In Happier (than last week) Valley, it was at least a decent margin of Penn State victory over an outmanned team — despite six turnovers.

Throughout the Big Ten, there were early season pecking order hints emerging.

We start by flying across the Appalachians to Tobacco Road, where one of the biggest crowds to ever watch a regular-season football game in the state of North Carolina witnessed Ohio State's 22-14 victory over feisty, but outmuscled North Carolina State.

The Buckeyes (3-0, No. 6 in the coaches poll, 7th in The Associated Press) ran into a vicious Wolfpack defense that gave way grudgingly. Despite five N.C. State turnovers, the Bucks could only manage a school-record-tying five Mike Nugent field goals and a three-yard touchdown smash by Lydell Ross just before halftime.

"We did the best we could," said quarterback Justin Zwick, who completed 10 of 21 passes for just 73 yards, to Cleveland Plain Dealer Buckeye beat man Bruce Hooley. "We got Nugent into field goal position, the defense played great and we came out with the win, so we're pleased."

That about sums it up. The Bucks led 13-0 at halftime and it was Donte Whitner's 24-yard interception return to the N.C. State 3 that set up Ross's TD, a great individual effort where he moved a pile of Wolfpackers that greeted him at the line of scrimmage into the end zone.

"The offense's No. 1 task is to not turn it over and, if we get close enough, get us points," coach Jim Tressel told Hooley. "That might be our nature. I don't know if that's the first time we've done that."

It isn't. Clearly. Ever since the Maurice Clarett escapade, the Bucks' offense has been running on imaginary fumes and the grit of QB Craig Krenzel last year and Zwick so far this season. The field goal drives numbered 10, 34, 28, 1 and minus-1 yards.

But somehow, the Bucks are 3-0. Even with the loss of Will Allen, Darrion Scott and Tim Anderson, the defensive line keeps the heat coming and Chris Gamble's absence, while a key, seems not to be felt with the current cast of d-backs.

But after N.C. State (1-1), which trailed 16-0 and 22-7 scored on a Jay Davis-to-Brian Clark wide-open 26-yarder with 1:28 left, Tressel, wiping a little post-game perspiration from his brow, smiled at ABC sideliner Lynn Swann.

"It was a hard-fought game between two fightin' teams," he said. "ABC's gotta love us, because we always keep it interesting."

There won't be a lot of flash with the '04 Buckeyes, but that defense looks pretty formidable and will present a major obstacle for any and all Big Ten opponents.

The Bucks open league play Oct. 2 with a night game at Northwestern.

In beating Central Florida, 37-13, before a second straight non-sellout at Beaver Stadium (101,715), Penn State did manage to overcome six turnovers by Q.B. Zack Mills (four fumbles, two interceptions), who nonetheless completed 19-of-29 for 229 yards and blended that well with a 247-yard Nittany Lions running game.

"Well," assessed coach Joe Paterno to the post-game media throng, "it's 11 (turnovers) in two games (the Lions turned it over five times at Boston College), and I am concerned about it.

"I think we have to do a much better job of protecting the football and that we need to be more careful in the passes that we make. I hope most of it's correctable, but we'll have to see."

To be sure, U.C.F., coached by first-year George O'Leary, whom you may recall was Notre Dame coach for five days in December, 2001, before it was discovered he misrepresented some of his career info on his resume, is no Boston College.

But the Lions did accomplish more than a few positives.

• Tailback Tony Hunt (16 carries, 125 yards, TDs of 4, 26 and 33 yards) is emerging as a major player in Penn State's offense. "I've been getting a lot of questions about Tony," Paterno allowed. "I think Tony is a good back. He played well today, he gets tough yards and he takes advantage of his blocking."

Translation: Don't be surprised to see him get 20 or more touches each game.

• The defense. Even in the 21-7 game at Boston College, the Lions "D" looked pretty strong. It could emerge as a key component of this team, swarming to the football most of the time, although occasional victims of big plays, as happened at B.C.

But Paterno says the Nitts' opening two Big Ten games will open a pretty big window to the 2004 season. "We have to go to Wisconsin and Minnesota, two of the better teams in the country," he said. "After those games, then I'll have a better idea."

After which he offered this twinkle-eyed, classic Joe Pa gem: "If we turn the ball over six times, I don't care how physical we are. We could take a bunch of 600-pound gorillas, but we'd still get beaten."

In East Lansing, Notre Dame could have cued in the "Rocky" theme. Strong safety -- VERY strong safety Tom Zbikowski, who told the Chicago Tribune's Bob Sakomoto as a senior at Buffalo Grove High School that he was serious about a boxing career, seemed something of a hood ornament when he followed a dream and parlayed his tough-guy leadership persona into a Notre Dame football scholarship.

But the Irish freshman, seemingly pegged behind Quinton Burrill on the depth chart, actually took a two-day unexpected sabbatical from school, heading home just two weeks before Notre Dame opener Sept. 4 at Brigham Young.

Good thing he came back, coach Ty Willingham and the Irish learned after Zbikowski's strong secondary play made life tough on Braylon Edwards, Steve Breaston and the other heralded Michigan receivers.

But who knew Mr. Z would be The Man in Notre Dame's 31-24 victory over Michigan State?

He returned an interception of an ill-advised pass by Spartan freshman Stephen Reaves 22 yards to the State 13 after Michigan State had earlier blocked an Irish punt for a 7-0 lead. It set up Brady Quinn's one-yard plunge that tied the score for Notre Dame.

But it was what happened shortly afterward that threw a megajolt into the well-lit 74,692 Sparties. Zbikowski, a 5-feet, 11-inch 208-pound specimen with extraordinary upper body strength, wrestled the ball from unsuspecting State tailback Jason Teague and before the startled Spartans reacted, ran it 75 yards for a touchdown that gave Notre Dame a lead it never lost.

"Honest, it felt good to have the ball in my hands," he told Blue & Gold Illustrated Notre Dame beat guy Tim Prister, who was covering for The Indianapolis Star. "I made sure I scored."

He wasn't exactly Secretariat heading down the sideline, but such a play usually offers a major head start and Zbikowski's decent speed did the rest.

It overshadowed a decent passing night for Quinn, who went 11-for-24, with one intercepted, for 215 yards and 35 yard TD to Matt Shelton.

For Tyrone Willingham, who for the time being has shed the adjectives "beleaguered," "embattled," etc., it was a second straight triumphal trip to his alma mater, where his first-year Irish won 21-17 in 2002.

"If you know anything about Michigan State's team, if you let them get going, they really go wild when they get things going," he said. "Those kinds of turnovers by our defense, those easy scores, helped us take over the momentum of the ballgame."

And the Irish (2-1 and on the edge of the A.P. poll already) can build a positive mindset as they prepare for Washington Saturday in South Bend.

Michigan, meanwhile, can relate to Ohio State -- one of the rare times when that can be said. But last year, when San Diego State visited the thunderous, forbidding atmosphere of Ohio Stadium, the Aztecs were totally unfazed and the Buckeyes barely eked out a 16-13 victory.

This time, Michigan had to rally from a 21-17 halftime deficit in what was a defense-dominated game. Chad Henne, the Wyomissing, Pa., freshman who spurned Penn State, hit Braylon Edwards with a drive-capping seven-yard T.D. pass midway in the third quarter to win it, 24-21.

With the eight-reception, 132-yard, two-touchdown output, Edwards, a rangy senior, passed Marquise Walker to become the U-M career receiving leader (181 catches, 2562 yards, 28 TDs).

"We've had some great receivers there," said coach Lloyd Carr to A.P. reporter Mike Householder. "And with these records, you have to be durable. You have to be tough and you have to be talented because you have to get open. Braylon is a guy who continues to come up with big plays. He's dangerous because he's strong and he plays well without the ball."

The Aztecs' hyped "Dark Side" defense kept San Diego State in the game. Rated No. 8 nationally last fall, it held the Wolverines to 327 total yards and Michigan relied heavily on Edwards' experience to win.

"It hurts," said San Diego State coach Tom Craft to A.P. "We didn't come here to play tough and earn respect. I think people know who San Diego State is right now."

Think Fresno State lite -- not a bad imitation of a team that has won at Wisconsin and Kansas State in the past couple of years. A visit by the Aztecs, even to a a venue where over 100,000 regularly show up, is clearly no guarantee for a victory.

The Big 10 has taken a few lumps from its west coast brethren thus far this fall (U.C.L.A. 35, Illinois 7 last week, Arizona State's 44-7 rout of Iowa Saturday night, e.g.), but it also has dished out a couple (Indiana's 30-24 upset at Oregon, Wisconsin's 9-7 win at Arizona).

What does this all mean? We'll start finding out this coming weekend.

Eye-catchers...Arizona State 44, Iowa 7. In the words of Hawkeyes linebacker Chad Greenway, "We ran into a Buzzsaw." The Hawks fell out of The Associated Press poll altogether and from 12th to 24th in the coaches' poll...Sun Devils QB Andrew Walter said A.S.U. players were excellent historians. "Our guys came out ready to play," said Walter to A.P., who threw for 428 yards and five touchdowns, motivated by last year's 21-2 nadir at Iowa City. "I mean there was just something about the feeling before (the game). The guys remembered last year." ... Iowa State barely avoided making Saturday a blues alert day throughout the Hawkeye State by rallying madly in the final minutes for a 48-41 upset avoider against visiting, and hard-luck Northern Illinois. Freshman Todd Blythe's three TD receptions, the last a go-ahead 5-yarder from Austin Flynn. "It was one of those woulda-coulda games," N.I.U. coach Joe Novak said...Can Marshall catch a friggin' break? First the perennial Mid American Conference power loses a brutal home game to unheralded Troy State, which became heralded the next week by beating then-ranked Missouri. Then it visits Ohio State and loses on a game-winning Mike Nugent field goal at the final gun. And Saturday, the Thundering Herd fell to 0-3 but gave No. 3 Georgia fits before falling 13-3 between the hedges in Athens.