More photos » by Jim Prisching - AP

27 days ago: Northwestern's Sidney Stewart (5) and Brendan Mitchell (80) celebrate with fans after Northwestern's 29-28 victory over Indiana in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, in Evanston,Ill. (AP Photo/ Jim Prisching)

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This week Lake The Posts, a very fine Northwestern blog, was kind enough to tell us about the Wildcats and give us his perspective on the game this Saturday. He promised not to use any smart school words us state university educated people can't understand.

You guys aren't still mad about that whole 2005 thing, are you?

Not nearly as much as 2001! You'll see how the '01 game is the most underrated part of the demise of the most promising season we had.  But yes, I was in the Cincinnati airport listening to the play-by-play of the Robinson-fumble game and nearly had police take me in to custody in the final minute of that game.  Thanks for opening up that painful scab. Can we revisit 1995 please?

No. I don't remember anything between 1994 and 2005.

Before the season, Northwestern fans were pretty upbeat coming off of a 9-4 season and a narrow loss to Missouri in the Alamo Bowl. How would you say this season to date has met your expectations?

Abysmally short.  The "realistic worst case scenario" heading in to the marquee home game of the year - Penn State - was 6-2. Most of us felt 7-1 was likely with the loss to Sparty being the lone loss.  The reason for the optimism was the return of almost our entire defense including what was touted as the best secondary in school history.  However, we've been absolutely decimated by injuries. By now you know we have likely 3 starters of our secondary out for Saturday and several back-ups out. No joke, Ricky Weina, an unrecruited walk-on played the entire second half at CB.  Hence Fitz's predictions "guaranteeing" Penn State will throw "at least 10 deep balls" on Saturday. Our pre-season All-American Corey Wootton, an absolute DE terror last season has been painfully slow to recover from his blown knee in the Alamo Bowl. It is tough to watch as he hasn't been able to come close to playing to his '08 level.

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It's Michigan week, so you know what that means. Five days of listening to talk about "streaks" and "WE PWN PENN STATE". As always, we reached out to a Michigan blogger to come sit on the BSD hotseat, and this week our Huckleberry is Dave from Maize-n-Brew. Enjoy, and go check out Maize-n-Brew where I'll answer some questions for Dave later on.

Things started out hot for Rich's boys with that win over Notre Dame. But now they're 1-2 and almost 0-3 in conference play. How has Michigan's season compared to your expectations so far?

Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but the team is exactly where I saw it being. 5-2 heading into the Penn State game. I think the biggest challenge for Michigan fans this season hasn't been getting on the bandwagon, it's been tempering expectations. All of a sudden we've got this score-o-matic offense, and we don't know what to do with ourselves. The offense has been so good we've been willing to say "we'll outscore [the other team]" in every game, totally forgetting that our defense is just as bad as we feared it'd be going into the season. Overall, I think the coaching has been excellent. GERG has fashioned a mediocre defense out of three players (Brandon Graham, Donovan Warren, and Mike Martin), duck tape, and styrofoam. Honestly, I thought the D would be much, much worse than it's performed. Offensively, we're light years ahead of last year, but still in that learning phase. There are still a lot of mistakes on offense and the passing game went backwards the last two games. The offense is better than I thought it'd be, but the team itself is right where I predicted.

Against Iowa, Rodriguez benched Tate Forcier in favor of Denard Robinson and it looked like Forcier wasn't too happy about it. Last week against Delaware State Forcier only played one series. Is there a quarterback controversy brewing?

Mike, when did you start writing for the Detroit Free Press? There is no controversy. Forcier is the starter and got benched at the end of the Iowa game because he was awful. I completely disagree with everyone who bitched and moaned that Forcier should've been back in the game for the last series against Iowa. No. He shouldn't have. Tate was banged up. He was clearly rattled. He had a mild concussion. He was making very, very bad decisions and should've left that game with at least three picks. He needed to be benched at that point. But here's the thing...

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Thanks to our friend, Tom, at the Daily Gopher for playing along this week. He had some questions for us which you can read over there as well. Enjoy.

BSD: Is there any chance Penn State is catching you guys looking ahead to Ohio State? Did you see us against Iowa? We really sucked. .I'm sure you've heard Mark May say we haven't played anyone yet.

DG: Absolutely this team is looking ahead to Ohio State, if this were a home game Penn State probably would have been the homecoming opponent since we tend to fare so well in this series. 5-2 over the last seven meetings don't-cha know! Really these two games for Minnesota have been lumped together since the schedule came out (to be honest until a couple days ago I couldn't remember if we went to Columbus or Happy Valley first). Both games are assumed losses so maybe we are simply looking ahead to Michigan State in two weeks, but I doubt it. I think there is a greater chance that we could pull out a win over Penn State than there is against Ohio State, but this two week stretch is brutal.

BSD: How would you say Minnesota's season has gone so far? Is it pretty much going according to plan? Has this season been a major disappointment? Or are you thrilled with being 4-2 right now?

DG: Pretty much it has gone according to plan. Some outside of Gopher Nation many thought the Syracuse and Air Force games were potential losses and we pulled those out. Cal was an assumed loss and it was. Northwestern on the road was a nice win and one that many may not have given the Gophers a couple months ago. The one disappointment was the Badger game, this one would have made Gopher Nation very happy but the Badgers dominated the second half. All in all I think many would have been pleased to be 4-2 at this point, but that Wisconsin game is one we'd like to have in the win column.

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This week Penn State goes on the road for the first time this season to meet the Illinois Fighting Illini. So we sat down with Joe from Hail To The Orange to get his perspective on Penn State and the game.

BSD: Penn State fans can sympathize with Illinois fans this week. We know what it's like to see your team not live up to your expectations. How are you coping with it?

HTTO: I suppose I have become numb to Illini football failure, seeing as how there hasn't ever really been a prolonged period of football prosperity. Its beginning to look like 2007 was just a cruel taste of something Illinois is not allowed to have. Otherwise I have taken to NCAA 10 on my Xbox, and playing the Ohio State and Missouri games over and over, trying to fool myself into believing that it didn't really happen like that, that the Illini came out and threw the ball all over the field and won by 30. Hey its my reality, I will do what I want with it.

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As further evidence that there is no niche too small for a blog, the prosecution submits Exhibit A: an Akron Zips Blogger. Mike Rasor from Rasor on the Zips was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Zips in preview of the game this weekend.

BSD: What strengths do the Zips have on offense? What do you think they need to do on offense to be successful?

The offensive line is a definite strength, and it has been for a couple years. They keep a great mix of underclassmen and seniors in order to retain stability. It really did wonder for the running game last season. The receivers are a great bunch, too. For the offense to be successful, quarterback Chris Jacquemain must be error-free in crunch time. That is what kept Akron from a winning season last year. Also, Akron has a lot of talent in the backfield, but one running back must emerge.

 
BSD: The last time these teams played the Akron defensive line did a good job of disrupting Penn State's offense. What can we look for from this defense?
 
The Zips installed a new defense, dispensing with the 3-3-5 that J.D. Brookhart has used since he arrived. It will look more like a 3-4. Akron's front seven is pretty good and quite deep. The starting secondary is talented, but there isn't much depth behind them. It's hard to say what the defense's theme will be.

BSD: Where do you look for Akron to finish in the MAC? What would be considered a successful season for the Zips?
 
I think it would be a successful season if attendance at the new InfoCision Stadium booms AND either Akron makes it to a bowl game OR the Zips win the division.


BSD: Thanks, Mike. Good luck on your season.

More photos » by Butch Dill - AP

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow could totally bang that chick in the third row if he wanted to. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)

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It's Friday, so we're back with another edition of Inside:Outside. This week we discuss all of the Penn State preseason hype. Is it justified? Then we look ahead to next week's Big Ten Media Days with the questions we would ask if we were there.

Inside:  Okay, let's be honest.  Penn State is replacing three offensive line starters, moving another guy from guard to center, and replacing three starting wide receivers.  The secondary is all new, and the depth at defensive end is practically non-existent.  Why are so many people automatically assuming that the Nittany Lions will be a top-ten team in 2009?

RUTS Says...There are really two possibilities here -- either it's assumed that the players we're plugging into these spots are comparable or better than last year's, or the Lions are somehow being rewarded for the combination of their confectionery schedule, the conference's awful reputation, and the dearth of acknowledged, legitimate Big Ten championship contenders. 

The former possibility is counterintuitive at best (if they were better players, where were they last year?).  I don't think anybody legitimately expects the wide receivers to be better than the trio of Norwood, Williams, and Butler.  That's just stupid.  A.Q. Shipley was the best center in the nation, Rich Ohrnberger was drafted in the fourth round by New England, and Gerald Cadogan was an excellent left tackle who is hoping to catch on with the Carolina Panthers.  Do you really think the offensive line will be better this season? 

Even the secondary, tenderized beyond recognition during and after the Rose Bowl, doesn't look to be a candidate for addition by subtraction.  A.J. Wallace has been an enigma throughout his Penn State career, and especially since his switch to defense.  He was decisively beaten out by Lydell Sargeant last year.  Now he's supposed to be our #1 cornerback?

So it's gotta be the schedule, right?  Anyone care to talk me down on this?  I keep reading predictions for 12-0, 11-1, or 10-2, and I'm just not seeing it from this group of players.  Not yet, at least.

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It's Thursday, so let's take a look around the Big Ten blogosphere to see what's going on.

Ohio State

Let's start right in with the red meat with Buckeye Battle Cry, who says Penn State is overrated.

And if you want a little hint about whose schedule to question….try Penn State. They’ve played 11 ranked teams (26 percent of their total games) in the same time frame, and they’re only 6-5 in those games. Now there’s your overrated team.

I'm glad to see some commenters point out that Syracuse was coming off a 10-3 season when we signed that contract in 2002. It's not Penn State's fault Greg Robinson ran that program into the ground. And while Oregon State's loss to Stanford certainly took some luster off of our blowout win over the Beavers, let's keep in mind that OSU won nine games last year and ten games the year before. Last week they throttled Hawaii, who played in a BCS bowl last year if I remember correctly. Stanford is going to be pretty respectable this year, so perhaps we should let the season play out before we slap the "cupcake" label on the Beavers just yet.

Iowa

Good God, Iowa. Way to represent the conference. It's bad enough you lost an out of conference game, but did you have to lose to a Big East team? And why did it have to be Pitt? Black Heart Gold Pants examines what went wrong.

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1. Oregon State finished with 404 passing yards last week. Does that worry you at all, considering PSU gave up some quality passing yardage to CCU?

Yes.

2. If there's one unit in particular that has to play well this week, which one is it? Which unit could disappoint?

The secondary for both parts. 

3. OK, elephant in the room. How big will the "5204" story get? If two of the players originally suspected of being there (*cough--thanks Collegian--cough-cough) weren't actually there at the time, how much of this has already been blown out of proportion? Does this effect Saturday's game?

A lot and yes.

Lightening Round

How many passes will Pat Devlin attempt?

I don't know.

How many times will Daryll Clark run the ball?

I don't know

What will this week's Game Day Pins say? You know, the ones Citizens Bank gives out.

Probably some clever play on the word Beaver.