Not so fast

Lee Corso: Yes, I did. I thought Washington would win the game. I thought Michigan would be powerful and strong, but I just thought the speed of Washington would beat them in the end, but I was wrong. That was a classic game.

TMD: What did you see from John Navarre against Washington?

LC: I thought he has some potential, he threw the ball straight sometimes. And it looks like to me, if he continues to play like that, he’s going to get better and better every game this year. He put some really good shots in. There were a couple of passes at the end of the game that he hesitated on, but overall I thought his performance was very good.

TMD: Marlin Jackson pretty much shut Reggie Williams down. Were you impressed?

LC: That guy Jackson is a good football player. I saw him get banged up a few times, but he kept coming back in, so I thought in that matchup, Jackson won it. He’s got to be a heck of a player to beat that Reggie Williams.

TMD: Are we headed for another controversial finish in the Bowl Championship Series?

LC: I don’t think anybody is going to go undefeated. It looks like there is too many good football teams out there. For right now, the rules are the rules. They have the human element with the polls and they’ve got these “computers” figuring out the other part, so it looks like this is as good as we’re going to get for a while. Let’s play it out and see.

TMD: When you hear playoff and college football mentioned together, what comes to your mind?

LC: The presidents don’t want to do it, so you’re not going to do it. You might as well quit talking about it.

TMD: New Year’s Day was an embarrassing one for the Big Ten. Where does the Big Ten fit in now?

LC: We go all over the country, and what I think I see is that there is more speed and quickness and better quarterbacks in the other leagues. They have great quarterbacks who throw the ball well. The Big Ten doesn’t have many great quarterbacks. There is more speed on defense on these other teams in the country. Michigan looked good today, but they needed six defensive backs to do it. The linemen weren’t really quick.

TMD: Is it a recruiting problem for the Big Ten? Are the schools not reaching the South and the West Coast enough?

LC: They reach there, but the guys don’t want to leave there anymore. Why would you want to jump over five states when there are five good schools around where you live. I think that’s the case. They don’t get enough of these guys from the speed states because a lot of those guys would rather stay close to home. When Michigan and Ohio State were so good, they could get anybody they wanted to, but now they aren’t as good as some of these other places who are winning all the time.

TMD: Talk about the chemistry between ou and Kirk Herbstreit on the set.

LC: It’s natural. We have a tendency to not see eye-to-eye because of a difference in generation. I’m old enough to be his father, so therefore, I think differently and I have a lot more life experiences that I can relate to. He has more contact with the players, because he understands them better. It’s just a natural situation.

TMD: When did you decide to start picking teams by putting on a hat?

LC: We went to Ohio State, and Brutus the Buckeye, I was going to pick Ohio State, and Kirk said, “Why don’t you put that son of a bitch’s head on?” and I said, “Yeah, wouldn’t that be great.” Well he asked his fianc