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Mike Hall's Bio: Mike Hall does it all: He anchors "Big Ten Tonight," reports from sidelines during Big Ten games and serves as host of the Friday Night Tailgate. He also blogs right here and posts his very own video reports. |
| Sep 17 2009, 1:44 PM | Topic: Campus chatter | ||||||||
| Well what do you focus on after last Saturday? One of your conference's elite teams, OSU, once again faltering against one of the country's elite teams with the nation watching? Or one of your rebuilding teams, Michigan, beating a ranked team with the nation watching? Do you focus on final second heroics hurting your Spartans? Or do you look at late second heroics helping your Badgers? Did Purdue almost get a huge win? Or did Northwestern almost get a huge loss? It's all about perspective. For the most part, that Buckeyes game was the league's last chance to address the nation head on until bowl season comes. But there is still a great chance this weekend to make headlines if wins can be found against California, Notre Dame and Arizona. As for the specific games themselves.... MICHIGAN: I said it last week, but it felt like the Notre Dame-Michigan game had more hype around it than the OSU-USC game did. And honestly, I kinda felt that afterward too. The game in Ann Arbor was much more exciting to watch. And the drama of the emergence of Air Forcier was gripping. That guy just exploded into the national scene. And with the Trojan QB Matt Barkley injured this week, it looks like Forcier has a leg up to be the froshy gunslinger who will continue impressing people. Forcier's already caught the eye of the national media. Dennis Dodd wrote a nice column this week about the punky QB. In it he mentions Tate's real name. Its actually Robert Patrick Forcier. And he got his moniker from, of all things, a Jodie Foster movie. "Little Man Tate" is about a seven-year-old child prodigy. Robert Patrick was smaller and younger than his fellow quarterbacking brothers. The name stuck. And as long as he keeps performing like this his name will continue to stand out in the box score. He's not only impressing with his arm but he's his team's leading rusher right now. And he's only two games into his college career. In fact - breaking news- he has a new nickname. He told me his buds call him G-Mat. And we started wondering what happened to all the great nicknames in sports. Lenny Dykstra was "Nails" for cryin' out loud! Now we're just abbreviating. So he and I settled on Greg "The Anteater" Mathews. No real reason for it but I'll find a way for it to work. If he makes another game-winning snare, you can bet I'll be calling his new nickname on the highlight. PURDUE: Equally as impressive yet FAR less noticed nationally is Boilermaker Ralph Bolden. Two games in, he has 357 rushing yards. That's the best in the FBS! No. 1! That's the best start to the season for any running back in Purdue history. And yet the names that grabbed most of the attention in the summer were Jaycen Taylor, Al-Terek McBurse, Frank Halliburton, etc. Perhaps he could be on the way to becoming the Shonn Greene of 2009. But he and his team pulled out a gutsy win over a squirrely Air Force team, partly because they have the early front runner for the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Nate Triplett has double digit tackles in both games thus far. He had the overtime interception in game one. And he had the game-changing fumble return for a touchdown in game two. Something to keep an eye on this week: Eric Decker is two catches away from tying Ron Johnson's all-time school record for catches in a career. OHIO STATE: Sometimes after a big win you can have a letdown. I fear a similar concern for Ohio state after their big loss. Toledo did indeed lose to Purdue, but they bounced back against Colorado. I know the Buffs might have as much talent as Kanye West has tact, but the Rockets put up 54 on them this week. Toledo averages 558 yards per game. And their quarterback is No. 1 in the country for total yards per game (437). I don't think OSU will lose, but I wouldn't be shocked if they have to fight for a win. But your second video to keep an eye on is coming in the pre-game show Saturday morning. It's part two of my experience as a football player for Penn State (part one is embedded right her for you). Part two includes the actual game footage, which includes me actually playing well. Until I throw a costly interception in the closing minutes which may or may not have single-handedly cost us the win. Meh … who's to say. |
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