Although starting quarterback Tyler OConnor was yanked after throwing three interceptions in a 30-6 home loss at Wisconsin last week, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio denies the Spartans have a quarterback controversy as Big Ten play continues at Indiana on Saturday night.OConnor, who led the 17th-ranked Spartans to what at the time looked like an impressive road win at Notre Dame a week earlier, was pulled late in the loss to the Badgers in favor of redshirt freshman Brian Lewerke who completed two of four passes for 26 yards but also had an interception negated by a pass interference call.It was the first time Michigan State failed to score a touchdown in a Big Ten game since 2010, but Dantonio wasnt putting all the blame on his quarterback.Football is a simple game in some respects but in other respects it becomes a complicated game and its all tied together much like any puzzle, Dantonio said. So the quarterback gets pressured, things start to happen in a negative way. Receivers are locked up, they cant get off press coverage and there is nobody to throw to then pressure starts to come even more because you cant hold the ball forever back there. And there are also times you got to find the open guy.So its an accumulation of things and obviously we made some trips to the red zone and didnt score points. Gotta score touchdowns to win football games. -- But with all that being said the quarterback is gonna get more criticism and more praise probably than he deserves, on both ends of the stick. But thats the nature of college football and football in general and you have to be able to accept that in a position of leadership, including the head coach.OConnor was the first to take the blame following the loss, and to this point, there doesnt appear to be any plans to make a change at that position despite OConnors five interceptions through the first three games. But Dantonio did leave the door open for changes down the road.He needs to get better and hell have his opportunities as the season moves forward, Dantonio said of Lewerke. At this point in time there is no quarterback controversy. Now there may become one at some point. Its about productionMichigan State (2-1, 0-1 Big Ten) will get a chance to work through it when it travels to Indiana (2-1, 0-0), which has some quarterback issues of its own, in the nighttime game in Bloomington on Saturday.The Hoosiers come in off a 33-28 loss to Wake Forest that could have easily been a win, but quarterback Richard Lagow tossed five interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Indiana coach Kevin Wilson said only one of them was truly Lagows fault, but no matter how you parse it, five interceptions is five interceptions.Lagow also threw for 496 yards and three touchdowns, with two receivers going over 100 yards. However, the interceptions outweighed everything. To his credit, Lagow was watching video with wide receiver Mitchell Paige shortly after the loss, trying to figure things out.I like the way hes playing, Wilson said of Lagow, a highly touted junior college transfer. Guys behind him got to play better. I didnt think he mismanaged anything. He had one really forced pick where maybe he should have checked down, but hes a product of our group and our group let him down.One plus for Lagow and the Hoosiers is that Michigan State could be without two starting linebackers for the contest. Middle linebacker and senior captain Riley Bullough missed the Wisconsin game with a shoulder injury and is listed day-to-day while linebacker Jon Reschke is expected to be sidelined about a month after injuring his ankle late against the Badgers. Reschke has 13 tackles, an interception and a forced fumble this season. Discount NCAA College Jerseys . I cant pinpoint a date, but I do remember a player from my youth. Brian Downing was with the Chicago White Sox at a time when I listened to every game I possibly could on the radio. That particular season the late great Harry Caray was calling the White Sox games. Cheap College Basketball Jerseys . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. http://www.cheapchinancaajerseys.com/ . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. Cheap College Jerseys . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. USA College Jerseys Outlet . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. It should come as no surprise that Mark Nicholas considers cricket to be a beautiful game. It had stolen his heart by the age of nine and has been his sweetheart ever since. Beauty is the beholders business, of course, but Nicko, the roving romantic who went from captaining Hampshire to helming TV coverage in both hemispheres, puts his perspective across pretty convincingly. Never mind goalposts, jumpers are for keeping you warm in the slips.For those who know Nicholas chiefly through his work as a commentator and presenter, such ardour has long been obvious. Cover drives are dreamy, unplayable deliveries crackerjack. Plenty of cricket fans - particularly those immersed in Channel 4s innovative coverage of England in the early 2000s - will have a favourite Nicholas moment (and theres a good chance it came during the 2005 Ashes): his description of Steve Harmisons slower ball to Michael Clarke at Edgbaston remains gloriously overblown, while other moments of appreciation verged on the pornographic. Nicholas sprayed his enthusiasm around like a Formula One driver with a fresh magnum.This approach, he notes in his autobiography-cum-memoir A Beautiful Game, meant he came in for some stick - hyperbole and exclamations being the main grumble. But the Nicko-isms (should that be Nicko-gasms?) were principally what made him one of the stars of the show once the rights to broadcast England Test matches switched from the BBC - staid old Aunty - in 1999. As Nicholas writes, Channel 4 was where the flame burned brightest for me, though he surprised many by subsequently carving out a niche as the polished Pom host of Channel Nines coverage in Australia.The great strength of his style is that it is so genuine. The books subtitle is My love affair with cricket and Nicholas bubbles over with anecdotes, lore and affection for the game. His 18-year career with Hampshire is also described as a love affair. The Channel 4 years were an equally passionate tryst: It was a love affair with cricket and we stopped at nothing to make the lover special and everyone else appreciate her.The first notch on his bedpost came nearly 40 years ago, when scoring a hundred in Dover for Hampshire 2nd XI - which was orgasmic. Nicholas rose quickly to prominence at Hampshire, becoming captain at 23, though he never quite made the grade for England. He was selected to lead an A tour to Zimbabwe (contracting a potentially fatal strain of malaria while away) and nearly capped via the TCCBs captaincy roulette in 1988, Mickey Stewart informing him during a county match in Guildford that he had lost a three-two vote against Chris Cowdrey.As a batsman Nicholas was good enough to score 36 first-class hundreds, but leadership was his metier. Elvis, the ovverweight public schoolboy who briefly worked as an analyst in the city during the off season, became Jardine, the bold captain who would lead Hampshire to four one-day trophies in six years.ddddddddddddAlong the way, he drank deeply of crickets heady brew: seeking batting tips from Barry Richards and Garry Sobers; being transfixed by Kerry Packers World Series Cricket in Australia (cricket porn); and chatting with Don Bradman and Bill OReilly in the back of the press box.In between sections on playing the game and covering it, Nicholas just loves talking shop too. Whatever your view on his ability or his insight, he has a great store of knowledge about the game, and a range of experience that includes having faced Jeff Thomson, met Packer (one of the books best anecdotes) and called Richie Benaud a colleague for many years. He writes touchingly of Maco, his great Hampshire team-mate Malcolm Marshall, and the Smith brothers, Chris and Robin, as well as sadly departed commentary box companions such as Benaud and Tony Greig. In one of the final chapters, he even heads off into the future to imagine an intercontinental championship for Test cricket (played over four days), a 30-over World Cup and the rise of Max10, an even shorter shortest format. As readers of his work on these pages will know, MCJ Nicholas can rarely be accused of being dull. Peter OToole, Tiger Woods and Mick Jagger crop up either side of tales about facing the deadly combination of Derek Underwood and Alan Knott on a wet pitch; there are references to Ziggy Stardust, Alistair Cooke (no, not the England captain) and Bruce Springsteen. Nicholas is not afraid to confront criticism, either, raising the subject of an excoriating 2015 article by Geoff Lemon on the sliding standards at Channel Nine. He concedes that Lemon had a point and hopes that changes made to the coverage in Australia reflect a sincere desire to get back on track.No one does it better is a quote on the cover of A Beautiful Game, from Geoffrey Boycott. Few would argue with Sir Geoff. With the passing of a host of iconic broadcasting voices in recent years, it is tempting to suggest that Nicholas is now one of the keepers of the flame. He continues to spread the gospel, over the airwaves and through his work with the Chance to Shine charity in the UK. There is a sense that he wanted to write less about himself and more about cricket, though it is all the more readable for the personality bursting through. Besides, the two seem to go pretty well together: call it a beautiful friendship.A Beautiful Game By Mark Nicholas Allen & Unwin 420 pages, £20 ' ' '