His counterpart has been in the national spotlight for the last few years, first as a high school star and now as Notre Dame's starting quarterback.

While Jimmy Clausen is a minor celebrity, Purdue quarterback Curtis Painter is just another guy.

When the Irish play the Boilermakers today in West Lafayette, Ind., Painter's team is undefeated and his statistics are impressive. Jimmy Clausen's team is 0-4 and his offense is feeble.

"We thought he'd be a pretty good quarterback, and he's been steadily improving," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said.

The Boilermakers are 4-0 and averaging 48.5 points per game. Painter is completing 68.7 percent of his passes for 1,290 yards, 16 touchdowns and just one interception.

Painter attended Vincennes (Ind.) Lincoln High School. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, father and uncle when he chose Purdue. He liked the school's reputation for producing QBs.

Unlike his predecessors -- Drew Brees and Kyle Orton -- Painter was able to sit out his freshman season as a redshirt. He became the starter in the second half of 2005 and last season threw for a school-record 3,985 yards.

"The one thing that was good for me was a redshirt year," Painter told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "I was like a sponge, absorbing all the knowledge you can. I'm still learning a lot of things about the offense. This year I'm making better decisions."

Tiller and Painter also credit Purdue's receiving corps. In his 11 seasons, the Purdue coach says this is his best group of receivers. Painter credits them with making catches on poorly thrown passes and turning short tosses into longer gains.

Painter's 16 TD passes have gone to eight receivers.

"Curtis is seeing the field better, his decision-making is infinitely better," Tiller said. "It's natural he's more confident in his second season a full-time starter. That has reflected in his play."

Quick slants Faculty revolutionaries

Sports vs. scholars has long been a hot-button issue. This week, two campuses were in turmoil after professors professed their opinions.

William Dowling, a Rutgers English professor, was once leader of the "Rutgers 1000." Its goal was to have the school de-emphasize sports. Suffice to say he's not a fan of the new-and-improved football team.

This week Dowling told The New York Times: "They give [a scholarship] to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school."

Dowling should Google Don Imus, who lost his talk-radio job last spring after making disparaging racial comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

At San Diego State, Leon Rosenstein, emeritus professor of philosophy, plans to sponsor a resolution to abolish the school's football program.

The Aztecs haven't finished above .500 since 1998. Rosenstein wants to generate discussion about football losing money. Last year, the football program received $2.7 million from the school, and it is projected the same amount will be needed this year.

Game balls to... nobody

Virginia coach Al Groh used to award game balls after every Cavaliers victory. But after last Saturday's defeat of Georgia Tech, no Virginia players went home with the traditional symbol of a job well done.

Groh and Virginia compliance officials found out that awarding game balls was an NCAA violation of the "extra benefits" rule. Seriously.

The NCAA clarified that game balls can be presented at the end of the season, but not on a game-by-game basis.

Ignoring The Golden Boy

Paul Hornung is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy playing for a losing team. The 1956 Notre Dame team was 2-8 with "The Golden Boy" its star player.

Hornung told the Chicago Tribune this week that he has recommended Notre Dame recruit players such as Shaun Alexander, Jeff and Brian Brohm, and Michael Bush.

"I have seen [Notre Dame] turn down a lot of good players," said Hornung, who was named a Davey O'Brien Legends Award winner last February. "They didn't even go after a lot of them that I know about. I tried to get six or seven [top prospects from Kentucky] in and they just shook their heads at them.

"[Notre Dame's 0-4 start] is unbelievable. A lot of people looked at their schedule, and they said that the first eight games... anybody can win and anybody can lose. That's before I realized how bad they were. Heck, our [1956 team] would have been favored over this team."

Numerically speaking

11-16 UCLA's record in games played on the road or at neutral sites under coach Karl Dorrell. The Bruins play at Oregon State today.

14 Consecutive losses by Arizona State to Pac-10 teams in the state of California. The Sun Devils play at Stanford today.

40 Or more points in each game scored by 4-0 Kentucky. It's the first time in school history the Wildcats have scored 40 or more in four consecutive games.

125,000 The estimated crowd for last Saturday's Georgia game in Tuscaloosa. Alabama officials estimated about 32,000 showed up to tailgate and hang out while 92,138 watched the game in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Short yardage

In Stanford's two Pac-10 games with UCLA and Oregon, the combined halftime score was 38-38. The Cardinal takes an 0-2 record into today's game with Arizona State because the combined second-half score in those two games was 62-10.

How bad is Louisville's defense? Middle Tennessee scored 42 points and had 290 yards passing against the Cardinals. In its three other games (against Florida Atlantic, Western Kentucky and LSU), Middle Tennessee has scored 31 points and passed for 449 yards.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno is being criticized for conservative play-calling. In his last nine league games, quarterback Anthony Morelli has just five TD passes in 278 attempts. And in their last four games against Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions have averaged seven points and 226 yards in total offense.

Georgia Tech's promising 2-0 start began with a 33-3 smackdown at Notre Dame. Unfortunately, beating the now 0-4 Irish isn't much of an accomplishment. "That's what it's turned out to be," said Yellow Jackets coach Chan Gailey, whose team is 0-2 in the ACC Coastal Division. "That wasn't as big a win as people thought. I'm afraid we didn't handle prosperity very well."

Audibles

Ole Miss cornerback Dustin Mouzon on Florida sophomore quarterback Tim Tebow (6-foot-3, 235 pounds): "He is like a brick wall. I came up to hit him and I kind of got hurt."

Wyoming coach Joe Glenn on his team's 34-33 victory -- despite seven turnovers -- at Ohio last Saturday: "It was just like being in the Twilight Zone. Bad things kept happening to us, and all of a sudden, we got some wind in our sails and found a way to win. It was crazy."

Florida State offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher on the Seminoles: "They are playing with the confidence of a 2-9 team. They've been told they were no good for so long."

The 4-0s

The following seven teams are off to surprising 4-0 starts. For Oregon and Purdue, it's a flashback to last season. For Cincinnati, it's been forever since the football team won its first four. A breakdown of past 4-0 starts and how the season record finished:

Team Last 4-0 Finish W-L
Boston College 1992 8-3-1
Cincinnati 1954 8-2-0
Kentucky 2002 7-5-0
Connecticut 1997 7-4-0*
Kansas 1995 10-2-0
Oregon 2006 7-6-0
Purdue 2006 8-6-0
*Division I-AA