Mind of Mike: Complaints, trouble in the Big Ten and more

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell’s thought-provoking Mind of Mike is here once again with more random thoughts regarding college football and college football recruiting.

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Many things bothered me this past weekend but none more than Antonio Callaway’s carnival of mistakes fielding punts. Who on Earth is coaching him or is he just doing whatever he wants out there? He fumbled one punt at the two-yard line, he caught another one inside the 10-yard line and then called for a fair catch on another that ended up putting his team at the one-yard line. The rule is easy: Put your heels on the 10 and if the ball goes over your head, let it go. Calloway is an amazing talent and his efforts on offense playing through a quad injury were impressive, but holy cow, was that tough to watch.

Everyone knows I hate the targeting rule. I don’t hate it because it is designed to cut down on injury, I hate it because it’s too subjective to enforce consistently. When two players are colliding at full speed, how is a defender supposed to know if the ball carrier is going to lower his head or adjust his angle at the last second? There’s no way to know.

However, the hit on Stanford wide receiver Francis Owusu by Tahaan Goodman was clearly targeting and should be used as an example for such a hit. And yet it wasn’t called on the field or in any sort of review. Not only could it have impacted the game, but it could have had long-term impact on Stanford’s chances to win the Pac-12 and make a push for the playoff. And it was clearly targeting.

I rest my case. Get rid of the rule altogether because it can’t be enforced consistently.

Michigan State let me down against Wisconsin after I wrote such glowing things about Mark Dantonio and how the Spartans are always overlooked. This weekend, Michigan State turned the ball over, very much unlike a Dantonio coached team, and was just outplayed physically. So do we write the Spartans off, especially with games against Ohio State and Michigan left on the schedule? Honestly, I’m not sure.

I think Notre Dame has really skewed my thinking about how good Michigan State is -- the same happened with Texas -- but I know if there’s a coach who can rally the troops, it’s Dantonio.

Ryan Burns received his first FBS offer before he started a game in high school. He was a four-star prospect who could make all the throws and could move around very well. Burns was also a very smart quarterback out of high school. And now that he has patiently waited for his chance at Stanford, he is making the most of it.

Burns' game-winning drive against UCLA made me think of NFL guys like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers. That’s how impressive it was. There were no signs of nerves. He made all the right decisions and put the ball right where it needed to be. And Burns' fade pass for the winning score was as pretty as you’ll ever see. No, he’s not the caliber of the NFL guys I referenced, but I will say this: I haven’t seen a prettier comeback drive in college football in a long time.

Iowa could be in trouble. The Hawkeyes didn't have enough speed or size on the outside even before Matt VandeBerg went down with an injury. Iowa's performance against Rutgers now has me seeing clearly why it lost to North Dakota State. C.J. Beathard has talent, but he doesn’t have any weapons around him. This offense is going to be ugly to watch the rest of the season.

A DUI should carry a much stiffer penalty than a one-game suspension but no head coach seems to have the guts to send a message. It should cost a player at least six games, and maybe even a whole season if it happens early in the year.

I railed on Urban Meyer last year when he had a chance to send that message to J.T. Barrett and mentioned Jim Harbaugh as well, but I’ve decided it’s pointless to rail on every coach who lets kids off with a slap on the wrist for an infraction that can and has been known to kill innocent people.

Players get suspended longer for academic reasons or for taking banned supplements and miss less time for the subjective targeting infraction. It’s never going to change and that’s sad.

I picked Pitt to win the ACC Coastal and I honestly thought it would be the passing game that hurt them, not the defense. But against Oklahoma State and North Carolina, two teams that love to spread things out and chuck it around, Pitt was lost. Mitch Tribisky, one of my 10 potential breakout players for this season, converted three different fourth down opportunities while leading his team to victory. I know many of these guys aren’t Pat Narduzzi recruits, but I still expected his defensive reputation to help them take the next step this season. That has not happened.

I can’t stand all the yapping from defensive backs these days. Call me a grumpy old man, but if you can’t back it up then shut it up. The Florida corners, Quincy Wilson and Jalen Tabor, both talked smack against Tennessee before the game and then played awful assignment football and showed little discipline in the second half as their team got rolled.

I know defensive backs have to have confidence and short memories, but do they need to talk so much to be better players? Some of the top cornerbacks in the NFL just go out there, do their jobs and move on to the next game. Let’s hope these two ultra-talented future NFLers learn a lesson from this past weekend.

What happens if this talented LSU team goes 6-2 or 7-1 down the stretch and upsets Alabama under Ed Orgeron? Does that earn him the job?

The LSU job, like with USC, is too big of a job to be handed over to an interim coach even if he has success and a national search must be engaged. Orgeron was passed over for Steve Sarkisian at USC after leading the Trojans to a 6-2 record in 2013. Then Clay Helton, an interim coach replaced Sark. Neither hire was popular with the USC fans and alumni.

Orgeron is a Louisiana native and would become an instant hero if he beat Alabama and turned the team around. The pressure to keep Orgeron as head coach might be immense. I know LSU fans would certainly like that kind of problem to deal with, but I don’t see Coach O as a better option than guys like Jimbo Fisher, Tom Herman, Gary Patterson or some others who might be available. And how about this name to consider: Sean Payton. That would be an amazingly popular hire.