Big Ten Reading Room: Illinois peppy, Penn State ill

Penn State won 11 football games in the 2008 season and 11 more in 2009.

This year? The Nittany Lions are 3-3 overall, 0-2 in the Big Ten, and are coming off a 33-13 home loss to a team formerly considered among the dregs of the conference, Illinois.

David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News had already warned Lionites about the mediocrity to come, but he raised his own disgust level from orange to red after the debacle against the Illini with this column. An excerpt:

How has it gotten to this juncture so quickly? It wasn't that quick. Penn State has finally reached the point – about six years after I thought it had already permanently arrived – where it can no longer compensate for the age of its coach. Its diligent assistants can no longer recruit necessary talent around the denigrating whispers of their competitors on the recruiting trail. And they apparently cannot subvert his reactionary strategic tendencies on the field.

It's sad to say it. But it all points in that direction.

Penn State's Nittany Lions not only aren't good enough, they aren't motivated, either; this was the type of week they could have proven otherwise.

Bob Flounders of the Patriot-News chimed in with this essay, which included:

A winning season is in question, given the remaining schedule – road dates at Minnesota and Ohio State, home games with Michigan, Northwestern and Michigan State and a neutral-site (FedEx Field) contest with offensive-minded Indiana.

A four-win season is not out of the question. ...

Better conference teams have beaten Penn State by larger margins. But this was not a very good Illinois team handing the Nittany Lions their lunch by three touchdowns at home. Look it up, it hadn't happened before.

“We stunk … I did a lousy job,'' Paterno said. ...

It was a defensive performance so heinous that it conjured up images of 2003, the year the Lions finished 3-9 and were run over at scrimmage by the likes of Boston College, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

We were pounding on them and they were getting bad angles and were sitting there and letting us hit them,'' said Illinois backup running back Jason Ford, who gained 47 yards on nine carries and tossed a 4-yard option pass touchdown to tight end Evan Wilson midway through the third quarter.

Loren Tate of the Champaign News-Gazette hasn't always been thrilled with the direction of Fighting Illini football in recent times, but Tate liked what he saw in State College. He wrote:

Wow! Adjust your thinking. Start saving for a bowl trip.

In what stacked up as a crossroads event Saturday, Ron Zook's 3-2 Illini took the correct fork at Penn State and romped home, 33-13. And before you question the word "romp," consider Illinois outgained Penn State 430-234, led in first downs 19-7 and possessed the ball for 38 of 60 minutes. ...

Given the freedom and the money to revamp the staff, Zook made bangup choices in prying Vic Koenning from Kansas State and Paul Petrino from Arkansas. Those two deserve much of the credit for rejuvenating both sides of the ball.

Michigan State made it three straight wins over Michigan Saturday, and

earned praise from the Detroit News' Bob Wojnowski. Wojo wrote:

In one pounding performance, Michigan State hammered Michigan, unplugged the electricity from Denard Robinson and signaled that something special is possible for this team. Yes, the Wolverines revealed flaws, but just as poignantly, the Spartans exposed them in a 34-17 victory. ...

This was power football and balanced football, and a graphic display of how the rivalry is shifting. Grit versus glitz? A bit simplistic, but that's how it appeared for long stretches, as Michigan State was more physical on both sides of the ball, and Michigan's young, weak defense buckled. ...

Frankly, it was an all-around beating. Maybe, as the Wolverines collect more athletes, especially for that shattered defense, their speed will make a difference in this series. Not now, and if Michigan's season is held together by a Shoelace, Michigan State is bound by a thick rope.

Pete Bigelow of AnnArbor.com says Michigan has played to expectations halfway through the season.

There's a lot of Michigan football fans brandishing their torches and pitchforks following Saturday's shellacking at the hands of Michigan State.

But remove the hysteria and, halfway through the college football season, the Michigan football team is playing pretty much the way everyone anticipated in summer camp.

The Wolverines have an opportunistic offense led by the season's big surprise, Denard Robinson. They've got the worst defense in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin rolled over Minnesota Saturday, 41-23, and that was nice for the Badgers. But they lost at Michigan State the week before. So they need to do something big at home against Ohio State Saturday and the following week at Iowa, or they won't be a factor in the league title race.

The now-famous decision of Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema to go for a fourth-quarter two-point conversion with a 25-point lead over Minnesota Saturday may have caused hard feelings, but in this column, Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal doesn't see Minnesota-Wisconsin as much of a rivalry.

Whether Bielema was wrong or right, this much we know: After a visit from Minnesota, everything is usually right for UW and this one was no exception.

Once again Minnesota served as an over-the-border pain-reliever for UW, which played poorly the week before in a loss at Michigan State. The Golden Gophers? They're more like the golden goose as far as UW is concerned.

The Badgers have won 14 of the last 16 games in the series, a statistic that makes it patently obvious why UW athletic director Barry Alvarez fought so hard during the recent Big Ten realignment discussions to keep Minnesota on the schedule every year.

While MSU-Michigan and Minnesota-Wisconsin had their spats, Ohio State moved to No. 1 in the national rankings after a 38-10 drubbing of Indiana.

Terrelle Pryor, passing quarterback? So it was, as is described in Ken Gordon's story for the Columbus Dispatch.

Pryor said he made a conscious decision not to scramble. He was sacked three times but otherwise had his way, throwing touchdowns of 22 yards to Dane Sanzenbacher, 60 yards to Brandon Saine and 17 yards to DeVier Posey - all in the first half.

OSU led 31-0 at halftime, when Pryor already had a career-high 280 yards, surpassing his 266-yard performance in the Rose Bowl. ...

"You could tell I didn't want to run the ball," he said. "There were a bunch of times I stayed in there and stared down the field and then stepped up and threw some good balls."

Pryor did not attempt a single run, choosing instead to stand in the pocket and methodically pick apart Indiana. He completed 80 percent of his passes (24 of 30) for a career-high 334 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions.

Michigan State came thundering and scowling into the Big House Saturday and made the strongest statement in this rivalry in a while. The Spartans are embracing it all right now, the adversity, the challenge, the chance to punish those who once tormented them.