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| Tuesday, October 3 The Big House needs some yard work done By Gene Wojciechowski ESPN The Magazine | ||||||||
| Sifting through the rubble after Bloody Saturday. . .
20 -- A soapbox moment They wedged more than 111,000 into the Big House against Wisconsin Saturday. Figure, say, $35 per ticket, which means about $4 million in gross revenue. After watching the Wolverine and Badger players do the Ice Capades thing on a gorgeous, dry day in Ann Arbor, do you think Michigan might want to spend some of that money on an actual field? There were more slips than points scored. 19 -- And speaking of Michigan Lloyd Carr is a wonderful coach, but if he thinks Big Ten officials didn't botch two crucial fumble calls against Illinois a week ago he needs to consider Lasik surgery. The Big Ten issued a very public and very necessary mea culpa, causing Carr to throw a hissy fit. "I have made my extreme displeasure (known) with the conference office regarding their press release," he said. "I made my comments to them and I stand by my comments that I think the game was relatively well officiated." Sure it was, if you were relatively wearing maize and blue. If you were Illinois, you got jobbed. And just wondering, but do you think Carr would have said the same thing had the two blown calls gone against Michigan? 18 -- Quarterback controversy
October is here and Kansas State still hasn't played a team with a winning record. The streak continues Saturday when the Wildcats play Kansas. It won't be until Oct. 14 that K-State faces somebody -- Oklahoma -- with more wins than losses. 16 -- Coach of the week Northwestern's Randy Walker. Gary who? Walker's team is 4-1, including two consecutive Big Ten road victories against ranked teams, which is only slightly harder to do than splitting the atom. The Wildcats stuck then-No. 6 Wisconsin with 47 points and hung 37 on late, great No. 15 Michigan State. Walker's attitude and his spread offense is transforming Northwestern into a bowl team. And if you're keeping count -- and they are at Northwestern -- Gary Barnett's Colorado team is off to an 0-4 start. Honorable mention: LSU's Nick Saban. 15 -- Upon further review Instant replay during the regular season isn't feasible. But Pac-10 conference commissioner Tom Hansen, an advocate of instant replay, says he would support having it during conference championships and at least the four BCS bowls. Meanwhile, John Soffey, the Big East's coordinator of officiating, says he also supports instant replay in a postseason setting. The subject has been discussed among other conference supervisors. "I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility," he said. 14 -- Quote of the week "We're 4-0 and we've gotten a few turnovers. Other than that, our stats are nothing to brag about on defense. Hopefully, our guys will play better, fly around and act like we're excited about playing the game. It's going to take that if we're going to beat Mississippi State." -- Florida coach Steve Spurrier, when asked for a pregame assessment of his Gator defense. Instead, Florida gives up 47 points, 351 rushing yards and 517 total yards. It marks the second consecutive game the Gators give up more than 500 yards. 13 -- Quote of the geek No comment from Florida woofers Alex Brown and Gerard Warren these days. 12 -- Penn State 22, No. 19 Purdue 20 The Nittany Lions sent the best get-well card they could to Adam Taliaferro. 11 -- Must See TV Forget the rest of the Michigan-Wisconsin game -- we would have paid big bucks just to watch an isolation cam of Wolverines receiver David Terrell and Badgers cornerback Jamar Fletcher match their considerable talents. One of the best one-on-one battles waged this season. 10 -- Memo to ESPN bosses Whomever is in charge of the Classic Network, please consider an All-SEC Week of games. And save room on the short list for Saturday's Tennessee-LSU overtime thriller. The last person who limped as much as LSU's Rohan Davey was Chester on "Gunsmoke." The Tiger quarterback overcame a bum ankle to beat the No. 11 Vols. Davey is the same guy who led LSU to an upset of ranked Arkansas at the end of last season. 9 -- Syracuse 42, BYU 14 Uh, fellas, LaVell Edwards is retiring, not you. The 2-4 Cougars have given up 29 or more points in five of their six games as the LaVell Across America Tour continues to struggle. 8 -- Rivalry rating Auburn-Alabama is the most intense rivalry in college football, but Oregon-Washington isn't far behind. Too bad nobody in the midwest or east saw it. By the way, now that Phil Knight has pulled his Nike money from Oregon, perhaps the Ducks should consider AFLAC as its new sugar daddy. 7 -- Casting stones USC coach Paul Hackett cracked a few good-natured lines in the direction of UCLA during his weekly press conference, prompting one Los Angeles columnist to call him "Buddy" Hackett. One problem: The No. 7 Trojans took a deep drag on the gas pipe during their trip to Corvallis and got beat by Oregon State. That's the first time that's happened since 1967, a fact that won't be lost on USC's patient, understanding fans. 6 -- Heisman Trophy race
Staying same: Virginia Tech's Michael Vick, Auburn's Rudi Johnson, TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson, Wisconsin's Michael Bennett, Florida State's Chris Weinke, Nebraska's Eric Crouch. Slipping: Washington's Marques Tuiasosopo, Michigan's Anthony Thomas, Purdue's Drew Brees, Mississippi's Deuce McAllister. Thanks for stopping by the booth: UCLA's DeShaun Foster. Conditional nominee: Kansas State's Jonathan Beasley (becomes fully accredited Heisman candidate when Wildcats play someone with a pulse). 5 -- Bay area bombers The 1-3 Cal Bears scored fewer points (21) than the Oakland Athletics scored runs (23) Saturday. 4 -- Scheduling coup Thank goodness for the ACC, or else Vanderbilt wouldn't have any wins. Their lone victory was against hapless Duke and this week (after getting shut out by Auburn this past Saturday) the Commodores get equally dreadful Wake Forest. 3 -- Whatever happened to. . . Cincinnati. Another one of our preseason darkhorses is in the Porta-Potty. As recently as mid-September, the Bearcats were getting votes in the weekly coaches poll. Now they're 2-3. 2 -- So much for complacency If Florida State and Miami were looking ahead to Saturday's huge game at the Orange Bowl, they didn't show it. The Seminoles and Hurricanes outscored their opponents last week by a combined score of 123-13. One hack's weekly elite Nebraska (4-0) Florida State (5-0) Clemson (5-0) Michigan (4-1) Oregon (4-1) Auburn (5-0) UCLA (4-1) Virginia Tech (4-0) Ohio State (4-0) Southern Mississippi (3-1) Waiting list: Kansas State (5-0), Washington (3-1), Oregon State (4-0), Northwestern (4-1), Mississippi State (3-1). Honorary Elite: Iowa State (4-0). | ALSO SEE Harig: Gators losing their bite What you might have missed | |||||||
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