NYCHawkeye74
Well-Known Member
1 - tOSU - After looking all world on offense and defense during the preseason (with a weakness in special teams), they looked very ordinary vs the Illini. They remain on top because their defense is special. Maybe better than Iowa's. They just shut down the Illini in the 2nd half. Passing on them is almost impossible. Just ask Jacory Harris. They remain here until they get knocked off, probably, but you have to ask, what happens if they are down 9 points or more at the end of the 3rd quarter? Can they really come back? Ultimately I still think these guys are headed for B10+1+1 redemption in the BCS Champ Game.
2 - MSU - Some folks may not like this pick here, but let's face it, this team has rebounded with amazing and very un-MSU like resiliency. They lost 1/6th of their team before the bowl game last year. They lost their coach to a heart attack, and then lost him again to a blood clot. Their rush offense was a big question mark, but that seems to be answered. They will still lose 2 games, I feel, but apart from tOSU, who isn't? They took it to Wisky pretty hard. Bucky's backside is still smarting. Cap One Bowl, with a risk of being jumped by Michigan. At 10-2, they won't get a BCS invite.
3 - Michigan - How do you argue with the production from this offense? By seeing how dreadful their defense is! This is probably the only running team in the country that can come back from two scores late in the game. Have they played a defense with a pulse? No. Their big win? UConn? ND? UMass? Bowling Green? Indiana? None of these teams are bowling and COMBINED they have only held 2 1A opponents under 21 points. Pathetic. We will learn a lot more this week, with the Spartans in town.
3 - Iowa - The big question mark of the off season is partially answered. Iowa's offense is better after losing a 1st rounder, a late rounder, and the starting center from the O-Line. However, the special teams are very shaky. The offense went from 10th in the league a year ago to a respectable 6th. The defense was 3rd last year, and now leads in all categories save pass defense. The D will face much sterner tests in the coming weeks. We have only faced one team who's running game has a pulse. We will get to face #1, #2, and #4 rushing offenses in the league. If we lead the nation in rush D after that, then we will know we have something very special on our hands. Outback bound.
3 - Northwestern - Another pick that may not be too popular right now. And yes, they have played only one team with a winning record and that team is a AA team. The combined record of their 1A opponents is 5-14. I know, not much of a sales job. Their offense is ranked 6th in the league and their D is 8th. But Pat just makes things click as the year goes on, and the fact that they avoided their normal pre-season swoon makes me think they could be onto something. They get a Jan bowl invite, but only because all the bowls are played in January now, it seems. The Mildcats get a trip to the Gator Bowl where their intellectual snobbery will meet the harsh realities of the swamp people (OK, fine, it is in Jacksonville, but having lived in Gainsville I enjoy the mental image of the purple coats and ties next to the dead gator in the rusted out pick-up next to them tailgating).
6 - Wisconsin - A team that lost D to graduation, and then lost two more key players to injury, and is playing with no heart. It is as if John Clay thinks the Silver Football is his, and he might not even get to start this week. The times I have watched the Badgers, the term sleep walking comes to mind. They can right their season, but nobody is impressed with them right now. Brett B gets to enjoy an emotionally gutted Gopher team that couldn't stop their grandmother in a wheel chair. But then they get the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes. A 1-3 first half of the B10+1+1 is likely without a W this week. There will be grumbling on Badgermaniac over the next month, I think. This is an 8-4 or 7-5 team depending on if they can avoid another NW collapse at the end.
7 - Illinois - Nobody hates the Cheatin' Zookers more than this guy, and their lack of discipline and bizarre coaching decisions will still cost these guys a game or two, but despite an offense that resembles a decapitated slug, their D is a huge surprise. To be 5th in the league in D while being paired with an Offense that is 8th in TOP despite being a run only unless it is 4th and 73 is a miracle. Looking at the remaining schedule, they have an outside shot a bowling. They miss Iowa and Wisky, which helps a lot, and they get Indy, Purdue, and Minny at home. Call me crazy, but they only have to beat a reeling PSU, or Fresno State to get a shot to save the Zooker's job. Are you saying there is a chance?
8 - PSU - The D here should be up for saint hood, much like their friends in C-Urbana. 10th in O and 3rd in D is amazing. But I just sense that the wheels are slightly mis-aligned in State College. Where as the Zooksters think they are moving up, you can feel the Kittens sliding back to where they were at the start of the decade. The playmakers aren't there. The O-Line is a joke. Can they bowl? Sure. But I think this is a team with bad chemistry. Just watching the coaches on the side-line last week showed what disarray they are in. I think this may be the end of the JoePa era and the beginning for the Tom Bradley era.
8 - Indiana - The Hoosiers are a team that I don't have a good feel for yet. Bowling is not out of the question, and unlike Minny and Illinois, they should only need 2 conference wins to get there. The offense is scoring, but who are they scoring on? Towson isn't exactly tOSU's D. Michigan isn't exactly Michigan's D (wait, no, that's right). Apart from Michigan, their other three opponents have only scored over 30 points combined 2 times! Two more times they scored in the 20's. And if you dig deeper into it, their per play average is less than Wisconsin and Iowa (who have played 1A defenses). Indiana leads the league in 3rd down conversions, but will that continue in the coming weeks when they get tOSU, NW, Iowa, and Wisky? My gut says no. Still, they will get their two conference wins and Bill Lynch keeps his job and sends Holiday Cards to Towson, Western Kentucky, Arkansas State, and Akron.
10 - Minny - This is a tough call, but I think the Gopher running game (see Glen Mason's pearly whites smiling!) is enough despite the the 11 "athletes" they send out to play D each week. I think that Purdue is in such shell shock that they can run over them on the road, just giving Play4Brew enough confidence to take a helicopter ride to a 3 star juco player's house, but then he gets sacked anyway because you can't blame your assistant coaches for completely imploding the program the way he has. Toilet Bowl for you.
11 - Purdue - Over the Summer, I had these guys as a big question mark. They were average in both O and D last year, but I thought with the Marve and Siller, plus a lot of returning starters, they might have a chance. No team has been brutalized by injuries like these guys have. Losing Siller, Marve, and Smith is a surrealistic nightmare for them. My hat goes off to them if they can win two conference games. If they do, it will be because their D steps up huge. Their O wasn't great before, and it is gonna be a whole lot worse in the weeks to come. Danny Hope seems to be a nice guy. I hope he gets a 3rd year. He should.
2 - MSU - Some folks may not like this pick here, but let's face it, this team has rebounded with amazing and very un-MSU like resiliency. They lost 1/6th of their team before the bowl game last year. They lost their coach to a heart attack, and then lost him again to a blood clot. Their rush offense was a big question mark, but that seems to be answered. They will still lose 2 games, I feel, but apart from tOSU, who isn't? They took it to Wisky pretty hard. Bucky's backside is still smarting. Cap One Bowl, with a risk of being jumped by Michigan. At 10-2, they won't get a BCS invite.
3 - Michigan - How do you argue with the production from this offense? By seeing how dreadful their defense is! This is probably the only running team in the country that can come back from two scores late in the game. Have they played a defense with a pulse? No. Their big win? UConn? ND? UMass? Bowling Green? Indiana? None of these teams are bowling and COMBINED they have only held 2 1A opponents under 21 points. Pathetic. We will learn a lot more this week, with the Spartans in town.
3 - Iowa - The big question mark of the off season is partially answered. Iowa's offense is better after losing a 1st rounder, a late rounder, and the starting center from the O-Line. However, the special teams are very shaky. The offense went from 10th in the league a year ago to a respectable 6th. The defense was 3rd last year, and now leads in all categories save pass defense. The D will face much sterner tests in the coming weeks. We have only faced one team who's running game has a pulse. We will get to face #1, #2, and #4 rushing offenses in the league. If we lead the nation in rush D after that, then we will know we have something very special on our hands. Outback bound.
3 - Northwestern - Another pick that may not be too popular right now. And yes, they have played only one team with a winning record and that team is a AA team. The combined record of their 1A opponents is 5-14. I know, not much of a sales job. Their offense is ranked 6th in the league and their D is 8th. But Pat just makes things click as the year goes on, and the fact that they avoided their normal pre-season swoon makes me think they could be onto something. They get a Jan bowl invite, but only because all the bowls are played in January now, it seems. The Mildcats get a trip to the Gator Bowl where their intellectual snobbery will meet the harsh realities of the swamp people (OK, fine, it is in Jacksonville, but having lived in Gainsville I enjoy the mental image of the purple coats and ties next to the dead gator in the rusted out pick-up next to them tailgating).
6 - Wisconsin - A team that lost D to graduation, and then lost two more key players to injury, and is playing with no heart. It is as if John Clay thinks the Silver Football is his, and he might not even get to start this week. The times I have watched the Badgers, the term sleep walking comes to mind. They can right their season, but nobody is impressed with them right now. Brett B gets to enjoy an emotionally gutted Gopher team that couldn't stop their grandmother in a wheel chair. But then they get the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes. A 1-3 first half of the B10+1+1 is likely without a W this week. There will be grumbling on Badgermaniac over the next month, I think. This is an 8-4 or 7-5 team depending on if they can avoid another NW collapse at the end.
7 - Illinois - Nobody hates the Cheatin' Zookers more than this guy, and their lack of discipline and bizarre coaching decisions will still cost these guys a game or two, but despite an offense that resembles a decapitated slug, their D is a huge surprise. To be 5th in the league in D while being paired with an Offense that is 8th in TOP despite being a run only unless it is 4th and 73 is a miracle. Looking at the remaining schedule, they have an outside shot a bowling. They miss Iowa and Wisky, which helps a lot, and they get Indy, Purdue, and Minny at home. Call me crazy, but they only have to beat a reeling PSU, or Fresno State to get a shot to save the Zooker's job. Are you saying there is a chance?
8 - PSU - The D here should be up for saint hood, much like their friends in C-Urbana. 10th in O and 3rd in D is amazing. But I just sense that the wheels are slightly mis-aligned in State College. Where as the Zooksters think they are moving up, you can feel the Kittens sliding back to where they were at the start of the decade. The playmakers aren't there. The O-Line is a joke. Can they bowl? Sure. But I think this is a team with bad chemistry. Just watching the coaches on the side-line last week showed what disarray they are in. I think this may be the end of the JoePa era and the beginning for the Tom Bradley era.
8 - Indiana - The Hoosiers are a team that I don't have a good feel for yet. Bowling is not out of the question, and unlike Minny and Illinois, they should only need 2 conference wins to get there. The offense is scoring, but who are they scoring on? Towson isn't exactly tOSU's D. Michigan isn't exactly Michigan's D (wait, no, that's right). Apart from Michigan, their other three opponents have only scored over 30 points combined 2 times! Two more times they scored in the 20's. And if you dig deeper into it, their per play average is less than Wisconsin and Iowa (who have played 1A defenses). Indiana leads the league in 3rd down conversions, but will that continue in the coming weeks when they get tOSU, NW, Iowa, and Wisky? My gut says no. Still, they will get their two conference wins and Bill Lynch keeps his job and sends Holiday Cards to Towson, Western Kentucky, Arkansas State, and Akron.
10 - Minny - This is a tough call, but I think the Gopher running game (see Glen Mason's pearly whites smiling!) is enough despite the the 11 "athletes" they send out to play D each week. I think that Purdue is in such shell shock that they can run over them on the road, just giving Play4Brew enough confidence to take a helicopter ride to a 3 star juco player's house, but then he gets sacked anyway because you can't blame your assistant coaches for completely imploding the program the way he has. Toilet Bowl for you.
11 - Purdue - Over the Summer, I had these guys as a big question mark. They were average in both O and D last year, but I thought with the Marve and Siller, plus a lot of returning starters, they might have a chance. No team has been brutalized by injuries like these guys have. Losing Siller, Marve, and Smith is a surrealistic nightmare for them. My hat goes off to them if they can win two conference games. If they do, it will be because their D steps up huge. Their O wasn't great before, and it is gonna be a whole lot worse in the weeks to come. Danny Hope seems to be a nice guy. I hope he gets a 3rd year. He should.
