Ohio State at Wisconsin

The 3^rd ranked, 5-0 Ohio State Buckeyes with coach Jim Tressel made their first road trip as Belt Champion to Camp Randall Stadium to meet the 23^rd ranked, 5-1 Wisconsin Badgers of coach Barry Alvarez.  The Buckeyes had shown little offense throughout the season except for a 44-point explosion in a triple overtime games against North Carolina State & it would surely cost them a game at some point.  Wisconsin would be the team to take advantage of that when a single mistake by All-Big Ten CB Chris Gamble cost the Buckeyes their Belt Championship in a 17-10 Wisconsin win.  In a driving rain storm, Wisconsin held the Buckeyes to 69 yards rushing & 3 of 12 on third down conversions while keeping the Buckeyes out of the end zone until the 4^th quarter.  The Badgers took a 7-0 lead on the first play of the 2^nd quarter when RB Booker Stanley scored on a 2-yard run.  Late in the half, Ohio State’s PK Mike Nugent connected on a 24-yard field goal attempt making the score Wisconsin 7 Ohio State 3.  Late in the 3rd quarter, the Badgers pushed their lead to 7 points as PK Mike Allen kicked a 38-yard field goal.  With 6:09 to play in the game, Buckeyes’ QB Craig Krenzel hit WR Michael Jenkins on a 6-yard touchdown that tied to score at 10-10 & it looked the Ohio State might pull out this game they way they had so many in the past 2 seasons but a single mistake would put Wisconsin in the driver’s seat.  Late in the 3^rd quarter, Badgers’ QB Jim Sorgi was knocked out of the game when Buckeyes’ LB Robert Reynolds shoved his fingers into his throat causing Sorgi breathing problems.  The play was not flagged but it cost Wisconsin their starting quarterback.  Back-up QB Matt Schabert had been unable to move the Badgers against the Ohio State defense & after the Buckeyes tied the score at 10-10 it seemed just another three & out by the Ohio State defense would give the Belt holders what they needed for a win.  With 5:30 left & Wisconsin facing a 2 & 9 from their own 21-yard line, Schabert dropped to pass as All-Big Ten WR Lee Evans ran an out pattern.  As Gamble tried to jump the out route, Evans turned up field & Schabert hit him in stride for his only catch of the day; a 79-yard touchdown giving the Badgers a 17-10 lead.  Wisconsin forced the Buckeyes to punt on their last possession & then ran out the clock to claim their second Belt Championship & first since 1981.  Krenzel finished with 202 yards passing with a touchdown, an interception, & was sacked 3 times.  Sorgi threw for 54 yards with an interception before leaving with the injury, Schabert completed 2 of his 3 pass attempts for 104 yards with a touchdown, & Stanley had 125 yards with a touchdown for the Badgers.  The Buckeyes finished the season 11-2; ranked 4^th nationally while the Badgers finished 7-6.  Ohio State would play for The Belt again in 6 weeks.

The College Football Belt

Maryland Terrapins running back Davin Megget (8) during the first half of their game against the Miami Hurricanes at Byrd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-US PRESSWIRE

A weekly rundown from a tepid football fan of the best and worst college football has to offer, some serious but mostly requisite raillery due to basketball deprivation

1. Mother Nature – Omnipotent force (Earth)

Weekly stats: many delays, a couple cancellations

She flexed her muscles all last week and showed that no one can affect a contest quite like she can. Thunderstorms delayed and canceled four games, including only three quarters of football between Michigan and Western Michigan. That’s a whole quarter lost for Denard Robinson. Take that Heisman hopefuls!

2. Robert Griffin III QB (Baylor)

Weekly stats: intensive film study, Multiple Madden ’12 games on PlayStation 3, perhaps something scholastic

Baylor was off this week but with his huge stats from week 1 against TCU, Griffin III deserves to hold on to his #2 spot in competing for the Heisman.

3. Wacky uniforms (Under Armor, Nike)

Weekly stats: triggered much media coverage, water cooler conversations

The Heisman is usually influenced by hype and media coverage, and who has garnered more talk the past week than Maryland’s initiation into the Oregon attention-seeker club. They wore a uniform that was supposed to be a tribute to the state flag though it actually got it backwards.

http://25right.com/2011/09/06/thoughts-on-marylands-football-uniform/

As horrific those uniforms were (which, by the way, is nothing new. Maryland’s hockey team and come to find out a local roller-derby team both wear versions of this design) they put Maryland in the lexicon of weekly football conversations.

Maryland has signed a deal with Under Armor, who has introduced ten uniform variations they’ll be wearing this year (not including the one you saw against Miami in week 1). With a new coach hoping to rejuvinate the program, this strategy may work. Michael Kruse of ESPN’s Grantland recently published an interesting article on the effect the uniforms have had on Oregon’s success and recruiting. If Heisman=Hype, then uniform companies have one-upped nearly every player.

Oh by the way: Maryland defeated Miami 32-24.

4. Other idle quarterbacks (Kellen Moore, Landry Jones)

Weekly stats: answering BCS and realignment questions

Moore and his Boise State Broncos travel to Northwest Ohio next Friday to take on Toledo, who almost knocked off in-state rival and power Ohio State this weekend 22-27.

Not such as easy a task for Oklahoma and Jones who will travel to Tallahassee to battle the Seminoles of Florida State.

5. Russell Wilson QB (Wisconsin)

Weekly stats: 17/21, 189 yards, 3 TD/0 INT

A highly underrated passer, Wilson hurt the Oregon State defense with his accuracy this week in a 35-0 blowout. He had a perfectly thrown ball to receiver Nick Toon to the back pylon for a TD. He also displayed his ability to send some line drives through multiple defenders.

Though he didn’t do too much with his feet this week (11 yards, 0 TDs), he didn’t have to because his backfield toted nearly 5 yards per carry and found the end zone twice.

6. Wisconsin’s offense in the red zone

Weekly stats: multiple conversions…again

Is the Heisman trophy still a strictly individual award? If not, then the Badgers offense should be the recipients. Going into Saturday’s game, they have scored 56 of the last 57 times they were in the red zone with 51 of those being for touchdowns. I know they scored at least two more touchdowns in the red zone this Saturday, which makes the Badgers completely money when getting inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

And now they have Wilson to scamper some in in case of a breakdown? Geesh – Give them the Big 10 title and let’s call it a year.

7. Andrew Luck QB (Stanford)

Weekly stats: 20/28, 290 yards, 4 TD/1 INT

Another solid week from everyone’s Heisman favorite. However, he loses a spot on this list for throwing a 76 yard ‘pick-6′ against the lowly Duke Blue Devils.

8. Super-Conferences (NCAA football)

Weekly stats: continue to pollute airwaves

Are they or aren’t they? That’s all anyone really cares about at this point including Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, who dared to imagine a world without the Red River Rivalry. Regardless, the talk of expansions continues to pull attention away from the game itself.

Does anyone care about college basketball conferences anymore?

9. Bernard Pierce RB (Temple)

Weekly Stats: 18 carries, 150 yards, 3 TD

Pierce churned out another 145+ yard effort while the Owls dismantled MAC member Akron 41-3. Pierce will face the same scrutiny as Ball State running back MiQuale Lewis a couple years ago. Neither play in a major conference but put up consistently good numbers each week.

Pierce can help his cause next week by playing national power Penn State. If he can duplicate what he’s done the first two weeks, then maybe some national attention may start for Pierce.

10. Justin Blackmon WR (Oklahoma State)

Weekly stats: 12 receptions, 128 yards, 2 TD

Blackmon follows up a solid first week (8 catches, 144 yards) with an even better one.

16. Denard Robinson QB (Michigan)

Weekly stats: 11-24, 338 yards passing, 4 TD/3 INT; 108 yards rushing, 1 TD

How much do big plays factor into the Heisman? How about excitement? If they do, then I guess the Wolverine signal caller deserves a top-20 spot. Otherwise, his numbers and play just aren’t that spectacular.

He ran the ball in after a fumble on the goal line. Many of his long completed passes were thrown in the general direction of receivers and somehow caught. It certainly helped that Notre Dame’s defense looked like they’ve never practiced coverage downfield before. Michigan receivers looked like a middle school basketball game where there’s one super tall kid that gets every possible rebound.

17. Highly touted running backs (Oregon, Alabama, South Carolina)

Weekly stats: less than stellar ground numbers

Trent Richardson of Alabama probably deserves to be higher, but he’s still only averaging 3.8 yards a carry after two games. He had 111 yards in the Tide’s win at Penn State, but touched the ball over 20 times. He is finding the end zone though; after this weekend he has a total of 5 rushing TDs.

LaMichael James had a slightly better game this week against Nevada. He ran for 67 yards on only 12 carries and found the end zone from the ground once. He did have a receiving touchdown and a returned punt for a touchdown, so his total production seems to compensate for two weeks without a 100-yard rushing feat.

Marcus Lattimore probably leads this pack after a 176 yard 1 TD performance in a win over Georgia. He has two 100-yard games with 4 total touchdowns so far.

58. Texas Longhorns (Longhorn Network)

Weekly stats: Came from behind to defeat BYU 17-16 after 10-point halftime deficit

The questions are definitely still out there for one of the more storied programs in the country. Regardless, they are 2-0 to start the season and came from behind to win with the help of a McCoy-Shipley reunion. Not that McCoy and Shipley, but their younger brothers.

Mack Brown pulled the starting quarterback after a 2/8 performance and put in Case McCoy. He led an 8-play scoring drive. Texas then won the game on a touchdown pass from receiver Jaxson Shipley on a trick play.

591. Notre Dame quarterbacks

Weekly stats: 27/39, 315 yards, 3 TD/2 INT

So who will be under center next week? I guess Rees’ performance wasn’t as bad as the ranking, but he didn’t seem to convert in the red zone, throwing at least one pick that I saw. Coupled with Dayne Christ’s performance against South Florida, you have a Brian Kelly migraine.

833. Brian Kelly’s contract extension negotiations (Notre Dame)

Weekly stats: *crickets chirping*

The Irish defense, which I thought was supposed to keep this team somewhat stable, gave up 28 points in the fourth quarter to rival Michigan, most of which seemed like they were defendable plays. The offense did look a little better aside from Rees hiccups, but now both sides of the ball can’t put a game together. And even saying they looked better is confusing because the Irish racked up over 500 yards of offense against South Florida. The problem was they couldn’t help from giving the ball away.

937. Mark Richt (Georgia)

Weekly stats: more disappointment bordering on panic

The Bulldogs’ coach drops 38 spots after losing to SEC rival South Carolina 45-42 for the second consecutive year. This is Georgia’s first 0-2 start since 1996 and will probably be the last with Richt at the helm.

3,872. Johnny Hekker P (Oregon State)

Weekly stats: 2 punts, 36 yards

As if being a punter doesn’t already eliminate a player from Heisman consideration, Johnny Hekker didn’t help his long shot one bit against Wisconsin. When the Badgers were four-and-out on their own 18-yard line, the special teams came in to gain some decent field position for their defense. Hekker, however, tried a rugby style kick and punted the ball out of bounds at their own 14-yard line. That equated to a -4 yard punt. Is there a bizzaro-Heisman award that can be given out?

CRAIG SCHREINER/State Journal

By Wally

Just like Alabama a week ago, Ohio State found the #1 crown to be pretty heavy.    Too heavy, in fact, as they were upset by the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison.   The #1 Crown goes to the next in line in the polls … that would be Oregon, who was idle this week.    But the biggest beneficiary of the Buckeye loss is Boise State who should rise to a solid #2 in all human polls and also hold the #1 ranking in the first release of the actual BCS rankings.   Of course, being #1 in the first release of the BCS rankings doesn’t hold much water since there are a solid 6 weeks left.

So here are the good things that happened in college football Saturday:

– Ohio State lost 31-18

– Michigan lost to Iowa

– Boise State won 48-0

– Michigan lost

– TCU won 31-3

– Nebraska lost 20-13, at home, to a desperate Texas squad

– Michigan lost … Skunkbears are reeling … I love it.

– Florida lost to Mississipi State.   Sweet.

– SCarolina lost to Kentucky the week after upending then #1 Bama.   Good … this makes the SEC look less competent … and wipes that smirk off of Spurrier’s mug.

– Oh … almost forgot … Notre Dame beat the lowly Western Michigan Broncos 44-20.   That’s the good news.   The bad news is that it apparently was not quite as easy as the score might indicate.    Thanks to Wannabe and Boog for sending me entertaining updates while I was at College Station!! Boog apparently now has a dartboard in his office where the bullseye is Dayne Crist’s head … I’m sure we’ll hear his rant.

– Did I mention that the Skunkbears tanked for the second week in a row??

And now the bad news:

– In the game I attended, Texas A&M was clobbered at home by a Missouri team that surprised me.   Don’t get me wrong, A&M’s performance was also surprisingly bad on both sides of the ball, but I gained a measure of respect for Mizzou.   They had a bit of a Boise State look to them … efficient, smart, focused, aggressive.   A&M needs to sit their QB and play the guy who’s next in line.   Senior Jarod Johnson is painful to watch and he’s killing the team … or at least killing the offense.    Mike Sherman … pay attention!   Head out of butt, look around, make obvious switch.   Got it?

– #19 Nevada lost at Hawaii, which really ends up hurting Boise State since the Wolfpack is the lone remaining tough opponent for the Broncos.   Well … maybe Hawaii is too … but probably  not “tough enough” for the pollsters.

– Oregon State lost in double OT at Washington … this also hurts Boise State’s resume.  No disgrace in losing a real close one to an improving Huskie team in Seattle without one of your best players, but ya still coulda won.

———————————————————————————————————————————-

The new kid on the block and media darling is the undefeated Auburn team and their Heisman hopeful QB Cam Newton.    Who knew?    Well … I think they’re fool’s gold … giving up 45 points to Arkansas shows a tendancy that’s likely to bite them before the regular season is over.   Oklahoma  (6-0) is a bigger worry for teams at the top … they were shaky early, but appear to be gaining steam after a thorough trouncing of Iowa State 52-0.

Pinesters …  what are your reactions to this week’s college football results???    Please share with the class 

By Paul Gotham

Setting: It’s a Big Ten showdown as Tom Izzo brings his No. 5 Michigan State Spartans (19-3, 9-0)  to Madison for a tilt with Bo Ryan’s No. 16 Wisconsin Badgers (16-5, 6-3).

Plot: Michigan State could gain a four-game edge on Wisconsin in the Big Ten standings. The Badgers are currently tied for second with Purdue, Ohio State, and Illinois.

Sub-plot: Michigan State is riding an eight-game winning streak including two of the last three on the road. Wisconsin has lost two of  four but won their previous two home games. Wisconsin will be without their second-leading scorer, Jon Leuer, who has an injured wrist.

Flashback: The Spartans beat the Badgers last month, 54-47. Chris Allen scored 16, and Draymond Green contributed 11 off the bench. Michigan State out-rebounded Wisconsin, 38-23. MSU leads the series, 68-58. Wisconsin has won 17 in a row at  the Kohl Center.

The Spartans have made 23 NCAA Tournament appearances including last year’s loss in the National Championship game. Izzo led the Spartans to the title in 2000. Under Izzo the Spartans have advanced to five Final Fours.

Wisconsin has earned 15 NCAA Tournament berths. Last year, the Badgers lost in the second round. Ryan has led Wisconsin to the Sweet Sixteen twice (’03 and ’08) and once to the Elite Eight (’05).

Foreshadowing: Thirty-seven Spartans have earned roster spots in the National Basketball Association, including current players Charlie Bell, Shannon Brown, Paul Davis, Morris Peterson, Zach Randolph, and Jason Richardson.

Twenty Badgers have stepped on the court in the Association. Michael Finley, Devin Harris, Marcus Landry, and Alando Tucker all have current spots on NBA rosters.

Conflict: Michigan State turns the ball over 14 times a game. Wisconsin gets almost six steals per contest. The Spartans have a rebound margin of 9.8 while Wisconsin is limited to a margin of 2.6.

Wisconsin is sixth in the nation limiting opponents to just 57.1 points. With patience, the Badgers can create Spartan mistakes. Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers, and Chris Allen are athletic and experienced. Sometimes, the trio of guards hurry when trying to play fast. Wisconsin’s transition defense will need to make the initial stop of the Spartan rush. Then the Badgers will need to play defense inside the arc to limit Lucas and Allen off the dribble.

Trevon Hughes, Jason Bohannon, and and Jordan Taylor will be responsible for slowing down the Spartan back court. The three combine for nearly 36 points and nine assists per game.

Keaton Nankivil will try to make up for the loss of Leuer. Nankivil averages eight points and just under five rebounds.

Lucas, Summers, and Allen combine for 36 points a game. Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe grab almost twelve rebounds. The front court duo hits over 56 percent of their shots from the field.

Resolution: Earlier this year, Wisconsin created 11 turnovers while committing just four in a defeat of Duke. They will need a similar performance tonight. The Badgers need to execute long possessions that will force Michigan State to work on the defensive end. Bo Ryan needs someone to step up in the absence of Leuer. Look for Rob Wilson or Ryan Evans to fill the void. This is the third of four on the road for the Spartans. They are ripe for an upset. Wisconsin hits 74 percent from the line while MSU finishes 68 percent of the time from the stripe. Wisconsin needs a victory, and the Badgers will win a single-digit affair tonight.

Got any thoughts on the game? Post them here.