A Big 0 For The Big Ten

Well, Gordon Gee. It's all up to your Ohio State Buckeyes to salvage the reputation of the battered and bruised Big Ten. That was a mighty pimp slap the rest of the college football world put on the boys from the midwest. Throw in Nebraska's loss to a mediocre Washington team they whacked by 35 earlier this season, that makes it a little bit worse.

For starters Northwestern fought the good fight in losing to Texas Tech 45-38. The Wildcats dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of, but at least they made a game of it. More than what i can say about the next two games. That would be the simultaneous beatdown suffered by Michigan and Michigan State. The Michgan schools were outscored 101-21 and thoroughly embarassed by Alabama and Mississippi State. The Rodriguez era will end on an ugly note, no matter what David Brandon is saying. The Spartans are not ready for prime time. Penn State and Florida went down to the end until the Gators finally locked up an Outback Bowl victory with a pick 6, 37-24. Then in the Grandaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin lost to an unbeaten TCU squad, 21-19. No shame in that, except if Ohio State president Gordon Gee didn't make those ridiculous comments about teams like TCU not playing anyone. It's not like anyone wants to sign up to play them. Anyway, how did that taste Gordon.

The bowl season actually started out pretty good for the Big Ten, with wins by Iowa and Illinois, only to see the roof cave in during the postseason. Five losses in five games. And I'm not feeling to confident about Ohio State, with the distractions created by the Buckeye 5 and all.   

Michigan/Michigan State Thoughts

Michigan State is undoubtedly the top dog in the state right now. I know it rubs the Michigan faithful the wrong way, but its the truth.

The Spartans have reached new heights this season. Starting 7-0 for the first tine since 1966. Coming in with a number seven ranking in the first BCS poll and beating the Wolverines for three straight years. Right now they are everything Michigan used to be. Owning a win over Wisconsin, who in turn knocked off Ohio State, the Spartans are in control of the Big Ten race right now. Take one game at a time and everything should work itself out. Just don't look past Northwestern, to get to Iowa.

For all of the offensive excitement, the Wolverines have regressed badly on defense. It's hard to start freshman and inexperienced sophomores, but you'd expect some kind of improvement. It seems like for everything they seem to do right on the defensive side of the ball, they follow it up with a penalty or some kind of mental mistake that puts a player out of position to make a play. I do think some of it is scheme because i just don't think the 3-3-5 is going to get it done in the Big Ten. Some of it is talent. Not that they don't have it. It just keeps leaving or it's not developing. Rich Rod is talking about moving five star defensive tackle William Campbell to guard. Rodriguez even made a Bobby Williams-esque statement about how Vince Lombardi couldn't fix the problems on defense. The Wolverines need to improve or see a once promising start turn to dust for the second year in a row. They'll outscore you, but when they need to make a play defensively, let's just say the jury is still out on that one.