Well, it’s finally time for conference play, but after the first weeks of nonconference games, who in their right mind would have thought that Minnesota would honestly be sitting at 4-0? Me neither. I knew that Tim Brewster’s bunch had the potential, but not this early! Some other thoughts on this last weekend’s games:

–It appears that Darryll Clark is the go-to guy with Penn State heading into their home game Big Ten opener against Illinois. Joe Paterno almost doubled the amount of times he threw over Pat Devlin, and while I think a lot of media were pulling for Devlin because of the hype he carries, Clark has more experience and with the Nittany Lions kicking it on all cylinders in the running game, when it comes time to throw the ball, Devlin may not be exactly what PSU is needing–but that still doesn’t mean he has lost his chance.

–The Golden Gophers, while playing a team they should have beat in Florida Atlantic, actually put up 37 on a team that was pretty decent on defense. Adam Weber looked superb throwing the ball, and with Minnesota putting up over 200 yards total as a team on the ground, this is certainly a team that isn’t just winning games luckily.

–Purdue’s defense still scares me. I understand they played two good offenses against Oregon and Central Michigan, but this was at home, and with the 12th man being the crowd for much of these games, what is going to happen when the Boilermakers go on the road and can’t stop anybody?

–Yes, I know that Ohio State only lead 14-10 after three quarters, but give Terrelle Pryor some credit for coming in as his first official start as the team’s leader and not succumbing to the pressure that the media has been pinning Ohio State down on all week long. This, in my eyes, was the best coaching move Jim Tressel has made in a very long time.

–What in the world happened to Northwestern? Here was a team that looked like it was ready to explode offensively for several games to come and they only muster 16 against Ohio and only one TD–and no points in the second half? C.J. Bacher looked horrible, only throwing for a buck thirty three and 4 picks. You guys are much better than this!

–Well, I got it wrong for Iowa this week. I thought this would have been a definite statement game for the Hawkeyes, but Kirk Ferentz still stayed with Jake Christensen, even though he was sacked 4 times. He did lead the Hawks to a score in the third quarter which was their last TD of the day, but special teams (1 missed FG and 1 blocked punt) may have been the difference in an otherwise decent showing on the road against a quality team. It also didn’t help that Shonn Greene was shut down in the last quarter for 14 yards.

–Michigan State basically manhandled Notre Dame. I thought that it would be closer than this, but the fourth quarter was all Spartans, and Javon Ringer officially put his stake down as the Big Ten’s best rusher and potential Heisman Trophy candidate–and winner. If there was a team that carried the torch for the conference, it was Mark Dantonio’s crew…

–…whereas Indiana’s embarrassing loss to Ball State once again gives the Big Ten boobirds something to chirp about. The Hoosiers look lost in the second half and the high-octane Cardinals were basically making it look easy despite losing their best receiver to a scary injury. I knew that Indiana was not all that everyone was saying they were, but to lose like this–at home? Not on my radar.