Pickin' On the Big Ten: Jim Tressel Is Not On the Hot Seat

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, or lack thereof.

There are weeks when many of us would trade lives with Jim Tressel. This is not one of those weeks.

Not only did his Buckeyes fail to finish USC when they had the Trojans on the ropes, Tressel also saw "Tresselball" ripped apart by Chris Brown of Smart Football, faced a fan base who want him fired three days ago, had to lash back at some of those same fans, discovered that one of USC's touchdowns may not have happened, and now he has to face a Toledo team that just mashed Colorado into goo.

Yes, there are a lot of reasons why you wouldn't want to be Jim Tressel this week, but "because he's on the hot seat" isn't one of them.

Here is what you have to do to stay off the hot seat at OSU: beat Michigan, and win the Big Ten a lot. Yes, these big-game losses sting, but all is forgotten in the October haze of thrashing all the Big Ten's darkhorse contenders.

Conversely, what do you have to do to get fired in Columbus? You must either (A) lose three or more games eight seasons in a row like Earle Bruce did, (B) lose to Michigan 10 times in 13 tries like John Cooper did, or (C) punch out a Clemson linebacker like Woody Hayes did.

It's hard to imagine Jim Tressel punching anybody, so let's forget about that. At Tressel's current rate of losing to Michigan once every eight years, he'll need until 2079 just to lose to them ten times. He'll have to go the Earle Bruce route before he gets canned. Even then it'll take until 2016 at the earliest.

Maybe Ohio State fans are cursing themselves, and their team, with low expectations. Maybe they're just realistic about what they can expect. Who knows? Bucknuts will be happy to tell you that they're the most dominant team in the Big Ten, even if the rest of the college football world thinks that's like saying you're the best-looking person at the truck stop. Pride is pride, and as long as there's something to brag about, everything is fine in Columbus.

Now, on to the games.

INDIANA @ AKRON

The Hoosiers finally got their ground game going against Western Michigan last week, with Demetrius McCray running for 134 yards and a touchdown. Now they're off to Akron as the first big-name opponent in the Zips' new InfoCision Stadium. Akron was pretty much useless against Penn State in the season opener but responded by blowing up Morgan State last weekend. Indiana is a little bit closer to Morgan State's level than it is to Penn State's level, but the Hoosiers should still be good enough to pull off the road win. Indiana 23, Akron 17.

ARIZONA @ IOWA

If you're only going to watch one Big Ten game this weekend, this should be it. On the face of things it looks like a total yawner: two defense-oriented teams, one with an offensive identity (Arizona), one without (Iowa). Sounds like a formula for a 7-6 punting festival, and that's how this could turn out.

There's tremendous backstory involving Arizona coach Mike Stoops, a former Hawkeye defensive back who had to coach for his job last season and succeeded. He and his little brother Mark, who is Arizona's defensive coordinator, now come back to Iowa City to try to get a signature road win for their ascending program.

Dee Stoops, mother of the Stoops brothers, is making the trip to Iowa City. Back in the 1980s, the Stoops family used to park their car at Kirk Ferentz's house on game days. I'm guessing that probably won't happen now; from what I gather, it's quite a walk from Kirk's new digs to Kinnick Stadium.

The Hawkeyes don't lose many games at Kinnick these days. Arizona is a solid team that just needs a little more offense, but you can ask Central Michigan about the Arizona defense. The Chippewas didn't get a touchdown on their trip to Tucson; East Lansing proved a bit friendlier.

Arizona has struggled to establish a passing game. Iowa is not the team you want to try to establish a passing game against. What Amari Spievey doesn't shut down, Tyler Sash and Brett Greenwood will intercept. Zona should stop Iowa's fragile rushing attack, but Ricky Stanzi is far more likely to get a hot hand than Arizona's Matt Scott. Welcome back, Mike; sorry things couldn't be more accomodating. Iowa 17, Arizona 10.

EASTERN MICHIGAN @ MICHIGAN

The Wolverines' stay in the top 25 could be short-lived if they can't beat EMU more convincingly than Northwestern did last week. NU needed a last-second field goal to beat Ron English's crew, who seem intent on letting everybody know they're tired of getting kicked around.

The Eagles haven't faced anything like what they're going to see from Rich Rodriguez's offense. Army is an option team, and they beat the Eagles. Northwestern is still rebuilding its offense, and they beat the Eagles. Michigan is getting pretty good at the spread option and, well, they're going to beat the Eagles too. Michigan 45, Eastern Michigan 7.

MICHIGAN STATE @ NOTRE DAME

I thought Mark Dantonio had made the Spartan's trademark Nonconference Brain Fart Game a thing of the past, but I guess not. Cultural change is a gradual process, after all.

The good news for Michigan State is that the old Bobby Williams/John L. Smith Spartans almost always followed up their annual Nonconference Brain Fart Game with a game where they played at near-apocalyptic levels of intensity. They will need that in South Bend against a Notre Dame crew eager to prove that they might belong in the top 25 after all.

This will be the best defense Michigan State has faced this season, though truthfully, Notre Dame's offense is probably on a par with Central Michigan's. That's not to say the ND offense is weak; CMU just has a pretty good offense. I've always had confidence in Mark Dantonio's ability to coach up a defense, but I'm a little less sure after MSU couldn't get big stops when they really needed them.

Nobody really wants to admit that Jimmy Clausen is getting better week by week, but he is. His experience will be the difference in this game. Notre Dame 28, Michigan State 24.

CALIFORNIA @ MINNESOTA

One week after it opened, TCF Bank Stadium gets its first big game. California is coming to town, bringing its scary good running back Jahvid Best. This is not what a team that beat Syracuse by a field goal really wants to see. Factor in that Cal has dropped half a hundred on both of its first two opponents (Maryland and Eastern Washington) and it's pretty hard to imagine Minnesota even coming close in this game.

But ... do you believe in TCF magic? Do you think the football gods will smile on the Gophers for going back outside, where football is meant to be played? Do you think Nate Triplett can play out of his mind once again and frustrate the usually reliable Cal offense? Do you think that a team which held Air Force under to 261 yards of rushing can do the same to Jahvid Best? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, the need to defend their new stadium will motivate the Gophers to shock the world and beat a top ten team?

Yeah, I don't think so either. I do think they'll hold the Bears under 50, though. California 38, Minnesota 13.

NORTHWESTERN @ SYRACUSE

So far Syracuse has played more Big Ten games than any Big Ten team has. This will be their third, and it's actually hard to predict what's going to happen here. It wouldn't have been so hard if Northwestern had been able to take care of business against Eastern Michigan last week. The Wildcats looked like anything but a great team last week, however.

Not only that but -- get this -- Syracuse actually scored a touchdown on Penn State last week. Sure, it was late and against the scrubs, but the fact that it happened at all represents considerable progress from last season.

It's still not enough, though. Northwestern should ride its running game straight into, and out of, the Carrier Dome. Northwestern 34, Syracuse 10.

OHIO STATE "@" TOLEDO (game played at Cleveland)

You've already had enough talk about Tresselball this week, and so have I. So let's talk about Toledo and their chances of running with the Buckeyes. Through two games, the Rockets are averaging more than 550 yards of offense and 34.5 points per game. Toledo quarterback Aaron Opelt has already thrown for almost 750 yards with a TD/INT ratio of 7/2.

This performance has come against Purdue, who has some serious defensive issues, and Colorado, whose defense is a figment of Dan Hawkins' imagination. More to the point, Toledo has given up almost 500 yards a game as well. Purdue's offense is clicking and Colorado's isn't quite as terrible as you might think, while Ohio State has looked like a team with some work to do.

Here's a good chance for them to do that work. This won't be a big enough blowout to placate all the Ohio State fans, but it should put an end to Aaron Opelt's Heisman campaign. Ohio State 35, Toledo 17.

TEMPLE @ PENN STATE

If you're wondering when this ridiculously soft nonconference schedule is going to rear up and bite the Nittany Lions, next week would be a good place to start. Give Joe Paterno credit, though; he's holding down the scores so his offense doesn't get overconfident, while making his defense work as hard as it will have to down the stretch. That's what have to you do when your AD signs a contract with Dolly Madison to provide your nonconference opponents. Penn State 34, Temple 0.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS @ PURDUE

The Boilermakers were two points and several dozen mental errors away from beating Oregon on the road last week. The Huskies played Wisconsin tough and blew out Western Illinois last Saturday. To win here they'll have to find an answer to the question "How do we slow down Ralph Bolden?"

I'm not sure anybody has an answer to that question yet. Purdue 45, Northern Illinois 21.

WOFFORD @ WISCONSIN

Wisconsin is 2-0, but it's a soft 2-0. The Badgers have been unimpressive in both of their victories, letting Northern Illinois back into the game in the fourth quarter and needing double overtime to beat Fresno State.

If there's anything hopeful for the Badgers, it's that the passing game has been there when they needed it, unlike the last couple seasons, and that John Clay responded to his demotion the way you would hope he would have: by playing like a man with something to prove. Clay was brilliant last week against Fresno State. He busted a 72-yard touchdown run en route to 143 yards of total rushing. The defense, however ... yikes. It's going to be a long season if the Badgers don't find a way to stiffen up their D.

Right now Bret Bielema needs a solid, convincing win to get the fans believing that this year will be better than last year was. A visit from Wofford would seem to be just what they need, but Badger fans still haven't forgotten last season's near-loss to Cal Poly. If the Wofford game is like that, they'll be calling for Bielema's head all the way from Oshmilwaunamoc to Lake Winneboognish.

Wofford has absolutely no passing game, so the Badgers should prevail. Wisconsin 34, Wofford 3.

Know Your Nonconference Tomato Can: Wofford

Of all the colleges playing Division I football, one of them has to be the smallest, and here it is. Wofford College enrolls just 1,450 students, or about as many as the typical freshman biology lecture at a Big Ten school.

Located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Wofford College was founded in 1854 with money from the estate of Rev. Benjamin Wofford, a Methodist minister. The entire 170 acre campus is on the National Register of Historic Places. Wofford is highly ranked by US News and World Report and The Princeton Review. It shows in a student body with high grades and SAT scores. 58% of Wofford students graduated in the top 10% of their high school classes.

For such a small school, Wofford has made a couple notable contributions to the world of sports. Longtime Air Force Academy football coach Fisher DeBerry (pictured) is an alumnus, as is Jerry Richardson, owner of the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Not bad for a school that was in the NAIA as recently as 1988.

Next week's games:

• Indiana @ Michigan: Sure hope the Hoosiers enjoyed being undefeated
• Minnesota @ Northwestern: Return of three yards and a cloud of dust
• Illinois @ Ohio State: Has Zook got one more upset in him?
• Iowa @ Penn State: Somebody's dreams get crushed in this one
• Notre Dame @ Purdue: Boilers' first experience against a good defense
• Michigan State @ Wisconsin: Only one of these teams is for real