Wisconsin starts Big Ten Bowl season off right...
I loved seeing the physical domination of Miami last night, and Wisky could have won by 35 points if they didn't fall prey to some flookery in the very begining and end of the game.
What are your predictions for the rest of the Big Ten bowl season? Will OSU shut down the Oregon spread? What about Penn St. vs LSU? I am not happy to be watching a second season of bowls without my team in there somewhere, but after this it's baseball for eons and eons and some more astrological space on top of that...
Out of left field: why is there a advertisment for OSU jerseys on the top of this website? I don't get it.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:57 AM ^
OSU loses to the Ducks (and there was much rejoicing), Penn St hangs with LSU, maybe wins in a squeeker, Sparty loses to TTU even without the Pirate. Iowa vs GTech? Seriously dunno.
In less interesting games: Minny rolls Iowa St and Auburn returns the favor against NW.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:02 AM ^
Monty Python references. You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. If I knew how, I would post the fish-slapping dance right here and now. Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, Big Ten football and spam.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:04 AM ^
I get the MLB package on cable, but does anyone know where to find the Astrological Space League so I can watch Zoltan. He's dominant, yaknow.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:27 AM ^
tOSU loses because Pryor can't pass for shit and Tressel has trouble stopping mobile QBs.
PSU squeaks out a last minute win when Miles has another brain failure in clock management.
Iowa lines up in the Power I and does the same thing to GT that Georgia did. Namely run right over them.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:37 AM ^
Agree with most of the above about OSU losing to Oregon, Iowa grinding down GT and PSU winning a close one against LSU. I do think that Northwestern will take care of Auburn though. The few times I've seen Auburn play this year I haven't been impressed and I think NW is very much underrated. I'd take the under on Iowa State / Minnesota, whatever it is...
December 30th, 2009 at 11:21 AM ^
Auburn looked pretty good against Alabama. I don't see NW beating them, but it would be a pretty nice "bonus" for the BT if they did.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^
Living in Atlanta, I've seen Auburn play a several times this season and they're a pretty average team, especially on defense where they have walk-ons playing at linebacker (sound familiar?). It should be a close game.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:45 AM ^
wiscy looked pretty dynamic last night. good balanced offense set up by run and using outside weapons. i love the 3 wr formation they use where the WRs are all bunched up near the offensive line, at the snap there is chaos as wrs screen and bump and dbs are confused. they had a nice attacking physical defense too.
the game was only close in the last couple minutes, which obviously, still count, but wiscy exerted their will all night.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:16 AM ^
a 3 TE set...
December 30th, 2009 at 9:56 AM ^
Has been the best at covering the spread over the past 10 years. I expect them to keep it under the 9 they are getting. I hope the B10 only loses State and OSU... Don't we all?
December 30th, 2009 at 10:23 AM ^
Why don't they save the legal system time and money: have a court date for Leach and the eleven elves together during pre-game warmups. Make it an Oprah feel-good thing. "uh, I'm sorry for locking the kid in a closet, even though it was air-conditioned", "uh, I'm sorry I whacked the nerdy engineer kid even though I outweigh him by 70 pounds".
These are the kind of heartwarming stories America wants to hear.
PSU wins close, same for NW. tOSU has the D to win it, but I believe they will get snookered on a couple of trick plays that Oregon hasn't shown all season, and end up losing. State loses a game of zero consequence.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:46 AM ^
Between Penn State and Ohio State, the conference will get at least one victory.
Minnehaha will beat Iowa State and I expect Iowa to beat Georgia Tech.
NW and MSU are definite losses.
4-3 in the bowls will be a nice rebound for the Big Ten. The sports media will probably make a big deal about it, but in truth, the improvement in the record over last year is more due to an easier schedule than the teams being much better. OSU, for example, isn't better than they were last year, but the opponent is much weaker. Ditto for Penn State. Iowa is playing the easiest BCS opponent that a Big Ten team has faced at least since OSU played Kansas State in 2003. I'm happy that the Big Ten finally didn't get screwed in bowl matchups this year. We have had seasons where five or six of our teams play ranked opponents. This never happens with any other conference.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:29 AM ^
I loved the Wisky game last night. I was getting frustrated that Wisconsin wasn't getting any love from Blackledge. At every opportunity he was saying that Miami could quickly come back and beat Wisconsin. The next play Harris fumbles, and he has to wait for the next set of downs to tout Miami.
I guess he was just trying to keep it interesting for people tuning in that didn't have a favorite. Otherwise, it's hard to watch Wisconsin having its way with the O-line of Miami and the defensive backs with the 3 TE sets. All I could say was "outstanding".
Also, don't underestimate Fitzgerald and the guys from NW. I think they pull off a win. PSU wins in a squeaker, OSU loses by 10 and everyone on the team realizes that this is the type of team Michigan is becoming. This causes sleepless nights and the return of bedwetting for coach Tressel.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:52 AM ^
I agree Pullin as I also loved the game and HOW Wisky beat them. Domination at the line of scrimmage and the beat down they put on Jacory Harris was fun to watch. Both sides of the ball Wisky punched the U in the mouth then stepped on there nads.
I understand RR's version of the spread creates push, leverage and angles for the O-line to take advantage of as we saw in glimpses with a healthy Molk but I wonder if we will ever see just the butt whipping at the LOS like we did last night running the spread.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:40 AM ^
I hate to say it because I'm not a "death to all rivals" type of fan, especially when it comes to bowl season when I want the Big 10 to sweep, but I see MSU and OSU as having the toughest time in their games.
My predictions based on flimsy evidence: OSU can't handle Masoli and lose by 13, TT rolls over MSU with a charged group of kids a-la WMU, Minn blows ISU out and NW and PSU squeak by. Iowa is definitely the wild card because it's so difficult to predict how their D will handle the triple option. I agree with CRex's assessment above that the Power I rolls over G-Tech.
This being said I'm 6 for 13 picking bowls this year and sitting in dead last in the MGoBlog poll, so take all of this with a tiny grain of salt.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:58 PM ^
I think last night was a compelling argument for why the Big 10 needs to move their schedule back later in November if they want to perform better in bowl games. Wisconsin played that late game at Hawaii this year, and they looked really sharp last night. Miami on the other hand looked rusty and out-of-sync on offense.
It looked to me like Wisconsin was much more ready to play a game than Miami was.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:51 PM ^
I agree. The Big Ten should do what The Big Least and the Pac 10 have been doing lately. It will get them some national exposure and it will shorten the layoff by two weeks. In 2006 I think that the layoff was a fiasco for Ohio State.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:03 PM ^
His coaching ability has been kind of a punching bag issue here (including me) and elsewhere, but with two 10 win seasons and three 9 win seasons (out of four seasons as HC) he looks like he can coach pretty well to me.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:54 PM ^
Yup. Gotta give the dude his props. This was supposed to be his "hotseat" year. Instead, he went 10-3, and he's getting a lot of guys back for 2010. I still think he's somewhat of a dunce, but then again, so is Les Miles, and he wins too.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:51 PM ^
Why is everyone so high on Minnesota? 6-6, without Decker and near losses to mediocre teams doesn't scream blowout to me.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:51 PM ^
It might less respect for Minny and more disrespect for Iowa State (who sucks).
December 30th, 2009 at 2:24 PM ^
I would prefer it for events to unfold in this way:
The Big Ten continues to stink and suffer on the field and in the realm of public opinion, respectively, until the very moment that Michigan ends this [especially] painfully [and sub-0.500 unproductively] long interregnum between its Big Ten championships.
Yep, I want this unfortunate multi-year blip of bad records to at least yield something positive... a reinforcement of the idea that the Big Ten is nothing without Michigan.
December 30th, 2009 at 2:37 PM ^
It is more important for the SEC teams to lose (preferably in embarrassing fashion) their bowl games rather than the Big Ten winning theirs. Even if the Big Ten teams win all their bowl games people will caulk it up to playing inferior teams.