Michigan's game against Notre Dame and running back Armando Allen, shown above during Saturday's 23-12 win over Purdue, is just one of the weekend's marquee college football games that features a Big Ten team.

Associated Press

We’re back for our weekly trip around the Internet to see what’s happening with the Michigan football team’s future opponents.

Not only does Michigan have a big game at Notre Dame, but some of the Wolverines’ Big Ten brethren are part of what the USA Today calls a “four pack of amazing matchups.”

Along with Michigan-ND, there’s Penn State traveling to Alabama and Ohio State hosting Miami, Fla. The non-Big Ten game in the USA Today four-pack, if you’re wondering, is Florida State at Oklahoma.

How do you think those Big Ten teams will fare?

On to our updates:

Notre Dame Eric Hansen, the Notre Dame beat writer for the South Bend Tribune, pointed out some interesting facts and numbers in his latest notebook:

• Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has a 19-game regular season win streak, with 18 of those obviously coming at Cincinnati. His last regular season loss came against UConn (40-16) in October 2008.

• Kelly’s last home regular season loss came against a Rich Rodriguez-coached West Virginia team (28-23) in November 2007.

• Hansen called Rodriguez “Mr. September.” He is 7-1 in that month at Michigan, 2-15 after it.

• Rodriguez's Michigan teams are 0-4 on grass and 1-8 on the road. Notre Dame Stadium has natural grass.

• Saturday will be the 38th meeting between the Nos. 1 and 2 programs in college history in all-time winning percentage and the 29th since the inception of the AP poll. This will be the third time neither team is ranked in the poll on game day. The other occasions were 2007 and 2008.

Continuing on our tour around the Internet, Rodriguez appeared on ESPN’s First Take, discussing Denard Robinson’s performance against UConn and talking a little bit about the upcoming trip to Notre Dame:

Want more video previews? Here’s one from CBSSports.com:

And there’s another over at Yahoo! Sports. No embed code for this one, so you’ll have to visit the site to hear Eddie George wax poetic.

The Indianapolis Star posted a feature on Kelly today, saying all you really need to know about the first-year Irish coach is “his teams win.”

Turning to Notre Dame personnel, fifth-year senior center Dan Wenger’s future is in doubt after he suffered a second concussion in less than a month.

And, Irish wide receiver Michael Floyd gets lots of attention, but freshman T.J. Jones is forging his own identity at the same position.

Finally, The Wolverine Magazine’s Josh Helmholdt, writing for the Detroit Free Press, says the result of the Michigan-Notre Dame game will carry some weight on the recruiting trail.

UMass Since we started this weekly feature, compiling information on Michigan’s upcoming opponents, it’s been a running joke in the newsroom that nobody writes about UMass football.

Maybe it’s no joke. Boston-based Dan Shaughnessey has a column at SI.com aptly titled “It’s college football season everywhere - except in Boston.”

The column opens with: “The college football season is underway and nobody cares in New England.

“OK, I'm exaggerating. There are plenty of parents and girlfriends of local college gridders to care about the football fortunes of Boston College, UMass, UConn, Harvard and Holy Cross.

“But outside of New York City it would be hard to find a place more apathetic toward college football.”

A little digging did dredge up a three-day old story from MassLive.com about the Minutemen jumping to No. 18 in the FCS football poll after a 27-23 win over William & Mary.

Bowling Green Two teams looking to rebound from heartbreaking season-opening losses will meet up when the Falcons travel to Tulsa on Saturday.

Bowling Green lost when Troy kicked a field goal with 4 seconds remaining. Tulsa lost on East Carolina’s 33-yard, fourth-down pass with five seconds left.

Dan Wagner of the Toledo Blade writes that “both Tulsa coach Todd Graham and (Toledo coach Dave) Clawson said their teams could learn some valuable lessons from the tight setbacks.”

Indiana The Hoosiers get a Week 2 bye, just in time to heal up after that 51-17 Thursday night win over Towson.

Indiana coach Bill Lynch talked about his team’s 16-day break on the Big Ten teleconference.

Michigan State Spartan coach Mark Dantonio wasn’t too concerned about Michigan State receivers dropping five (or six, depending on who you ask) passes in a season-opening win over Western Michigan.

Greg Johnson of the Grand Rapids Press quotes Dantonio as saying “… those guys have caught a lot of balls for us, and they’ll continue to do that.”

Speaking of Greg, he has a video preview of the Florida Atlantic game (Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit) on MLive.com.

The Lansing State Journal discusses the Spartans’ trip to Detroit, and how that part of the state - “an area that had long been considered a recruiting hotbed for the Wolverines,” Denny Schwarze writes - has produced plenty of big-name Michigan State recruits

"I really seen it when I first committed that a lot of people started turning toward Michigan State," Edwin Baker, who attended Oak Park High School, told Schwarze. "We're on the rise to do great things. ... We got good players coming out of the city, our coaches that are here are great recruiters. They're family, they're going to make you feel at home."

Iowa It’s been so long since Iowa State scored a touchdown against Iowa that it’s now being referred to as The Streak. Capital T. Capital S. That’s serious.

As Randy Peterson writes on HawkCentral.com, “if Iowa State is to win Saturday’s annual showdown … it would help to at least score a touchdown — the first from the Cyclones in the series since 2006.”

Penn State Dustin Hockensmith of the Patriot-News points out that Alabama fans plan to show Joe Paterno plenty of love when the Nittany Lions travel south for a matchup of two tradition-rich programs. And Dustin does a good job of rounding up some other links in his post, so my job here is done!

It looks like the Nittany Lions won’t have to worry about Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, who will likely miss the game while recovering from knee surgery. But as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out, the second-best running back in the SEC might be Ingram's backup, Trent Richardson.

Illinois Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times says if it was apparent before a 23-13 loss to Missouri last weekend, it’s crystal clear now: The Illini's chances of success this fall rest on the young shoulders of redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase.

Purdue The Boilermakers learned a lesson about focus last season when they came up just short of an upset (38-36) at Oregon and returned to Ross-Ade Stadium and lost to Northern Illinois.

Coaches and players say they’re trying to avoid a similar letdown after Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame and heading into Western Illinois rolling into town.

Wisconsin John Clay rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Scott Tolzien was 15-for-20 passing in a 41-21 win at UNLV. So who was the Badgers’ offensive MVP? Coach Bret Bielema picked sophomore center Peter Konz.

Tom Mulhern of Madison.com touches on that subject, and more, in his Wisconsin notebook.

Ohio State In a big weekend for the Big Ten, ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg says the matchup between Heisman Trophy candidates Terrelle Pryor of Ohio State and Jacory Harris of Miami is the top thing to track.

The Buckeyes are using the memory of Jack “The Assasin” Tatum to motivate its defense this season, wearing “32” decals to honor the former OSU standout who died of a heart attack on July 27.

Defensive tackle Dexter Larimore told The Columbus Dispatch that Tatum’s “hit them in the mouth” mentality will be on display vs. Miami and Hurricanes’ quarterback Jacory Harris.

"If you can hit them in the mouth defensively, it's going to be a rough day for them," Larimore said. "I don't know too many athletes that like to get hit in the mouth."