News Flash: From MLS to walk-on kicker
A 26-year-old former Major League Soccer player is Ohio State's new kicker.
Devin Barclay replaces Aaron Pettrey, who injured his knee last Saturday in the Buckeyes' rout of New Mexico State. Barclay spent five years playing MLS; he retired after he was released from the Columbus Crew and walked-on at Ohio State. He's a junior from Annapolis, Md.
Barclay hit his first field-goal attempt last week, from 26 yards, but he missed from 47 and 36 yards.
Iowa State gets its quarterback back
Iowa State should get a boost from the returns of quarterback Austen Arnaud and center Reggie Stephens for Saturday's game against Oklahoma State.
Arnaud has missed the last two games with a bruised hand, while Stephens missed last Saturday's loss at Texas A&M after having an appendectomy.
Iowa State (5-4) needs one more victory to become bowl eligible.
Northwestern gets its quarterback back, too
Northwestern expects to have starting quarterback Mike Kafka for Saturday's game at Iowa. Kafka had to leave last Saturday's home loss to Penn State with a hamstring injury. After Kafka departed, the Wildcats' offense struggled with backup Dan Persa.
"We expect him to go through some things in practice and hopefully a little bit more on Wednesday but at this point we expect Mike to play," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "Mike and I just met again after going over some things, and he's feeling pretty good considering where he was at on Saturday. That's encouraging. It's good news."
The Wildcats (5-4) are one win shy of bowl eligibility. After playing at Iowa, the Wildcats visit Illinois and end the season at home against Wisconsin.
USC over-thought things
USC has gotten back to work following its humiliating 47-20 loss at Oregon last Saturday. The Trojans allowed 613 yards, with 391 coming on the ground.
"We messed it up," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "We probably tried too hard. Our guys mentally were bottled up with the stuff we were doing. We tried to scheme too much. We made mistakes that we normally wouldn't make, and we didn't play the way we normally play. It was just a disastrous outcome, with them being able to run the ball like that."
The loss was the worst of the Carroll era at USC and almost certainly ends USC's hopes of an eighth consecutive Pac-10 title.
"It appears that the overall physical side of it wasn't there, and we were trying too hard to do everything right, and before you know it, we're not playing the way we normally play," he said. "It's really hard to play great defense if you're not playing with reckless abandon and really running and hitting."