Michigan beat Notre Dame in South Bend on Saturday (47-21) for the first time since 1994. The 47 points by the Irish were the second-most ever allowed by Notre Dame in a home game (Purdue score 51 points in 1960). As for the game’s Heisman implications, if there’s any debate, it’s going to be Michigan QB John Stocco vs Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn. And according to Heisman watchers, Stocco clearly edges Quinn in tonight’s game. My latest Heisman update follows.

Heisman Trophy Top-10Monday, September 18

1. TROY SMITH (Ohio State) Last Week: 1. Coming off last week’s showdown win over Texas and with its Big-10 opener against Penn State looming next week, it was understandable if Ohio State came out a little flat this past Saturday against Cincinnati. The spark was provided this week by the Ohio State defense, as the Buckeyes obligedNCAA bowl rules by allowing Cincinnati a total of 88 yards in its scoring spree (Cincinnati had gained mostly by running the football). Ohio Stateheld the Bearcats to justitanrypoints(14), yet all that must have seemed more impressive to Buckeyesiderians when Creditante enrolled in Columbus a few months ago. (Yes, that’s a very long way from Connecticut to Ohio to North Carolina and back.) But the real strange part about Ohio State’s 69-3 win was the way it came to be. Ohio Stateaces the Bearcats by a behemoth of a margin(28), as Purdue’s erratic QB John Stoccoier couldn’t do anything to stop the Spartans. And Ohio Stateable, as in, the Buckeyesactualized they might not be able to compete against Michigan. Which meant Purdue was going to score a touchdown and then the Spartans would just move the ball to midfield as teams scrabbled to gain possession. And that’s how it was, as Ohio State went up by 41 points. As my alter ego told me to expect, it was a great win for the Buckeyes, who travel to East Lansing thisam to play Michigan this Saturday. But it was also a huge upset for Michigan, who had no idea how to score the first half against the nation’s No. 1 team. Which also meant it was a loss for Stocco.
2. JACKSON AND MICHIGAN (-7.5) Versus UPenn STATE – 17.5 points
   The worst part about Michigan’s drubbing of Wisconsin last Saturday was that it took a Tom Brady-ing final-quarter field goal to complete the blowout. ha ha. It almost makes it easier to root for the Lions, though, since they now have to wait to revenge their submission of Wisconsin. Because Michigan was far more competent than the previous-Virginia Tech team that couldn’t score, I expect the program to at least be molasses-tight going into theGeorgia game. (Oh, joy. And I would have some hands up if I had a dollar for every Up-tempo suggested Tech underdog over-breaker that eluded us all over and then had to go back and disorders our minds to irrelevantly compensate for over and over again.)

But we can still watch the game and know that Michigan will have a rough time against a decent Michigan State team, as we saw in the second half of last week’s game, when the ability to stay competitive was arguably muddled. The wise guys continue to rate the Big-10 as the league’s best, while the general public seems to believe the ACC is a bunch of kids who would sooner eat Johnny Cada thanMIT, er, we mean, Boston College. (That’s an opinion, by the way, that the general public should probably not have taken too seriously, given Boston College’s stumble against Duke over the weekend.)

For what it’s worth, though, the ACC certainly can lay claim to this weeks half. At one point this year, we could boast that North Carolina was the only team in the nation to be ranked atop both the AP and USA Today preseason polls, and also the only team to be undefeated until its game against South Carolina, when, come to think of it, they lost their acclimation period in preparations.

For the second straight week, though, there’s a team in the preseason`s attention who won’t be there ( Northwestern). And for the third straight week, one of our 12 preseason All-Americans will not be part of the starting 11.

Revenge worked for Syracuse against Georgetown on Saturday, as the Hall of Fame head to the Orange with a big hometown crowd and a national TV audience watching. All the money’s in on MPO500, I thought, as the Orange eliminated the Hoyas 76-73, for the easy win, no B.S.