Mike Baldwin, Oklahoman: It's six games into the Mike Gundy experiment at Oklahoma State. Version 1.0 is full of bugs (registration).
Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: The critically acclaimed Hlist. As Steven Wright said: You can't have everything. Where would you put it? (subscription, so story is located in comments).
Chris Dempsey, Denver Post: Team Video Game, aka Texas Tech, enters the real world with a trip to Austin to play Texas.
Dick Harmon, Deseret Morning News: Brigham Young Coach Bronco Mendenhall said he has requested the use of instant replay at Notre Dame.
Dave Dye, Detroit News: For the first time in history, we actually had an end-of-the-half interview with substance.
Lorenzo Perez, Raleigh News Observer: You've heard of taking it one game at a time. Chuck Amato is telling his North Carolina State players to take it one practice at a time.
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WHAT? THE HLIST
A look over the shoulder at the football weekend
Mike Hlas
Cedar Rapids Gazette
First downs
1. A Keeper: All right, enough has been said about USC’s last-second, 34-31 win over Notre Dame, capped by quarterback Matt Leinart’s 1-yard quarterback keeper.
Some have called it the greatest college football contest ever. Some have short memories.
But it was a darn good game. And USC’s Reggie Bush is a darn good player.
"I’ve said all along: He’s the reincarnation of Marshall Faulk," said Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis.
That can’t please the St. Louis Rams' Faulk, who is still very much alive.
2. This Week’s Epic: It may not be USC-Notre Dame, but this Saturday’s Texas Tech-Texas clash of 6-0 squads is the real Big 12 title game.
No one in the Big 12 North can hang with Texas, as shown in the Longhorns’ 42-17 rout of the North’s best team, Colorado. Texas quarterback Vince Young passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more.
"He just takes off and adds another dimension," Colorado linebacker Jordan Dizon said, "and it kills us."
Texas Tech passed for 669 yards in its 59-20 breeze over Kansas State.
"I wouldn’t say I was shocked," said K-State cornerback Bryan Baldwin. "But it was a different game than I’ve ever played in."
3. Highly Charged: San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown pass and threw a TD pass in the first half of his team’s 27-14 win at Oakland.
Raiders fans used to rain insults and trash upon Tomlinson when the Chargers made their yearly visit.
"Now it’s more 'L.T., don’t do us too bad.' It’s a mutual respect," Tomlinson said. "It’s not as harsh as it used to be.
"Plus I think some of them fans are fantasy owners, too."
4. Down, Not Out: Coe’s unbeaten run ended with its 17-14 loss at Wartburg, but the Kohawks still are better than Iowa State or Iowa.
See, Coe beat Central, which beat Augustana (Ill.), which beat Catholic, which beat La Salle, which beat St. Francis (Pa.), which beat Central Connecticut State, which beat Colgate, which beat Massachusetts, which beat Rhode Island, which beat William & Mary, which beat New Hampshire, which beat UC-Davis, which beat Stanford, which beat Navy, which beat Air Force, which beat San Diego State, which beat BYU, which beat New Mexico, which beat Missouri, which beat Iowa State Saturday.
And Iowa State beat Iowa.
Fumbles
1. The Big Kooky: The Big Ten has no great team, just lots of quirky ones.
Wisconsin allowed 411 rushing yards to Minnesota yet won, 38-34. Northwestern is 116th nationally in total defense, but 2-1 in the Big Ten.
Each of the 10 league teams that played Saturday rang up at least 21 points. Indiana, with the lowest output of the 10, still gave a terrific show on offense. Northwestern quarterback Brett Basanez has 824 passing yards and two conference Offensive Player of the Week awards in the last two weeks.
If Northwestern had a defense? Said Steven Wright: You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?
2. Capsized: The Minnesota Vikings had a little boat party on Lake Minnetonka Oct. 6. Maybe you heard about it.
Then they went to Chicago, where there’s a big lake. And the Vikings sprang a big leak, losing to the Bears, 28-3.
Wrote King Kaufman on Salon.com: "You’re an NFL player. You risk your health, your future, even your life every Sunday. On the field you’re in the equivalent of two or three dozen car wrecks every week. For the entertainment of the masses, you’re likely to spend your middle age and senior years in debilitating pain before dying younger than average.
"And you can’t have a sex party on a yacht? You can’t fly in a stripper or two from Florida for some moonlight-on-the-water lap dancing? You can’t intimidate and threaten a few pencil-necked bartenders, pee on a lawn or two, aggressively proposition the odd waitress who’s trapped at the job site because it’s a boat?
"The Vikings have to be thinking, ‘Why play football at all?’ Of course, they seem to have been thinking that all season."
3. Stick to Coaching: After losing in the last second of a game against the nation’s No. 1 team, Notre Dame was dropped from ninth to 12th in the USA Today coaches' poll.
"How could they?" wrote Newsday’s Chuck Culpepper. "Do they know one bloody thing about football? Did we give them coaching jobs as a society just to shield them from any potential involvement in life-and-death matters?"
No. But that is why major league baseball umpires are given their jobs.
4. Saints Not Meek: The Melcher-Dallas Saints beat Seymour Friday in Iowa 8-man prep football, 116-0.
It was 110-0 at halftime.
The Hlist is pleased that the Saints showed tender mercy once they got up by 110.
From the papers
"Looking at the Soldier Field scoreboards and seeing that (halftime) score, Bears 7-3, I had this disturbing thought:
" 'I must be drinking again. This must be an alcohol-induced haze, because the Vikings — after all those chances — can’t be trailing these hapless louts.'
"And then came the second half, and the Vikings turned into the hapless louts — a (Jay) Leno joke on land as well as sea" — Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Final word
"It was the quietest silence I ever heard." — Minnesota quarterback Tony Mortensen on the Gophers' locker room after they lost on a Wisconsin blocked punt for a touchdown with 30 seconds left.
Mike.Hlas@gazettecommunications.com
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