Scattershooting around the college football scene while pondering the question of just how good is the dubious Big Ten this year?
THUMBS UP: Texas Tech's Taylor Potts, who threw for 456 yards and 7 TDs against Rice — cha-ching. … Kudos to the MWC, with three teams ranked in the Top 25, and BYU, whose No 7 and 9 rankings in the AP and USA Today polls are the earliest top 10 ranking for a MWC team in history. Only the Big 12 and SEC have more ranked teams.
THUMBS DOWN: BYU's kickoff game, which can't get the ball into or through the end zone and, at times, can't even get kickoffs to stay inbounds; and Utah's goal-line offense, which petered out at the one against WAC non-powerhouses USU and San Jose State. The word ugly doesn't paint it.
THEY SAID IT … Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi in his "The Chopping Block" blog Q&A: "As for BYU, I think you should be worried. The Cougars quarterback, Max Hall, is good. Very good. And the FSU defense looked bad — very bad — against the pass against Miami. Unless Mickey Andrews can work some miracles here in the next week or so, I think Florida State is going to have to outscore BYU. Which is possible, by the way. But yes — there's plenty to worry about."
STATISTIALLY SPEAKING: On the road, TCU limited Virginia to 177 yards total offense, 82 of which came in the final five minutes, and eight players were credited with at least half a sack. This is typical Gary Patterson destruction of offenses.
AFTER FURTHER REVIEW: After seeing the new trend of mixed officiating crews work nicely around the MWC, Big 12 and WAC, especially in the BYU-Oklahoma game, this Saturday's Florida State at BYU game will revert to a complete ACC officiating crew. Now taking guesses on holding penalties called.
MY MWC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: If not Cougar Max Hall, high fives to TCU sackmaster Jerry Hughes, who had a career high 11 tackles for the Frogs at Virginia.
DUMB AND DUMBER: It's stupid that DirecTV and the Versus network squabble has lasted this long. Word I get is the disagreement is not so much over figures but personalities and egos and all could be resolved in seconds if somebody humbly backs down.
UNSUNG HERO: In these parts, it's gotta be BYU sophomore running back Bryan Kariya for his work against Oklahoma and Tulane in relief of Harvey Unga. Kariya has breathed new life into BYU's draw trap and short passing game.
YEAH, BUT … If DirecTV and Versus don't kiss and make up, the MWC presidents ought to seek breach of contract and monetary damages. The BYU-FSU game might be it's biggest billboard of the season. Come on, clowns, take off the makeup and funny hats.
TREND SETTERS: The MWC has 88 players on NFL rosters in the opening week.
Leading the way is San Diego State with 16, followed by BYU with 15 and Utah with 14.
OVERRATED: Southern Cal is good, very good, but a flaky Ohio State should have lost or suffered overtime with Navy in the opener. The Trojans shouldn't have needed a last-minute scoring drive to beat the Buckeyes.
UNDERRATED: SDSU's offense has not allowed a sack in two games and in each of the last five outings overall. I'd also throw a nod to Weber State and Ron McBride for nearly upsetting Colorado State in Fort Collins.
BOTTOM LINE: Don't know if many will be making fun of BYU's defense in 2009. Sam Bradford isn't laughing, and Brian Logan for Brandon Howard is felony theft. Ute Terrance Cain's job to just steer the rudder is working.
MY TOP FIVE: 1. Florida, 2. Texas, 3. Penn State, 4. Alabama, 5. LSU.
e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com