Penn State makes case to put Joe Paterno back on Big Ten trophy

Jay Paterno has a plan to place his father’s name back on the Big Ten Conference football championship trophy.

Asked his reaction to the conference announcing this week that it was removing Joe Paterno’s name from what had been called the Stagg-Paterno Trophy, Jay Paterno, Penn State’s quarterbacks coach, said:

“The only reaction I had was, let’s get there and win it and put it back on. We’ll bring it on a Post-it note … we’ll stick it right back, but we’ve got to get to the game first.”

The Nittany Lions defeated Ohio State, 20-14, Saturday, setting up a showdown at Wisconsin next Saturday for first place in the Big Ten Leaders Division.

The winner of that game will meet Michigan State in the conference’s first championship game.

Curse of Corso

For the second week in a row, ESPN had some explaining to do about something “GameDay” broadcaster Lee Corso said.

This time, Corso was trying to lead a cheer when he fumbled a megaphone and rasped, “Ah [expletive] it!” on national television.

Last week, he could be heard saying, “Where’s that little kid?” as the network’s cameras showed Penn State players rallying in a large pregame huddle.

ESPN explained last week’s gaffe away by saying that Corso, who was not at State College but was with the GameDay crew at Stanford, was looking for a child who was supposed to hand him a tree hat to wear as a prop.

On Saturday, about a half hour after Corso’s curse word lit up message boards and Twitter, ESPN broke into its game telecast for him to apologize.

“Earlier today on ‘College GameDay,’ while picking the SMU-Houston game, I got a bit excited and ... used an expletive that I shouldn’t have used,” he said. “I apologize and can promise it won’t happen again.”

Urban outfitters

Urban Meyer was asked about reports Ohio State had been in contact with him about its soon-to-be-open job of head football coach.

Meyer’s first coaching job was as a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 1986.

But Meyer, 47, who won a national championship at Florida but is now a member of the media as an analyst, wasn’t about to break any such news.

“I know it’s that time of year,” he said while working the Michigan-Nebraska game. “I’ve not been offered any job, and I’ve certainly not accepted any job.”

Hmmm. That wasn’t really the question.

Houston record-setter

In Houston’s 37-7 win over Southern Methodist, place-kicker Matt Hogan made all four conversion kicks, making him a major-college-record 78 of 78 this season. Hogan also made field goals of 28, 21 and 22 yards.

What? You thought this was going to be a Case Keenum item?

OK, Keenum got in on the act, too. He completed 30 of 45 passes for 318 yards, giving him a record 1,427 career completions. Keenum and former Hawaii quarterback Tim Chang are now the only passers with three 4,000-yard seasons. They are also tied with 36 300-yard passing games.

What a glory hog.

mike.hiserman@latimes.com

Times wire services contributed to this report.