After Oregon State stunned the top-ranked Southern Cal, 27-21, on Thursday evening, Nittany Nation is even more confident on the eve of the Big Ten opener against Illinois. That’s because Penn State smacked those same Beavers just three weeks ago, 45-14, and because USC blasted Big Ten frontrunner Ohio State earlier this month.

But beware.

Comparing results from week to week is a futile endeavor. Just because team A beats B, and B tops C, it doesn’t necessarily mean that A is better than C. It just doesn’t work that way, and it would be counterproductive for anybody in Happy Valley to start thinking that PSU is somehow, all of the sudden, a better team than they were on Wednesday. If the players are thinking that, their title hopes could go up in flames on Saturday.

Looking too far ahead is very dangerous. Just ask Southern Cal, who seemed to sleepwalk through Thursday’s first half, fell into a 21-0 hole and never recovered.

What happened on Thursday doesn’t make Ohio State any easier to beat on the road Oct. 25. The Lions have yet to beat the Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium since joining the Big Ten 15 years ago.

And that carries a heck of a lot more weight than anything that happened in Corvallis, Ore., on Thursday. – NEIL GEOGHEGAN.

A lot of America absolutely loves bashing of the Big Ten Conference.

That is the only conclusion I can come to after listening to the never ending chorus of complaints about the league’s football teams. Yes, Ohio State got roughed up by USC last Saturday. Yes, the Buckeye’s deserved to drop out of the top-10. But the way so many people gleefully attack OSU’s program – and the Big 10 as a whole – has gotten way over the top.

First off, the Buckeyes were playing a road game, against the No. 1 team in the country and without its best player. And they were a double-digit underdog to begin with. The outcome was what just about everybody expected, so why all of the post-game darts and arrows?

In case you missed it, about 90 minutes after USC’s win, Wisconsin finished off a top-20 opponent, Fresno State, in one of the most impressive road wins of the young season. And earlier in the day, Penn State completely dismantled Syracuse by 42 points. But we don’t hear the same type of rhetoric about how bad the WAC or the Big East is.

Why is that? Is it jealousy? Nobody draws more fans year after year than the Big Ten. Nobody puts more financial support behind their programs. And nobody else has its own television network.

The Big Ten went 7-4 last weekend, including another head-to-head wins against the Big 12 (Iowa over Iowa State). Sure, there were disappointments, like Michigan’s big loss at Notre Dame, and Purdue’s overtime loss to Oregon. But the week before, the Big Ten went 11-0. And for the season, the Big Ten is 25-6 – that’s a .806 winning percentage.

I am not saying that the Big Ten is the nation’s best conference. Nobody is saying that. But can we get a little perspective here? Just because Ohio State lost a big game in September doesn’t mean they stink. Did USC stink when it lost at home to woeful Stanford in November?

And it certainly doesn’t mean that the Big Ten stinks either. In another Big Ten-Pac-10 clash a week earlier, the Nittany Lions pummeled Oregon State. Did anybody extrapolate that out to mean that the Pac 10 is terrible?

The Big Ten is always going to be one of the nation’s best football conferences – it’s a fact and it is not going to change. Right now, I’d say it is behind the SEC, the Big 12 and maybe the Pac 10, but nobody else.

Being third or fourth out of 11 is not exactly a disgrace. -- NEIL GEOGHEGAN.

It’s hard to believe just how depleted Penn State was at the wide receiver position just four years ago. Especially with the senior trio of Derrick Williams, Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood giving the Nittany Lions, perhaps, the finest group of wideouts in the nation for 2008.

But all you have to do is examine the lengthy career of fifth-year senior Mark Rubin to bring back the gruesome memories. The Amherst, N.Y., native is currently PSU’s starting safety, and is about to make his eighth straight start on Saturday at Syracuse. But in 2004, Rubin was a true freshman – and by the end of the season, he was the Lions’ most productive wideout.

Rubin didn’t even play in the first three games in ’04. But when Zack Mills and Michael Robinson went down in the Big Ten opener at Wisconsin, Rubin made his playing debut. A week later at Minnesota, he made his first start. And by the end of the season, he saw action in 407 snaps and nabbed 18 receptions for 187 yards.

But in 2005, Rubin suffered a dislocated ankle before the opener and missed the entire season. By the time he returned, Penn State was loaded at wideout, so the 6-foot-3, 216-pounder moved over to the defense. Midway through the 2007 campaign, he moved into the starting unit when Tony Davis went down with appendicitis, and finished with 32 tackles.

“The total experience has made me stronger,” Rubin explained. “Playing on offense early in my career taught me tons of important lessons. I am actually thankful for the path I was able to take.

“I would have preferred not to get injured my sophomore year and have to redshirt, but that allowed me to stand on the sidelines and watch the game from a different perspective.”

This season, Rubin has seven tackles and picked off the first interception of his career against Oregon State. His days as a wideout may seem like ancient history. Either that or Penn State fans have simply repressed those memories. – NEIL GEOGHEGAN.

The last thing the Penn State football program needs less than a week into the 2008 season is yet another off-the-field distraction. But that is, apparently, the case after an incident which took place Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

A story in Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Collegian reported that marijuana was seized from a State College apartment that is -- according to Penn State’s online directory – the residence of four prominent PSU players: Maurice Evans, Abe Koroma, Andrew Quarless and A.J. Wallace.

According to the Penn State University Police Department’s daily activity report for Sept. 2 – obtained by the Daily Local News -- officers were dispatched to the Nittany Apartments complex at 10:19 p.m. on Tuesday to investigate a report of loud music. The odor of burning marijuana was detected coming from inside apartment No. 5204.

After the residents of the apartment declined a consent search, a search warrant was applied for and executed. The subsequent search by police yielded a small amount of marijuana. The report indicates that charges will be filed.

The Collegian reported that police spent at least two hours investigating the incident. At about 11:45 p.m., an unidentified woman taped a piece of notebook paper over the number on the door of the apartment and that the curtains were drawn. At about 1:30 a.m., four police officers left the apartment, one carrying two paper bags and another carrying a cardboard box.

The search warrant listed Wallace, Quarless and a third PSU student who is not a member of the football squad as being present in the apartment on Tuesday evening. Evans and Koroma were apparently not present.

Evans is a junior defensive end from Brooklyn, a first team All Big Ten selection last season and a preseason All-American for 2008. Koroma, a sophomore from Hershey, is a starting left defensive tackle for the Lions. Wallace was involved in an intense preseason battle with teammate Lydell Sargeant for the starting right cornerback position. Sargeant won the spot but Wallace, a junior from Waldorf, Md., saw plenty of action last Saturday in the opener against Coastal Carolina.

Quarless is a junior tight end who started seven games last season but was suspended for two games after being charged with underage drinking last fall. He was listed as the No. 3 tight end in the most recent depth chart.

“I don't even know what happened,” quarterback Daryll Clark said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “All I know is that the police were out at someone’s apartment. I really don't know why.”

Head coach Joe Paterno has yet to comment on the situation. PSU Sports Information Director, Jeff Nelson, says that the football program is aware of what happened and is investigating. -- NEIL GEOGHEGAN.