Temple mascot Hooter and the Fighting Hedwigs are in talks to join the Big East in all sports. (Main image: US PRESSWIRE; inset: Warner Bros.)

Temple’s return to the Big East, if it goes through, will elevate an owl mascot to the AQ level for the first time since the school’s 2004 ejection from the conference. It’s a natural fit for the league of Squibs, but as the move is rather last-minute from a conditioning standpoint, you may find yourselves falling behind, winded in an effort to make Harry Potter jokes during league play in 2012. Below, a few basic maneuvers you might find useful, during an imaginary conference schedule that assumes the Fighting Hedwigs join up with the Ever-Increasingly Accurately Named Big East by fall:

October 6, 2012. Temple @ UConn. “Accio passing game, you guys! Amirite??”

October 13, 2012. Syracuse @ Temple. “Addazio’s offense without Bernard Pierce is deader than Dumbledore.”

October 20, 2012. Temple @ Pitt. “I tell you what, this Owls front seven has put Tino Sunseri in Azkaban.”

October 27, 2012. Rutgers @ Temple. “And what a coming-out party for Matt Brown! He blasted through the Scarlet Knights’ line like a Dementor! A Dementor on a Firebolt!”

Read More…

*****

1. Fighting Okra, Delta State Statesmen: D-II Delta State made a strong late push for consideration with the recent release of the above “FEAR THE OKRA” video, a reassuring sign to committee members that the University has moved beyond the stodgy disavowals of association and embraced the surefire branding touchdown that’s been right under their noses for two decades. Offering free Okra bracelets didn’t hurt, either. The Committee is not above susceptibility to bribery. Spiny when dry, slippery when wet, and delicious in gumbo, the Fighting Okra is everything a fruit or vegetable mascot should aspire to be.

2. Brutus Buckeye, Ohio State Buckeyes: The most privileged and well-known of the fruit and vegetable mascot set brings a sterling resume to the argument, with a proudly bizarre costuming history and multiple national championships to his credit. The Committee docked Brutus a slot, however, after much heated argument over whether a seed from within a pod could be counted as a fruit itself, whether mascots should strive for completion in this matter, and whether it was a positive or a negative that the nuts themselves are poisonous. Read More…

Denard Robinson rushed for two touchdowns and passed for three more in a win over Ohio State. (US PRESSWIRE)

Snap Judgments from the Week 13 early shift. For swing shift Snaps, click here. For late Snaps, click here. For Andy Staples’ recap of LSU’s win over Arkansas, click here. For Staples’ take on Alabama’s rout of Auburn, click here. For a recap of all the Top 25 action, click here. For highlights from SI.com, click here. 

• No. 17 Michigan 40, Ohio State 34: I swear, looking at Michigan box scores week after week, you’d think nobody knows that Denard Robinson is a player who ought to be defended on the football field. This week’s reasons to put a body on Denard: 14 pass completions for 167 yards and three touchdowns and 26 rushes for 170 yards and two additional scores. This week’s reason a team might put bodies on Denard and still lose: The Michigan quarterback’s ability to place the football in the hands of running back Fitzgerald Toussaint, who will then do things like run for 120 yards.

Michigan’s defense, the year’s most reluctant talking point, must not be overlooked here. Ohio State’s Boom Herron was contained to 37 yards on 15 carries, his third consecutive sub-century game after running wild against Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana following his return from suspension. More problematic for the maize and blue was Braxton Miller, who cracked 100 yards rushing for just the third time this season (accomplished previously against Indiana and Penn State) while shattering his former personal best outing as a passer with 235 aerial yards and two touchdown passes. The Buckeyes hung with it early and late, turning a 16-7 first-quarter deficit into a 24-23 halftime lead and adding 10 more points in the fourth to make the margin of loss more than respectable.

Still, the streak ends here. The Wolverines, you’ll recall, hadn’t beaten the Buckeyes since November 2003. They can now start their own cheeky counter: “It has been two hours since Michigan beat Ohio State in football.” We’re also almost surely witnessing the end of the tenure of Luke Fickell, a Buckeyes lifer thrust into a near-impossible situation in the wake of NCAA scandal and Jim Tressel’s resignation.

Time now to look to the future: Miller appears to be a young quarterback with many fine double-threat attributes. Wonder where the Buckeyes will find a head man with experience coaching up such athletes? Anybody hear anything? [RECAP | BOX]

Read More…

Rex Burkhead rushed for two touchdowns and caught another against MSU’s normally stout D. (Cal Sport Media)

Snap Judgments from the Week 9 early shift. For swing shift Snaps, click here. For Stewart Mandel’s take on Joe Paterno’s historic 409th win, click here. For a recap of the Top 25 action, click here. And for highlights from SI.com, click here.

• No. 13 Nebraska 24, No. 9 Michigan State 3:  From Friday: “The Huskers are only better than average at defending the pass, but will have to be better than better to contain Kirk Cousins. In opposing possessions, the real story will be whether State’s second-ranked defense will be able to contain a Nebraska ground attack that’s just as potent as the Badgers’. How much luck did the Spartans need to win in Week 8, and has it run out?”

A bit, and yes, as it happens:

Cousins missed on 12 of his first 16 passes. He was intercepted on the Spartans’ first possession, was nearly picked off three other times and often threw into double coverage.

And the containment of Cousins was only the beginning of the Spartans’ tribulations this afternoon. State managed just 86 yards through the air on 11 completed passes (with 22 Cousins attempts) but found no refuge in the ground attack, gaining just 101 yards. The Huskers eschewed the pass almost entirely in the game’s early stages, with zero net passing yards recorded at halftime, relying instead on Rex Burkhead’s 130 yards on 35 carries. Burkhead recorded all three of Nebraska’s scores, running for two touchdowns and catching another from Taylor Martinez.

Discounted entirely as a legitimate outfit after that unfortunate Week 5 depantsing against Wisconsin, the Huskers now sit atop the Legends Division standings, with no competition ahead of them (Penn State and Michigan are the only ranked teams remaining in their November schedule) scarier than what they’ve already faced. [RECAP | BOX]

Read More…

From the annals of odd: Geno Smith and West Virginia actually lost to Syracuse in 2010. (US PRESSWIRE)

Suppose it’s too much to hope for a streaker dressed as a ref to invade a game two nights in a row, right?

• No. 11 West Virginia @ Syracuse, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN:  I asked my Syracuse-educated producer, the divine Mallory Rubin, whether she, too, thought Geno Smith might throw for 500 yards against her alma mater this Saturday. Her response: “I’m worried he might throw for 600.” Last year on Homecoming Saturday in Morgantown, Geno Smith was intercepted three times and sacked five by the Orange. This year’s Mountaineer offensive line is allowing little more than one sack per game, and while Syracuse DB Phillip Thomas ranks in the national top 15 for picks, his interceptions have all come against Rutgers and Rhode Island. The Mountaineers have proven in recent weeks they can run (they just don’t feel like it) thanks to freshman Dustin Garrison, but up against the nation’s 86th-ranked pass efficiency defense, why would they even want to?

• Rutgers @ Louisville, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2: Do not adjust your television set. That is Rutgers you see atop the Big East standings with a 5-1 record. The Scarlet Knights came by that record thanks at least in part to an extremely favorable schedule that included an FCS opener, a middling MAC team, Syracuse and a floundering Navy squad. They split their two highest-profile opponents, beating Pitt by 24 and losing to UNC by two, and should look comfortable against the Cardinals tonight. Past Week 8, the schedule takes a sharp uptick in degree of difficulty with West Virginia and South Florida paying calls, but beyond that, only Army, Cincinnati and UConn stand in the way of an extremely favorable bowl bid. The Scarlet Knights’ top 20 defense should hold up solidly against a Louisville outfit averaging 16 points per game and starting a true freshman at quarterback.