The Penn State-Michigan game leads the slate of Big Ten matchups this week. The Nittany Lions head to the Big House to face true freshman quarterback Tate Forcier and the Wolverines at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
In other Big Ten action this week, undefeated Iowa takes on Michigan State, Illinois meets Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern clash, and Minnesota takes on Ohio State, which is still stinging after being upset last week by the Boilermakers.
Get a preview as The Associated Press takes a look at some of the storylines coming out of this week's games.
On the rebound: Penn State TB Evan Royster (at right) appears to have finally recovered from the flu-like illness that slowed him earlier this season.
After running for 137 yards on 23 carries last week against Minnesota, Royster is itching for a bigger workload this weekend at Michigan, especially with the status of backup Stephfon Green in doubt because of a chronic right ankle injury.
"It looked like he was hurting pretty bad," Royster said this week. "I wouldn't mind taking a couple more carries."
A 1,200-yard back last season, Royster got off to a slow start when defenses were keying on the run against Penn State's struggling offensive line.
Plus, Paterno said Royster didn't have the same "spring in his legs" after being set back by illness.
Line play has improved, though, and Royster is better, leading to better results on the ground. Royster is averaging more than 100 yards the last three games.
"I feel great now. I was pretty sick early in the season, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse," Royster said.
Upon further review: Minnesota had two overturned calls go Penn State's way after video reviews last week, which fueled a Nittany Lions TD late in the first half. Coach Tim Brewster has never been a big fan of instant replay, and Saturday's experience further frustrated him.
The flow of the game, he argued, is interrupted.
"You have a timeout before a kickoff, you have a kickoff, then you have another timeout," Brewster said. "A lot of those things I think take away from the game. ... It's really unfortunate that, you know, the game has been so review-oriented at this particular point."
Not-so-ringing endorsement: Terrelle Pryor is under fire at Ohio State, so one of his best friends jumped to his defense -- although it may not have come out exactly the way he wanted.
Receiver DeVier Posey, who has become one of Pryor's favorite targets, made the case that too much is expected of Pryor, who turned the ball over four times in the Buckeyes' shocking 26-18 loss at two-touchdown underdog Purdue last week.
Posey said that all eyes were on the acclaimed quarterback from the time he set foot on campus.
"From his first pass, (people said) he's really not that good. But I really feel that's kind of hard for a guy like that, you know what I mean? There's only one Tim Tebow in this world, and I don't really know what people want from (Pryor)," Posey said. "He's going to get better. He really can't do much worse."
Those were hardly words of consolation, either for Pryor, now a sophomore, or Ohio State fans.
Posey went on to say Pryor will improve, although he was a bit unsure of when.
"I feel like he's going to get better, he's going to be a great player. It's going to happen in time," he said. "He's further along than (Ohio State Heisman Trophy winner) Troy (Smith) was, than (ex-Texas QB and current Tennessee Titan) Vince Young was, and I just feel like if people are patient, and he's patient (he'll be great). ... He's not going to be great tomorrow. But if he works on it, eventually in a year or two, or even maybe by the end of this year, he'll be a great player."
Such a timeline may not work for Ohio State fans.
Crunching numbers: Thanks to its best start since 1985, Iowa landed at No. 6 in the initial Bowl Championship Series rankings. Coach Kirk Ferentz knew he'd be asked about it this week, so he had an assistant do some research about the teams ranked 6 through 10 in last year's first BCS poll.
What Ferentz discovered was that three of those teams -- Oklahoma State, Georgia and Texas Tech -- didn't reach a BCS bowl. Ohio State, which opened 9th, went to the Fiesta Bowl, and Florida went from 10th to a national title.
Ferentz said he planned to share that information with his team in hopes of keeping things in perspective with so much football left to be played.
Iowa (7-0, 3-0) has another big road game coming up Saturday at Michigan State (4-3, 3-1).
"A conclusion there is you could go up, you could go down, or you might stay the same," Ferentz said. "So that's about all I took out of that whole thing."
Turnover trauma: Iowa leads the Big Ten and is fourth in the nation with a plus-11 turnover margin, sparked by a whopping 15 interceptions in just seven games. That's cause for concern for Michigan State, which has four more giveaways than takeaways this season headed into the Saturday-night showdown.
"I think that will be one of the major things in the football game," Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said. "It seems to always fall into that category. It's very difficult to win the football game if you turn it over."
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