FanHouse Mike Stoops

It was a measure of revenge for the Big Ten this afternoon in Iowa City as the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off the Arizona Wildcats, 27-17.

The Hawkeyes were led by their defense, which held Arizona's powerful rushing attack to 146 yards and kept the nation's No. 2 rusher, Arizona's Nic Grigsby, to just 74 yards on 11 carries. Arizona didn't score an offensive touchdown until 1:55 remained in the fourth quarter and only managed eight first downs all afternoon.

Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi started slowly, throwing a first-quarter interception which Arizona's Trevin Wade returned for a touchdown. Stanzi finished 20 of 32 for 205 yards.

Every Thursday, Pickin' On the Big Ten previews the weekend's action, or lack thereof.

There are weeks when many of us would trade lives with Jim Tressel. This is not one of those weeks.

Not only did his Buckeyes fail to finish USC when they had the Trojans on the ropes, Tressel also saw "Tresselball" ripped apart by Chris Brown of Smart Football, faced a fan base who want him fired three days ago, had to lash back at some of those same fans, discovered that one of USC's touchdowns may not have happened, and now he has to face a Toledo team that just mashed Colorado into goo.

Yes, there are a lot of reasons why you wouldn't want to be Jim Tressel this week, but "because he's on the hot seat" isn't one of them.

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.

So is this the year someone besides USC wins the Pac-10 title and gains the automatic BCS bowl berth?

If there is ever a year for USC to get chased from behind and caught, this is this year. The Trojans are breaking in a new quarterback in Aaron Corp and replacing several departed starters to the NFL draft.

So who's it going to be? Cal? Can the Golden Bears overcome early-season trap games and win the games they are supposed to and make it interesting? Can Oregon beat USC at home and win difficult road games and take the title? And how about Oregon State? Do Mike Riley teams always have to start 1-3 before getting into high gear?

And what about the rest of the field? Is this Stanford's breakout year? Is UCLA ready to become a Pac-10 factor again? And is Arizona really the third worst team in the conference as it was picked by the media? These are all intriguing questions that will be worked out in the coming weeks.

Our standings preview and records predictions are after the jump.

LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.

USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.

Mike Stoops was on the proverbial hot seat before last season. After all, his Arizona Wildcats bumbled to a 17-29 mark in his first four seasons in Tucson. Fans were impatient and the pressure was beating on Stoops like the unrelenting desert sun. Stoops, whose brother Bob is the head coach at Oklahoma, finally found on-field success in 2008, leading UA to a 31-21 Las Vegas Bowl victory over favored Brigham Young, securing his job and giving the once downtrodden a program a boost.

Arizona has a chance to consistently compete with the second tier teams in the Pac-10 -- there is one top-tier team, USC -- and perhaps challenge the Trojans with some consistent recruiting classes fueled by the bowl win.

While it wasn't exactly the spite hite many were hoping for, we now know for sure that the Ames-to-Auburn pipeline runs in both directions. A week after Gene Chizik carefully wrapped his five wins and moved them to Auburn, Iowa State hired Tommy Tuberville's defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads to replace him.

The move hasn't been officially announced yet, but it has been confirmed by ISU officials. Paul Rhoads will be paid $1.15 million a year over five years with the usual pile of incentives. His hiring comes after rumors of Terry Bowden and Mike Stoops were floating throughout Cycloneland. After hearing about name coaches who might have been interested in becoming the head Clone, you wonder if Rhoads is a sexy enough hire to placate the fans.

Then again, Rhoads just finished his first season at Auburn, where his efforts were wasted behind a kittenish offense. The Tigers finished 15th in scoring defense and 27th in yards allowed but only got a 5-7 record to show for it. Before that, Rhoads was the defensive coordinator at Pitt for eight seasons, a job he got after four seasons coaching Iowa State's linebackers and secondary. But that's not the most important qualification he brings.

If Mediocrity had a football team, its mascot would most likely wear a giant foam Mike Stoops head

Ahhh, mediocre college football. Three words that go together like turkey, gravy, and stuffing.

While the majority of space here at FanHouse and on every other college football publication will be focused on the Top 25, season after season a huge slice of the college football fan pie (mmmm...fan pie) find themselves supporting a team who would most aptly be described as thoroughly mediocre, at best. I'd venture to guess that for every legit contender, there are probably three teams with a couple of flaws so glaring that only those blinded by the partisanship of homerdom can pretend their team's downsides won't inevitably sabotage any hopes of playing in a bowl of even moderate respectability.

And therein lies one of the most cruel realities of the college football landscape: winning 6 or 7 games is no small feat, and yet every year coaches and players around the country will be abused for achieving that very milestone. Of course, when you play in a conference like the Pac 10 -- who rewards its third place finisher with a December 31 game in El Paso's Sun Bowl -- can you really be that surprised when fans and pundits are critical of barely topping out above .500?

Who from the Pac 10 will slide to the middle of the pack in 2008? Here's a quick rundown of the leading candidates for Pacific time zone mediocrity this season.

Mike Stoops got off a zinger in his signing day press conference when asked about more successful in-state rival Arizona State:

"Each school has to recruit to their school and what kind of requirements they (have)," Stoops said. "Arizona State has turned into a JC, and we're a four-year college. According to all the players, they say it's easier to go to school there, easier to get in."

Stoops laughed. "I thought we all had the same requirements."

This may well be true. Arizona State takes a lot of two-year players. But if there's any BCS school in the country that should avoid the subject of academics at all costs, it's Arizona:

NCAA academic indicators for athletes in school - the Academic Progress Rate - show Arizona football with a score of 883, well below the 925 standard. Arizona State is at 926.

The Wildcats were the only BCS team in the nation to get socked with scholarship penalties from the APR last year; they are the most academically irresponsible program in the country.

All this... and no bowls ever. Arizona! Not a JC! Not even a C!

Personally, I don't see it happening but let's take a look at something interesting here.

What jumps out at me is this Las Vegas Sports Consultants' Top 30 ranking. Scroll down the list a bit. Ok, maybe scroll down all the way. See that, right there at #30? That's Arizona (! ! !)

They're not a terrible team, but Arizona clearly has its issues as their coach may get fired and as recently as three games ago lost 21-20 to Stanford. However, Las Vegas obviously sees something in them and even more notable is the company they keep.

Nearby to them in the rankings are two solid teams who have already knocked off a #1 team this year. There's #28 Kentucky who knocked off #1 LSU a few weeks back. There's also #27 Illinois, victors over #1 Ohio State last weekend. Hmm . . .

Not convincing enough? Well, keep in mind that Arizona is at home and they're red-hot these last two weeks, scoring 48 and 34 points in victories over Washington State and UCLA. As noted by the wise guys, Arizona has turned things around with their offense in a hurry and they are dangerous.

Normally, total overhauls like this take at least a season or two to start showing progress – see Nebraska. However, in Arizona's case, the year-over-year difference is obvious. The Wildcats offense has scored almost 13 more points per game this season, going from 16 points last year to 28.5 points this year.

Finally, this is a weird setting for both teams. The Pac-10 doesn't play very often on Thursday nights so the unfamiliar prep times may cause sluggish play for one or both teams. The last time we saw a Pac-10 team on Thursday, Oregon State was getting manhandled by Cincinnati. Anyway, just something to keep an eye on. This season has been madness and an Arizona victory over Oregon - improbable as it seems - only adds to the insanity. Be sure to stop by our First and Second Half Live Blogs of tonight's game.

Oh, and let it be known that Oregon isn't alone in these worries - Kansas better be on the lookout as well.