FanHouse Denard Robinson

The Iowa Hawkeyes rode five Michigan turnovers to a 30-28 victory in Iowa City tonight. The victory was their tenth in a row, which is the second-longest winning streak in the nation after Florida.

Iowa's passing game took control after quarterback Ricky Stanzi's first pass was intercepted by Michigan's Brandon Moore and returned for a touchdown. Stanzi threw two touchdown passes, both to tight end Tony Moeaki.

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, even when the truth is ugly.

It was a bad week for vowels.

The seven Big Ten schools whose names start with consonants played anywhere from OK to brilliantly this past weekend. The four that start with vowels -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio State -- all dropped a pantload on the field.

Illinois gets a partial pass because Missouri has been on a nice run lately. Ohio State played a Navy team that usually goes bowling. Indiana struggled with a Division I-AA FCS school, but they're Indiana; you kind of expect these things from them after a while.

That leaves one school. Iowa. And if I was an Iowa fan ... wait. I am an Iowa fan. Make the jump and see what has me feeling punchy. I promise I'll get around to the games eventually.

They all laughed when Rich Rodriguez said he was going to play three quarterbacks, two of them true freshmen, against Western Michigan.

Many wrote off the Wolverines when the allegations of practice time violations broke earlier this week. No way, no how, could an inexperienced team that went 3-9 last season overcome all the distractions and the Wheel of Quarterbacks. Some even thought it really wouldn't have been an upset if Western Michigan won. The Wolverines had lost their past two home openers, after all.

Who's laughing now?

When it comes time to select a quarterback to be "it" for Michigan, Wolverines head coach Rich Rodriguez might have to go "eeny, meeny, miny, moe."

Actually, there isn't a moe.

Although Rodriguez isn't ready to name a starter at quarterback quite yet, he said Sunday at media day that all three of his quarterbacks -- junior Nick Sheridan and freshmen Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson -- will probably take snaps in the Wolverines' opener against Western Michigan.

Of course, in what order and how many snaps still remains to be seen.

---

---

After suffering through their most dreadful season in school history, the Michigan Wolverines know exactly what they have entering the start of preseason practice Saturday. For starters, a short -- if not selective -- memory.

`"Obviously, we have a lot of work to do," second-year coach Rich Rodriguez said. "And the last year, we don't want to talk about it obviously for as bad a season as we had. But, at the same time, I think we've learned some things from it. I think we've grown from it.

"I think our team is closer, and I think we know what we need to do."

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

It's not often a traditional power like Michigan can be called be called overlooked, but a 4-8 season will do plenty of things to a program other than just riling up the fanbase. In this case, it makes the Wolverines primed for a surprise season.

And they're not alone.

We'll even invite Florida State to the party dadgummit. Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Texas are laughing but inevitably they'll have their season(s) of woe. Until then, some big programs are giving us material in this feature on programs on the rise.