Hlist for Week 9: Good week to be a Duck or Gopher

OPENING KICKOFF

“I had trouble seeing. And it smelled.” - Oregon Coach Chip Kelly, who donned the Oregon mascot's duck head and appeared on ESPN's “GameDay” show Saturday morning in Eugene.

It probably smelled like roses that night when the Ducks ambushed USC, 47-20, to become the Pac-10's leading candidate to represent the league in the Rose Bowl.

FIRST DOWNS

1. Illini Regain Fight: Things have gone badly for Illinois since its Rose Bowl season of 2007, but it will always have Michigan.

For the second straight year, the Illini trounced the Wolverines. This year it was 38-13 in Champaign.

“In the north stands,” wrote Loren Tate of the Champaign News-Gazette, “the young men

with the ‘Fire Zook' grocery bags over their heads changed to ‘Hire Zook' in the fourth quarter.”

It was only Illinois' second home win over Michigan in 52 years, and the Illini's first win in their last 10 games against FBS opposition.

“We have talked about how you need to believe and have faith,” Illinois Coach Ron Zook said. “Faith keeps fighting, and we are the Fighting Illini.”

2. Flag Football: Minnesota set school records for penalties (17) and penalty yards (157) Saturday night. Yet, the Gophers defeated Michigan State, 42-34.

They had a good reason to keep battling. This win was dedicated to standout wide receiver Eric Decker, whose college career ended last week because of torn foot ligaments.

“I wanted to have a game where we gave Eric Decker the game ball,” Minnesota quarterback Adam Weber said. Weber threw five touchdown passes. He had no TD passes and five interceptions in his previous three games.

Minnesota is 5-4, and has home games left with Illinois and South Dakota. The Gophers could end up going to the Alamo Bowl. If that happens, the Hlist thinks the San Antonio game will be convinced it did the right thing ending its affiliation with the Big Ten after this season.

FUMBLES

1. Blue Funk: Michigan began the year with four wins. It beat Notre Dame. “Go Blue!” was heard again in Ann Arbor after last season's 3-9 disaster in Rich Rodriguez's first year as the Wolverines' coach.

Well, Michigan is now 5-4 and back in a funk. A one-sided loss to the likes of Illinois isn't what Wolverines football of the last half-century has been all about.

“We just got a lot of things to fix and get right,” Rodriguez said.

Associated Press college football writer Ralph D. Russo isn't impressed with the Rich-Rod regime.

“It seems almost weekly that television cameras catch a glimpse of (Michigan) coaches yelling at each other on the sideline,” Russo wrote. “That might not mean a thing, but it does make a bad situation look worse.”

2. USC Quacks Up: USC's quest for an eighth straight Pac-10 title probably got snuffed with its 47-20 loss at Oregon.

The Ducks trampled the Trojans with 613 yards, 391 of them rushing.

“That was a real mess,” said USC Coach Pete Carroll.

“We got beat up,” said safety Taylor Mays.

“We just got destroyed,” said linebacker Michael Morgan.

“They gained seven or eight yards a carry on bad plays for them,” Carroll said.

Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli tried to put it in perspective.

“No one can really hang with us in the league and across the nation,” he said.

POSTGAME

“The adjustment we made is their quarterback got hurt.” - Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, when asked what his team did to bounce back from a 13-10 halftime deficit to beat Northwestern, 34-13.

Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka pulled a hamstring in the second quarter and didn't return to the game.