Top Sports News Stories

Cavaliers fire Brown as coach
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CLEVELAND (AP) -- Of the many reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers had for firing coach Mike Brown after five seasons without an NBA title, one mattered most.
They can't lose LeBron James.
Less than two weeks after their stunning, second-round loss to Boston in the playoffs, the Cavaliers fired Brown on Monday, an expected move that perhaps indicates the team believes it can re-sign James, the two-time MVP and free agent-in-waiting.
Brown was the most successful coach in franchise history. In five seasons, he led the Cavs to the playoffs every year, to the finals in 2007 and to 127 wins in the past two seasons. But Brown failed to win a championship, and after Cleveland's second straight early exodus from the postseason -- a collapse that included two blowout losses at home and dissension in the Cavs' locker room -- and with James about to explore free agency, owner Dan Gilbert decided to make a change.
"After a long and deep analysis of all of the factors that led to the disappointing early ends to our playoff runs over the past two seasons, we concluded that it was time for the Cavaliers to move in a different direction," Gilbert said in a statement. "The expectations of this organization are very high and, although change always carries an element of risk, there are times when that risk must be taken in an attempt to break through to new, higher levels of accomplishment.
"This is one of those times."
The Cavs did not hold a news conference to explain their decision to relieve Brown, who went 314-177 and was the league's coach of the year in 2009.
Brown was not immediately available for comment. No one answered the door at his home in Westlake, Ohio.
A James family publicist said the superstar is out of town on vacation and would not be available to comment on Brown's dismissal.
Boston's Doc Rivers and Orlando's Stan Van Gundy, the coaches who knocked Brown and the Cavs from the playoffs the past two years, expressed disappointment in Cleveland's decision.
"Obviously, I was not thrilled to see it," Rivers said before Game 4 in Boston. "I wonder what you have to do to keep your job -- back-to-back 60-win seasons. Our profession is tough."
Said Van Gundy: "Franchises have the right to make any decisions they want. You can't do a hell of a lot better. There's not a coach in the league that has done better than Mike Brown."
The Cavaliers were under a deadline to dismiss Brown. If they had waited beyond 10 days after the season, they would have had to pay the 40-year-old coach his salary for next season. Cleveland's assistant coaches remain under contract for 2010-11.
The team now faces an even more pressing deadline. James can become a free agent on July 1, when he'll head a free-agent class unlike any other in league history. He will hit the market with fellow superstars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and others, and while the expected bidding wars are weeks away, the speculation and suspense are hanging over the NBA playoffs.
James has said winning will be the most important factor in choosing a team. In building around him, the Cavs have already shown their commitment to giving the 25-year-old James the tools he needs to win multiple titles.
Now, by firing Brown, who won more than 66 percent of his games, the Cavs have again demonstrated a willingness to go beyond the norm to make James happy. While the All-Star forward did not call for Brown's head, it was clear during the Boston series that James and his coach were not on the same page.
The Cavs, though, are in a bind as complex as any defense they saw in the playoffs.
James will likely keep his options open until free agency begins, and without an agreement from him, it will be almost impossible for the team to land a high-profile coach since any prospective coach can't be assured he'll have James.
Beyond that, general manager Danny Ferry's contract expires next month and there's no guarantee he wants to stay around.
If Ferry isn't re-signed, the Cavs face the prospect of preparing for the NBA college draft and free agency without a coach or GM -- hardly the position they thought they'd be in after winning 61 regular-season games and dispatching Chicago in the first playoff round.
It gets even trickier. Gilbert will undoubtedly try to make a big splash to convince James to stay, but to do so he'll likely have to land a high-profile coach. There's no indication Gilbert has reached out to anyone yet but the top-tier candidate list would include people like Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State's Tom Izzo or Kentucky's John Calipari, a close friend of James, whose seat near Cleveland's bench added awkward drama to the Cavs' loss in Game 5 to the Celtics.
Jackson's contract with the Lakers expires after this season. The 10-time champion has talked about retirement and recently said he can't imagine himself coaching anywhere else, but that may not stop Gilbert from making him a strong pitch -- especially if James is part of the package.
Krzyzewski and James formed a strong bond in three seasons together on the U.S. Olympic team, winning a gold medal in Beijing two years ago. Krzyzewski came close to leaving Duke for the Lakers in 2004, and if he's ever going to test his mettle in the pro game, the opportunity to coach James could be enough to pry him from campus.
Also, assuming he stays, Ferry is close with Krzyzewski, whom he played for in college and still calls "coach."
"The NBA rumors have been addressed several times in recent years by coach Krzyzewski," Duke spokesman Jon Jackson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He has repeatedly stated that he will be the Duke head coach for the remainder of his career."
Gilbert has always been impressed with Izzo, who fits the tough-minded defensive profile the owner was looking for when he hired Brown in 2005. Also, Gilbert is a Michigan State graduate. Izzo has turned down previous NBA overtures, but maybe none as big as what Gilbert might offer.
And then there's Calipari, who has insisted he'll stay at Kentucky. But that's not likely to stop the Cavs from reaching out to Calipari to gauge his interest in coming to Cleveland, a move that could keep James home.
Brown, meanwhile, did everything in his five seasons with the Cavs -- everything but win a title. In the end, that meant Gilbert had little choice but to let him go.
The Cavs owner can't let James walk away as easily.


Michigan's Self-Imposed Punishment for Ncaa Violations
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The University of Michigan on Tuesday admitted to a series of violations in its storied football program, but insisted the problems related to practice time and the activities of graduate assistants were not enough to warrant major punishment from the NCAA.
Michigan released details of self-imposed sanctions it hopes will satisfy the NCAA, whose staff will hold a hearing on the case in August. A final decision on NCAA penalties could take months.

Michigan's self-imposed penalties
Penalties self-imposed by the Michigan football program Tuesday:

• Cut back practice and training time by 130 hours over the next two years, starting this summer.

• Cut number of assistants from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings for the rest of 2010.

• Recommendation for two years of probation. The school said it should not be tagged as a repeat offender despite a 2003 scandal in the basketball program.

• Letters of reprimand issued to seven people -- including head coach Rich Rodriguez.

• Acknowledged for first time that staffer Alex Herron was fired after his claim of not being present during some activities was discredited by players.

Michigan said it will cut back practice and training time by 130 hours over the next two years, starting this summer. It also trimmed the number of assistants -- the so-called quality control staff -- from five to three and banned them from practices, games or coaching meetings for the rest of 2010.
"I'm glad to get that over with," coach Rich Rodriguez said Monday night in Midland at the Michigan AP Sports Editors Meeting. "But that is just part of the process."
The self-imposed sanctions included a recommendation for two years of probation for the NCAA's winningest football program, which is 8-16 in two seasons under Rodriguez. The school said it should not be tagged as a repeat offender despite a 2003 scandal in the basketball program.
"We're imposing on ourselves what we believe is corrective actions," athletic director David Brandon said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Ultimately, the NCAA will decide what the appropriate sanctions and penalties are."
The violations came to light last fall during a second straight losing season for Rodriguez, who will return for his third season at Michigan this fall. Anonymous players told the Detroit Free Press that they were exceeding NCAA limits on practice and training time, prompting school and NCAA investigations.
The NCAA has outlined five potentially major rules violations, all related to practices and workouts. It accused Rodriguez of failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance in his program -- a charge Michigan vehemently denied even as it acknowledged an overall failure by the athletic department.
"We think that is overly harsh," Brandon said. "We do believe that there were things he could've done better and Rich would be the first to agree that details he delegated shouldn't have been in retrospect."
Brandon said the school decided not to take away scholarships or eliminate coaching positions.
"That's usually a result of something deemed to be an offense that created a competitive advantage," Brandon said. "Those kind of sanctions are also typically related to academic fraud, gambling, recruiting violations and extra benefits."
Michigan told the NCAA that letters of reprimand were issued to seven people -- including Rodriguez -- who shared responsibility for the violations. One staffer who worked under Rodriguez at West Virginia before joining him at Michigan, Alex Herron, was fired after his claim of not being present during some activities was discredited by players.
The school said two main problems -- too many people acting as coaches and too many hours being put into football by the players -- occurred in part because of "inattention by the football staff."
"The university agrees that it failed as a whole to adequately monitor its football program to assure compliance regarding the limitations upon the number, duties and activities of countabale football coaches and the time limits" for practice," it said. "The university also agrees that Rodriguez failed to satisfy the monitoring responsibilities required of head coaches."
After his hire from West Virginia, Rodriguez filled all five quality control positions in the program -- essentially assistants to assistants who were paid $17 per hour to "run errands for the coaches, check on student-athlete class attendance and academic issues, and chart plays."
The school said the staff "crossed the line in specific situations and engaged in 'coaching activities" as defined by the NCAA.
Rodriguez also told school investigators he didn't know about forms used at Michigan to track athletes' activities until last summer, 18 months after he was hired, and he said no one ever told him those forms were not being filed with compliance officials by his program.
Rodriguez's response was submitted by his attorney, Scott Tompsett. He said the coach was "very disappointed that his administrators failed to provide the job descriptions on multiple occasions and he is disappointed that the compliance staff never brought their failure to his attention. Rodriguez has always had an open-door policy for anyone to bring matters to his attention."
The school said it had discovered the paperwork problem and was working on it when the story broke. The bigger issue was the lack of communication. The school said the football program didn't provide requested information to the compliance office, which failed to alert Rodriguez -- who "should have paid closer attention to his subordinates."
Rodriguez regretted that he didn't adequately monitor certain aspects of his program, but added in his response that following NCAA bylaws was not a "one-man job."
"We're not happy to be in this process, but we're handling it in a professional and transparent manner before we move on," Brandon said. "The NCAA will hear our case in August, then will deliberate as long as is needed -- and that could be weeks -- before making a decision that we can agree with or choose to appeal."


Tressel's wife has heart surgery
CLEVELAND -- The wife of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel is recovering from surgery to repair a heart valve.
Norma Watson, Tressel's mother-in-law, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her daughter, 56-year-old Ellen Tressel, had the operation at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday in hopes of improving blood flow through the heart.
Watson says the procedure went well and her daughter is likely to leave the hospital this weekend. She says the coach plans to stay with his wife for the duration. He's missing the Big Ten's league meetings in Chicago.
Ellen Tressel's mother says doctors detected a problem when she was tested for a heart condition (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) that runs in the family. She wasn't ill but had noticed shortness of breath.

Charlie Weis, Bobby Bowden, Notre Dame Football and who will be DUMB enough to Fill in

Different articles on Bowden, Weis, and who may fill the position at Notre Dame
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Later Charlie you arrogant loser! Sorry! Bobby, but it was time! Why would anyone want the Notre Dame job? Hey Tiger, just tell us your wife


Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will announce his retirement on Tuesday morning barring a last minute change of heart, a school official told CBSSports.com.
Both Bowden and the school wanted to officially remain tight lipped on Monday night out of respect for Bowden.
But it's expected that unless Bowden decides at the last minute to stay (which is possible but highly unlikely) his retirement will be announced on Tuesday. The announcement will come as some sort of statement from the school.
Bowden, a source said, has reluctantly come to the realization that it's time to move on.
Bowden won two national titles but this past season lost six games for the third time in four seasons.



SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Charlie Weis arrived at Notre Dame flashing Super Bowls rings and talking about outscheming opponents. He leaves one of college football's most prestigious programs without even matching the records of the two men who were fired before him.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced the decision to let Weis go on Monday and said during a campus news conference that the school has not contacted any potential replacements.
The search for a new coach will begin immediately and will be finished "as fast as we possibly can," Swarbrick said.
Notre Dame (6-6) finished the season on a four-game losing streak that made Weis' firing seem inevitable, though the athletic director insisted it wasn't.
"For many of you who may have thought that was a foregone conclusion, I would say to you that the decision was harder than you might have thought, principally because of the man it involved," Swarbrick said, adding there was a huge gulf between the coach's brash image and personal style. He said Weis called him on Monday to see how the AD was doing.
On Sunday night, Swarbrick recommended to the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, that Weis be let go with six years left on his contract. Weis finishes with a 35-27 record in five seasons, third-worst among coaches who worked at least three years at the school.
"He'll add some Super Bowl rings to the ones he already has as a successful coordinator in the NFL and we will miss him," Swarbrick said. "But for us it's time to move forward. It's time to move forward because it is critical to this program and to its place in the university and college football that we compete at the highest level. That we compete for national championships."
Swarbrick said the decision to fire Weis was more of an "evolution," saying Weis knew which direction the decision was headed. After Saturday's season-ending loss at Stanford, Swarbrick told Weis the recommendation he planned to give Jenkins, and they talked more on the plane ride home.
"So there wasn't a point in time so much as it was a conversation throughout the evening," Swarbrick said.
Assistant head coach Rob Ianello, who is also Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator, will assume responsibility for football operations until a new coach is hired, Swarbrick said. Ianello has spent the past five seasons on Notre Dame's staff.
Charlie Weis is the latest and most costly in a series of Notre Dame coaching mistakes, but there's nothing wrong with the Irish that a good hire can't fix. Story
Weis has not met with the team since they returned from Stanford but has been in touch with some players.
Star receiver Golden Tate said Weis has indicated he might attend the team banquet Friday night. University spokesman John Heisler confirmed Weis might attend and said he would be welcome.
Center Eric Olsen said he was heartbroken to hear Weis was fired.
"It's tough for me with my personal relationship with Coach Weis," he said. "But I know he's going to be fine."
Tate said he and his family plan to meet with Weis on Friday about whether the junior should enter the NFL draft. Tate said quarterback Jimmy Clausen also plans to talk with Weis on Friday.
Olsen said he texted Weis after the firing was announced Monday and Weis responded.
"He was like, 'Don't worry about it,'" Olsen said. "It's a tough thing to swallow."
The Fighting Irish are eligible to play in a bowl game, but Swarbrick has said he wants to hear from the players before deciding if Notre Dame will go to a minor postseason game.
Following a 6-2 start this season, Notre Dame began a winless November with the second upset by Navy in three years. Then came losses to Pittsburgh and to Connecticut in double overtime on senior day in South Bend. By the time Stanford beat the Irish, speculation about who would possibly replace Weis was rampant.
Among the top names mentioned, Florida's Urban Meyer and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops have already said they plan to stay where they are. Speaking on a conference call Monday, Stoops said: "I'm going to be at Oklahoma next year, so I can't be at two places at once."
Cincinnati's Brian Kelly has also been mentioned, along with Stanford's Jim Harbaugh and TCU's Gary Patterson.
Weis, meanwhile, has told people in South Bend that he's already heard from roughly six NFL teams about becoming their offensive coordinator next season, sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley insisted Monday, however, that the team has not contacted Weis about joining the staff. Weis and Haley worked together as assistants with the New York Jets. Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli was the Patriots' vice president of player personnel when Weis was the offensive coordinator in New England.
Haley, who says there will be no coaching staff changes for the Chiefs (3-8) until after the season, contradicted reports that the Chiefs had already contacted Weis about a position.
"I can say with clear conscience there's been no contact," Haley said. "The focus in this building is putting this team in the best possible position to succeed each day and each week and that's where the focus is. As far as staff goes, that would be something I would have -- that would be a decision I would have to make."
A self-confident offensive coordinator with the NFL champion New England Patriots when he was hired, Weis raised Irish expectations with back-to-back appearances in BCS bowl games in his first two seasons.
Since then, though, Notre Dame has gone 16-21 -- the most losses by the Irish in a three-year span.
Weis' record is worse than his two predecessors, Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie, who were also fired. Notre Dame is now looking to hire its fifth coach this decade.
Weis received a new 10-year contract midway through his first season, shortly after a thriller against top-ranked USC that ended in a 34-31 Notre Dame loss.
Even though the Irish fell short, playing nearly even with Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and the mighty Trojans had the Notre Dame faithful hopeful they had found a coach capable of returning the program to its past glories. The Fighting Irish have won eight AP national titles, more than any other school, but none since 1988.
Yet the USC loss turned out to be the highlight of the Weis era. Because Weis' tenure began so promisingly, his final three seasons in South Bend were especially painful for the legion of Fighting Irish supporters nationwide.
With Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija and other key players gone in 2007, the Irish started 0-5 for the first time in school history. They finished 3-9 and were last in the NCAA in total offense just three years after Weis said at his introductory news conference that when it comes to X's and O's "we have the greatest advantage."
Notre Dame fans who celebrated Weis' cockiness when he was winning grew tired of his Jersey attitude when the Irish started losing, with many calling him arrogant.
The now-former coach said a day after the loss to Connecticut that he would have a hard time arguing against his dismissal "because 6-5 is not good enough" -- an echo of his words when he took the job.
Swarbrick said he believes it's still possible to turn the Irish into a consistent winner.
"Is it harder for us? Yes, because of the standards we choose to apply to the program ourselves," he said. "That doesn't mean we can't get there."

Top Coaching Candidates:
Notre Dame
Brian Kelly, Cincinnati head coach: The media's presumed front-runner for months, Kelly is 33-6 in three seasons with the Bearcats and will play for a second straight Big East championship Saturday against Pittsburgh. He previously won the 2006 MAC title at Central Michigan and the 2002 and '03 Division II national titles at Grand Valley State. He has fielded Notre Dame-related questions for weeks and has yet to definitively deny interest.

Bob Stoops, Oklahoma head coach: Despite his statement Monday that "I'm going to be at Oklahoma next year, so I can't be at two places at once," rumors continue to persist that Stoops is the Irish's No. 1 candidate and that the interest may be mutual. Obviously, it would be a home run for Notre Dame to land the six-time Big 12 champion and 2000 national title coach, but it seems odd that Stoops would walk away from a $30 million contract and lifetime job security.

Gary Patterson, TCU head coach: In nine seasons as head coach, Patterson's teams have gone 85-27 and captured three conference championships. They recently completed a 12-0 regular season and will earn a BCS berth. Known as a defensive guru with an emphasis on speed, Patterson, who served as defensive coordinator prior to his ascension, has produced the nation's top-ranked defense three of the past nine seasons. This year's unit ranks No. 2 in the country.

Jim Harbaugh, Stanford head coach: Harbaugh has had a huge impact at Stanford in a short time, leading the Cardinal to an 8-4 record and first bowl berth since 2001 in this, his third season. He's twice upset Notre Dame's primary nemesis, USC. Harbaugh, 45, has proven a masterful recruiter at a school with similarly stringent academic standards. The one drawback: His penchant for controversial, sometimes inflammatory comments may not sit well in conservative South Bend.

Week 11 College Football TV Schedule, Buckeyes, and Memorial Stadiums

2009 College Football TV Schedule: Week 11
Thursday, Nov. 12 Network Time (EST)
Ball State at Northern Illinois ESPN U 6 p.m.
South Florida at Rutgers ESPN 7:45 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 13 Network Time (EST)
West Virginia at Cincinnati ESPN2 8 p.m.
Temple at Akron ESPN U 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14 Network Time (ET)
Tennessee at Mississippi CBS Noon
Michigan State at Purdue ESPN Noon
Georgia Tech at Duke ESPN2 Noon
Texas at Baylor FSN Noon
Florida State at Wake Forest ESPN U Noon
Northwestern at Illinois ESPN Classic Noon
Houston at UCF CBS CS Noon
Indiana at Penn State Big Ten Noon
Michigan at Wisconsin Big Ten Noon
South Dakota State at Minnesota Big Ten Noon
Kentucky at Vanderbilt SEC 12:21 p.m.
Missouri at Kansas State Versus 12:30 p.m.
BYU at New Mexico MTN 2 p.m.
Miami (Fla.) at North Carolina ABC 3:30 p.m.
Iowa at Ohio State ABC 3:30 p.m.
Nebraska at Kansas ABC 3:30 p.m.
Florida at South Carolina CBS 3:30 p.m.
Stanford at USC FSN 3:30 p.m.
Idaho at Boise State ESPN U 3:30 p.m.
Delaware at Navy CBS CS 3:30 p.m.
UNLV at Air Force MTN 6 p.m.
Alabama at Mississippi State ESPN 7 p.m.
Auburn at Georgia ESPN2 7 p.m.
Texas A&M at Oklahoma FSN 7 p.m.
Louisiana Tech at LSU ESPN U 7 p.m.
Arizona at California Versus 7 p.m.
Utah at TCU CBS CS 7:30 p.m.
Notre Dame at Pitt ABC 8 p.m.
Texas Tech at Oklahoma State ABC 8 p.m.
Wyoming at San Diego State MTN 10 p.m.
Arizona State at Oregon ESPN 10:15 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 15 Network Time (EST)
East Carolina at Tulsa


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/09/02/tv-schedule-2009/index.html#ixzz0WecMuhE6
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Pryor says Buckeyes must avoid letdown with Hawkeyes on deck
CBSSports.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Terrelle Pryor has a warning for his Ohio State teammates: Forget last week and take Iowa seriously.
Pryor said Wednesday night that the 10th-ranked Buckeyes must be careful not to follow last week's big victory over Penn State with a letdown in the winner-take-all Rose Bowl battle against No. 15 Iowa on Saturday.
The sophomore quarterback said coach Jim Tressel had illustrated the pitfalls of resting on week-old laurels.
"Coach Tres showed a statistic how all these teams go and beat a big team and then come in the next game [and lose]," Pryor said after practice.
He cited the Buckeyes' loss to Purdue, which was just 1-5 at the time, earlier this season. He said Ohio State was coming off an emotional victory against Wisconsin and didn't see the Boilermakers waiting to ambush them.
Pryor also used Oregon as an example. The Ducks walloped Southern California two weeks ago and then turned around and lost to Stanford last week.
"Maybe sometimes there's a mindset where you think you accomplished something," he said. "It happens a lot, I'm sure, and we can't let that happen to us. Because we have a goal that we want to reach and we have places that we want to go and if we do that, we're definitely getting knocked off by this [Iowa] team because this team is pretty good. They're the real deal on defense. We have to come in focused."
The winner of the game at Ohio Stadium will get the Big Ten's automatic Bowl Championship Series berth in the Rose Bowl and be assured of at least a share of the conference title. The Buckeyes are seeking at least a piece of their fifth consecutive Big Ten crown.
Whether the winner is Ohio State (8-2, 5-1) or Iowa (9-1, 5-1), even if that team lost a week later in the regular-season finale, it would win any tiebreaker and earn the spot in the Rose Bowl.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz has seen the films of Pryor and is impressed with how he has developed this year in his first full season as the Buckeyes' starting quarterback.
"He's found a rhythm. He's more comfortable now. He's more experienced, certainly," Ferentz said. "He's always been a phenomenal athlete and now he's becoming a better quarterback, a more comfortable quarterback. And it takes time."
Pryor's teammates think he has found a calmness that has helped him handle the pressures and problems of being in the spotlight so early in his college career.
DeVier Posey has become Pryor's No. 1 target as a receiver -- and one of his best friends. He said the players surrounding Pryor have helped ease the burden on him.
"We've taken some pressure off of him. We've been trying to focus on team concepts and let Terrelle know that he's our guy, that he really doesn't have to get into too much what the media's saying about him and the criticism," Posey said. "I feel like he's playing with no pressure now. You can see him a lot more comfortable in the pocket and he's actually running the offense now. He's just being more of a leader and he's getting better and better every week. You can see what kind of player he's going to be in the future."
The game against Penn State might have been a glimpse into how far Pryor has come. Considered the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit when he came out of Jeannette, Pa., he had included Penn State on his list of finalists before deciding on Ohio State.
A large crowd at Beaver Stadium taunted him and held up derisive signs on Saturday night but he seemed to shut all that out while playing one of his finest games.
"His decision-making grade was, I think, one of the best he's had," Tressel said. "He needs to do some of the little things better, things like carrying out fakes and this and that, but his decision-making was very good."
Earlier in the season, Pryor was hurt by poor decisions. He arced long passes that led to costly interceptions and made ill-advised pitches on the option.
Pryor's position coach, Nick Siciliano, said Pryor has gotten calmer when there is more riding on the game.
"I don't know why it happened that way but it did and I'm sure glad that it happened that way Saturday night," Siciliano said. "He did seem to be a little bit calmer. He did make great decisions with the football. There were a couple of bad ones here and there [but] that's part of the deal. But we didn't turn the ball over and there wasn't anything even close to a turnover. If we can do that again this week, we've got a chance."
Pryor, who said he is still sore from several hard hits in recent weeks, feels he is improving at letting the game come to him.
"Sometimes I get caught up in different emotions in a game," he said. "I thought I was pretty calm, though [against Penn State]."




College Football's Memorial Stadiums
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The words "Memorial Stadium" appear in stories before millions of eyes every college football season without ever being read. It's a name glossed over in the search for news of this team or that game.
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium is dedicated to those who have and will serve.
The teams come, the games go. The memorials at 15 college football stadiums named in honor of this nation's military veterans stand in vigil, commemorating the men and women who died and those who came home in service of the nation.
They are as old as the 1920s, when several universities built stadiums to honor the deceased in "The Great War," and as modern as today, when Texas installs a statue of a World War I "doughboy" in a plaza outside of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.



The older stadiums honor the memory of the deceased with elegance. It is difficult not to be moved by the 200 Doric columns at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium. At the United States Naval Academy, the recently refurbished Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium combines classic arches with education. Within the arches are large bronze plaques that describe historic battles.
The names of those great battles -- Guadalcanal, Wake Island, Iwo Jima, etc. -- adorn the facade of the stadium. Legend has it that a William & Mary player, upon arriving at the stadium, looked at the names and said, "Man, these guys have a tough schedule!"
Opened in 1923, Cal's Memorial Stadium honors World War I participants who lost their lives.
Building a stadium to honor the dead illustrates the idea of the "living memorial" that created public debate after World War I. Up to that time, writes University of California professor Andrew M. Shanken in "Art Bulletin," communities built statues, obelisks, arches or other constructs meant only to memorialize. The living memorials, such as stadiums, highways or libraries, would remember the dead and serve the living.
That is a concept easy to forget in a time when stadium names change with the expiration of a business deal. It used to be that they named a stadium to honor the dead. Now, they name a stadium to honor whoever shows up with the dead presidents.


The living memorial satisfied a strong desire to mourn. Approximately 116,500 Americans died overseas during the Great War. Another 675,000 died at home in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The nation mourned so often that the black dress crossed a threshold. In 1921, "The New Republic" wrote of how that piece of mourning attire had become a staple of the American woman's wardrobe.
To be honest, the motivation to build stadiums after World War I didn't emanate from a purely selfless place. Some campuses needed bigger places to play. Both Nebraska and Illinois had been yearning for a new stadium for some time. Each university hitched its drive to the national desire to remember the dead.
Illinois Memorial Stadium opened in 1923.
The initial grand plans dreamt up by Illinois athletic director George Huff and coach Bob Zuppke included memorial plazas on each side of the stadium flanked by towers with a campanile in front and 75,000 seats. The towers should be so high, Zuppke said, that a spotlight atop them "will illuminate the name of Illinois from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate."
Such plans would cost $2.5 million to execute. Financial reality reduced those plans to what $1.7 million could buy: 57,000 seats and the stately 22-foot columns that endure to this day.
On nearly every column is the name of an Illini alumnus who perished in the war. There are a few exceptions: One memorializes the Student Army Training Corps; one, the Student Navy Training Corps; and another, the unknown soldier.


Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost asked to dedicate a column to Curtis Redden, a Wolverines athlete and native of Illinois. Yost, like other donors who pledged $1,000, could choose the alum whose column he would sponsor. Those donors would be listed on bronze tablets at the end of the colonnade.
Among them was Jake Stahl, a two-sport star at Illinois who, as a player-manager, led the Boston Red Sox to their 1912 World Series victory. He died at age 43 of heart disease in 1922, a year before the Illini would play in the new stadium.
Not all of those with a stake in the memorial approved of honoring the donors. E.R. Branham, a local carpenter whose son Marcus, Class of '20, would be memorialized on one of the columns, wrote to university president David Kinley:
"I feel that as it is a memorial to the boys who fought to 'make the world safe for Democracy' that it should be as Democratic as possible and in that case it should treat all donors equal. In fact I think they should build the memorial and forget the donors," Branham wrote.
The university sent out a monthly newsletter updating the construction progress and hectoring donors who had fallen behind in fulfilling their pledges. The newsletter also included Illini athletic news. The September 1923 issue included a lengthy preview of the football team. Near the end came a list of the previous year's promising freshmen, now eligible for varsity play, their positions and weights. Among the halfbacks: "Grange, 165."
Illinois played games in the new stadium in 1923 as construction continued. Memorial Stadium wouldn't be dedicated until Friday, Oct. 17, 1924. The dedication is remembered more for what happened the next day against mighty Michigan, when junior Harold "Red" Grange put on one of the great displays in the history of the game.
Grange returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. His first five carries of the game included touchdown runs of 67, 56 and 44 yards -- all in the opening quarter. The Galloping Ghost accounted for six touchdowns in a 39-14 victory.
"Withdrawn from the game at the end of the first quarter completely exhausted from the sheer running, never mind the bumps and knocks, 70,000 spectators gave him a five-minute standing ovation, one of the greatest ever accorded an athlete," wrote the sports writer Paul Gallico.
That kind of performance would overshadow any ceremony, even one as stirring as Illinois held the previous day. Huff, the athletic director who traveled across the country to spearhead a fundraising campaign that would include 21,000 donors, reminded those gathered why the university had built the stadium.
"Standing here in the shadow of this everlasting monument," Huff said, "we can, and we will, resolve to keep alive that spirit which they so nobly exemplified in camp and on the field of battle."
The ceremony concluded when Lew Sarett, Illinois '16, read his "Ode to Illinois," a poem of seven stanzas that traced the history of the state from pioneer to that very day.
Know that the broken hosts
Of martial-moving ghosts,
Who gave to a warring world their last full breath,
And won to immortality in death,
Hovering in stadium shaft and tower height,
In memorial court and buttressed peak,
Shall watch for you, and speak
To you of Great Moments in a Greater Fight.
O Men of Illinois, in war and peace and play,
So may we live that when the crucial fight is won,
And the long race run,
These spirits of an elder day
Shall bend to each of us and say:
Well done! Well done!
Yours is the will to win. Well done, my prairie son.

They don't write 'em like that anymore.
The sentiments hearken to a less cynical time when the nation felt no ambiguity about the aims of the war. If anything, some of the sentiments could have used a dose of, if not cynicism, perspective.
Take the groundbreaking ceremony for Memorial Stadium at Nebraska, on April 26, 1923, when John R. Webster, a member of the Board of Regents, implored the athletes, "As you struggle in this arena, as charge across this field, we want you to have a vision of our boys in their more desperate charge in the Argonne Forest, and victory will surely be yours."
Webster may not have been aware that Oklahoma Sooners and Missouri Tigers died in France, too. His words would fade into history. To this day, any Cornhusker looking for perspective need only look upward. On the outside walls of Memorial Stadium are four inscriptions written by philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander, then a professor at Nebraska.
Alexander, as an undergraduate, had worked on a student publication with Willa Cather, who would become one of the great American writers of the early 20th century. Alexander's phrases would be captured in the stone of the state capitols of Nebraska and Oregon as well as in Rockefeller Center in New York. But his best-known work is carved into the stone of Memorial Stadium.
"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory," reads one.
"Their Lives they held their countrys trust; They kept its faith; They died its heroes," reads another.
The eloquence is not limited to Nebraska, to the soldiers who didn't return home, or even to the stadiums built in the 1920s. On the exterior of Memorial Stadium at Indiana, built in 1960, the dedication reads, "In honor of the sons and daughters of Indiana University who have served in the wars of the republic."
The stadiums stand to this day as living memorials, even as they have been enlarged, modernized and enlarged again. In Austin, the doughboy statue arrives Wednesday, 85 years after the stadium opened its gates. The university searched the country for a "used" doughboy, a statue whose commemoration had outlived its purpose. It's a credit to the nation that Texas gave up the search and commissioned a new sculpture.
Americans, it turns out, don't forget so easily.

Week 9 College Football TV Schedule and Kipers Big Board

2009 College Football TV Schedule: Week 9

Thursday, Oct. 29 Network Time (EST)
North Carolina at Virginia Tech ESPN 7:45 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 30 Network Time (EST)
West Virginia at South Florida ESPN2 8 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 31 Network Time (ET)
Indiana at Iowa ESPN Noon
Purdue at Wisconsin ESPN2 Noon
Cincinnati at Syracuse ESPN U Noon
New Mexico State at Ohio State Big Ten Noon
Mississippi at Auburn SEC 12:21 p.m.
Nebraska at Baylor Versus 12:30 p.m.
Missouri at Colorado FSN 1:30 p.m.
Miami (Fla.) at Wake Forest ABC 3:30 p.m.
Michigan at Illinois ABC 3:30 p.m.
Kansas at Texas Tech ABC 3:30 p.m.
California at Arizona State ABC 3:30 p.m.
Florida vs. Georgia CBS 3:30 p.m.
Central Michigan at Boston College ESPN U 3:30 p.m.
Temple at Navy CBS CS 3:30 p.m.
UNLV at TCU Versus 4 p.m.
Air Force at Colorado State MTN 4 p.m.
Penn State at Northwestern ESPN 4:30 p.m.
Kansas State at Oklahoma FSN 7 p.m.
Eastern Michigan at Arkansas ESPN U 7 p.m.
Notre Dane vs. Washington State NBC 7:30 p.m.
New Mexico at San Diego State CBS CS 7:30 p.m.
South Carolina at Tennessee ESPN 7:45 p.m.
Texas at Oklahoma State ABC 8 p.m.
USC at Oregon ABC 8 p.m.
Michigan State at Minnesota Big Ten 8 p.m.
Wyoming at Utah MTN 8 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 1 Network Time (EST)
Marshall at UCF ESPN 8:15 p.m.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/ncaa/09/02/tv-schedule-2009/index.html#ixzz0VKJNpx3Y
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Mel Kiper's Big Board as of 10-29-09
ESPN.com
Archive I'm going to talk about it at length in Behind the Big Board, but I'll state it here, as well: Dez Bryant is still going to be a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft, based on everything we know. Personnel people at the NFL level aren't going to see the heavy-handed punishment of the NCAA as a detriment. For that reason, he remains among my top 10.
Elsewhere, I added Joe Haden of Florida and Rolando McClain of Alabama to the Board this week. As I've said in the past, I like to wait for a junior to get high enough on the Board that I'd assume there is a greater chance he will stay in the draft before I add him. Both of these guys project as safely within the first round. Earlier, I wouldn't add juniors until they were safely in the top 15, but I'm adjusting that to include the the top 20 this week, which keeps Jahvid Best in the mix.


Ndamukong Suh DT 6-4 300 Analysis: Explosive, relentless and consistent. Last week: No. 1

Eric Berry DB 5-11 203 Analysis: Ultimate playmaker, in the Ed Reed mold. Last week: No. 2

Gerald McCoy DT 6-4 297 Analysis: Disruptive force. Productive NFL career ahead. Last week: No. 3

Taylor Mays S 6-3 235 Analysis: Linebacker size and cornerback speed. Last week: No. 4

Sam Bradford QB 6-4 223 Analysis: Has underrated arm, great feel for position; super-accurate. Last week: No. 5

College Football Week 7 Recap, Power Rankings, and Heisman Watch

Gameday Final
from www.espn.com
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- If we learned anything during the first half of the 2009 college football season, it's that even the best teams in the country have visible flaws.
Even Florida, the defending BCS national champion, doesn't yet look like a finished product.
Florida is ranked 67th in the nation in passing offense this season.
The Gators, who have won 16 games in a row, are having problems throwing the football down the field without departed receivers Percy Harvin and Louis Murphy. Truth be told, they don't run it particularly well, either -- unless quarterback Tim Tebow has the ball in his hands.
"We are what we need to be," Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio said Saturday night, after the Gators lost four fumbles and allowed six sacks in a 23-20 victory over Arkansas at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
The Gators will probably have to become more by season's end. Alabama, a 20-6 winner over South Carolina on Saturday night, looks like the most complete team in the country right now. Alabama and Florida played for the 2008 SEC championship and they seem to be on a collision course for Atlanta's Georgia Dome again.
"We're going to try to get better as an offense and try to capitalize in the red zone and not turn the ball over," Tebow said.
The Gators aren't alone in their apparent shortcomings. Texas is having problems running the ball, and Colt McCoy doesn't look comfortable standing in the pocket. Cincinnati might not have star quarterback Tony Pike for a while, and Iowa and USC seem to play to the level of their competition.
At least those teams remain in the BCS championship hunt. Virginia Tech's defense was exposed in its 28-23 loss at Georgia Tech, as the Yellow Jackets ran for 309 yards. And Ohio State was simply exposed in its 26-18 loss at Purdue, turning the ball over five times and running for only 66 yards.
While we might not yet know which team is college football's best in 2009, the second half of the season figures to be as exciting as the first seven weeks.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- He wasn't even the most ballyhooed member of Alabama's celebrated freshman class a year ago.
But early on, Alabama's Nick Saban knew what he had in Mark Ingram.
I remember asking Saban last August about freshmen who had caught his attention during the first part of preseason camp.
One of the first names out of his mouth was Ingram. I was surprised at the time. The only surprise now is how Ingram hasn't been a hotter commodity in the Heisman Trophy race.
That's about to change.
The 5-foot-10, 212-pound sophomore did everything but strike the pose Saturday night in No. 2-ranked Alabama's 20-6 win over No. 22-ranked South Carolina.
And really, Ingram didn't need to strike the pose. He was too busy running over, through and around South Carolina defenders on his way to a Bryant-Denny Stadium record 246 yards rushing on 24 carries.
If there's a better runner after contact in the country, I want to see him. So do his teammates after watching him grind out more than 100 of his yards after the initial hit.
For that matter, they're not sure there's a better runner -- period.
"I wouldn't trade him for anybody," Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy said. "I think he's the best running back in the country for what we ask him to do."

DALLAS -- Sam Bradford had wanted to play again in the favorite stadium of his youth, a place where he spent many idyllic fall afternoons with his father watching many previous Red River Rivalries.
But Bradford's return to the Cotton Bowl turned into a nightmare Saturday when he reinjured his right shoulder early in Texas' 16-13 victory over Oklahoma.
Sam Bradford's day was over early after reinjuring his shoulder.
It was an injury on the same shoulder that caused him to miss three games earlier this season with a sprained joint.
"It was the same shoulder as the one against BYU," Bradford said. "And it felt pretty much like it did against BYU."
Saturday's game turned for the Sooners on the first play of their second possession, when blitzing Texas cornerback Aaron Williams smashed into Bradford with a clean hit.
Bradford had not looked particularly sharp on his first drive, completing only 2 of 6 passes. But his confidence influenced how the Sooners played on the drive. And his 64-yard swing pass to DeMarco Murray -- the longest play of the game for either team -- was a result of the swagger the Oklahoma offense had when he was playing.
With leading receiver Ryan Broyles back and Bradford in control, it was the best offensive team the Sooners could play since before Bradford's injury.
But an unexpected blitz from Bradford's blind side changed all that.
It was a defense that Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said he hasn't called all season. With the idea that most teams would roll their protection packages for Sergio Kindle, he sent Williams from the left side, where he had a clear shot at Bradford.
"Nobody had seen that before," Texas safety Earl Thomas said. "I don't know if they were ready for it."
The result was a clean hit on Bradford that left him writhing in pain for nearly a minute on the field.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame has made a habit of walking tightropes at the end of games. After Saturday's literal last-second loss to No. 6 USC, the Irish performed a balancing act with their emotions.
Jimmy Clausen and Notre Dame have an uphill climb to reach a BCS bowl game.
In one heartbeat, the players could say they finally moved into the same zip code as USC, which had beaten Notre Dame by a combined score of 76-3 the past two years. No Irish team had come this close to the Trojans since 2005.
One pulse later, they would realize that there are no moral victories in South Bend. It's still a disheartening loss for a program seeking a validating victory under Charlie Weis, one that had put so much emphasis the past two weeks on ending the seven-game losing streak in this now-one-sided rivalry.
"It's tough," center Eric Olsen said, describing that inner balancing act. "At least it wasn't 38-0 again or a blowout. But at the same time, we're not in a conference, so we can't look forward to a conference championship. It's BCS or bust for us."
Olsen then acknowledged the grim reality for the 4-2 Fighting Irish: They almost certainly will have to win their last six games to get into consideration for a BCS berth. And even then, they would need some help.
"Anything is possible," he said. "I saw some of the scores around college football today. We'll have to run the table, and then it will be up to the polls."
There's not a ranked team left on the schedule, though Pittsburgh could well move into the Top 25 this week. An optimist would say this team can play with anyone in the country if it can battle the No. 6 Trojans to the final tick of the clock.

MADISON, Wis. -- At some point down the line, Iowa will need to showcase some style points.
Kirk Ferentz has his Hawkeyes in the driver's seat for a BCS bowl.
It's an unfortunate reality in a sport without a playoff. Winning simply isn't good enough. Teams are required to be flashy and dominant in victory, and as the Hawkeyes continue their path toward a possible undefeated season, they'll need to win pretty.
But Kirk Ferentz and his players don't care about that right now. They've developed a formula for both achieving success and handling it, and they're showing no signs of slowing down.
Iowa's latest example came in Saturday's 20-10 victory over Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium. For the sixth time in seven games, the Hawkeyes came from behind to win. For the second time in as many Big Ten road games, Iowa rallied from a 10-0 deficit in a hostile stadium.
They won Saturday with clutch third-and-long conversions and critical defensive stops.
They didn't show much leg, but they showed plenty of heart.
"We're certainly not the prettiest car in the lot," said Ferentz, whose team is off to its best start since 1985. "But that's OK. We're not going to be a big style-points team."

1. Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker came into the game against Penn State averaging nearly eight catches for 115 yards per game. The Nittany Lions held him to one reception for 42 yards. Blame the snow and the rain in State College. And the defense really did a number on Decker -- his own defense, that is, which couldn't get Penn State off the field. The Nittany Lions held the ball for 41:59 and, because of penalties, actually gained 101 yards on one of their two touchdown drives.

2. Three views of the friendship between quarterbacks Jimmy Clausen of Notre Dame and Matt Barkley of USC: 1. Barkley ran to Clausen to console him -- before the officials put :01 back on the clock. 2. Clausen's dad Jim told Trojans coach Pete Carroll after the game, "Tell Matt we're proud of him." 3. Barkley's vision of 2005 late in the game. "I actually thought, 'Is Jimmy going to be the next [Matt] Leinart with that fourth-quarter drive?'" Barkley said.

3. It's been five years since Ohio State lost to a team with a losing record (Northwestern). It's been 22 years since Ohio State lost to a team four games under .500 (2-6 Wisconsin). Yes, Purdue had played better than 1-5. Still, the Buckeyes' loss, coupled with Iowa's dominance at Wisconsin, is one more indicator of a power shift in the Big Ten. And the need for a power boost to the Ohio State offense.

Power Rankings
RK (LW) TEAM REC PTS COMMENT
1 (2) Alabama (13) 7-0 373 Alabama keeps asking more and more of Mark Ingram and he hasn't failed to deliver. The sophomore had a career-high 246 yards rushing and a TD to push the Tide over South Carolina 20-6.
2 (1) Florida (2) 6-0 362 It's not often Florida needs its kicker to save the day, but that was the case against Arkansas. Caleb Sturgis hit three FGs, including the game-winner with nine seconds remaining to push the Gators past the Hogs 23-20.
3 (3) Texas 6-0 344 It wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. Texas' defense terrorized a Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma offense to send the Longhorns to another win in the Red River Rivalry.
4 (5) USC 5-1 323 There was more drama than there needed to be, but USC slammed the door on Notre Dame when it mattered most. Matt Barkley turned in his best performance yet as a Trojan with 380 yards passing and two TDs.
5 (8) Cincinnati 6-0 296 The good news: Cincinnati met its biggest challenge yet with a 34-17 win on the road against South Florida. The bad news: Tony Pike was forced to the sidelines with an arm injury and is questionable for Saturday's game against Louisville.
6 (10) Iowa 7-0 291 Every week it looks more likely that this is going to be a special season for Iowa. The Hawkeyes erased a 10-point deficit on the road to beat Wisconsin 20-10. They stay on the road Saturday with a visit to Michigan State.
7 (6) Boise State 6-0 285 Tulsa put quite a fright into Boise State in the Wednesday night midweek matchup, but the Broncos remained unbeaten with a 28-21 win. A trip to Hawaii is next.
8 (9) Miami (FL) 5-1 273 A 27-7 win over Central Florida moved Miami to 5-1 for the first time since 2005. The Hurricanes return to their ACC slate on Saturday with a visit from Clemson.
9 (11) TCU 6-0 251 It's hard to believe after looking at the final score, but Colorado State actually led TCU 6-0 after the first quarter. But the Horned Frogs responded with 44 unanswered points the rest of the way for the blowout win.
10 (12) LSU 5-1 237 LSU had a week off to digest its Week 6 loss to Florida. The Tigers get back in action with a two-game homestand against Auburn and Tulane.
11 (13) Oregon 5-1 227 Oregon was off over the weekend, but rose from last week's standings after a couple of top-10 teams fell. The Ducks will try to avoid the same fate as USC when they travel to Washington on Saturday.
12 (20) Georgia Tech 6-1 225 Few teams impressed more over the weekend than Georgia Tech. Josh Nesbitt rushed for 122 yards and three TDs in the Yellow Jackets' win over Virginia Tech. Up next: a visit to Virginia, the only unbeaten team in ACC play. And no, that's not a typo.
13 (4) Virginia Tech 5-2 194 Virginia Tech tried mounting a late comeback but came up short in a 28-23 loss to Georgia Tech. The Hokies will be happy to see the last of Atlanta after losses to Alabama and the Yellow Jackets dashed their title hopes.
14 (15) Penn State 6-1 180 The Big Ten's stingiest defense held Minnesota to just 138 yards and no points in a 20-0 win. The Nittany Lions now gear up for a two-game road trip against Michigan and Northwestern.
15 (18) Oklahoma State 5-1 160 Oklahoma State scored 19 unanswered points to earn a comeback victory at Missouri, 33-17. Keith Toston and Hubert Anyiam picked up the offensive slack for the Cowboys with Dez Bryant and Kendall Hunter out.
16 (19) Brigham Young 6-1 153 Max Hall's 346 passing yards and three TDs helped earn BYU a 38-28 win over San Diego State -- its 500th win in school history. The Cougars host TCU on Saturday in a battle of MWC unbeatens.
17 (23) Houston 5-1 120 Houston opened Conference USA play with a 44-16 win over Tulane behind Case Keenum's 334 passing yards and two TDs. The Cougars host SMU on Saturday.
18 (25) Pittsburgh 6-1 113 Pitt got an early start to Week 7 with a Friday night win over Rutgers. The Panthers' freshman sensation Dion Lewis rushed for 180 yards and two TDs in the win -- the third time in seven games he's rushed for more than 150 yards.
19 (27) Utah 5-1 97 Utah won its third straight game -- 35-15 over UNLV -- since losing to Oregon on Sept. 19. The Utes are still unbeaten in MWC play and face a three-game homestand starting with Air Force on Saturday.
20 (7) Ohio State 5-2 87 Five turnovers (four by Terrelle Pryor) doomed Ohio State in a crushing, 26-18 loss to Purdue. The Buckeyes can forget about a national title and instead focus on the Big Ten crown, starting Saturday with a visit from Minnesota.
21 (29) West Virginia 5-1 52 West Virginia dropped Marshall over the weekend behind Noel Devine's 103 rushing yards and two TDs. QB Jarrett Brown is listed as day to day after suffering a helmet-to-helmet hit.
22 (NR) Texas Tech 5-2 51 Texas Tech raced to a 21-0 lead over Nebraska and never looked back in a 31-10 win. QB Steven Sheffield led the Red Raiders to their third straight win since a loss at Houston on Sept. 26.
23 (22) South Carolina 5-2 36 South Carolina's four-game winning streak came to an end in Tuscaloosa, as the Gamecocks couldn't muster enough offensively to overcome Alabama. They'll look to get back above .500 in the SEC with a visit from Vanderbilt on Saturday.
24 (16) Oklahoma 3-3 35 It's rare that a three-loss team appears in these rankings in October, but not too many teams have lost to the caliber of teams OU has. But the bad luck continues to pile on for the Sooners, as Sam Bradford reinjured his shoulder in the loss to Texas.
25 (21) South Florida 5-1 23 Despite Tony Pike's absence for most of the second half, South Florida couldn't slow down Cincinnati's offense enough as the Bulls suffered their first loss 34-17. They'll face another unbeaten Big East team Saturday with a visit to Pitt.
25 (17) Kansas 5-1 23 Kansas almost saved its perfect record after mounting a furious comeback in Colorado. But the Jayhawks fell short, 34-30 in a loss they may live to regret as their schedule only gets tougher from here on out.

Heisman Rankings After Week 7
www.sportsline.com
1. Mark Ingram, Alabama, RB, Soph.
Last week: 24 rushes, 246 yards, 1 TD; 2 receptions, 23 yards in a 20-6 victory over No. 22 South Carolina

Season: 135 rushes, 905 yards, 8 TDs; 19 receptions, 186 yards, 3 TDs

Heisman-o-meter: As Saturday afternoon rolled into Saturday night, and each of the top Heisman candidates did little to help their cases, I began to worry that maybe we'd not award the Halfway Heisman Trophy this year. Then along came Ingram, who turned in a special rushing performance and vaulted into the top spot. He dazzled against a Gamecocks defense that really didn't have to worry about getting beat by quarterback Greg McElroy. Ingram (who went out early in the game with what looked like a serious leg or knee injury) ran with power, shiftiness and explosiveness, but, most importantly, timeliness. With 7:55 left in the game and Alabama up 13-6, Ingram took the ball on all six of the Tide's plays (the first five out of the Wildcat) and ran the ball right at South Carolina for 68 yards and the game-sealing touchdown. The performance capped a brilliant first half of the season for Ingram.

Up next: Saturday vs. Tennessee

2. Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska, DT, Sr.
Last week: 4 tackles, 4 solo; 2 tackles for loss; 4 quarterback hurries in a 31-10 loss to Texas Tech

Season: 36 tackles, 19 solo; 9 tackles for loss; 3 sacks; 1 interception; 7 passes broken up; 9 quarterback hurries; 1 forced fumble

Heisman-o-meter: How, you ask, can The Watch still have Suh at No. 2 after his defense allowed 31 points in a loss to Texas Tech? Just watch the first half on Saturday. He was his disruptive self, applying pressure, occupying double teams and generally wreaking havoc up front. Early in the game, he forced quarterback Steven Sheffield into an intentional grounding penalty and later had a crushing tackle on the quarterback. Then, on three straight plays, at the end of the half, Suh was able to apply pressure on each one, helping hold Tech to a field goal. In the second half the Red Raiders did a better job controlling him, and their quick passing game nullified much of his strengths. Overall, the Nebraska defense didn't play all that poorly in allowing 24 points to the country's No. 2 scoring offense (seven of Tech's points came from a defensive score), but the Huskers' offense couldn't hold up their end, which is why The Watch will not penalize Suh for the loss.

Up next: Saturday vs. Iowa State

3. Tim Tebow, Florida, QB, Sr.
Last week: 17-of-26 passing, 255 yards, 1 TD; 27 rushes, 69 yards in a 23-20 victory over Arkansas

Season: 72-of-110 passing, 1,032 yards, 8 TDs, 2 INTs; 99 rushes, 378 yards, 5 TDs

Heisman-o-meter: There are many anti-Tebow readers who claim the Florida quarterback should be nowhere near the top of this list, citing his pedestrian stat line in comparison to others. But Tebow's value cannot be measured in numbers alone. Take Saturday's game, for instance: With Florida's undefeated season and 15-game winning streak at stake, and his team trailing 20-13, Tebow drove the Gators 67 and 69 yards for two scores to pull out the win. On the team's final drive, he converted a clutch third-and-10 to Riley Cooper and added 22 important yards on the ground. It's not just what Tebow does but when he does it that makes him unique. (But if you ask me, yes, the two fumbles and six sacks were ugly.)

Up next: Saturday at Mississippi State

4. Golden Tate, Notre Dame, WR, Jr.
Last week: 8 receptions, 117 yards, 2 TDs; 1 rush, 3 yards; 1 punt return, 2 yards; 3 kickoff returns, 62 yards in a 34-27 loss to No. 6 USC

Season: 41 receptions, 719 yards, 6 TDs; 14 rushes, 96 yards, 1 TD; 5 punt returns, 39 yards; 3 kickoff returns, 62 yards

Heisman-o-meter: Every week there seems to be a different receiver on this list. Remember Dez Bryant, A.J. Green and Jordan Shipley? This week it's Tate, who has been on the verge of cracking The Watch for a while. He has been an all-purpose threat all season, and on Saturday he was terrific, coming down with a jump-ball touchdown catch in double coverage, among his many highlights. He was such a threat that, on Notre Dame's final play, USC brought a safety to help out on the coverage, forcing quarterback Jimmy Clausen to go elsewhere. His team may have lost, but it wasn't because of Tate.

Up next: Saturday vs. Boston College

5. Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame, QB, Jr.
Last week: 24-of-43 passing, 260 yards, 2 TDs; 9 rushes, minus-4 yards, 1 TD in a 34-27 loss to No. 6 USC

Season: 124-of-191 passing, 1,804 yards, 14 TDs, 2 INTs; 32 rushes, minus-49 yards, 1 TD

Heisman-o-meter: Clausen had a tough first half against USC, throwing for just 47 passing yards. And he didn't pull off the signature victory that his Heisman candidacy badly needed, though he sure did make it exciting. The bottom line is this: He has been very good this season (and gutty too, playing on that turf toe), but it is hard to justify voting for a quarterback whose best win came over Michigan State. And a remaining schedule that may have one ranked opponent on it (Pittsburgh) is unlikely to change that.

Up next: Saturday vs. Boston College

College Football Weekly Round-Up

To celebrate the return from injury of Heisman Trophy winners Tim Tebow of Florida and Sam Bradford of Oklahoma on Saturday, teams across the nation employed the return -- of kickoffs, punts and interceptions -- as the focal point of their victories.
So much of the appeal of college football is captured by the return. The financial and emotional foundation of the sport depends on graduates returning to campus. There's no other way to fill 100,000-seat stadiums. Thirteen FBS schools have hired former players to return to their alma mater as head coach.
Bradford and Tebow returned to the field after being helped off it earlier this season. You could see Bradford scrape off the rust as the Sooners' 33-7 defeat of Baylor progressed. By the end of his 27-for-49, 389-yard performance, Bradford didn't look like a quarterback playing his first full game of the season.
The effect of Tebow's return on the Gators in their 13-3 road victory isn't fully captured by his statistics (11-16-1, 134 yards, one touchdown passing; 17 carries for 38 yards). It could be seen in the rush of high fives and hugs he gave when he ran onto the field before the game.
The returns of Bradford and Tebow didn't cause many hearts to pound. Elsewhere, one team after another demonstrated why the return is the most exciting play in the game. Returns captivate because they include instant excitement, open-field running and sudden change.
No. 2 Texas pulled away from stubborn Colorado for a 38-14 victory when, in a seven-minute swatch of the second half, Earl Thomas returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown and Jordan Shipley took a punt back 74 yards for a score.
No. 9 Ohio State took two interceptions and a kickoff for three of its four touchdowns in a 31-13 victory over previously unbeaten Wisconsin.
Kenjon Barner jump-started a lethargic No. 13 Oregon by taking the second-half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown at UCLA. Just 13 seconds later, junior Talmadge Jackson III, one of the few healthy corners the Ducks have, returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown. Oregon scored 21 points in less than four minutes and cruised to a 24-10 victory.
All those returns qualified as instant highlights for the day. At Washington, however, linebacker Mason Foster made a play that will show up on the ESPYS. The Huskies scored with 2:55 to play to pull within 33-28 of the Wildcats. On first down, Arizona quarterback Nick Foles' pass caromed backward off the foot of Delashaun Dean into the arms of Foster. He spun around and took the prize 37 yards for a touchdown that left the fans at Husky Stadium positively giddy.
"It's something that we've been talking about," Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. "Just keep playing."

NORMAN, Okla. -- The numbers had barely been taken down from the scoreboard after Oklahoma's victory Saturday before the Sooners were talking about Texas and their date with the Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl next week.
The Sooners' two disappointing one-point losses earlier this season robbed them of much of their national credibility and dropped them to No. 19 in the country.
A 33-7 victory over Baylor might not turn many heads nationally. But the Sooners might not mind that too much.
"With them being undefeated, everybody will pick them to blow us out," Oklahoma cornerback Dominique Franks said. "But if we can go out there and play our game, we'll be fine. We're still a great team and just need to go out and prove it."
There are several areas of concern for the Sooners. Four drives inside the red zone resulted in field goals. Baylor blistered them for 262 yards passing. And while the Sooners rolled up 203 rushing yards, 178 of those yards came in the second half.
Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said the Sooners can't win against Texas playing like they did Saturday.
"We played well, but there were a lot of little things that we gave up," McCoy said. "We've got to be better to beat a team the caliber of Texas."

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Bobby Bowden's week started with the chairman of Florida State's board of trustees calling for a coaching change.
After falling to Georgia Tech, Bobby Bowden faces some tough decisions.
Bowden's week ended the same way it has each of the past three Saturdays: with his Seminoles losing another game. FSU's third loss in a row will only fuel debate about whether one of college football's greatest coaches should step down after his 34th season at the school.
Florida State's defense never figured out how to stop No. 22 Georgia Tech's vaunted triple-option offense in a 49-44 loss at Doak Campbell Stadium. The Yellow Jackets had a whopping 401 rushing yards. Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt ran for 140 yards and three touchdowns and added a scoring pass, helping the Yellow Jackets pull away in the second half.
Florida State lost to an opponent from a BCS conference for the fourth straight time and fell to 2-4, 0-3 in ACC play. It is the Seminoles' worst start since going 2-4 in 1976, which was Bowden's first season in Tallahassee. His first season was also the only losing campaign in his illustrious FSU career.
"I think the critics will keep criticizing," Bowden said. "The good folks won't."
Bowden, 79, could silence his critics by simply walking away at the end of the season, which some suggest he should have done a long time ago.

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Maybe everything changed for Iowa when Daniel Murray's toe struck the football on that frigid November night against No. 3 Penn State.
Before Murray's kick sailed through the uprights, Iowa couldn't buy a close win. The Hawkeyes had lost 11 of their previous 13 games decided by five points or fewer, including four contests during the 2008 season. The sour streak stretched all the way back to the 2005 Capital One Bowl, the final game of a magical three-year run for Kirk Ferentz's team.
But since the Penn State upset Nov. 8, Iowa has been fail-safe in tight games. The Hawkeyes have won four straight games decided by five points or fewer, including Saturday night's 30-28 triumph against Michigan.
Suddenly, clutch is spelled I-O-W-A.
"We know we can do it," Murray said. "That's the main thing, is believing in yourself. Until you can get that elusive first one, it's harder to believe in yourself. For a while, we knew we'd get close and I don't know if people thought we'd screw it up somehow, but we're finally getting to the point where we can actually be comfortable in those tight situations."
The clutch play has sparked Iowa to its first 6-0 start since 1985. The Hawkeyes own a 10-game win streak, the second longest in the country and the team's longest in Ferentz's 11-year tenure.
Iowa should be sniffing the top 10 on Sunday, and as the Big Ten's only unbeaten team, there are lofty goals on the table. Things don't get much easier with upcoming trips to rival Wisconsin and surging Michigan State, but the Hawkeyes are starting to believe.

One year ago in December, undefeated Alabama and 11-1 Florida met for the SEC championship in a de facto national championship semifinal game, with the winner (Florida) going on to play for and winning the BCS title the next month. This season, many expected Florida to be right back in position and Alabama to be good, but challengers LSU and Ole Miss were lining up in August for a shot. On Saturday, the Gators and Crimson Tide went on the road in the SEC and disposed of LSU and Ole Miss. Halfway through the season, we are staring at a repeat Florida-Alabama SEC title game/national semifinal matchup, with a good chance both teams will be undefeated.
Florida survived its toughest date on the schedule, and barring a huge upset should cruise to Atlanta at 12-0. The Gators' remaining home games are vs. Arkansas, Vanderbilt, FIU and struggling rival FSU. The road tilts are only interesting because they are against former Florida coaches in Mississippi State (former offensive coordinator Dan Mullen) and South Carolina (Steve Spurrier). Of course, there is always the neutral-site party versus Georgia, but in case you missed it, the Bulldogs fell to 3-3 with a 26-point loss to Tennessee on Saturday.

Florida's remaining games
Home: Arkansas, Vanderbilt, FIU, FSU
Away: Miss State, South Carolina
Neutral site: Georgia (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Looking at Alabama's remaining games, the Tide have three games with teams that entered the weekend ranked, but two of them are at home. LSU and South Carolina come to Tuscaloosa, while the big test could be the Iron Bowl at Auburn. However, much like Georgia, Auburn was blown out Saturday as well. The game versus LSU will most likely decide the West, but this is the same Tigers team that barely beat Mississippi State and Georgia and scored three points Saturday night at home. Tennessee, Miss State and Chattanooga fill out Alabama's schedule.

Alabama's remaining games
Home: South Carolina, LSU, Tennessee, Chattanooga
Away: Miss State, Auburn

On any given Saturday, either the Gators or Crimson Tide could lay an egg and lose, but each will be heavily favored in almost every game the rest of the way. And it's not like anyone should be surprised: Florida and Alabama have already met six times to decide the SEC title since 1992, with at least one of the teams ranked in the top 10 in every matchup.

3 Things We Learned from this Past Week
1. "The Road," a film coming out next month, is a scary postapocalyptic place where thoughts rarely stray beyond the simple act of survival. (No, it wasn't filmed at LSU.) The road in college football isn't as frightening as the film. But conference victories by Florida, Alabama, Oregon and TCU at the other guys' houses can't be underlined enough. That's what champions do.

2. Ask any Iowa Hawkeyes fan which is the most magical victory of that magical 1985 Rose Bowl season, and the answer will be the 12-10 victory No. 1 Iowa gained over No. 2 Michigan. That victory became so iconic that if it's not taught in the public schools, it should be. On Saturday, No. 12 Iowa beat Michigan by the same margin, 30-28, for its first 6-0 start since 1985. Neither team is as highly ranked, but if you like omens …

3. We all take for granted that Boise State will be atop the WAC. But the rest of the league is going through quite a transition. Idaho, which began the season with 23 victories in this decade, has reached the halfway point with a 5-1 record, 3-1 on the road. New Mexico State, under first-year coach DeWayne Walker, is 3-3. And Hawaii, which played in the Sugar Bowl two seasons ago, is 0-2 in the WAC for the first time since 2001.


ACC
Wake Forest is the team to beat in the Atlantic Division, and emotion can't overcome X's and O's.
Big 12
Texas and Oklahoma need to improve their running games -- fast. But is Kansas the nation's worst undefeated team?
Big East
West Virginia isn't going away quietly, and Pitt's running game can be special.
Big Ten
Jim Heacock's defense once again has made the Buckeyes the team to beat in the Big Ten.
Pac-10
Oregon State is back, and so is Jacquizz Rodgers. Plus, there's no reason to doubt Oregon's defense any longer.
SEC
There's no doubt which the best two teams in the SEC are. We had a pretty good idea going into Saturday's games. Now we know for sure.

Non-AQ: Ever since coach Dave Christensen named freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels the starting quarterback, Wyoming has been unstoppable.
Around the nation

College Football Week 4 Recap and Rankings

COULD THIS BE THE PLAY OF THE YEAR????

The AP Top 25 Rank
1. Florida (55) 4-0 1,490
2. Texas (1) 4-0 1,420
3. Alabama (4) 4-0 1,400
4. LSU 4-0 1,225
5. Boise St. 4-0 1,203
6. Virginia Tech 3-1 1,190
7. Southern Cal 3-1 998
8. Oklahoma 2-1 979
9. Ohio St. 3-1 957
10. Cincinnati 4-0 946
11. TCU 3-0 896
12. Houston 3-0 844
13. Iowa 4-0 788
14. Oklahoma St. 3-1 591
15. Penn St. 3-1 470
16. Oregon 3-1 462
17. Miami 2-1 452
18. Georgia 3-1 418
18. Kansas 4-0 418
20. BYU 3-1 349
21. Mississippi 2-1 340
22. Michigan 4-0 271
23. Nebraska 3-1 256
24. California 3-1 206
25. Georgia Tech 3-1 185



Buckeyes defense earning respect with shutouts
www.cbssportsline.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- This was supposed to be an Ohio State team that needed its offense to carry the burden until the defense was on its feet.
That couldn't have been more wrong. In fact, the reverse might be true.
The Buckeyes (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) are playing like they haven't missed seven departing starters, including three-time All-American linebacker James Laurinaitis, cornerback Malcolm Jenkins and linebacker Marcus Freeman.
"It starts with we've got great players," coach Jim Tressel said. "Our defensive guys do a fabulous job preparing. They spend lots and lots of time. They take a lot of pride in making sure that they can uphold that tradition. They play hard."
The defense never permitted Illinois -- a team that scored 48 points on the Buckeyes the last two years with Juice Williams at quarterback -- to get inside the Ohio State 29 in a 30-0 pasting on Saturday. It was the Buckeyes' second shutout in a row, the first time that's happened in 13 years.
Sure, it was raining hard for most of the game. But holding the Illini to just 2.7 yards per play and 170 total yards was impressive. The Buckeyes climbed four spots to No. 9 in the latest Associated Press Top 25.
The loss led to some serious introspection by the Illini, who mustered just nine points in a lopsided loss to Missouri to open the season before walloping Bowl Championship Series opponent Illinois State two weeks ago. Judging from their meager attack, it's hard to imagine that the Illini had two weeks to prepare for Ohio State.
No wonder wide receiver Arrelious Benn was at a loss to explain his unit's anemic effort.
"I'm just clueless. I don't know what it is," he said. "We chip and chip our way down the field and then [have] a costly penalty or interception. It's really frustrating. We didn't even put up a field goal."
Tressel said everything starts up front with his defense, but the back seven are also playing exceedingly well.
"When you can control the trenches, which thus far we've done a pretty good job with that, you've got a very good chance," he said. "[Then] you've got guys in the back end that are very disciplined and do what they're supposed to do. They know that the other guys are going to be putting some pressure on the opposing quarterback."
The Buckeyes registered five sacks. When the Illini tried to pass, the primary receiver was seldom open and there were seldom other places to look.
"We knew the rain would affect the passing game," Ohio State safety Kurt Coleman said. "The key to our defense against Juice was to limit what he could do. We wanted to get on him as quickly as we could."
Williams was 13 of 25 for 77 yards with two interceptions, while McGee was 2 for 4 for 11 yards with one pick. The running game wasn't a threat, mustering just 82 yards on 34 carries.
"We wanted to make them one-dimensional," said linebacker Austin Spitler.
Spitler spent the last three years in the shadows, occasionally getting in for a play at linebacker when Laurinaitis would take a break.
"It has to do with a mindset of being scrappy," the graduate student said. "[The opponent] can drive, but we never give in."
No one in the Buckeyes locker room was getting ahead of themselves. It was only the Big Ten opener; the bulk of the season is still ahead.
But with games at Indiana, home with Wisconsin, at Purdue, home with Minnesota and nonconference foe New Mexico State the next five weeks, the Buckeyes have plenty of time to fine-tune their offense if the defense keeps playing like this.
Then come games at Penn State, at home against Iowa and the annual season-ender against Michigan, this time in Ann Arbor.
"We owe our defense," Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor said. "They're really something."

Week 4 What We Learned
www.espn.com

ACC
Virginia Tech is still King of the Coastal. Miami had a chance to unseat the defending conference champs and couldn't do it. The Hokies were the ones who played like a top-10 team, not Miami. Now the Canes, Georgia Tech and North Carolina all have a division loss. The Hokies still have to play Georgia Tech and North Carolina, so that can change the hierarchy in that division, but Virginia Tech will hold the tiebreaker over Miami if it's necessary in November. The Hokies have won three out of the past five ACC titles and can win another if they continue to play complete games like they did on Saturday against Miami.


Big 12
Texas A&M's defense is improved, but still untested. It would be hard to imagine a more valuable player for them than hybrid linebacker/defensive end Von Miller, who has produced a nation-leading eight sacks after three games. The Aggies lead the nation with 14 sacks after producing 16 in 12 games last season. Despite that strong early start, the A&M defense will get a heavy dose of reality Saturday when they face Ryan Mallett and Arkansas in Arlington, Texas, their toughest challenge to date.

Big East
South Florida is back in the national picture. Here we go again with the Bulls. Another undefeated September, another marquee nonconference win. It remains to be seen whether South Florida can get through the grind of a Big East season. But with young players like quarterback B.J. Daniels and receiver Sterling Griffin, this team has a lot of room to grow offensively. And if the defense plays the way it did in a suffocating 17-7 win at Florida State, South Florida can beat just about anybody.


Big Ten
Iowa is for real. Some Hawkeyes fans might have misinterpreted my postgame commentary. True, Penn State made mistakes Saturday night, but Iowa forced them with terrific defense and special teams. The Hawkeyes put themselves squarely in the Big Ten title mix with Ohio State by stunning the Nittany Lions for the seventh time in eight tries. Defense and special teams are the formula for success on the road, and Iowa executed both areas to perfection in the first of four challenging Big Ten away games. It's hard to imagine a defensive line in the country playing better than Iowa's.


Pac-10
Oregon might get the last laugh. How good a weekend did Oregon fans have? The Ducks rolled sixth-ranked California 42-3. Oregon State lost. Washington lost. Both sets of rival fans had been taking shots at the Ducks ever since they went rear-end-over-tea-kettle at Boise State. Even after a pair of quality victories, the latter one ending No. 18 Utah's 16-game winning streak, some were grumbling about new coach Chip Kelly and quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. The guess here is there will be no grumbling this week, at least on the Ducks' side of things. Of course, Pac-10 front-runners haven't been terribly secure of late.


SEC
Overrated until proven otherwise. LSU and Ole Miss are both overrated. There's no other way to say it. The difference between the two teams is that LSU is overrated and still unbeaten. Ole Miss is overrated and coming off a loss in its SEC opener. LSU coach Les Miles called the Tigers "vulnerable" following their 30-26 escape at Mississippi State, and he's right. I'd go as far as to say they're very beatable unless they find their running games and start playing with more consistency in all areas. And until Ole Miss gets its issues straightened out on offense, namely its pass protection and a passing game in general that's gone south thanks to Jevan Snead's slow start, the Rebels are also a team that looks extremely beatable and nothing like a top-10 team nationally.


Non-AQ
Houston's not a pretender. Even going into Saturday's game against Texas Tech there were questions about whether Houston was a fluke. The Cougars proved themselves to be contenders with a come-from-behind 29-28 victory. But the Cougars aren't out of the woods yet. Now, they go on a three-game road stint that includes games at UTEP, Mississippi State and Tulane.


Notre Dame
These guys sure aren't boring. You can certainly question whether Notre Dame's ability merits the attention it receives. But you can't argue that the Fighting Irish aren't entertaining. For the third straight week, their game came down to a play in the final minute, this time after a hobbling Jimmy Clausen led them on a touchdown drive that culminated with a pass to Kyle Rudolph with 24 seconds to go. There's no leaving a Notre Dame game early to beat the traffic.

Winners and Losers from Week 3 of College Football

WINNERS AND LOSERS
This is a great article on the week in review from the college football week!
Tom Dienhart
Rivals.com College Football Senior Writer

One week, Washington ends the nation's longest losing streak. The next week, the Huskies shock the world by knocking off No. 3 USC, 16-13.
Jake Locker drove the Huskies 63 yards for to set up the game-winning field goal.
It's the kind of win on which Washington coach Steve Sarkisian can build a program. And there is a lot of construction to do at a school that hasn't been to the postseason since a trip to the 2002 Sun Bowl.
The win is even sweeter for Sarkisian, who took the Washington job after serving on the USC staff from 2005-08, with the last two as offensive coordinator.
The Huskies' Erik Folk booted a 22-yard field goal with three seconds left to help UW secure the improbable triumph. It is the second year in a row USC has lost its Pac-10 opener a week after beating Ohio State.
Now, the question can be asked without fear: Has USC underachieved under Pete Carroll ?
Think about it. Since the Trojans lost the BCS title game to Texas after the 2005 season, USC has failed to get back to the championship game despite arguably having the most talent of any school in the nation.
In 2006, USC lost at Oregon State (33-31) and at UCLA (13-9).
In 2007, USC got dumped at home by 41-point underdog Stanford (24-23) in arguably the biggest upset in college football history.
In 2008, USC was clipped at Oregon State (27-21).
Now, this: a humiliating loss to a Washington team that entered the season with a 14-game losing streak that was the longest in the nation.

The Heisman 5
1. Tim Tebow, Florida
2. Colt McCoy, Texas
3. Jahvid Best, California
4. Daryll Clark, Penn State
5. Case Keenum, Houston

Credit Washington defensive coordinator Nick Holt, who was the defensive coordinator at USC before joining Sarkisian at Washington. The Huskies held the Trojans to 360 yards, but only 110 of those came in the air. It was the worst passing game in the Carroll era.
Make no mistake about it: This is a one-dimensional USC offense that is all-run and no pass. Redshirt freshman quarterback Aaron Corp started for an injured Matt Barkley, who missed the game with a bruised shoulder.
Corp completed just 13 of 22 passes for 110 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. USC also lost two fumbles and was 0-for-10 on third-down conversions. Unless USC's passers improve, the Trojans might be in peril of not winning at least a share of the Pac-10 title for the first time since 2001, Carroll's first season. USC still has games at Cal, at Notre Dame and at Oregon.
Conversely, Washington is rolling behind quarterback Jake Locker, who completed 21 of 35 passes for 237 yards. The victory over the Trojans is Washington's second in a row (it opened with a 31-23 home loss to LSU but rebounded to beat Idaho, 42-23, last Saturday) and has the Huskies thinking about being a Pac-10 contender. Washington plays at Stanford next Saturday before traveling to Notre Dame.



Winners
Oregon: Credit Chip Kelly for keeping his team together after the Ducks debuted with a thud in a 19-8 loss at Boise State. Oregon rebounded to squeak out a 38-36 win over Purdue last week and dumped Utah today, ending the Utes' national-best 16-game winning streak. Now, Oregon has a big showdown vs. Cal next Saturday.

Virginia Tech: Quarterback Tyrod Taylor looked awful all day vs. Nebraska. He had minus 14 yards rushing and completed just 12 of 27 passes for 193 yards with one touchdown. But he hit Danny Coale for an 80-yard gain to the Nebraska 3-yard line with less than two minutes to go and followed with a touchdown strike to Dyrell Roberts with less than 30 seconds remaining to lead Tech to a 16-15 win over Nebraska and keep the Hokies' faint national title hopes alive.

The Mighty MAC: First, Toledo whips Colorado. Then, Central Michigan dumps Michigan State. This week, Northern Illinois tops Purdue. This is further proof of what we always knew: The top-tier MAC teams are as good - or better - than the middle of the pack and lower-level Big Ten teams.

Colorado: Much-maligned Dan Hawkins earned a reprieve for at least one week by posting a win over Wyoming. Trips to West Virginia and Texas are next, followed by a visit from Kansas.

Landry Jones: The Oklahoma quarterback is doing his best impression of injured Sam Bradford. Jones completed 25 of 37 passes for 336 yards with six touchdown passes (an FBS freshman record) in a 45-0 win over Tulsa. OU is off next week before going to Miami. The Sooners are still in the national title hunt.

Charlie Weis: Some feel this 33-30 win over Michigan State was the biggest of his tenure. No doubt, it quells some of the pain of last week's defeat at Michigan. But the temperature of Weis' fanny only has gone from "inferno" to "blazing hot."

Jahvid Best: The Cal star is the nation's top running back. Best may be the top player in America. His latest gem: 132 yards and five TDs in a 35-21 win at Minnesota.

Georgia QB Joe Cox. He tied a school record with five touchdown passes in a 52-41 win at Arkansas, leading the Bulldogs to a second shootout win in two weeks following a wild, 41-37 victory over South Carolina. How did Georgia lose to Oklahoma State ?

TCU/Boise State/Houston: BYU's loss to Florida State and Utah's defeat at Oregon means these are the three non-Big Six schools with the best shot of being a BCS buster.

Florida State. Did the Seminoles really just edge past Jacksonville State last week, 19-9? The Seminoles looked like a national title contender in dismantling BYU, 54-28.

Washington State. You can call the Cougars a lot of things, but you can't call them "losers." At least not on this day, as Wazzu toppled SMU, 30-27, in overtime in what likely will be Washington State's lone win of the season.

Gene Chizik. Yes, he was 5-19 in two years at Iowa State. He is now 3-0 at Auburn.

Big East: Led by Cincinnati's 28-18 win at Oregon State, the Big East posted a 6-2 mark. The losses were tough as Louisville (at Kentucky) and West Virginia (at Auburn) fell. The impressive wins: Pitt 27, Navy 14; UConn 30, Baylor 22; Syracuse 37, Northwestern 34.



LOSERS

Florida: Yes, the Gators beat Tennessee, 23-13, but Florida was supposed to stuff it down Lane Kiffin's mouth and make a massive statement as the nation's best team. It didn't happen. Credit Kiffin's smart play-calling and a strong effort by the Vols defense.

The national title aspirations of Max Hall and BYU were squashed by Florida State.
BYU: National title aspirations disappeared. And any BCS bowl hopes ended. The Cougars' ugly 54-28 home loss to Florida State means it's time to start dreaming about the ... Las Vegas Bowl?

Utah: Just like that, the Utes' national-best 16-game winning streak ended in a 31-24 loss at Oregon. Oh, and any dreams Utah had of playing in a BCS bowl also are finished.

Nebraska: It was right there for Bo Pelini, his first signature win as Cornhuskers coach. But the Big Red defense broke down late to allow Virginia Tech to score the game-winning touchdown with less than two minutes to go to escape with a 16-15 home win. It was Nebraska's 21st loss in its last 22 games to top 20 teams.

Purdue: The Boilermakers' rebuilding job under rookie coach Danny Hope took a big step back with a humiliating home loss to Northern Illinois. Will 1-1 Purdue win another game? Maybe not.

Louisville: This 31-27 loss at Kentucky hurts Cardinals coach Steve Kragthorpe, whose team was driving for the winning score in the waning minutes when Louisville quarterback Justin Burke was intercepted. UK has now won three in a row over U of L. Up next is a trip to Utah followed by a visit from Pitt.

Baylor: The Bears got dumped at home by Connecticut, 30-22. That Baylor win at Wake Forest seems like it happened 100 years ago. The Bears are trying to end a bowl-less skein that stretches to 1994.

Big Ten: Purdue got beat by Northern Illinois; Northwestern became Syracuse's first victim; Minnesota got whipped by Cal and Michigan State was tripped up by Notre Dame. The most impressive Big Ten win? Iowa's 27-17 triumph over Arizona.

The ACC: This week's pratfalls: Middle Tennessee 32, Maryland 31, and Southern Miss 37, Virginia 34. Ten of the ACC's 12 schools already have losses, as Miami and North Carolina are the league's lone unbeaten teams. Good thing Virginia Tech survived at home against Nebraska.


HOT SEAT

Al Groh, Virginia. The Cavaliers blew a 27-10 halftime lead and lost 37-34 at Southern Miss. Virginia is now 0-3. There will be a coaching change in Charlottesville.


TOP 5 STORY LINES FOR NEXT WEEK

1. Miami's March: So far, so good. The Hurricanes are successfully navigating a fearsome foursome of season-opening opponents. Florida State and Georgia Tech have been handled. Next up: a trip to Virginia Tech. There is no time to exhale after that with Oklahoma coming to Miami.

2. Is Penn State Legit? After opening vs. three walkovers (Akron, Syracuse, Temple), the Nittany Lions will unofficially open the season when Iowa comes to State College, Pa.

3. Bear Down, Cal: The Golden Bears roll into Oregon as one of the nation's hottest teams. Win here, and Cal will be sky high with USC coming to Berkeley on Oct. 3. But the Ducks are rolling, too, with dreams of a Pac-10 crown.

4. TCU's Time to Shine: Some feel the Horned Frogs are the most talented non-Big Six team in the nation. Alas, the Horned Frogs' trip to Clemson is their last chance to score an impressive (well, at least a semi-impressive) non-conference victory.

5. Can Ole Miss survive South Carolina? The Rebels' Thursday night trip to Columbia will be a stern test for a program that has dreams of winning the SEC West. Can Ole Miss handle the Gamecocks' suddenly deadly offense? Will Rebel quarterback Jevan Snead navigate a rugged South Carolina defense?


Dienhart's weekly awards
AWARDS
Wish I were him: Steve Sarkisian, Washington
Glad I'm not him: Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
Lucky guy: Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
Poor guy: Steve Kragthorpe, Louisville
Desperately seeking a clue: Al Groh, Virginia
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Brian Kelly, Cincinnati
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Pete Carroll, USC
Desperately seeking ... anything: Danny Hope, Purdue

TEAMS
Thought you'd kick butt, you did: Alabama
Thought you'd kick butt, you didn't: USC
Thought you'd get your butt kicked, you did: Boston College
Thought you'd get your butt kicked, you didn't: Florida State
Dang, they're good: Penn State
Dang, they're bad: Vanderbilt GAMES
Play this again: Georgia 52, Arkansas 41
Never play this again: Oklahoma 45, Tulsa 0
Are you kidding me? Florida State 54, BYU 28
Oh ... my ... God: Washington 16, USC 13
Told you so: Connecticut 30, Baylor 22

NEXT WEEK
Ticket to die for: Miami at Virginia Tech
Best Non-BCS vs. BCS matchup: TCU at Clemson
Best non-BCS matchup: Colorado State at BYU
Upset alert: South Florida over Florida State in Tallahassee
Must win: Penn State over Iowa in State College, Pa.
Offensive explosion: Texas Tech at Houston
Defensive struggle: Rutgers at Maryland
Great game no one is talking about: Arkansas at Alabama
Intriguing coaching matchup: California's Jeff Tedford vs. Oregon's Chip Kelly
Why are they playing? Grambling at Oklahoma State
Plenty of good seats remaining: Vanderbilt at Rice