less to inspire the fans, who'd deemed the gimmick a failure before the game was even over -- in their post-mortems, Georgia bloggers generally despaired over the fact that such gimmickry was necessary to begin with, just two years after cooking up the more successful idea of a team-wide end zone invasion following the game's first touchdown. The message is clear: "We don't even think we can beat Florida without some extraordinary psyching-up."

As if that wasn't depressing enough, Dawgsports.com's T. Kyle King bemoaned the one thing the 41-17 loss wasn't bad enough to accomplish:

So, it was as bad as it possibly could have been. Georgia didn't win, didn't keep it close, and yet, despite losing a blowout, didn't lose the type of blowout that would have assured the end of [defensive coordinator] Willie Martinezís tenure with the Bulldogs. It was bad, but not bad enough, which, paradoxically, is worse.

Well, Saturday was the 15th time the Dawg defense has surrendered 30 or more points under Martinez, after only having done so once under his predecessor, Brian VanGorder. So ... take heart, I guess? Are those the appropriate words of encouragement here?

Anger. Currently enjoying -- no, that's not the right word; let's say enduring -- its first season as a full-fledged I-A member, Western Kentucky is 0-8, has played only one opponent within single digits, and even managed to get blown off its own field by I-AA Central Arkansas six weeks ago. So one could be forgiven for assuming that nobody, not even the good people of Bowling Green, Ky., is even paying attention to WKU football at this point. You may be surprised -- at the end of the Bowling Green Daily News' virtually comment-free live blog of the Hilltoppers' 68-49 loss to fellow Sun Belt bottom dweller North Texas, commenter "James" popped his head in to offer this rosy assessment:

I'm sick and tired of seeing this team / [head coach David] Elson and comments at the top of front page in sports section of Daily News Sports. There are more worthy sports in area & at WKU (other than football) to be on front page of sports. Someone needs to coach or lose their job. A number of high school teams could score on this defense. We have gotten worse every year with Elson, even before going 1A. I'm done with season tickets until changes are made.

WKU should take James' sentiments to heart, and see them for the positive they truly are: Lowly though the Hilltoppers may be, though, they have acquired at least one must-have item for any big-time college football program -- the Internet commenter who wants to see people fired yesterday. That alone proves you're on your way, 'Toppers, and don't let anyone tell you different.

Elsewhere in Disillusion: West Virginia takes solace in the numbers. ... Oklahoma State ponders what could have been. ... And South Carolina just hopes it can keep it all together.