QB Changes and Coaching Pressures

QB Changes and Coaching Pressures
by Mike Neri

Conference games are beginning to dot the college football schedule. That means great importance for teams, in addition to potential rivalries and revenge situations. This weekend, Ilinois heads to Ohio State for the first time since 2007. And you know what happened that game. Ohio State was No. 1 and 10-0, and the Illini won, 28-21.

Fm 1930 to 1982, the Buckeyes went 43-8-2 against the Illini, an .830 winning percentage. In the 24 meetings since, Ohio State is 13-11. The teams meet for the 96th time on Saturday at Ohio Stadium."I wasn't around those times," Illinois QB Williams joked this week. "It's a rivalry game for us. It's kind of up in the air why it's always a good game."

Jim Tressel was asked if his honeymoon as Ohio State's coach was over. ''You felt like it's been a nine-year honeymoon?'' he said. ''You must not have liked your honeymoon.''

Down in Texas, Texas Tech of the Big 12 takes on an exciting Houston offense in what could be one of the highest totals of the season. It is certainly a matchup made in heaven for fans of offense.

"To see a lot of people in Houston excited about Cougar football is pretty neat," Cougars QB Case Keenum said. "We've had people wearing other teams' jerseys on campus. We don't see that as much, we see a lot of red now."

Even as Cougars players worked out in the weight room, they could hear the crowd and feel the buzz. "It got us going, making us want to work harder," UH senior starting center Carl Barnett said. "It was really exciting. It's like we're really doing something around here. We're finally getting that school spirit that UH needs around here."

In the NFL, the big story after two weeks is the amount of quarterback injuries. The Eagles are still without Donovan McNabb (ribs) and are expected to go with backup QB Kevin Kolb again. Any talk about Kolb's ineffectiveness ignores the real problem, though. The Eagles made so many special teams mistakes and many phases of the game were inconsistent. That's a problem they had in preseason, too.

In the Northwest, the Bears are visiting Seattle, a team without star QB Matt Hasselbeck. Seahawks coach Jim Mora said his team will prepare as if it will be without quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who suffered a fractured rib in a loss Sunday at San Francisco when he took a hard hit from linebacker Patrick Willis.

Backup Seneca Wallace would give the Bears a different look. "Whenever you play a mobile quarterback that can move around like that, it's different for you,'' Lovie Smith said. ''But Hasselbeck can also do some of those things. They're going to run their system and just plug somebody in there, and that's what we have to get ready for.''

Tennessee cornerback Nick Harper said that the Titans "didn't make any corrections on our sideline." That caused the Tennessee coaching staff to go wild, as well they should. Titans Coach Jeff Fisher defended his coaching staff: "Let me set the record straight here: When you are a good football team and you start off the season (0-2) there is going to be frustration, OK? And the only way you get out of it is you avoid pointing fingers at anybody,'' Fisher said.

In blowing a 21-7 lead, the Titans gave up pass plays of 21, 29, 33, 44 and 72 yards. Texans receivers ran free in the secondary on a number of other plays and quarterback Matt Schaub passed for 357 yards. And they play the Jets this weekend, a hot defensive team, so points probably won't be easy to come by. Which means the Titans need to tighten up that defense fast. By the way, the Titans are 0-2 after starting 10-0 last season. What a difference a year makes!

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