National

CBS's official position on national title contenders:

1. FLA/ALA/LSU
2. Texas
3. 1 Loss SEC Champ
4. USC
5. Virginia Tech

Discuss amongst yourselves? Or maybe it's not worth it. CBS...LSU? Really? C'monnnnn.

So in love, are we two, just can't wait to say I do, sooo in love...

I don't really give a damn about Tim Tebow or Florida's dominance or Urban Meyer's genius. But one thing I love is when Florida uses Tebow as a battering ram from the shotgun. In a pass happy, spread happy world, sometimes it's nice to see an old fashioned hammer head attack.

My mother, after a camera showed a couple Texas cheerleaders rooting their team on: "That kind of spunk only exists in the DNA of a Southern cheerleader." True, but these ladies are fantastically complex - Makeup out of place? Pissed. Fullback doesn't pick up the A Gap blitzer? Notices...and pissed.

Iowa 30, Michigan 28

RichRod was berating Tate Forcier like an angry drunk father the entire game. "It's YOUR fault that we had to cut the cable, you damn money sucker! You didn't even make the Pop Warner team, ya damn failure...Where's my belt?"

Undefeated Iowa...Let me check our predictions...Law Buckeye 11-1, Bama Hawkeye 10-2, and I picked 9-3...We're experts!

There's something ego-pumping about listening to a game in which Brandon Graham of Michigan is dominating. "Down goes Stanzi in Graham's arms!" Well, I guess I could go for a cuddle. "Graham dominating with his athletic ability and strength!" (Pounding chest, stomping feet). "Graham's a war daddy!" Thanks Musburger, I'm literally putting on Under Armour and screaming in my living room.

Ricky Stanzi doesn't want the ball. He wants to share it with everyone on the field. How many interceptions did he almost throw?

Someone tell Rick he's not playing "Hot Potato"...

Apparently Brandon Minor, the 216 lb. halfback for Michigan who runs with some power, was rated the top fullback in the nation coming out of high school. While RichRod usually utilizes speedsters in the spread, Minor bounces quite well through the zone holes.

Greg Robinson finally rolled his cornerbacks up against Twins WR sets. Discussed here by SmartFootball, this basic concept seemed to elude Mr. Robinson until Saturday's matchup. Although these adjustments helped stop any quick passes or bubble screens, Ricky Stanzi still picked apart the young Wolverine secondary early.

In the span of 30 seconds, Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger compared Tate Forcier to Brett Favre and Fran Tarkenton. All this for a 175 lb. freshmen...And people think Notre Dame gets overhyped.

Ohio State 31, Wisconsin 13

Why is there so little national buzz about Ohio State and their defensive dominance? Because we've seen this story before: Talented defense with mediocre offense that traipses over decent Big Ten teams and loses games against Top 15 teams.

"The Ohio State Buckeye's - Smothering power run games since, uh, forever." John Clay, who had pumped up the Badgers with his 250 lb. frame, ran into Doug Worthington and Thaddeus Gibson and came out with 59 yards on 20 carries.

Oh and this from 11 Warriors regarding Pryor's horrific performance:

For the first time in his Buckeye career he was booed by the home crowd. This came right about the time when, right after throwing the pick to give the Badgers the ball in scoring position, he followed it up with what should have been another pick after he threw into coverage on his very next attempt of the game.

Minnesota 35, Purdue 20

We predicted Purdue would go anywhere from 1-11 to 3-9. Logical analysis preceded these predictions - They were losing their playmakers on offense, the defense was unspectacular, and the Boilers would be underdogs in 90% of their contests. With that said, it's hard to watch the weekly meltdowns in West Lafayette. 402 total yards for Purdue, 3 TO's, a blocked field goal returned for a TD...All leading to another Boilermaker loss.

Northwestern 16, Miami (OH) 6

Doesn't feel great to see my alma mater flail helplessly. Bama Hawkeye gave me some good memories with the '03 Roethlisberger pic, but even an uninspired Wildcat team made easy work of my RedHawks.

15 punts is always nice to see. Also nice to see a wonderful young man, Chris DeCesare, punting eight times for the RedHawks. I was his RA at Miami, now this 5th year senior is 2nd in the nation in punting.

Michigan State 24, Illinois 14

At Dantonio's luncheon this week, all the Spartan coaches made it clear they were gameplanning for both Juice and McGee. It didn't really matter - the Illini picked up 55 first half yards and didn't see the MSU side of the 50 until they were down three touchdowns. Six Spartan sacks showed an active MSU front four and an inexperienced Illini O-line.

We need to have a non cliched discussion of Ron Zook's job situation. Here's what we know -

• Zook signed an extension through 2014 whereby he gets paid 1.5 million a year.
  
• Zook is at the head of a 1-4 team that hasn't won a meaningful game. Not only is his prize recruit and star quarterback semi-benched, but the offense gameplanning has shown no creativity or misdirection.
• The president of Illinois is, I believe, on an interim basis and would have to convince boosters to buy out Zook. That's a tall task for any president in this economy.

A higher profile program than Illinois would boot Zook with no second thoughts, but this is Champagne-Urbana and I predict Zook survives this year.