The Big Ten is a balanced league where nothing can be taken for granted — once you get beyond OSU.
Three weeks into the season and Penn State and Michigan are 1-5. Maryland and Indiana have outstanding quarterbacks. Northwestern leads the West. Pre-season ‘hot ticket’ Minnesota can’t defend. OSU is the ONLY item playing as expected.
What’s it all mean? Up is down, and down is up, in the Big Ten this year, and the biggest surprises are in State College and Ann Arbor.
And if that’s a bad spot to be in, where is Michigan in that mix? Mixed-up, for sure, and the mixmaster may come next. This isn’t any old team: it’s the winningest team in college football history. But it has been 13 years since that fateful day when App State came to town and left with a victory. Michigan hasn’t been nationally prominent since, and there hasn’t been a Big Ten title, either. “The Leaders and Best” haven’t been either for quite a long time. And every year, it seems, the Wolverines aren’t as good as expected. This year an undermanned secondary and undersized receiving corps are two of Blue’s major problems. And Judgment Day for Jim Harbaugh may come as early as Saturday—assuming the Wisconsin game remains on the schedule (COVID looms in Madison).
Nobody saw this coming when Jim came to AA. Now, they don’t talk about whether he can turn it around. They talk about when he’ll be leaving.
Is the Big Ten experiencing its version of ‘out with the old and in with the new?’ That might be. Indiana has been knocking at the door for several years, experiencing its own version of an old saw: “Close but no cigar!” That changed in October with an improbable (make that ‘miraculous’) opening win in Happy Valley. Then, last week, the Hoosiers literally ran past the Wolverines. IU has assembled a talent core of skill players led by elusive and proficient QB, Michael Penix, Jr. The Spartans are on tap next, and the only hope for the men in Green is to do to the Hoosiers what they did to Michigan. How likely? Not very.
Another example of ‘this is a very different year’ comes by way picking Ohio State v. Maryland as a ‘Red Letter’ game. After getting throttled in Evanston in the opener, the Terps look like a team to be reckoned with. A sound defense complements a versatile offense. Saturday’s outcome may come down to whether Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa can play well enough to win. So far, he connecting on nearly 70% of his passes for 800 years and six TDs. He spreads the ball out, too—to three receivers who have nearly identical yards-per-catch stats (13.4-17.8).
And if OSU is the only Big Ten team that’s as good as expected, my pick is Northwestern for the winner of the ‘better than expected’ prize. What the ‘Cats did to Iowa on the road (play lockdown second-half defense, that is) they duplicated at home v. the Huskers last weekend. This week NU travels to West Lafayette to play a Purdue team desperate to show that its home-opening win against the Hawkeye wasn’t a one-off. A win will catapult the Boilers into the West Division race.
The Big Ten isn’t just OSU-Michigan these days, and it’s more than having a team or two pop up for a few years and then drop back down. The Big Ten is a balanced league where nothing can be taken for granted — once you get beyond OSU.
