Checking in from TCF Bank Stadium on a rainy night…

-Let me get this straight: A college football player told a lie, and everybody went nuts?

Many college football coaches lie for a living. Between recruiting improprieties and academic mischievousness, college football might be almost as corrupt as Congress. I can't think of a worse insult.

Josh Shaw told a silly lie, and the school publicized it to make the school look good. Shaw will pay for his mistake with a tarnished reputation, and years of jokes.

USC, the athletic director and the coach will continue to get rich even, as was the case for Pete Carroll and probably a majority of USC coaches through the years, the school or its employees broke the rules to win football games.

Give me the kid who made a mistake any day.

-What should you watch for in the Gopher game?

Big plays.

Last year, the Gophers earned their biggest victories by making big plays on defense.

They earned their most important losses by failing to make big plays on offense.

While they've lost key defensive starters, I expect them to be sound defensively. I expect them to be able to run the ball. The big question is whether Mitch Leidner and his young receivers make big plays in the passing game.

-I guess we should congratulate Roger Goodell on belatedly getting it right, on belatedly strengthening punishments for NFL players who are guilty of domestic violence.

What's sad is that Goodell responded not after watching a tape of Ray Rice dragging his wife out of an elevator, but after he was pilloried in the media.

I'm glad he reacted. I just wish he would have reacted to the right thing.

I'll be on WJON in St. Cloud at 7:15 a.m. on Friday, and on 1500ESPN-AM at 12:15. We'll run Sunday Sports Talk from the fair on Sunday, 10-noon, at the 1500ESPN porch, near Sweet Martha's.