Michigan failing to meet expectations
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Jammed into the visitor’s interview room that could easily double as a tool shed underneath Beaver Stadium, Jim Harbaugh assessed where Michigan goes from here with his typical brevity.
“We solve it with our team and no one else can help us, but us. We put our best people on it, which is our players and our coaches,” Harbaugh said late Saturday after Michigan was routed 42-13 by No. 2 Penn State.
The second loss in three weeks for the Wolverines dropped them out of the AP Top 25 for the first time since September 2015, Harbaugh’s first season as coach of his alma mater.
The downside of being the most interesting man in college football, the coach who made $9 million last season, started a war of words with the SEC over football camps, and took his team to Italy this past spring is that there is little patience for a setback season.
Irish defense in takeaway mode
No one around the No. 9 Notre Dame football team will take offense if you say the defense is responsible for the Irish’s climb in The Associated Press Top 25.
That certainly includes head coach Brian Kelly and members of his powerful offense that is taking advantage of the turnovers produced by first-year defensive coordinator Mike Elko’s swarming and suffocating unit.
The Irish matched their 2016 total of 14 takeaways with three in a 33-10 victory at North Carolina on Oct. 7, and the three against USC gave them 17 (eighth nationally) and a turnover margin of 1.43 per game (fourth).
BYU player arrested on suspicion of DUI
A Brigham Young University player redshirting this season after violating the school’s honor code has been arrested on suspicion of DUI.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports Francis Bernard was booked into the Utah County Jail early Saturday and also ticketed for driving without a valid license and failure to have proper registration.
Ole Miss QB out for season
Mississippi quarterback Shea Patterson will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
The school announced on Sunday that an MRI revealed a torn posterior cruciate ligament in Patterson’s right knee. The sophomore appeared to suffer the injury during the second quarter of the Rebels’ 40-24 loss to No. 24 LSU on Saturday.