Daily briefing: On Auburn’s travels, UCLA’s good start and mocking UConn

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

‘Where are we?’

Amazing — Auburn’s game at Penn State on Saturday will be the Tigers’ first visit to a Big Ten campus since 1931 (Wisconsin). Auburn played in New York (Manhattan), Boston (Boston College) and Dallas (SMU) in the next decade. After World War II, though, Shug Jordan was intent on bringing home games to what was then a small stadium. Not to mention that Big Ten teams were integrated. It wouldn’t be until 1976, the year after Jordan retired, that the Tigers ventured far (Arizona). Former Auburn athletic director David Housel, who scheduled home-and-homes with West Virginia, Syracuse and USC (Matt Leinart made his first start at Jordan-Hare), among others, told me that in his day, the SEC office discouraged scheduling Big Ten teams because the leagues play each other in the Citrus and Outback bowls.

Out in front

And also amazing — I know, I know, it’s only Week 3, but in two games this season, No. 13 UCLA has been behind a total of 14 seconds. That’s the time it took on the first play after LSU scored and kicked off for Dorian Thompson-Robinson to complete a 75-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greg Dulcich. We’ll learn a lot more about the Bruins on Saturday. After a week off, they take on Fresno State, which led at Oregon in the fourth quarter before losing 31-24 when Ducks quarterback Anthony Brown ran 30 yards for the winning touchdown with 2:57 left.

FCS school pokes fun at UConn

Fresno State opened the season on August 28 with a 45-0 home rout of UConn. After the Huskies lost to FCS Holy Cross the following week, UConn and coach Randy Edsall agreed to part. The lowly state of the Huskies now has become fodder for another FCS program. Sacred Heart, which plays in the 40-scholarship Northeast Conference, took out a newspaper ad in The Connecticut Post on Wednesday asking readers to “CATCH CT’S BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM.” Ouch.