The Hlist: Terrelle Pryor is the Man

Opening kickoff

“This was billed as a statement game at Pitt, but the only statement one could decipher afterward was this: ‘We’re not as bad as Iowa.’” — Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

First downs

1. Pryor Engagement: So this is how the Terrelle Pryor era began as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. Four touchdown passes and 66 yards rushing in a 28-10 win over Troy.

“I’ve been making plays all my life,” said the freshman.

But Pryor doesn’t sound like a total braggart.

“I thought I messed up a lot,” he said. “When we sit down in the film room, I’m going to get yelled at a lot. That’s a good thing.”

Even with Illinois’ Juice Williams, Purdue’s Curtis Painter and Penn State’s Darryl Clark, Pryor may already be the Big Ten’s best quarterback.

2. Excess of SEC-cess: The Southeastern Conference plays a little football.

This week in the AP rankings: 3. Georgia, 4. Florida, 5. LSU, 8. Alabama.

Florida mauled conference rival Tennessee in Knoxville, 30-6. Gators head coach Urban Meyer lauded his defensive line coach, someone well-known to Iowans.

“I just look at our D-line and they hung with a very good offensive line,” Meyer said. “Dan McCarney is a special coach. He’s energetic and you see it translating onto the field.”

Vanderbilt (4-0 overall, 2-0 in the SEC) hasn’t had a winning season since 1982. It climbed into the AP poll at No. 21, its first appearance in the rankings since 1984 and second since 1958.

“I think it’s a pretty good reward for a good start,” Vanderbilt Coach Bobby Johnson said of the ranking. “Our guys are pretty smart. They realize it won’t help you win games.”

3. JoePa Can’t Kick: Penn State is 4-0 after a 45-3 drubbing of Temple. The Nittany Lions have beaten the Owls the last 26 times they met.

PSU Coach Joe Paterno watched the second half from the Lions’ coaches’ box in the press box. He hurts. His right leg has been sore since he made an onside kick to close the Thursday practice before his team’s first game. That’s a ritual Paterno had long had, for fun. No more.

The media wanted news about the leg after Saturday’s game.

“I’ve got a bunch of guys out there fighting all kinds of adversity with different lineups, hanging in there together, all right?” Paterno said. “And you’re worried about my leg. Now, if you were a bunch of good-looking girls, I’d feel better about it.”

4. Ball of Fire: Ball State had lost all 43 of its games against teams from the six BCS conferences. Then it won at Indiana, 42-20, to improve to 4-0.

Sadly, Ball State receiver Dante Love’s football career is expected to be over because of the back fracture he suffered in the game. Love entered the game as the nation’s leader with 144.3 receiving yards a game.

The good news is, according to a Ball State spokesman, that Love is expected to be able to live a normal and healthy life after rehabilitation.

Fumbles

1. Peanut Gallery is Nuts: Booing college quarterbacks has become a national phenomenon.

Ohio State senior quarterback Todd Boeckman took just two snaps against Troy in a reserve role. He got loudly booed at Ohio Stadium when his lone pass was incomplete. This was the guy who threw 25 touchdown passes for last year’s Big Ten champions.

“Hey, we’re just kids,” said Buckeyes defensive lineman Lawrence Wilson. “We’re not professionals. There is no way adults should treat us that way.”

Boston College quarterback Chris Crane got jeered in the second quarter in his team’s home game against Central Florida.

“You hate to see that,” said BC Coach Jeff Jagodzinski about the booing. “Especially at home. But I guess it’s all part of (the game).”

Crane proceeded to play very well in the second half, leading the Eagles to 31 points in their 34-7 win.

Presumably, the fans cheered him.

2. Rocky Top Rocked: Losing 30-6 at home to Florida isn’t playing well in Tennessee.

Volunteers Coach Philip Fulmer is 5-12 against Florida. Since winning the 1998 national championship, he’s 20-25 against ranked opponents.

The booing was loud at times in Knoxville on Saturday. “There’s probably not anybody happy with me right now,” Fulmer said.

Jimmy Trodglen of the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle is one unhappy Tennessee sports editor.

“The Vols lack discipline, there’s no leadership on or off the field, play-calling is questionable and Fulmer continues to be outcoached,” Trodglen wrote.

“It’s time for Fulmer to pull onto Cumberland Avenue with his belongings carefully packed and not stop until he reaches his home.”

3. Irish Lapped: Notre Dame got caught with a laptop computer in the coaches’ box during its game at Michigan State.

Irish Coach Charlie Weis said the incident was a matter of an improperly located student manager recording down-and-distance information for game-tape dubbing.

“You’re allowed to do that,” Weis said. “But the one area where you’re not allowed to do that is in a coaching area.”

Michigan State caught the violation during the game, but Spartans Coach Mark Dantonio shrugged it off.

“I’ve never seen a computer or a camera make a tackle, catch a ball or anything,” Dantonio said.

No computer and few Irish defenders slowed MSU back Javon Ringer. He had 39 carries, 201 yards and two touchdowns in MSU’s 23-7 win.

4. Dark Knights: Rutgers was the feel-good story of college football when it went 11-2 in 2006. But the Scarlet Knights are again lousy. They fell to 0-3 for the first time since 1999 after a 23-21 loss to Navy, and looked stupid doing so.

Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel threw a punch at teammate Glen Lee as Teel came off the field late in the game.

“I apologize for losing my cool,” Teel said. “He was telling me to keep my head up and to get off the field. He was doing the right thing and what I did was so totally wrong.”

“It’s just in-house family stuff,” Lee said.

To which Tom Luicci of the Newark Star-Ledger replied, “Maybe if the family is Archie and the rest of the Bunkers.”

OK, the reference is a bit dated.

Final gun

“Call it whatever you want: courage, guts, confidence, arrogance, fearlessness, stones. Doesn’t matter what you call it, only that LSU Coach Les Miles has it.” — John DeShazier, New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Miles’ Tigers used a halfback pass for a TD and recovered an onside kick in the third quarter in their 26-21 win at Auburn.

The Hlist – Rat Pac-10 and Buckeyes Black Eyes

hlist

Opening kickoff

“Success against weak Big Ten teams has not only been a means to a bad end in title games, but it might have created something of a mirage of football power. Rankings or no rankings, these failures now raise the question of whether OSU has ever truly been a top-five team the past three seasons.” — Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch after Ohio State’s 35-3 loss at Southern California

First downs

1. No. 1 and Only: When Southern California thrashed Iowa, 38-17, in the Orange Bowl six seasons ago, it was just the tip of the iceberg for what Pete Carroll’s program would do to future opponents in big games. The Trojans’ 35-3 savaging of Ohio State was a full-blown Titanic for the Buckeyes.

“We expected to dominate, and that’s what happened,” USC defensive tackle Fili Moala said. “If we come to play like this every week and stay humble, no one’s going to touch us.”

Way to stay humble, Fili.

2. Two Blowouts: First Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis had his knee blown out when he inadvertently got rolled up by Irish defensive tackle John Ryan. Then his team finished off a 35-17 rout of Michigan.

Weis tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee on the fluke collision.

“I feel like an athlete,” the rather rotund Weis said after the game. “First time in my life.”

“I feel terrible,” Ryan said after the game. “I apologized to him three or four times during the game. I feel awful. I won’t sleep at all tonight.”

Asked if he were still on scholarship, Ryan said, “I hope.”

3. Viva Nevada-Las Vegas: Iowa State may be fighting the odds in Las Vegas come Saturday night.

UNLV is on a roll. It went to 15th-ranked Arizona State as a 23-point underdog and came home with a 23-20 overtime win.

“Sometimes, it comes down to heart and desire over talent,” Rebels running back Frank Summers said. Mike Sanford’s first three UNLV teams won two games each. If the Rebels beat ISU in Vegas, they’ll be 3-1.

“The victory is great,” Sanford said. “We’re thankful and grateful for it. But if we go get blown out by Iowa State, nobody will remember it. This next game is as important or more than the one we just played.”

4. Mountain Do: “Most weekends, Vegas’ upset would rank as a highlight,” wrote Dave Curtis of Sportingnews.com. “Saturday, it was just decoration.”

See, the Mountain West Conference had its best football weekend in its 10-year existence. It went 7-1 against nonconference foes and 4-0 against the big, bad Pacific-10. Besides UNLV’s great win, TCU mauled Stanford, 41-17. New Mexico downed Arizona, 36-28. And Brigham Young brutalized UCLA, 59-0.

“That was probably one of the most fun games I’ve ever been a part of,” said BYU quarterback Max Hall after he threw seven touchdown passes against the Bruins. “It almost seemed at some points like my job was easy.”

Fumbles

1. Buckeye Black Eye: Ohio State is the Big Ten’s football ruler. Thus, Big Ten football is held in low national esteem today.

That 35-3 loss at USC was the latest of OSU’s flops in huge games. The Buckeyes bombed in the last two national title games. Don’t look for them to get a third straight chance.

“I can’t believe that we screwed up so badly,” OSU left tackle Alex Boone said. “I thought this team made it clear after the national championship game — all the gassers we ran, and all the running we did that we weren’t going to mess up anymore. Apparently, that wasn’t evident.”

Running is one thing. Keeping up with superior talent is another. Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register wrote this:

“It was supposed to be the Collision at the Coliseum, but it wasn’t. To have a collision, both objects must be moving.”

2. Black and Blue: Don’t bother yelling “Go Blue!” to Michigan’s football team this week. The Wolverines are blue enough after their debacle at Notre Dame.

Michigan, once a football program of note, fumbled seven times in South Bend, losing four. Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press summarized it neatly:

“The 35-17 loss to Notre Dame was a morass of missed opportunities, poor decisions and atrocious fundamentals.”

“We don’t have our heads down because we know who the better team was,” Michigan defensive back Steve Brown said. “They beat us today. It happens, but in our hearts we know we’re the better team.”

No, the better team would have scored 35 points, not 17.

The Hlist doesn’t believe in ghosts, but will stay out of Ann Arbor this week all the same. The spirit of Bo Schembechler, rest his soul, could be out and about with a fury.

3. Rat Pac: The Pac-10 has USC. Oregon’s pretty good, too.

That’s about it.

The league went 3-7 last weekend. UCLA, Washington and Lehman Brothers Holdings all had their worst week since 1929. UCLA’s 59-0 loss to BYU was its worst defeat since ’29, and Washington’s 55-14 loss to Oklahoma was its worst home loss since the year of the Great Depression.

Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes said Wildcats senior quarterback Willie Tuitama “played as bad as I’ve seen him play” in their loss at New Mexico.

Arizona State Coach Dennis Erickson’s reaction to losing at home to UNLV: “It’s sickening.”

4. No Offense, But …: Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2

“I am an old defensive coach so I was liking it a little bit but I wish we had scored a few more points,” Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said.

“Coincidentally,” wrote Steve Hofstetter of Doghouseboxing.com, “3-2 are the odds that both teams will never score again.”

Final gun

“That’s the big problem, having to sort through those five big guys to find where he is. When they all come off at one time, they look like a herd of water buffalo stampeding at you and there’s a gazelle somewhere in behind them.” — Florida Atlantic Coach Howard Schnellenberger on Michigan State’s offensive line and running back Javon Ringer. Ringer carried 43 times for 282 yards in MSU’s 17-0 win over Schnellenberger’s Owls.

Sunday’s Seven: College Football Week 3

Seven things from the third Saturday of the college football season:

1. We’ll see if Iowa’s keel is even this week. After an emotional home triumph over Iowa State, the Hawkeyes go on the road for the first time. They still really don’t know who’s their quarterback. They play a Pittsburgh team with much to prove and two weeks to prepare for the Hawkeyes. Big game.

2. Arizona State did Iowa State no favors by losing at home to UNLV in overtime. Instead of rubbing out the Rebels, ASU gave UNLV a big lease on life. Now the Rebels come home to play Iowa State, and there may be some actual interest in the team in Las Vegas. Not a lot, but some.

3. Wisconsin earned some stripes by winning at Fresno State. Believe it or not, East Coast elitists, Fresno State is a really tough place to win. Good for the Badgers for trekking there for a real challenge, and good for the Badgers for leaving with a 13-10 victory.

4. Ohio State. Off you go. Try to settle for a Rose Bowl this year instead of stinking up the national-title game.

5. Michigan. No surprise that it lost at Notre Dame or is 1-2 or will go 6-6. Over the weekend, Coach Rich Rodriguez got the verbal commitment of another five-star guy, this one from New Jersey. Enjoy the Wolverines’ plight now, everyone. It won’t last forever.

6. Oklahoma and Missouri don’t play each other this year. Correction. They aren’t scheduled to play each other. But they’ll meet Dec. 6 in the Big 12 title game, both unbeaten. It will be the Game of the Year and then some.

7. USC looks fairly competent, wouldn’t you say?

5.

Sunday’s Seven: College Football Weekend in Review

1. Some Northern Iowa fans were and are mad at the Hlog for a dumb, inaccurate post that was here for about a day last week saying Maine had been 1-0 vs. the state of Iowa in football. UNI routed Maine in an NCAA Division I-AA playoff game in 2001.

Well, the Hlog isn’t and has never been a UNI-hater. But I fully understand and appreciate Panther fans feeling like they get short-shrift in statewide coverage. They often do. If it’s any comfort, my mistakes are equal-opportunity employers.

UNI lost 41-17 at 16th-ranked Brigham Young Saturday, but represented itself a lot better than most FCS teams against FBS teams. UNI will be just fine this season. Again. I expect to cover an FCS playoff game in the UNI-Dome this year. Again.

2. Speaking of FBS-FCS, FBS (I-A) teams won 31 of 32 games against FCS teams in Week 1. The only FBS loser was Chuck Long’s San Diego State team, to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Not good, Chuck.

3. I watched a lot of the Illinois-Missouri game Saturday night. Mizzou is again really good. Illinois did well just to stay somewhat close to the Tigers. Illini quarterback Juice Williams, by the way, could be the Big Ten’s best offensive player.

4. Florida International, Iowa’s next “opponent,” gained all of 139 yards in its 40-10 loss at Kansas. The Jayhawks threw 52 passes in that game.

5. Utah rushed for only 36 yards at Michigan and still got a 25-23 win. Of course, Michigan also rushed for 36 yards. The Wolverines’ new spread offense has miles to go with their current personnel.

6. Ohio State kicked five field goals against Youngstown State in its 43-0 win. The last one was a 54-yarder in the fourth-quarter to close out the game’s scoring.

7. Watch out for Northwestern this season. The Wildcats mowed down Syracuse, 30-10 with a balanced offense (6.3 yards per carry, 6.1 yards per pass attempt) and sturdy defense. Syracuse isn’t good, but the Wildcats have terrific veterans at the skill positions on offense.