A Visit To The Graveyard

I originally wrote this column in 2008. A decade later, I decided to post it again.

I’ve never told anyone this before, but there is a little ritual I perform each year during the week before the Ohio State-Michigan game.

I get in my car and drive past a simple two-story, white house on Cardiff Road. It’s only a couple of miles west of Ohio Stadium, tucked onto a little side street off Lane Avenue. After going past the house, I drive another mile north on Olentangy River Road and head into Union Cemetery.

Chic Harley was laid to rest there. So was Lynn St. John, the athletic director at Ohio State when the Horseshoe was built and the guy for whom St. John Arena is named. I usually go at dusk, right before the cemetery is closing. You may think that’s a strange place to go, but amid all of the hype that goes with OSU-Michigan week, it’s a good spot to get some peace. After all, it is the quietest place in Columbus.

Yesterday, I nearly didn’t make the trip. It was unseasonably warm, there were lots of other things I needed to get done, and it seemed pointless to again drive past a house owned by someone I didn’t know and then walk past countless graves of people I never met. But I did it anyway, wondering how I would feel come Saturday night if the Buckeyes had lost and I hadn’t made my annual pilgrimage.

I drove past the Cardiff Road house before making my way to the cemetery and on to Section 12, Lot 37, Space 4. There are pine trees around a black granite marker, and as I stood beneath one of those tall trees to shield me from the drizzle, I was startled by a voice.

“Pretty big game this Saturday, huh?”

I whirled around to see a stocky man standing about 10 feet away. He wore a plain, red windbreaker – the kind men stopped wearing in the 1970s – and he had both hands shoved in the pockets. He had gray hair, wore silver, horn-rimmed glasses and scrunched his face into a grimace where his lips seemed to almost disappear.

“Uh, yeah,” I stammered. “I guess so.”

“You guess so?” he repeated as he stared at the gravestone. “We’re still playing for the conference championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl and you guess so?” He shook his head and grunted. “What are you doing here anyway?” he grumbled.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “I come here every year about this time. I guess it’s just my way of getting ready for the game.”

“Getting ready for the game? Why do you need to get ready for the game? What do you do?”

“I’m a sportswriter.”

The old man rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Goddamned sportswriters,” he said. “I can’t get away from the sonsabitches.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing. I suppose you’re one of those kind who wants to dig up the past. Wants to stir up a little controversy.”

“No, not really. If you really want to know the truth, I just wonder what the old man would think of all this. He helped make this thing the biggest rivalry in sports. I just sometimes wonder what he’d say.”

“Oh,” the man said with a sigh, “Sometimes, I just don’t know. It’s a newfangled game nowadays – lots of trick plays and coaches trying to outguess one another. Too much money, too. Money ruins people. I can remember when we played ’cause we loved it. Didn’t give a damn about the money. You can’t take it with you after all.”

“Yeah, but the game itself has changed,” I said. “The way they play it has changed. I just don’t think the way he did things would fly today.”

“Oh, you don’t think I … I mean, you don’t think he could adapt, huh? Well, let me tell you something. He could adapt. He was always adapting. Football is a game of adaptation. If you don’t adapt, you won’t stay around very long. He adapted. He adapted just fine. You betcha.

“He surrounded himself with some of the best assistant coaches in the game, and when one left, another would come along and he’d bring new wrinkles. You think he ran the same offense with Hop Cassady that he did with Bob Ferguson? Or that he did with Arch?

“All I ever hear is that three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust bull. I wish I’d … I wish he’d never said that. Sure, running the ball is the only tried and true method of controlling the tempo of the game, and it’s true that three things can happen when you throw the ball and two of them are bad. But he never gets credit for recruiting guys like Corny Greene or Art Schlichter. He never gets credit for recruiting guys like Billy Anders or Doug Donley.

“All I hear is how he did nothing but run the ball. It just so happened that most of the best athletes we had in those days were suited to be running backs. If he’d had the kind of talent that’s on this year’s team, well …”

“You think Woody would’ve liked this team?” I asked.

“Let me tell you something,” he said, his hollow eyes looking off into the mist. “This team is pretty good. Don’t let what happened last week fool you. They’re good and you can tell it. Know how I know? Because of the way they act on and off the field. There’s none of that dancing crap on the field, no drawing attention to yourself. That’s not football. That should be reserved for the circus. I’m telling you, some of these SOBs playing today should paint their faces, wear a big, red nose and come out of the locker room in a little goddamned car.

“But not this team. You can tell in the way they walk and the way they talk. But most of all, it’s in the way they carry out their business. And that’s what it is – a business. All these bleeding hearts who want to call it a game can go to hell. It’s all business out there, and if you don’t take care of your business, the other guy sure as hell will. This team has a lot of talent and a lot of guys that I would have loved to coach.”

“You?”

“I mean Coach Hayes, of course. Gholston, for instance. He’s a tough sonuvabitch that keeps coming and keeps coming. Reminds me a lot of Stillwagon. And that Laurinaitis kid. Wow, has he come a long way fast. I don’t want to compare him to Gradishar because Grad was the best I ever saw. But if he continues working hard, he can get close. Damned close.

“Then there’s Robiskie, Hartline and Small? Speed out of three receivers. What a luxury to have. And Todd Boeckman. He’s OK in my book because he’s my kind of quarterback. Does exactly what is asked of him – another coach on the field, really. And that Wells. It just puts a smile on my face every time he puts that stiff-arm out there. Hope he’s healthy and ready to go on Saturday.

“And then, of course, you have to have someone in charge and I admire Jimmy Tressel so much. He does things the right way. And he’s another guy who doesn’t draw much attention to himself. He seems to have his head on straight.”

“What about last week? Tough to try to turn it around in just one week.”

“Tough?” the man said. “Son, if you think it’s tough to get yourself ready to play in the greatest rivalry in the history of college football, you might as well go play tiddly-winks. This game is for men. It’s not a cocktail party. The faint of heart need not apply.”

I cocked my head to one side. “You know a lot about football,” I said. “How do you think the old man would game-plan for Saturday?”

“He’d stay with the basics,” the man immediately replied. “He’d study film until he knew the other team’s tendencies like he knew his own – things like how they like to use the tight end, which direction their running backs like to run and which arm they carry the ball in. He’d know where to bring the pressure because he’d know whether their quarterback likes to go to his left or right when he’s flushed out of the pocket. He’d know exactly which of their defensive linemen was the weakest link and that’s the gap where he’d send Wells.”

“Michigan has been getting better on defense these past couple of weeks,” I interrupted. “I think they’re still in the top 30 in the country in total defense.”

“Sportswriters,” he said disgustedly as he shook his head. “I’ll let you in on a little secret: You can get your yards against anyone. Anyone. You just have to know where to attack ’em. And once you find their soft spot, you exploit the hell out of it. And keep exploiting the hell out of it until you destroy the other team’s will to win. After that, it’s easy. I think that’s the way it will happen Saturday. We’ll start running the ball, then we’ll throw for a couple of touchdowns, and that other team will never know what hit ’em. ”

Far off in the distance, I heard a church bell chime the hour.

“Well,” the man sighed. “I suppose I should be getting back.”

As he turned to leave, I noticed for the first time that he was wearing a black baseball cap. As he walked away, I called out, “Hey, Mister. I didn’t catch your name.”

He stopped and turned. “Wayne,” he said. “My name is Wayne. But everyone around here just calls me Coach.”

Barrett Has Been Remarkable, But Is He Heisman-Worthy?

Ohio State’s relatively easy romps over the likes of Kent State, Cincinnati, Maryland and Rutgers, coupled with an almost alarming number of upsets among top-ranked teams, have allowed the Buckeyes to inch their way back toward the national championship discussion.

Additionally, the offensive explosion of the most recent four games – a dizzying average of 56 points and 614 total yards per contest – has spawned a smattering of Heisman Trophy support for redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett.

Does Barrett truly merit the consideration? Based upon the fact that he is one of feel-good stories of the first half of the 2014 college football season, perhaps the OSU quarterback at least deserves to be in the conversation. But does he have the requisite jump-off-the-page statistics sought by today’s Heisman voters?

With most viable candidates at the midway point of the regular season, Barrett ranks a lofty No. 3 in the nation in pass efficiency. That is behind Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, one of the preseason Heisman favorites, as well as true freshman signal-caller Deshaun Watson of Clemson, who will be sidelined a month after Oct. 13 surgery to repair a broken bone in his throwing hand.

Some of Barrett’s allure comes from the fact that each of the last two Heisman winners were redshirt freshmen QBs – Jameis Winston of Florida State last year and Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M in 2012 – and that the Ohio State quarterback has similar numbers to both players at the same juncture of their award-winning seasons.

Two years ago, Manziel had thrown for 1,680 yards and 14 touchdowns against only three interceptions in six games. But what set him apart among Heisman voters was his swashbuckling style of running during those six games that produced 676 yards and 13 TDs on the ground.

Last year, while his scrambling was done mostly out of necessity (just 137 yards and three scores), it was Winston’s command of the pocket that allowed him to throw for 1,885 yards and 20 touchdowns during Florida State’s first six games.

Compare those stats with Barrett, who has thrown for 1,615 yards and 20 touchdowns with five interceptions while adding 383 yards and four TDs rushing for Ohio State so far this season.

With respect to quarterback ratings, Barrett also measures up well. At this point in their respective Heisman seasons, Manziel had a QBR of 162.8 while Winston carried a 210.4 rating. Barrett is currently at 182.1.

There is no question Barrett is on a roll since the Virginia Tech debacle. However, Heisman Trophies are not won during the first half of the season against weak opposition. Manziel and Winston won theirs on the strength of superlative second-half performances.

Manziel solidified his candidacy with 345 yards of total offense during an upset of defending national champion Alabama, while Winston used a 325-yard performance during an early November win over then-No. 7 Miami (Fla.) to springboard his candidacy while piloting the Seminoles to the national championship.

If Barrett can continue to put up the kind of numbers he has generated during the first six games, there is no doubt he will garner his fair share of Heisman support although whether or not he will be able to sustain his impressive production is up for debate.

Among Ohio State’s most recent four opponents, only Maryland ranks among the nation’s top 50 in pass efficiency defense, and the Terrapins rank 44th. Rutgers is No. 87, Kent State is No. 111 and Cincinnati ranks 121st out of 125 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Three of the Buckeyes’ next four opponents rank among the top 25 in pass efficiency defense – Penn State at No. 22, Michigan State at No. 21 and Minnesota at No. 19. Obviously, if Barrett can pick apart those defenses, his Heisman campaign will take care of itself.

However, as consistent as he has been over the course of the last month, the OSU quarterback is going to have to be even more so during the stretch run.

For example, during his team’s first three possessions against Rutgers, each of which resulted in touchdowns, Barrett connected on all eight of his attempts for 112 yards and two scores, giving him a stratospheric quarterback rating of 300.1.

Unfortunately, his performance took a nosedive from there as he appeared to struggle somewhat with his mechanics. Barrett connected on only 10 of his final 22 attempts for 144 yards and a touchdown, which computes to a QB rating of just 115.4. That won’t get it done against Penn State or Minnesota much less Michigan State.

Still, at this point of the season, Ohio State fans should be thanking their lucky stars that Barrett – someone who hadn’t played a down of college football before this season – has been able to play so well since the recent track record for first-year starting quarterbacks at OSU hasn’t always been such a good one.

Art Schlichter, Greg Frey, Kirk Herbstreit, Bobby Hoying, Austin Moherman, Steve Bellisari, Justin Zwick, Troy Smith, Terrelle Pryor and Braxton Miller all struggled with varying kinds of growing pains during their initial season as the starter, so what Barrett has been able to do so far is nothing short of remarkable.

Miller Time In 2015?

In addition to the Heisman talk, Barrett’s production these past four games has touched off a controversy of sorts among Ohio State fans. There is a small-but-ever-growing faction that insists Barrett should be the starting quarterback even if Miller rejoins the team in 2015 after sitting out this season following shoulder surgery.

The argument can be made that Barrett has a more accurate arm, but going so far as to proclaiming him the better overall player is absurd.

Miller is a two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, a trophy the conference doesn’t award by picking names out of a hat. He is a transformational player who brings athleticism to the quarterback position that has seldom been seen – not only at Ohio State but in college football history.

With no disrespect meant toward Barrett, it isn’t much of a leap to believe Miller’s elusiveness could have changed the outcome of the Virginia Tech game, meaning the Buckeyes would still be undefeated and on track toward a berth in the College Football Playoff.

So, to claim the Buckeyes aren’t missing a beat with Miller out of the lineup is ridiculous. The simple fact is the team is missing a huge beat without its senior quarterback.

Despite his obvious talents and the fact he is one of the most prolific quarterbacks in Big Ten history, Miller has been unjustifiably criticized since taking over for Joe Bauserman early in the 2011 season. You remember that season, don’t you? Miller, who was basically thrown to the wolves by a disorganized and distracted coaching staff, didn’t immediately live up to the lofty expectations of some fans, and they have never forgiven him.

It is borderline amazing how quickly fans are ready to kick to the curb a player who has been an exemplary example of how to conduct oneself away from the field, one who has always been in good academic standing, one who is on track to graduate in December, and a gutsy player who exacerbated a shoulder injury while trying to help his team win the Orange Bowl. Contrast that to the weekly sideshow surrounding the quarterback at Florida State and tell me which you prefer.

Should Barrett continue to prosper, and should the Buckeyes win out and get to the national championship playoff, then Urban Meyer will have a decision to make if and when Miller decides to return next season.

But if anything happens short of Ohio State running the table and Barrett appearing in New York City in December as a Heisman finalist, Miller should be the starting quarterback in 2015. For what he has done on the field, and the way he has comported himself away from it, he has earned that right.

Requiem For A Buckeye Fan

I have met more than my fair share of Ohio State fans over the years, but none quite like Ira Kaufman, a guy for whom the phrase “one of a kind” was coined.

Ira spent much of his life in New Jersey and seemed pretty much the stereotypical Garden State resident complete with the sardonic Jersey Shore accent and matching attitude. Years ago, he would regularly call the BSB office to pump anyone who answered the phone for football recruiting information. His phone calls gradually became long, drawn-out conversations about nearly every topic imaginable.

Over time, we found we shared a lot in common, especially for two men who came from totally divergent upbringings. The thing that brought us together was Ohio State football.

To understand the relationship Ohio State football fans have with their team and each other is to understand the very basic tenets of a family. Entire generations have been weaned on scarlet and gray, and when it is their turn, they pass the folklore and traditions on to the next. There is no such thing as a casual follower of the Buckeyes. Each Saturday in the fall, millions celebrate when the team wins and die hard when they lose.

It was pretty much the same way in my house while I was growing up. My love for all things scarlet and gray came from my father, a proud 1940 graduate of The Ohio State University. It’s not difficult to conjure up memories of Dad tinkering in the back yard on a football Saturday with the radio tuned to the game and the warm, syrupy voices of Bert Charles and Marv Homan filling the crisp October air.

The first season I truly remember came in 1968 – a pretty good year to cut your teeth on the Buckeyes – and following the exploits of Jack Tatum, Jim Stillwagon, Jim Otis, Ted Provost and Rex Kern became a week-to-week obsession. My mind’s eye still has a vivid picture of that Rose Bowl game against USC and the rising jubilation of a second-half Ohio State comeback after O.J. Simpson had staked the Trojans to an early 10-0 lead.

My favorite team won every game that season and was crowned national champions. Of course, I thought undefeated seasons and Rose Bowl victories were a birthright, especially when the Buckeyes won every game in 1969 before suffering a crushing upset in the season finale at Michigan. Four decades later, that one still stings.

Ohio State football has been equated to a religion and it’s hard to argue that point. Ohio Stadium is the cathedral, “Across the Field” and “Carmen Ohio” are the hymns and the national championship continues to be the holy grail. The exploits of long-gone players such as Chic Harley and Wes Fesler have been reduced to ancient texts in musty corners, but their stories continue to be re-told again and again through the years.

Brutus and Sloopy, the Horseshoe and TBDBITL, Gold Pants and Senior Tackle and a thousand more traditions – they are what makes Ohio State football what it is.

Most of all, however, it’s the fans. The tall ones and the small ones. The young and the old. Those who can buy anything they want and those who struggle from paycheck to paycheck. There are those who have season tickets and there are the ones who have never laid their eyes on Ohio Stadium. The ones who were rocked to sleep in a scarlet and gray cradle and want to be laid to rest in a scarlet and gray casket.

The ones who go to the most far-flung corner of the globe and yell “O-H!” just because they know someone will answer back with a hearty “I-O!”

Big-Hearted Family Man

I first came to know Ira Kaufman as a cantankerous and somewhat bothersome BSB subscriber, but a first-rate, gold-plated, diehard Buckeye fan.

As many of you reading this know, getting issues to out-of-state subscribers in a timely manner has always been one of the major problems confronting BSB during our existence. As a result, many of you who live outside Ohio choose to receive your print issues via first-class mail – and still it seems that isn’t quick enough for some.

Being a former postal worker, Ira could never quite get his head around the fact he would have to wait a few days for his BSB to arrive. If the issue did not get to his New Jersey home by the time he thought it should have, he was on the phone to Columbus, wondering if we had mailed it on time. By the time the conversation had ended, Ira didn’t need to read the paper – he had already gleaned all of its news.

Over the years, and after many phone conversations, I found that Ira was much more than just a typical fan. Underneath that gruff exterior purred the personality of pussy cat, a big-hearted family man who became an Ohio State football fan even though he had never set foot in Columbus.

“It was a long time ago, and I was a long way from home, feeling very sorry for myself,” he once told me. “I was inside this little club and the Ohio State-Michigan game was playing on the radio. I remember Michigan was leading and most of the place was cheering for them, so I decided I’d cheer for Ohio State. Well, Ohio State came back to win that game and I’ve been scarlet and gray ever since.”

Six or seven years ago, when Ira retired, he finally decided to cross item No. 1 off his personal bucket list – you know, the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. He hopped a plane to Columbus and began an annual pilgrimage that typically began on the Thursday before the game and included a night on the town with a small gathering of friends, mostly BSB staffers.

On the occasion of his first visit, he and I were the last ones standing – so to speak – after a full evening of fine food and more frosty, cold beverages than either of us could remember. We sat in the lobby the old Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue until 4 a.m. as Ira peppered me with questions about recruiting while testing my memory regarding Ohio State football trivia.

I had the time of my life and I’m pretty sure he did, too.

Each time Ira returned to Columbus, we seemed to have more fun than his previous visit. He toured the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and the Jack Nicklaus Museum, walked around Ohio Stadium and wove his way through the Buckeye Grove. He never seemed prepared for the weather, but he didn’t mind shelling out for rain gear, a fleece-lined jacket or an authentic jersey as long as it featured the official Ohio State logo.

In the beginning, his yearly visits were known simply as “Irafest.” Later, it became “Ira-palooza” when our once-intimate gatherings grew to a full-blown legion of friends due solely to Ira’s generosity and the fact that he was just so damned fun to be around.

Each of Ira’s visits was eagerly anticipated because we knew something unusual was bound to happen and usually did. Most of them should not be shared in a family newspaper, but there was one particular late-night visit to a Columbus establishment when a more-than-slightly inebriated young woman suddenly snuggled into the booth beside Ira.

She looked at me, then looked at him and said, “I don’t know whether to slap your face or ask you to dance.”

Without missing a beat, Ira chuckled and replied, “Any chance you’re from Jersey?”

Generous, Loyal, Genuine

A couple of years ago, Ira called with bad news. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but his prognosis was good. He was facing some tough days and months ahead, and I did my best to cheer him up. My dad had the same thing several years ago, I told him, and he could beat it just like my dad did.

And beat it, Ira did. He underwent a variety of procedures, including some he admitted made him sicker than he had ever been in his life. But late that September, he was back in Columbus, presiding over the largest “Ira-palooza” crowd yet.

Last year before his trip, Ira called and asked if we could somehow return to the more intimate gatherings we’d had when he first started coming to Columbus. “Not that I don’t enjoy the larger group,” he said. “But I just can’t get around to everybody and spend the kind of time with them that I want to. I don’t want anyone to think they’re getting shortchanged.”

Trust me when I say no one was ever shortchanged in Ira’s presence. Nevertheless, I agreed to downsize the party to just four – BSB editor Jeff Svoboda, longtime subscriber Susan Zeier, Ira and me. Ira was as animated as always and we all agreed it was one of his best visits ever.

None of us knew it would be his last.

In late May, Susan called to say that she had just talked to Ira. The cancer had returned – just as it had with my dad. This time, it had been detected in Ira’s lungs and the prognosis wasn’t very good.

When I called Ira to get the news straight from the source, I wasn’t prepared for what I heard. His normally robust voice was shaky, and he said, “I don’t mind telling you, Mark, I’m scared. I want to see my grandchildren grow up.”

I tried to change the subject, even attempting to steer the conversation to Ohio State and the perceived trouble Urban Meyer was having trying to put together his 2015 recruiting class. But Ira didn’t seem interested.

That’s when I knew it was serious.

Knowing he was tired, I wished him well and told him I would call him the following week. “Thanks, Mark,” he said. “Please tell everybody back there that I said hello and I’m thinking of them.”

Those were the final words we ever exchanged. On June 14, my phone rang and it was Susan. I knew what she was going to say before I answered.

“I just wanted to make sure you knew,” she said. “Ira passed away yesterday.”

Once every so often, you get to meet someone who is not only generous, loyal, opinionated and fun-loving, but also the genuine article. Ira Kaufman was all of those things and more, and I wish you all could have had the pleasure of knowing him.

He truly was one of a kind.

Miller Deserved A Heisman Invitation

Drivers who back into parking spaces. Double-stuffed Oreos. The fiscal cliff. Coaches in the Big Ten who didn’t think enough of Braxton Miller to make him their first-team all-conference selection.

There are so many things in this world that I just don’t get, and Miller finishing second to Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez on the coaches’ All-Big Ten was one more of them. Of course, the coaches look even more foolish now that Miller has won the Silver Football award, symbolic of the Big Ten’s most valuable player.

But there are some Ohio State fans that persist in the notion that Miller remains an average (at best) quarterback. Part of the downside of playing quarterback, of course, is that the hometown fans are never going to be satisfied. But I still cannot fathom how so many Buckeye Nation denizens believe Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein is much more deserving of the Heisman Trophy than Miller.

First of all, Klein is not going to win the trophy. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel will be announced as the winner tomorrow night with Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o a fairly distant second. Still, Klein earned an invitation to New York City and the official presentation ceremonies over Miller and USC receiver Marqise Lee.

Lee was no doubt eliminated for two reasons: He played for an underachieving team that lost five times this season, and he is only a sophomore. That means he can take his nation-best 112 receptions for 1,680 yards and 14 TDs and get ready to pad those stats against Georgia Tech (No. 82 nationally in pass efficiency defense) in the Sun Bowl.

There were likely two reasons why Miller was eliminated as well. The first is that he is a sophomore, and the second was that he played for a team ineligible for postseason play. As a result, Miller got only cursory recognition during the season, and as the race for the national championship heated up, he was hardly mentioned at all.

It didn’t help Miller’s candidacy that his stats fell off during the final two games of the season. During the 21-14 overtime victory at Wisconsin, Miller was clearly frustrated as the Badgers keyed on him to the point that 23 carries netted only 48 rushing yards. His 10-for-18 performance for 97 yards and no touchdowns in the passing department was hardly Heisman-worthy, either.

The following week against Michigan, Miller was much better in the passing game, completing 14 of 18 attempts for 189 yards and a touchdown. But he struggled again on the ground, picking up only 57 yards on 20 carries.

Of course, those are the raw numbers. Dig a little deeper and you will find that Miller’s most effective month of the season was November when he failed to throw a single interception and rallied his team to a pair of overtime victories. Miller was also money with the game on the line. During the fourth quarter, he averaged 11.7 yards per attempt, threw for five touchdowns against only one interception, and had a passer rating above 205.

Then there is the totality of Miller’s body of work for 2012. Does anyone truly believe Ohio State would have completed a perfect 12-0 season without Miller at the controls? Even if all you look at are raw numbers, he should not be penalized because opposing defenses began to sell out just to stop him. The simple fact is that others on the team – i.e. Carlos Hyde, Philly Brown – began to step up their games because of him.

Does Miller remain largely an unfinished product as a college quarterback? There is virtually no disputing that. But 2012 marked the first season he has received any kind of high-level coaching. If he can make the same kind of progress over the next 12 months that he made over the past 12, there will be no way to prevent him from being a Heisman favorite in 2013.

That said, Miller’s 2012 numbers could be difficult to replicate. He broke Ohio State’s 17-year-old single-season record for total offense with 3,310 yards. He became the first OSU quarterback in program history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season, finishing with 1,271. Along the way, he totaled six games of 100 yards or more to give him a school-record-for-quarterbacks nine in his career. For some perspective on that last stat, All-American Bob Ferguson and Heisman Trophy winner Howard “Hopalong” Cassady had only nine 100-yard games during their Ohio State careers.

Miller also threw for 2,039 yards and 15 touchdowns, completing 148 of 254 attempts (58.3 percent). Those are solid-if-unspectacular numbers – although very similar to those put up by Klein. The K-State senior completed 180 of 272 attempts (66.2) percent for 2,490 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also pitched seven interceptions to six for Miller. That computes to one pick for every 38.9 attempts for Klein, and one every 42.3 attempts for Miller.

Add in the fact that Klein (3,380) and Miller (3,310) were virtually tied in total offense, and their teams combined for a 23-1 record, and I fail to see how Klein was so much better that he deserved an invitation to New York while Miller did not.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Dec. 8, 1914, representatives from Oklahoma and Rice attended a meeting in Houston and joined as charter members of what became the Southwest Athletic Conference.

** On Dec. 8, 1959, the first NAIA championship contest was staged between St. Joseph (Ind.) and Montana State. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and both schools were awarded NAIA championship trophies

** On Dec. 9, 1876, Yale finished an undefeated season with a 2-0 victory over Columbia in a game held in Hoboken, N.J. The Bulldogs finished their season with a perfect 3-0 record, their third undefeated season in the first five years of football at the university.

** On Dec. 9, 1914, College Football Hall of Fame icon Glenn “Pop” Warner coached his final game at Carlisle (Pa.) Indian School. The Indians traveled to Birmingham and came home with a 20-3 victory over Alabama. Warner, who also coached at Georgia, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Stanford and Temple, compiled a record of 312-104-32 during a 44-year coaching career.

** On Dec. 9, 1935, University of Chicago halfback John Jacob “Jay” Berwanger won the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy awarded to the outstanding player east of the Mississippi River. Berwanger was a runaway winner over Army halfback Charles “Monk” Meyer, Notre Dame halfback William Shakespeare and Princeton halfback W. Pepper Constable. One year after Berwanger won the award, it was renamed the Heisman Memorial Trophy in honor of legendary college coach John Heisman, who died in October 1936.

** On Dec. 9, 1961, Baylor scored a 24-9 upset victory over No. 10 Utah State in the long-forgotten Gotham Bowl. The game was played in New York City at the old Polo Grounds during a driving snowstorm and featured eight turnovers by the Aggies. Baylor was led by halfback Ronnie Bull, who rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Don Trull, who threw for one score and ran for another. Utah State was led by future College and Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman Merlin Olsen. The Gotham Bowl was only played twice. Following the 1962 game in Yankee Stadium, a 36-34 win by Nebraska over Miami (Fla.) played in 14-degree weather, the contest faded into the history books.

** On Dec. 11, 1971, first and only East-West Black All-Star Game was held in Houston. The contest, which featured all-star teams comprised only of African-American players, featured a 19-10 victory for the East over the West before only 5,156 fans.

** On Dec. 11, 1977, College Football Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson led his Grambling State team to a 35-32 victory over Temple in the Tokyo Bowl. The Tigers’ victory marked one of the first wins by a historically black college over a Division I-A opponent.

** On Dec. 12, 1925, Hawaii topped Colorado State, 41-0, in Manoa, Hawaii, to push the Warriors’ winning streak to 18 games. It also snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Rams. Hawaii was coached at the time by Otto “Proc” Klum, the winningest coach in school history, who earned a reputation for running up the score on opponents. Twice during the 1926 season, the Warriors scored 101-0 victories.

** On Dec. 12, 1981, Eastern Michigan celebrated its first (and still only) postseason appearance with a 30-27 win over San Jose State in the California Bowl.

** On Dec. 14, 1995, overtime was used for the first time ever in a Division I-A game. Toledo took a 40-37 win in OT over Nevada in the Las Vegas Bowl.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** Wisconsin is only the second unranked team to make a BCS bowl (Connecticut was the first in 2010) and the Badgers are the first five-loss team to enter a BCS game. It would seem prudent for the Bowl Championship Series to have some sort of mechanism in place to prevent teams with more than two losses from playing in the marquee bowls, but since the BCS is going away after next season anyway …

** And then there is the curious case of Louisiana Tech, a 9-3 team featuring the nation’s No. 1 ranked scoring offense. The Bulldogs aren’t going to any bowl because athletic director Bruce Van De Velde turned down an invitation from the Independence Bowl for a better offer that never came. Tech long snapper Josh Cuthbert promptly qualified himself for Tweet of the year with this gem: “Way to go athletic director #yousuck.”

** It’s a whirlwind kind of season for Rod Carey. The former offensive lineman at Indiana began the year as a junior member of Dave Doeren’s coaching staff at Northern Illinois. After the Huskies’ season-opening loss to Iowa, Carey was promoted to offensive coordinator when predecessor Mike Dunbar was diagnosed with cancer. Then the day after NIU defeated Kent State in the MAC Championship Game, Carey was promoted to head coach after Doeren left to take the job at North Carolina State. That means Carey’s first assignment as head coach will be in the Orange Bowl against Florida State.

** Baylor finished the regular season with six consecutive victories to finish at 7-5 and grab a spot in the Holiday Bowl against UCLA. The Bears have now strung together three straight seasons of seven wins or more, and that’s the first time that has happened in Waco since 1949-51.

** USA Today college football writer Paul Myerberg had an interesting piece in the Dec. 4 issue regarding success tied to pass efficiency. The top 10 college teams in pass efficiency combined for a 91-31 record this season while the bottom 10 were 29-91. Of course, as with any statistical comparison, there are outliers. For example, Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin finished atop the Big Ten in pass efficiency but ranked only a respective 44th, 52nd and 56th nationally. In terms of pass efficiency rating, the highest ranked team with a losing record was Marshall (5-7) at No. 27. The lowest ranked team with a winning record was Bowling Green (8-4) at No. 101.

** Pittsburgh began its season with a 31-17 loss to FCS member Youngstown State and sat at 2-4 in mid-October. But first-year head coach Paul Chryst righted the ship, the Panthers won four of their last six games, and got themselves bowl-eligible. That’s the good news. The bad news? Pitt will be playing in the BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., for the third year in a row. The Panthers took a 27-10 win over Kentucky two years ago and dropped a 28-6 decision to SMU last year.

** Speaking of the Panthers, they will be making their third straight visit to Birmingham under a third different head coach. Two years ago, head coach Dave Wannstedt was forced out and defensive coordinator Phil Bennett coached the team to its win over Kentucky. Last year, defensive coordinator Keith Patterson was interim head coach during the bowl game after Todd Graham left to take over at Arizona State.

** Ten schools have filled coaching vacancies so far with 11 more still searching. The newly hired nine are Gus Malzahn at Auburn, Bret Bielema at Arkansas, Steve Addazio at Boston College, Sonny Dykes at Cal, Paul Petrino at Idaho, Mark Stoops at Kentucky, Doeren at N.C. State, Carey at Northern Illinois, Darrell Hazell at Purdue and Butch Jones at Tennessee. Still in the market for new head coaches: Arkansas State, Cincinnati, Colorado, Florida International, Kent State, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Temple, UTEP, South Florida, Wisconsin and Western Michigan.

** Thoughts on the Bielema-to-Arkansas story have run the gamut from shock to derision. But for all of those who believe the SEC has stolen one of the Big Ten’s best coaches, chew on these numbers. Bielema leaves Wisconsin with a 39-19 record in the conference, a .672 winning percentage. Take a little closer scrutiny of that record and you will find a 25-2 mark vs. Minnesota, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana and Northwestern, and a 14-17 ledger vs. Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa and Nebraska. Bielema was 2-0 in conference title games, but only 2-4 in bowl games, including 0-2 in two Rose Bowl appearances.

** One final thought on the Wisconsin coaching situation. No one should have been surprised when athletic director Barry Alvarez decided to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl. Likewise, no one should be surprised if Alvarez decides after the Rose Bowl that he himself is the best candidate to be Bielema’s successor.

FEARLESS FORECAST

We finished the regular season in a blaze of glory, going 8-2 straight up and 6-3-1 against the spread. That pushed the season totals to 105-25 SU picks and 68-58-4 ATS.

There is only one game tomorrow and it’s an annual classic.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Army vs. Navy: The pomp and circumstance of the Cadets and Midshipmen marching into the stadium far exceeds the entertainment value of the game itself. Nevertheless, it is a national showcase for a pretty good Navy team and a fairly awful Army squad. Both teams run the ball almost exclusively – Army has completed only 47 passes all season – which leads to the fact that the Cadets are the No. 1 running team in the nation and the Middies are No. 6. Unfortunately for Army, it also ranks 118th of 120 FBS teams in rush defense. That means RBs Gee Gee Greene and Noah Copeland as well as freshman QB Keenan Reynolds will get plenty of carries for Navy, and probably plenty of touchdowns … Navy 31, Army 24. (3 p.m. ET, CBS)

That will do it for the 2012 season. Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas as well as a safe and prosperous new year.

Buckeyes Should Be Rewarded For Perfect Season

Ohio State put the finishing touches on a perfect season with a 26-21 victory over archrival Michigan, and Ohio Stadium hadn’t even emptied before the nattering nabobs of negativity began their dismissive chorus to belittle the Buckeyes’ accomplishment.

It seems that many pundits around the country don’t believe Ohio State “deserves” to be in this year’s national championship conversation. Unfortunately, the sorriest part of their argument has nothing to do with NCAA sanctions or postseason bans.

In their warped sense of sensibility, the Buckeyes have not performed to the level of a championship contender. Therefore, OSU and its perfect record are a sort of anomaly born of a weak conference affiliation and an even weaker schedule.

After all, didn’t the team struggle against the likes of California, Indiana and Purdue? Ohio State should probably thank the NCAA for issuing a postseason ban that prevents its team from being embarrassed by the unrelenting might of Notre Dame or Alabama in a national championship game.

Of course, that’s what those same so-called experts were saying a decade ago when the Buckeyes were on their way to play the supposedly invincible defending national champion Miami Hurricanes.

Those of us rooted in reality realized long ago that Ohio State was going to be the longest of long shots to win this year’s Associated Press version of the national title. Then when Notre Dame completed its perfect regular season a few hours after OSU completed its own, the Buckeyes’ tiny window of opportunity closed completely.

Still, the fact of the matter is that Ohio State completed a perfect season against all odds, and it should be rewarded regardless of how or against whom it was achieved.

The time-honored tradition among most human pollsters is that undefeated teams are ranked ahead of those which have been beaten. That’s why OSU should be no lower than No. 2 in the AP poll – and 17 of the 60 persons participating in the rankings released Nov. 25 agreed.

Likewise, it’s not too difficult to understand how 19 other voters placed the Buckeyes third or fourth on their AP ballots. On paper, Ohio State would likely struggle with either No. 2 Alabama or No. 3 Georgia, the teams that have qualified for the SEC elimination game that will determine Notre Dame’s opponent in the national championship contest.

And then there are those eight voters who placed Ohio State eighth or lower on their ballots. That included two – Pete DiPrimio of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel and Josh Kendall of The State in Columbia, S.C. – who didn’t even have the Buckeyes among their top 10.

DiPrimio had OSU at No. 11, behind a foursome of two-loss teams, while Kendall had the Buckeyes at No. 12, behind five teams with two losses. Of course, Kendall likely let his dog perform his balloting. He voted two-loss Texas A&M second overall behind Notre Dame despite the fact the Aggies tied only for the fourth-best record in the SEC.

Of course, it really doesn’t matter who finishes anywhere but first in these beauty contests. For example, can you name the team that finished No. 3 last year behind national championship combatants Alabama and LSU? (It was Oklahoma State.)

Whether Ohio State finished second this year, or third, or even 10th or 11th really doesn’t mean anything because I’ve got news for the Pete DiPrimios and Josh Kendalls of the world: The Buckeyes are going to be good again next year – very good – and it’s going to take much more than a computer keystroke to keep the team from contending for the national championship.

With the exception of most of its starting defensive line, Ohio State loses very little talent heading into 2013. And if you look at the way the Buckeyes recruited last year, the defensive line will be far from a liability.

Furthermore, the schedule sets up much the way the one this past season did. Nonconference opponents are Buffalo, San Diego State, California and FCS member Florida A&M, teams that combined for a 20-27 record this past season, and the Buckeyes’ only real Big Ten threats should be early in the season with back-to-back games against Wisconsin and Northwestern and the regular-season finale at Michigan.

Then there is the head coach. For all of the miracles Urban Meyer has performed during his 11-year career, he has been his most miraculous during the second season at each of his previous three stops.

At Bowling Green in 2002, the Falcons won nine games for the first time in eight seasons. Two years later at Utah, the Utes set a school record by going 12-0 and became the first-ever BCS buster, finishing off that season with a 35-7 mauling of Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.

Then in 2006 at Florida, Meyer’s team went 13-1 and pummeled Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game.

Add to those nuggets the fact that there is very little evidence that anyone in the Big Ten is rising to meet Meyer’s challenge. In the final two games this season, neither opposing head coach seemed very eager to engage Meyer or his team.

Bret Bielema, whose Wisconsin team had nothing to lose in a Senior Day battle with the Buckeyes, elected to punt three times inside OSU territory, including once at the Ohio State 30-yard line in the first quarter of a still scoreless game. A week later, Michigan’s Brady Hoke went away from the stretch plays that were working for his team in the early going and repeatedly tested the middle of the line of scrimmage with his running attack long after the Buckeyes had claimed the interior for their own.

Sports Illustrated writer Pete Thamel perhaps put it best when he wrote in his magazine’s Nov. 19 issue, “For a league in transition, Meyer is driving the pace car.”

That’s not exactly music to the ears of Big Ten opponents – or apparently sportswriters around the country. Then again, the truth always seems to hurt a little.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Nov. 30, 1935, No. 2 SMU scored a come-from-behind 20-14 win over No. 1 TCU, giving the Ponies an undefeated regular season, the Southwest Conference title and a Rose Bowl berth. It would be another 71 years until a major conference had two unbeaten teams with records of at least 10-0 playing one another. That came in 2006 when Ohio State pulled out a 42-39 victory over Big Ten foe Michigan.

** On Nov. 30, 1946, the annual Army-Navy game produced a classic in Philadelphia. The Cadets, led by future College Football Hall of Famers and Heisman Trophy winners Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard, raced out to a 21-6 halftime lead. But the Midshipmen stormed back in the second half with a pair of touchdowns. Unfortunately for the Middies, they missed all three of their extra-point attempts and lost the game by a 21-18 final when Army stopped them at the 4-yard line as time expired.

** On Nov. 30, 1968, second-ranked USC and No. 9 Notre Dame played to a 21-21 tie in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Fighting Irish took a 21-7 halftime lead behind quarterback Joe Theismann, who was making his first collegiate start. But the Trojans came back in the second half, thanks to a touchdown from senior tailback O.J. Simpson and a 40-yard scoring pass from QB Steve Sogge to Sam Dickerson. Notre Dame kicker Scott Hempel missed a 33-yard field goal attempt with 33 seconds to go to preserve the tie.

** On Dec. 1, 1951, sixth-ranked Georgia Tech forced an NCAA-record 13 turnovers (five fumbles and eight interceptions) during a 48-6 victory over instate rival Georgia.

** On Dec. 1, 2001, top-ranked Miami (Fla.) held off No. 13 Virginia Tech, 26-24, in Blacksburg to clinch at spot in the Rose Bowl. The Hokies roared back from a 26-10 deficit starting the fourth quarter, but the Hurricanes preserved the win when safety Ed Reed picked off passes on Tech’s final two drives.

** On Dec. 1, 2007, the Bowl Championship Series turned upside-down in the matter of a few hours. Missouri and West Virginia entered the day atop the BCS standings, but the top-ranked Tigers lost a 38-17 decision to No. 8 Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game while the second-ranked Mountaineers fell 13-9 to unranked Pittsburgh. Those two upsets elevated LSU and Ohio State into the BCS National Championship Game.

** On Dec. 2, 1978, No. 2 Alabama clinched the SEC title with a 34-16 victory over Auburn. Crimson Tide QB Jeff Rutledge threw for 174 yards and three touchdowns, and the win propelled Alabama into a 1 vs. 2 showdown with Penn State in the Sugar Bowl.

** On Dec. 2, 1990, No. 11 Houston won a 62-45 shootout over Arizona State in a contest played in Tokyo, Japan. Houston QB David Klingler threw for an NCAA single-game record 716 yards and seven touchdowns, and the Cougars finished off a 10-1 season and wound up No. 10 in the final national rankings.

** On Dec. 3, 1885, in Downs, Kansas, one of the most colorful coaches in college football was born. Francis Albert Schmidt played his college ball at Nebraska, where he earned a law degree, and he later rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army during World War I. Schmidt began his head coaching career in 1919 and served stints at Tulsa, Arkansas, TCU, Ohio State and Idaho. While with the Buckeyes, he became the first (and still only) head coach to beat Michigan in each of his first four tries and Schmidt also instituted the Gold Pants Club to mark each victory over the Wolverines. Schmidt retired from coaching following the 1942 season and died two years later of a heart attack at the age of 58. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

** On Dec. 3, 1994, at the first-ever SEC Championship game, Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel threw a 2-yard touchdown pass with five minutes left, and the No. 6 Gators squeezed out a 24-23 victory over previously undefeated and third-ranked Alabama.

** On Dec. 3, 1999, ninth-ranked Marshall scored a wild 34-30 win over Western Michigan to claim a 12-0 regular season and the Mid-American Conference championship. The Broncos built a 23-0 third-quarter lead, but MU quarterback Chad Pennington rallied the Thundering Herd with three touchdown passes, the last one with four seconds to play.

** On Dec. 4, 1971, San Diego State and North Texas combined set a college football record for total plays in a regulation game during a 44-28 win for the Aztecs. San Diego State ran 99 plays while North Texas countered with 97 for a grand total of 196, a record that stood until 2003 when Arkansas and Kentucky combined to run 202 plays in a game that lasted seven overtimes.

** On Dec. 5, 1988, Miami (Fla.) ruined the national championship hopes of third-ranked UCLA with a 49-45 upset win in Coral Gables. The Hurricanes, led by 299 yards and three touchdowns from tailback Edgerrin James, rallied from a 38-21 deficit late in the third quarter. The Bruins fumbled twice and Miami QB Scott Covington threw for a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to aid the comeback.

** On Dec. 5, 1993, Wisconsin went all the way to Tokyo to score a 41-20 win over Michigan State, clinching the Badgers’ first Rose Bowl trip in 31 years.

** On Dec. 6, 1873, Yale defeated Eton Players of England by a 2-1 final. It was the first college football game in the U.S. played with 11 men on each side.

** On Dec. 6, 1975, No. 18 Arkansas put an end to Texas A&M’s hopes of a national championship with a 31-6 upset win. The Razrobacks forced six turnovers and held the Aggies to only 149 total yards, securing their first trip to the Cotton Bowl in nine years.

** On Dec. 7, 1966, Army and Navy entered their traditional season finale with winning records for the first time in 33 years. With U.S. President Bill Clinton in attendance to personally award the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the winner, the Black Knights erased an early 21-3 deficit for a 28-24 victory. It was the largest comeback in the 96-game history of the series and the win gave Army its first-ever 10-victory season.

** On Dec. 7, 2002, Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich threw for 402 yards and four touchdowns as the Thundering Herd claimed the Mid-American Conference championship with a 49-45 win over Toledo. The Rockets had a 45-42 advantage late in the game, but Leftwich connected on a 40-yard touchdown pass with wide receiver Darius Watts with only 49 seconds left to give Marshall the victory and the MAC title.

** On Dec. 8, 2001, eighth-ranked BYU’s perfect season went down in flames as Hawaii scored a 72-45 victory over the Cougars in Honolulu. Rainbows QB Nick Rolovich threw for single-game school records of 543 yards and eight touchdowns while teammate Chad Owens returned a kickoff 100 yards for a score and a punt 74 yards for another touchdown. The teams combined for 1,258 yards of offense and 69 first downs.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** Notre Dame and Ohio State were the only Football Bowl Subdivision teams to make it through the 2012 regular season without a defeat. Neither team will play in a conference championship game – the Fighting Irish because they remain independent while the Buckeyes are serving a one-year postseason ban.

** The Fighting Irish and the Buckeyes each extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 12 games. While Ohio State will take its streak into 2013, Notre Dame will put its streak on the line in the BCS National Championship Game against the winner of the SEC title game.

** The nation’s longest losing streak will also move into 2013 as Southern Miss finished its first winless season since 1925 with a 42-24 loss at Memphis last weekend. The Golden Eagles, who were 12-2 just a year ago, finished 0-12 this season under first-year head coach Ellis Johnson. Southern Miss was outscored by a 450-236 margin, and Johnson became a one-and-done coach.

** If you take a look back at the Associated Press preseason poll, you would see rankings in which voters really didn’t know up from down. USC was the preseason No. 1, Oklahoma was No. 4, Michigan was No. 8, Arkansas was No. 10, West Virginia was No. 11, Wisconsin was No. 12, Michigan State was No. 13 and Virginia Tech was No. 16. With the exception of Oklahoma (12th) and Michigan (21st), none of those teams was ranked headed into the final weekend of the regular season. On the flip side, top-ranked Notre Dame was listed among “others receiving votes” in the AP’s preseason poll while No. 4 Ohio State was a lowly 18th.

** Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly is trying to win a national championship in his third season in South Bend. If you’re into history, you might want to scrape up a few dollars and bet on the Irish to win the title. Frank Leahy (1943), Ara Parseghian (1966), Dan Devine (1977) and Lou Holtz (1988) each won national championships with the Fighting Irish in their third seasons.

** What team is the only one to defeat four opponents currently ranked among the top 15 of the BCS standings? We’ll save you the trouble of looking it up. It’s Florida, which defeated No. 7 LSU, No. 9 Texas A&M, No. 10 South Carolina and No. 13 Florida State. And yet by virtue of their only loss, a 17-9 decision Oct. 27 to No. 3 Georgia, the 11-1 Gators will get neither a smell of the SEC Championship Game nor the national title contest.

** There are a lot of worthy candidate for National Coach of the Year, but how about the job turned in by second-year head coach David Shaw at Stanford. Shaw lost overall No. 1 NFL pick Andrew Luck along with several other starters and still managed to guide the Cardinal to a 10-2 regular season and a berth in the Pac-12 Championship Game against UCLA. A victory over the Bruins would send Stanford to the Rose Bowl for the first time since a 17-9 loss to Wisconsin on New Year’s Day 2000. The Cardinal hasn’t won a Rose Bowl since beating Michigan, 13-12, in the 1972 game.

** Remember that old saying about the grass being greener on the other side? Running back Silas Redd, who rushed for 1,241 yards last year, was one of several Penn State players who elected to transfer in the wake of the NCAA punishment doled out following the Jerry Sandusky affair. Redd transferred to USC, where he ran for 817 yards and nine TDs for the Trojans, who finished the regular season with a 7-5 record. Penn State finished one game better at 8-4.

** Congratulations to longtime Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter Bill Livingston. His alma mater Vanderbilt finished the season with six consecutive victories – the program’s longest win streak since 1955 – to finish 8-4, their best record since 1982. The Commodores scored 40 or more points in five games this season, the first time they have done that since 1915.

** Congratulations are also in order for Northwestern, which stomped its way to a 50-14 win over Illinois last week to complete a 9-3 season. The Wildcats will likely play in a New Year’s Day Bowl for the first time since the 2009 Outback Bowl. NU will also be looking to end a nine-game postseason losing streak. The Wildcats have a 1-9 lifetime bowl record with the only victory a 20-14 win over California in the 1948 Rose Bowl.

** This was unthinkable just a couple of years ago, but the hot seat under Texas head coach Mack Brown is beginning to smolder. Since going 13-1 in 2009 and losing to Alabama in the national championship game, the Longhorns are a decidedly average 21-15. Worse still, the Mack Attack has lost three straight to archrival Oklahoma by a combined margin of 146-58 and Brown’s once iron grip on recruiting in his home state is beginning to wane. In recent years, the Longhorns have missed out on such homegrown quarterback talent as Andrew Luck (Houston Stratford), Robert Griffin III (Copperas Cove) and Johnny Manziel (Kerrville Tivy).

** Tennessee got its head coach Derek Dooley fired and then finished the season with a 31-17 win over Kentucky to avoid its first-ever winless SEC season. The Volunteers still finished 5-7 overall, their third straight losing season. Tennessee hasn’t been below .500 for three consecutive years since 1909-11.

** Michigan State crashed and burned this year, going from preseason Rose Bowl favorite to a 6-6 overall mark that included a 2-5 record at home. The Spartans haven’t lost as many as five games at Spartan Stadium in a single season since 2006, the final year of the John L. Smith Experience.

** Virginia Tech got a 29-yard field goal from Cody Journell as time expired last week to squeeze out a 17-14 win over Virginia and make themselves eligible to go to a bowl for the 20th consecutive season.

** With its 45-9 rout of Idaho last Saturday, Utah State put the finishing touches on a 10-2 overall record. It marked the program’s first season with double-digit victories in its 114-year history. The win over Idaho also completed a 6-0 Western Athletic Conference record for the Aggies, who won a conference championship for the first time in 76 years. How close was Utah State to a perfect record? Their only losses came on the road – 16-14 to Wisconsin and 6-3 to BYU.

** Conference realignment being what it is these days, Utah State will be unable to defend its WAC title in 2013. That’s because the Aggies move to the Mountain West Conference next season. Also leaving the WAC next year – Louisiana Tech and UTSA join Conference USA, Texas-Arlington and Texas State move to the Sun Belt, San Jose State goes with Utah State to the MWC, and Denver joins the Summit League. Joining the WAC in 2013 will be Cal State-Bakersfield, Utah Valley and Grand Canyon University.

** Who says nothing can happen in the so-called victory formation? Louisiana-Monroe quarterback Kolton Browning was trying to take a knee with his team leading Florida International by a 17-10 score with 28 seconds remaining. However, Browning somehow fumbled the snap, FIU recovered and Golden Panthers freshman QB E.J. Hillard threw a 58-yard touchdown pass with 0:14 showing on the clock to send the game into overtime. Fortunately for Browning, he threw a 15-yard touchdown pass in OT and the Warhawks scored a 23-17 victory.

** Remember Cal running back Brendan Bigelow, who ran for 160 yards and two touchdowns on only four carries against Ohio State? Bigelow had only 271 yards and one TD the rest of the year on 36 carries. Still, he averaged a pretty cool 9.8 yards per carry for the season. Makes you wonder why the Bears didn’t use him more.

** This season produced an all-time record 42 overtime games. Louisiana-Monroe was in four of them and won three times. Wisconsin was in three and lost all three.

** Illinois finished the season 0-8 in the Big Ten, extending its conference losing streak to 14 consecutive games. That is the longest losing streak of league games since the Fighting Illini lost 14 in a row between 2003 and ’04. No Big Ten team has lost more than 14 consecutive conference contests since Illinois lost 15 in a row from 1996-98.

** Houston QB David Piland completed 53 passes during a 56-49 loss to Louisiana Tech in early September. Meanwhile, 2-9 Army heads into its traditional season finale against Navy next weekend having completed 47 passes as a team all year.

** The old saying that “you can throw the records out when rivals play” has been debunked in recent years. Not only has Ohio State beaten Michigan 10 of the last 12 times in their series, Georgia has won 11 of its last 12 against Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech has won nine in a row against Virginia, Oregon has beaten Oregon State five times in a row and South Carolina has won four in a row over Clemson.

** It’s crunch time for those of us with Heisman Trophy ballots. Johnny Manziel? Manti Te’o? Marqise Lee? Collin Klein? Braxton Miller? Ballots have to be turned in by early next week and I might have to put those five names in a hat and pull out three.

FEARLESS FORECAST

We enjoyed another winning week here at Forecast World Headquarters, going 8-2 straight up and a 5-4-1 against the spread. That pushed the season totals are 97-23 with the SU picks and 62-55-3 ATS.

Here are the games we’ll be watching (from home) this week.

TODAY’S GAMES

No. 19 Northern Illinois vs. No. 18 KentState: The MAC title game will feature two of the most prolific offensive players in college football – also two guys most of the nation has never heard of. NIU quarterback Jordan Lynch should probably be getting more Heisman love, especially since he ranks third in the country in total offense (2,750 yards passing, 1,611 yards rushing). Meanwhile, Kent features running back Dri Archer, who is fifth in the nation among all-purpose runners (1,337 yards rushing, 458 yards receiving, 573 yards on kickoff returns). So, which team has the better defense and which team makes fewer mistakes? The teams are fairly even in terms of defense while both are among the nation’s top 20 in turnover margin. All things considered, this ought to be a pretty entertaining game … Northern Illinois 34, Kent State 28. (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

No. 17 UCLA at No. 8 Stanford: Anyone who had these two teams playing in the Pac-12 title game should play Powerball. While preseason favorites USC and Oregon stay home and watch on TV, the Bruins and Cardinal will stage a rematch of last Saturday’s game that wound up in a 35-17 Stanford win. The Cardinal pretty well controlled last week’s game by shutting down the UCLA running attack. Of course, Stanford boasts the nation’s No. 1 run defense, so that wasn’t much of a surprise. It is extremely difficult to beat a team twice in one season, much less twice in six days. But Stanford would seem to have just too much going for it to lose at home, where it has won 19 of its last 20 games … Stanford 31, UCLA 21. (8 p.m. ET, Fox)

SATURDAY’S GAMES

No. 24 Oklahoma State at Baylor: If you like offense, you ought to like this one. The Cowboys and Bears have combined to score 990 points this season – that’s an even 45.0 points per game, boys and girls – while the defenses have surrendered 736, an average of about 33.5 per contest. That just means you’d better have plenty of popcorn and cold beverages handy. Baylor QB Nick Florence leads the nation in total offense and engineers an attack that has topped the 50-point mark five times this season. For OSU, junior RB Joseph Randle averages 110.2 yards rushing while sophomore WR Josh Stewart has 84 catches for 1,007 yards and six TDs. The Bears play much better at home – they are 5-1 in Waco, including that stunning 52-24 upset of Kansas State – while the Pokes have lost three of four away this year away from Stillwater. However, Oklahoma State has always had Baylor’s number, including last year when the Cowboys shut down eventual Heisman winner Robert Griffin III during a 59-24 romp. That’s why we’re going the way we’re going … Oklahoma State 51, Baylor 45. (12 noon ET, FX)

No. 12 Oklahoma at TCU: The Sooners are in the unenviable position of having to take care of business against the Horned Frogs and then root for archrival Texas to knock off Kansas State so they can claim the Big 12 championship and the big-money BCS berth that goes with it. TCU has a chance to finish its first season in the conference with back-to-back wins over Texas and Oklahoma, and the Frogs have never beaten both teams in the same season. TCU still has a pretty good defense, which it will need against OU quarterback Landry Jones (3,745 yards, 27 TDs). But the Frogs have taken a step backward offensively ever since starting QB Casey Pachall was suspended and then left the team after four games. Look for Jones to motor past the 4,000-yard mark for the third straight season and lead the Sooners to a 10th victory, giving OU double-digit wins for the 11th time in Bob Stoops’ 14-year tenure … Oklahoma 37, TCU 28. (12 noon ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Nicholls State at No. 16 Oregon State: After absorbing a 48-24 beating administered by in-state rival Oregon last weekend, we’re sure the last thing the Beavers want to do is take on the Colonels, an FCS opponent with a 1-9 record. This is a game that was supposed to have been played in early September, but Hurricane Isaac swept in and closed the Nicholls State campus, preventing the team from getting to Corvallis. The Colonels have lost seven in a row, surrendering an average of 36.7 points per contest, and the last time they took on an FBS opponent, it would up in a 66-16 loss at Tulsa in mid-September … Oregon State 49, Nicholls State 7. (2:30 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

No. 20 Boise State at Nevada: The Broncos have ridden under the radar this season after a season-opening loss to Michigan State, but they head into this week with plenty at stake. Boise is attempting to win a share of its first Mountain West Conference championship and post a seventh consecutive season with at least 10 victories. Standing in its way is Nevada, which took a 34-31 overtime win over the Broncos the last time Boise visited Reno, a loss that knocked the Broncos out of the BCS that year. The game will likely come down to the Boise defense, ranked No. 8 in the country, trying to stop Wolfpack RB Stefphon Jefferson (1,564 yards, 20 TDs) … Boise State 31, Nevada 26. (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC)

No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 3 Georgia: The SEC Championship Game should be a good old-fashioned slugfest with the Crimson Tide pitting its No. 1-ranked defense against the Bulldogs and their multifaceted offense that features QB Aaron Murray, ranked No. 1 in the nation in pass efficiency. Of course, Alabama is no slouch on offense (it leads the nation in scoring) while UGA is pretty good on defense (No. 2 nationally in pass efficiency defense, No. 22 overall). The winner gets to play Notre Dame for the national championship with the Tide hopeful of capturing a third title in four years. Because of the way the SEC schedules its conference games, Mark Richt and Nick Saban have only met twice before and split those two games – Georgia took a 26-23 overtime win in Tuscaloosa in 2007 and Alabama returned the favor the following year with a 41-30 win in Athens. The teams have split the last five meetings overall and the Tide holds a slight 17-16-4 edge when the two play one another at neutral sites. Look for another rock-’em-sock-’em SEC final … Alabama 19, Georgia 17. (4 p.m. ET, CBS)

No. 23 Texas at No. 7 Kansas State: The Wildcats are playing for a spot in the BCS while the Longhorns are playing for pride. Texas has lost six of its last eight meetings with K-State, including the last four in a row. To end that slide, the Longhorns are going to have to play better defense. Against the top three offensive attacks in the Big Ten, Texas has allowed 36 points to Oklahoma State, 50 to Baylor and 63 to Oklahoma. In two of those games, the Longhorns somehow managed enough offense to win – 41-36 over Oklahoma State and 56-50 against Baylor. But the Wildcats feature one of the best defenses in the Big 12, including the stingiest unit where scoring is concerned. Couple that with the fact Kansas State averages 40.6 points per game on offense and it seems difficult to believe the Longhorns can break through … Kansas State 41, Texas 24. (8 p.m. ET, ABC)

No. 14 Nebraska vs. Wisconsin: Bo Pelini has his Cornhuskers team in a conference championship game for the third time in the past four years while the Badgers are two-time defending Big Ten champions angling for a third straight trip to the Rose Bowl. The game features the rematch of a 30-27 Nebraska win from Sept. 29, a contest in which the Badgers blew a 17-point, third-quarter lead. Wisconsin has been a star-crossed team all season, losing five games – including three in overtime – by a total of just 19 points. That means the Badgers are better than their 7-5 record indicates or they are simply underachievers. Look for both teams to try to pound the ball with their running attacks while NU makes just enough plays on defense to punch their first ticket to Pasadena since 2002 … Nebraska 27, Wisconsin 24. (8:17 p.m. ET, Fox)

No. 13 Florida State vs. Georgia Tech: Much like the Big Ten, where Wisconsin advanced to the title game ahead of NCAA-sanctioned Ohio State and Penn State, Georgia Tech took advantage of a self-imposed postseason ban by Miami (Fla.) to get to the ACC championship contest. That’s the good news for the Yellow Jackets. The bad news is they have to contend with the Seminoles, who are still smarting after last week’s mistake-prone 37-26 loss to Florida. FSU quarterback E.J. Manuel threw a season-high three picks against the Gators, and the Seminoles also lost star defensive end Tank Carradine to a season-ending ACL injury. Meanwhile, Tech has been inconsistent defensively all season while Florida State has the No. 8 scoring offense in the nation … Florida State 37, Georgia Tech 24. (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Northern Illinois vs. Kent State (+7); UCLA at Stanford (-8); Oklahoma State (-4) at Baylor; Oklahoma (-6½) at TCU; Nicholls State at Oregon State (NL); Boise State at Nevada (+9½); Alabama vs. Georgia (+7½); Texas at Kansas State (-10½); Nebraska (-2½) vs. Wisconsin; Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (+14).

Back To The Graveyard … For The Last Time

Some years, I tell myself that I don’t need to go. Driving past a house where strangers live and then chasing ghosts in a graveyard … Well, that doesn’t seem to be the best use of one’s time. Yet I always seem to find myself performing the same ritual each year about this time.

This year, I looked forward to it more than any other. I didn’t know why until later, after I had driven past the small little white house on Cardiff Road and large concrete expanse of Ohio Stadium. It was uncharacteristically warm for late November in Columbus, and I rolled my car window down as I made my way up Olentangy River Road and turned left into Union Cemetery.

Dusk had fallen and a cool breeze had coupled with the warmth of the day to create a thin layer of fog near the ground. I slowed down just as I passed the entrance of the cemetery as a caretaker waved at me. “Don’t be too long,” he shouted. “We’re closing soon.”

I nodded and waved, then made my way up the small hill and turned left toward Section 12. And there, tucked into a corner between several others beneath a rustling pine tree was the familiar black granite marker at Lot 37, Space 4.

I got out of my car and approached the headstone, always decorated this time of year with mementoes that passersby have left. This time, there were buckeyes and small figurine of Brutus as well as a book of the collected works of Emerson. The pages fluttered in the breeze as I heard a voice behind me.

“You again?”

I wasn’t startled because it was a familiar voice. And I didn’t even have to turn around as an older man stepped forward on my left, a gray-haired man wearing a black baseball cap, red windbreaker and gray trousers.

“Yes, it’s me,” I replied. “I just thought I’d come over and see what you … I mean, I thought I would come over and see if I could figure out what he would think about this year’s game.”

“And what did you come up with?”

“Well, I think he would probably be a little fired up because of what happened last year. I think he would probably be a little fired up because a perfect season’s on the line this year.”

The old man scowled and shook his head.

“You sportswriters are a stubborn bunch of SOBs, you know that?” he said. “You haven’t seemed to learn much from our little visits over the years. With this game, it doesn’t matter what happened last year. It doesn’t matter what your record is. The only thing that matters is the game you’re going to play. That game, that opponent, that moment. Nothing else means a damn.”

He paused for a few seconds and then continued.

“No one ever went into this great game thinking about anything other than the game itself. What are the tendencies, where are the weaknesses? Who can you depend on when things get rough and who shies away from the spotlight? Xs and Os and game-planning, you can do those things until you’re blue in the face. And don’t get me wrong: They have their place. You’d had damned well better be prepared. But you have to know your team. You have to know who you can count on and who you can’t. To my good fortune, I had some outstanding young men who more often than not rose to the occasion in this great game. A coach is only as good as his players and I was blessed with some great ones.”

I nodded and then said, “What do you think of Ohio State’s new coach?”

“My kind of man,” he replied. “Tough, hard-working, not afraid to speak his mind.”

“Sounds like someone else I know,” I said.

The old man squinted through his silver-rimmed glasses. “Don’t patronize me, Son. I never did suffer fools well and I don’t aim to start now.”

I looked down and shuffled my feet sheepishly as he continued.

“The simple fact of the matter is that things are good hands – very good hands as far as I can tell. This great university and these great fans should be proud to have such an outstanding young man as their head coach. They should be proud of such an outstanding group of young men who have turned this thing around. To go from where they were last year to where they are now? That’s quite an accomplishment. You betcha it is. And no one gave them anything. They earned every damned thing they’ve gotten, including respect. And let me tell you something: When you earn respect, that’s everything. That’s something they can never take away. No sir. They can never take that away.

“The greatest thing in the world is Ohio State football. And the second greatest thing in the world is Ohio State beating That School Up North. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Sixteen times we beat those bastards and there wasn’t anything that compared with the feeling. But when you lose that game, it’s the lowest low you can ever experience. Happened 11 times and it just makes you sick to your stomach. That’s why you work so damned hard throughout the year to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“And then, when all your hard work and all your sweat and all your preparation and all your game-planning come together, when all of that comes together and you beat those sons-a-bitches … well, I don’t care whatever you go on to accomplish. There’s no greater feeling you get than beating That School Up North. None.”

The old man clenched his jaw and looked skyward.

“When I first came here, I just wanted to make sure everyone still understood the importance of this game. With all of the tradition that are being trampled on for the sake of a goddamned dollar, I wanted to stress the importance of just how much The Game has meant to generations of fans – how much it still means. How much it will always mean. There are a bunch of us here, you know, and there isn’t anything any of us wouldn’t do to be able to experience it just one more time …”

A church bell chimed in the distance and we both knew what that meant.

“Well, I have to be getting back,” the man said.

I nodded and said, “I always look forward to our visit. See you next year?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied.

Stunned, I stammered, “Wh-what? What do you mean?

“Well,” he said with a sigh, “it gets a little harder every year. And there are rules.”

“Rules?” I asked.

“What? You think I don’t have to go by the rules?” he said as he leaned toward me.

Then I saw the faint flicker of a smile as the old man reflected on the joke he had just told on himself.

“But there was so much more I wanted to ask and our time always seems so short,” I said.

“Oh, I’ll be around,” the man said. “Like whenever the team runs out of the tunnel at the old Horseshoe, I’ll be there. Whenever that sousaphone player dots the ‘i,’ I’ll be there. Whenever that victory bell rings loud and clear, I’ll be there. Whenever someone in some far-flung corner of the globe yells “O-H!” and someone yells back, “I-O!,” you’d better believe I’ll be there.

“And whenever we beat that goddamned school up north, you betcha I’ll be there.”

With that, he turned and began to walk off into the foggy evening.

And then I did something I had never done before. I ran after him.

“I just wanted to thank you,” I said. “Not just for these visits these past few years, but for what you’ve done for all of us who consider ourselves Ohio State football fans.”

The man stood up straight, clenched his jaw and stuck out his hand.

“The pleasure was mine,” he said. “Always was and always will be.”

OSU-MICHIGAN TIDBITS

** Tomorrow will mark the 109th renewal of what is known simply as The Game. The teams first met in 1897 and have played one another every season since 1918. The Wolverines lead the overall series by a 58-44-6 margin, including a 27-24-2 advantage in Columbus.

** Ohio State actually has a home advantage in the series in games played at Ohio Stadium where the Buckeyes are 23-21-1 against Michigan. OSU was 1-6-1 vs. the Wolverines at old Ohio Field.

** In the last 50 meetings overall, Ohio State holds a 25-23-2 advantage.

** The Buckeyes have won each of the last five games in the series played at Ohio Stadium, their longest home winning streak ever against the Wolverines.

** Ohio State has beaten Michigan in eight of the last 10 meetings for the second time in the series. The Buckeyes also had an 8-2 record against the Wolverines between 1955 and 1963.

** OSU head coach Urban Meyer is in his first season with the Buckeyes. He has a career record of 115-23 in 11 seasons as a head coach, including 0-1 against Michigan. His Florida team was on the losing end of a 41-35 decision to the Wolverines in the 2008 Capital One Bowl. Meyer also faced Michigan six times as an assistant coach, posting a 2-4 record against the Wolverines. He was 1-1 against U-M as an Ohio State assistant coach from 1986-87, posted a 0-1 record at Colorado State from 1990-95, and was 1-2 at Notre Dame from 1996-2000.

** Only four Ohio State head coaches have enjoyed winning records against Michigan – Woody Hayes (1951-78) at 16-11-1, Jim Tressel (2001-10) at 9-1, Earle Bruce (1979-87) at 5-4 and Francis A. Schmidt (1934-40) at 4-3. Hayes, Bruce and Schmidt are all members of the College Football Hall of Fame.

**Michigan head coach Brady Hoke is in his second season with the Wolverines. He has a career record of 66-55 in 10 seasons as a head coach, including 19-5 at Michigan. Hoke is 1-0 against Ohio State as a head coach, and 6-3 lifetime against the Buckeyes. He spent eight seasons from 1995-2002 on Lloyd Carr’s coaching staff at U-M.

** Seven Michigan head coaches have winning records against Ohio State. They are Fielding Yost (1901-23, ’25-26) at 16-3-1, Bo Schembechler (1969-89) at 11-9-1, Herbert “Fritz” Crisler (1938-47) at 7-2-1, Gary Moeller (1990-94) at 3-1-1, and Gustave Ferbert (1897-99), George Little (1924) and Hoke at 1-0 each.

** Last week, Michigan completed a perfect 6-0 home record with a 42-17 rout of Iowa. That made Hoke the first U-M head coach to go undefeated at home in his first two seasons since Yost in 1901-02.

** Ohio State is currently No. 4 in the Associated Press writers’ poll while Michigan is 19th in the BCS standings and 20th in the AP and USA Today coaches’ polls.

** Meyer enters tomorrow’s contest with a 23-10 career record against ranked teams, including 2-0 at Ohio State. Hoke has a 4-9 career mark against ranked opponents, including a 3-3 mark at Michigan. He is also 0-2 record vs. teams ranked in the top five, including 0-1 with the Wolverines. U-M lost a 41-14 decision in this year’s season opener to then-No. 2 Alabama.

** Ohio State has already clinched an outright Leaders Division championship. Michigan needs a victory and a Nebraska loss at Iowa today to claim the Legends Division title and advance to the Big Ten Championship Game.

** Should Michigan not advance to the conference title game, it would mark the second year in a row neither the Wolverines nor the Buckeyes had won or shared the Big Ten championship. The last two-year stretch when neither team was involved in the league title was in 1994-95.

** Ohio State is trying to complete only the sixth perfect record in program history. The only unbeaten and untied seasons in OSU history came in 1916, 1944, 1954, 1968 and 2002.

** The Buckeyes could conceivably have had four more perfect seasons, but Michigan ruined undefeated OSU campaigns in 1969, 1993, 1995 and 1996.

** The game will feature two of the winningest college football teams in history. Michigan ranks first all-time with 903 wins while Ohio State is fifth with 848. Texas is second with 866, Notre Dame is third with 864 and Nebraska is fourth with 855.

** This marks the 19th time in series history that Ohio State and Michigan have played after Thanksgiving. The Wolverines hold a slight 9-8-1 advantage when the game has been played after Turkey Day, including last year’s 40-34 decision in Ann Arbor.

** Ohio State enters tomorrow’s contest ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press writers’ poll while Michigan is unranked. The last time a ranked OSU team lost to an unranked U-M squad was 1993 when the fifth-ranked Buckeyes suffered a 28-0 loss to the unranked Wolverines at Michigan Stadium.

** The higher ranked team has won each of the last six meetings in the series. The last time the higher ranked team lost was in 2004 when unranked Ohio State toppled the seventh-ranked Wolverines by a 37-21 final.

** You probably should not expect a shutout tomorrow. The Wolverines haven’t blanked the Buckeyes since that 28-0 victory in Ann Arbor in 1993. OSU hasn’t recorded a shutout over U-M since a 28-0 win in Ann Arbor in 1962.

** Ohio State will pit its prolific scoring offense against Michigan’s stingy defense. The Buckeyes rank 18th nationally in scoring offense with an average of 38.2 points per game, while the Wolverines are 17th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 18.1 points per contest.

** The game will feature a pair of slow-starting teams. Only 65 of Ohio State’s 420 total points (15.5 percent) have come in the first quarter. Only 52 of Michigan’s total of 339 points scored (15.3 percent) have come in the opening period.

** That said, both teams will be looking to score first. They are each 6-0 this season when putting the first points on the board.

** The second quarter is when things begin to liven up for both teams. The Wolverines have outscored their opposition by a 124-74 margin in the second period while the Buckeyes have outscored their opposition by a 139-44 margin in the second quarter.

** Since the two teams met in 1922 for the Ohio Stadium dedication game, a total of 7,857,674 fans have attended The Game. That’s more than any other college football game in America. Sixty-two of those 90 games have been sold out, including the last 43 in a row.

** The Wolverines have 24 native Ohioans on their roster including six starters – defensive end Frank Clark (Cleveland Glenville), center Elliott Mealer (Wauseon), strong safety Jordan Kovacs (Oregon Clay), offensive guard Patrick Omameh (Columbus DeSales), receiver Roy Roundtree (Trotwood-Madison) and linebacker Jake Ryan (Cleveland St. Ignatius). That number would be seven had running back Fitzgerald Toussaint (Youngstown Liberty) not suffered a season-ending leg injury last week.

** The Buckeyes have two players from Michigan – senior tight end Reid Fragel (Grosse Pointe South) and junior defensive lineman Johnathan Hankins (Detroit Southeastern).

** In the previous 108 contests between OSU and Michigan, only 40 have been decided by seven points or fewer. In those 40 games, each team has 17 wins and there have been six ties.

** The Game will be televised for the 46th consecutive year and 57th time overall. The first OSU-Michigan game ever televised was a 21-0 win by the Wolverines in Ann Arbor in 1947.

** Ohio State will wear specially-designed Nike uniforms for the game. The uniforms feature enlarged jersey numbers and stripes as well as more utilization of the color black. Jerseys will also feature seven Buckeye leaves along the back collar and a Block “O” on the front collar. The Buckeyes will also wear special gloves, the same sort of which got the team repeated unsportsmanlike conduct penalties following touchdowns during Ohio State’s 37-7 victory over Michigan in 2010.

** Twenty-one Ohio State seniors will make their final appearance on Senior Day. Due to get their traditional hug from the head coach and high-five from Brutus are Zach Boren, Dalton Britt, Ben Buchanan, Zach Domicone, Reid Fragel, Garrett Goebel, Adam Homan, Travis Howard, Orhian Johnson, Storm Klein, William McCary, Ross Oltorik, Vincent Petrella, Taylor Rice, Etienne Sabino, Justin Siems, John Simon, Stewart Smith, Kharim Stephens, Jake Stoneburner and Nathan Williams.

** The university will also honor members of the 2002 national championship team between the first and second quarters. Head coach Jim Tressel is expected to be among the former players and coaches in attendance.

** Kickoff is set for shortly after 12 noon Eastern. ABC will televise the game to most of the nation with the announce crew of Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Chris Spielman (color analysis) and Quint Kessinich (sideline reports).

** The game will also be broadcast on Sirius and XM satellite radio channels 86 and 91.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Nov. 23, 1918, one of the great World War I-era games was played when the Great Lakes Naval Training Station team traveled to Annapolis to take on the U.S. Naval Academy in a battle of undefeated teams. Following a scoreless first half, Navy All-America end Wolcott Roberts caught a touchdown pass from Bill Ingram for a 6-0 lead. The Midshipmen missed the ensuing extra point, but it didn’t seem important as they moved to the Great Lakes 1-yard line on their next possession. But Ingram fumbled into the end zone and the loose ball was scooped up by Bluejackets defender Harry Eileson, who head the other way along the Navy sideline. Suddenly, Middies reserve William Saunders jumped off the bench and tackled Eileson before trying to sneak back to the sideline. Officials ruled that Eileson would have scored on the play, and awarded Great Lakes a touchdown. The Bluejackets then added the extra point and claimed a 7-6 victory.

** On Nov 23, 1957, Princeton knocked off unbeaten Dartmouth, taking a 34-14 victory and claimed the Ivy League title in the process. Princeton star Danny Sachs threw a touchdown pass, returned an interception 40 yards to set up another score and returned a punt 60 yards for fourth-quarter TD to lead the Tigers.

** On Nov. 23, 1984, Boston College quarterback hurled a 48-yard “Hail Mary” TD pass to wide receiver Gerard Phelan on the game’s final play, giving the Eagles a 47-45 win over Miami (Fla.) and sewing up the ’84 Heisman Trophy for Flutie.

** On Nov. 23, 1985, Iowa quarterback Chuck Long became the first player in Big Ten history to throw for more than 10,000 career yards when he led the Hawkeyes to a 31-9 victory over Minnesota.

** On Nov. 24, 1938, Texas scored a 7-6 upset win over Texas A&M, allowing the Longhorns to avoid a rare winless season.

** On Nov. 24, 1956, College Football Hall of Fame coach Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf made his final game a memorable one when his California team scored a 20-18 upset win over Stanford.

** On Nov. 24, 1973, undefeated and top-ranked Ohio State played unbeaten and fourth-ranked Michigan to a 10-10 tie, touching off a controversial vote among Big Ten athletic directors over which team should represent the conference in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes won a 6-4 vote with many believing OSU got the nod because Michigan quarterback Dennis Franklin had broken his collarbone late in the game against the Buckeyes and would not have been able to play on New Year’s Day. Ohio State went on to roll to a 42-21 win over USC in the Rose Bowl, but the tie against Michigan cost the Buckeyes the 1973 national championship. They finished second in the AP poll behind Notre Dame and third in the UPI rankings, trailing Alabama and Oklahoma. Michigan finished sixth in both polls.

** Also on Nov. 24, 1973, No. 20 Kansas took a 14-13 win over No. 19 Missouri in the Border War. The Tigers held a 13-0 lead entering the fourth quarter, but Jayhawks QB David Jaynes threw a pair of late touchdown passes to secure the win. The one-point victory allowed Kansas to set an NCAA record by playing their sixth game of the season decided by two points or less. The Jayhawks beat Colorado and Iowa State by two points, beat Missouri by one, lost to Nebraska and Tennessee by one and tied Oklahoma State.

** On Nov. 24, 1979, third-ranked Nebraska and No. 8 Oklahoma squared off for the Big Eight championship in a battle of the unbeatens. The Sooners, led by tailback Billy Sims and his 247 rushing yards, eventually prevailed with a 17-14 win for their fourth outright conference title in seven years.

** On Nov. 25, 1916, Ohio State took a 23-3 victory over Northwestern to cap a 7-0 season and earn the school’s first Big Ten championship. It was the first of a league-record 18 outright championships and 34 overall conference titles for the Buckeyes.

** On Nov. 25, 1920, Texas defeated instate rival Texas A&M by a 7-3 score in the first college football game ever broadcast live on radio.

** On Nov. 25, 1950, Michigan and Ohio State combined for a Big Ten-record 45 punts during a game played in a driving snowstorm. The Wolverines won the game 9-3 in what has become known as the “Snow Bowl.”

** On Nov. 25, 1961, Rutgers completed its first undefeated season since 1876 with a 32-19 win over Columbia. The Scarlet Knights overcame a 19-7 deficit after three quarters, roaring to the victory by scoring four times in the fourth quarter.

** On Nov. 25, 1971, top-ranked Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma waged an epic back-and-forth battle on Thanksgiving Day that resulted in a 35-31 victory for the Cornhuskers. NU took an early 14-3 lead, thanks in part to a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown by Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers, but the Sooners stormed back to take a 31-28 lead in the fourth quarter. Nebraska responded with a late touchdown lead to take the victory and eventually went on to capture the 1971 national championship under College Football Hall of Fame head coach Bob Devaney.

** On Nov. 26, 1955, Tennessee halfback Johnny Majors and backup halfback Al Carter each threw fourth-quarter touchdown passes to rally the Volunteers to a 20-14 victory over No. 19 Vanderbilt. The outcome prevented the Commodores from winning the SEC championship and securing a berth in the Sugar Bowl.

** On Nov. 25, 1989, Bo Schembechler coached his final game in Ann Arbor, guiding his third-ranked Michigan team to a 28-18 win over Ohio State. The victory gave Schembechler’s Wolverines their second consecutive outright Big Ten championship, becoming the first team to win back-to-back undisputed league titles since Michigan State in 1955 and ’56.

** On Nov. 26, 1938, Georgia Tech became the first team in college football history to play back-to-back scoreless ties when the Yellow Jackets battled instate rival Georgia to a 0-0 draw in Athens. The previous week, Tech and Florida had played to a scoreless tie in Atlanta.

** On Nov. 26, 1988, for the first time in series history, Notre Dame and USC squared off undefeated and occupying the top two spots in the national polls. Irish quarterback Tony Rice rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown while cornerback Stan Smagala intercepted USC quarterback Rodney Peete and returned the pick for a score as No. 1 Notre Dame took a 27-10 victory.

** On Nov. 27, 1982, Auburn running back Bo Jackson rushed for 114 yards and led the Tigers to a 23-22 victory over Alabama. It was the final regular-season game for Alabama head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who finished a 38-year career with 323 victories. The game also marked a milestone for Auburn head coach Pat Dye. He became the first of 30 former Bryant assistants who had tried to beat the legendary coach since 1970.

** On Nov. 27, 1998, Texas tailback Ricky Williams sewed up the Heisman Trophy with a 259-yard performance during a 26-24 upset of sixth-ranked Texas A&M. Williams broke off a 60-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to break Tony Dorsett’s NCAA career rushing record.

** On Nov. 28, 1942, unranked Holy Cross scored a 55-12 rout of No. 1 Boston College, the most lopsided loss ever for a top-ranked team.

** On Nov. 28, 1975, Texas A&M protected its No. 2 national rating with a 20-10 win over fifth-ranked Texas, the Aggies’ first win at home over the Longhorns in eight years.

** On Nov. 28, 1981, No. 11 Penn State trounced No. 1 Pittsburgh by a 48-14 score, the largest winning margin in NCAA history for a ranked team over a No. 1 team.

** On Nov. 28, 2008, Eastern Michigan quarterback Andy Schmitt connected on an NCAA single-game record 58 of 80 pass attempts during a 56-52 victory over Central Michigan. The performance came six days after Schmitt went 50 for 76 in a 55-52 loss to Temple, and his 108 completions over a two-game span is also a college football record.

** On Nov. 29, 1935, Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger was named the winner of the inaugural Downtown Athletic Club Trophy as the outstanding college football player of the year. The following year, the award would be renamed the Heisman Trophy.

** On Nov. 29, 1958, Auburn protected its No. 2 ranking and extended its winning streak to 24 consecutive games with a heart-pounding 14-8 win over Alabama. The Tigers needed a defensive stop with 1:26 remaining in the game to preserve the victory.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** And there were two. Heading into the next-to-last weekend of the regular season, only Notre Dame and Ohio State remain undefeated at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

** For the second week in a row, the nation’s longest winning streak ended at 13 games. Two weeks ago, Texas A&M snapped Alabama’s streak and Stanford topped Oregon last Saturday night. That means Notre Dame and Ohio State are not only the only undefeated teams in the nation, they share the longest winning streak at 11.

** The nation’s longest losing streak moved to 11 games when Southern Miss head coach Ellis Johnson rolled the dice and came up craps against UTEP. The Golden Eagles marched 86 yards for a touchdown to pull within one point of the Miners at 34-33 with 2:48 remaining. But rather than tie the game, Johnson elected to go for the win and QB Arsenio Favor’s two-point conversion pass was intercepted. The Golden Eagles never got the ball back and UTEP closed out the 34-33 victory. Southern Miss has one more opportunity to avoid its first winless season since 1925. The Eagles travel to Memphis tomorrow to take on the 3-8 Tigers.

** Notre Dame is 11-0 for the first time since 1989 and seeks to finish with a perfect regular season for the first time since its 1988 national championship season. The Fighting Irish have had 12 previous unbeaten and untied seasons – 1889, 1912, 1913, 1919, 1920, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1947, 1949, 1973 and 1988.

** To finish off their perfect regular season, the Fighting Irish must get past USC, which is hurting in more ways than one. The Trojans are coming off a 38-28 loss to crosstown rival UCLA – only their second loss to the Bruins in the past 14 meetings – and quarterback Matt Barkley will miss Senior Day at the Coliseum with a shoulder injury. USC holds a 43-35-5 all-time advantage over Notre Dame, including nine wins in the last 10 meetings.

** West Virginia running back Tavon Austin registered 576 all-purpose yards, including a school-record 344 rushing on 21 carries, last week against Oklahoma. But it wasn’t enough as Sooners QB Landry Jones launched his sixth touchdown pass of the game with 24 seconds left to give Oklahoma a 50-49 win. Jones finished with 554 yards through the air, a new school record for a single game. The two teams combined for 1,440 total yards, including 778 for the Mountaineers, the most ever surrendered by an Oklahoma defense.

** Austin broke a bunch of longstanding records with his performance. His rushing total bested the old mark of 337 yards set by Kay-Jay Harris during a 56-23 win against East Carolina in 2004. He also shattered both the school record of 356 all-purpose yards in a game set by Garrett Ford during a 63-48 win over Pittsburgh in 1965.

** Syracuse senior Ryan Nassib is one of the best college quarterbacks you’ve never heard of. During last week’s 31-27 win by the Orange at Missouri, Nassib raised his career passing total to 8,845 yards and became his school’s all-time leader in that category. Nassib has led Syracuse to a 6-5 record, making the Orange bowl-eligible for the second time in three years.

** Missouri’s loss to Syracuse snapped an 18-game winning streak for the Tigers against nonconference opponents. Mizzou is 5-6 overall and 2-5 in its first season in the SEC. It needs a victory at No. 9 Texas A&M tomorrow night to avoid a first losing season since 2004.

** Another quarterback having a spectacular under-the-radar season is Tajh Boyd of Clemson. Not only as the junior QB directed the Tigers to a 10-1 record, Boyd has thrown for 3,367 yards and 33 TDs and added another 466 yards and eight scores rushing. Makes you kind of wonder why a guy who is No. 2 in the nation in pass efficiency and No. 7 in total offense doesn’t get more Heisman mention.

** Boyd was a one-man wrecking ball last Saturday during his team’s 62-48 win over North Carolina State. The junior quarterback threw for five touchdowns and ran for three more, setting school and ACC single-game records by accounting for eight TDs. Boyd also directed an offense that ran a school-record 102 plays for 754 yards, only two shy of another school mark. The Tigers have now won 10 regular-season games for the first time since 1981.

** Speaking of guys who get no Heisman love, how about Northern Illinois QB Jordan Lynch. During his team’s 31-24 win over Toledo last week, Lynch became the first player in NCAA history to rush for more than 150 yards and throw for more than 400 in the same game. For good measure, Lynch also added a 62-yard punt. The fourth-year junior is currently third in the nation in rushing, third in total offense and 10th in pass efficiency. Lynch has accounted for 4,086 yards and 38 TDs for the Huskies, who have won 10 games in a row since a season-opening 18-17 loss to Iowa. NIU last had a double-digit winning streak in 1964-65 when it strung 11 victories in a row over two seasons.

** Finally, a tip of the cap to John Gagliardi, the legendary head coach at Division III St. John’s (Minn.), who Monday announced his retirement after 64 years as a coach, the last 60 with the Johnnies. The 86-year-old Gagliardi finished his career as the all-time winningest coach in college football history, amassing a 489-138-11 record. Among his many accomplishments: NAIA national championships in 1963 and ’65 and NCAA Division III national titles in 1976 and 2003. His teams also won 30 conference championships, including 27 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. Gagliardi was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

FEARLESS FORECAST

Like a championship contender, we are peaking at the right time here at Forecast World Headquarters. On the heels of a 10-0 week, we were nearly perfect at 9-1 in the straight-up picks. Better still, we picked Baylor to upset Kansas State and that helped toward a 7-3 record against the spread.

The season totals are 89-21 straight up and 57-51-2 ATS and we’ll look to keep our late-season winning streaks going with these games.

TODAY’S GAMES

No. 17 Nebraska at Iowa: The Cornhuskers, who have been Big Ten members for two seasons, need one more victory to advance to their first conference championship game. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes – who have been in the league since 1900 – contemplate a multimillion-dollar buyout of longtime head coach Kirk Ferentz. Iowa has fallen and fallen hard this season, losing five in a row for the first time since 1999 when it dropped its last eight that season. Nothing the Hawkeyes have done for the past month indicated they can even slow down the Huskers much less beat them … Nebraska 38, Iowa 14. (12 noon ET, ABC)

No. 8 LSU at Arkansas: Remember when the Razorbacks were ranked No. 10 in the preseason polls? That was long before the season spiraled into a 4-7 record so far, a campaign that with a loss this week would mean the first eight-loss season in Fayetteville since 1990. It seems difficult to see how the Hogs will avoid that, especially with LSU still hoping out a sliver of hope of playing the SEC title game. The sad truth for Arkansas was that deposed head coach Bobby Petrino took his offense with him when he was fired. The Razorbacks are 88th in the country in scoring, a statistic made even more glaring when you consider the Tigers have the 12th best scoring defense … LSU 37, Arkansas 10. (2:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

SATURDAY’S GAMES

Illinois at Northwestern: While Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is currently enthralling moviegoers, these two teams will battle for The Land of Lincoln Trophy tomorrow. We mention the Oscar-worthy movie only because it features infinitely more interesting subject matter than this football game. The Wildcats are headed for a second nine-win regular season win in five years while the Fighting Illini are experiencing another losing campaign, their eighth in the past 11 seasons. Illinois leads the overall series by a 54-46-5 margin, and that includes a 38-35 win last season. But if the Wildcats play the way they have been playing the last month or so, there isn’t much hope the Illini has of avoiding their first winless Big Ten season since 2005 … Northwestern 34, Illinois 27. (12 noon ET, BTN, DirectTV 610)

Georgia Tech at No. 3 Georgia: Talk about flying under the radar. No one is giving a second thought to the Bulldogs, who will play for the national championship if they can pick off the Yellow Jackets and then beat Alabama in the SEC title game. Of course, UGA can thank a baby-soft schedule for its lofty ranking. The Dawgs didn’t have to play the Crimson Tide and their only cross-divisional SEC games were against a struggling Ole Miss and an even-more-struggling Auburn. Meanwhile, Tech is 6-5 and always represents a tough out with its triple-option attack. The Wreck, which has already qualified for the ACC championship game, averages 38.6 points per game, good for 16th-best in the nation. But the Bulldogs have won 10 of 11 in the series, mostly by simply outscoring the Yellow Jackets. Look for that to happen again … Georgia 38, Georgia Tech 24. (12 noon ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Auburn at No. 2 Alabama: About the only thing riding on this year’s version of the Iron Bowl is Auburn head coach Gene Chizik’s job. Just two years removed from a national championship season, the Tigers have cratered to a 3-8 record overall and 0-7 mark in the SEC. To avoid a first winless conference record since 1980 and save their head coach’s job, all the Tigers have to do is knock off the Crimson Tide, which appears headed for its third national championship game in four years. Despite its misstep two weeks ago in the loss to Texas A&M, Alabama still boasts the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense, a pretty handy weapon against an Auburn team that ranks 107th in scoring offense … Alabama 45, Auburn 10. (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

No. 6 Florida at No. 10 Florida State: After beating the likes of Texas A&M, LSU and South Carolina during the first two months of the season, the Gators haven’t been the same team since a 17-9 loss to Georgia on Oct. 27. They have strung together three lackluster wins since then to move to 10-1, but lackluster won’t get it done against the Seminoles. FSU’s defense is as stingy as they come, and the Seminoles rank among the nation’s top five units in every major statistic. That includes No. 1 in total defense, something that should get the attention of Florida and its 104th ranked offense. The Gators still hold an edge in the overall series, but the Seminoles have won the last two meetings and expect to make it three in a row … Florida State 30, Florida 21. (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC)

Wisconsin at Penn State: Congratulations are in order for the Nittany Lions putting together a winning season against a stacked deck of player defections and NCAA sanctions. Unfortunately, most of the team’s success has come against lesser opponents. Only two of Penn State’s seven victories have come against teams with winning records. Wisconsin is on its way to the Big Ten Championship Game, and still has some unfinished regular-season business including getting running back Monteé Ball another touchdown to set the NCAA career record. The Badgers didn’t exactly play lights-out last week against Ohio State, but their power game should be enough to take care of the Lions … Wisconsin 31, Penn State 21. (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

Missouri at No. 9 Texas A&M: The Tigers are trying to avoid their first losing season since 2004 and draw the explosive Aggies in College Station. Redshirt freshman QB Johnny Manziel has become a Heisman candidate by accounting for 3,047 yards of total offense and 38 TDs. To be brutally honest, Mizzou has nothing that can counterbalance that. The Tigers have scored 20 points or fewer in five games this season, and all of those have been losses. Meanwhile, the Aggies have topped 50 points four times already and rank sixth nationally in scoring. Watch Johnny Football punch his ticket to New York City at the Tigers’ expense … Texas A&M 42, Missouri 24. (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

No. 1 Notre Dame at USC: We were ready to pull the trigger on another Upset Special when we learned USC quarterback Matt Barkley would miss the game with a shoulder injury. That, of course, changes everything. The Trojans will now trot out backup Max Wittek, a talented freshman who is no doubt the future of the USC franchise. But asking a freshman to make his first start against the nation’s top-ranked team – a team that features the nation’s top scoring defense – is asking a little much. Look for the Fighting Irish to finish off its perfect regular season and then sit back to find out which SEC team it will face for the BCS championship in January … Notre Dame 24, USC 17. (8 p.m. ET, ABC)

No. 20 Michigan at No. 4 Ohio State: You can analyze this game a thousand different ways from matchups to Denard Robinson’s throwing elbow to how well the OSU defense can stand up to the U-M spread. None of it really means much as the Buckeyes seek to close out a perfect season. Simply put, the one thing we keep coming back to is that it is Urban Meyer’s first shot at the Wolverines as Ohio State head coach and we just don’t see how he lets victory escape his grasp … Ohio State 34, Michigan 30. (12 noon ET, ABC)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Nebraska (-14½) at Iowa; LSU (-11½) at Arkansas; Illinois (+19½) at Northwestern; Georgia Tech at Georgia (-13½); Auburn at Alabama (-32½); Florida at Florida State (-7); Wisconsin (+3) at Penn State; Missouri at Texas A&M (-16½); Notre Dame (-5½) at USC; Michigan at Ohio State (-3½).

Could Wisconsin Ever Replace Michigan As OSU’s Archrival?

News flash: Ohio State players don’t like Wisconsin, and the feeling is probably mutual.

Wide receiver Corey “Philly” Brown would seem to have a political career in his future with this kind of quote: “I don’t want to go on record saying that I hate Wisconsin more than Michigan, but I hate Wisconsin just as much as Michigan.”

Defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins was even more to the point: “I really don’t like them, to tell you the truth. I’m sure they probably hate us too, but I really don’t care what they think.”

When did relations between the Buckeyes and Badgers become so strained that officiating crews have often had to set up pregame DMZs at midfield? You can thank the personable Barry Alvarez for that.

I’ve told this story before but it bears repeating. My first visit to Camp Randall Stadium was in 1990, one of the early years during the John Cooper era. That was back when it always seemed Ohio State got within a whisker of going to the Rose Bowl only to lose to Michigan and wind up playing at 11 o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Day in some nondescript central Florida bowl game.

Anyway, I don’t remember too much about the trip other a 35-10 win by the Buckeyes and sitting beside a nice lady on the flight back from Madison. She was a relative of Wisconsin defensive tackle Don Davey, and I told her that Ohio State needed only to beat Michigan the following week to achieve its first Rose Bowl trip in six years. I remember her eyes widening as she said something like, “The Rose Bowl? Really? Heck, we’d settle for any bowl.”

The Buckeyes – as they often did in that era – went on to lose a particularly heart-wrenching 16-13 decision to Michigan, and then they lost to Air Force in the Liberty Bowl in one of the most heartless performances I have ever seen from a football team. But at least Ohio State made the postseason. In 1990, Davey was one of the very few stars Wisconsin had on its way to an 0-8 finish in the Big Ten and a 1-10 overall record.

That marked the sixth consecutive losing season for the Badgers and they eventually ran that string to eight in a row. Then they hired Alvarez and the rest is history.

Alvarez led Wisconsin to Rose Bowl trips after the 1993, ’97 and ’98 seasons and his team won all three games. Since the beginning of the 2004 season, the two winningest programs in the Big Ten are Ohio State (56-14) and Wisconsin (48-22).

And while the Buckeyes have evolved over the past couple of years because of coaching changes, the Badgers continue to plow their ground the old-fashioned way. Alvarez recruited huge road graders for his offensive line, found one dependable running back to carry the load and featured a straight-up defense that relied on playing mistake-free football. Fancy? Not so much. Successful? Absolutely.

Alvarez is but a sideline memory now, accepting a promotion to athletic director in 2006 and turning the program over to Bret Bielema, who had joined the Badgers in 2004 as defensive coordinator. But the beat goes on.

Alvarez was (and still is) a gruff sort who really didn’t give a rip about being liked. He always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder perhaps stemming from the fact that his program didn’t have much of a winning tradition before he got to Madison. Before winning the Big Ten championship in 1993, the Badgers hadn’t won one since 1962. And before winning three Rose Bowls in a row, the team had never won any of its previous three trips to Pasadena. No wonder Alvarez and his fans got so full of themselves.

Bielema seems like the perfect successor. Outwardly, his personality seems to fit a guy who spent his playing days as a defensive lineman, and he has adopted most of the tenets of his predecessor. This year’s starting offensive line averages 6-5½ and more than 325 pounds, making it one of the beefiest in the Big Ten. Their featured back is senior Monteé Ball, a 5-11, 215-pound wrecking ball with 813 career carries to his credit. And the Wisconsin defense, while nothing spectacular, is solid enough to give up only 17.2 points per game so far.

In the recent past, there have been numerous dust-ups between the teams. Wisconsin fans have been accused of hurled frozen marshmallows – loaded with all kinds of foreign substances – toward the field, both teams have been guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct by dancing on the opposing team’s midfield logo, and the Badgers upset top-ranked Ohio State in 2010, an otherwise perfect season that has since been vacated. Those memories are bad enough. Imagine what they would be had the Buckeyes gone on to win the national championship that year.

Then there was the welcome mat Bielema pulled out from under Urban Meyer last winter when the Wisconsin coach accused the new Ohio State boss of violating some unspoken gentlemen’s agreement regarding verbal commitments. Both men now downplay that kerfuffle, but you get the distinct impression the matter is far from forgotten. If tomorrow’s game somehow gets out of hand, don’t expect either coach to take his foot off the gas pedal.

Whether or not the animosity between the two programs is healthy, unhealthy or somewhere in between, you might as well get used to it. With conference realignment, the Buckeyes are likely going to have to beat the Badgers every year (and vice versa) to have a chance to play for the Big Ten championship.

With that in mind, a new generation of Ohio State football fans might grow up believing the rivalry with Wisconsin is more important than the one with Michigan. And although I can’t believe I’m thinking this much less putting it down in writing, that new generation could very well be right.

OSU-WISCONSIN TIDBITS

** This marks the 78th meeting of Ohio State and Wisconsin, and the Buckeyes hold a decidedly lopsided 54-18-5 record in the overall series. That includes a 25-11-2 advantage in Madison. However, the teams have split 13 games at Camp Randall Stadium since 1981 – six victories for each and a 14-14 tie in 1993, the last season before the NCAA instituted overtime.

** Because of Ohio State’s postseason ban, tomorrow’s game features the unique aspect of an OSU win clinching the outright Leaders Division championship for the Buckeyes while the Badgers have already clinched the division’s spot in the Big Ten Championship Game.

** Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is making his first appearance as a head coach against the Badgers, but he was is 1-1 in the series as an OSU assistant coach in 1986 and ’87. The Buckeyes scored a 30-17 win in Madison in 1986 while the Badgers took a 26-24 victory in Ohio Stadium the following year.

** Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema is in his seventh season with the Badgers. He has a 67-22 overall record, including 1-4 against Ohio State. Before becoming a head coach, Bielema faced the Buckeyes several times as a player and assistant coach without much success. He was 1-3 vs. OSU as a player at Iowa from 1989-92 and then 0-6 as an assistant coach with the Hawkeyes from 1994-2001. Bielema was also 0-1 against Ohio State as an assistant coach at Kansas State (2002-03) and 1-0 as a Wisconsin assistant under Barry Alvarez in 2004 and ’05.

** The game pits two of the top five current Football Bowl Subdivision coaches in terms of career winning percentage. Meyer’s mark of .832 ranks second while Bielema is fifth at .753. Chris Peterson of Boise State is first at .910, while Bob Stoops of Oklahoma (.802) is third and Gary Patterson of TCU (.772) is fourth.

** Both coaches have excellent records coming off regular-season open weeks. Meyer is a sparkling 14-1 during his career, including unblemished marks of 3-0 at Utah and 8-0 at Florida. Bielema is 5-1 after an off week, including last week’s 62-14 takedown of Indiana.

** Wisconsin will celebrate Senior Day tomorrow afternoon. Bielema is a spotless 6-0 in his previous Senior Day games.

** Bielema is 44-4 all-time at Camp Randall Stadium. However, the Badgers lost their last home game, 16-13 overtime decision to Michigan State on Oct. 27. That broke a 21-game home winning streak for Wisconsin.

** OSU has an all-time record of 12-4-1 playing on Nov. 17 while Wisconsin is 11-3-1 on that date. The two teams have squared off only once previously on Nov. 17 – a 35-10 win for the Buckeyes in Madison on Nov. 17, 1990.

** Ohio State’s current 10-game win streak is tied for the 12th longest in program history. Wisconsin has snapped a pair of lengthy OSU winning streaks in the past. The Badgers ended the Buckeyes’ 19-game streak with a 17-10 win in Madison in 2003, and a 7-7 tie at Camp Randall in 1958 snapped an Ohio State winning streak at 13 games.

** Meyer is enjoying the fourth single-season winning streak of his career that has reached double digits. Prior to this season, he had 12-game streaks at Utah (2004) and Florida (2009) and a 10-game streak at Florida in 2008.

** Counting Florida’s win over Penn State in the 2011 Outback Bowl, Meyer is currently riding a personal 11-game winning streak. That is tied for the third-longest in his career behind a 22-game streak at Florida in 2008-09 and a 20-game streak that stretched from Utah in 2003-04 through his first four games with the Gators in 2005.

** Ohio State has started the season with a 10-0 record for only the 10th time in program history. The Buckeyes also began the 1954, 1968, 1975, 1979, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2006 and 2007 seasons with 10 straight victories.

** As it has been so many times in this series, the game will feature a classic matchup between the irresistible force and the immovable object. Only this year, the teams’ typical roles are reversed. Ohio State ranks second in the Big Ten and eighth nationally in rushing with an average of 256.1 yards per game while Wisconsin ranks first in the conference and 13th in the nation against the run, surrendering an average of only 103.4 yards per contest.

** Ohio State is poised to rush for more touchdowns than it has in 30 years. The Buckeyes currently have 34 rushing TDs this season, the third highest total since 1983. OSU totaled 35 rushing touchdowns in both 1983 and ’84. The school record for most rushing touchdowns in a single season was set in 1974 when the Buckeyes had 48.

** You should not expect a shutout in tomorrow afternoon’s game. Wisconsin hasn’t been shut out since a 34-0 loss to Syracuse in the 1997 season opener and the Buckeyes haven’t been blanked since a 28-0 loss at Michigan in the 1993 regular-season finale.

** Penalties could play a major role in tomorrow’s game. Wisconsin is the least penalized team in the Big Ten, averaging only 3.8 infractions for 33.0 yards per game. Ohio State is the most penalized team in the Big Ten, averaging 7.3 flags per game for 67.5 yards.

** Ohio State will undoubtedly try to score as much as possible, but cracking the 20-point mark is imperative against Wisconsin. In 16 meetings since 1992, the Buckeyes have scored more than 20 points six times against the Badgers and are 6-0 in those games.

** On the flip side of that coin, Wisconsin has scored 20 or more points six times in the 16 meetings since 1992 and is 5-1 in those games. The outlier was last year’s 33-29 loss to the Buckeyes.

** Wisconsin has 13 Ohio natives on its roster, including three starters – linebacker Chris Borland (Kettering Alter), defensive end Pat Muldoon (Cincinnati St. Xavier) and tight end Brian Wozniak (Loveland). Ohio State has no Wisconsin-born players.

** Wisconsin has made a bowl game and an NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearance every season since the 2002-03 academic year. UW is the only Division I school that can make that claim.

** Wisconsin senior running back Monteé Ball needs to score only one more touchdown to match the NCAA career record of 78 set by Miami (Ohio) RB Travis Prentice (1996-99). Prentice also holds the NCAA record in rushing touchdowns with 73. Ricky Williams of Texas (1995-98) is second with 72 and Ball has 71.

** In addition to total touchdowns and rushing touchdowns, Ball is the NCAA active leader in scoring (464 points), rushing yards (4,536) and rushing yards per game (100.8).

** OSU sophomore quarterback Braxton Miller has 1,166 yards rushing this season, the fourth highest single-season rushing total for a quarterback in Big Ten history. Denard Robinson of Michigan set the conference record in 2010 with 1,702 yards, surpassing Antwaan Randle El of Indiana, who rushed for 1,270 yards in 2000. Robinson also has the third highest QB rushing total in league history with 1,176 yards last season.

** Miller currently occupies 27th place on Ohio State’s career rushing list with 1,881 yards. He needs only 33 more to pass Vince Workman (1,882, 1985-88) and Jimmy Gayle (1,914, 1979-82) and move into the program’s all-time top 25.

** Miller is also moving up Ohio State’s career passing and total offense lists. He currently sits 12th all-time with 2,912 passing yards, just behind Todd Boeckman (3,085, 2005-08). Miller’s 4,793 yards of total offense is also 12th all-time with Craig Krenzel (5,097, 2000-03) currently in 11th place.

** OSU junior tailback Carlos Hyde is rapidly ascending the school’s career rushing ladder. With 1,444 yards, Hyde is currently tied with George Cooper (1984-87) for 38th place.

** OSU junior receiver Corey “Philly” Brown needs seven more catches to crack the school’s all-time top 25 in career receptions. Brown currently has 70 catches for 836 yards and four touchdowns.

** OSU sophomore linebacker Ryan Shazier leads the team with 98 tackles and is seeking to become the first Buckeye sophomore to crack the century mark in a single season since James Laurinaitis in 2006.

** OSU senior defensive lineman John Simon currently has 39 career tackles for loss and 16½ career sacks. Simon is tied with Eric Kumerow (1984-87) and Na’il Diggs (1997-99) for ninth place in school history in tackles for loss, and he is in 12th place in career sacks. Simon needs one more sack to tie Andy Katzenmoyer (1996-98) and Rodney Bailey (1997-2000) for 10th place all-time.

** Ohio State has been compiling stats on pass breakups only since 1983, but sophomore cornerback Bradley Roby is within one of the Buckeyes’ single-season mark in that category. Roby has 16 PBUs this year, trailing only Ahmed Plummer, who had 17 during the 1998 season.

** As a team, the Buckeyes are poised to establish a new season record for PBUs. They have 67 so far, just one behind the mark of 68 set during the 2002 national championship season.

** This week’s kickoff is set for shortly after 3:30 p.m. Eastern. That is 2:30 p.m. Madison time if you’re traveling to the game. ABC will handle the telecast using the reverse mirror method with ESPN2. Joe Tessitore (play-by-play), Matt Millen (color analysis) and Quint Kessinich (sideline reports) make up the announce crew.

** The game will also be broadcast on Sirius and XM satellite radio channel 91.

** Next week, Ohio Stadium will host the 109th renewal of The Game. Ohio State will host Michigan beginning shortly after 12 noon Eastern, a contest to be televised nationally by ABC.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Nov. 16, 1872, Yale played its first-ever football game, beating Columbia by a 3-0 score.

** On Nov. 16, 1940, No. 2 Cornell scored on a last-second touchdown pass to score a 6-3 victory over Dartmouth and extend the Big Red’s winning streak to 19 games. However, after a review of the game tape, officials determined the game-winning score had come after a fourth-down incompletion by Cornell and that Dartmouth should have taken over on downs. Cornell president Edmund E. Day, athletics director Jim Lynah and future College Football Hall of Fame coach Carl Snavely offered to concede the game, an offer Dartmouth accepted, and the contest went into the record books as a 3-0 victory for the Big Green.

** On Nov. 16, 1957, Notre Dame stopped Oklahoma’s NCAA-record winning streak at 47 games with a 7-0 victory over the Sooners in Norman.

** On Nov. 16, 1991, BYU and San Diego State combined to score 104 points, but finished deadlocked at 52-52, the highest-scoring tie in NCAA history.

** On Nov. 16, 1996, Washington running back Corey Dillon set an NCAA record with 305 total yards in one quarter – 222 rushing and 83 receiving – during his team’s 53-10 win over San Jose State. Dillon’s 222 rushing yards also established a new NCAA record for rushing yards in one quarter.

** On Nov. 17, 1906, Kansas took an 8-6 victory over Nebraska, beginning what was the longest continuous Division I-A series, one that unfortunately ended in 2010. The Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten the following season.

** On Nov. 17, 1923, Kansas City University lost a 131-0 decision to St. Mary’s (Kan.), capping a winless 0-6 season during which KCU was outscored by a 623-0 margin.

** On Nov. 17, 1956, Syracuse halfback Jim Brown set an NCAA record for single-game scoring, accounting for 43 points (rushing for six touchdowns and kicking seven PATs) during a 61-7 win over Colgate. Brown’s record stood until 1990 and still stands third all-time.

** On Nov. 17, 1990, Stanford erased a 25-18 deficit in the final 12 seconds to score a 27-25 victory over California in Berkeley. The Cardinal scored a touchdown with 0:12 showing on the clock to make it 25-24, but then missed a two-point conversion try. Cal fans couldn’t control themselves and stormed the field, resulting in a delay-of-game penalty. Stanford recovered the ensuing onside kick, a roughing-the-passer penalty on the next play moved the ball to the Cal 22, and Cardinal PK John Hopkins won the game on a 39-yard field goal with no time left on the clock.

** On Nov. 18, 1939, Iowa halfback Nile Kinnick sewed up the Heisman Trophy with a superlative performance during a 13-9 win over No. 20 Minnesota. With the 15th-ranked Hawkeyes trailing 9-0 in the fourth quarter, Kinnick threw touchdown passes of 45 and 28 yards and then sealed the win with an interception in the game’s final minute. Kinnick went on to win the 1939 Heisman, beating runner-up Tom Harmon of Michigan by 246 votes in the final balloting. Harmon would go on to win the 1940 Heisman.

** On Nov. 18, 1961, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen led Utah State to a 17-6 win over intrastate rival Utah in Salt Lake City. The win moved Utah State to 9-0-1 for the season, the Aggies’ best record in program history and their only undefeated regular season since 1936.

** On Nov. 18, 1978, Oklahoma running back Billy Sims rushed for 209 yards during a 62-7 win over Oklahoma State and broke the Big Eight’s single-season rushing record in the process.

** On Nov. 18, 1995, Wake Forest quarterback Rusty LaRue established an NCAA record for most pass completions during a three-game span when he connected 50 times for a school-record 545 yards during his team’s 52-23 loss to North Carolina State. Coupled with performances the previous two weeks vs. Duke and Georgia Tech, LaRue completed 146 of 210 attempts (69.5 percent) for 1,524 yards during the record-setting three-game stretch.

** On Nov. 19, 1966, top-ranked Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State played to a 10-10 tie in East Lansing, a contest that has often been called “The Game of the Century.” Fighting Irish quarterback Terry Hanratty was knocked out of the game in the first quarter after getting sacked by Spartans defensive lineman Bubba Smith, and starting Notre Dame running back Nick Eddy missed the entire game after hurting his shoulder getting off the train in East Lansing. The Irish had the ball on their own 30-yard line with 1:10 to go in the game, but head coach Ara Parseghian chose to run out the clock, preserving the tie and his team’s No. 1 ranking. Notre Dame went on to win the 1966 national championship while Michigan State finished second.

** On Nov. 19, 1983, Oregon and Oregon State battled to a 0-0 tie in Eugene, the last scoreless tie in NCAA history due to the institution of overtime beginning in 1994.

** On Nov. 20, 1976, Kentucky took a 7-0 victory over Tennessee and marked its first victory in Knoxville in a dozen years. Running back Greg Woods raced 68 yards with a pass from QB Derrick Ramsey for the only score in the game, and clinched the Wildcats’ first bowl bid since 1952.

** On Nov. 20, 1982, SMU quarterback Lance McIlhenny drove his team 80 yards for a touchdown in the late going to forge a 17-17 tie with ninth-ranked Arkansas. SMU running back Eric Dickerson – who teamed with fellow running back Craig James to form the “Pony Express” (a.k.a. “The Best Backfield Money Could Buy”) – rushed for 81 yards in the contest to break the all-time Southwest Conference career record held by Earl Campbell of Texas. The tie denied SMU a perfect season and the national championship, but the Mustangs still finished the season ranked No. 2 with an 11-0-1 record.

** Also on Nov. 20, 1982, Stanford band members spilled onto the field to celebrate what they believed was an upset victory over California. As time expired, however, the Golden Bears used five lateral passes while weaving through the Cardinal band to score a touchdown as Kevin Moen mowed down a Stanford trombone player in the end zone. After five minutes of deliberation, officials awarded Cal the 25-20 victory, resulting in one of the most unorthodox victories in college football history.

** On Nov. 20, 1999, TCU running back LaDainian Tomlinson set the NCAA single-game rushing record when he carried 43 times for 406 yards during a 52-24 win over UTEP in Fort Worth. Tomlinson’s 287 second-half yards also tied an NCAA record for rushing yards in one half.

** On Nov. 21, 1981, BYU tight end Gordon Hudson set an NCAA record for tight ends with 259 receiving yards during a 56-28 win over Utah.

** On Nov. 21, 1992, Washington State QB Drew Bledsoe threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns during a snowstorm in Pullman, leading the Cougars to a 42-23 upset of fifth-ranked Washington.
** On Nov. 22, 1875, Harvard took a 4-0 victory over Yale in the first-ever meeting of the Ivy League schools. They will celebrate their 128th meeting on Saturday.

** On Nov. 22, 1958, Pacific succeeded on an NCAA-record seven two-point conversions in nine attempts during a 68-17 victory over San Diego State.

** On Nov. 22, 1969, Michigan defensive back Barry Pierson returned a punt for a touchdown and intercepted three passes as the No. 12 Wolverines shocked defending national champion Ohio State with a 24-12 upset in Ann Arbor. It was the opening game in what became known as the legendary “Ten-Year War” between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.

** On Nov. 22, 2003, Utah scored a 3-0 victory over BYU, ending the Cougars’ NCAA record of 361 consecutive games without being shut out. Utes kicker Bryan Borreson kicked a 41-yard field goal to account for the only points in a game buffeted by blustery winds and frequent snow squalls.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** Only four unbeaten teams remain at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. In alphabetical order, they are Kansas State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oregon.

** For what it’s worth, here are the combined records of the opponents already vanquished by the aforementioned undefeated teams: Kansas State (49-48), Notre Dame (54-45), Ohio State (47-54) and Oregon (48-54).

** When Alabama was toppled by Texas A&M, that ended the nation’s longest winning streak at 13 games. Oregon now owns the nation’s longest win streak. The Ducks have won 13 in a row.

** The nation’s longest losing streak is now 10 after Southern Miss went to SMU last weekend and came home with a 34-6 loss. The Golden Eagles, who came into this year with a streak of 18 consecutive winning seasons, have been outscored this season by a 378-179 margin. Southern Miss has not gone winless for an entire season since finishing 0-6 in 1925.

** Notre Dame is now 10-0 for the first time since 1993, and with a win tomorrow against 5-5 Wake Forest, the Fighting Irish can move to 11-0 for the first time since the 1989 national championship season. Notre Dame has better not get caught looking ahead to its season finale Nov. 24 at USC, however. The Irish squeezed out only a 24-17 decision at Wake last year, and five of their six home victories this season have come by seven points or fewer.

** Congratulations to Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, who notched his 146th career victory at OU with his team’s 42-34 win over Baylor last week. Stoops moved into second play on the school’s all-time victories list, passing legendary Bud Wilkinson, who was 145-29-4 with three national championships from 1947-63. Barry Switzer is Oklahoma’s all-time winningest coach with 157 victories from 1973-88.

** By the time you read this, Tennessee may have already fired head coach Derek Dooley. The Volunteers dropped to 0-6 in the SEC after last weekend’s 51-48 loss in four overtimes to Missouri, and need victories over Vanderbilt and Kentucky to avoid a third consecutive losing season. Tennessee hasn’t had three straight losing seasons since 1909-11.

** No one should have been surprised the Volunteers and Tigers played four overtimes last weekend. Tennessee and Missouri went into the game tied for the most all-time overtime victories with 10 each.

** Nebraska is quickly gaining attention as the Cardiac Cornhuskers. In the past seven weeks, NU has wiped out double-digit second-half deficits four times to stay in line for a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game. It all started Sept. 29 when the Huskers crawled out of a 27-10 hole with 10:29 to go in the third quarter to beat Wisconsin, 30-27. Three weeks later at Northwestern, NU pulled out a 29-28 win after trailing 28-16 with 8:31 left in the fourth quarter. Two weeks ago, Nebraska erased a 24-14 deficit with 14:20 remaining for a 28-24 win over Michigan State. And last week, the Huskers came back from a 20-6 halftime deficit to beat Penn State, 32-23.

** The ACC got in on the scoring show last Saturday when Georgia Tech scored a 68-50 victory over North Carolina. It was the highest scoring game in league history, surpassing the old mark set in 1968 when Virginia posted a 63-47 win over Tulane. The Yellow Jackets established a new single-game school record for most points scored in an ACC game, but the 68-point effort was a far cry from the all-time school mark. That was established in 1916 when Georgia Tech rolled to a 222-0 win over Cumberland.

** Before you anoint Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel as the new Heisman Trophy frontrunner, you might want to know there is another redshirt freshman quarterback with better passing stats. Oregon’s Marcus Mariota is currently the nation’s leader in pass efficiency, having completed 180 of 251 attempts (71.7 percent) for 2,164 yards, 28 TDs and five INTs. Manziel is 227 of 336 (67.6 percent) for 2,780 yards, 18 TDs and six INTs. Where Manziel has an edge over Mariota is the rushing department. A&M’s redshirt freshman QB has run for 1,014 yards and 15 TDs while Oregon’s has 516 yards and three touchdowns.

** Speaking of freshmen, Duke Johnson of Miami (Fla.) had a memorable game last weekend. The true freshman from Norland High School in Miami rushed for 150 yards, returned kicks for another 214 yards and threw an 8-yard touchdown pass for the Hurricanes. Unfortunately, Johnson’s big game was overshadowed by another defensive meltdown for Miami. The Hurricanes blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and eventually dropped a 41-40 decision at Virginia.

** Arizona running back Ka’Deem Carey set a new single-game Pac-12 rushing record with 366 yards during the Wildcats’ 56-31 win over Colorado. The old conference mark of 357 yards had been held by Rueben Mayes of Washington State since 1984. Carey, who also tied a Pac-12 record with five rushing TDs in the game, shattered the old Arizona State single-game mark of 288 set by Trung Canidate against Arizona State in 1998.

** Massachusetts celebrated its first victory as FBS members last weekend with a 22-14 win over Akron. The Zips are experienced a rough ride in their first season under head coach Terry Bowden, who entered 2012 with a career mark of 140-62-2. With the loss to UMass, Akron dipped to 1-10 this season and is a lowly 3-32 since the beginning of the 2010 season.

** The first two official bowl invitations have been extended and accepted. Navy will play in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, set to be played Dec. 29 in San Francisco. The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is in its 11th year of existence and fourth incarnation. It began in 2002 as the San Francisco Bowl and has also been known as the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl (2002-03) and the Emerald Bowl (2004-09). Meanwhile, BYU will play in the eighth annual San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, scheduled for Dec. 20 in San Diego.

** If you have been reading this blog in recent weeks, you know that we have talked about Louisiana Tech QB Colby Cameron. Now, it seems Cameron is getting the tiniest bit of Heisman hype. It’s about time. Cameron has thrown 419 consecutive passes without an interception and has thrown for 3,283 yards and 27 TDs in leading the Bulldogs to a 9-1 record so far.

FEARLESS FORECAST

Everyone had last week off at Forecast Headquarters, resting on the laurels of a 10-0 week in the straight-up picks to kick off November. Against the spread wasn’t quite as good at 5-5, but we return from the layoff tanned, rested and ready to build on season totals of 80-20 straight up and 50-48-2 ATS.

Here are the games we’ll be watching this weekend.

SATURDAY’S GAMES

No. 25 Kent State at Bowling Green: Our old pal Darrell Hazell is having a special season in Kent. The Golden Flashes have secured their first winning season since 2001, are ranked for the first time since 1973, and are working on a school-record eight-game winning streak. This week, they put all of that on the line – not to mention a potential MAC East title – against the Falcons, who are on a six-game winning streak of their own. The game should be a good one with Kent featuring the nation’s No. 15 rushing offense against BG’s run defense that ranks first in the MAC and 14th nationally. We would love to pick the Flashes, but close games usually go to the defense – especially if its the home team with the better D. Also, Kent is going for a third straight win over the Falcons, something it has never accomplished in series history that dates back to 1920 … Bowling Green 23, Kent State 20. (12 noon ET, ESPN3)

Iowa at No. 23 Michigan: QB Devin Gardner is getting more and more comfortable as Denard Robinson’s replacement, and that is good news for the Wolverines since Robinson has a nerve problem in his throwing elbow and could be sidelined for the rest of the season. Not that it should matter much this week against the underachieving Hawkeyes. The Fighting Ferentzes have shown little fight during a four-game losing streak that included their first losses to Indiana and Purdue since 2007. Iowa hasn’t experienced a five-game losing streak since 2000, but there is no indication from the way the Hawkeyes have played over the last month that they can put an end to their losing. Besides, Iowa ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten in most offensive categories, while the Wolverines are second in the conference in total defense and third in fewest points allowed. The Hawkeyes typically play U-M tough, but it just doesn’t seem like an upset is in the cards  … Michigan 31, Iowa 17. (12 noon ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Western Carolina at No. 4 Alabama: Traveling to Tuscaloosa wasn’t going to be any picnic for the Catamounts under normal circumstances. Now, they have to face a bunch of angry Alabama players still stinging from last week’s upset loss to Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide still has a path to the national championship game – albeit much more difficult than this time last week – and Football Championship Subdivision member Western Carolina shouldn’t be much more than a speed bump. The Catamounts rank 120th out of 122 FCS schools in total defense and are on a nine-game losing streak during which they have surrendered an average of 42.9 points per game. In other words, it is a classic get-well game for the Tide … Alabama 56, Western Carolina 7. (12:21 p.m. ET, SEC Network, DirectTV 788)

Jacksonville State at No. 7 Florida: The bad news for the Gators is that they will be without starting QB Jeff Driskel, who turned an ankle during last week’s too-close-for-comfort 27-20 win over Louisiana-Lafayette. The good news is that Florida’s opponent this week ranks 108th in total defense among FCS schools, so it might not matter who is under center for the Gators. The Gamecocks have a pretty good offensive attack with QB Marques Ivory (1,908 yards, 16 TDs) and RBs DaMarcus James and Washaun Ealey (1,555 yards, 16 TDs). But the Gators are working on a streak of 50 consecutive wins against non-BCS opponents, and they have never lost to an FCS school. Don’t expect either of those streaks to end this week … Florida 38, Jacksonville State 14. (1 p.m. ET, ESPN GamePlan, DirectTV 790)

Georgia Southern at No. 5 Georgia: The Bulldogs can afford to do a little celebrating this week, stepping out of conference play to host the FCS Eagles. Georgia clinched its spot in the SEC title game with last week’s 38-0 shutout of Auburn, and could sneak its way into the national championship picture with a little help. Still, UGA would do well to keep its focus on Southern, a team that sits at No. 6 in the country in the old Division I-AA rankings. The Eagles feature a triple-option attack that averages better than 400 yards per game on the ground, a spot where the Bulldogs have been susceptible at times this year. No one believes Southern can engineer the upset, but the home team had better not get caught napping, either … Georgia 41, Georgia Southern 24. (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN GamePlan, DirectTV 792)

Wake Forest at No. 3 Notre Dame: It seems likely the Demon Deacons can go into South Bend – on Senior Day, no less – and ruin the hopes of the Fighting Irish for an undefeated season. At 5-5, Wake needs a win this week and/or next against Vanderbilt to get to a bowl and end a string of three straight losing seasons. Notre Dame, of course, has bigger fish to fry and could be looking ahead to next week’s regular-season finale at USC. Still, it’s difficult to imagine the offensively-challenged Deacons pulling off the upset. Wake ranks 106th in the country in scoring offense while the Irish have the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense. Look for the Domers to make a statement … Notre Dame 38, Wake Forest 10. (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

Sam Houston State at No. 9 Texas A&M: So much for flying under the radar. The Aggies and redshirt freshman QB Johnny Manziel stepped firmly into the spotlight last week, going into Tuscaloosa and coming home with a 29-24 upset over defending national champion Alabama. A&M bolstered its chances for a BCS at-large berth, Manziel is suddenly everyone’s darling for the Heisman Trophy, and first-year head coach Kevin Sumlin jumped to the top of the list for national coach of the year. This week, the Aggies return home to face the FCS Bearkats, who are no slouch. They have already clinched a share of a second straight conference title and have won seven games in a row, outscoring their opponents by a 264-34 margin during that stretch. Of course, they haven’t seen anything like Manziel … Texas A&M 45, Sam Houston State 20. (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN GamePlan, DirectTV 789)

Minnesota at No. 16 Nebraska: The Cornhuskers have turned late comebacks into an air form lately, erasing double-digit deficits four times over the past seven weeks to stay on track for a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game opposite Wisconsin. This week, NU doesn’t figure to need a comeback against a team its has beaten 15 straight times. The Golden Gophers are experiencing a bit of a renaissance under second-year head coach Jerry Kill. They are bowl-eligible for the first time since 2009, and have won two of their last three. Minnesota still isn’t quite on par offensively with the Cornhuskers, however, and Goldy really has no answer for Nebraska’s one-two punch of QB Taylor Martinez and RB Ameer Abdullah. A couple of other things that tilt this one NU’s way – the Gophers have lost 23 of their last 24 against ranked opponents and haven’t beaten one on the road since 2005 … Nebraska 38, Minnesota 21. (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN, DirectTV 610)

No. 2 Kansas State at Baylor: The Wildcats would do well not to look past this game to the Dec. 1 season finale against Texas. The Bears are laying in wait to do to K-State exactly what Texas A&M did to Alabama last week. Baylor might not have RG-3 at the controls any more, but the Bears still boast the nation’s No. 2 passing attack behind QB Nick Florence (3,191 yards, 25 TDs) and WR Terrance Williams (77 catches, 1,431 yards, 10 TDs). Additionally, Waco has not been very friendly to the Wildcats in recent years. They have lost on their last two trips to the Floyd, and even last year’s home win over the Bears was a 36-35 accomplished only with a fourth-quarter rally. We haven’t been too good with the Upset Specials this season, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop picking them … Baylor 34, Kansas State 31. (8 p.m. ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

No. 6 Ohio State at Wisconsin: There are compelling reasons why oddsmakers favor the Badgers. Wisconsin has won 44 of 48 home games under head coach Bret Bielema, OSU has come home losers on three of its last four trips to Madison, and its Senior Day at Camp Randall with running back Monteé Ball poised to become college football’s all-time leader in touchdowns. Additionally, the Buckeyes are trying to close out an unblemished season, an accomplishment so difficult it has been done only five times in program history. Yet, we can’t get last year’s game out of our minds. Most people only remember Braxton Miller’s game-winning 40-yard heave to Devin Smith in the final minute, but the Buckeyes outplayed the Badgers in nearly every phase of the game. Most fans forget Wisconsin QB Russell Wilson threw for a pair of touchdowns to erase what had been a 26-14 OSU lead with 4:39 remaining and give the Badgers a 28-26 lead with 1:18 to play. Russell’s absence coupled with the Buckeyes’ ability to stop the run makes the difference … Ohio State 31, Wisconsin 27. (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN2)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Kent State at Bowling Green (-2½); Iowa (+20) at Michigan; Western Carolina at Alabama (NL); Jacksonville State at Florida (NL); Georgia Southern at Georgia (NL); Wake Forest at Notre Dame (-22); Sam Houston State at Texas A&M (NL); Minnesota (+20) at Nebraska; Kansas State at Baylor (+13); Ohio State (+2½) at Wisconsin.

Enjoy the games and we’ll see you next week.

Buckeyes Elbowing Their Way Into National Title Talk

This is beginning to get really interesting.

When the Ohio State football team bolts onto the Ohio Stadium field tomorrow afternoon, it will do so as members of the No. 6 ranked team in college football according to the latest Associated Press writers’ poll.

The Buckeyes haven’t been so highly regarded since they finished the 2010 season at No. 5 in both the AP and USA Today coaches’ poll. Of course, that was the season that has since been vacated by the same NCAA sanctions that preclude this year’s team from competing for a Big Ten championship.

Those sanctions also prevent the Buckeyes from competing for the 2012 national championship – at least the one that is decided on the field by the Bowl Championship Series format. That title is likely to be waged between Alabama (or some other SEC team seeking to extend the conference’s national championship streak to seven) and any one of a handful of other possibilities.

That Ohio State is disqualified from competing for the BCS title is a bitter pill, but the Buckeyes are taking that medicine in the wake of the yearlong scandal that cost former head coach Jim Tressel his job and his legacy.

But while the team cannot win the national championship that is decided on the field, there is no reason why Ohio State can’t contend for the AP version of the crown.

First and foremost, the idea of actually winning the national championship on the field is a relatively new idea. Before the BCS began in 1998 – and prior to the Bowl Coalition (1992-94) and Bowl Alliance (1995-97) – college football awarded its national championships based solely upon polls and rankings, and titles were very often split between two teams.

For example, any Ohio State fan worth his scarlet and gray salt knows the Buckeyes have won five national championships based upon major polls. But OSU shared two of those titles – with UCLA in 1954 and with Auburn in 1957.

The most recent example of a split national championship came just nine years ago in 2003 when No. 2 LSU won the BCS national championship by virtue of a 21-14 Sugar Bowl win over No. 3 Oklahoma while the AP awarded its version of the title to top-ranked USC, which defeated fourth-ranked Michigan by a 28-14 final in the Rose Bowl.

There is even precedent for a team on NCAA probation to win the title. Oklahoma was serving the second year of a two-season bowl ban when it finished 11-0 in 1974 and won the AP’s version of the national championship.

The Sooners were the nation’s only undefeated team that season, but Barry Switzer’s team didn’t exactly play a monster schedule. They vanquished only two ranked teams that year, nipping No. 17 Texas at home by a 16-13 final and then going to Nebraska and dealing the sixth-ranked Cornhuskers their third loss of the season, a 28-14 decision in late November.

There is the slightest chance that Ohio State could engineer a repeat of the Sooners’ accomplishment of 38 years ago by finishing the 2012 season as the nation’s lone unbeaten team.

Heading into November, the Buckeyes are one of only six teams remaining at the Football Bowl Subdivision level without a loss. Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame and Louisville are the other five. And while the remainder of the schedule features a pair of archenemies to finish the season, Ohio State has by far the easiest path to an undefeated season. The Buckeyes play Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan to complete their schedule, teams that have combined for a decidedly average 13-12 record.

Two teams rated above OSU will mix it up tomorrow night when top-ranked Alabama visits No. 5 LSU. If the defending champion Crimson Tide win that game and finish the season undefeated, no one would (or could) criticize their bona fides for another consensus national championship. But if the Tigers prevail, all bets are off. They will have the inside track to the SEC title game, where they would likely have to play Georgia or Florida.

Second-ranked Oregon has been extremely impressive in its first eight games, but the Ducks’ schedule is back-loaded with a date tomorrow at No. 18 USC and a Nov. 24 trip to instate rival Oregon State, which is ranked No. 13 in the AP poll.

No. 3 Kansas State and fourth-ranked Notre Dame also have some unfinished business if they plan to finish the season unbeaten.

The Wildcats finish their season with Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor and Texas, while the Fighting Irish travel to USC for their season finale Nov. 24 with hopes for playing in their first BCS National Championship Game likely riding on the outcome.

And what happens if each of the five teams ahead of Ohio State suffers a loss? As I mentioned earlier, things begin to get really interesting.

I am on record as believing some AP voters will find a way not to give the national championship to any team on probation. For example, can you imagine the righteous indignation emanating from ESPN during a title discussion involving a one-loss SEC team and an undefeated Ohio State?

Still, if the Buckeyes run the table and finish the season as the only unbeaten team in the nation, it’s at least going to make that title discussion one worth having.

OSU-ILLINOIS TIDBITS

** Ohio State and Illinois will meet for the 99th time since the series was inaugurated in 1902. The teams played every season for 89 consecutive years until the series was interrupted by scheduling quirks in 2003-04. The Buckeyes hold a 64-30-4 advantage in the overall series, including a 37-18-4 edge in Columbus.

** Despite the lopsided home advantage in the series for Ohio State, the Fighting Illini have won seven of their last 11 games inside the Horseshoe. That includes a 28-21 upset of the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes in 2007.

** Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer will be facing the Illinois for the first time as a head coach. Meyer was 2-0 against the Illini during his tenure as an OSU assistant coach in 1986 and ’87.

** First-year Illinois head coach Tim Beckman served two seasons on Jim Tressel’s Ohio State staff, coaching cornerbacks in 2005 and ’06. As a head coach, Beckman is 0-2 vs. the Buckeyes. His Toledo team dropped a 38-0 decision to OSU at Cleveland Browns Stadium in 2009, and the Rockets lost a 27-22 heartbreaker at Ohio Stadium last season. Beckman was also a member of the Bowling Green coaching staff in 2003 when the Falcons dropped a 24-17 decision to the Buckeyes in Columbus.

** Beckman was an assistant at Bowling Green from 1998-2004, serving under three different head coaches – Gary Blackney (1998-2000), Meyer (2001-02) and Gregg Brandon (2003-04).

** Meyer has a 1-1 record against former staff assistants with both games coming against Dan Mullen, who was Meyer’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Florida. Mullen became head coach at Mississippi State in 2009, and his Bulldogs lost a 29-19 decision to the Gators in Starkville in 2009 before coming back for a 10-7 win in Gainesville the following year.

** Ohio State has started the season with a 9-0 record for only the 13th time in program history. The Buckeyes also began the 1944, 1954, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2006 and 2007 seasons with nine straight victories.

** The Buckeyes have not been shut out in the series since a 9-0 win by Illinois in 1959. Since that time, OSU has thrown nine shutouts against the Illini – 44-0 in 1961, 26-0 in 1964, 41-0 in 1969, 30-0 in 1973, 35-0 in 1977, 14-0 in 1986, 48-0 in 1996, 41-0 in 1998 and 30-0 in 2009.

** Illinois has held Ohio State to less than 100 yards passing in each of the last four games in the series, and it should be noted that the Buckeyes enter this year’s matchup ranked ninth in the Big Ten and 102nd nationally in pass offense.

** With three games remaining, Ohio State is poised to rush for more touchdowns than it has in 30 years. The Buckeyes already have 29 rushing TDs this season, the fourth highest total since 1983. OSU totaled 35 rushing touchdowns in both 1983 and ’84, and had 31 during the 2002 national championship season. The school record for most rushing touchdowns in a single season was set in 1974 when the Buckeyes had 48.

** Despite their 2-6 record, the Fighting Illini ranks first in the Big Ten and 12th in the nation in third-down defense. Opponents have converted only 30.0 percent (30 of 100) third downs against Illinois this season. UI is even better on fourth down. The Illini are sixth in the nation in fourth-down defense, allowing only one conversion in five tries.

** Illinois junior QB Nathan Scheelhaase is already among his school’s all-time leaders in several categories. Scheelhaase is fourth in passing efficiency (129.2), sixth in total offense (6,427 yards), eighth in TD passes (34) and ninth in passing yardage (4,774).

** If you notice Illinois players sporting two different kinds of helmet stickers, you’re not seeing things. Beckman awards both blue and white stickers in the shape of the state of Illinois. Blue stickers reward on-field performance and go on the left side of the helmet, while white stickers honor off-the-field work and are worn on the right side.

** Illinois has 16 players from Ohio on its roster, including six starters and five more players who are on the two-deep. Ohio State has three players from Illinois – defensive linemen Garrett Goebel (Villa Park) and Tommy Schutt (Glen Ellyn) as well as wide receiver Evan Spencer (Vernon Hills).

** The Buckeyes and Illini square off for one of the most uncommon trophies in college football. Illibuck is a wooden turtle that goes to the winner of the game each year. The tradition began in 1925 with a live turtle being exchanged between the two schools. The turtle was selected because of its supposed long life expectancy, but the original Illibuck died only two years after the trophy game was inaugurated. Since 1927, nine wooden replica Illibucks have been carved, each with the scores from games on its back. The Illibuck is the second oldest trophy game in the Big Ten, surpassed only by the Little Brown Jug that Minnesota and Michigan have been playing for since 1903.

** With his 134-yard effort against Penn State, Miller increased his season rushing total to 1,093 and became the first Ohio State quarterback in program history to break the 1,000-yard mark in a single season.

** Miller already has the fourth highest single-season rushing total for a quarterback in Big Ten history. Denard Robinson of Michigan set the conference record in 2010 with 1,702 yards, surpassing Antwaan Randle El of Indiana, who rushed for 1,270 yards in 2000. Robinson also has the third highest QB rushing total in league history with 1,176 yards last season.

** Miller moved into 38th place on Ohio State’s career rushing list, motoring past Bob Watkins (1,788, 1952-54), Scottie Graham (1,768, 1988-91), John Wooldridge (1983-86) and Rex Kern (1,714, 1968-70).

** Miller chalked up his ninth career 100-yard game and became only the 15th player in Ohio State history with that many 100-yard rushing performances. The list of Buckeyes with exactly nine 100-yard performances is an impressive one that includes 1955 Heisman Trophy winner Howard “Hopalong” Cassady and 1961 Heisman runner-up Bob Ferguson.

** Miller also moved into 12th place on OSU’s all-time passing list. He now has 2,686 yards and moved ahead of Stan Jackson (2,660, 1994-97). Next up is Todd Boeckman (3,085, 2005-08).

** OSU senior defensive lineman John Simon had another sack against Penn State, increasing his career total to 38 tackles for loss. He needs one more to jump into a tie with Eric Kumerow (1984-87) and Na’il Diggs (1997-99) for ninth place all-time in school history.

** Simon currently has 15½ career sacks, which ties him for 12th in school history with Cameron Heyward (2007-10). Simon needs two more sacks to break into the all-time top 10. Tenth place is currently occupied by Andy Katzenmoyer (1996-98) and Rodney Bailey (1997-2000), each of whom had 17½ career sacks.

** Kickoff this week is set for shortly after 3:30 p.m. Eastern with ESPN handling the telecast. For the third time this season, the announce crew will feature Beth Mowins (play-by-play), former OSU receiver Joey Galloway (color analysis) and Lewis Johnson (sideline reports).

** The game will also be broadcast on Sirius satellite radio channels 113 and XM channel 197.

** Next week, Ohio State will be off. The Buckeyes return to action Nov. 17 at Wisconsin. Time and broadcast partners for that game have yet to be announced.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Nov. 2, 1935, the original “Game of the Century” featured the first-ever meeting between Ohio State and Notre Dame. The Buckeyes held a 13-0 lead after three quarters, but the Fighting Irish scored 18 points in the fourth quarter for a stunning 18-13 victory at Ohio Stadium. ND backup quarterback Bill Shakespeare connected on a 19-yard touchdown pass to end Wayne Milner with 32 seconds remaining to cap the comeback. The game featured six future College Football Hall of Fame members – Shakespeare, Milner and head coach Elmer Layden for the Fighting Irish, and guard Gust Zarnas, center Gomer Jones and head coach Francis Schmidt for the Buckeyes. For highlights of the game, click here: Game of the Century.

** On Nov. 2, 1985, eighth-ranked Ohio State toppled No. 1 Iowa by a 22-13 score in Ohio Stadium. Future College Hall of Fame linebacker Chris Spielman totaled 19 tackles, capped by a late fourth-down stop of Hawkeyes tailback Ronnie Johnson inside the OSU 10-yard line. Spielman also had two interceptions as the Buckeyes pressured Iowa QB Chuck Long into throwing four picks.

** On Nov. 3, 1962, third-ranked USC handed No. 9 Washington its first loss of the season with a 14-0 shutout in Los Angeles. Quarterback Pete Beathard threw for a touchdown and ran for a score to carry the Trojans to victory. The win helped propel USC to the first of four national titles won under College Football Hall of Fame head coach John McKay.

** On Nov. 3, 1979, Yale scored a 23-20 victory over Cornell and became the first school to reach 700 college football victories. QB John Rogan threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Bob Rostomily with 47 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs the win and keep them on track on an eventual Ivy League championship.

** On Nov. 3, 1984, Ohio State rolled to a 50-7 victory over Indiana, giving future College Football Hall of Fame head coach Earle Bruce his 100th career win.

** On Nov. 4, 1967, Miami (Fla.) ended Virginia Tech’s regular-season winning streak at 14 with a 14-7 upset in Blacksburg.

** On Nov. 4, 2000, No. 23 Northwestern upset No. 12 Michigan in a 54-51 shootout in Evanston. Northwestern tailback Damien Anderson, who carried for 268 yards and two scores, dropped a fourth-down pass in the end zone late in the game that seemingly sealed the Wildcats’ fate. But on the ensuing Michigan possession, cornerback Sean Wieber forced Wolverines tailback Anthony Thomas to fumble, which was recovered by cornerback Raheem Covington. The turnover set up an 11-yard touchdown pass from NU quarterback Zak Kustok to wide receiver Sam Simmons with 20 seconds to play to clinch the victory.

** Also on Nov. 4, 2000, Utah State running back Emmett White established a new NCAA single-game record with 578 all-purpose yards as the Aggies took a 44-37 win over New Mexico State. White rushed for 322 yards, totaled 134 receiving and added another 122 on kickoff and punt returns.

** On Nov. 5, 1938, sixth-ranked Tennessee began a streak of 17 consecutive regular-season shutouts with a 45-0 win over Chattanooga. During the streak, the Volunteers won three SEC championships and two national titles while outscoring their opposition by a 479-0 margin.

** On Nov. 5, 1955, three future College Hall of Famers – coaches Bowden Wyatt of Tennessee and Bobby Dodd of Georgia Tech as well as UT tailback Johnny Majors – were all at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville as the Volunteers and Yellow Jackets played to a 7-7 tie.

** On Nov. 5, 1960, third-ranked Minnesota forced three turnovers and scored a 27-10 upset of top-ranked Iowa.

** On Nov. 6, 1869, Rutgers and Princeton squared off in Brunswick, N.J., for what has often been described as the first-ever game of American football. The 1869 game – won 6 “runs” to 4 by Rutgers – bore little resemblance to what football is known as today. For example, each side used 25 men on a 120-yard field and the rules were said to be a mixture of rugby and soccer. Players attempted to score by kicking the ball into the opposing team’s goal, while throwing or carrying the ball was not allowed.

** On Nov. 6, 1971, Colgate and Bucknell combined to run the ball 141 times, setting an NCAA record for the most single-game rushes in college football history. The Raiders ran 82 times while Bucknell racked up 59 carries, and the teams combined for 440 total rushing yards. Colgate won the game by a 47-24 score.

** On Nov. 6, 1976, Houston highlighted its first season as a member of the Southwest Conference with a stunning 30-0 victory over Texas. The Cougars were led by defensive tackle Wilson Whitley as the Longhorns were limited to only eight first downs in their worst conference loss ever under legendary head coach Darrell K Royal.

** On Nov. 7, 1925, Andy “Swede” Oberlander threw a then-NCAA-record six touchdown passes as Dartmouth rolled to a 62-13 win over Cornell. One week later, the Big Green took a 33-7 victory over Chicago to finish the season with a perfect 8-0 record and the national championship.

** On Nov. 7, 1959, unranked Tennessee stopped Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon on a fourth-quarter two-point conversion run and preserved a 14-13 upset over No. 1 LSU, ending the Tigers’ 19-game unbeaten streak.

** On Nov. 7, 1970, Northwestern fullback Mike Adamle set a new Big Ten record for carries by rushing 48 times for 192 yards and four touchdowns as his Wildcats took a 28-14 win over Minnesota.

** On Nov. 7, 1987, Paul Hewitt of San Diego State became the first player in college football history to rush for three touchdowns in five consecutive games. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, Hewitt’s exploits couldn’t avoid a 38-21 loss to BYU. Ironically, Hewitt’s streak was matched just one year later by Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State, but it has not been equaled since.

** On Nov. 8, 1947, Wisconsin and Iowa became the first teams to combine for three punt returns for touchdowns in a single game during a 46-14 win by the Badgers in Madison.

** On Nov. 8, 1975, unranked Kansas ended No. 2 Oklahoma’s 28-game winning streak by going into Norman and carving out a 23-3 upset victory. The defending national champion Sooners committed seven second-half turnovers and were held to their lowest scoring output in nine seasons. They rebounded, however, and went on to defeat Penn State in the Orange Bowl for a second consecutive national title.

** Also on Nov. 8, 1975, freshman cornerback Savann Thompson’s interception with 59 seconds left set up the game-winning field goal as Stanford shocked No. 9 USC, 13-10, in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

** On Nov. 8, 1997, No. 4 Michigan sailed into Happy Valley and put a 34-8 hurting on third-ranked Penn State. The Wolverines dominated from the first play of the game when defensive lineman Glen Steele sacked Lions QB Mike McQueary. Michigan quarterback Brian Griese connected on 14 of 22 passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns, including a 37-yard score to eventual Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** Last weekend was a rough one for undefeated team as Florida, Mississippi State, Ohio, Rutgers and Oregon State all went down. That leaves only six unbeaten teams at the Football Bowl Subdivision level – Ohio State at 9-0 and Alabama, Louisville, Kansas State, Notre Dame and Oregon each at 8-0.

** Alabama extended the nation’s longest streak to 12 last Saturday night with a 38-7 win over previously undefeated Mississippi State. The Bulldogs had come into that game having won nine in a row.

** The nation’s longest losing streak was extended to eight when Southern Miss dropped a 44-17 decision at Rice. The Golden Eagles, who finished 12-2 last year and are working on a streak of 16 consecutive winning seasons, have now been outscored by a 317-154 margin.

** Scoring points in bunches and setting offensive records certainly grabs the attention of most college football fans, but you still have to play at least a little defense if you hope to contend for a championship. USC found that out (again) last Saturday night when Arizona wiped out a 28-13 second-half deficit on the way to a 39-36 upset victory. Despite the loss, USC quarterback Matt Barkley threw for a career-high 493 yards while wideout Marqise Lee caught 16 passes in the game for a Pac-12 record 345 yards. The Trojans piled up 618 total yards, but yielded 588 to the Wildcats, who are now 5-3 under first-year head coach Rich Rodriguez.

** Tim Beckman didn’t exactly leave the cupboard bare at Toledo. The Rockets are 8-1 with their lone defeat a 24-17 overtime loss to Arizona in the season opener. Since then, first-year head coach Matt Campbell has directed the team to eight straight victories and a tie with Northern Illinois for first place in the MAC West. Of course, Campbell – at 32 the youngest coach at the FBS level – should know a thing or two about winning. As a player and assistant coach at Mount Union, he won four Division III national championship rings.

** Staying in the MAC, how about the job our old buddy Darrell Hazell has done at Kent State? The Golden Flashes have had exactly one winning season since finishing 7-4 in 1987, but Hazell has Kent atop the MAC East with a perfect 4-0 conference slate and 7-1 overall record. The Flashes are coming off a 35-23 win over previously unbeaten Rutgers – the program’s first-ever win over a ranked opponent – and return home this week to face a struggling Akron team. If Kent wins that one, it would be 8-1 for the first time since 1940.

** How times has the practice of icing the kicker really worked? With the score tied 31-31 in overtime last Friday night, Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones called a last-second timeout to try and ice Louisville kicker John Wallace before a potential 30-yard field goal attempt. But the joke was on Jones when the Cardinals botched the snap just as the UC coach called timeout. When the teams lined up again, Wallace calmly booted the game-winner to keep Louisville undefeated and hand the Bearcats their first loss.

** Talk about seesaw battles. North Carolina raced out to an early 25-7 lead over instate rival North Carolina State last week only to see the Wolfpack claw back for a 35-25 lead after three quarters. But the Tar Heels scored 18 unanswered points in the final period, including a 72-yard punt return from Giovani Bernard with just 13 seconds remaining for a wild 43-35 victory. The teams combined for 48 first downs and 1,104 total yards.

** Another back-and-forth battle took place on the West Coast when UCLA outlasted Arizona State by a 45-43 final. The Bruins held a 35-26 lead after three quarters, but the Sun Devils came back to take a 43-42 advantage with just 1:33 left. But UCLA freshman quarterback Brett Hundley drove the Bruins back down the field to set up a game-winning 33-yard field goal from Ka’imi Fairbairn as time expired. The teams combined for 54 first downs and 1,021 total yards.

** Perhaps the wildest college football game last weekend was played between a couple of Texas schools at the Division III level. Hardin-Simmons scored an 86-42 win over Sul Ross State in a game that featured 1,714 combined total yards. Hardin-Simmons piled up 900 of those yards on its own, setting a new single-game D-III record.

** Another week, another update on just how far Auburn has fallen since winning the national championship two short seasons ago. The Tigers were blown out to the tune of a 63-21 rout at home by Texas A&M, the most points allowed by an Auburn team since a 68-7 loss to Georgia Tech in 1917. The Tigers are now 1-7 for the first time since 1952, but they might get a respite this week when New Mexico State comes calling. The Aggies have lost seven in a row after a 49-19 win over FCS member Sacramento State in their season opener. Even better news for Auburn: It is 15-0-1 all-time vs. current WAC members, including 2-0 against New Mexico State.

** As bad as things are at Auburn, it’s been an even tougher season for quarterbacks at Maryland. The Terrapins have lost each of their top four QBs to season-ending injuries, including three in the past two weeks. Maryland is now so desperate at the position that head coach Randy Edsall said freshman linebacker Shawn Petty will move under center tomorrow against Georgia Tech. Petty played quarterback in high school.

** Congratulations to Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson, who finally got his Big Ten victory last week when the Hoosiers rolled to a 31-17 victory over Illinois. Since 2009, IU is 3-25 in conference games and Illinois has been the victim in two of those three wins.

** Utah snapped a four-game losing streak last week with a 49-27 victory over California. In the game, Utes senior Reggie Dunn had a pair of 100-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns.

**Oklahoma set a Memorial Stadium record crowd last Saturday night when 86,031 witnessed Sooners’ 30-13 loss to Notre Dame. It was also the largest crowd ever to see a sporting event in the state of Oklahoma. By the way, the Sooners – seemingly a preseason national champion favorite every year – will finish their eighth straight season this year with at least two losses.

** Boise State’s 45-14 win over Wyoming last weekend kept the Broncos undefeated during the month of October for the 11th consecutive year. Boise hasn’t lost an October game since a 45-14 loss at Rice on Oct. 6, 2001. Since then, the Broncos have won 48 October games in a row.

** My Heisman ballot right now looks like this: 1. Alabama QB A.J. McCarron; 2. Notre Dame LB Manti Te’o; 3. Ohio State QB Braxton Miller.

** I’ve seen some gruesome injuries in my time, but video of South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore dislocating his knee last week against Tennessee ranks right up there with Miami (Fla.) running back Willis McGahee taking the full brunt of a Will Allen tackle in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Other replays I simply cannot watch: Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Tim Krumrie snapping his leg during Super Bowl XXIII and New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor essentially ending the career of Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann on a Monday night in 1985.

FEARLESS FORECAST

While we’re taking our lumps this season, we’re slowly beginning to figure out some things. For example, Kansas State and Notre Dame are for real; Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin are not.

As a result of this late-season learning curve, we did about as poorly as we have ever done with straight-up picks, going 4-6 last week. At least we broke even against the spread at 5-5 to make the season totals 70-20 SU and 45-43-2 ATS.

This is no shortage of marquee games this week and here are the ones we’ll be watching.

SATURDAY’S GAMES

Michigan at Minnesota: The bad news for the Wolverines is that QB Denard Robinson has a nerve problem in his throwing elbow. The good news is that the injury will likely lead to more running by Robinson, an area of the game where he is much more dangerous. Meanwhile, the Gophers might have found something last week in freshman QB Phillip Nelson, who threw for 246 yards and three TDs during his team’s 44-28 romp over Purdue. Believe it or not, these teams are fairly evenly matched with the exception of the fact the Gophers have not had much success in the overall series. Michigan has won four in a row, 20 of the last 21 in the series and 28 of the last 30. Both of Goldy’s victories during that 30-game stretch came in Ann Arbor, meaning he hasn’t tasted victory at home against the Wolverines since 1977. That’s a little too much history to pick against … Michigan 31, Minnesota 17. (12 noon ET, BTN, DirectTV 610)

Temple at No. 12 Louisville: If you’re thinking Ohio State gets no love for being undefeated, imagine life as the Cardinals. They are 8-0 to start the season for the first time since 2006 and can’t even crack the top 10. Maybe that’s because Louisville is playing things so close to the vest – it has trailed in each of its last five games. This week, Charlie Strong’s team should have things a little easier since it returns home to face Big East rival Temple, a team coming off back-to-back blowout losses. The Owls are offensively challenged, especially in the passing game that ranks 116th in the nation with a puny average of 132.7 yards per game. A win for the Cards not only would likely move them into the top 10, but it would also make them 9-0 for the first time in program history … Louisville 31, Temple 23. (12 noon ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

No. 14 Oklahoma at Iowa State: After last week’s disappointing showing against Notre Dame, the Sooners had better beware of a letdown against the Cyclones. Iowa State has more than held its own against ranked teams in recent years, including a 37-23 win at then-No. 15 TCU in early October. Of course, an ISU victory over Oklahoma would be noteworthy since the Cyclones have lost 13 in a row in the series including the last two by a combined score of 78-6. Iowa State’s cause won’t be helped any by the loss to a season-ending shoulder injury of star linebacker Jake Knott, the Big 12 leader in tackles. But Oklahoma is banged-up, too, making this game probably a lot closer than many people think … Oklahoma 31, Iowa State 21. (12 noon ET, ABC)

Ole Miss at No. 7 Georgia: Underachievers nearly all season, the Bulldogs decided to show up last weekend – at least defensively – and dealt Florida its first loss of the season. This week, UGA returns home to meet an Ole Miss team that is playing as well as it has in several years. Under first-year head coach Hugh Freeze, the Rebels are trying for their first three-game conference winning streak since 2008. In order to extend that streak, however, they have to end another one. Ole Miss has lost nine in a row in the series, and is 4-17-1 all-time in Athens. The only real question in this game is whether the Dawgs will show up two weeks in a row … Georgia 24, Ole Miss 20. (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

Pittsburgh at No. 4 Notre Dame: Coming off a solid triumph at Oklahoma, the Fighting Irish return home to take on an ever-improving opponent. Since dropping its first two games of the season – including a 14-point decision to FCS member Youngstown State in the opener – Pitt has rebounded to win four of its last six, including a 47-17 romp over Temple last Saturday. Of course, the Owls are not to be confused with the Irish, who have the No. 2 scoring defense in the nation. Notre Dame is also opportunistic, playing to a plus-10 in turnover margin. And now the Irish seem to be jelling on offense with QB Everett Golston coming off perhaps the best game so far of his young career. The Panthers know how to win in South Bend, taking two of the last three games in the series played there. But if this year’s Irish can maintain their focus, Pitt should be no problem … Notre Dame 24, Pittsburgh 14. (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

UTSA at No. 22 Louisiana Tech: We focus our attention on the WAC while we can as the Bulldogs try to remain undefeated in conference play. Tech QB Colby Cameron is one of the best college football quarterbacks you’ve never heard of. In eight games, Cameron has completed 225 of 319 attempts for 2,598 yards, 21 TDs and no interceptions. Meanwhile, the Roadrunners have lost three in a row after starting the season with five straight wins. Bob Davies’ team got outscored by a 134-55 margin in three October games, and that is a scary trend when you’re facing a Bulldogs team that ranks second only to Oregon in scoring … Louisiana Tech 41, UTSA 28. (4 p.m. ET, ESPN GamePlan, DirectTV 640)

No. 2 Oregon at No. 18 USC: It’s never a good thing when you face a must-win game against the Ducks. Yet that is precisely the situation the Trojans find themselves facing after blowing a 15-point lead in the second half last week and losing to Arizona. At least USC gets the Quack Attack at home, although that didn’t help in 2010 when Oregon  pounded out a 53-32 win in the Coliseum. The cold, hard truth is that the Trojans just make too many mistakes. They are the most penalized team in the nation and have committed 18 turnovers in eight games. That simply won’t get it done against a Ducks team that averages an amazing 53.4 points per game … Oregon 45, USC 28. (7 p.m. ET, Fox)

Oklahoma State at No. 3 Kansas State: The Wildcats have been impressive this year in just about every way a team can be impressive. They went on the road in late September and won a tight defensive struggle at Oklahoma, and then last week bludgeoned a pretty good defense with a 55-24 win over Texas Tech. This week, K-State faces an opponent much like it did two weeks ago when it went to West Virginia and came back with a 55-14 win. The Cowboys can score points with the best of them, but their defense is susceptible to a team that throws a lot as evidenced by a 59-38 loss to Arizona and a 42-36 loss to Texas. The Wildcats are led by QB Collin Klein (1,630 yards, 12 TDs), nearly everyone’s Heisman frontrunner, who has topped the 300-yard mark in total offense the past two weeks … Kansas State 34, Oklahoma State 17. (8 p.m. ET, ABC)

No. 1 Alabama at No. 5 LSU: How good is the Crimson Tide? How can anyone be sure since their 8-0 record has been produced against teams with a combined mark of 35-29? Of course, the Tide might also just be making everyone else look extremely average. Whichever the case may be, any lingering questions should be answered tomorrow night when the Tigers entertain prodigal son Nick Saban and try to derail his team’s drive to a third national title in four years. LSU head coach Les Miles is 36-1 in Saturday night games at Death Valley with the only loss a 13-3 decision against top-ranked Florida back in 2009. Of course, the Tigers are seeking some kind of redemption for their 21-0 spanking administered by Alabama in January in the national championship game, and they have the kind of defense that could slow down the Tide. But LSU just doesn’t generate enough offense to be able to contend against the nation’s No. 1 defense. Bama’s just too good … Alabama 21, LSU 7. (8 p.m. ET, CBS)

Illinois at No. 6 Ohio State: Is this a trap game for the Buckeyes? Flying high and feeling good about being ranked No. 6 by the AP, there could be a tendency to look past the struggling Illini, the same team that came into Ohio Stadium in 2007 and shocked the No. 1 team in the nation. Truth be told, Illinois has no business being 2-6. QB Nathan Scheelhaase has always performed reasonably well against Ohio State, but he’s never been able to put that many points on the board. The same has been true this year – the Illini rank dead last in the Big Ten and 115th nationally in scoring. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes have been playing better on defense the last couple of weeks. Couple that with a Braxton Miller-led offense and you get the feeling OSU will cruise into the open week with an easy, breezy victory. Remember, though. The Buckeyes are only 3-5 this season covering the spread … Ohio State 49, Illinois 24. (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Michigan (-12) at Minnesota; Temple (+16½) at Louisville; Oklahoma at Iowa State (+13); Ole Miss (+17½) at Georgia; Pittsburgh (+19) at Notre Dame; UTSA (+32) at Louisiana Tech; Oregon (-7) at USC; Oklahoma State at Kansas State (-7); Alabama (-8½) at LSU; Illinois (+27½) at Ohio State.

Ohio State is off next week and so are we, so we’ll visit again in two weeks. See you then.

Meyer Proves Coaching Matters … And It Matters A Lot

Coaching matters … and it matters a lot. That was driven home like a golden spike Oct. 20 when Ohio State faced an eight-point deficit to Purdue with only 47 seconds to do something about it.

Sure, give Kenny Guiton credit for coolly directing a 61-yard touchdown drive. Give Chris Fields credit for making crucial catches the junior receiver heretofore hadn’t made during his college career. Give Tom Herman credit for dialing up a perfect two-point conversion call. And give the much-maligned Ohio State defense its due for managing to hold off the Boilermakers in overtime.

But if you ever wondered why Urban Meyer is worth $4 million a year, you need look no further than the Buckeyes’ 29-22 victory over Purdue. The reason Guiton was so cool, Fields was so clutch, Herman was so confident and the defense was so able to rise to the occasion could be summed up in one word: leadership.

No offense to last year’s coaching staff, but there was no way Ohio State would have beaten Purdue last season given the same set of circumstances. In fact, the Buckeyes faced similar circumstances last year in West Lafayette, and while they rallied at the end of the game, they were the ones who made the crucial mistakes and they were the ones who went home losers.

Meyer had already laid the groundwork for OSU’s comeback this year with his unique style of break-’em-down and then build-’em-back-up philosophy.

The coach has admitted Guiton was practically on a bus back to Houston last winter before he decided to buy into Meyer’s system. Likewise, Fields was buried so far down the depth chart at receiver that the junior needed a flashlight and a compass to find his way out.

Yet with Braxton Miller and Corey “Philly” Brown sidelined down the stretch, it was Guiton and Fields upon whom Meyer relied to get the job done – Guiton, Fields and his own coaching acumen.

The fact is no one could have scripted the final moments of regulation any better than Meyer did.

Purdue milked the clock to 59 final ticks before punter Cody Webster launched a 48-yard effort that bounced to the Ohio State 30. But mindful of his head coach’s “Plan to Win” mantra, Fields saved a few precious seconds by scooping up the ball and then got the Buckeyes 9 yards closer to the end zone with a return to the OSU 39.

With 47 seconds remaining, Meyer and Herman quickly drew up two plays on the sideline. The first was designed to get sophomore receiver Devin Smith open between Purdue’s intermediate and deep zones, and Guiton found his intended target for 39 yards to the Boilermakers’ 22.

Then instead of immediately spiking the ball to save time, the Buckeyes sprinted to the line of scrimmage where Guiton connected with sophomore Evan Spencer on an 8-yard sideline pass. Spencer went out of bounds following the catch to give his team a second-and-2 from the 14-yard line with 0:28 to go.

On the next play, Guiton faded in the pocket but found all his receivers covered. Rather than trying to force something, he threw the ball away – as he had been taught – setting up third-and-2 with 23 seconds remaining.

That was when Meyer really started to put on a clinic.

Despite the fact he had no timeouts, the coach put his faith in his offensive line and junior tailback Carlos Hyde, who pounded up the middle for a 3-yard gain and a first down to temporarily stop the clock. Guiton followed with a spike and the Buckeyes were at the Purdue 11 with 15 seconds left.

The next play called for Guiton to hit Spencer as he raced toward the end zone, peeling off in front of his defender just before reaching the goal line. But Guiton threw too low and too wide, and a diving Spencer couldn’t come up with the reception.

Third down, 12 seconds left. Time for two more plays.

This time, Meyer called for a fade route in the end zone to Spencer, but while the pass seemed to sail on Guiton, Purdue cornerback Josh Johnson had his hands all over the OSU receiver and drew a pass interference call.

That gave the Buckeyes the ball at the Purdue 2-yard line, but with only 0:08 showing on the clock. That’s when Fields made a diving catch of a ball only he could have caught just over the goal line for the touchdown.

Now, with just 0:03 remaining, Meyer needed one more clutch call to achieve the tie. He got it from Herman, who overruled his linemen who were lobbying for a run.

The play called for tight end Jeff Heuerman to block initially and then break away from the line of scrimmage and drift into the end zone. Heuerman nearly carried out his decoy too long, allowing pressure to bear down on Guiton before the QB flipped a rainbow that the Ohio State tight end gathered in for the two-point conversion.

After the game, Herman confirmed the team had been practicing that play for just the right time.

“When the game is on the line is not the time to go against what you’ve practiced,” the offensive coordinator said. “We knew they’d been playing man coverage all game and knew it would be there eventually. It took (Heuerman) awhile to get out. I was holding my breath. But everybody who was on the field did a helluva job.”

In overtime, Guiton led the Buckeyes to a quick touchdown before a rejuvenated defense clamped down on a demoralized Purdue offense.

Game, set, match, and Ohio State moved to 8-0, stealing a game that most likely would have been lost with anyone else but Meyer at the controls.

OSU-PENN STATE TIDBITS

** This marks the 28th overall meeting between Ohio State and Penn State, and the Buckeyes enjoy a slight 14-13 advantage. The teams are deadlocked at 5-5 in games played at Beaver Stadium, although OSU has won three of the last four played in Happy Valley.

** Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is 1-0 during his career against Penn State. In his final game as Florida head coach, the Gators scored a 37-24 triumph over the Nittany Lions in the 2011 Outback Bowl.

** Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien has never faced Ohio State as a player, assistant coach or head coach.

** Ohio State will face a Joe Paterno-less Penn State squad for the first time ever in Happy Valley. Paterno, who died in January from complications due to lung cancer, had been on the Nittany Lions sideline as head coach for all 10 of the previous games in the series played at Beaver Stadium.

** O’Brien is only the third head coach in Penn State history to experience a five-game win streak during his debut season with the Nittany Lions. Only George Hoskins (1892) and Dick Harlow (1915) won five straight games in their first season as head coach at Penn State.

** NCAA sanctions prevent either team from competing in the Big Ten Championship Game, but both the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions remain eligible to win the Leaders Division championship trophy. Ohio State enters the game with a 4-0 conference record while Penn State is 3-0.

** The game pits two of the winningest college football teams in history against one another. Counting vacated seasons, Ohio State ranks fifth all-time with 845 wins while Penn State ranks sixth with 832. Michigan is first all-time with 900 followed by Texas (863), Notre Dame (860) and Nebraska (851).

** Six of the last 11 games in the series have been determined by seven points or less, but there have been some notable blowouts over the years. Penn State rolled to a 63-14 win at Beaver Stadium in 1994, and Ohio State returned the favor six years later in Ohio Stadium with a 45-6 wipeout. In 2010, the Buckeyes erased a 14-3 halftime deficit to secure a 38-14 win. Throughout the overall series, the average margin of victory for OSU is 16.0 points. When the Nittany Lions win, their average margin is 14.4 points.

** Ohio State will be looking to keep things close tomorrow. The Buckeyes are 4-0 this season while the Nittany Lions are 0-1 in games decided by seven points or less.

** One series trend would seem to favor Ohio State while another works better for Penn State’s hopes. The higher ranked team has won 19 of the last 21 meetings, and OSU enters tomorrow’s game ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press writers’ polls while the Nittany Lions are unranked. Meanwhile, Penn State can take solace in the fact the home team has won 13 of the 19 games played in the series since the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten.

** With the exception of Ohio State, Penn State has pretty much had its way with Ohio teams over the years. The Nittany Lions are 20-3-1 against other Ohio schools with the lone blemishes an 8-8 tie at Western Reserve in 1895, a 14-3 loss to Cincinnati in 1983, a 24-6 loss to Toledo in 2000, and a 24-14 loss to Ohio in this season’s opener back on Sept. 1.

** Something has to give tomorrow. Ohio State is tied for 23rd nationally in red zone offense, having scored 30 times in 34 trips inside the opposition’s 20-yard line. Meanwhile, Penn State ranks No. 6 in the nation in red zone defense. The Nittany Lions have allowed opponents to score on only 12 of 20 trips inside their 20-yard line.

** The Ohio State defense is always looking for interceptions, of course, but especially so against Penn State tomorrow. Since 2002, the Buckeyes have returned seven interceptions for touchdowns against the Nittany Lions – Chris Gamble in 2002, Tyler Everett in 2004, Malcolm Jenkins and Antonio Smith in 2006, Jenkins in 2007 and Devon Torrence and Travis Howard in 2010. Best of all, Ohio State won each of those five games.

** Penn State is traditionally one of the least penalized teams in the nation and that is true again in 2012. The Nittany Lions are tied for the fewest penalties in the Big Ten with 32 through seven games and they average only 44.9 penalty yards per game. In its last six games played against the Buckeyes, Penn State has incurred only 17 penalties for 121 yards. During the same six games, Ohio State has been flagged 37 times for 315 yards.

** Penn State is tied for second in the Big Ten lead in fewest sacks allowed with eight. Ohio State ranks ninth in the conference in that category, having surrendered 15 sacks this season.

** Penn State has three native Ohioans on its roster – running back Michael Zordich (Youngstown Cardinal Mooney), offensive lineman Nate Cadogan (Portsmouth) and offensive lineman Anthony Stanko (Warren Howland). The Buckeyes have four players from Pennsylvania – defensive back Corey Brown (Monroeville), receiver Corey “Philly” Brown (Upper Darby), running back Jordan Hall (Jeannette) and defensive end Noah Spence (Harrisburg).

** The game is expected to be a defensive battle, but will feature several of the top offensive players in the Big Ten. Penn State QB Matt McGloin leads the conference with an average of 255.4 yards passing per game while WR Allen Robinson has a league-best 47 receptions. Meanwhile, Ohio State QB Braxton Miller is second in the Big Ten in total offense (292.9 yards per game) and is tied with teammate RB Carlos Hyde for third in the league with 10 touchdowns.

** McGloin is already No. 7 on Penn State’s career list for touchdown passes with 36. He needs only eight more to break the school record of 43 held by Daryll Clark (2006-09). McGloin also ranks seventh all-time in passing yardage with 4,907, but he is still a ways away from Zack Mills, who threw for 7,212 yards during his career from 2001-04.

** Robinson needs only one more reception to crack the Penn State top 10 for most catches in a single season. O.J. McDuffie set the school record with 63 receptions in 1992, a mark that was equaled three years later by Bobby Engram.

** With his 91 yards last week against Purdue, Hyde upped his career rushing total to 1,252 yards. That ties him with Ricardo Volley (1977-79) for 45th on Ohio State’s all-time rushing list.

** Purdue sophomore Akeem Hunt’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was the first one surrendered by Ohio State during the regular season since David Gilreath of Wisconsin took one back 97 yards on the game’s opening kick during a 31-18 win by the Badgers in Madison in 2010.

**The 100-yard return by Hunt was the longest against the Buckeyes since Bobby Weber of Minnesota had a 100-yarder vs. OSU in 1977. Weber’s return represented the Golden Gophers’ only touchdown during a 38-7 loss to the Buckeyes in Columbus.

** Garrett Goebel’s blocked extra point in the first quarter vs. Purdue and Johnathan Hankins’ blocked field goal in the second period gave the Buckeyes six blocked kicks for the season – two punts, one field goal and three PATs – and they added to Meyer’s total as a head coach. In 11 seasons with Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and OSU, Meyer-coached teams have blocked 57 kicks in 135 games.

** Kickoff this week is set for shortly after 5:30 p.m. Eastern with ESPN handling the telecast. Veteran play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough will have the call alongside color analysis from former Ohio State All-America linebacker Chris Spielman. Sideline reports will be filed by Quint Kessenich.

** The game will also be broadcast on Sirius satellite radio channels 92 and 136 as well as XM channel 192.

** Next week, Ohio State returns home to face Illinois. Time and broadcast partners remain TBA.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Oct. 26, 1907, one of the all-time greats made his college football debut. The legendary Jim Thorpe took the field for the first time with the Carlisle (Pa.) Indian Industrial School, and led the Indians to a 26-6 upset of fourth-ranked Penn. The game was held before a crowd of 22,800 at Philadelphia’s historic Franklin Field.

** On Oct. 26, 1968, All-America defensive back Jake Scott returned two interceptions for touchdowns and led eighth-ranked Georgia to a 35-14 win over Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Scott, who went on to become MVP of Super Bowl VII with the Miami Dolphins, set a UGA record with 10 interceptions that season and he still holds the school career mark with 16 picks.

** On Oct. 26, 1985, seventh-ranked BYU saw its 25-game conference winning streak end when UTEP handed the Cougars a 23-16 loss in El Paso. Miners DB Danny Taylor returned a Robbie Bosco interception 100 yards for a touchdown to provide for the winning points.

** On Oct. 26, 1991, Northwestern tried to change its luck by wearing purple pants against No. 17 Illinois. Wildcats head coach Francis Peay remarked that his team “looked like a bunch of grapes,” but NU registered a 17-11 upset victory, their first defeat of a ranked team in 20 years.

** On Oct. 27, 1923, the first night game in Big Ten history was held as part of a day-night doubleheader in Chicago. During the afternoon, Chicago took a 20-6 win over Purdue at Stagg Field, and then portable lights were installed at Soldier Field as Illinois shut out Northwestern, 29-0.

** On Oct. 27, 1956, seventh-ranked Texas A&M traveled to Waco and came home with a 19-13 victory over No. 8 Baylor. A&M halfback John David Crow threw a 5-yard touchdown to John Tracey, and then scored the winning TD himself on a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter. The Aggies, coached by the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant, went on to win the Southwest Conference championship and finish No. 5 in the Associated Press rankings with a 9-0-1 record.

** On Oct. 27, 1979, Pittsburgh freshman quarterback Dan Marino came off the bench to throw for 227 yards and two touchdowns, leading the No. 12 Panthers to a 24-7 victory over No. 17 Navy.

** On Oct. 28, 1950, Nevada’s Pat Brady booted an NCAA-record 99-yard punt during a 34-7 loss to Loyola Marymount.

** On Oct. 28, 1967, UTEP quarterback Brooks Dawson set an NCAA record for most consecutive passes completed for a touchdown when he threw six in a row during a 75-12 victory over New Mexico. Making the feat even more remarkable was the fact that the six touchdowns came on Dawson’s first six attempts of the game.

** On Oct. 28, 1989, Ohio State overcame a 31-0 second-quarter deficit at Minnesota and rallied for a 41-37 victory in the Metrodome. QB Greg Frey threw for 362 yards and three touchdowns while tailback/kick returner Carlos Snow accounted for 278 all-purpose yards and tallied three scores in what was at the time the largest comeback in NCAA history.

** On Oct. 28, 2000, Louisiana Tech quarterback Luke McCown set an NCAA freshman record with 72 passing attempts during the Bulldogs’ 42-31 loss at No. 2 Miami (Fla.). McCown completed 42 of 72 passes for 418 yards and three touchdowns in the game. His 72 attempts remain a single-season school record.

** On Oct. 29, 1960, future College Football Hall of Fame member Pervis Atkins sparked New Mexico State to a 27-24 victory over Arizona State. Atkins returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and then raced 70 yards to set up the game-winning score. Atkins went on to break the NCAA single-season record for most yards per play, averaging an amazing 14.7 yards on 110 combined runs, receptions and kick returns. The previous record was held by Army’s Glenn Davis, the 1946 Heisman Trophy winner.

** On Oct. 29, 1988, Oklahoma State running back Barry Sanders rushed for 320 yards to lead his No. 12 Cowboys to a 45-27 win over Kansas State. The performance began a five-game stretch during which Sanders rushed for 1,472 yards, the most rushing yards accumulated over a five-game span in NCAA history. Sanders also became only the second player in college football history to gain more than 200 rushing yards in five consecutive games, and the streak propelled Sanders to an NCAA single-season record 2,628 rushing yards and the 1988 Heisman Trophy.

** Also on Oct. 29, 1988, Washington State scored 28 second-half points during a 34-30 upset win over top-ranked UCLA and its All-America quarterback Troy Aikman.

** On Oct. 30, 1971, future College Football Hall of Fame tailback Ed Marinaro of Cornell became the first running back in college football history to break the 4,000-yard barrier, doing so during his team’s 24-21 win over Columbia. Marinaro ran for 1,881 yards that season for the Big Red – still a single-season Ivy League record – and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to Auburn QB Pat Sullivan. Marinaro went on to play six seasons in the NFL after which he became a successful actor, best known for his portrayal of Officer Joe Coffey on “Hill Street Blues.”

** On Oct. 30, 1982, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie threw for a school-record 520 yards, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Penn State scored a 52-17 blowout over the Eagles in Chestnut Hill. The Nittany Lions were led by quarterback Todd Blackledge, who threw for 243 yards and three TDs, and running back Curt Warner, who rushed for 183 yards and two scores.

** On Oct. 30, 1999, Washington quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo was a one-man wrecking crew against Stanford. Tuiasosopo became the first player in NCAA history to throw for at least 300 yards and rush for 200 or more in the same game. He threw for 302 yards and added 207 on the ground in a 35-30 victory over the Cardinal.

** On Oct. 31, 1992, seventh-ranked Nebraska rolled to a 52-7 victory over No. 9 Colorado in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers piled up 373 yards on the ground and scored touchdowns in a variety of ways, including a 16-yard fumblerooski rumble by offensive guard Will Shields.

** On Nov. 1, 1880, legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Considered one of the greatest American writers of the first half of the 20th century, Rice penned arguably the most famous line in college football history when he wrote, “Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again,” dubbing the famed Four Horsemen of Notre Dame in 1924. Rice later joined with U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Army head coach Earl “Red” Blaik to create the National Football Foundation in 1947.

** On Nov. 1, 1969, Toledo clinched the first of its three consecutive Mid-American Conference championships with a 14-10 win over Miami (Ohio) in Oxford. The winning score was a 52-yard touchdown pass from QB Chuck Ealey to wideout Don Fair in the second quarter. The win was the seventh in a row for the Rockets in a streak that would eventually reach 35 games, the fifth-longest winning streak in college football history.

** On Nov. 1, 1986, Long Beach State’s Mark Templeton set an NCAA single-game record for receptions by a running back with 18 catches for 173 yards during his team’s 14-3 win over Utah State.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** Cincinnati dropped its first game of the season last Saturday, a 29-23 decision at Toledo, and that pared the number of undefeated Football Bowl Subdivision teams to 11. Ohio State is the only team at 8-0 while Alabama, Florida, Louisville, Mississippi State, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Ohio, Oregon and Rutgers are 7-0. Oregon State is 6-0.

** Alabama extended the nation’s longest streak to 11 last weekend with a 44-13 rout of Tennessee. Oregon is nipping at the Crimson Tide’s heels with a 10-game winning streak while Mississippi State has won nine in a row. One of those streaks has to end tomorrow since Mississippi State visits Alabama.

** The nation’s longest losing streak ended for the second week in a row. Tulane snapped a 15-game slide Oct. 13 with a 27-26 win over SMU, and then Eastern Michigan broke its eight-game losing streak Saturday with a 48-38 win over Army. Southern Miss, a 12-2 team just a year ago, now owns the longest losing streak in the nation. The Golden Eagles dropped a 59-24 decision to Marshall on Saturday, marking their seventh loss in a row.

** Who said you need to throw for 600 yards and score 70 points to make a statement? Third-ranked Florida stomped its way to a 44-11 win last Saturday over No. 7 South Carolina despite gaining only 183 total yards. The Gators forced four turnovers – three fumbles and one interception – and limited the Gamecocks to only 191 total yards. Meanwhile, Florida QB Jeff Driskel threw for only 93 yards, but he was extremely efficient. Driskel had four touchdown passes, equaling his total from the previous six games.

** Oregon gets more than its share of love for a pinball offense that ranks No. 2 in the nation in scoring at a 51.0 points-per-game clip. But the Ducks can play a little defense, too. During their 43-21 rout at Arizona State last weekend, the Quack Attack held Wildcats QB Taylor Kelly to only 93 yards while intercepting him twice and sacking him five times. Kelly had entered the game as the nation’s No. 3 quarterback in pass efficiency.

** Notre Dame has ridden on the back of its defense to its first 7-0 start since beginning the 2002 season with eight straight victories. Going back to the last half of the 2011 season, the Fighting Irish are 11-2 and have surrendered more than 17 points in only three of those games.

** With the Heisman Trophy race about as wide open as it has ever been at this stage of a season, keep your eye on a certain dark horse candidate. Alabama gets a lot of buzz for its No. 1-rated defense – and deservedly so – but quarterback A.J. McCarron has quietly ascended his way to the top of the national charts in pass efficiency rating. McCarron has completed 106 of 154 attempts (68.8 percent) for 1,476 yards, 16 TDs and no interceptions. And he is the quarterback for the undefeated defending national champions.

** Congratulations to Duke, which became bowl-eligible at 6-2 with a last-second 33-30 win last Saturday over North Carolina. The Blue Devils haven’t made a postseason trip since the 1994 Hall of Fame Bowl, but that’s only part of the story. Duke is trying to break a streak of 17 consecutive losing seasons, a stretch during which the team posted a horrid combined record of 37-158. The Blue Devils have gone bowling only eight times in program history (they started playing in 1888), and haven’t won a postseason game since a 7-6 decision over Arkansas in the 1961 Cotton Bowl.

** To say Kansas is struggling in its first season under head coach Charlie Weis would be understating the obvious. The 1-6 Jayhawks rank 114th out of 120 FBS schools in scoring offense and 118th in pass efficiency. Weis’ defense isn’t anything to write home about, either, ranking 85th in yardage allowed and 89th in points surrendered. And then there’s special teams. Kansas gave up a 90-yard punt return and a 100-yard kickoff return for touchdowns during last Saturday’s 52-7 loss at Oklahoma.

** Speaking of teams that need help and lots of it, Colorado jumps from the frying pan into the fire this week. Fresh off last week’s 50-6 spanking at the hands of USC, the Buffaloes roll into Oregon this Saturday night. The Ducks are the No. 2 scoring offense in the country 51.0 points per game while Colorado ranks 119th in scoring defense, allowing an average of 42.6 points per game. Oregon raced out to a 29-0 lead after the first quarter in last year’s meeting before the Ducks took their webbed feet off the gas pedal and coasted home with a 45-2 victory.

** Auburn’s collapse is reaching historic proportions. Following their 17-13 loss at Vanderbilt last week, the Tigers dropped to 1-6, giving them the worst record for a team just two years removed from a national championship since the Associated Press poll was incorporated in 1936. The record also represents Auburn’s worst start to a season in 60 years. In 1952, the Tigers started 1-7 on their way to a 2-8 finish.

** How close is Northwestern to being 7-0 instead of 5-2? That depends upon your definition of the word “close.” In their two losses, the Wildcats have coughed up double-digit leads in the fourth quarter. On Oct. 6, they held a 28-17 lead over Penn State before the Nittany Lions scored three touchdowns in the final 9:49 for a 39-28 victory. Then last weekend, NU scored with 8:31 remaining to take a 28-16 lead over Nebraska. But the Cornhuskers tallied twice inside the final six minutes to pull out a 29-28 win.

** West Virginia QB Geno Smith broke the NCAA in-season record for consecutive pass attempts without an interception when he reached 273 shortly before throwing his first pick of the season last Saturday against Kansas State. Unfortunately for Smith, he didn’t hold the record for very long. Later in the day, Louisiana Tech QB Colby Cameron increased his total to 275 during his team’s 70-28 win over Idaho.

** Cameron would likely be a Heisman candidate if he didn’t play in the fading-away Western Athletic Conference. The senior has completed 196 of 275 attempts this season (71.3 percent) for 2,306 yards, 20 TDs and no picks. During the Bulldogs’ win over Idaho, Cameron was 29 for 37 for 400 yards and a pair of touchdowns while running back Kenneth Dixon rushed for 232 yards and six TDs. Tech rolled up a school-record 839 yards of total offense in the game and moved to 6-1 for the first time since 1975.

** Idaho’s loss to Louisiana Tech led to the firing of Vandals head coach Robb Akey, who was dismissed with a record of 20-50 in seven seasons. Akey, who became the first coaching casualty of the 2012 season, was replaced by offensive coordinator Jason Gesser. The 33-year-old Gesser is probably best known as the quarterback who led Washington State to a Pac-10 co-championship and Rose Bowl berth in 2002.

** South Alabama killed two birds with one stone last weekend. The 37-34 win in double overtime over Florida Atlantic represented the Jaguars’ first conference victory as Sun Belt members and the program’s first-ever win over an FBS opponent. South Alabama has been playing intercollegiate football only since 2009, and this is the school’s first season at the FBS level. The Jaguars become full-fledged members of the Sun Belt Conference next season.

** A couple of milestone victories from last weekend. Michigan’s 12-10 win over instate rival Michigan State allowed the Wolverines to become the first college football program to reach 900 wins all-time. Also, Division III powerhouse Mount Union clobbered Otterbein by a 51-0 final to give head coach Larry Kehres his 324th career victory. That moved him past Paul “Bear” Bryant and into fifth place all-time in terms of wins among NCAA football coaches. Kehres’ career record of 324-24-3 gives him a winning percentage of .927, and that’s the highest in college football history.

** Speaking of Mount Union, the Purple Raiders’ win over Otterbein last weekend marked their 70th consecutive regular-season win and their sixth shutout in a row. The shutout streak ties an all-time NCAA Division III record. Mount Union is 7-0 this season and has outscored its opponents by a 387-7 margin.

** Kudos to Division III Wilmington College, which snapped a 32-game losing streak with last week’s 13-12 victory over Marietta. Senior kicker Max Gabbard kicked a 35-yard field goal with 31 seconds remaining, and then sophomore Joe Knecht sealed the Quakers’ victory with an interception in the end zone with 0:02 showing on the clock. By the way, Mount Union and Wilmington have already played one another this season. The Purple Raiders eked out a 66-0 win over the Quakers on Oct. 6.

** Mark your calendars. The 2014 BCS Championship Game is scheduled for Jan. 6. That game, the final title contest for the Bowl Championship Series before the new playoff format is incorporated, will be played at the Rose Bowl.

FEARLESS FORECAST

Little by little, we’re making progress. We went 8-2 last week straight up, admittedly because we have underestimated both Florida and Penn State all season. But we had an acceptable 6-4 record against the spread, including nearly picking the Notre Dame-BYU final on the nose. We had it 17-14 for the Irish; the actual final was 17-13.

The season totals are now 66-14 SU and just above water at 40-38-2 ATS.

We’ll try to keep on keepin’ on with these games. (And remember, we use AP rankings.)

SATURDAY’S GAMES

Colorado at No. 2 Oregon: If you are the Ducks, you have two ways to approach this game. You can either roll up the score on the Buffaloes or you can race out to a comfortable lead and then put things on cruise control knowing you have to travel to USC next Saturday. Either way, it’s not going to be pretty for Colorado, which ranks 119th of 120 FBS schools in scoring defense and has been outscored by a 143-37 margin in just its last three games. … Oregon 63, Colorado 10. (3 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 12 Georgia: The 90th renewal of the World’s Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville features a pair of teams seemingly headed in opposite directions. Despite there is another month of the season to be played, the Gators can clinch a spot in the SEC Championship Game with a win. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs haven’t looked the same since taking a 35-7 sucker punch from South Carolina three weeks ago. UGA leads the overall series by a 47-40-2 margin, and the Dawgs took home a 24-20 victory last year. But the Gators have won 18 of the last 22 in the series and they are the team that has been playing much better of late … Florida 30, Georgia 23. (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

No. 15 Texas Tech at No. 4 Kansas State: The Wildcats rolled into Morgantown last week and rolled back out again following a 55-14 rout of West Virginia. This week, the Fighting Snyders return home to face a surprisingly efficient Double-T defense that ranks No. 7 nationally in total defense. K-State quarterback Collin Klein (1,397 yards, 10 TDs) isn’t the flashiest QB around, but he is deadly accurate and is second in the country with a 10.1-yard average per attempt. But the Red Raiders have a couple of things going for them. First is the fact that the Wildcats have lost nine of their last 11 games at home to ranked teams. And then there is this nugget: Texas Tech head coach Tommy Tuberville is 6-2 lifetime against top-five teams. That would seem to point toward an Upset Special … Texas Tech 23, Kansas State 20. (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox)

No. 23 Ohio at Miami (Ohio): The Bobcats are enjoying life right now. They are 7-0 for the first time since 1968 and have earned their first-ever appearance in the BCS standings, coming in at No. 24 this week. If Ohio truly wants to become a BCS buster, however, it is going to have to stop playing things so close to the vest. Four of the Bobcats’ victories have come by seven points or less, and close games against the likes of Marshall (3-4), Massachusetts (0-7), Buffalo (1-6) and Akron (1-7) are not winning any style points. This week’s opponent is another sub-.500 team that gave Ohio State some problems back on Sept. 1 before succumbing to a 56-10 final. It’s doubtful the Bobcats can put up that many points on the RedHawks, but a double-digit win would look a lot better to the pollsters … Ohio 34, Miami 23. (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN GamePlan)

Michigan State at Wisconsin: This has been a remarkably competitive rivalry over the years with the series split at 15-15 since 1979. More recently, the teams have split the last six games with no one winning by more than 10 points. But Sparty hasn’t enjoyed going on the road to play Bucky in recent years. Including a pair of neutral-site games – a game in Tokyo in 1993 and last year’s Big Ten Championship Game – MSU has lost eight of its last nine to Wisconsin away from East Lansing. In a series as close as this one has been, those are the kinds of trends you use to come up with this kind of pick … Wisconsin 20, Michigan State 17. (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

No. 22 Texas A&M at Auburn: About the last thing Gene Chizik’s beleaguered Tigers needed this week was to face a dual-threat quarterback, but that’s exactly what they’re going to get when A&M redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel comes to town. Manziel is No. 3 in the nation in total offense, averaging 379.9 yards per game, and Auburn is currently ninth in the SEC in scoring defense and 11th in total defense. But as bad as the Tigers are on defense, they’re even worse on offense, ranking 119th in the country in yardage and 118th in scoring. One has to wonder how the Tigers have fallen so hard so quickly after winning the national championship two years ago, a title that earned Chizik a contract extension worth $3.5 million a year through 2015 … Texas A&M 38, Auburn 10. (7 p.m. ET, ESPNU, DirectTV 208)

No. 5 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oklahoma: These teams meet for the first time as ranked opponents since 1968 when the third-ranked Irish rolled to a 45-21 win over the fifth-rated Sooners. Notre Dame has an 8-1 edge in the overall series and many observes believe if they can move that record to 9-1, the Fighting Irish will position themselves for a drive toward the BCS National Championship Game. The Irish have yet to allow more than 17 points to any opponent this season, but they have yet to face an offense as potent as the one piloted by Sooners QB Landry Jones (1,644 yards, 12 TDs). Oklahoma is not invincible by any means – Kansas State proved that with a 24-19 win in Norman last month. But the Sooners still represent an extremely tough out for any team, and that’s why we believe they will end Notre Dame’s dreams of an undefeated season … Oklahoma 27, Notre Dame 20. (8 p.m. ET, ABC)

No. 20 Michigan at Nebraska: The Wolverines are making their first trip to Lincoln since a 6-6 tie in 1911, and they are headed to a venue where the Cornhuskers have made a recent living on fourth-quarter comebacks. Last year, NU crawled out of a 27-6 hole for a 34-27 win over Ohio State, and this year the Huskers took a 30-27 decision over Wisconsin after trailing 27-10 early in the third quarter. In other words, no visiting team’s lead is safe at Memorial Stadium. But the Huskers are having trouble stopping anyone this season, and that is evidenced by the fact they have allowed 118 points over their last three games. That includes allowing 63 points and 498 total yards to Ohio State, which has an offensive attack similar to that of U-M. The oddsmakers have installed NU as slight favorites, so that makes this Upset Special No. 2 … Michigan 42, Nebraska 28. (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

No. 13 Mississippi State at No. 1 Alabama: The Crimson Tide will not have the luxury of looking ahead to next week’s showdown at LSU with the surprising Bulldogs coming to town tomorrow night. Dan Mullen’s team is off to its best start since 1999 and has done it with a stingy defense that allows only 14.4 points per game and a team that is No. 1 in the nation in turnover margin. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Alabama surrenders only 8.3 points per game and is No. 3 nationally in turnover margin. Neither team has really been tested this season, but the Bulldogs rarely do well on the road in this series. They have come home losers on 23 of their last 25 trips to Tuscaloosa, and are expected to do so again … Alabama 31, Mississippi State 14. (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

No. 9 Ohio State at Penn State: These two teams couldn’t care less that some are referring to their matchup as the “Banned Bowl.” Neither the Buckeyes nor the Nittany Lions can go bowling this year, but they can win a Leaders Division championship and the winner puts himself in the driver’s seat for that trophy. Penn State has made a remarkable turnaround after dropping its first two games of the season, and that revival has come mostly because of a stout defense and the play of QB Matt McGloin (1,788 yards, 14 TDs). But while the Lions are second in the Big Ten in scoring defense, they have not faced an attack the likes of which Ohio State features with Braxton Miller. The sophomore quarterback has rebounded well from last week’s neck injury and is eager to make up for last year’s performance against Penn State, which included a 9-yard scramble on fourth down with 1:41 remaining that came up a yard short in the Buckeyes’ eventual 20-14 loss. Somewhere along the line, Miller makes that yard this year … Ohio State 27, Penn State 24. (5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Colorado at Oregon (-45½); Florida (-3½) vs. Georgia; Texas Tech (+8) at Kansas State; Ohio (-7) at Miami-OH; Michigan State (+6½) at Wisconsin; Texas A&M (-7) at Auburn; Notre Dame (+11) at Oklahoma; Michigan (+2½) at Nebraska; Mississippi State (+24) at Alabama; Ohio State (-1) at Penn State.

Enjoy the games and we’ll visit again next week.

Fickell, OSU Defense Beginning To Feel Heat

It began with just a few whispers, but Luke Fickell is rapidly coming under full-throated criticism for the performance of his defense.

Fans became accustomed to rock-solid units churned out year after year under Jim Heacock, but the truth is that down through the years Ohio State has more often than not boasted stellar defenses. Since 1970, the Buckeyes have been honored with 88 first-team All-Americans, and 49 of those have played defense.

Ohio State remains a hard-hitting unit which seems to have a penchant for coming up with a big play at just the right time. But this year’s defense also leads the league in its maddening number of missed tackles, blown assignments and personal-foul penalties.

During my years covering OSU, I have seen some struggling defenses. The 1980 unit was so porous in pass coverage that Illinois quarterback Dave Wilson established an NCAA single-game record by throwing for 621 yards against the Buckeyes. In 1988, when the Buckeyes stumbled to a 4-6-1 record, the defense surrendered a program-record 283 points. The following year, it re-established that mark when it gave up 297.

This year’s team is on pace to challenge that record, currently giving up an average of 24.6 points per game. In terms of total defense, the Buckeyes are surrendering 400.0 yards per game on average. To put those numbers in some sort of free-falling context, just two years ago during the 2010 season, Ohio State ranked among the top five defenses in the nation, giving up averages of 14.3 points and 262.2 yards per game. This year’s unit doesn’t rank among the nation’s top 50 in either category.

Yes, the defense is being decimated by injuries. Yes, the team is being asked to learn a new scheme under Fickell and first-year co-defensive coordinator Everett Withers. But Ohio State has signed 19 four- or five-star rated defensive players in its two most recent recruiting classes. Are they not being developed properly or did the Buckeyes whiff on those prospects?

Then there is the matter of two defensive starters basically admitting they took their foot off the gas pedal late in the game against Indiana. When you have so many problems with fundamentals and execution, you can’t afford to think all you have to do is show up with a shiny silver helmet in hand and the opposing team will simply shrink away.

On top of all that, your offensive-minded head coach says he is “going to increase (his) involvement with the defense.” That’s when you know you’ve got trouble.

The good news for Fickell and his defensive staff is that there are still five games to be played – five games in which improvements can be made. But the bad news is the next two games are against Purdue and Penn State, teams committed to spreading out and exposing a defense like Ohio State.

Stay tuned. This could get very interesting.

OSU-PURDUE TIDBITS

** This marks the 55th meeting between Ohio State and Purdue with the Buckeyes holding a 38-14-2 record in the overall series. That includes a 26-6-2 mark in Ohio Stadium. OSU has won seven straight at home in the series, with the Boilermakers last tasting victory in Columbus with a 31-26 decision in 1988.

** In the previous 54 meetings, the Boilermakers have never experienced more than a two-game win streak over the Buckeyes. OSU has enjoyed series winning streaks of seven and six games as well as mini-streaks of three in a row on five separate occasions.

** Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer will be facing the Boilermakers for the first time as head coach, but he is 5-2 lifetime against Purdue as an assistant coach. Meyer was on Earle Bruce’s coaching staff at OSU when the Buckeyes recorded victories over Purdue in 1986 and ’87, and he was on Bob Davies’ staff at Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish went 3-2 vs. the Boilermakers from 1996 to 2000.

** Purdue head coach Danny Hope is in his fourth season with the Boilermakers, compiling a 19-24 overall record and 10-16 mark in the Big Ten. He is 2-1 vs. the Buckeyes with his victories coming in 2009 and 2011 in West Lafayette. In ’09, Purdue took advantage of five OSU turnovers and scored a 26-18 upset over the seventh-ranked Buckeyes, while last year the Boilermakers blocked what would have been a game-winning PAT for Ohio State with 55 seconds remaining. Purdue went on to win a 26-23 overtime decision.

** Hope is trying to become the first Purdue head coach in 45 years to win two in a row against Ohio State. Jack Mollenkopf led his team to a 24-21 upset of the third-ranked Buckeyes in 1960, but then had to wait seven years because of scheduling quirks to claim a 41-6 win in 1967.

** With his 2-1 record vs. Ohio State, Hope is one of only two Purdue head coaches to have winning records against the Buckeyes. Cecil Isbell, who coached three seasons in West Lafayette from 1944-46, had a 1-0-1 record vs. Ohio State. The Boilermakers scored a 35-13 win in 1945 and the teams played to a 14-14 tie in ’46. Isbell’s successor, Stu Holcomb, came close with a 2-2 record against the Buckeyes. Holcomb played his college football at Ohio State, lettering from 1929-31 and captaining the ’31 squad that finished 6-3 under head coach Sam Willaman.

** Ohio State is off to a 7-0 start for the first time since 2007 when that team won its first 10 games. In the past 20 seasons, the Buckeyes have gotten off to a 7-0 start eight times.

** Meyer is only the third head coach in Ohio State history to win his first seven games. Carroll Widdoes won his first 12 in 1944-45 and Earle Bruce won 11 in a row in 1979. Meyer is also only the third Big Ten coach since 1946 to win as many as seven games to begin his debut season. The others were Bruce and Bennie Oosterbaan of Michigan, who posted a perfect 9-0 season in 1948.

** Purdue is 8-5-2 all-time on Oct. 20 while Ohio State is 10-6. The two teams have met twice previously on that date. In 1945, the No. 9 Boilermakers dealt a 35-13 upset loss to the fourth-ranked Buckeyes in Columbus. Then in 1990, when both teams were unranked, OSU traveled to West Lafayette and administered a 42-2 thumping to Purdue.

** The Boilermakers have not scored a touchdown in Ohio Stadium since 2003 when running back Jerod Void scored on an 11-yard run during No. 10 Purdue’s 16-13 loss to fourth-ranked OSU. To be fair, the Boilermakers have played only twice in Columbus since then – a 16-3 loss in 2008 and a 49-0 loss in 2010.

** Purdue hasn’t scored a touchdown through the air in Ohio Stadium since 1999 when quarterback Drew Brees threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Kevin Sutherland in the first quarter of a 25-22 OSU victory.

** The Buckeyes have combined to score 115 points the past two weeks, their second-highest total ever in back-to-back games against Big Ten opponents. OSU tallied 131 points against Minnesota (48) and Iowa (83) in 1950.

** In addition to all of that scoring vs. Nebraska and Indiana, Ohio State racked up a combined 724 rushing yards against the Cornhuskers and Hoosiers. That pushed the Buckeyes to No. 8 in the nation in rushing offense with an average of 263.6 yards per game.

** Purdue currently ranks 11th in the Big Ten and 97th nationally in rush defense, surrendering an average of 199.5 yards per game. In their last two games, the Boilermakers have given up 771 yards on the ground – 467 to Wisconsin and 304 to Michigan.

** Ohio State piled up 578 total yards last week against Indiana, the team’s highest total since piling up 645 during a 73-20 victory over Eastern Michigan in 2010. It was also the highest total yardage figure against a Big Ten opponent since OSU gained 603 yards on Indiana during a 35-6 win at Bloomington in 2003.

** The 52-49 win over the Hoosiers coupled with a 63-38 win against Nebraska on Oct. 6 marked the first time since November 1984 that the Buckeyes had topped the 50-point mark against back-to-back Big Ten opponents. That season, Ohio State took a 50-7 win over Indiana in Columbus one week before rolling to a 52-3 victory at Northwestern.

** OSU has already matched a single-season program record with three games in which it has scored 50 or more points. That has happened only three previous times – 1969, 1973 and 1983. No Ohio State team has ever topped the 50-point mark four times in a season.

** The final score vs. Indiana marked the second straight game in which the combined total in an Ohio State game topped 100. Before this season, the Buckeyes had been involved in only two games that had produced more than 100 points – an 83-21 win over Iowa in 1950 and a school-record 128-0 win over Oberlin in 1916.

** When Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde each rushed for more than 100 yards, and Devin Smith cracked the century mark in receiving vs. Indiana, it marked the first time in Ohio State program history that the Buckeyes had two 100-yard rushers and a 100-yard receiver in the same game.

** Miller and Hyde each eclipsed the century mark in rushing against Nebraska and Indiana, marking only the fifth time in Ohio State history two players have rushed for 100 or more yards in back-to-back games. It was also the first time in 37 years the feat had been accomplished. During a 35-6 win at Purdue on Oct. 25, 1975, fullback Pete Johnson rushed for 131 yards while tailback Archie Griffin added 130. The following week at home vs. Indiana, Johnson and Griffin rumbled for 150 yards apiece during a 24-14 Buckeye victory.

** Miller has established a new school record for quarterbacks with his eighth career game of 100 or more yards rushing. His 149 yards vs. Indiana also pushed his career total to 1,627, good enough for fourth all-time among Ohio State quarterbacks behind Terrelle Pryor (2,164, 2008-10), Cornelius Greene (2,080, 1972-75) and Rex Kern (1,714, 1968-70).

** Miller also moved into 34th place on Ohio State’s all-time rushing list. He needs 121 more to move into the top 30 past Butler By’not’e (1,644, 1990-93), John Brockington (1,663, 1968-70), Kern and John Wooldridge (1,747, 1983-86).

** Hyde had his fourth career 100-yard game and upped his career total to 1,161. He needs eight more yards to pass Troy Smith (1,168, 2003-06) and move into the top 50 on Ohio State’s all-time rushing list.

** With his performance against Indiana, Miller became only the 14th player in program history to move past the 4,000-yard mark in career total offense. Currently with 4,057 total yards, Miller needs only 102 more yards to move past Kern (4,158) and into 13th place on OSU’s all-time list.

** Miller also needs only 231 more passing yards to move into the school’s top 12 in that category. The sophomore QB currently has 2,430 yards, which ranks just behind Stan Jackson (2,660, 1994-97), Don Unverferth (2,518, 1963-65), Kern (2,444) and Kirk Herbstreit (2,437, 1989-92).

** Purdue senior receiver Antavian Edison is working on a streak of 27 consecutive games with at least one reception.

** OSU has blocked four kicks – two punts and two PATs – this season, adding to Meyer’s total as a head coach. In 11 seasons with Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and OSU, Meyer-coached teams have blocked 55 kicks in 134 games. Since 2005, Meyer is a spotless 18-0 in games when his team has blocked an enemy punt. That includes a 2-0 record this season.

** Speaking of blocking kicks, Purdue senior defensive end Kawann Short has blocked eight kicks during his career – two PATs and six field-goal tries. Short, who has started all 42 games of his Purdue career, helped Central High School in East Chicago win an Indiana state basketball tournament during his junior year. The 6-3, 315-pounder reportedly can still dunk.

** Purdue has returned three interceptions for touchdowns this season, the second-best total in the nation. One of those was turned in by junior cornerback Ricardo Allen, who chalked up his fourth career pick-six against Marshall on Sept. 29. Allen is tied with Tim Wilbur of Indiana (1978-82) for the second-most interception returns for touchdowns in Big Ten history. Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher (1998-2000) had five during his career.

** After finishing last year 11th in the Big Ten in penalties, Hope talked extensively during the offseason about addressing that issue. Message sent, message received. The Boilermakers have committed the second-fewest penalties of any conference team this season, averaging 4.8 penalties for a Big Ten-low 36.0 yards per game.

** Ohio State is currently the most penalized team in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes average 8.0 penalties per game for 70.3 yards. OSU has been flagged 56 times in seven games, including 18 personal foul penalties.

** The Boilermakers have been snakebitten recently in terms of knee injuries. Running back Ralph Bolden and quarterback Robert Marve have suffered three ACL injuries each while running back Brandon Cottom and quarterback Rob Henry have sustained one apiece.

** Kickoff this week is set for shortly after 12 noon Eastern. Disney will handle the telecast on ABC/ESPN2 using its reverse mirror. That means if the game isn’t carried by your local ABC affiliate, it will be on ESPN2 and vice versa. Beth Mowins will call the play-by-play with former Ohio State receiver Joey Galloway providing color analysis. Lewis Johnson will report from the sidelines.

** The game will also be broadcast on Sirius satellite radio channel 112 and XM channel 190.

** Next week, Ohio State travels to Penn State for a contest now scheduled to kick off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. That game will also be telecast by ABC/ESPN2.

OLDEST SURVIVING BIG TEN COACHES

Not sure how we stumbled upon this topic, but while doing some research recently we uncovered a list of the oldest surviving former Big Ten coaches.

Topping the list is 98-year-old Bill Glassford, who was head coach at Nebraska from 1949 to 1955.

Of course, if you are a purist, you know that Glassford never coached a day in the Big Ten. That would mean the mantle of oldest surviving former Big Ten coach who actually coached in the Big Ten would be 89-year-old Ara Parseghian, who piloted the Northwestern program between 1956 and 1963.

Here is a school-by-school list of the oldest surviving coaches from each of the current Big Ten members along with their ages and years they coached.

Bill Glassford, 98, Nebraska (1949-55)

Ara Parseghian, 89, Northwestern (1956-63)

Chalmers “Bump” Elliott, 87, Michigan (1959-68)

Frank Lauterbur, 87, Iowa (1971-73)

Pete Elliott, 86, Illinois (1960-66)

Bob DeMoss, 85, Purdue (1970-72)

Bob Hicks, 85, Indiana (1957)

Earle Bruce, 81, Ohio State (1979-87)

George Perles, 78, Michigan State (1983-94)

Jim Hilles, 76, Wisconsin (1986)

Lou Holtz, 75, Minnesota (1984-85)

Tom Bradley, 56, Penn State (2011)

Yes, Bump and Pete Elliott are brothers, born 20 months apart. Pete is also the second-oldest surviving former Nebraska head coach. He succeeded Glassford and coached the Cornhuskers during the 1956 season.

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

** On Oct. 19, 2002, Oklahoma State scored a 24-21 victory over Nebraska, marking the Cowboys’ first win over the Cornhuskers in 41 years. QB Josh Fields fueled the victory by throwing for 192 yards, most of it going to receiver Rashaun Woods, who finished with 11 catches for 134 yards. Later that season, Oklahoma State upset No. 4 Oklahoma, marking the first time in school history the Cowboys had beaten both NU and OU in the same season.

** On Oct. 20, 1917, Washington beat Whitman College by a 14-6 score, extending its unbeaten streak to 63 games, an NCAA record that still stands.

** On Oct. 20, 1944, Maryland and Michigan State combined for the fewest pass attempts in the modern era of college football during an 8-0 win by the Spartans. The Terrapins threw only one pass during the game while Michigan State attempted none.

** On Oct. 20, 1956, Texas A&M scored a 7-6 upset over No. 4 TCU is what has been called “The Hurricane Game.” Played in 90-mph wins, the Horned Frogs got inside the A&M 5-yard-line three times in the first half but failed to score.

** On Oct. 20, 1990, No. 6 Notre Dame scored a 29-20 upset of second-ranked Miami (Fla.) thanks to 268 all-purpose yards from wideout Raghib “Rocket” Ismail. Trailing 22-20 in the fourth quarter, the Hurricanes lost a chance to take the lead when tailback Leonard Conley fumbled at the 2-yard line. Miami defensive tackle Russell Maryland shook off a sprained foot to register 20 tackles, including three for loss, but Ismail rushed for 100 yards and returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to lead the Fighting Irish.

** On Oct. 21, 1950, Tom Powers of Duke set an ACC single-game scoring record when he accounted for 36 points in a 41-0 win over Richmond. Powers ran for three touchdowns and also caught three TD passes against the Spiders.

** On Oct. 21, 1978, third-ranked Arkansas fell 28-21 victim to No. 9 Texas in Austin. The Longhorns were led by a trio of players with the same name. Tailback Johnny “Jam” Jones led Texas in rushing against the Razorbacks, fullback Johnny “Ham” Jones rushed for a touchdown and a two-point conversion, and wide receiver Johnny “Lam” Jones nabbed a pair of TD catches, including the eventual game-winner with 6:15 to play.

** On Oct. 21, 1989, Alabama QB Gary Hollingsworth set a school record for completions, going 32 for 46 for 379 yards and three touchdowns as the Crimson Tide rolled to a 47-30 win over Tennessee.

** On Oct. 21, 2000, Indiana quarterback Antwaan Randle El had a history-making performance during his team’s 51-43 win over Minnesota. Randle El threw for 263 yards and ran for 210 to become the first player in Big Ten history to crack the 200-yard mark in both passing and rushing in the same game.

** On Oct. 21, 2006, Michigan State engineered the biggest comeback in NCAA history, erasing a 38-3 deficit on the way to a 41-38 victory over Northwestern in Evanston.

** On Oct. 22, 1904, Minnesota’s Bobby Marshall set an NCAA record by scoring 72 points during the Golden Gophers’ 146-0 victory over Grinnell (Iowa).

** On Oct. 22, 1966, UTEP rolled to a 35-0 win over San Jose State in a game during which the Spartans accounted for minus-102 rushing yards. UTEP wasn’t much better, totaling only 78 yards on the ground. The team’s combined total of negative 24 rushing yards set an NCAA single-game record for futility.

** On Oct. 22, 1983, Nebraska scored 41 points during a stretch of fewer than three minutes of possession time on its way to a 69-19 rout of Colorado.

** On Oct. 23, 1965, Virginia Tech was riding high with a new facility and a victory over its instate rivals. The Hokies, known then as the Gobblers, opened their new Lane Stadium with a 22-14 win over Virginia. Tech rushed for 323 yards in the contest, but the decisive touchdown came on a 71-yard pass from quarterback Bobby Owens to receiver Tommy Groom late in the fourth quarter.

** On Oct. 23, 1976, Pittsburgh running back Tony Dorsett pushed his season rushing total past the 1,000-yard mark during a 45-0 victory over Navy. Dorsett became the first running back in NCAA history to post four 1,000-yard seasons, and he also broke the NCAA career rushing record previously held by two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

** On Oct. 24, 1953, winless Purdue pulled a stunning 6-0 upset of second-ranked Michigan State behind fullback Dan Pobojewski’s fourth-quarter touchdown plunge. The game ended the Spartans’ 28-game winning streak and marked the first time MSU had been shut out in 59 games.

** Also on Oct. 24, 1953, Minnesota handed No. 5 Michigan a 22-0 loss in the 50th installment of the Little Brown Jug series. The Golden Gophers were led by tailback Paul Giel, who rushed for 113 yards and two TDs while also throwing for 169 yards and a touchdown.

** On Oct. 24, 1981, Stanford became the first team in college football history to have two players throw for 250 yards or more in the same game. Steve Cottrell threw for 311 yards while John Elway added 270, but it didn’t do the Cardinal much good. They lost a 62-36 decision to Arizona State.

** On Oct. 25, 1947, Columbia scored a 21-20 upset over Army, ending the Black Knights’ unbeaten streak at 32 games.

** On Oct. 25, 1980, SMU freshman quarterback Lance McIlhenny celebrated his first start by engineering a 20-6 upset of No. 2 Texas in Austin. Halfback Craig James ran 53 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter to put the Mustangs ahead for good.

** Also on Oct. 25, 1980, Purdue quarterback Mark Herrmann threw for 340 yards during his team’s 36-25 victory over Michigan State. Herrmann finished the game with 8,076 career passing yards which broke the NCAA all-time record. By the time he graduated, Hermann totaled 9,188 passing yards and 707 career completions, both of which were NCAA career records.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

** The number of undefeated Football Bowl Subdivision teams has been pared to an even dozen with Ohio, Ohio State and Oregon leading the pack at 7-0. Alabama, Florida, Kansas State, Louisville, Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Rutgers are all 6-0, while Cincinnati and Oregon State are 5-0.

** The nation’s longest streak ended for the second week in a row. TCU had its 12-game streak snapped Oct. 6 with a 37-23 loss to Iowa State, and South Carolina’s 10-game streak ended last Saturday night with a 23-21 heartbreaker at LSU. That means Alabama now owns the nation’s longest streak with 10 straight wins.

** Congratulations to Tulane, which ended the nation’s longest losing streak at 15 games with last Saturday’s 27-26 win over SMU. Eastern Michigan takes over the dubious honor of the nation’s longest losing streak. The Eagles lost a 52-47 shootout to Toledo on Saturday, marking their eighth straight loss.

** SMU rebounded from its loss to Tulane with a 72-42 rout of Conference USA rival Houston last night. The Mustangs established a new single-game scoring record, eclipsing a 70-0 victory over Daniel Baker College in 1920. SMU also had the highest point tally ever for a Houston opponent. The Cougars had given up 66 points twice previously – a 66-10 loss to UCLA in 1997 and a 66-45 defeat to Louisville in 2003.

** In retrospect, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised about Texas Tech’s 49-14 upset of No. 5 West Virginia. Red Raiders head coach Tommy Tuberville moved his lifetime record to a stellar 6-2 against top-five opponents. Double-T gets another shot at a top-five team Oct. 27 when it travels to No. 4 Kansas State.

** Wisconsin running back Monteé Ball rushed for a career-best 247 yards and scored three touchdowns during last week’s 38-14 win over Purdue. Ball moved his career touchdown total to 72 and his career point total to 434, breaking the Big Ten records formerly held by fellow Wisconsin running back Ron Dayne. Ball is now six TDs away from the all-time FBS record of 72 held by Travis Prentice of Miami (Ohio).

** Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz reached a pair of milestones with his team’s 19-16 double overtime victory over Michigan State. Ferentz notched win No. 100 with the Hawkeyes, making him only the second Iowa head coach to crack the century mark. Hayden Fry (1979-98) is the school’s all-time leader with 143 wins. Additionally, the win over the Spartans marked Ferentz’s 60th Big Ten victory, making him only the 14th man to reach 60 conference wins. The all-time leader in that category is Woody Hayes of Ohio State, who compiled 152 Big Ten victories from 1951-78.

** If you thought the four-hour marathon involving Ohio State and Indiana was a doozy, Louisiana Tech and Texas A&M waged a back-and-forth war for 4½ hours before the Aggies finally came away with a 59-57 victory. Louisiana Tech fought its way out of a 27-0 hole, and then scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes to pull within two points. But the Bulldogs missed on a two-point conversion try with 38 seconds remaining and couldn’t recover the ensuing onside kick. Tech QB Colby Cameron threw for 450 yards and five TDs, but he was overshadowed by A&M counterpart Johnny Manziel, who racked up an SEC-record 576 total yards in the game. Manziel threw for 395 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for 181 yards and three more scores.

** Things are going from bad to worse for Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley. The Volunteers posted back-to-back losing records under Dooley in 2010 and 2011, marking the first time the program had consecutive losing seasons since three in a row from 1909 to 1911. Last weekend, Tennessee lost a 41-31 decision to Mississippi State to drop Dooley’s record to 4-15 in SEC games. And just to add a little injury to insult, Dooley had to coach that game from the press box after undergoing midweek hip surgery.

** Speaking of Mississippi State, it has started the season with a 6-0 record for the first time since winning its first eight games in 1999. Dan Mullen is in his fourth season as head coach of the Bulldogs, and is angling for the team’s third consecutive winning campaign. That hasn’t happened in Starkville since Jackie Sherrill strung together four straight from 1997 to 2000.

** Florida QB Jeff Driskel rushed for 177 yards during his team’s 31-17 win at Vanderbilt last weekend, breaking the school’s single-game rushing record by a quarterback. The previous mark of 166 was set in 2007 by Tim Tebow during the Gators’ 30-24 win over Ole Miss.

** Oregon State is the surprise of the Pac-12 so far this season. The No. 10 Beavers are 5-0 for the first time since 1939 and play unranked conference foes Utah, Washington and Arizona State the next three weeks. Oregon State has been playing football since 1894 and has never started a season better than 6-0. That happened in 1907 when the Beavers won all six games they played that year.

** Ole Miss snapped its 16-game conference losing streak with last week’s 41-20 win over Auburn. Extra credit for those of you who know the Rebels are coached by a guy named Hugh Freeze, whose previous coaching stops include Arkansas State, NAIA Lambuth University (Tenn.) and Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis. One of Freeze’s players at Briarcrest was current Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher, the subject of the best-selling book and hit movie “The Blind Side.”

** You probably missed the fact that New Mexico scored a 35-23 victory at Hawaii in a game that ended early Sunday morning Eastern time. It marked the Lobos’ first win outside their home state since a 20-17 win at San Diego State on Oct. 20, 2007. In his first season in Albuquerque, Bob Davies has guided the Lobos to four victories already – pretty good for a team that went 3-33 during the previous three seasons combined.

** The longest running series in the country stages its 122nd renewal tomorrow when Wisconsin hosts Minnesota in the annual battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. Goldy and Bucky have been battling for the axe trophy since 1948 with Wisconsin holding a 38-23-3 advantage, including wins in each of the last eight meetings. In the overall series, Minnesota leads by a 58-55-8 margin.

** Ohio garners most of the attention directed toward the Mid-American Conference these days, but East Division rival Kent State is off to a 5-1 start under second-year head coach and our old friend Darrell Hazell. That is the best start since 1973 for the Golden Flashes and part of the reason is junior speedster Dri Archer. The 5-8, 175-pounder with 4.21 speed currently leads the nation in all-purpose yardage (229.2 yards per game) and kickoff returns (47.7 yards per return), and ranks fifth in scoring (12.0 points per game). In case you’re interested, Kent hosts Ohio on the day after Thanksgiving – the regular-season finale for both teams.

FEARLESS FORECAST

This is more like it. We finally picked out some games we could win, and went a perfect 10-0 straight up and 6-2-2 against the spread. (Gotta stop taking Ohio State to cover, though.) The season totals are now 58-12 straight up and we’re back to .500 ATS at 34-34-2.

We’ll try to build on last week with these games.

SATURDAY’S GAMES

Minnesota at Wisconsin: The Gophers really don’t have much going for them as they head into the 122nd renewal of one of college football’s oldest rivalry games. Head coach Jerry Kill had another seizure following last week’s loss to Northwestern, injuries are preventing electrifying QB MarQueis Gray from staying in the lineup, and history has not been kind to Goldy. Wisconsin is 38-23-3 since the teams started playing for the Paul Bunyan Axe Trophy in 1946, and the Badgers haven’t lost to Minnesota at home since 1994. Add in the fact that Wisconsin seems to have righted the ship after a shaky start and you have the recipe for a blowout … Wisconsin 42, Minnesota 17. (12 noon ET, ESPNU, DirectTV 208)

No. 9 South Carolina at No. 3 Florida: The Gators are probably getting more credit than they deserve for beating a mediocre Vanderbilt team last week while the Gamecocks are getting more criticism than they deserve for a razor-close 23-21 loss to LSU in Baton Rouge. South Carolina could be without star RB Marcus Lattimore (bruised hip) while normally reliable QB Connor Shaw was intercepted twice in the fourth quarter last week by LSU. Meanwhile, the Gators welcome back three offensive linemen who were sidelined last week. Steve Spurrier would like nothing more than to return to the Swamp and beat his former team, but the Gamecocks are a lowly 1-12 all-time in Gainesville. That lone victory came in 2010 and we just have this inkling that Spurrier can somehow work his magic again … South Carolina 23, Florida 20. (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS)

BYU at No. 5 Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish are getting a lot of pub for their defense, but the Cougars are no slouch on D. While Notre Dame ranks 11th nationally in total defense (287.0 yards per game), BYU is No. 5 at 260.9 yards per contest. The Cougars have held four of their seven opponents to seven points or fewer, while the Irish have limited their last four opponents to a combined total of four field goals and no offensive touchdowns. Neither team has much of an offense to write home about, so that means this game will likely hinge on turnovers. And that is where Notre Dame has the edge. The Irish are plus-8 in that department while the Cougars are minus-5 … Notre Dame 17, BYU 13. (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC)

MichiganState at No. 23 Michigan: The Spartans are working on a four-game winning streak against the Wolverines, their longest win streak in the series in 50 years. If MSU is to increase that streak to a record five in a row, it is going to have to find a way to play much better than it has in recent weeks. Since losing a 17-16 home heartbreaker to Ohio State, Sparty scuffled around at Indiana before pulling out a 31-27 win and then looked extremely sloppy at times during last week’s 19-16 double overtime loss to Iowa. Meanwhile, Michigan seems to have fixed whatever ailments it was experiencing during the first part of the season, piling up 936 total yards combined the last two weeks vs. Purdue and Illinois. Expect the Spartans to put up more of a struggle than the Boilers or Illini, but also expect their series winning streak to come to an end … Michigan 27, Michigan State 20. (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN, DirectTV 610)

Colorado at No. 11 USC: After hitting the road for four of their last five games, the Trojans get to relax a little bit at home tomorrow evening. Coming to town are the struggling Buffaloes, who are 1-5 and are probably not even that good. Colorado ranks 103rd in the nation in scoring offense and 117th in scoring defense, a deadly combination going against a team like USC desperate to get back on track after a handful of subpar performances. QB Matt Barkley has 93 career TD passes and needs only four more to establish a new Pac-12 career record. He might do in the first quarter against the Buffs … USC 42, Colorado 17. (6 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network)

No. 1 Alabama at Tennessee: How good is the Alabama defense? Good enough to rank No. 1 in the nation in every major statistical category. Unfortunately for the Volunteers, the only way they have a chance in this game is if their offense can score enough points to make up for a porous defense. Tennessee averages 38.0 points per game, and has scored 44 or more three times in seven games. But the Vols can’t stop anyone. They surrender 31.5 points per game and that just won’t get it done against the defending national champs … Alabama 41, Tennessee 10. (7 p.m. ET, ESPN, DirectTV 206)

Kansas at No. 10 Oklahoma: Since a mistake-prone loss to Kansas State on Sept. 22, the Sooners seem to have figured things out. OU took a week off and came back to run roughshod through Texas, slicing up a pretty good Texas Tech defense to the tune of a 41-20 win and then exposing Texas last week in the annual Red River Shootout, cruising to a 63-21 victory. The Boomer Sooner will likely keep rolling this week against a Kansas defense that allows an average of 28.0 points and 433.7 yards per contest. But the Jayhawks did limit a potent Oklahoma State offense to only 20 points last week, so maybe things are looking up for Charlie Weis. Then again, the Jayhawks are managing only 19.0 points per game on offense … Oklahoma 49, Kansas 7. (7 p.m. ET, FSN, DirectTV 692)

Penn State at Iowa: First-year Nittany Lions head coach Bill O’Brien has maximized his talent pool, taking a team that had only four starters remaining from last season and leading it to four consecutive wins. So far, Penn State has played very well on defense and just well enough on offense to beat the likes of Illinois and Northwestern. Now, the Lions begin to reach the meat of their schedule beginning with a trip to Iowa City tomorrow night. The Hawkeyes have won eight of the last 10 games in the series, including each of the last four played at Kinnick Stadium. Since these teams appear to be mirror images of one another, we’ll go with the home team in a defensive battle … Iowa 13, Penn State 10. (8 p.m. ET, BTN, DirectTV 611)

No. 12 Florida State at Miami (Fla.): The Hurricanes’ chances in this game would be greatly enhanced if starting QB Stephen Morris can shake off a sprained ankle that was keeping him off the practice field. Even with Morris, however, Miami faces a tall task in taking down the Seminoles. The U’s defense is still spotty, having allowed 32 or more points five times in seven games and at least 498 total yards four times. And knowing that the E.J. Manuel-led Florida State attack averages 46.0 points and 530.6 yards per game makes Morris even more important to the Miami cause. FSU has won two in a row in the series and five of the last seven … Florida State 41, Miami 20. (8 p.m. ET, ABC)

Purdue at No. 7 Ohio State: There has been a lot of talk about how the Boilermakers have had Ohio State’s number since Danny Hope has been head coach. And while it is true Hope owns a 2-1 record against the Buckeyes, both of his victories occurred in West Lafayette. The only time a Hope-coached team came to Columbus, it limped back across the Indiana border after a 49-0 waxing. No one expects this year’s game to be a 49-point blowout, mainly because Purdue likes to spread things out on offense and the Buckeyes have given up a truckload of points to teams that spread them out. Still, one has to believe that Urban Meyer got into the grill and under the skin of his defensive players and coaches after last week’s near-collapse at Indiana. Still, don’t expect a runaway … Ohio State 49, Purdue 38. (12 noon ET, ABC/ESPN2, DirectTV 209)

Here are the spreads for the above games: Minnesota at Wisconsin (-17½); South Carolina (+3½) at Florida; BYU (+14) at Notre Dame; Michigan State (+11½) at Michigan; Colorado (+41) at USC; Alabama (-18½) at Tennessee; Kansas at Oklahoma (-34½); Penn State at Iowa (-1½); Florida State (-17½) at Miami-FL; Purdue (+19) at Ohio State.

Enjoy the games and we’ll talk again next week.