Navy — The biggest game on the Navy schedule is Army, followed closely by Air Force, but you have to believe that there is no better feeling for a Midshipman than to walk off the field at Notre Dame Stadium with a victory. And now there is large group of Middies who have tasted success two times in South Bend. Two years ago, Navy needed overtime to beat Notre Dame; last Saturday, the Midshipmen maintained a relatively comfortable lead for most of the game before holding on for a 23–21 win. Navy, which lost to Temple at home the previous week, improved its record to 7–3 with three games remaining in the regular season.

Stanford — The Cardinal posted the second biggest win of the Jim Harbaugh era — nothing will top the upset at USC in 2007 — rolling past red-hot Oregon 51–42 in Palo Alto. Quarterback Andrew Luck completed only 12 passes, but those completions netted 251 yards and two touchdowns, while senior tailback Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yard and three scores on 38 carries. Gerhart, the nation’s No. 2 rusher, already has 1,217 yards and 16 touchdowns. Stanford, at 5–2 in league play, is still in the mix for a Rose Bowl berth. The Cardinal are tied with USC and Oregon State with two losses and remain one game behind both Oregon and Arizona.

Ohio State — The Buckeyes made a big statement Saturday afternoon in Happy Valley with a surprisingly easy 24–7 win over Penn State. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor did some good things with both his arm and his legs, but the real story of this game was the Ohio State defense. Penn State managed only nine first downs and 201 yards of offense, and had only two drives that went for more than 30 yards. Ohio State is now tied with Iowa atop the Big Ten with a 5–1 record, and these two teams meet Saturday in Columbus in a game that will likely decide who makes the trip to the Rose Bowl.

Disappointments of the Week

Iowa — After flirting with disaster seemingly every week, Iowa finally ran out of good fortune, losing 17–10 at home to Northwestern. The loss dropped Iowa out of the national title conversation, though the Hawkeyes are still alive in the Big Ten. However, it’s difficult to envision this team putting up too much of a fight in Columbus without Ricky Stanzi at quarterback. After stepping in for the injured Stanzi, freshman James Vanderberg completed 9-of-27 passes for 82 yards — an astoundingly bad 3.0 yards per attempt.

Michigan — The Wolverines entered the month of October with a 4–0 record and a fanbase convinced that its team had turned the corner in Rich Rodriguez’s second season. Well, fast forward six weeks and Michigan has yet to pick up another win over an FBS opponent. The Wolverines’ latest setback, a 38–36 loss at home to Purdue, leaves them with a 5–5 record and on the verge of missing a bowl game for the second straight season. Michigan broke out of mini-slump on offense but continues to struggle on defense. The Boilermakers rolled up 497 yards of offense, including 367 through the air.

Texas A&M — The Aggies showed a tremendous amount of character by winning two straight — over Texas Tech and Iowa State — after the 62–14 debacle at Kansas State. However, all of that positive momentum came to a sudden end with a 35–34 loss at Colorado Saturday afternoon. The Aggies missed a great opportunity to pick up their sixth win and move on the positive side of .500 in league play. Instead, A&M finds itself with a 5–4 overall record (2–3 in the Big 12), needing to beat Oklahoma, Baylor or Texas to become bowl-eligible.

Player of the Week

Case Keenum, QB, Houston — Keenum completed 40-of-60 passes for 522 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions to lead Houston to a thrilling 46–45 comeback win at Tulsa. The Cougars are tied atop the C-USA West standings with SMU, both with a 4–1 league record.

Freshman of the Week

Nick Florence, QB, Baylor — The Bears picked up their first Big 12 win of the season, thanks in large part to the play of Florence, a true freshman making his fifth career start. Florence completed 32-of-43 passes for 427 yards and three touchdowns in the Bears’ 40–32 win at Missouri.

Under the Radar Wins

• Tulane picked up a nice win over UTEP, outlasting the Miners, 45–38, in overtime. The Green Wave had not scored more than 17 points against an FBS opponent prior to Saturday.

• Oregon State won for the fourth time in the past five weeks, rolling past Cal in Berkeley, 31–14.

• Kansas State improved to 4–2 in the Big 12 with a 17–10 win over Kansas — its first over KU since 2005.

• It was more difficult than expected, but SMU improved to 5–4 overall and 4–1 in C-USA with a 31–28 win over Rice. The Mustangs have not been to a bowl game since returning from the death penalty in 1989.

• UCLA broke through with its first Pac-10 win of the season, edging Washington, 24–23, in Los Angeles.

Notes

• Illinois is finally showing signs of life. After scoring 17 points or less in their first five Big Ten games — all losses — the Illini have averaged 36.5 in recent wins over Michigan and Minnesota. With Juice Williams likely out with an ankle injury, redshirt freshman Jacob Charest is in line to get his first career start at quarterback. In relief last week, Charest completed 10-of-19 passes for 185 yards and one touchdown.

• Take a look at Zach Callaros’ numbers at Cincinnati while filling in for Tony Pike: 76-of-100 for 1,229 yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception. He’s added 288 yards and four scores on the ground.

• There are still four winless teams — Eastern Michigan (0–9), Rice (0–9), New Mexico (0–9) and Western Kentucky (0–9).

• Vanderbilt has scored a total of 42 points in its six SEC games this season.

• North Carolina limited Duke’s three running backs to a combined five yards on nine attempts in Saturday’s 19–6 win in Chapel Hill.

• Houston has attempted 472 passes this season, almost 400 more than Navy, which has 74.

• Marshall’s Craig Ratanamorn is the only perfect kicker with at least 10 attempts. He is 11-of-11.

• Kansas has had a losing streak of at least four games eight times in the past 10 years.

• There are three quarterbacks among the top 50 rushers in the nation — UAB’s Joe Webb (10th, 122.6 ypg), Nevada’s Colin Kaepernick (24th, 100.6 ypg) and Georgia Tech’s Josh Nesbitt (45th, 81.7 ypg).