FanHouse GlenMason

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten runs down the weekend's games from inside a chicken coop, at least as far as you know.

Cue the inevitable anti-Iowa backlash. A team that barely got by Arkansas State and Northern Iowa is somehow No. 1 in the nation according to the computer polls the BCS uses. Don't like it? Line forms to the left. Kirk Ferentz even agrees with you.

Shouldn't the computers' top ranked team have at least some sort of offense? Yes, of course. But whose fault is that No. 1 ranking?

Yours, you loudmouth.

If there's a tougher job in the Big 12 than being the head football coach at Iowa State, I'd sure like to know what it is. Gene Chizik just finished his second season in Ames, and it wasn't a good one. The Cyclones won but a single game over a Division 1-A Football Bowl Subdivision opponent, and didn't win at all after September 6.

That's the sort of outcome that could lead a coach, even a relatively new one, to make some drastic changes, and that's what Chizik did yesterday. Chizik fired two coaches and demoted both his coordinators. Gone are quarterbacks coach Tony Petersen and secondary coach Shawn Raney; offensive coordinator Robert McFarland will now coach the offensive line and serve as associate head coach, while defensive coordinator Wayne Bolt will coach ISU's linebackers.

it's not like the Cyclones got blown out in every game. They took Kansas and Colorado down to the wire but couldn't finish them off. Of course, Kansas finished 7-5 and the Buffs wound up 5-7. The Clones also lost to Baylor and Nebraska by four touchdowns. They lost to Oklahoma State and Missouri by, uh, more than that. Clearly. something drastic needed to be done.

If the Minnesota Golden Gophers aren't the most improved team in college football this season, who is? Through seven weeks of play, Tim Brewster's squad is enjoying the sort of success that always seemed to elude his predecessor Glen Mason. The Gophers are now 6-1 with a signature road win over Illinois and their sole loss coming in Columbus.

Nobody was complaining about the Gopher offense last season. They just weren't up to the task of bailing out the nation's worst defense week after week. Statistically this season's Gopher offense is mid-pack by almost any measure. The difference is on the other side of the ball.

It's not that the Gophers have moved way, way up. It's that the Gophers had nowhere to go but up. Their defensive statistics this year aren't the stuff of dreams, but the Gophers are allowing, on average, about 130 fewer yards and 19 fewer points per game than they were a year ago. New defensive coordinator Ted Roof didn't work out as a head coach at Duke. Both Duke and Minnesota are happy for that.

Anybody can post good results against a squishy schedule, however. The Gophers hung in against their most challenging opponent to date (Ohio State) but failed to win. That raises the question of whether the Gophers can stand up against the other challengers in the Big Ten.

So what's worse? Losing to a Division-II (yeah, yeah, I know it's FCS now but I'm stubborn and stuck in my ways) school like North Dakota State? Or losing to North Dakota State and not surprising anybody by doing so?

Last Friday when doing my daily reading, I found a couple of Big Ten "experts" who were picking North Dakota State over Minnesota. I also heard Mark May say on ESPN Saturday morning that he wouldn't be surprised if Minnesota lost as well.

So now that Minnesota has lost to North Dakota State, a team with 33 players from the state of Minnesota that weren't recruited by the Gophers, and is 1-7 on the season it's only natural to start wondering if Tim Brewster is going to get fired soon.

He's not, as the school's president, Robert Bruininks, says Brewster isn't going anywhere.

"There is going to be some pain in the rebuilding of the Gophers football program, but I'm sure we did the right thing," said the chief executive of Gopherville, who is committed to giving Brewster time to rebuild the program.

It's only fair that Brewster shouldn't feel any heat from the Gophers performance this season. He's only in his first year at Minnesota, and he's going to need some time to clean up Glen Mason's mess. There just hasn't been enough time to evaluate what kind of recruiter Brewster is, or how good of a coach he is.

Here's an extremely quick recap of the Minnesota Golden Gophers season thus far: they lost at home in overtime to Bowling Green, and they barely won at home against Miami (OH). So if the Gophers are having trouble beating MAC teams at home, odds are they're going to get killed by the rest of the Big Ten. I mean, Big Ten teams just don't lose their first two home games against non-conference opponents! That never happens!

Anyway, as is often the case when a team is losing, they blame the kicker. This is a fact of life that Jason Giannini is learning right now, as he's lost his job.

Coach Tim Brewster benched the junior after he missed three field goals in Minnesota's last game, declaring on Tuesday an open competition for the job this week between Joel Monroe and Eric Ellestad.

"I just feel like we need to change directions at that position right now," Brewster said.

Missing kicks is nothing new for Giannini. Giannini wasn't Glen Mason's favorite person while he was still coaching the team either. In his first two seasons as Minnesota's kicker, he's missed 11 field goals and 11 extra points.

I've always been of the opinion that if you can't kick extra points, you have no business being a kicker. You get one blocked, or shank one every once in a while, that's fine. But eleven? Jesus, give me the spot. I can make an extra point.

As for who will replace Giannini, there's an open competition in practice this week between Joel Monroe and Eric Ellestad. Monroe is already the team's kickoff specialist, and has filled Giannini's role when he's struggled already, so I'd give Monroe the edge.