Well, the final score was 34-21, but it wasn’t reflective of the game. The Bucks beat Minnesota in every phase of the game soundly. A nice return for Beanie, he rang up a buck-five on the ground (and coughed up a fumble early that led to 3 points for Minnesota in the first half.) Terrelle Pryor is a man. The defense showed up to play for 2.5 quarters. Some hittin’ was going on out there, it was good!

What I liked: the team played with some moxie. What I didn’t like: the team was bored in the last 1.5 quarters and let the Gophers back in. First 7 possessions led to nothing other than the 3 points from the turnover in the OSU redzone.

The team is progressing and that’s a very good thing, we’re now seeing some growth. We’ll see what we have next week playing Wisconsin. Between now and then, Go Bucks!

OK, so it’s the wrong OSU, Oregon State University pulled off an “unthinkable” upset thoroughly man handling the USC Trojans 27-21 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. USC would have won if they’d shown up to play more than 1 quarter of the game.

USC is now 1-1 against OSU, OSU is now 1-1 against Trojans. Interesting. So what happens when Ohio State beats Penn State who absolutely destroyed Oregon State who beat USC who absolutely destroyed Ohio State? Hmmm. That’s a head scratcher. Just goes to show even clearly superior teams with great talent have to show up mentally. If they don’t, the other team, provided they have shown up to play, will take them to the woodshed!

Go Bucks!

Well, it’s that time again, time for a game preview. If you’re looking for game data, I recommend checking out Bucknuts for a thorough overview. Here it is in a nutshell: Minnesota is much improved from last year, particularly on defense. Will it be enough against the Buckeyes? Nope.

Beanie will allegedly be back in the offense and will be a little rusty, but he’s still Beanie. Pryor will be the trigger man - look out! The offensive line will be reconstituted (and really, it would be tough to play much worse than they’ve been playing.) Let’s hope the receivers have their heads in the games this week. We saw a resurgence against Troy and it would be great to see that continue this week.

On the Minnesota offense vs. the Buckeye defense this should be interesting. Minny has rung up some big numbers this year and they’ve won their first 4 games. This should be a good test for them - they’ll score some points and I’ve been particularly impressed with their young quarterback Weber who is tough, tough, tough. Minny will put up a few points, but fewer than the Buckeyes will amass.

As of this writing, the Gophers are 18 point dogs, I expect OSU to cover this week.

Go Bucks!

Say what you will about the BCS conferences, but the Mountain West based upon on-field performance, is showing it belongs with the Big Boys. Meanwhile, the ACC, Big East, and Pac-10 are all having really tough years in out of conference play - though the ACC has recovered somewhat from its pitiful start. The Big 10 is better this year, you heard it hear first. Despite another flameout by Ohio State in a big game and Michigan’s on going troubles, the conference overall is better through the middle and bottom.

The Big 12 is making a case to be considered as the strongest conference, particularly toward the top. The SEC continues to beat the teams they should beat and do so convincingly. Vanderbilt in particular is surprising this year. But what’s the deal with Mississippi and (State?) Keep playing like this guys and they’ll kick you into the Sunbelt…

Conference play starts in earnest next week, so we’ll see how much the data changes. If there is anything new to report, we’ll post a CSR. If not, then we’ll do a mid-season update and a pre-bowl update.

Sorry gang, I got a little behind last week. You can see that the SEC and Big 12 have remained at the top of the heap. The ACC and Big East are recovering a little from their early season swoon. Outside USC, the Pac-10 is having problems. The Mountain West continues to impress.