Joe Sports

CINCINNATI _ We're 2:49 away from halftime at Paul Brown Stadium and it seems safe to say the Bears will be trailing at halftime for the fourth time in 6 games. Actually, the Bears still haven't taken a halftime lead into the locker room this season.

Here's a few numbers on Cincy's 28-0 start:
First-down plays: 19 snaps for 161 yards and 1 TD.
Second-down plays: 11 snaps for 69 yards and 1 TD.
Third-down plays: 5 snaps for 55 yards and 2 TDs.

Cheer up, Bears fans! After forcing the Bengals into just two third-down conversion situations on their first two drives, the Bears forced the Bengals to convert 3 third downs on their fourth touchdown march.

Before we start to dig into Northwestern’s 29-28 victory over Indiana _ the Wildcats set a school record by overcoming a 25-point _ I’m going to quote from the Northwestern media guide’s bio on redshirt sophomore Ricky Weina:

“Walk-on corner who contributes in the kicking game…As he gets stronger, will POTENTIALLY help in the secondary.”

That’s it. Then again, that’s about all a walk-on merits when he has appeared briefly in one college game. Next year’s media guide, on the other hand, will definitely have the word “potentially” removed from Weina’s bio. Against all odds, the Union Grove, Wis., native who didn’t have a single scholarship offer at any level of college football became one of many heroes during the Wildcats’ comeback.

Hey gang,

Just finished writing a column about Ron Zook's job prospects that'll appear in Saturday's Herald...and will probably pop up on the web site sooner.

Since space was limited, I didn't get much of a chance to explore this Zook-related angle: Does anyone think Pat Fitzgerald's job should be in jeopardy at Northwestern?

Here's why I ask. The unbiased Sagarin computer ratings provide these Predictor power rankings for the Big Ten going into Saturday's games:

1. Iowa 86.00 (11th nationally out of 245 FBS and FCS teams)
2. Ohio State 84.59 (13th)
3. Penn State 82.77 (17th)
4. Michigan 78.15 (32nd)
5. Michigan State 77.6 (33rd)
6. Wisconsin 75.31 (51st)
7. Purdue 72.49 (59th)
8. Minnesota 70.72 (65th)
9. Indiana 63.75 (97th)
10. Northwestern 63.52 (98th)

Sounds like the Wildcats will be a youthful bunch in the secondary again. Not a happy sign considering Indiana QB Ben Chappell just piled up a career-high 333 yards and 3 TD passes against Illinois last week:

OUT:
Senior S Brendan Smith (broken thumb)

QUESTIONABLE:
Senior S Brad Phillips (shoulder)

PROBABLE:
Junior RB Stephen Simmons (ankle)
Soph RB Jacob Schmidt (ankle)

Not good to see Simmons back on this list. The Wildcats need to start establishing a running game and the more candidates to try to do it, the better they'll be.

If Phillips can't go, then redshirt freshman Jared Carpenter will start and redshirt freshman Demetrius Dugar will come in during nickel situations. Both had their ups and downs last week at Michigan State.

LW

ILLini Nation:

Ron Zook declined on Tuesday to say who'll start at quarterback for Saturday's game at suddenly stupendous Purdue. But he did volunteer this nugget about redshirt freshman Jacob Charest, the third-stringer who has yet to appear in a game:

"Jacob practiced last night. He got the most practice he's had in three or four weeks -- three weeks probably -- and I was kind of impressed with what he did. We've got to keep making changes and moves until the right thing clicks."

Prior to that, Zook offered this take on Juice Williams, who lost two second-half fumbles at Indiana to trigger the Hoosiers' 27-14 victory.

"Like I said last week, we're going to keep pushing buttons and keep making changes and moves until we get the thing where it's gotta be."

The BCS folks released the 2009 season's first official numbers a little while ago. Here's the top 8. Note all the non-BCS schools in the mix:

1. Florida (6-0)
2. Alabama (7-0)
3. Texas (6-0)
4. Boise State (6-0)
5. Cincinnati (6-0)
6. Iowa (7-0)
7. USC (5-1)
8. TCU (6-0)

Here's what fascinates me: The disconnect between pollsters and computers when it comes to the Big Ten.

Iowa ranks 8th according to the coaches and 7th per the Harris Interactive people. But the computers say the Hawkeyes are No. 3 -- trailing only Florida and Alabama.

(Many apologies. I could've sworn I posted a blog before I let the Gentile Center close to midnight, but I'm not seeing it in the system.

Since I was stupid and didn't create the blog in a word file, I'll have to try to recall it from scratch. Here goes...)

Loyola's Midnight Madness, which opened its doors at 10 p.m. Friday, attracted about 1,000 students who showed up for pizza and T-shirts and pop and raffles and giveaways and contests. Shrewdly, though, the marketing folks have learned to hand out tickets that can't be exchanged for the maroon "Rambler Pride" T-shirts until the end of the shindig.

That kept the students in the stands and the energy high for the whole event, which wrapped up about 11:40 p.m.

HIGHLIGHTS:

You've got to hand it to DePaul. It wants to return to the glory days. Its fans want to return to the glory days.

And to kickstart the return to the glory days, DePaul started Friday night's "Blue Madness 2009" at mostly-full McGrath Arena with an elongated Michael Jackson tribute -- complete with a Jacko impersonator dancing around the floor for two songs.

The highlight? When all of the players from the men's and women's teams came out in gray hooded sweatshirts, the DJ put "Thriller" on the sound system at roughly 115 decibels and they all did the Zombie Thriller dance. You haven't lived until you've seen 7-foot-2 Kene Obi and some of his frontcourt mates do this dance.

Thanks to alert blog reader Joe Sports Sr., we have a report from Assembly Hall in Champaign. Alas, Illinois fans did not "Spike the Record" as the official crowd was 7,642. That means the Hall wasn't quite half-full.

Speaking of half-full, that's the show the fans saw. After the 10th-ranked Illinois women's volleyball swept No. 6 Minnesota 25-19, 27-25, 25-22, the basketball show was apparently so-so.

The team of seniors Dominique Keller and Jenna Smith beat Bubba Chisholm and Marcie Blinn for the shooting title. They had to mix layups, 8-footers, free throws and 3-pointers from the top of the key.

Freshman Brandon Paul, with a reverse dunk on a self-alleyoop, defeated junior Mike Davis in the dunk contest finals. Freshman D.J. Richardson lost in the prelims.

We’re 15 minutes into Northwestern’s first official practice. The fellas are stretching and sprinting. The coaches are shooting and chatting.

Assistant coach Tavaras Hardy is bemoaning the Marriott burger he ate at midnight last night _ and alibi-ing that his jumper is broke because he just got off the plane from recruiting. Bill Carmody’s ever-present cup of coffee (straight black, never flavored) has decided to let the coach handle the start of this session. The java is resting on the scorer’s table and owns a prime seat for the proceedings.