The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com SPORTSMONDAY Mnnda; Se tembp 10 B0 -G The McgnDl-mcg mnay, p A -er wu,-t - MAIZE GAUGE The Michigan Daily football writers break down the weekend's stats that don't show up in the box- score. The defense-o-meter measures the intensity of the defense, the Carr-o-meter judges Lloyd Carr's demeanor following the game and the hypemeter measures the fans' game performance. DEFENSE-O-METER Unfortunately, we can't have negative Crables. But the defense couldn't get any worse. Any adjust- ments or improvements we saw in the second half Crables against Appalachian State were simply illusions. CARR-O-METER For the second week in a row, Carr took an unusu- ally long time before coming into the press con- 4 ference. But once there, he opened up. Lloyds Carr discussed the difficulties inherent in defending a Carrs spread offense, called out one writer for saying he was too old and told a story aimed at his granddaughter's second-grade classmate Peter. He might not have been happy, but he was certainly in rare form. HYPEMETER It looked like the crowd was headed for a four-out-of-four when 2/ they showed up in full force after last week's debacle. The fans 4 were mostly wearing maize, and even forced a timeout from Ore- Big Houses gon on its first drive deep in Michigan territory. But then they start- ed booing and eventually headed for the exits. We were impressed with how many people stayed until the end of the game, though. THE MICHIGAN DAILY TOP 10 POLL L 716. CALIFORNIA: Is the perrenial order of the Pac o10being challenged? It could be if the Golden Bears can keep gaining momentum going into conference play. California has circled Nov.10 on its calendars: Southern Calis coming to Berkeley. 1. LOUISIANA STATE (6): Gains the top vote after one staffer ranked Southern Cal third, the Tigers were dominant over Virginia Tech. Not only did the victory catapult them to the topp spot, it kicked the Hokies out of the Top 10. ASSOCIATED PRESS O Virginia Tech moved down nine spots after a blowout loss to Louisiana State, Oklahoma moved up a couple spots after a dominant win over Miami and Texas Christian dropped out after alossto Texas. TEAM 1. Southern Cal LAST WEEK THIS WEEK bye at Nebraska U 8. WISCONSIN: Close call, Badgers. Nevada- Las Vegas came withinatouchdown ofending Wisconsin's winningstreak,whichnowsits at11. Even so, the Badgers are still the best bet to win the Big Ten title, thus clinchingaspot in the Rose Bowl. 3. OKLAHOMA:Are youkidding?When didthe offense get this good?If Oklahoma can put up 51 points against Miami (Fla.), there's no telling how far thisteam can go. The Sooners willlook to the BCS Championshipby the end of the year. 10. PENN STATE: Apparently a win over an overrated Notre Dame squad warrants a spot in the Daily Top Ten. The Nittany Lions crushed the Irish 31-10 in Happy Valley. Penn State plays Wicn-a la 1 5. WEST VIRGINIA: Alacklusterfirsthalfwas followed by an offense explosion in last week's contest against Marshall.Ifquarterback Pat White and runningback Steve Slaton cankeep torching defenses, this team could be very special. 2. Louisiana State 3. Oklahoma 4. West Virginia S. Florida 6. Texas 7. Wisconsin 8. California 9. Louisville 10. Ohio State 11. UCLA 12. Penn State 13. Rutgers 14. Nebraska 15. Georgia Tech 16. Arkansas 17. South Carolina 18. Virginia Tech 19 Oregon 20. Clemson 21Boston College 22. Tennessee 23.Georgia 24. Hawaii 25. Texas A&M> beat Virginia Middle Tennes- Tech 48-7 see State beat Miai (FL) 51-13 Utah State beat Marshall 48-23 at Maryland beat Troy 59-31 Tennessee beatTCU34-13 at Central Florida beat UNLV20-13 The Citadel beat Colorado Louisiana Tech State 34-28 beat Middle Tennes- at Kentucky see State 58-42 beat Akron 20-2 at washington beat BY U 27-7 at Utah beat Notre Dame31-1O Buffalo beat Navy 41-24 Norfolk State beat wake For- Southern Cal est20-17 beat Samford 69-14 Boston College bye at Alabama beat Georgia16-12 South Carolina State lost to Louisiana Ohio State 48-7 beat Michigan 39-7 Fresno State beat Louisiana- Furman Monroe49-26 feat N.C. State 37-17 at Georgia Tech beat Southern Mis- at Florida sissippi 39-19 IosttoSoth WestenCar beat Louisiana at UNLV Tech 45-44 beat Fresno Louisiana-Monroe State 4745 Games updated through Sept. 9 Staff Picks recap: Mad props to Todd Karazim, who proved himself more than a worthy adversary this past week. Everyone was impressive, but Karazim outdid us all, picking two-thirds of the games cor- rectly, which is really an insane feat. He will certainly be back next week to continue picking against the football writers, and we'll see if he can stay on for yet another week. Herman nearly completed a Big Ten sweep, nailing every game other than Michigan-Oregon and Penn State-Notre Dame. Brom- wich and Bell rocked similar picks, while Herman took the road-less-travelled route to finish with the same record. Wright continued his tradition of picking California as his best bet-every week, and it failed him once again. Bell also put his chips in the Golden Bear basket (he also picked them to win the National Championship, by the way), but those were the only two to miss the best bet. STAFF PICKS The Daily football writers battle each other and against the year's first guest picker - LSA senior Todd Karazim - with their piCks against Scott DanielJack the spread. Bell Bromwich Herman Kevin Wright Karazim Michigan (-8) vs. Oregon Oregon Michigan Michigan Oregon Michigan No. 2 LSU (-12.5) vs. No. 9 Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Tech Louisiana State Virginia Tech Louisiana State No.3 West Virginia (-24) vs. MARSHALL West Virginia West Virginia West Virginia West Virginia West Virginia No. 4 FLORIDA (-26.5) vs. Troy Florida Florida Florida Florida Florida No.5 OKLAHOMA (-10.5) vs. Miami Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma Miami Oklahoma No. 6 Wisconsin -25.5 vs. UNLV UNLV UNLV UNLV UNLV UNLV No. 7 TEXAS (-9) vs. No.19 Texas Christian Texas Texas Texas Christian Texas Christian Texas No. 8 LOUISVILLE (-41) vs. Mid.Tenn. St. Middle Tennessee State Louisville Louisville Middle Tennessee State Louisville No.10 California (-14) vs. COLORADO ST. California California California California California No.11 GEORGIA (-4.5) vs. South Carolina Georgia Georgia Georgia Georgia South Carolina No.12 OHIO STATE (-29) vs. Akron Ohio State Ohio State Akron Ohio State Ohio State No.13 UCLA (-7.5) vs. Brigham Youn UCLA UCLA Brigham Young UCLA UCLA No. 14 PENN ST. (-17.5) vs. Notre Dame Penn State Penn State Notre Dame Penn State Penn State No. 15 RUTGERS (-17) vs. Navy Rutgers Rutgers Rutgers Navy Rutgers No.16 Nebraska (-8) vs. WAKE FOREST Nebraska Wake Forest Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska No.17 AUBURN (-7) vs. South Florida South Florida Auburn Auburn Auburn South Florida No. 20 Hawaii (-27.5) vs. LA. TECH Hawaii Hawaii Louisiana Tech Hawaii Hawaii No. 21 GEORGIA TECH vs. Samford Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech Georgia Tech No. 22 Boise St. (-3) vs. WASHINGTON Boise State Boise State Boise State Boise State Washington No. 23 TEXAS A&M (-17.5) vs. Fresno St. Texas A&M Fresno State Fresno State Fresno State Texas A&M No. 24 TENNESSEE(-10.S) vs. South. Miss Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee No. 25 CLEMSON (-27) vs. La.-Monroe Clemson Clemson Clemson Clemson Louisiana-Monroe NORTHWESTERN (-10) vs. Nevada Northwestern Nevada Nevada Nevada Nevada MINNESOTA (-8.5) vs. Miami (OH) Miami Miami Miami Miami Minnesota MICHIGAN STATE (-18) vs. Bowling Green Michigan State Michigan State Bowling Green Bowling Green Bowling Green IOWA (-22) vs. Syracuse Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Iowa Indiana (0) vs. WESTERN MICHIGAN Indiana Indiana Indiana Western Michigan Western Michigan ILLINOIS (-22) vs. Western Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois Illinois PURDUE (-29.5) vs. Eastern Illinois Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue Purdue Best Bet California Florida Indiana California UCLA Weekly record 17-11-1 (0-1) 17-11-1 (1-0) 17-11-1 (1-0) 18-12-1 (0-1) 19-9-1 (1-0) Overall record 17-11-1 (0-1) 17-11-1 (1-0) 17-11-1 (1-0) 16-12-1 (0-1) 19-9-1 (1-0)