Hayes x6? Hayes may ask for a sixth year:

Given his unfortunate circumstances, Hayes, a fifth-year senior, said he would consider asking the NCAA for a sixth-year of eligibility once the regular season ends on Nov. 21 at Michigan State.

"It's definitely something that I will talk to with my parents and I will talk to Coach Paterno about after the season," Hayes said Wednesday. "But with how we're feeling right now, we just really wanna focus on these next couple of games and hopefully [during] the time period we get before the bowl game, we'll be able to sit down and speak to Coach about that."

No injury has bothered me more than the second one Hayes suffered.  If anyone deserves a break, it's this guy.

Then who will throw the Stanziballs?  The gunslinging leader of Iowa is out until bowl season, and you know what that means: your Vegas line has moved from 13 all the way up to 17.  This is the same line we saw when Minnesota visited The Shoe.  Take what you want from that news.

The Penn State line might be stranger, though.  It opened at 21, no one had regular season ending surgery, and it jumped all the way up to Penn State as a 26-point favorite.  Feel free to guess why in the comments; I have no idea.

About Wisconsin.  I'll admit it, they snuck up on me too.  Rittenberg power ranks:

T-3. Wisconsin (7-2, 4-2): Is there a more under-the-radar 7-2 team than Wisconsin? The Badgers quietly keep winning, though Saturday's game against Indiana got pretty interesting down the stretch. Freshman running back Montee Ball really picked up teammate John Clay (concussion), and the Badgers' ground attack surged yet again. Wisconsin remains in good shape for a 10-2 season.

T-3. Penn State (8-2, 4-2): Because of a soft schedule, Penn State had only two chances for signature wins this season and it failed on both. Despite getting both Iowa and Penn State at Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions couldn't generate much offense and endured surprising breakdowns on special teams. Penn State could have seen its chances for a BCS at-large berth vanish after Saturday's poor performance.

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 At least it's not a pizza bowl.  The Big Ten is officially in Texas to stay.  It's the Dallas Football Classic in the recently rejected Cotton Bowl (Stadium):

Following is the four-year schedule (selection placement shown for the Big Ten and Big 12 excludes BCS selections):

January 1, 2011 - Big 12 (#7) vs. Big Ten (#6)
January 1, 2012 - Conference USA vs. Big Ten (#6)
January 1, 2013 - Big 12 (#7) vs. Big Ten (#6)
January 1, 2014 - Conference USA vs. Big Ten (#6)

(Should an "at-large" selection be required, Conference USA will provide a back-up team in years 2011 and 2013, and the Big 12 will provide a back-up team in years 2012 and 2014.)

Why aren't bowls doing more of this? Alternating with CUSA isn't much of a draw, but it would be a lot more fun to see the Capital One Bowl rotate the #2's around, and we might finally get to see a regularly scheduled decent matchup in a bowl game with someone other than the SEC or Southern Cal.

The (fake) streak is on the line.  11W wrote an entire post about Penn State without making a joke about soiled pants.  Congrats guys (never mind, I missed the photo caption) (better luck next year):

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More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

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Exercise in apathy. For those of you worried about a fierce Northwestern crowd:

[T]his 4:30 pm et start time, which was cemented at the beginning of the season has been the home treat of the schedule. This summer, fans dreamed of NU being 7-0 or a "realistic worse case scenario" of entering 6-2. The current 5-3 was inconceivable. Regardless, you were excited because it promised our best home atmosphere of an otherwise pathetic home atmosphere season. There is one problem. It is Halloween night.

That's LTP and he goes on to explain that, in the twisted world of NW athletic support, an 11 a.m. local time start is preferred.  It's way sadder over there than I realized.

Also of concern for those in purple: Northwestern's secondary isn't exactly healthy.

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The rhetoric is canned and on sale at 7/11.  It's old news, and not even really news, that Royster said some coachspeak no one should have paid attention to, and Brandon Graham got all OB in his response.

None of this is of any concern except for this line, if only because I'm not buying it:

"I just don’t think they really know. How much preparation and how much we’ve been waiting for this game since last year."

It wasn't like last year was some kind of screw job that cost Michigan...anything, really.  They were outgained by almost 200 yards and lost by 29 points.  Where is the revenge factor angle here?

And why this game?  Our rivallessness means big name teams end up being big games, but as far as wins that get RichRod career points, the 2009 Penn State game is, at best, a distant 4th on the list.  Notre Dame, Michigan State and especially Ohio State all rank way higher in potential benefit with a win and potential detriment in the case of a loss.  Using strategy capital, which is limited, on Penn State seems like a bad idea with Ohio State still on the slate.  Assuming they have any left after ND and MSU.

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Yes I love these things.

Fun with whatifs.  I hate to even do this, but I got to thinking after this lead in from TDG:

Penn State is halfway through the season sits at 5-1 having beaten nobody significant.

Certainly true, especially with the epic FAIL of Illinois, but like, since BHGP is playing the whatif game (as in: what if Stanzi wasn't Stanzi and didn't throw so many Stanziballs):

In those three games [where Stanzi was being Stanzi], each of whom was an unranked opponent now and at kickoff, the average margin of victory has been five points. Obviously, you can't take points off the board in the middle of the game and expect the rest of it to play out exactly the same, but if Iowa wins all three of those games by an average of 12 points instead, we've got a much better comfort level and maaaaybe a better ranking thus far.

Let's try this on: what if Penn State won that wretched game?  Would we still be considered a team with a good record and no quality wins?  Depends on whether you would say that about Ohio State, because their best win is against Wisconsin.  And guess what:

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It's Recruiting News, But Maybe More.  Mike Thornton out of Georgia is rated the 10th best defensive tackle in the country. The local press caught up with him:

Generally the battle for Stephenson defensive tackle Mike Thornton is thought be between Georgia and Auburn. But I’ve long said not to discount Penn State in the battle for the state’s top uncommitted senior defensive lineman. Sure enough, Thornton told me this week that Penn State is "pretty much" his favorite. The 6-foot-2, 280-pounder plans to make an official visit with the Nittany Lions the weekend of Nov. 7 when they play host to Ohio State.

Which alright I'll believe it when it's siren'd, but this is interesting:

Thornton said the same thing to PalmettoSports.com, which covers South Carolina recruiting, earlier this week. "They’ve got a good coaching staff that is going to be there for a while and they’re a good team," Thornton said. "They’re probably my favorite right now."

Now that Paterno is the undisputed king of the ring again, is he really going to be there another 5 years?  Someone apparently thinks so.

The Grateful Dead Would Be Proud.  For all the negative press Penn State got out of L.A. last winter, it's interesting that they're helping us spread the good word (with the help of a Penn State engineering student, of course):

Engineers in Penn State's graduate program in acoustics are measuring the sound generated by the crowd at the Nittany Lions' home field, Beaver Stadium. At points during the game, the sound levels reached 110 decibels.

Andrew Barnard, a senior research assistant at the Applied Research Laboratory, told the Penn State Daily Collegian, "You know if you're at a rock concert? If you're standing right in front of the speakers -- that's how loud 110 decibels is."

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Program-S.  Plural, we're not singling anyone out here.

Or are they just confused? Is was a morbid picture of the linebacking corp after Joe's presser, what with comments like this one:

While Bowman is more likely to play, Lee is doubtful.

"I really don't know whether Sean is gonna make it on Saturday," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "He's day by day. I really don't know.

"Navorro was out there and practiced for about a third of the practice (Monday). I'm anxious to see how he feels today. You don't want to stick him in there when he's really not 100 percent."

But then what's with this Josh Hull quote?

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by Carolyn Kaster - AP

2 months ago: Penn State running back Evan Royster scores a touchdown against Akron during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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After an impressive 31-7 victory over the Akron Zips, Nittany Lion fans still found plenty of areas that need work. Namely, the running game. Penn State only managed 136 yards against a defense that was one of the worst in the nation against the run a year ago. But Evan Royster is convinced things will turn around.

Royster did not meet with the media after Penn State's 31-7 win four days ago, fueling speculation he was upset with his lack of production or workload. He denied that yesterday.

"I always want to get my hands on the ball," said Royster, who ran for 1,236 yards and 12 touchdowns last year behind a veteran offensive line. "I wasn't frustrated because we were winning the game. Hopefully, we'll play against some teams that are going to try and shut down our passing game, so I'm sure it's a give-and-take thing.

"I definitely don't look at it as disappointing. It was kind of in our game plan to throw the ball. We knew Akron was going to give us some problems with the running game.

"But, if you look at the film, you see a lot of plays where just one more block and we're out of the gates and we're running downfield for 60 yards. It's all going to come together with time."

FOS does a tremendous series where they break down key plays frame by frame. Normally this is a premium article only for their members, but today they are showing you one for free. In it they break down three plays from one formation to show you the different weapons Penn State has to work with. This is what the Spread HD is all about. Definitely check this out.

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