Notes From The Midwest

PORTER, IND. — Anybody doubting the grim Teutonic determination that drives one Charlie Weis is referred to the late third quarter of Saturday night's stunning 42-21 rout of then No. 23 Pitt by Notre Dame.

The Look. Followed by the Lecture.

The Irish seemingly had everything totally under control, 35-13, when a couple of offensive linemen indulged in a little bit of after-the-whistle woofing and macho skirmishing with their friends and neighbors across the line of scrimmage.

Weis spun one unsuspecting miscreant around -- his number was obscured by two other Domer sideliners -- and that wasn't the Gettysburg Address he was unleashing.

Uh-Oh???? Penn State's offensive line, the team's achilles for the past several years, didn't exactly push 20-point underdog South Florida all over in Saturday's 23-13 victory before 99,235, nearly 9,000 short of Beaver Stadium capacity.

"(The offense was) not very good today," Paterno told reporters. "But I think we'll get better. We had a lot of young kids out there. We had a couple of things that they did defensively (where) we had a couple of (bad) reads."

The Lions did roll up 264 rushing yards and Tony Hunt rumbled for 140 and one touchdown. But there were some troubling moments where the offensive line reverted to 2003-4 form.

"A couple of passes we thought we could develop downfield we didn't get a chance to get to because (quarterback) Michael Robinson had to run for his life a couple of times."

Hmmmm... The early-season schedule isn't particularly threatening, with home games against the Big East's Cincinnati and Central Michigan of the Mid-American Conference, but then come the first two Big Ten games -- at Northwestern and at home with Minnesota, followed by a visit by No. 4 Ohio State and a trip to No. 3 Michigan.

Offensive line coach Dick Anderson will be spending some major long nights between now and then.

Oskey WOW! Down 27-7 and left for dead by 20 percent of the Illinois Memorial Stadium crowd of 50,112 late in the third quarter, the Fighting Illini finally bought into first-year coach Ron Zook's Tug McGraw-esque "Keep believing!" mantra.

Who knew? Embarrassed by some serious spaghetti-o tackling on Rutgers' real-deal tailback Brian Leonard en route to his 83-yard touchdown down the sideline that gave the Scarlet Knights a 27-7 lead with 9:49 left in the third quarter, the Illini staged one of the great comebacks in school history for a 33-30 overtime victory over the stunned Scarlet Knights.

A bit of sweet irony for the Illini: Elizabeth, N.J. native E.B. Halsey scored the tying touchdown with 1:13 left in regulation.

"It really wasn't pretty, but my biggest concern was what we were going to do under adversity," Zook told the Chicago Tribune's Neil Milbert. "If you look at the first half, we were awful (quarterback Tim Brasic was sacked three times -- two in succession on the first U.I. possession, and his fumble set up an early Rutgers T.D.). ... We kept playing, we kept believing. Believing is half the battle."

The other half may have been playing Rutgers, which hasn't exactly been a major player in college football in the intervening 135 years since the first intercollegiate game was played on its New Brunswick, N.J. campus.

In Michigan's 33-17 victory over feisty Northern Illinois, the Wolverines defense displeased coach Lloyd Carr, yielding 411 yards -- including an unwieldy 211 on the ground. Looking ahead to Notre Dame next Saturday, were we, kids?

"We're not going to sit back and watch that happen," Carr told the large media contingent.

Was that a small hint of a smile coming from Charlie Weis' face, given his team's 250-yard ground output against Pitt?