This past weekend around the conference was the lull before the storm of week 3. The only marquee matchup was the Michigan vs Notre Dame game, while the remaining 11 teams played cupcakes.
Good surprise:
While Wisconsin has yet to play anyone above a junior high level, the Badgers still have not yielded a point. The linebackers are in the discussion as the conference’s best, and they have been leading the overwhelming performances. Last Saturday Wisconsin yielded just 113 total yards. This week they travel to the west coast for one of four B1G matchups vs the Pac 12.
Illinois offense looks like they are going to be able to score some points this season. A week after Cincinnati took Purdue behind the woodshed, the Illini stuck up for their ashamed conference brethren. New offensive coordinator, Bill Cubit, is acclimating himself nicely in Champaign and could help keep Coach Beckman off the hot seat. Senior Nathan Scheelhasse with 336 total yards and 4 touchdowns. This week will be one of their stiffest tests of the season as they host Washington.
Things looked grim in Columbus on Saturday afternoon as Braxton Miller left the game on the first drive, and looked seriously injured. Even though San Diego State is one of the country’s worst teams this season, being without a Heisman favorite could have been a scary situation. Instead the Buckeyes showed that they have the best backup quarterback in the conference, Kenny Guiton, and the Urban Meyer full-out spread offense might be more potent under the new signal caller. Guiton finished with 235 total yards and 3 touchdowns. Of course, Ohio State needs Miller back under center if they have national championship hopes, but they can afford to rest him until they get into the B1G schedule if needed.
Bad surprise:
I thought Indiana might be a scary team in the conference this year after their 73 point outburst in the opening week, but the Hoosiers followed it up by losing to Navy. I predicted correctly that this game would be the best of the weekend, but didn’t expect Indiana to struggle so much with the triple option offense. The Hoosiers gave up 444 yards rushing on the night and 41 points, this does not bode well for them trying to stop Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and possibly even Penn State.
Since we didn’t really learn that much from the slate of games last week, the only other bad surprise I can come up with is the Spartan offense (again). I know I shouldn’t be surprised by how truly miserable they are this year, but it still caught me off guard when the Green and White couldn’t score on South Florida. In case you were wondering, no USF has a terrible defense and gave up 53 points to an average FCS team (McNeese St) at home in week one. Sparty’s offense now has scored a grand total of two touchdowns on the season, meanwhile their defense has accounted for four. No team in college football history has finished with their defense scoring more than 25% of its touchdowns, and at this point the offense will need to rack up 10 touchdowns in a row just to get to that number. Maybe this week against Youngstown St, the Spartans can at least decide on a starting quarterback.
Week 1 conference rankings:
1. Michigan (no change)
2. Ohio St
3. Northwestern (no change)
4. Wisconsin (no change)
5. Nebraska (up 1)
6. Penn State (down 1)
7. Michigan State (up 1)
8. Indiana (down 1)
9. Illinois (up 2)
10. Minnesota (down 1)
11. Iowa (down 1)
12. Purdue
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