Big Ten Play begins this weekend. We have three great matchups to discuss, along with two trap games for the visiting favorites. Breakdowns of those games are below, but first, some Wildcat News and Notes.
The biggest news of the week was Fitz’s decisions, or lack thereof, on the future of the Northwestern running attack. On the two deep, the Cats list Jacob Schmidt or Mike Trumpy as the starters and Arby Fields or Stephen Simmons as the backups. Lindsay Wilhite offered his thoughts in the Daily Herald earlier this week. There is a great deal of talk about Minnesota’s run defense, which gives up 185 yards per game on the ground. But the Cats only run for 3.2 yards per carry. At that average, it would take more than 57 running plays to reach 185. Hopefully, it will not come to that. Schmidt and Trumpy showed the coaches a lot against CMU, which earned them the “co-starter” roles. And according to Tina Akouris with the Sun Times, they are excited about the assignment. But it is put up or shut up time for the NU run game. If they cannot get the ground attack going against the Gophers, they never will.
A great deal of the national talk over the first few weeks of the season has been the domination of Stanford’s offensive line, which has absolutely pummeled opponents with their physical play. NU defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz has been looking for the same effect on the defensive side of the ball. Skip Myslenski takes an in depth look at the NU defensive line in this piece for NUSports.com. This unit is deep, physical unit is improving every week and appear ready for the challenges that await in the second half of the season. If the Cats can get through the bye week unscathed, the week off will be a great way for the big fellas to prepare mentally and physically for the grind of the final half of the season.
Bryce McNaul returns to Minnesota on Saturday, and will make his third career start for the Cats. This Trib piece by Teddy Greenstein outlines how Tim Brewster wanted McNaul to be a Gopher. Greenstein also gives us good news about the NU secondary as it appears the Carpenter and Arnold both practiced yesterday and may play on Saturday. For a unit that will be tested by a senior quarterback on Saturday, this is very good news.
Just so everyone is clear, Minnesota is 1-3 and lost to FCS South Dakota. You would never know that by listening to Coach Fitz. While Fitz’s claim that the Gophers are three plays away from being undefeated is a little outlandish (two of their losses were by double digits), Fitz is playing the old Lou Holtz game of building up weaker opponents. There is something nice about a program that needs to focus on not looking past opponents and Fitz seems to be doing it the right way. There is a big difference between simply saying that Minnesota is good and actually breaking it down for the team. Another reason why NU is lucky to have him.
In a rather bizarre story out of the Wildcat office this week, it turns out that the Wildcat defense had trouble communicating on Saturday because of crowd noise. Now, I was not at the game to experience this, but apparently it was a pretty lively audience. But if this is indeed an issue, the Cats will have to fix it before a night game against Purdue in front of what surely will be a larger and, shall we say, more animated 6:30 crowd. This is a good problem to have, but it apparently is nonetheless a problem. Incidentally, according to Lake the Posts.com, CMU was the most attended non-conference game in the Fitz era – and the largest since the 2005 Northern Illinois game. If we discount the fact that NIU brings a large fan base because of their proximity, it was the most impressive non-conference crowd since the 1998 Duke game.
I usually do not focus on non-football issues, but would be remiss if I did not congratulate Luke Donald on his second place finish in the Tour Championship over the weekend. He was one shot away from being in a playoff with Jim Furyk, a playoff which would have determined the $10 million FedEx Cup. Luke had the best season of his career and during the FedEx Cup Playoffs, probably played the best month of golf of his life. I forget sometimes that he is only 32, and by normal golf standards, just now entering the prime of his career. There should be great things on the horizon for Donald – just hopefully not this weekend at the Ryder Cup!
If anyone was at the game on Saturday, I would like some thoughts on “Throw your hands in the air”, which is apparently the new fourth quarter hype music. Comment below.
Big Ten Breakdown
Purdue gets the week off this week, which is good for them considering they have been decimated by injuries. But not so good for the Cats as they will have two weeks to prepare to stop Dan Persa. Purdue has not played well this year at all and are in danger of losing all of the momentum that they gained last season.
Nebraska also has the week off to prepare for a Thursday night matchup with undefeated Kansas State.
Wisconsin @ Michigan State: In the first of two games between ranked teams Saturday, MSU looks to keep its hot start going against the Badgers. Wisconsin is accustomed to 4-0 starts, while Michigan State usually manages to drop a game or two early, so this is new territory for Sparty. Apparently, Mark Dantonio will have some role in the game, but will probably be coaching from the press box. Wisconsin has been very consistent on both sides of the ball. MSU has had some problems with both scoring and defending on a regular basis. Despite the home field advantage and the emotional issue with Mark D., I think the Badgers play a more solid all-around game and steal this one.
Penn State @ Iowa: Penn State is in great danger of falling off the map with this game. The Nits have not been overly impressive in any of their games, including a 22-13 struggle against Temple last week. Iowa had a bit of a hiccup at Arizona, but went right back to Iowa football. The offense seems to have improved a little bit and finally has a consistent force at running back. But the Iowa defense needs to play four quarters and stop taking the first half off. The Hawkeye D is full of NFL talent, but they rarely play that way. If the defense shows up, Iowa wins this one, potentially big.
Michigan @ Indiana: This might be one of the more intriguing matchups of the day, and it could certainly be the most exciting game. This game will present us with two teams with very potent offenses and two very weak defenses. Denard Robinson appears to be ready to play after sitting out the second half against BGSU with an injury. Ben Chappell is putting up some nice numbers and has to be salivating over the thought of torching the Wolverine secondary. IU is still sore over the poor call which cost them a chance to win last year, but it probably will not be enough. Shoelace will find a way to lead Big Blue to Victory no matter what the deficit.
Ohio State @ Illinois: Pundits are wondering whether this will be game that trips up the Buckeyes, much like the Purdue game last year. Difference being that last year Purdue was lead by a veteran defense and a senior quarterback. Illinois has neither. This will get ugly early.
Northwestern @ Minnesota: I will obviously get a lot more into this tomorrow, but this is a must win game for both teams. NU cannot afford to lose to a team like Minnesota; there is too much going good for the program right now. Minnesota is playing the rest of the year for Brewster’s job, and they have to view this game as “winnable”, whether that is a valid viewpoint or not.
Big Ten Power Rankings:
1 OSU
2 Wisconsin
3 Iowa
4 MSU
5 Northwestern
6 PSU
7 Michigan
8 Indiana
9 Illinois
10 Purdue
11 Minnesota
Go Cats!
No comments:
Post a Comment