Big Ten Power Rankings

[HeyBurke]

Why does everyone have Michigan State ranked so high? I don't get it. They have no offense outside of Leveon Bell. None. Yeah, the defense is impressive, but it's not good enough to rank them as high as people are.

 

I don't think offenses peak in week 1. The passing game will be fine.

 

That wasn't a matter of "peaking". There was no passing game. I'm not necessarily saying the offense is gonna be as bad as it looked against Boise State all year long, but your guys didn't give me a reason not to believe it, either.

[MSUFAN4320]

Why does everyone have Michigan State ranked so high? I don't get it. They have no offense outside of Leveon Bell. None. Yeah, the defense is impressive, but it's not good enough to rank them as high as people are.

 

I don't think offenses peak in week 1. The passing game will be fine.

 

That wasn't a matter of "peaking". There was no passing game. I'm not necessarily saying the offense is gonna be as bad as it looked against Boise State all year long, but your guys didn't give me a reason not to believe it, either.

 

There are some things to correct (mostly stupid unforced errors) but it's not like the passing game was anemic. I guess we could have started the season with Central Michigan. Maxwell would have thrown for 280 yards and 2-3 TDs and everyone would say how good he looked. We'll see, but I think the passing game is going to be just fine. Just gotta run more play-action. Having Bell back there as a threat should keep defenses honest, and WRs open. Plus Sims is a beast for us at TE. I think it would be unwise to write off our offense after 1 game.

[sd'sker]

i think osu, msu, mich., and nu are all a tossup. too little to go on right now. nu may not have as good of an offensive game the rest of the season and those who did bad may be completely different teams next week, let alone when we face them.

[Excel]

I wouldn't read too much into Wisky's sluggish performance against Northern Iowa. UW is kinda known for their underwhelming starts to the season. O'Brien had a pretty good game and all they will really need is a game manager at QB to be effective.

 

^This.

 

For those Husker fans who are understandably unfamiliar with UW's pre-2011 habits;

 

2010: Struggled with a bad ASU team at home, won 20-19. Badgers go on to 11-2 season.

2009: Struggled with Northern Illinois, won 28-20 and then Fresno State winning 34-31 in OT. Badgers go on to 10-3 season.

2008: An exception and I'll get back to this later but this was our worst season in recent memory. Every conference game save for one was close and we caught no breaks. Struggled against Cal-Poly winning 36-35 though this was late in the season.

2007: Struggled against both UNLV and the Citadel. Badgers go 9-4.

2006: Struggled against SDSU, finally break away in last 20 minutes. Badgers go 12-1.

2005: Close shoot out with Bowling Green with BGSU scoring 5 TD's in first half. Badgers go on to 10-3

2004: Beat Arizona 9-7. Badgers go 9-2 in regular season.

1999: Struggled with and lost to Cincinnati. Went on to 10-2

1998: Struggled with SDSU. Went 11-1

1993: Struggled with SMU. Went 10-1

 

So close games with weaker teams are common for Wisconsin and generally don't predict a bad season. The fear is that we have another 2008 season and that DOB will turn out to be another Allan Evridge.

 

We lost five games that regular season though only three losses were by more than a field goal. With games that close we could have easily had ten wins but thanks to Evridge's poor season we couldn't put it together. Judging by DOB's performance Saturday I think he'll end up somewhere in between Wilson and Evridge and we'll post between 8-10 wins.

O'Brien went 19 of 23 (I counted at least two drops) for ~220 yards and two TD's. No turnovers and only one sack. He even showed the deep ball with a 53 yard pass to Abbrederis. In many ways he reminds me of 2010 Tolzien.

 

The real concern from Saturday is on the other side of the ball. The rush defense looked great. Anchored by returning all-Big Ten Linebackers Taylor and Borland, it allowed barely 40 yards on the ground. The Secondary was the problem. They allowed ~240 yards in the second half nearly 200 of which came in the fourth quarter compared with the ~30 yards they allowed in the first half.

 

We're back to pre-Wilson football. Slow and grinding. Lots of running and plenty of short dumpoffs/rollouts and play action passes that strangle teams on TOP. If we get the secondary straight we'll be a tough team but that's a tall task with only one two DB's returning from an already shaky squad in 2011. I fear we'll have trouble improving given that our Secondary coach is brand spanking new and only three years removed from playing back there himself. Luckily Coach Ash has 10+ years coaching DB's so we'll see what happens.

 

We won't be as good as in 2011 but we'll be alright. We'll definitely struggle with NU if Martinez's game against Southern Miss is any indication but I feel good about MSU. The Northern Iowa game was disturbing but not as bad as it looked, there were plenty positives to take away from it and only two negatives; the secondary and a few of the new coaches though BB and the coordinators, for the most part, called a decent game.

[melscott62]

1. Ohio State

2. Michigan State

3t. Michigan

4t. Nebraska

5. Purdue

6. Wisconsin

7. Illinois

8. Northwestern

9. Iowa

10. Minnesota

11. Penn. St.

12. Indiana

 

I can't drop Michigan too far, as I think we would have been in the same position they were against an Alabama team that seems to be in late season form. Ohio State seems to be the most put together team so far this year. I think Nebraska has the most room to move up and Michigan State has the most room to drop. Overall I am going to guess Purdue gets the nod for the Leaders (Weird to say), and I'm not confident enough to make a guess for the Legends. My guess is it's between Michigan and Nebraska.

until our D improves and i know rex is healthy I would go with this. I do believe both will happen

[RexIsMyDogg]

Why does everyone have Michigan State ranked so high? I don't get it. They have no offense outside of Leveon Bell. None. Yeah, the defense is impressive, but it's not good enough to rank them as high as people are.

 

I don't think offenses peak in week 1. The passing game will be fine.

 

That wasn't a matter of "peaking". There was no passing game. I'm not necessarily saying the offense is gonna be as bad as it looked against Boise State all year long, but your guys didn't give me a reason not to believe it, either.

 

There are some things to correct (mostly stupid unforced errors) but it's not like the passing game was anemic. I guess we could have started the season with Central Michigan. Maxwell would have thrown for 280 yards and 2-3 TDs and everyone would say how good he looked. We'll see, but I think the passing game is going to be just fine. Just gotta run more play-action. Having Bell back there as a threat should keep defenses honest, and WRs open. Plus Sims is a beast for us at TE. I think it would be unwise to write off our offense after 1 game.

 

Agreed, but you guys lost a lot in Cunningham, Martin, and Nichols leaving. Smart teams will load the box and make Maxwell throw

to the inexperienced WRs. That doesnt bode well for an offense, see Nebraska during the Callahan days.

[deedsker]

 

So close games with weaker teams are common for Wisconsin and generally don't predict a bad season. The fear is that we have another 2008 season and that DOB will turn out to be another Allan Evridge.

 

I understand that the Badgers generally bonce back albeit after bad opening games, but it doesn't make anyone feel better about the team. It just shows that Wisconsin plays there best football at the end of the year. The evidence we have after week one is that UW struggled with a team that show be ran over especially when that is your strong suit you plan on living on for the year. That is why everyone is knocking on them. Until they do turn it around, they won't find favor.

[UCLABruinOfficialPage]

Overall the Big 10 is a very weak conference. Michigan showed they were pretty hopeless. Wisconsin should have lost to the third best team in Iowa. Ohio State is on probation. Michigan State snuck by Boise State. Syracuse put up over 40 points on Northwestern. Iowa is just awful and doesn't have a running back. Penn State will be bad for the next ten years.

 

You all can be a big fish in a small pond - kind of like those Big 8 days.

[Excel]

Overall the Big 10 is a very weak conference. Michigan showed they were pretty hopeless. Wisconsin should have lost to the third best team in Iowa. Ohio State is on probation. Michigan State snuck by Boise State. Syracuse put up over 40 points on Northwestern. Iowa is just awful and doesn't have a running back. Penn State will be bad for the next ten years.

 

You all can be a big fish in a small pond - kind of like those Big 8 days.

 

Da f#*!?

 

Please explain to us how the PAC 12 has so much more depth. Outside of USC and Oregon you don't have much.

[Decked]

Overall the Big 10 is a very weak conference. Michigan showed they were pretty hopeless. Wisconsin should have lost to the third best team in Iowa. Ohio State is on probation. Michigan State snuck by Boise State. Syracuse put up over 40 points on Northwestern. Iowa is just awful and doesn't have a running back. Penn State will be bad for the next ten years.

 

You all can be a big fish in a small pond - kind of like those Big 8 days.

Your point is? UCLA would be 7th in the B1G. And outside of SC and Oregon the PAC-12 Is weak as well.

[I AM FOOT FOOT]

haha thats good stuff!

[Treand3]

haha thats good stuff!

 

[nhuskers5]

I don't know guys, I really wasn't all that impressed with Michigan State. Also, Michigan did play the best defense in the nation, I think they'll end up being a lot better than they showed on Saturday...

 

Here we go:

 

1. Ohio State

2. Michigan

3. Nebraska

4. Michigan State

5. Wisconsin

6. Northwestern

7. Purdue

 

I'm not even going to try and rank the rest, because I have no idea...

[Excel]

This was already discussed on HuskerBoard in July: Big Ten vs. Pac-12.

 

Here is my breakdown of the conferences in that thread by BCS Appearances (B1G wins) National Championships (B1G wins) Heismans (B1G wins) All Americans (B1G wins) Attendance (B1G wins) and Overall Wins (B1G wins).

 

We're the better conference overall. You have USC. Congratulations I guess.

 

Why UCLABruinOfficialPage brought this topic up in a thread about the Big Ten and the Big Ten only is beyond me. I can only assume it was an attempt at trolling. To Bruin, if you really want to start something please post a new topic so we can centralize the entertainment.

 

 

On a side note...why was this thread posted in the Husker Football sub-forum to begin with?

[HuskerShark]

Overall the Big 10 is a very weak conference. Michigan showed they were pretty hopeless. Wisconsin should have lost to the third best team in Iowa. Ohio State is on probation. Michigan State snuck by Boise State. Syracuse put up over 40 points on Northwestern. Iowa is just awful and doesn't have a running back. Penn State will be bad for the next ten years.

 

You all can be a big fish in a small pond - kind of like those Big 8 days.

 

And this is a reason we need a negative rep button.