• Death rattles. The Champaign News-Gazette is still running a fun "Whack-a-Hoosier" ad today, although sponsor Village Inn Pizza would surely do a lot better if it ran a "Whack-a-Zook" ad instead after Illinois' 27-14 loss at Indiana dropped Illinois to 1-5, 0-4 in the Big Ten and, with Purdue's upset over Ohio State, left the Illini as the sole occupants of the conference cellar. In lieu of incendiary ads, longtime News-Gazette columnist Loren Tate landed his own haymaker on the head coach for Illini fans everywhere:

It's broke. And coach Ron Zook has no idea how to fix it. A team with ample returnees from 2008, when the Illini ripped Indiana 55-13, is floundering in Zook's briar patch. They've been outscored 116-45 in four conference losses, and most UI points came after the games were decided.
[...]
It is only the middle in the season, but we've reached the jumping-off point. And so, as athletic director Ron Guenther motored home late Saturday night, he had no choice but to consider the unthinkable ... to mull over coaching prospects on his short list ... even as he insists, as he should, that no decision will be made prior to the end of the the season.

Virginia's annual October turnaround and Colorado's upset over Kansas Saturday leaves Zook simmering on the hottest seat in the country. The Illini will be underdogs Saturday at Purdue, one of a handful of gimmes on the schedule at the beginning of the year, and if they don't beat the Boilermakers, it will time to openly speculate whether they're headed toward another winless Big Ten season, just like the ones that got Ron Turner fired for going 1-15 in 2003-04 and marred Zook's first season in 2005. In the life cycle of a coaching tenure, this one is rapidly approaching the terminal stage.

• Bradford Watch, with a bullet. MRIs Sunday showed that Sam Bradford's re-injured throwing shoulder is just that: The reigning Heisman winner aggravated the sprain that sidelined him for three-and-a-half games in September, but didn't suffer any new injuries in the hit that knocked him out of the Sooners' loss to Texas. Coach Bob Stoops said there wouldn't be any announcement on Bradford's status until at least Thursday, which almost certainly rules him out for the must-win trip to Kansas, and Sooner fans aren't holding their breath that they'll see Bradford in an OU uniform again this year, or maybe ever.

Better news for Cincinnati and its hot signal-caller: Tony Pike, who aggravated his broke non-throwing arm in last Thursday's win over South Florida and was initially ruled out for this week's game with Louisville, is listed as "day-to-day," according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, and could play against the Cardinals pending the results of a hospital visit today.

• Movin' on up, to the Mountain West side. ESPN GameDay's next exotic locale? Provo, Utah: The pregame show is invading Mormon country this week for a marquee Mountain West game between TCU and BYU, as the rest of the country wonders, "Is this really the best/most interesting game of the week?" Actually, yeah, according to the polls: Frogs-Cougars is the only game of the weekend between two top-20 teams, and the only other game between two teams ranked anywhere is (if you go by the AP poll) No. 25 Oklahoma at No. 24 Kansas.

Lee, Kirk and the gang rolling into town is, of course, another sign of growing respect for the Mountain West, which has a third team in the top 20 of all the major polls this week in Utah (remember them?). But as for the fading conference the MWC is supposed to be supplanting among the "Big Six" leagues with automatic ascension to the BCS, it's hanging in there: The Big East, which notably had zero teams ranked in the preseason polls, has puts three teams in the latest rankings, led by Cincinnati at No. 5.

• Tragedy, continued. There was very little new information Sunday on the murder of Connecticut cornerback Jasper Howard early Sunday morning, who was stabbed to death following a fight outside a school-sponsored Homecoming dance just after midnight on Sunday morning. The killer remains at large, and the news got a little worse with reports that Howard's girlfriend, a fellow Miami native who was in Storrs over the weekend but not involved in the fight or stabbing, is pregnant.

Quickly ... Miami's performance against Central Florida. Eh, good enough. ... Injured Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli was taking snaps with the first team over the Ducks' open weekend. ... Seven games in, and Auburn fans still haven't turned on quarterback Chris Todd. That's some achievement. ... Wisconsin lost at home to Iowa, but it sounds like the Badgers' maintenance crew is lucky it's not cleaning chunks of swine flu out of the Camp-Randall carpet. ... Pete Carroll still doesn't like the BCS, or a pair of personal foul calls against safety Taylor Mays at Notre Dame. ... And Nebraskans may be getting a little weary of Bo Pelini's ref rage, but Arkansas' complaints with the zebras are only beginning.