The B10 is open, open thread

Submitted by Chi-Blue on

Being pretty young cant remember, or dont know, when the B10 was this open.

Wisconsin is not good. They were dominated by an improving,yet still not very good Oregon State team today. I think we know why they were so good last year now as Russell Wilson is an undrafted rookie in the NFL who is hte starter on a team that many have as a playoff team. Wiscy is not far from sinking back into the days of being just another solid football team.

Ohio State will be good, and is decent right now. They have a good defense, but not great, nor does it seem like it will be. Braxton Miller is Denard 2.0. This will not be popular around here but I have to tell you that he is better than Denard, and will continue to get better. They still have a tough road with their lack of Urban type backs so we shall see. Oh yeah, they cant play in the post season!!

Purdue is much improved now that they have QB's that have real live working legs with acl's and everything. Good D line so we shall see.

Penn State - Brendan Gibbons Red-shirt fresh season with RR.

Indiana does have a football team as evidenced by the fact that a football team wearing their uniforms beat Umass today!!

Illinois - ScheScheelhousss, their QB might play tonight?

MSU  - I think they are the leader to win the B10, as long as their QB throws to guys on his team and his line doesn't get him killed as their depth at QB is much like the team who's name shall not be named! Also, Bell is a beast who will do well in the NFL. If he however gets hurt the Spartans will damaged beyond repair.

Minnesota - Nope

Northwestern - HIs mother named him Kain?? They are ok but not going to get it done.

Iowa - Recruiting and the AIHRB god or whatever the acronym is for this deity have conspired to put Iowa back into place much like WIsc. Oh I forgot, they lost every one of their coaches from last year but Kirk.

Nebraska - I'm presently watching them in a dog fight against UCLA. I like them to give MSU a run for their money. If the game is in Lincoln I take Nebraska but alas its in EL. I think they are in the same boat as us in that they have some improvements ahead of them if they expect to be in Indy and the Rose Bowl.

Way to early predictions, but why not

Prediction - MSU wins the B10 after beating Wisc in Indy. Sparty finally gets the the Rose bowl and gets killed Bama style. Who do they play? USC will win against Oregon and they will both run the table otherwise. USC plays Bama in the tilte game, and Oregon beats Sparty 38 - 16.

Your predictions??

FreddieMercuryHayes

September 8th, 2012 at 9:47 PM ^

At this point, MSU wins the B1G easily.  Maybe I'm reading too much into the UW loss, but I was shocked by that.  Ball with 60 something yards of rushing?  Does Purdue or Ill represent the Leaders this year?  

Oh, and I hate Ohio so much right now.  Why why why do they get to be in the division where Purdue looks like a favorite?

DrewGOBLUE

September 9th, 2012 at 12:41 AM ^

My guess is Wisconsin is in a similar situation as we are in regards to the production of their running backs. We lost Molk while they lost Peter Konz and Kevin Zeitler- the key offensive linemen for both teams. Obviously Fitz and Ball are both very talented, but like most running backs, they can't do much without decent run blocking. 

With that said, the caliber of our OL recruits makes me ecstatic. 

Erik_in_Dayton

September 8th, 2012 at 10:05 PM ^

OSU and MSU look to be the class of the Big Ten right now, with OSU being the best.  Wisconsin will probably get better, though, b/c they're still breaking in a new OC and new QB...I'll risk getting killed with you and say this:  I agree that Miller is already better than Denard.  He's nearly his equal as a runner, and he's a better passer. 

FreddieMercuryHayes

September 8th, 2012 at 10:23 PM ^

And this year he's running an offense that is made to get blitheringly wide open recievers and complete oodles of passes.  But he's still kind of just inaccurate.  He is only a sophomore, and he doesn't throw many INTs like Denard, but there's no objective evidence to conclusively say he's a better passer.

AZBlue

September 9th, 2012 at 1:03 AM ^

IMO with the transition to Urban's system.  His numbers are good - but are not super impressive if you take out the dink and dunk passes.  I haven't watched all of either of his games thus far but very few of his completions seem to be over 10 yards before YAC.  Last year his "good" longer passes involved staying alive and rocketing the ball deep to receivers that broke open during the scramble.  For whatever reason he doesn't seem to be doing that this year, or Urban's system (or the receiving corps) doesn't offer as much opportunity.

As for running. he seems to be a better improviser/scrambler than Denard but not as good on designed runs unless they are wide open like some of the QB draws today.  He probably has a little more wiggle than Denard but not as much speed.

Side note (rather than another post) - How's that new throwing motion working Taylor Martinez?

MI Expat NY

September 8th, 2012 at 10:20 PM ^

There's zero chance that a spread system coach would choose sophomore Braxton Miller over senior Denard Robinson.  Maybe, you could argue that Miller was better at the same point in his career (he does certainly look more the part), but I think you are forgetting just how explosive as a runner Denard was and is.  Just for reference, Denard had as many 50+ yard runs today as Braxton Miller has had in his career.

coastal blue

September 8th, 2012 at 10:46 PM ^

No you couldn't.

In two games of his sophomore year Denard amassed 885 yards of total offense and 5 TDs (with 1 int) while completing 69% of his passes against two AQ schools.

In two games of his sophomore year, Braxton Miller amassed 664 yards of total offense with 7 TDs (with 1 int) while completing 67% of his passes against two non-AQ schools. 

Perhaps in the future, Miller will have had a better career simply by the stroke of fortune that allowed Meyer to become his head coach. 

When it comes to just the player himself, Braxton Miller could not have had a better thing happen to him by receiving Urban Meyer as a coach. Vice versa, Denard could not have had a worse thing happen to him by losing RR. 

 

NateVolk

September 8th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^

Michigan has a senior quarterback who is also one of the top players in the country.  That matters.  I like them as the favorite. Let's wait and see some head to head games. There isn't one team in this conference that doesn't have serious issues in some places.

If Notre Dame scores a bunch of points on State next week which could happen, who is the favorite then?

 

 

 

backtoblu

September 8th, 2012 at 10:11 PM ^

Completely agree that Denard is one of the top players in the country, but our concern should be that he isn't one of the best quarterbacks in the country.  I really believe our division will come down to UM and MSU slugging it out in October.  Lot of questions will/should be answered then.

michfan6060

September 8th, 2012 at 9:56 PM ^

At this point I honestly don't see how MSU doesn't win it. They easily look like the best team. We could get back in the race, but I don't see us matching up well with them at all.

mgobleu

September 8th, 2012 at 9:57 PM ^

I'm gonna wait until Michigan plays ND and MSU plays a competitve team before I just hand them the B1G title. They were every bit as unimpressive against BSU as M was against Air Force. Strength to strength, weakness to weakness, I still like MIchigan's chances.

Hell, I feel like today was The Horror redux the way people around here are talking.

Wolverman

September 8th, 2012 at 9:59 PM ^

 i'm hoping our offensive line gets it together in the next week or 2 but it hasn't been promising. Say what you want about panicking but the lack of a push from our line going against a d line they out weighed by 100 pounds was painful.

 The next 2 weeks are critical but if things don't improve i could see a 5 loss season

NOLA Wolverine

September 8th, 2012 at 9:59 PM ^

I still don't think we know too many positive things about anyone. I want to wait a week before making a decision on MSU. ND is the measuring stick, with a team like that at home (and at night) they should be able to dominate them given MSU's ranking. If they handle ND then I would take them as the B1G favorite currently. 

I don't think Ohio State's "Braxton Miller gets the ball and gets to make shit up" plan for when the sledding gets tough on offense will work against good teams (we of all fan bases should know that). While that may not be a really relevant observation when talking about B1G play, it should come up against UMich, MSU, and/or Nebraska. 

I don't see the justification for Nebraska's hype. Their whole season last year was beating up Sparty at home, a team that decides to just not show up for atleast one road game per year like it's a law. Yeah they beat Ohio State after Miller got knocked out. Congratulations. (That, and I feel a bias against Nebraska since they came from the Big 12).

Prediction: Rose Bowl participant is decided in Ann Arbor when MSU plays UMich. It's hard to pick a winner between them given the data we have from this season. 

blacknblue

September 8th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^

Does anybody know what happened to Courtney Avery?  I think the last time I saw him on the field was in the first quarter.  Was he just pulled for Taylor or did something I can't bare to think about happen?

EZMIKEP

September 8th, 2012 at 10:11 PM ^

No. Not ever. That isn't the blue homer in me, that is just fact. He may be a good player well suited for Urban's offense, but no player ever has had that first step that denard has, and he is just flat out faster. Can Miller throw? So that isn't an improvement. And he may be a bruiser in his run style but he doesn't do what DR does. 

turtleboy

September 8th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^

Honestly I'm still waiting to see what Michigan is this year. We played the best team in the country and our play was all over the place. Then we played a likely Bowl bound Triple Option team and our defensive backfield struggle with their fakes and great execution, but Denard got alot better and had his confidence today. State looked absolutely terrible against Boise St. and almost lost at home, and Tom Gholston had zero tackles, and 2 penalties. The only way they made any headway was to rush Bell 44(!) times and have his 250 lbs batter his way through the middle. They beat up on Central, but Bell only had 75 yards on 19 carries against a MAC team that went 3-9 last year. 

bronxblue

September 8th, 2012 at 10:21 PM ^

Saying that MSU will be the best in the Big 10 if their QB plays well, the offensive line blocks, and their RB doesn't get hurt are, well, pretty obvious.  UM will be unstoppable if the defensive line gets penetration, the LBs tackle guys in space, and Denard doesn't throw off his back foot.  Bell could do nothing on the ground against CMU, and I'm not going to read much into Maxwell's game considering he dinked and dunked his way for most of the game.  That said, MSU looks like it will be a very competitive team, as well OSU.  

Personally, I don't agree that Miller is Denard 2.0 - he's not that accurate or that great an athlete.  Sure, he'll be tough running the ball, but he didn't blow me away in the pieces I saw this afternoon, and he won't be tested until he plays MSU to start the B1G season.  Then we'll see how good he is.  Meyer will set him up to succeed, so we'll see how he plays.

The conference will likely come from the winner of the UM-OSU-MSU battle, though I do get a feeling that Purdue will be sticking around longer than anyone expected, as will Nebraska.  It is a little sad what happened to PSU this year because they would be a good sleeper given how Wiscy turned out.

 

One Inch Woody…

September 8th, 2012 at 10:32 PM ^

Lmao sweet, so MSU narrowly escapes a pretty terrible Boise State team (most likely much worse than Air Force), and curb stomps a slowly rebuilding CMU team and then is now proclaimed the Big 10 favorite.

To be honest, I believe that MSU, ND, us, are pretty much on the same level. 

Perkis-Size Me

September 8th, 2012 at 11:04 PM ^

I think the jury is still out on MSU. I am not denying Bell's talent nor that of the defense's, but they barely beat a gutted Boise squad, and beat up on a lowly MAC team.



I think the B1G as a whole is going to be terrible this year. I could honestly envision no team eclipsing more than 9 wins. The Leaders division outside of Ohio is a joke. I think whoever ends up in the Rose Bowl is going to get their ass kicked.

Wolverman

September 9th, 2012 at 7:58 AM ^

 In order to win in the Big Ten even in a bad year you have to do 2 things , run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense. As of right now we can't do either and that i'll give you air forces scheme is tough to prepare for but, they where running right up the middle. Washington, Campbell and Demens have to drastically improve or else just play freshman. If we're going to be weak up the middle atleast then we get 2 positives out of it. We have the excuse ... well they are freshman and those freshman get tons of experience and might not get run over later in the year.

Wolverman

September 9th, 2012 at 8:01 AM ^

 In order to win in the Big Ten even in a bad year you have to do 2 things , run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense. As of right now we can't do either and that i'll give you air forces scheme is tough to prepare for but, they where running right up the middle. Washington, Campbell and Demens have to drastically improve or else just play freshman. If we're going to be weak up the middle atleast then we get 2 positives out of it. We have the excuse ... well they are freshman and those freshman get tons of experience and might not get run over later in the year.

Perkis-Size Me

September 8th, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^

This might be a little out there, but has anyone thought about how this might effect recruiting? What i mean by that is that It's hard to convince top recruits to look at Big East schools because the conference as a whole is so crappy, and they know they'll never be playing for a national title.



I know that MSU and OSU will do continue to be good, but if the conference as a whole is trending down, is it slowly becoming the next Big East?

Abomb4480

September 9th, 2012 at 12:16 AM ^

In what world was Wilson not drafted and who really thought Seahawks were playoff material?



Also, have stated all along for months it will be pursue in big 10 title game.

spartanfan123

September 9th, 2012 at 1:24 AM ^

After week 1, it seemed clear that Nebraska was the best B1G team. One week later, Nebraska looks awful and MSU looks to be the favorite. 

 

Call me after week 13. 

LSAClassOf2000

September 9th, 2012 at 8:12 AM ^

So, Week 2 in  summary  for the big was, well....the conference went 6-6, with the average margin of loss for those teams that fell was 8 points (though it is worthy of noting that three teams lost by a field goal, and Penn State only lost by one point), and the average margin of victory for the teams that won was 24 points. We had the closest game among the winners, and the Rout Of The Week would go to Illinois, who lost 45-14 to Arizona State. 

Muttley

September 9th, 2012 at 11:57 AM ^

The ball had bounced off of someone and was clearly going backwards when the Wiscy corralled it with his arm.

And from the OregSt endzone view, it looked like it may have been the OregSt guy that touched it first.

Definitely not enough to overturn.