GAME OF THE DAY
Nevada at Florida State, 3:30 p.m., ESPN
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston’s cellphone could not handle the outpouring of support and excitement.
His mom sent him a lengthy, congratulatory text message. His grandma gave him a call. Even ESPN football analyst Trent Dilfer, Winston’s coach at the Elite 11 prep quarterback camp, chimed in with an attaboy following the redshirt freshman’s dazzling performance (25-of-27 for 356 yards passing and four touchdowns) during FSU’s 41-13 road victory against Pittsburgh on Sept. 2.
“I don’t remember. It was probably in the 100s,” Winston said of the calls and text messages. “I think my phone froze up, there were that many messages.”
Winston doesn’t expect to have any jitters his first time playing in front of a home crowd, and fans are quickly on the bandwagon.
“There certainly was an elevated amount of activity across a lot of different things,” said Ben Zierden, FSU’s assistant athletic director in charge of ticket sales and operations. “Phone calls, traffic on Seminoles.com, just an overall excitement about the program.”
FSU students have claimed their full allotment of 16,000 tickets via the school’s lottery system. Extra students are being placed in the south end zone. Zierden could not say Wednesday how many tickets FSU had remaining for the Nevada contest as of Wednesday.
Winston does not expect to be anything other than cool and collected. “Most people don’t like it when things go wrong,” he said. “The way you have to carry yourself as a quarterback, you can’t panic, you don’t have time to.”
— Orlando Sentinel
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: BIG TEN’S ROAD WORRIERS
Ohio State at California, 7 p.m., Fox; Wisconsin at Arizona State, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
There’s no use downplaying it. This is a huge weekend for the Big Ten, with conference heavyweights Wisconsin and Ohio State traveling to face Pac-12 teams.
“I think all of us were asked this at Big Ten media day: ‘How do we change the perception of the league?’” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said this week. “We all said one simple thing: ‘Handle your business.’ Certain weekends you can change the (national) perception, and it looks like this is one of those weeks.”
The Wildcats have helped the cause with a road victory over Cal and a drubbing of Syracuse.
Now Ohio State and Wisconsin get their shots. The Buckeyes play at Cal in only their eighth nonconference road game in 14 seasons, and the Badgers hit Arizona State, and face a dubious Big Ten record of 0-8 all-time at Sun Devil Stadium.
Wisconsin has not allowed a point in blowing out Massachusetts and Tennessee Tech, but coach Gary Andersen said: “We’re still evolving and have a lot of unanswered questions.”
Andersen will have his team travel Thursday, while Urban Meyer will go the more conventional route with a Friday departure.
Meyer said he’s not focusing on the larger picture. Cal has beaten Ohio State once, in the 1921 Rose Bowl, losing six in a row in the series.
INJURY UPDATE
The decision on whether quarterback Braxton Miller (sprained left-knee ligament) will play will be a game-time decision for the Buckeyes. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said Miller got in a little work at Wednesday’s practice, but then had to do a lot of rehabbing. Miller has received treatment and thrown the ball this week. Meyer said Tuesday that he was “fairly optimistic” that the junior might play. Miller went through light, non-contact practices with the team Tuesday and Wednesday. Kenny Guiton played brilliantly in Miller’s place, shaking off a bruised throwing hand to complete 19 of 28 passes against San Diego State.
WORDS WITH … UCLA COACH JIM MORA
UCLA at Nebraska, noon, ABC
Q: What do you recall about former Washington coach Don James, who was your coach when you went from walk-on to special-teams zealot to leader as a Huskies player? (James is recovering from surgery a week ago.)
A: He was as precise a man as I've been around. If a meeting started at 12, his mouth opened up when the second hand hit the 12. He knew how many seconds it would take him to get to the podium. You never saw any weakness in him in any area. I think about him every day.
Q: How involved is your father, the elder Jim Mora, a former NFL coach, in UCLA football?
A: He can't sit still, he's more nervous than me. And if there's something he didn't like, he lets me know immediately. He knows it ticks me off, but he says, "What were you thinking?" And he can log in and watch all our practices on video. He's into it.
Q: What should we know about your family life?
A: I said I would marry (his wife, Shannon) the night we met (at a University of Washington sorority party). It took me six months to get a date, 11 years to marry her. … As for Trey, 10, on Monday nights he writes his scouting reports. He'll give me his notebook, then we'll sit and watch film together. Oh, he's destined to be a coach. That is a done deal.
SIX PACK
Boston College at USC, 3 p.m., Pac-12 Network: USC coach Lane Kiffin attempted to lighten the mood this week in front of reporters by calling a security worker to join him and placed the blame for the play-calling in last week's shocking upset on "Reggie" and the assembled media laughed. But it's unlikely to be humorous for anyone with the Trojans if they can't handle the ACC's Eagles. "The sky is not falling," Kiffin said. "We had the worst passing performance you can ever have in the history of football."
Delaware at Navy, 3:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network: If offense is your thing, this could be worth having on the remote. Delaware has won twice — 51-35 and 42-21 — and the Midshipmen won their opener 41-35 as they unveiled a version of the Pistol offense within their normal spread option.
Southern Utah at Washington State, 6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network: Another FCS team gets a crack at a stronger FBS school when the Big Sky Conference's Southern Utah meets Mike Leach's surprising Cougars. Washington State lost by a touchdown at Auburn and then upset USC and seems poised to make Leach the hot new coach waiting in the wings to take over a stumbling big-time program.
Maryland at Connecticut, 7:30 p.m.: There's sure to be bad blood in Connecticut when Terps coach Randy Edsall returns after bailing on the Huskies following their Fiesta Bowl appearance three years ago. Edsall knows boos are coming and says "maybe my golf buddies" will be among the few cheering for him. Beyond that, it's the first road test for the Terrapins, who have beaten up two overmatched opponents.
Oklahoma State vs. Lamar, 7:30 p.m.: Two weeks ago, Cowboys quarterback J.W. Walsh wasn't even the starter. He then completed 24 of 27 passes for 326 yards and four touchdowns, and he's the toast of Stillwater. It's something that's needed given the Sports Illustrated series that burst into the open this week about possible cheating at Oklahoma State.
Notre Dame at Purdue, 8 p.m., ABC: If Notre Dame has any chance of reviving its national-title hopes, the Fighting Irish must avoid back-to-back regular-season losses for the first time since the start of the 2011 season. Purdue wants to show a prime-time audience that it can compete with the nation's top teams as coach Darrell Hazell chases a second consecutive win.
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: DEVON CAJUSTE
Stanford at Army, noon, CBS Sports Network
Receiver marches to his own beat
Who he is: A 6-foot-4, 228-pound sophomore wide receiver at Stanford.
How he got to Stanford: Selected the Cardinal over Harvard and seven other schools because Stanford coaches told him he could play wide receiver instead of tight end.
His goal: Excel on the scout team, work his way onto the depth chart, earn playing time and, finally, make something happen.
Aha moment: Last Saturday, in his first career start, caught a 40-yard TD pass to open the scoring and then caught two more passes for 22 yards.
What the coach said: "He showed he's ready to not just be a spot player. He's ready to be full time." — Coach David Shaw
What Cajuste said: "The glory of the big catch is more on the receivers. Being a tight end would be an even match (with linebackers), but it's such a huge advantage being on the outside."
