Two weeks into the Big Ten schedule, only four teams remain unbeaten in conference play–Michigan State, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio State.
And the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes withstood stout challenges from Purdue and Northwestern, respectively, on Saturday. Michigan and Michigan State were idle.
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Michigan State visits Iowa this weekend, which means another record will be blemished. Michigan has to play the Spartans, Hawkeyes and Buckeyes. Ohio State plays neither Iowa nor Michigan State.
“Nobody’s going to be undefeated this year,” Penn State offensive lineman Gus Felder said after Penn State upended Wisconsin 34-31 in Madison, Wis. “Everybody’s playing Big Ten football this year. Last year we fell off a little bit [as a conference]. But this year the conference looks very strong.”
No Big Ten team has gone unbeaten in league play since Michigan in 1997. And a team with two losses has won the conference only twice since 1984.
— Andrew Bagnato
NORTHWESTERN
Short workweek
Gut-check time. That is a much-used and much-abused sports cliche. But with Northwestern, it fits perfectly as it prepares for its Thursday night game at Minnesota.
Two Saturdays ago in its Big Ten opener at Michigan State, the Wildcats frittered away an opportunity for an upset and lost by 15.
Then Saturday under the lights at Ryan Field, they frittered away an opportunity for an even bigger upset and lost by 11 to undefeated Ohio State.
The Wildcats, in both those games, performed far better than expected and looked nothing like the star-struck group that lost by 49 in its season opener at Air Force.
Still, they lost, and now they must regroupand prepare to face the Golden Gophers on short notice.
“Two weeks in a row, in a lot of respects, we played well enough to have a chance to win,” Northwestern coach Randy Walker said. “That’s disappointing and I feel bad for our kids. But I still say there’s a good football team in here and we’ve just got to keep scratching and clawing and digging.
“The key thing is going to be the next five days. Off of two very disappointing losses, it’s hard to walk off the field and sell out as hard as those kids sold out and work as hard as they’ve worked, it’s tough when you don’t get that payback. What we have to trust is the darkest is just before the dawn.”
— Skip Myslenski
NATION
Saving Tennessee
Tennessee kicker Phillip Newman made sure he found Jason Witten before the tight end disappeared beneath the pile forming on the checkered turf in the end zone at Knoxville, Tenn.
“I ran over to Jason and jumped on him and said, `Thank you, man, thank you! You saved us all,”‘ Newman said.
Witten caught a 25-yard pass in the sixth overtime Saturday night to give No. 10 Tennessee a 41-38 win over Arkansas. Newman kicked two field goals in the first two overtimes.
Witten was open on Tennessee’s first play, putting an end to another marathon game for the Razorbacks, who outlasted Mississippi in seven overtimes last season in the longest game in NCAA history.
A man who fell about 30 feet from the upper deck of the Orange Bowl during Miami’s game against Connecticut probably wasn’t pushed, but police aren’t sure what happened.
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The man, whom police said is in his 20s, was in critical condition Sunday with head injuries, according to hospital officials and Miami Police Department spokeswoman Herminia Salas-Jacobson.
LSU junior running back LaBrandon Toefield will miss at least six weeks with a broken left arm sustained in the first quarter of Saturday’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette. . . . Eastern Illinois senior quarterback Tony Romo, who threw for 373 yards and four touchdowns in the Panthers’ 35-28 victory over Tennessee Tech, was named the Ohio Valley Conference’s offensive player of the week.