The Preview in Review: Part 2

We'll start this one off with the Lion's most recently vanquished opponent: Michigan State.

We just realized that there’s a glaring lack of jokes in this preview. That’s because there will most likely be a glaring lack of crappy football being played in East Lansing this year. Unlike their counterparts in Ann Arbor, the Spartans should strike some fear into the hearts of Nittany Lion fans this year. We play them in the last game of the regular season, and the winner of that match up could be in line for a great conference finish and a big-time bowl game.

Our prediction for Michigan State this season: 9-3 (5-3 Big11Ten).

Well, we got the overall record right, but the Spartans ended up 6-2 in the conference, having lost only to PSU and Ohio State. They opened the season with a 38-31 loss at Cal.

Michigan State is pretty much who we thought they were. No, we won't post the video.

They beat the teams you might have expected them to beat and they challenged for the conference title. Had they beat PSU, they would have won it. During our preview we said that this would be the year of Javon, and it was, as he rushed for 1500+ yards and that the big question mark would be the defense.

The defense ended up being good enough as Michigan State cruised through the majority of their schedule, but their less their stellar play was exposed when they met quality opponents like PSU and Ohio State. Overall, MSU was rather ordinary when you look at the statistics, but they were able to take that squad and turn it into a 9-3 record. Consider where this team was just a couple years ago, and 9-3 is pretty good.

Speaking of where they were:

and

We think it's great that MSU had a great season because, as we keep saying, we need the whole Big11Ten to do well. We also need the two teams we play every year to be good, for the sake of a rivalry. We also think it's great that that coach of theirs may have been trying to mix things up by calling those later timeouts in the season finale.


Moving on to the Northwestern Wildcats!

The Wildcats better start strong though, because they finish their season against Ohio State, Michigan and Illinois. We think Northwestern will bomb their opponents enough early to have a respectable finish and get to a low-level bowl game.

Our prediction for Northwestern this season: 7-5 (3-5 Big11Ten)

This one is kind of a surprise. We picked them to go 7-5 but the 'Cats showed us up and finished the season 9-3(5-3). They'll get themselves a decent bowl game and we hope the represent the conference well.

This season the Wildcats beat the teams they should have beat, beat the teams you thought they could beat and lost to the teams they were expect to lose to. Of course, there was one glaring exception: a 21-19 loss to Indiana.

On a more positive note, one of the most notable games of the season has to be Northwestern's game in Minnesota. Mike Kafka filled in at quarterback and rushed for 217 yards which as you might imagine, set a school record. Minnesota was looking to prove they are the real deal but Northwestern took the win via a last minute (12 seconds left actually) interception that was returned for a TD.

Statistically, Northwestern was middle of the pack. The Cats were fourth in scoring defense, eighth in scoring defense, fifth in total defense and sixth in total offense.

Record-wise is a pretty successful season for Northwestern -- better than a lot of people, including ourselves, probably expected. But if the Wildcats want to go anywhere they're going to have solidify themselves in all phases of the game before they can hang with the big teams. It's pretty easy to get to 6-2 or 5-3 in the Big11Ten, but it takes a lot of work to get that 7-1 or 8-0 mark.

The weekly recap goes year-end mode.

Like anyone else out there running a blog or any kind of news-site, you feel obligated to go out and make predictions at the start of the season. We thought now would be a good time to go back and take a look at what we predicted and compare those predictions to what came to be.

We're pretty new at this whole thing so we didn't really venture out on any limbs, but we're willing to take the beating if we were far off and trust us, if one of us really screwed up on something, the other is going to never let them forget about it.

We're going to start things off with Michigan, since they were easy.

Basically, we feel that while defense is the foundation of everything in the Big11Ten, when you’ve lost so many key pieces and have only one returning starter on your o-line, it’s bad times ahead. Throw in a new coach and a new system, and things probably aren’t going your way.

Our prediction for Michigan this season: 5-7 (3-5 Big11Ten).

So we gave them more credit than they deserved. They ended up 3-9 (2-6 Big Ten) and at or near the bottom of the conference in a whole heck of a lot meaningful statistic. Eleventh in scoring offense. Tenth in scoring defense. Eleventh in pass offense. Ninth in pass defense. You get the picture.

There was one statistic, however, where they stood supreme. The Wolverines led the conference with a sparkling 40.1 net yards per punt.

The Wolverines were about as bad as we had hoped but worse than we expected. We loved seeing them lose to teams like Toledo, hearing how this was the first time in a while they lost to all three of their big rivals and we really liked all the "since 1967" stats.

However, the Big11Ten needs Michigan to come back strong soon, if not next year. As much as we hate to admit it, the conference teams are all in it together when it comes to getting the big bowl bids. Why do you think there's 7 one-loss teams and probably a couple 2-loss teams ahead of PSU in the "trip to the championship game" queue?

The sooner Michigan comes back and does something meaningful, the better off the entire conference will be. Just so they don't beat Penn State anymore.


Moving on to Minnesota.

For as much positive potential the offense has, the defense seems to have as much negative potential. It would be a great story to see that terrible defense return with a couple junior college guys and turn into a competitor, but it's still a long shot for Minnesota to turn into anything resembling a contendor quite yet. Hopefully for the Gopher faithful, the 2009 team will put something special together for that new stadium they're building -- but 2008 looks like another year full of L's.

Our Prediction for 2008: 3-9 (0-8)

We were off by four games, but we were way off in predicting 0-8 in the conference. The Gophers ended up 7-5 (3-5) and to a team that was coming off a 1-11 (0-8) season, that's a huge turnaround. Sure, they had the benefit of playing Northern Illinois, Montana State, Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic, but hey, they lost to two of those teams the year before.

We noted that while the Gophers have the potential on offense to do something special, defense will ultimately bring them down. That suspect defense ended up allowing 378.4 yards per game, good for 10th in the conference. Pair that with an inability to run the ball (dead last in the conference with 105.8 ypg) and it was a recipe for disaster when you got against a solid opponent.

Had the Gophers finished a bit stronger and not lost their last four games of the season, including a beatdown of epic proportions by Iowa (55-0), this really could have been a special season. For Gopher fans it was probably a great surprise but moving forward the Gophers won't be sneaking up on anyone. Again, we hope they continue to improve because the more good teams in the conference, the better.

Next up: Wisconsin.

The chances of the Badgers to make an appearance in a BCS bowl this season probably rest entirely on the shoulders of PJ Hill. Make no mistake about it, he can run. It will be no surprise when Bielema starts calling for the ball to get to Hill early and often. As PJ Hill goes this season, so go the Badgers.

Also, PJ Hill has his own website We couldn't believe it when we saw it either. Hope you like the third person.

"Visit PJ Hill's website." - PJ Hill

Our Prediction for this season: 10-2 (6-2)

Yeah, we were pretty far off on this one. The Badgers actually ended up being 7-5 (3-5). PJ Hill did get his carries and put up 1000 yards (4.8 ypc average), but he also split time with John Clay who put up 845 yards of his own (5.9 ypc average!).

Wisconsin started off well enough as they won their first three games, but that brings us to the next part of our preview:

After that game (Fresno State), they get a week off to prep for a road trip to Michigan. Despite it being a down year for Michigan (potentially), it's never a good thing when you have to travel to Ann Arbor.

Following Michigan the Badgers play at home against Ohio State, Penn State, then travel to Iowa before returning home for a game against Illinois. If Wisconsin can get through that stretch, perhaps even with just one loss, they should be at the top of the running for Big11Ten Champs as they close with Michigan State, Indiana, Minnesota and a team that really strikes fear into everyone -- Cal Poly.

If you didn't know by now, The Badgers didn't get through that stretch. They lost to Michigan (somehow), Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa before breaking the slide with a win against the Illini. They would lose one more to Michigan State before closing out the season with three wins, BUT BARELY.

If not for a disastrous day kicking extra points (or not kicking extra points, that is), the Badgers would have lost to Cal-Poly. The Cal-Poly kicker missed three of those extra point attempts, including one in overtime that allowed Wisconsin to lock up the win.

Wisconsin's demise may have been one of the biggest surprises of the season, but there's no reason to believe they won't come back swinging next year. They were middle of the pack in a lot of categories this year, so it might just take a little fine tuning to get things rolling again. Unfortunately for Badger fans, Brett Bielema doesn't look like the kind of guy who could fine tune anything.

We'll continue this tomorrow....

The Final Roundup

Time for the final Big11Ten Roundup. There was some thought into comparing what we predicted each team to do versus how things actually turned out, but that can't happen for two reasons.

1. It would embarrass us.
2. We didn't even finish all the team previews.

Slackers we are.

Since we were in State College tailgating for the last game, we didn't really get to see any of the games. That's really going to hurt the quality of the assessment so if you get the "this guy is just reading from the box score" feel from this post, it's probably because we're just reading from the box score.

Indiana: 10 Purdue: 62
Rivals.

You are not reading that incorrectly. This was the weekend of the rout.
You may have heard at some point during the season that Joe Tiller is retiring. While the Purdue season as a whole wasn't very good, at least they gave him a proper send-off as they trounced Indiana and won the Old Oaken Bucket. A trophy like that is what makes the Big11Ten great. It also gives us a chance to share this picture

That picture has nothing to do with anything, except the word bucket.

Anyway, check out the Rivals link. Purdue set a bunch of "hasn't happened since..." records and Kory Sheets moved up the school's career rushing chart. Tiller also said he plans to drink 12-13 Miller Lites.

Wisconsin: 36 Cal Poly: 35
Rivals.

If you are Cal Poly fan, you probably hate kickers right now. Their kicker missed three extra points, including one in overtime. After he missed in OT it was just a matter of time before the Badgers punched one in and won the game. The headline says that Wisconsin dodges the upset, but at this point in the season and the way Wisconsin has played, we're not sure who would have been upsetting who.

PJ Hill went over 1,000 yards for the third straight season, he's only the second Badger to do that.

"PJ Hill for Heisman." - PJ Hill

Northwestern: 27 Illinois: 10

Rivals.

This is game that you'd probably have to see to understand, because we don't. Both teams had comparable statistics in terms of total yardage (Indiana: 335, Northwestern: 339) and neither team turned the ball over too many times to be out of the ordinary. But somehow, Northwestern comes out and wins by 17 and finishes off a good season. The Wildcats end with a record of 9-3 (5-3) and will likely find themselves in a pretty good bowl. No one really expected that to happen.

The Illini, however, will end the season 5-7 (3-5) and miss out on the bowl season. Like many, you might have expected to see this same write-up when the season started, except switch the names of the schools wherever they appear. Northwestern far exceeded any expectations while The Illini failed to live up to theirs.

=(

Iowa: 55 Minnesota: 0
Rivals.

We're not sure how this happened. Minnesota rushed for 7 yards. Iowa for 222. Iowa passed for 261. Minnesota had 127. That must be how it happened.

If you could say one thing about Minnesota this year, it was that their offense was able to perform. Unfortunately for Gopher fans it didn't function at all on Saturday and they ended their tenure in the HHH Dome with a monstrous loss. We'll miss the dome (okay so not really), but no one will miss the epic design flaw on the roof.

Oops.

Despite that loss, however, Minnesota far exceeeded most poeple's expectations for this this season. They end the season 7-5 (3-5) and will likely play in a decent bowl. If the wheels hadn't fallen off during the last four games, all of which they lost, they could have found themselves in a real good bowl and that would have surely been a suprise to everyone.

Regardless of how they finished this season or what they do in their bowl game, it's probably safe to assume that in the coming years, Minnesota may be a team to watch out for in the Big11Ten.

Ohio State: 42 Michigan: 7
Rivals.

Wish we could have seen this one. We wanted Michigan to win so that Ohio State couldn't claim "co-champions" but alas, they couldn't pull it out. Michigan sucks.

Apparently Michigan's defense played well or some garbage, and Ohio State got lucky in scoring 42 points.

Who allows this to take place?

Big Ten Round-Up

Northwestern: 21 Michigan: 14

Rivals

There are a lot of teams winning in Michigan Stadium this year. Add Northwestern to that list. We're far too lazy to look up when it might have been, but it's probably been a while since that happened.

Michigan took the lead going into halftime but never came back out, and Northwestern scored 14 points in the third, getting themselves the win. CJ Bacher threw two TDs in the snow and wind, and Michigan got one of their two TDs as a result of a blocked kick.

We all know things are bad up there in Ann Arbor, but if they can luck themselves into a win against Ohio State, all will be forgiven and Rich-Rod will be hailed as a savior, despite having lost to Utah, Nortre Dame, Illinois, Toledo, PSU, Michigan State, Purdue and Northwestern, all in the same season.

Ohio State: 30 Illinois: 20

Rivals

The Illini had 100 more total yards gained Saturday, with 7 fewer minutes of possession. Their offense was more balanced, passing for 241 while rushing for 214. Ohio State ran for 305 yards, however, making up for a pathetic 49 yards through the air.
But hey, why pass when you don't have to?

Pryor rushed for 110 yards and a score and also passed for one. Beanie piled up 143 yards on the ground, and pretty much played the part of the wrecking ball in this game.

The score is only a 10 point different, but Ohio State pulled away in the second and never really looked back. With rushing totals like that, we can only imagine how painful it was for Illini fans to watch. A lot of those yards were probably, "putting them out of their misery," yards.

Iowa: 22 Purdue: 17

Rivals

If Iowa had gone out and lost this game to a weak as balls Purdue team, we'd probably be pissed. We're pissed either way, because we lost, but if Iowa is going to beat PSU then they better beat up on everyone else too.

Iowa was dangerously close to losing this game, as Purdue drove towards a score at the end of the game. Painter couldn't find a receiver, however, and Iowa got the win. On that final drive, Purdue went from their own 20 to the Iowa 27 in just over a minute and put themselves in a position to win, but just couldn't lock it up.

Oh, and Shonn Greene ran for 211 yards.

Wisconsin: 35 Minnesota: 32

Rivals

We wish we could have seen this game, because it looks like it was a real train wreck in the fourth quarter. When you play for something as cool as Paul Bunyan's axe, easily the coolest trophy in the world, you better have yourselves in check.

Minnesota clearly did not, as they gave up 18 points in the fourth quarter, including 2 safeties and a 5 yard run set up by a horribly timed Minnesota fumble. Of course, this mighty comeback may not have been needed if Wisconsin didn't manage to give up 21 points in the 2nd quarter alone.

Neither of these teams are very good, but at least Minnesota is beating and hanging with teams no one thought they would. Wisconsin has just been a disaster all season after being crowned with all sorts of pre-season expectations.

That's why you play the game though.


A look at the conference championship scenarios is coming tomorrow.

Big11Ten Roundup

We figured since PSU didn't play, no one else did either. With no recap to write you probably should have expected this on Sunday.

Minnesota: 17 Northwestern: 24
Rivals.com recap

We might be reading this wrong, but did Mike Kafka, the QB for Northwestern, rush for 217 yards? Yeah, that's what the box score tells us. Oh yeah, and he's the backup.

This is a game we wish we had seen.

That 217 yards rushing is also Big11Ten record for a quarterback, in case you hadn't already guessed. Javon Ringer thinks that's an enormous amount of yard to be gained on the ground by one man.

Now, while it's fun to ride the hot hand and cheer for the backup, it looks like Bacher will be back behind center for Northwestern's game against Ohio State this coming weekend. This from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Somehow that huge game wasn't mentioned in any of the recaps we saw on TV, they were just concerned with the NU pick-six that ended the game. It's been a good season for Minnesota so hopefully they can bounce back and find themselves in a real quality bowl game and stun someone out there. We don't play them, so it's all about Big11Ten pride.

Michigan: 42 Purdue: 48
Rivals.

In a battle of defenses that would make the Big XII proud, Purdue was able to hold Michigan to 42 points to preserve the win.

Or, in the real world, there was no defense played, Michigan tied it late and then Purdue took the win on a pass with little time left.

Sound familiar? With offenses like that and defenses that can keep teams below 50, they must be national title contenders.

Illinois: 27 Iowa: 24
Rivals.

Well, at least Illinois won one so it looks at least a little better when people see PSU beat them. The whole Big11Ten is letting us down.

Anyway, Iowa had some trouble scoring until late in the 2nd half, and against PSU, that will be bad news. We've all seen what they have done with the second half of important games. Iowa runs the ball well enough, but the passing game isn't there as Ricky Stanzi went 11 for 29. Not good numbers.

If PSU makes Stanzi win the game, Iowa will lose.

Ricky was also sacked 6 times. Aaron Maybin is drooling right now.

Wisconsin: 24 Michigan State: 25
Rivals.

This is what we need. Michigan State needs to keep winning so they have a fairly impressive record when they come to the Beaver. As if there's not enough bad mouthing towards the Big Ten already, if the last challenge of the schedule comes from an average MSU team, it won't look good. Do not lose again, Michigan State.

Well, except for against PSU, obviously.

Wisconsin should have won this game as they finally seemed to have found themselves. They had 430 total yards, including a whopping 281 on the ground. Michigan State's lead man, Javon Ringer, only ran for 54 on 21 carries.

PJ Hill and John Clay each carried the ball for 100+ yards. That is unreal and while we are happy we crushed them, we wish they had been this potent during all of their other games.

Wisconsin was leading 24-13 at the start of the fourth, but Michigan State put up 12 points in the last 9 minutes and took the lead on a field goal with 7 seconds left. Michigan State with the win, and Wisconsin finally starting to look like a decent team.

Central Michigan: 37 Indiana: 34
Rivals.

Really, Indiana? Really?

1007 total yards. 485 total yards for Indiana and 485 for Brian Brunner, the quarterback for Central Michigan. That may have been the difference. He threw for 4 TDs and 1 INT.

Central Michigan totaled 522.

This is the 2nd time Indiana has lost to a MAC team this season, the first time that's happened in school history. To be fair though, they are two of the better MAC teams this season -- the other being a ranked Ball State team.

What happened this past weekend?

This is late because we're lazy. And because Monday night was wing night. oops.

Indiana: 21 Northwestern: 19

Take note, Penn State. We know Northwestern ain't no Penn State, but Indiana is not a good team but if you turn the ball over five times, as Northwestern did this past Saturday, it is very possible to lose to bad teams.

The stats for this game were very similar, with the exception of the 5 turnover margin in favor of Indiana. Neither team really seems to be able or want to run the ball and neither has that game breaking quarterback, but it's good to see Indiana get a win against a ranked team because they're coming up on the schedule and the Lions need to be warned that anything can happen.

Wisconsin: 27 Illinois: 17

Thanks, guys. Every week that Illinois victory from a few weeks back seems to look less and less impressive.

Sherer accounted for 3 touchdowns, one of them on the ground. Juice completed barely more than 50% of his passes and threw more picks than TDs. Neither team ran the ball at that well and PJ Hill only had nine yards.

Does not approve.

What happened? Did he get hurt? Wisconsin fan, fill us in (won't happen). All we could find was that he bruised his foot. We really hope, for the sake of his manhood, that wasn't the reason he only had 9 carries.

Michigan: 21 Michigan State: 35

They may have lost to Ohio State, badly, but we still need to worry about Michigan State. Javon Ringer had a party on Saturday, rushing for 194 yards and two touchdowns. As a team, MSU put up 473 yards of total offense. Michigan only had 252.

Much like PSU, Michigan State had not beat Michigan in what must feel like an eternity, but they were able to get over that hump this weekend. This seems to be the year for that.

Michigan State has their slip up against Ohio State, but it's still safe to say they have the tools to be a good team and that last game of the season will be a good one. We look forward to taking the RV up for that one.

Minnesota: 17 Purdue: 6

Yeah, Minnesota. Since we don't play them this year, we are secretly cheering for them. Some of us are fans of teams in other sports that have been terrible in recent years, so we feel for the fans of Minnesota football who stuck with their team and get to see them play winning football.

The win wasn't glamorous, but they got it done. Adam Weber continues to play effeciently despite having no running game, and the defense is keeping people off the scoreboard, even though they were predicted by many (including us, most likely) to be terrible.

Minnesota continues to rise and is now 7-1 and ranked 17th. Did anyone outside of the Gophers locker room expect this to happen?

Big11Ten Roundup

Time for the Big11Ten roundup. It's a day early. Last week it didn't even come at all. A couple surprises took place this week as Minnesota upset Illinois and Michigan managed to lose to Toledo. At least Appalachian State ended up winning their league championship. Anyway, on to the business -- the lackluster roundup you've come to expect. Links go to rivals.com recaps where a paid writer can fill you in with the real details.

Iowa: 45 Indiana: 9

Rivals.

Iowa started the season with three lopsided and pretty dominating victories -- not allowing a TD until they played Pitt in week four. Then they managed to lose to Pitt, which would ruin anyone's season. That started a three game slide, but just when things looked extra gloomy, the Hawkeyes got a date with Indiana.

Long story short, Indiana gets trounced and Iowa walks out with a 45-9 victory.

The big stat is that two different Iowa running backs topped 100 yards.

Which Iowa will show up when they play PSU? We don't really know, but we hope it's the one that was on the three game skid.

Minnesota: 27 Illinois: 20

Rivals.

Yes! Minnesota! At the start of the season we wanted to say that Minnesota might be someone to watch this year, but we didn't have the balls to say it. Surprising, eh?
We knew they had the potential on offense and they would be able to move the ball, but the defense was all question marks.
Well, the defense is still probably a lot of question marks. They allowed the Illini to pile up 550 yards of offense to their 312. We're not sure how someone can be out gained that badly and pull out the victory, but hey, congrats to Minnesota. They found a way.

We hope they win out, because, you know, PSU doesn't play them.

Toledo: 13 Michigan: 10
Rivals

Oh, this is wonderful. The folks in the stadium-formerly-known-as-the-big-house must be flippin out up there. We would make fun of them a lot more, but you may remember Toledo beating PSU back in 2000. It hurts. We can relate.

With a score of 13-10, this may have been one of the most boring games to watch, ever.

Aside from a 100 yard interception return, there probably wasn't one play to get excited about.

Just remember, Michigan may be down, but they're never out. We won't talk about beating them until it actually happens. They're a huge program, they can pull out the wins and we hope that the guys that actually play the games have the proper mindset going into this game.

Michigan State (23): 37 Northwestern: 20

Rivals.

We're guessing that if you watched this game, you heard the names Tyrell Sutton and Javon Ringer, a lot. A LOT.

Ringer ran 35 times for 124 yards while Sutton ran 23 times for 139.

This game looks like it was never in question as Michigan State scored often and early.

After an initial loss to Cal, Michigan State has quietly gone about its business and compiled a nice 6-1 record. They stumbled a bit against Iowa, but they've been convincing everywhere else. If they beat Ohio State, which is entirely possible, the battle for that ugly Land Grant trophy at the end of the season may take a lot more significance.

Oh, and Northwestern is 5-1. Weird records in the Big11Ten this year.

Ohio State(12): 16 Purdue: 3

Rivals.

You are reading that score correctly.

Purdue's terrible defense held Ohio State to 16 points.
Mighty Ohio State only scored 16 points.
Pryor piled up a whopping 97 yards through the air and 27 on the ground, while Beanie rushed for 94.

Whats most important, however, is that Ohio State's offense didn't score a touchdown in this game. Their only 6 point score came from the return of a blocked punt.

We love it.

Wisconsin Band Will Show Up and Play...Will the Football Team?

Yes, the news came out last night - before we even finished writing our Roundtable post, so that shows our stellar research skills - that the Wisconsin band will be playing at tomorrow night's game. The Green Bay Press Gazette has the story.

The band is being allowed to play amidst allegations of hazing and sexual misconduct. We would criticize the move to allow them back, but we're pretty sure Mo Evans and Abe Koroma will be playing Saturday as well. HEY-OOOOO!

But seriously, having the band will definitely be a boost to the crowd, if not to the actual Wisconsin players. College football without marching bands is...well... kinda like the NFL. Boring. This will give it more of a big-game atmosphere, and it should be awesome. That is assuming the band can actually concentrate on playing a song without fondling one another, of course.

The Links

Welcome back. Here are some links to college football stories around the internets.

We begin, of course, with Penn State.

ESPN.com’s Big11Ten blogger Adam Rittenberg has a nice story about Daryl Clark. You might be shocked when you read about it, but it looks like Jay Paterno was pushing for Clark to play last season when Morelli was struggling. For the first time in our lives, we couldn’t agree more with Jay Paterno. -E!SPN-

Speaking of Jay, is it time to give him credit? -Altoona Mirror-
I doubt we will ever swallow our pride and credit the man. But it is nice to see the playbook open up this year after the last two years of blandness, as the column mentions.

We can't give credit to JayPa solely because he's in this photo (and appears to be checking Morelli out).

Joe’s not sure if Norwood will play this weekend. -GoPSUSports-

It’s been a rough week for Josh Hull. He had a mediocre performance on Saturday, and Cory Giger of the Altoona mirror says he has to step up. -Altoona Mirror-

Black Shoe Diaries also took some shots at Hull. Let’s hope the criticism fires him up, because linebacker play will be crucial against the Badgers and Buckeyes.

The CDT points out how much Penn State benefited from all the Top Ten teams losing over the weekend. We’d like to point out that it’s week 6, we still have 7 games and we could care less about the rankings right now. -CDT-

Seriously, just count the number of national championship mentions in those articles above. Everyone needs to take a cold shower and stop trying to jinx the team.

In other college football news, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio says he isn’t worried about stud running back Javon Ringer being overworked. Maybe he should be, as Ringer is averaging just over 37 carries a game. -MLive.com-

People are definitely taking notice of Ringer, as he is getting some early Heisman talk, and Rivals has him at the top of their running back power rankings, while our own Evan Royster is 16th. Not sure why Beanie is still #2 when so many others have done so much more this year, but oh well. -Rivals-
Check out the other position power rankings as well, you may see some familiar names.

Terry Bowden says that Michigan gained a lot of confidence this past weekend. -Rivals-
Hey, we're glad Wisconsin lost to Michigan. It makes the Badgers look much more vulnerable, but we don’t want Michigan to be brimming with confidence when they visit the Beav. Just thinking about the last few games against them gives us panic sweats. Still, we have a tough time being too worried about Steven Threet.

Moving outside of the Big11Ten, here's a story on BYU and it's coach, Bronco Mendenhall. That is maybe the coolest coach name ever, and it's definitely the weirdest. Also, BYU sounds like a horrible college choice if you enjoy fun. -No Short Shorts-

Oregon State will try to knock off another undefeated team this weekend when they face Utah. We don't know what the hell they were doing when they played Penn State, but obviously they've ironed out some issues. -Beavers-

We've seen Boise State games before last night, but we never noticed this:

Nice change-up on the full stadium color idea, which is rapidly becoming overused throughout the country.

Finally, here are 5 good games to pay attention to this weekend. We’re particularly interested in that middle one. -Rivals-

Preview is coming tomorrow as usual.

ROUND UP

The word roundup reminds of us one thing: cowboys.
Cowboys remind of us one thing: HEY DUDE

Best show ever? Probably. Look what it did for Christine Taylor.

That has nothing to do with Big11Ten football.
Moving on to the games.

We'll start with the craziest.

Michigan State: 42 Indiana: 29

The story coming into this game was Spartan back Javon Ringer rushing for 200 yards his last two games. Obviously if you're Indiana, you know you have to stop him from doing that again if you want any chance to win. Indiana had their chance to win, since they held him to 198 yards, but Michigan State was still able to cap things off.

This game had everything. Big passing plays, big runs, big blocked punts, safeties and huuuuuge penalties. Huge.

When it looked like Indiana might have taken the lead in the third quarter (with a 97 yard pass), IU was called for holding in the end zone. A penalty in the end zone is two points for MSU. The Spartans took the lead and they never looked back. They handed the ball off to Ringer and let him run out the clock, and he did it. Indiana probably could have put something together in the final quarter, but they instead turned the ball over twice, allowing MSU to finish things.

Minnesota: 21 Ohio State: 34

No suprises here. Ohio State, expected to beat Minnesota, beat Minnesota. OSU led by 28 at one point before Minnesota tacked on two more touchdowns, making things look closer than it actually was. Terrelle Pryor of "The University of Ohio State" got things going Saturday, running in two and throwing for another. Goodbye, Todd.

Oh and in case you hadn't heard, Beanie Wells came back after apparently missing a few games. We had no idea he was even hurt. He rushed for 106 and still expects to be handed the Heisman.

Once Ohio State put the scrubs in Minnesota was able to put up some points. Like we've said a thousand times, they have the pieces in place on the offense. They just need to get things clicking there... and find a defense.

Northwestern: 22 Iowa: 17

Yes, Northwestern is 5-0.

Iowa should have won this game. They led 17-3 late in the first half and while that's no lock for a victory, it should put you in pretty damn good position to get the W. Instead, Iowa allowed Northwestern to creep back into the game and finally take the lead off of a touchdown pass after an Iowa fumble.

The story of this game has to be the Iowa turnovers. They lost four fumbles and lost another posession to an interception. This seems to be a trend for the Hawkeyes, as they lost several the week before in their loss to Pitt. PITT! Northwestern probably should have never been in this game, but give credit to them because they were able to capitalize on what chances Iowa gave them.

Purdue: 21 Notre Dame: 38

C'mon, Purdue. You almost beat a ranked Oregon team, then let Notre Dame, the most hated team in the land, go on a 21 point run to take the lead and win the game? You're better than that. Boiler Up!

The teams entered halftime tied, but it was all Notre Dame in the second half, scoring four more touchdowns to seal the deal. Jimmy Clausen, Mr. D-Bag himself, threw for 3 touchdowns and 275 yards. His best game ever, probably. PSU doesn't play ND this year, or we'd probably dedicate an entire post to Jimmy Clausen photoshops. He's such an easy target.

ND actually balanced the offense out pretty well, unlike Charlie's fupa balancing on that one leg.

They passed for 275 yards and ran for 201. Purdue passed for 359 and rushed for 103. Thirty-three of those rushing yards came on one run. If Purdue wants to win games, they're gonna have to learn to balance out that offense. Yeah yeah, we know they're the cradle of quarterbacks, but that pass all the time stuff is BS. Balance it out or continue being incredibly average.

Hopefully ND loses some games here soon so they don't get a BCS bowl gift-wrapped for them. That's probably the worst part of the entire BCS system.

Wisconsin: 25 Michigan: 27

We really can't believe this happened. We're glad it did, but we can't believe it. This narrows down the field of possible Big11Ten winners, as we expect Michigan to lose down the road, and it sends a message to every other team in the Big11Ten. Do not take Michigan lightly just because they're having a bad year.

Sure, they're down, but they still get good recruits and still have, despite our hatred, a good coach. There's going to be times when they can string together a few good quarters, and ruin somsones season. Every team in the Big11Ten is looking to beat down Michigan this year, but you have to show up. Mailing it in won't work. Thanks for the lesson, Wisconsin. The rest of us in the conference thank you.

Even worse than losing to Michigan, Wisconsin had a big lead at one point. Michigan started the second half down 19-0 but put together a lenghty drive to put up 7 points. Michigan would then score the next 3 touchdowns and take a 27-19 point lead.

Wisconsin had a chance to tie it late with a two point conversion, and they converted. Sadly, they cheated, and had to redo the play. This time, they failed, and Michigan won.

Believe it.

It sucks seeing Michigan celebrate in the big house after a big win, but it sucks even worse when they're down and still manage to beat you. We don't want to be Wisconsin, and we really hope that the Lions' locker room was paying attention to what happened on Saturday.

Looking back at the non-conference schedules

With most teams wrapping up their non-conference play this past weekend, we thought it'd be a good time to stop and take a look at how things went for everyone. Overall, the Big11Ten teams beat who they should have but they also lost when people thought they would, and in the case of Iowa, lost when no one expected them to. It's unfortunate since it probably means we'll have another season (or at least until bowl season) of talk about how average the conference is. If OSU and Purdue beat those Pac-10 teams, it's a different story.

And on to the reviews:

Ohio State: 3-1
How they’ve fared:
Seeing Ohio State go 3-1 isn’t all that surprising- a lot of people figured they’d lose to USC before the season even began. But this has to be the least impressive 3-1 start in the history of college football. After a 43-0 shellacking of Youngstown State, the Buckeyes beat cream puffs Ohio and Troy by only 12 and 18 points respectively. Granted, they didn’t have Beanie Wells for either of those contests, but shouldn’t a consensus top-3 team be able to overcome that a little better against low-level teams?

Looking Ahead:
It’s obvious that the injury to Wells hurt this team, but it’s even more obvious that this was a flawed team to begin with, as Wells would’ve been virtually no help against USC. There are tons of questions marks around the Buckeyes now, as they’ve dropped from #2 in the preseason to #14 currently, good for only third in the conference. Of course, they could still p*ss everyone off by running the table in the Big11Ten and getting back to a BCS bowl. Things start off easy with a home game against Minnesota, but the drama ratchets up quickly as the Bucks head to Camp Randall the week after for a showdown with Wisconsin.


Northwestern: 4-0
How they’ve fared:
If Ohio State’s non-conference performance is the least impressive 3-1 start, this one has to be the least impressive 4-0 start. Northwestern opened the season with a 20-point victory over a Syracuse team that would be relegated at the end of the year if this was European soccer. The Wildcats then barely squeaked by Duke, 24-20. After a 33-7 win over football powerhouse Southern Illinois, they downed that pesky Ohio squad, 16-8, behind four picks from QB C.J. Bacher.

Looking Ahead:
As ugly as these victories were, we can’t criticize too much, because a win is a win after all. Usually Northwestern loses 2 or more of those games, so Wildcat fans (all 20 of them) have to be pleased. But the Big11Ten schedule is much tougher, and Northwestern’s first two games against Iowa and Michigan State will go a long way in showing what kind of team they’ll be in the conference this year. They better start strong, because they close with a trio against Ohio State, Michigan and Illinois.


Indiana: 2-1
How they’ve fared:
Quarterback Kellen Lewis was a beast in the opener, a 31-13 win over Western Kentucky. Lewis had 185 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing, and another 2 touchdowns passing. And after Indiana crushed Murray State 45-3, all was right in Hoosier country. But then Ball State paid a visit to Bloomington this past weekend and just smoked Indiana, hanging a 42-spot on the home team. All we can say is that is embarrassing.

Looking Ahead:
They only have to hit the road four times this year, they have some winnable games and they don’t have to play Ohio State. Indiana can still make a bowl game, but they’re not going to do it with defense. If and when they win, it’s going to be in a shootout.


Illinois: 2-1
How they’ve fared:
Kudos to Illinois for scheduling such a tough game in the first week. Missouri showed it can light up the scoreboard with the best of them by beating the Illini 52-42. We’re just glad we didn’t have to play them. But the opening loss seems to have had some negative effect on the Illini, as their play has been shaky since. They gave up 21 points to Eastern Illinois, and barely squeaked by Louisiana-Lafayette, 20-17.

Looking Ahead:
Well, we couldn’t be happier that Illinois is coming off of a couple questionable performances going into this weekend’s conference opener at the Beav. Their season rests squarely on the shoulders of Juice Williams, who’s been a bit spotty so far. But if Juice plays well and the team comes together, we see no reason Illinois can’t finish the Big11Ten schedule a respectable 6-2.


Iowa: 3-1
How they’ve fared:
Iowa thought they were tough shit, as they rolled through their first three opponents giving up a total of only 8 points and no touchdowns. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell anyone that those three games were against Maine, Florida International and Iowa State. They then went to Pittsburgh (to face a Panthers squad that had real problems scoring in a loss to Bowling Green) and promptly gave up three TDs in a 21-20 loss. Losing to Pitt would suck, but losing by one point would be even worse. We’re just glad it wasn’t us.

Looking Ahead:
We picked Iowa to be one of the worst teams in the Big11Ten before the season began. We may’ve been a little off with that one, but the Hawkeyes still have a lot to prove. They’ll have to step up big in their first three conference games (Northwestern, at Michigan State, at Indiana) because their next three are brutal (Wisconsin, at Illinois, Penn State). We still think bad times are ahead for Herky the Hawk.


Michigan: 1-2
How they've fared:
Through three non-conference games, the mighty Michigan Wolverines were only able to pull out one win, a 16-6 win against Miami(OH). To put that score into perspective a little, Miami allowed to 34, 38 and 45 points to Vanderbilt, Charleston Southern and Cincinnati, respectively. Were the Michigan offensive woes that far understated at the beginning of the season? Michigan lost their opener to Utah by a score of 25-23 and then turned the ball over 6 times on a rainy day in South Bend and lost to the Irish 35-17. That kind of schedule should have been 3 wins for a big time Big11Ten team, but as we all know it's gonna be a rough year for the Wolverines.

Looking Ahead:
Thing's are going to get a lot tougher now, too. Michigan opens Big11Ten play with games at home against two ranked conference foes, Wisconsin and Illinois. After that they get a little bit of a breather (ok maybe not) when they host Toledo. After that it's a game in Happy Valley on October 18th and then 5 straight and 3 on the road against conference teams, closing the season in the Horseshoe. We know things are bad for the Wolverines but we never thought it could be this bad. Is it really possible they've seen their only win for the season? They should win some of those Big11Ten games, but will they?


Michigan State: 3-1
How they've fared:
Michigan State opens the Big11Ten schedule after having beat Notre Dame in the final week of their non-conference schedule. While the win wasn't exactly the pounding that most Spartan fans hoped for, it was convincing enough. They held the Irish to just 7 points while Javon Ringer piled up 201 yards in rushing and two TDs. To sum up their non-conference schedule you could say the Spartans beat who they should have beat. Their one loss is to Cal, who they played on the road, but managed to hang with all game long before the final whistle blew while the score was 38-31.

Looking Ahead:
Michigan State opens their conference schedule with Indiana, a very winnable game. They then follow that up with Iowa and Northwestern, two more winnable games. There's no reason to think they shouldn't be able to build up a little momentum before their big game at home against Ohio State. After seeing what USC did to Ohio State, it'd be easy to say that a lot of other teams should be able to do well, but we don't think Michigan State is one of those teams. Javon Ringer is a beast and all, but wether or not MSU as a team can hang with the big teams in the conference will remain to be seen.


Minnesota: 4-0
How They've Fared:
Minnesota! 4-0! Unlike previous years, Minnesota was able to get through their non-conference schedule unscathed. While not every win was a real pounding, the Gophers did beat such perennial power-houses as Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Montana State and Florida Atlantic. The Gophers are getting stellar play out of quarterback Adam Weber and his number one target Eric Decker, who already has 454 yards receiving. The problem, is that they can't seem to stop anyone, except for Florida Atlantic. During our season previews we said that this wasn't the Gophers year but should go a long way towards seeing what they will be, and if they can find a defense to balance the offense, they should be a good team in the near future.

Looking Ahead:
Unfortunately for the Gophers, their next game is at the Horseshoe. It's likely their 4-game run will end here, so enjoy it while it lasts, Gopher fans. Hockey season is right around the corner though, so that's something positive coming up.
After Ohio State, the Gophers play two of the next three on the road, at Illinois and Purdue after their conference home-opener against Indiana. It will be interesting to see how their offense does against some quality opponents but we're going to stand by our prediction of another poor season in conference play for Minnesota.


Purdue: 2-1
How they've fared:
Purdue beat the soft teams they should have, then put on a show at home against Oregon, taking them into a second overtime before succumbing to a 3 yard run Oregon's LaGarrette Blount. That's his real name.
Purdue led by as many as 17 points before allowing Oregon to come back and tie the game late in the fourth. It would have been a huge win for Purdue and also for the Big11Ten, it's a shame they couldn't pull it out. The Boilermakers passed and rushed for just over 200 yards but allowed Oregon to rush for 306. The balance on offense looks good but that rushing defense just won't cut it.

Looking Ahead:
Purdue travels to Notre Dame next to complete their non-conference schedule before opening Big11Ten play at home against PSU and then traveling to Ohio State. Notre Dame is a joke, but those next two games will be rough. If the Boilermakers don't show up against Notre Dame, they could find themselves in a huge hole after consecutive weeks against PSU and OSU.


Wisconsin: 3-0
How they've fared:
As expected, the Badgers are 3-0. They beat Akron (pffft), Marshall (o rly?) and won a tighty against Fresno State (beasts). They pounded who they should have pounded (despite a slow start or two) and then beat a team they had to beat, a team that also has a history of knocking off highly ranked teams. If someone would have said that Fresno State would beat Wisconsin, we wouldn't have been surprised at all, but credit the Badgers as they went out on the road and took care of business.

Looking ahead:
Two or three years ago, Wisconsin would have had one of the hardest possible three games to start conference play. The Badgers open at Michigan and then OSU and PSU back to back weeks at home. While Michigan is down, PSU and OSU are both good teams that should make for interesting games. After seeing the shellacking that OSU took at the hands of USC, you have to think that the Big11Ten is fairly wide open and Wisconsin is looking to get their hands on the conference title. The Bagders should know by their sixth game if winning the Big11Ten is at all possible for them.

We think they'll at least beat Ohio State. Book it.

And of course...

Penn State: 4-0
How they’ve fared:
Well, we all know by now. You could call both this year’s and last year’s offenses scary, but you would mean two entirely different things. All the Lions have done so far is average over 52 points a game through the first four contests. The defense has looked pretty sharp as well, even without half the D-line. They’ve given up an average of 10 points per game. Clark has done a very good job of running the offense, Devlin has passed well in a change-up role, and Evan Royster, Stephfon Green and the O-line are wrecking opposing teams. Oh yeah, we forgot to mention the combined record of Penn State’s opponents so far: 5-10. So let’s not get too excited.

Looking Ahead:
The first real test of the season arrives this Saturday night in the form of the Fighting Illini. Our rush D has been stout, and if we keep the Juice in check, we think the offense can take care of the rest. It will be interesting to see how well Clark/Royster & Co fare against an actual college defense, but we have high hopes. As for the rest of the season, we have three games circled: at Wisconsin, at Ohio State, and home against Michigan (because they’re way past due for an ass-beating). Until then, this weekend will tell us a lot. For now, we’re trying to stay modest and hope for the best.

This Just In: Wisconsin, Penn State Are World-Beaters; Ohio State Sucks

Since we write a blog, we naturally have some problems with the mainstream media, namely E!SPN.

ESPN's new logo.

These feelings are federally mandated. Everyone knows it. We can sit back and rip on the worldwide leader for blowing the Vince Young story out of proportion, for its analysts’ shock-value-laced diatribes and for even employing Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith. But after this weekend in college football (three games in particular), things are starting to hit home.

ESPN.com’s Big11Ten blogger, Adam Rittenberg, has alluded to the fact that Ohio State is no longer the team to beat in the conference numerous times in the last 48 hours (example 1, example 2, example 3). Suddenly, in the course of three hours, everyone stopped saying that Ohio State was one of the best teams in the nation and firmly agreed that they suck, and are not even the top team in their conference.

Obviously, Ohio State got drubbed. And any competent person saw this coming from a mile away. But the way this thing is being covered, you’d think the Buckeyes were going to pack it in and not even play out the rest of their schedule. Never mind the fact that they haven’t played a conference game, they could still finish their season with only one loss (to the #1 team), and could be in national championship talk at the end of the year.

Do we hope that scenario plays out? Hell no. But let’s not get too excited because an amazing football team on a completely different plane smacked Ohio State around. This doesn’t make Penn State’s trip to the horseshoe any easier.

However, judging by the mainstream media, you might think it does. Check out Rittenberg’s power rankings that we mentioned. Wisconsin is his #1 after surviving a tight game at Fresno State, and our beloved Nittany Lions are #2 after spanking Syracuse, which leaves Ohio State at the three spot. What’s even worse is that we heard a combination of the following terms in the same sentence on Sportscenter Sunday morning: “Penn State”, “Big Ten”, “team to beat”.

This pisses us off for a couple of different reasons. First of all—and most obviously—we haven’t played anyone yet. Sure, we’re racking up huge points, but so would the varsity basketball team when they scrimmaged you and the JV squad in practice in the preseason. Second, we don’t want the spotlight. We hate to get nostalgic here, but remember ’05? No one thought we were any good then, and we proved that, yeah, we were. Let’s face it, no one outside the fanbase thinks we’re really any good again, and it’s too early for people to take notice. We’d much rather sneak up on people when we’re 5 or 6-0 than now when we’ve destroyed three awful teams.

We’re not trying to defend Ohio State here or anything. In fact, watching them get blown out Saturday was pretty satisfying. And as Rittenberg correctly points out in his “We are the Big Ten” post, the worst thing that could happen this year is the Buckeyes winning out and getting smoked again in a big bowl game. We think this can be a great year for Penn State, but they’ve still got a lot to prove. And while ESPN can jump to conclusions all it wants to, we’d rather heed the advice of the great Winston Wolfe:

"Pretty please...with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car."

Okay, that was the wrong quote, but we think you know which one we mean. Everyone relax, enjoy yourselves and we'll see how this thing shakes out.

Links Roundup

First of all, thanks to Tangled Up In White and Blue to mentioning us the other day. Tangled is a cool blog and we admire anyone who references Bob Dylan in any facet of life, so check it out! Onto the links.

In Penn State news, Royster shared Big11Ten player of the week honors after his big performance over the weekend. Can’t they just pick one guy? -GoPSUSports-

DE Jerome Hayes is out for the year. We’re late as hell on this one. Too bad that doesn’t it make it suck any less. Any readers out there play D line? -GoPSUSports-

Penn State is #17 in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. Check out where the CBS 120 has them. If you don’t feel like looking, here are some of the teams ahead of them: East Carolina, South Florida, Fresno State, and worst of all, Wake Forest. The ACC should give up its BCS bid. -Laugher-

Of course the big news this weekend is not PSU-Syracuse, believe it or not. It’s the big clash between USC and the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Here’s a lengthy history of the USC-OSU battle. -Bucknuts-

Dennis Dodd thinks that if OSU wants to win, they better play Terrelle Pryor. -Sportsline-

Sweater Vest says Beanie Wells is a go. Beanie Wells says he wants 45 carries. We say Beanie Wells is a moron. -Sportsline-

Bad news for Minnesota, their leading rusher is out for the year. We might have to change our prediction for them to 2 wins instead of 3. Love his first name pronunciation. -Twin Cities-

Hey, speaking of being out for the year, don’t know if you heard about this:


San Diego State is one of the bottom five teams in the country, and Notre Dame BARELY beat them. We think ND sucks, and apparently we’re not alone. -NotreDameSucks-

To all those people who love to extol the virtues of the Big East: well, you’re idiots. We’re two games into the season and you have two unbeaten teams left (and somehow West Virginia is still ranked). -Poop Teams-

Tom Brady.

The last few years have been rough on Ty Willingham. He’s on the hot seat again. -Rivals-

Speaking of Ty Willingham, in case you missed the replays of that insanity at the end of the Washington-BYU game, here you go:

Rant of the week: Okay, we all know that this rule sucks. But everyone should stop blaming this on the refs. It’s a rule, and they enforced it, it’s not their fault. Don’t shoot the messenger, blame the stupid rule. Plus BYU could've blocked that kick just the same if it was kicked from the normal spot. Next time, wait 'til AFTER you tie the game to celebrate, and you won't have this problem.

Around the Big11Ten

Last week we gave a quick look at every game in the Big11Ten and a brief write-up about each one. It's early in the season, so that means there's 11 games to talk about, and like most of you, we don't get to see every game. We're new at this, so we're still trying to find out what works.
We don't want to put you to sleep with a column about Murray State versus Indiana, so we'd rather just write something more substantial about the big news games and just give the results of the others. Besides, what else does anyone else need to know about a Murray State v. Indiana match-up except who won?

First, results.

Purdue: 42
Northern Colorado: 10
Recap, courtesy of Rivals.com.

Michigan State: 42

Eastern Michigan: 10
Recap.

Illinois: 47
Eastern Illinois: 21
Recap.

Iowa: 42
Florida Internation: 0
Recap.

Indiana: 45
Murray State: 3
Recap.

Minnesota: 42
Bowling Green: 17
Recap.

Northwestern: 24
Duke: 20
Recap.

With the exception of Northwestern, none of those games were very close. Considering that those teams are, for the most part, the second tier in the conference it's strange how they managed to steam-roll their opponents yet the big teams could barely hang on.

Now regarding the big-time programs.

We almost feel bad for Michigan. They're Michigan, so we're not going to just drop them down into the "second tier" group and give them a pass for poor play. We thought Michigan would improve between games, but honestly, look at this score.

Michigan: 16 Miami (OH): 6
Recap.

It took Michigan until midway through the fourth quarter to finally put away Miami. Normally when you talk about "putting someone away," it's during a 42-35 shootout when the 42 team gets to 49. Not when you make the leap from 10-6 to 16-6. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

We really thought Utah was at least to some extent, a bit of a fluke. In saying that, we mean no disrespect to Utah because they won that game, but it is Michigan, and Michigan losing to all these lesser opponents still seems strange to us. Could the team in Ann Arbor actually be worse than we had hoped?

Richy Rich was hoping that one of his QBs would solidify themselves as the number one guy this week. Unfortunately for Michigan fans, he referred to his quarterback situation as "The good, the bad and the ugly," during a post game presser. That should be a real boost of confidence for both guys.

Rich approves of this method.

This game was also watched by the smallest crowd at Michigan Stadium since 1998.

Next up for UM is a date with Notre Dame, who was only barely able to pull out a win against San Diego State. Both Notre Dame and Michigan probably think this is their chance to really rebound against a hated rival, we're expecting a 10-7 final.

Moving on.

Wisconsin: 51 Marshall: 14
Recap.

While the score may not look too suprising to anyone, what's worth noting in this game is that PJ Hill was held to 57 yards rushing. Also worth noting, is that Wisconsin scored 51 unanswered. That means that at one point, Marshall was leading 14-0!

Marshall really dedicated themselves to stopping PJ Hill after he put up 210 yards against Akron in the opener. Things worked well, but they weren't counting on Allan Evridge going 17-26 for 308 yards. Does that answer the questions at QB that Wisconsin may have had? Maybe. That's a great showing. Maybe they aren't going to be so one dimensional after all.

Marshall may have lost big, but they certainly put out at least a little bit of a blue print as to how to deal with Wisconsin. Unlike any of the Big11Ten teams, Marshall just doesn't have the tools to deal with a balanced offense, but when Wisnconsin runs into a solid defense that can deal with both the run and the pass, it may spell a bit of trouble for Wisconsin. PJ Hill is still a beast, and maybe Evridge will be better than expected but at least part of their game looked a little vulnerable this past weekend.

Wait, what? How did that get in there?!

Ohio State: 26 Ohio: 14
Recap.

Now that's a score that surprises people. Ohio is not supposed to be within 14 points of Ohio State. Ohio State is not supposed to be challenged by Ohio. Below average MAC teams are not supposed to challenge the best team in the Big11Ten.

The Buckeyes trailed 14-12 entering the fourth quarter before getting a rushing TD from Brandon Saine and later a 69 yard punt return by Ray Small that put the Buckeyes ahead by 12.

Did you say 69?

We know that joke was crass, but 69 is his favorite number.

Ohio got one more possession which ended in an interception, and then Ohio State ran out the clock.

We'll give Ohio State the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe they were looking ahead to USC or that it was because Beanie Wells didn't play. If we were the least bit competent and got our Ohio State preview up, you'd have seen that we were pretty big on Wells, and pretty big on OSU in general. We wouldn't have picked them to beat USC, but there was no way we'd pick them to lose to any team in the Big11Ten.

There's no way they should have ever been down to Ohio, especially that long into the game. Ohio. The Bobcats.

There's no excuse for what happened on Saturday and if there's one team you don't want to play after you've had a shaky game, it's USC. USC is basically everything every other school wishes their football program could be. They win, they have Snoop Dogg on the staff and their cheerleaders moonlight as super models. Pete Carroll will have his guys ready, so sweater vest better make sure his squad knows whats coming.

This is gonna be good.

Links Roundup

First, we’d like to give a quick thank you to the four blogs you see listed on our sidebar. They’ve welcomed us to the blog community with open arms, and we appreciate it very much. Special thanks to The Nittany Line and Zombie Nation, who both took the time to write a post about us, which was awesome. Make sure to check them all out because they’re all great blogs with unique views on PSU.

Next, despite the calls for bad weather, we are really looking forward to this weekend. It will be WWTL’s first big tailgate of the season, and we’re looking forward to another dominating performance from the blue and white. We’ll have the game preview later in the week, but until then, here are some links to some Penn State news, as well as some news from around college football world.

The Daily Collegian ran a story yesterday stating that Penn State student tickets will go paperless, starting next season. Students will have to swipe their ID cards to get into the games. They can sell their tickets to other students and transfer the tickets using an online system. Why should you care if you’re not a student? If you’re a couple years removed from school like we are, that means you’re probably sitting with the old people the rest of your life. -The Collegian-

In the polls, Penn State has risen three spots to #19 in both the AP and Coaches rankings. -Sportsline-
Here’s a quick shout-out to Tennessee, Virginia Tech and Clemson for being so nice and letting us climb in the polls. Can we all agree that ACC teams should not be ranked in the preseason polls from now on? Good, glad we got that settled.

Also, it turns out that Daryll Clark will be eligible for another season next year. If he’s great this year, then this is potentially good news. But will Devlin stay around, or transfer to a place with more playing time? It’s too early to say at this point, as both are expected to continue playing this season. -E!SPN-

And in the least surprising story of the century, there was a police visit to an apartment of Penn State football players last night. And oh yeah, the police confiscated some weed. We were woefully behind on this story, so we send you to Black Shoe Diaries for the details. -BSD-

What kinda of injury does Beanie Wells have exactly? His mom says it’s his toe, while Tressel acts like he’s surprised to hear that Wells is injured at all. -Columbus Dispatch-
If the guy’s even questionable, why the hell would’ve they even THINK about playing him this week against Ohio U with USC looming next week? Whatever, we hope they give it a go.

It’s 5 o’clock and Pitt’s offense still sucks. -Pittsburgh Trib-

We tried to gather some news about Oregon State’s thoughts on this week’s game, but our heads exploded when we saw their site. -Beavers-

And finally, here’s a fun one. A skydiver was supposed to deliver the gameball to the UNC game Saturday, but dropped in on Duke’s game instead. Whoops. -E!SPN-

Here's the YouTube. Just ignore the more info thing, it's some stupid ad on the actual YouTube page.

Big11Ten Wrap Up

warning: This was supposed to be up earlier but all computers in the WWTL offices failed us miserably. Not that anyone was coutning on this being up at a certain time, but sorry for the delay and the appearance of being rushed -- which it was. This is the second time this has been typed up, arrrrggh.

And now, for all the news from the Big11Ten that you may have missed after you fell into a drunken stupor following the thrilling PSU v CC match. Just some quick scores, a stat or two from each game and what that might mean to PSU.


Ten of the eleven teams started their season on Saturday. Who didn't? Purdue.

Class comes first.

And in no particular order, the rest of the teams and their results.

Northwestern: 30 Syracuse: 10

Like every other team in the league, Northwestern started off the season with a softy. Granted, their opponent came from a BCS conference and has at least some history as a good football school, but Syracuse just isn't what it used to be. NU running back Tyrell Sutton absolutely dominated in this game, putting up 144 yards on 21 carries. This game aired on Big Ten network and so we got to see a bit of it, and Sutton was absolutely running guys over out there. Pretty scary. Northwestern's backs ran for a total 269 yards on the day, averaging 6.4 per carry.

The NU defense also heald Syracuse to just 225 total yards of offense. Not a good day for the Orange, but good news for PSU fans as the Nittany Lions make the trek to Syracuse later this season.

Northern Illinois: 27 Minnesota: 31

Minnesota was looking to keep the tradition alive and lose to a non-BCS foe in week 1, and what a shocker, they almost did!

It took a touchdown with 22 seconds left to get the win for Minnesota. Surely there's more to the story, but we're just looking at box scores. Minnesota and Northern Illinois put up 425 and 398 yards, respectively. Pretty big numbers, which is probably more a testament to the lack of defense than anything else. Minnesota allowed 326 yards through the air, so we're guessing that whole "call up the junior college guys to play with the big boys" strategy didn't work.

On a more positive note, Adam Weber and Eric Decker both showed up in the first game of the season. Weber went 24/37 for 298 yards and two TDs. No picks. Decker caught 10 balls for 89 yards and a TD.

If Minnesota can find a defense, they might put together a good team one of these years.

Michigan State: 31 Cal: 38

This is probably the only time we'll ever give props to Michigan State for anything, but they actually scheduled a legit team to open the season. The Spartans shipped out to Berkeley and played a close game, but just couldn't gain the lead at any time. MSU threw for 321 yards, while only running for 81.

Defensively, they allowed the Bears to run for 203 yards as well as pass for 264.

We're not football experts, but the ability to run, and stop the run seem pretty important.

Akron: 17 Wisconsin: 38

As expected, PJ Hill ran all over the place. We're not sure why PJ got 26 carries against lowly Akron, but our guess is that when it takes you nearly 3 quarters to seal the deal against a MAC team, you gotta keep rollin out the starters.

"Visit PJ Hill's website." - PJ Hill

As a team the Badgers ran for 404 yards. That's just scary no matter who you're playing. Should be interesting to see what happens when they play that Penn State defense. Most people seem to agree that the defense was a little less than stellar, so let's hope they improve before they have to deal with a couple dozen doses of PJ Hill running down their collective throats.

Quick note: Wisconsin vs Northwestern from 2000 is on BTN right now. Good God was astro turf a terrible idea.

Iowa: 46 Maine: 3

Maine and Iowa are probably two of the most boring states in the Union. With that in mind, lets move on to the next game.

Western Kentucky: 13 Indiana: 31

Have you heard of the Kellen Lewis show? Ole Kellen, fresh off suspension, lead the team in rushing with 185 yards and passing with 144 yards. At least one of those numbers is pretty impressive and makes up for the other a bit. Lewis figured in on all four of Indiana's touchdowns, two of them coming on runs of 75 and 62 yards. Again, that's pretty scary. Let's see what happens against a legitimate opponent before we start making a real judgement, but thats still pretty impressive running figures for a quarterback.

No word on Lewis' reception stats.

Brooks Bollinger just ran for 34 yards.

Indiana and PSU don't face off until late in the season and there's not a whole lot we can use in the scouting report (mostly because we didn't see the game) because of the quality of opponent and it's likely that Indiana didn't even open up the book in this game. All we know is: stop Kellen.

Ohio State: 43 Youngstown State: 0

We (actually just one of us, speifically) dropped the ball on finishing off the Big11Ten team previews, but if we had gotten the Ohio State one up before the season started, it would have been all about how the fate of OSU largely rests on the shoulders of Beanie Wells.

So there's all this noise about how Beanie is going to be important and blah blah blah, so what does Sweater Vest do? He leaves him in one play longer than he needed to and he ends up getting himself banged up. Fortunately for OSU it doesnt sound like anything really serious that could keep him out for any length of time. It's also fortunate for residents of south-central Ohio, as the collective tears of Buckeye nation would have formed a new tributary to the Ohio River.

Buckeye fans also got their first good look at Pryor. He threw for 35 yards and rushed for another 52 -- including a touchdown run. We hope that's all he ever scores in this league, but we're sure he'll be a threat for the Lions somewhere down the road.

Boeckman also had a fair game, completing 14 of 19 passes for 187 yards and two TDs.

Not a lot to take from this game, as it's just one step in tuning up for the big USC game in week 3.

Missouri: 52 Illinois: 42

Wow, can't wait to play Illinois. Juice Williams threw for 451 yards and 5 TDs. In other offensive news, the Illini balanced out that passing attack with 81 yards on the ground. Missing Rashard much?

The final score shows a 10 point loss, but the game was effectively over after Missouri took an 18 point lead heading into half-time. Illinois would never get within one score for the rest of the game.

The stat of the game for this one has to be Juice's 451 yards through the air, but on the other side of the ball, Chase Daniel threw for 323 while Missouri's backfield ran for another 226.

Those are some big and balanced numbers for any offense, but if Missouri wants to hang on to their top 10 spot they better learn to slow down some offenses. 451 yards to Juice Williams? He never threw for more than 220 last season. After this game, he's already 1/4 of the way to matching his total passing yards for all of last season!

Michigan: 23 Utah: 25

For the second season in a row, Michigan loses to a non-BCS team.
We here at WWTL could not be happier.

Sure, Michigan's down so it's not really all that surprising, but we love it none-the-less.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to actually see the game so our recap cannot be as detailed as we would have liked. All we know is that neither team could move the ball on the ground, and Michigan couldn't really move it through the air either.

Utah rushed for only 36 yards, although a big -66 gets attributed to the 6 sacks Michigan got. Michigan also rushed for 36 yards, but they didn't have any negative yardage because of sacks. They legitimately earned their 36 yards.

Passing didn't really seem to work well for Michigan either. Threet and Sheridan combined for 167 yards, but they have two nice touchdown plays -- especially Threet's 33 yarder to Junior Hemingway in the fourth.

We won't know what to make of this game until the season ends. Is Michigan that bad? Is Utah that good? We'll give Michigan credit and say all of this can be attributed to a new coach, new system, blah blah blah, and they'll only improve from here. Michigan's not what they used to be, but they still have top tier athletes and once things start clicking, they'll be back challenging for the second best team in the Big11Ten.