Another "Big Ten Sucks" Article
Bruce Hooley of Fox Sports wrote an Article, "No Big Ten team worthy of national title talk". This one is fairly subjective & they make a few good points. He does give UofM some props at the end though. My only problem is being critical of not blowing out opponents of "lesser" quality/conferences. This seems to be apparent across the board in college football especially in the early weeks regardless of the conference.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:05 AM ^
...he's right. In six weeks, he might be wrong.
Moving on.....
September 24th, 2009 at 10:06 AM ^
but grit our teeth and keep our mouth shut? The article was well written and the conference only has itself to blame; Thanks Illini, thanks Iowa, thanks MSU in particular. The comments about PSU's running game ring true; maybe JoPa's holding back, but even so it's clear they are missing the guys who left from last year. OSU...well, that's up to Coach Tressel, he's got the guys to man up with anybody. Pryor needs to improve-man am I happy he didn't come here-, but they have no reason to lose their bowl game.
And of course there is us. I smile like some expectant father! We are going through the transition but man we show some promise! I'm still hoping for 'undefeated', but which one of us isn't expecting at least one hiccup during the season?
Having us amongst the upper echelon of the conference will help the bowl record; you remove the finest football program from post season play and force just about everyone else to play one bowl better, well you can't expect too much success.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:10 AM ^
In two years, Michigan will be mentioned with the elite programs, USC Florida, and most likely (might be overly optimistic here but a man can dream can't he?) trying for a National Championship.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:15 AM ^
I wouldn't say that's overly optimistic. I'd say it's fairly realistic. Maybe I'm overly optimistic. Either way, I'll join you in optimism.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:14 AM ^
Umtil a Big 10 team proves they can win in a big time game, there probably wont be a team in the MNC game.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:11 PM ^
intentional genius?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:53 AM ^
Before clicking on the header, I thought this would be a comment on Wojo's article today: http://www.detnews.com/article/20090924/OPINION03/909240369/1004/sports…
The thrust of the article is that the Big Ten shapes up the same way it always does: Spartans are teases, Buckeyes lose to big time competition but will still probably compete for the B10, Michigan is back to winning . . .
Wojo pretty much says the B10 is back (to its old ways), which as of late means not winning to many big games against top quality competition.
Wojo does mention Rich Rod's change of pace, brining faster and more explosive play to the B10, but he doesn't use it as a jumping off point.
To me, Rich Rod's coaching will spur an overhaul in the conference. The Big Ten conference isn't righting itself just to go back on the same path it has been on.
If the other teams in the conference want to compete with what Michigan will be bringing in the next few years (I assume they will TRY to) they will adjust and adapt. Rich Rod will force the conference to evolve.
This may be your father's big ten, but dad is nearing retirement and the young pup is about to take over the family business.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:32 AM ^
The problem with this line of thought is that the Big Ten lacks a hotbed of talent in the Midwest. The Pac-10 can recruit out of California, the Big 12 out of Texas, and of course the South is religious about college football. Rich Rod's innovation won't change any of that and it's not like the spread hasn't been in the Big Ten for some time already.
Coach Rod can help re-establish Michigan football but not the entire conference.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:45 AM ^
What you say has merit. B10 country may not have as much talent as Texas, Florida and California but many top players come out of Ohio and Pennsylvania, still considered B10 recruiting country. Bringing in Turner (an elite player from Ohio) and looking good in the recruitment Cullen Christian (from Pennsylvania) shows Rich Rod is doing well in mining regional talent but he is also attracting talent from those talent rich regions of the country (Tate Forcier from Cali and Denard and Martavious among many others from FLA).
The spread has been in the B10 for awhile, Northwestern, PSU and Purdue (others too probably) have run the spread but none of those programs have shown the proficiency with their systems that Rich Rod has shown over the course of his career. Besides PSU, none of those schools had the talent RR will have at his disposal.
Rich Rod will re-establish Michigan, but I think that will have an effect on the rest of the conference. I may be giving the rest of the conference too much credit, but I imagine other schools will attempt to adapt to Michigan's style and this will elevate the status of the conference.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:56 AM ^
+1 for the analogy at the end, priceless
September 24th, 2009 at 10:58 AM ^
To paraphrase the Joker "What this conference needs is an enema!"
September 24th, 2009 at 12:02 PM ^
Our win over ND is the conference's best non-conference win. That's kind of sad.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:09 PM ^
What Michigan needs to do is schedule non-conference games with the SEC. Were 19-5 against the sec. I was kind of disapointed that were playing UConn for the opener next year.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:31 PM ^
Now Michigan has speed too. Smarts+Speed= Domination.
SEC can't back up there dominance unless..
A) They end there last game in mid November like big ten teams
B) Play a northern team in november
C) Play a big ten team before our 1-2 month lay off until bowl games
September 24th, 2009 at 1:16 PM ^
schedule games with us, when they can continue to beat up on the Troy's of the world and have everybody bow to them chanting esssseeeeccccc speed?
Scheduling us would be a no win for them, lose to a B10 team -> LOLZ and win -> esssseeeccc speed.
So the best outcome is equal to what can be achieved with much lesser risk.
September 24th, 2009 at 2:23 PM ^
My biggest problem with this is that it implies that there are lots of other teams who look like they're on their way to a championship. From everything I've read, the consensus is that no real leaders have emerged. I think we need a couple more weeks of play before establishing anyone, Big Ten or not, as a potential champion.
September 24th, 2009 at 2:33 PM ^
Well no ACC team or Big East team looks like a National Championship contender either
September 24th, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
all that has to happen is our conferences meet in the bowl games on equal terms. Over time i'm sure the records would come out virtualy even
#2 SEC vs #2 Big 10
#3 SEC vs #3 Big 10 etc
That doesn't happen right now.