“Telling Quotes” is a weekly recap of the Big Ten’s top stories using quotes from around the conference (with a moderate Ohio State lean).

Remember John L. Smith?

The former Michigan State head coach consistently provided Big Ten fans with something to laugh at, and it’s nice to know he’s still spreading that same joy throughout SEC country. We’ll get to that in a bit.

His former conference fared much better on the field this week than last, at least from a win/loss perspective, and the Buckeyes improved to 3-0 after a closer-than-expected battle with Cal.

Check out this week’s top quotes after the jump.

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I’ll never be able to listen to “Seven Nation Army” the same again. There are a lot of things that won’t be the same about most college football Saturdays for the rest of my life. Once you watch a game live at Ohio Stadium, surrounded by 105,000 people, not a whole lot compares.

That’s what I did on September 15 when the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated California 35-28. The week before, my father called me with the excellent news that a guy he works with had two tickets available for the game. I had previous chances to attend games with this guy’s tickets, but the calendar never worked in my favor. Needless to say, even at my age, I was excited, like a kid who was just told that the next family vacation will be at Disney World.

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Welcome to the “I was badmouthing the Big Ten before badmouthing the Big Ten was cool” edition of the Recap. Now that the entire country is getting in on the act, it’s not nearly as righteous. I hereby resolve to stop it, having moved on to acceptance, and will resort instead to tired cliches like “it is what it is”...(at the end of the day).

Besides, the Big Ten went 10-2 last weekend, although its returning division winners had two of the most underwhelming performances of the day. Michigan State was humbled at home by Notre Dame, and Wisconsin struggled mightily in Madison, benched their starting quarterback, but ultimately survived when Utah State’s kicker missed a field goal in the final seconds. Did I mention Utah State?

Three conference teams remain unbeaten at 3-0...Minnesota, Ohio State and Northwestern, and the Wildcats own three of the Big Ten’s four victories over schools from BCS automatic qualifying conferences, with wins over Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and Boston College. Ohio State’s win over Cal on Saturday is the fourth.

To the week’s games...

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There is really no such thing as a “lucky” win. There is such thing as a “fortunate” win, however, and Ohio State was fortunate to come away with a sloppy, exasperating yet thrilling 35-28 victory over the Cal Golden Bears Saturday afternoon in the Horseshoe. The Buckeyes were dominated on both sides of the ball for much of the second half as they let a 13-point lead slip away, and in the end it took one big play from Braxton Miller and Devin Smith to finally send the underdog Bears to the canvas.

Really, this was several games in one- an opening salvo that put the Buckeyes in command, a long second-half stretch completely controlled by Cal, and a crunch-time shootout that went to Ohio State, which in the end had one more round in the chamber than the visitors. Both teams made major mistakes throughout that could have been and in some cases were decisive in the outcome.

It certainly wasn’t the most pristine game ever played. But it was highly entertaining and, more importantly, it was a Buckeye victory.

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