Blanket Coverage: Iowa Beats Michigan State Twice

Michigan State played Iowa just once this season, but the Hawkeyes have now beaten Sparty twice.

On Oct. 30, Iowa walloped Michigan State at Nile Kinnick Stadium, 37-7, knocking Mark Dantonio's 8-0 squad from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Last Saturday, the Hawkeyes may have done Sparty even more harm. Leading Ohio State 17-13 in the closing minutes, the Iowa defense gave up a 14-yard run to Terrelle Pryor on fourth-and-10 (a play, by the way, that somehow could not find its way into SportsCenter's 90-second highlight of the game). The Buckeyes later scored the game-winning touchdown, avoiding a second loss.

Iowa, by failing to stop Pryor on that play ("I was going to run the whole time," said the junior quarterback), likely cost the Spartans a BCS bowl berth. Ohio State remained even with Sparty and Wisconsin at 10-1. Had Ohio State lost, Michigan State would have won the Big Ten, assuming it wins in State College this weekend, which is no gimme.

Why? Because the Spartans beat Wisconsin head-to-head on October 2. However, because of a probable three-way tie, BCS rankings will determing the conference winner: Wisconsin. A BCS bowl with an at-large invitation will extend it to Ohio State, because no school's fans travel better in January.

Then again, Sparty was trailing by 11 at home midway through the fourth quarter versus Purdue before rallying for a 35-31 win. Justice may in fact be served.

BC's Bone Crusher

Boston College middle linebacker Luke Kuechly had a team-high 15 tackles in the Eagles' 17-13 win over Virginia, which made them bowl-eligible at 6-5. For Kuechly it was his 20th consecutive game of double-digit tackles, the longest streak in the nation.

The 6-3 true sophomore from Cincinnati does best what middle linebackers are supposed to do: make tackles. He leads the nation in total tackles (161, or 14.64 per game) and solo tackles (93) and is the only player in the country to record two games of 20-plus tackles this season: 20 in a loss at North Carolina State and 21 in a win at Duke.

Last season, Kuechly started at middle linebacker in the first game of his freshman season after Mark Herzlich (cancer) and Mike McLaughlin (torn Achilles' tendon) were sidelined. All Kuechly was being asked to do was step in for the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year (Herzlich) and the defensive team captain (McLaughlin).

At season's end, the studious-looking Kuechly – "Clark Kent" is one nickname he hears -- finished second in the nation in both total (158) and solo (88) tackles. Not bad for someone who actually played safety his senior year of high school at St. Xavier in Cincinnati.

"I think he is the best defensive player in college football," Duke coach David Cutcliffe told ESPN.com's Heather Dinich last week. "Absolutely. Without question. And I will vote for him in that regard."

We here at the BC agree with DC about the kid from BC: Luke Kuechly is the best defensive player in the nation.

And You Thought JoePa Was the Only Dude to Reach 400 This Season...

John Norton of Concord, Mass., attended his 400th consecutive Harvard home game last Saturday when the Crimson beat Yale, 28-21. Norton's streak began on October 5, 1940, when Harvard blanked Amherst, 13-0. He is not an alumnus, but his father, brother,and five uncles graduated from Harvard.

Even Better Than Speaking to Erin Andrews

No Crimson player was happier after Harvard beat Yale for the ninth time in the past 10 years, by the way, than walk-on wide receiver Zar Zavala. The El Paso, Texas, native was celebrating on the field at Harvard Stadium when his fiancee handed him his cell phone. A text message was waiting for Zavala: "Congratulations, you're a Rhodes Scholar."

"Today was definitely the best day of my life," said Zavala, who carries a 3.92 GPA in neurobiology and engineering.

Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy was one of this year's 12 finalists, but was not selected. The Crimson Tide quarterback will be able to massage that self-esteem with a national championship ring, though. Just not one from this year.

That Young Buck Luck

In years past, and not all that long ago, Stanford has fielded entire teams that did not have anyone who could lower a shoulder quite like quarterback Andrew Luck. At Cal on Saturday Luck, in the midst of his third 50-plus yard gallop of the season, lowered the boom on Cal safety Sean Cattouse (that's Cattouse as in "Palouse", as opposed to the HBO series "Cathouse") en route to a career-long 58-yard gain.

It was a great play by the Cardinal junior, and it took place on the 28th anniversary of The Play in the same stadium. The Stanford quarterback during that 1982 game, John Elway, delivered a pregame pep talk to the Cardinal. If The Play were to occur today, by the way, would the replay official be done reviewing it before Monday morning? And, I know I sound like a Cardinal fan here (am not), but wouldn't that final lateral have been disallowed?

Luck, who will be the first quarterback taken in April's draft should he enter it, has been a terror on Pac-10 defensive backs this autumn. You remember this hit on USC cornerback Shareece Wright last month.

Twelve and Out

Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson became the first player in NCAA history to pass and rush for 1,500 yards in a season during last Saturday's loss to Wisconsin. Shoelace has 2,229 passing yards and 1,538 rushing yards and, more importantly to us, he amassed that yardage in 12 games or less.

In 2002, the NCAA, which has been keeping statistics since 1937, began including conference championship and bowl game stats amongst its season totals. Since not every player participates in a bowl game, and even fewer play in conference championship games, that seems rather like comparing apples and Orange Bowls.

Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, for instance, needs 203 rushing yards to join D-Rob in the 1,500-1,500 club. Newton is unlikely to gain that many at Alabama on Friday, although he does have a trio of 200-yard rushing games this season. But it doesn't matter.

If Newton is not sidelined due to eligibility issues or injury, he will still play in two more games: the SEC Championship Game and a BCS bowl. He is guaranteed to play at least one more game than Robinson, and yet history will measure both by the same yardstick.

Frankly, it's dumb bookkeeping. The NCAA should only keep season stats for as long as every team is playing on a weekly basis. Conference championship games and bowls should not be there to artificially pad numbers.

Ooo-weee! What's Up With Stats? What's Up With Stats?!?

• 105: Points scored in games played at Wrigley Field (Illinois vs. Northwestern) and Yankee Stadium (Army vs. Notre Dame) last Saturday.

• 99: Points scored in the two aforementioned games in the infield or dugout end zones. The lone score in an outfield end zone was a 59-yard interception return by Northwestern's Brian Peters at Wrigley. That all but six points in Illinois' 48-27 win occurred in one end zone was somewhat designated by the unique rules of the game. That all 30 points in Notre Dame's 27-3 win were was purely coincidence.

• 541:10: Minutes since Boise State last found itself trailing in a game. The Broncos were down 30-26 to Virginia Tech in the season-opener on Sept. 6 when Austin Pettis caught the game-winning TD pass with 1:09 remaining.

• 560: Yards passing by Hawaii quarterback Bryant Moniz in the Warriors' 41-7 defeat of San Jose State. Moniz, the nation's total offense leader, established a single-game school record while going 32-of-44 for three touchdowns with two interceptions. Moniz's mark is incredible considering that Hawaii predecessors Timmy Chang (17,072 yards) and Colt Brennan (14,193) are first and fourth, respectively, all-time in passing yardage in the FBS.