University Of Iowa

USC quarterback Carson Palmer trotted off the field and into the tunnel at Pro Player Stadium after the Trojans' Orange Bowl victory over Iowa, marking the end of one era and the start of another. Palmer, the Heisman Trophy winner, and All-American safety Troy Polamalu are two of nine starters who must be replaced from a team that restored USC to national prominence by finishing 11-2 under second-year Coach Pete Carroll.

USC turned on the lights, and Mother Nature provided the wind Tuesday night as the Trojans went through their final workout before the Orange Bowl. Fifth-ranked USC, which had been practicing in the morning since arriving from Los Angeles last week, switched to evening for its last practice before Thursday night's game against third-ranked Iowa at Pro Player Stadium. Scattered showers and gusty winds are forecast for today with a chance of showers Thursday.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz calls it scar tissue. Not the physical kind. The mental kind. The kind of scars Ferentz worried would be inflicted on his offensive linemen when, out of necessity, they were thrust into starting roles as unprepared freshmen. Bruce Nelson could have been one of the casualties. A walk-on tight end, he played left tackle in his first start as a redshirt freshman in Iowa's 1999 opener against Nebraska, then the nation's top-ranked team. He weighed 250 pounds.

Outside, a winter chill sweeps over the sprawling University of Iowa campus. But inside the football team's bubble-domed practice facility, senior linebacker Fred Barr is generating plenty of hot air. Surrounded by a dozen reporters, Barr lives up to his reputation as the blowhard of the Big Ten by questioning the toughness of USC, Iowa's opponent in the Orange Bowl on Thursday, and saying Hawkeye quarterback Brad Banks should have won the Heisman Trophy instead of USC's Carson Palmer.

The latest strange development in the always strange bowl championship series: One day after USC all but clinched a BCS at-large berth by jumping over Iowa into the No. 4 spot in the BCS standings, the Big Ten Conference office issued a news release Tuesday stating Iowa "will play in a bowl championship series (BCS) game to determined after the results of Saturday's games are known."

After nearly a month of unnerving racist threats against minority students at the University of Iowa's College of Dentistry, police arrested an unlikely suspect early Thursday: a 23-year-old African American woman in her second year at the school. Tarsha Michelle Claiborne of Baton Rouge, La., allegedly sent several threatening e-mail messages from a university computer--including a bomb threat that closed the college Tuesday as 30 bomb squad officers went through every locker and desk.