Lets take a look back at the first weekend of college football and what stood out with the other 11 teams in the B1G.
I was pretty accurate in most of my picks last week. There were some surprises though.
Good surprise:
Out of everything that happened last weekend in the conference there really wasn’t much to feel good about. One area that stuck out though was Taylor Martinez’s performance against Sothern Mississippi. Martinez looked like a completely different quarterback. He threw the ball with better mechanics which resulted in a tighter ball and higher velocity. I only saw a few throws off of the back foot. If he can keep this up when he sees more pressure in the pocket (probably will some this weekend at UCLA) I think we have an early favorite for B1G player of the year.
I was also impressed with Illinois’ offense in their first game under the new coach. I didn’t think the game would be too close, but I was still impressed with the execution. I think Scheelhasse could benefit greatly under the new system, and it will be important over the next 3 weeks to develop some other skill players for the B1G schedule. They have a big challenge this weekend as they head out to Arizona to play the Sun Devils.
Bad surprise:
Well out of 12 games there are only 2 good surprises, you can be assured that it was not an encouraging week around the B1G. The first bad surprise would be the MSU offense. Yes, I know Bell had a monster game, but there is no way he will be able to carry the ball 44 times against a B1G defense. Maxwell showed flashes of being a decent QB, but for the most part he looked confused and awful under pressure. I was more surprised by the offensive line play though. These guys became a pretty good pass protecting unit last year, but continually let unblocked defenders through the line. Boise was able to get pressure with their front 4 alone for most of the game. I think Lou Holtz said it best after the game, even though MSU won the game, Boise left more of an impression on the viewers.
Iowa and Wisconsin struggle in open games. The defending B1G champs looked asleep for most of the game against Northern Iowa and almost got knocked off at home. I expected O’Brien to struggle a bit during the game, but I couldn’t believe how stoppable Monte Ball looked. His performance on Saturday would have been one of his worst from a year ago. Look for the Badgers to respond well this weekend. I didn’t expect Iowa to challenge for a conference title this year, but I also didn’t expect them to look terrible against Northern Illinois. The running game was a mess, and Vandenberg could not get into a rhythm all game. The Hawkeye offense was all but shut down against the Huskies.
I picked Northwestern to beat Syracuse on Saturday in a close game, but I didn’t expect an 83 point shootout. The Wildcat defense got gashed all afternoon in the passing game. They could not get any pressure on the Orange QB, and he was left in the pocket to find open receivers. NW corners fell down on 4 different TD passes on the game. They cannot have a repeat performance and expect the offense to save them.
I would say that my conference rankings are as follows:
1. Nebraska
2. Ohio St
3. Michigan St
4. Michigan
5. Wisconsin
6. Purdue
7. Illinois
8. Northwestern
9. Iowa
10. Penn St
11. Minnesota
12. Indiana
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