Big Ten Football Saturday Rundown: November 1, 2008
Earlier today, I posed the question of whether or not today was the worst Saturday this decade for Big Ten football. With Penn State and Ohio State both on the sidelines, there appeared to be a dearth of compelling action today unless you are the most hardcore Big Ten football fan.
However, while there was very little at stake on a national scale, the action on the field ended up being pretty exciting in every game. Let’s get to the rundown:
Michigan State 25 | Wisconsin 24
If someone had told you at the start of the season that Michigan State would enter this week’s game against Wisconsin with a 4-1 Big Ten record, you would have thought that this would be a big game at the top of the 
Big Ten standings. However, Wisconsin came into the matchup with a 1-4 Big Ten record that has led for some Wisconsin fans to call for the firing of coach Bret Bielema. I doubt that today’s results will quiet those calls at all.
Take a quick look at the stat sheet and you’d think Wisconsin would have won going away. Javon Ringer was held to 54 yards rushing, while Wisconsin had two players rush for more than 100 yards. However, those totals don’t tell the full story. Wisconsin was penalized 12 times for 121 yards, with even Bielema getting in on the action and drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at 9:19 in the 4th quarter with the Badgers up 11. A lot of the Sunday morning quarterbacks will also be debating Bielema’s decision to call timeout as Michigan State was setting up for the final field goal; he was ostensibly trying to ice Spartan kicker Brett Swensen, but mostly just enabled the Spartans to have time to setup properly and relaxed.
Northwestern 24 | Minnesota 17
This was the “marquee” matchup of the day in the Big Ten, at least from the standpoint of it featuring two teams in the upper half of the standings. I guess you could say the game lived up to its “billing” because it certainly featured an exciting ending. With the game time at 17 with less than a minute to go, Northwestern’s Brendan Smith returned an interception 48 yards to score the winning touchdown for the Wildcats. QB Mike Kafka led Northwestern with 2 passing TDs to go along with 217 rushing yards. Simply put, he was awesome (minus his two picks). And as long as the Gophers still play in that god-awful dome that is not meant for college football, I vow to never give them more than one paragraph in any of these rundowns.
Michigan sucks. Purdue sucks. They played a game today, someone won, someone lost, blah bla
h blah.
The only really important note about this game is that Michigan is now guaranteed to have their first losing season since 1967. In related news, Rich Rodriguez sucks.
But all joking aside, congratulations to Joe Tiller on guaranteeing that he won’t go winless in his final Big Ten season. Until we find someone who will write about Purdue sports, I can officially say that we do not support Purdue athletics here at Midwest Sports Fans. (Well, at least those of us who are IU grads.) We do, however, support mustaches and their magical omnipotence. Joe Tiller is one of the worst big game coaches I have ever seen, but he came through today (in a meaningless game, of course). I’d give the credit to Tiller and his players, but we all know that the credit goes to his magic mustache.
It’s not often that we get the joy of having two of the five most overrated coaches in college athletics dueling it out on the same field, but that is exactly what we were treated to today. Illinois coach Ron Zook and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz have their teams in exactly the position this season that their coaching abilities would suggest: middle of the pack in a mediocre conference. But, this game did feature three of the most exciting players in the Big Ten, so we won’t hold it against them that their coaches suck.
Shonn Greene, RB for Iowa, finished with 103 yards rushing on 21 carries with a touchdown. Illinois’ dynamic duo of Juice Williams and Arrelious Benn also had solid days. Williams threw for 272 yards and a TD, while Benn had 7 receptions for 96 yards. But the player of the game for Illinois was probably Matt Eller, the kicker who drained a 46-yard field goal with :24 left to seal the win for Illinois.
Central Michigan 37 | Indiana 34
Ah yes Michigan and Purdue fans — this is where the douche bag IU fan gets his comeuppance. Yes, the mighty Hoosiers lost to another MAC school today. Now, in the Hoosiers’ defense, this is not just any MAC team. These are the mighty Central Michigan Chippewas! Second only to the Spartans in the state of Michigan! Plus, Central Michigan has a potential NFL quarterback in last season’s MAC Player of the Year Dan LeFevour.
Wait a minute. Wha
t? LeFevour didn’t play? But Central Michigan’s QB threw for 485 yards and 4 TDs. And Indiana is supposedly a BCS conference team. And the game was in Bloomington, where the Hoosiers always indefatigably “defend the rock.”
And you’re trying to tell me that Central Michigan won and Dan LeFevour didn’t even play???
Yes folks, in another moment in Indiana football history, the Hoosiers gave up 485 passing yards to Central Michigan and its backup quarterback in a 37-34 home loss. Also, this became the first Indiana team in school history to lose twice to MAC teams in the same season (they lost to Ball State earlier this year). Again, in IU’s defense, Ball State is actually a top 25 team this year.
But when you’re defending a Big Ten team for losing twice to MAC teams by touting the success of said MAC teams — well, you know it hasn’t been a very good season.
So glad I saved the IU blurb for the end. Now I’m in a bad mood (not to mention Phil Fulmer and the Vols lost to Steve Spurrier and South Carolina 27-6 today — the Browns better come through tomorrow or I’m leaping out of a ten-story window).
Enjoy the standings:
Big Ten Football Standings
| Team | Record | PF | PA | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penn State | 7-1 | 271 | 109 | 11-1 |
| Ohio State | 7-1 | 238 | 98 | 10-2 |
| Michigan State | 6-2 | 201 | 208 | 9-3 |
| Northwestern | 5-3 | 191 | 187 | 9-3 |
| Iowa | 5-3 | 238 | 130 | 8-4 |
| Wisconsin | 3-5 | 206 | 227 | 7-5 |
| Minnesota | 3-5 | 136 | 210 | 7-5 |
| Illinois | 3-5 | 218 | 206 | 5-7 |
| Purdue | 2-6 | 175 | 196 | 4-8 |
| Michigan | 2-6 | 177 | 268 | 3-9 |
| Indiana | 1-7 | 116 | 328 | 3-9 |
[tags]big ten, college football[/tags]
Tags: Big Ten, College Football
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