Former Foes

Akron
The Zips found themselves down by one, 13 - 12 late in the third quarter against Miami of Ohio when they put together two scoring drives to take a 24 – 13 lead early in the 4th. The closest the Redhawks could get the rest of the way was the Akron 36, but the Zips held on for the win to up their record to 3 – 4. Akron Runningback Dennis Kennedy ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns while Luke Getsy threw for 197 yards and a score.

Notre Dame
The Fighting Bandwagoneers moved 80 yards in 34 seconds with a little over a minute left to beat UCLA 20-17. The Bruins had the ball and the lead with 2:20 to go but couldn’t get a first down to end the game. After the punt, Notre Dame got the ball with 80 yards to go and no timeouts but got some help from God. After two passes of 21 and 14 yards, Brady Quinn hit Jeff Samardzija for a 45 yard pass and the final touchdown. Samardzija was left open deep, cut inside a diving safety at the 15 yard line and stumbled the rest of the way to pay-dirt. The Bruins defense, which had been stellar all day, apparently lost sight of Samardzija as he was left wide open on the play and only had one man to beat. Given that 6 foot 5 inch wide receivers are easy to loose on a given play, and God was on their side, it’s easy to understand the final score. With only 1 loss Notre Dame is still holding onto hopes of a BCS bowl birth they don’t deserve, so they can get pummeled Ohio State-style. It’s smooth sailing until the annual USC game for the Irish.

Youngstown State
Tom Zetts threw 4 interceptions, one at the Northern Iowa 7 with just over a minute remaining as Northern Iowa beat the Penguins 31 – 23. Marcus Mason had 172 yards rushing and 3 scores but it wasn’t enough as the Panthers racked up 425 yards of total offense and capitalized on 5 YSU turnovers. YSU is now 6-2 on the year.

Ohio State
Against Indiana, the Buckeyes racked up 540 yards and to the delight of every offensive coordinator in the country, did so splitting the rushing and passing down the middle, even at 270 a piece. Troy Smith threw for 220 yards and 4 touchdowns to 4 different receivers, and Ted Ginn caught and threw a touchdown. Ohio State’s defense held Indiana to 165 total yards as the Hoosiers could only manage a 34 yard field goal.

Northwestern
Trailing 38-3 in the third quarter, Michigan State rallied Saturday for a 41-38 victory over Northwestern completing the greatest comeback in college football history. Sparty scored 5 unanswered touchdowns, one of which was a blocked punt, and sealed the deal with a 28 yard field goal with 18 seconds left. The numbers are really mind boggling: 871 yards of total offense between the two teams, 604 of which came through the air. Quarterback Drew Stanton threw for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns while Tyrell Sutton ran for 171. Schizophrenia… Bipolar… there’s some medical term for Michigan State, I just can’t put my finger on it.

Minnesota
The Golden Gophers needed a blocked field goal as time ran out to beat Div I-AA North Dakota State 10-9. Amir Pinnix rushed for 97 yards and scored the game’s only touchdown at 10:36 of the fourth quarter; at the time the game was a 6-3 shootout [sarcasm intended]. Bryan Cupito, who torched the Nittany Lion defense, managed only 150 yards on 14 completions. The Bison outgained Minnesota 380 to 249 in total yardage, but managed only three field goals.

Michigan
The Wolverines milked a 3-0 halftime into a 10-6 fourth quarter lead and relied, once again, on a stellar defensive performance to coast to a 20-6 victory. Mike Hart pounded out two touchdowns and Chad Henne was efficient, completing 23 of 33 passes for 203 yards with one pick. Michigan looked like a Big Ten team of old relying on good defense and 31 carries for 126 yards from their featured back, non of which were over 10 yards. With Iowa out of the way, nothing stands between an undefeated Michigan and Ohio State meeting for the Big Ten and possible BCS championship berth. Stock up on Pepto, because we are going to be force fed all-you-can-eat-buffet amounts of ESPN hype for this game. I can’t wait for the top ten defenses of all time comparison to this year’s Michigan team. Or how about a Heisman poem from Stuart Scott about Troy Smith… yeah it’s going to get ugly real fast.