NCAA Football Bowling Green

Blanket Coverage is a weekly rewind of all the action of Week 6, from the big opinions, to the small news, and, of course, coverage of all players named Ju-Ju.

In the second half of Florida's 13-3 win at LSU Saturday night, CBS color analyst Gary Danielson opined that a one-loss SEC team would play in the BCS Championship Game. Danielson's forecast seems fair enough, particularly considering the teams playing in front of him in Death Valley.

The Gators lost one game in both 2006 and 2008 and won the national championship. The Tigers lost two games in 2007 and beat Ohio State in the BCS title game. What Danielson failed to consider, though, was whether a one-loss SEC team with the second-best record in the conference might advance to Pasadena come January.

Freddie Barnes redeemed himself in a big way Saturday.

Barnes, the national leader in pass receptions, set school records with 22 receptions for 278 receiving yards in Bowling Green State University's dramatic, come-from-behind 36-35 win over Kent State at Dix Stadium. Barnes' reception total was one shy of the NCAA record, held by three different players, and it helped him erase a key fourth-quarter bobble and drop in a painful home defeat last week to Ohio University.

"It was very hard, everybody was sending me emails and my mom was texting me everyday and asking me what she could do and what she could say to help me out," Barnes said following the dramatic win at Kent State.

Last Saturday, Northern Illinois went into West Lafayette, Ind., and beat Purdue convincingly. (Don't let the 28-21 final score fool you: NIU dominated that game from the second quarter on.) It was the Huskies' first victory over a Big Ten squad in 21 years and an important milestone for a program which was once among college football's very worst. Second-year head coach Jerry Kill has now taken his team to a bowl and knocked off one of the big boys. On the road, no less.

You'd hardly know it, however. Big wins by underdogs usually lead to an avalanche of media coverage, but NIU's historic victory sank without a trace. Why?

Because it's not news anymore when a MAC team beats a Big Ten squad.

On This Week In Schadenfreude we explore the sputtering rage, gibbering condemnation, and resigned ennui of the college football fan who has recently undergone humiliating defeat. Because even in your darkest hour, someone else is suffering too, and probably worse than you. Unless you are a Michigan fan who has just finished watching the Appalachian State game.

TWIS usually focuses on the violent emotions of the big-money teams in college football, since there are so many of them and to be really truly bats about a football team it helps if you've paid thousands of dollars and been repaid only in pain. But sometimes the agony of the little man cannot be denied, especially when you lose to Eastern Michigan.

Bowling Green did that last weekend, and the Futon Report says "That's the Worst Thing Ever" and responds thusly:


BGSU, you are the Tears of Unfathomable Sadness award recipient.

The rest of the week in spleen after the jump.

This was to be the year that Pitt and head coach Dave Wannstedt got over the hump. Many, including me, had them in or near the top 25 and contending for the Big East title. It was a pretty picture that was easy to believe in after the upset of West Virginia last December. But the 2008 campaign got off to a bad start as the Panthers dropped their home opener to Bowling Green 27-17.

Pitt dominated the stat sheets, outgaining Bowling Green 393-254 in total yards. But the Panthers also led in turnovers 4-1. Turnovers are correctable in most cases, but the pressure that Pitt quarterback Bill Stull was under all day is something that might not be avoidable. He was sacked four times in the game.

LeSean McCoy had a hard time getting on track today as well. He only averaged 3.1 yards per run on 23 carries and one touchdown. The Pitt defense played well enough, but the turnovers by the offense gave Bowling Green a short field to work with too many times. The offensive line needs to get better quick, because this was supposed to be the easy game on the schedule for the Panthers.