The regardless of home or away, the next 5 are brutal because of where they fall.
Monday - Wisconsin
Thursday - @Maryland
Sunday - Illinois
Wednesday - @Purdue
Saturday - Nebraska**
We have to take care of Wisconsin to start things out, but every game against Wisconsin is a slugfest that can take a lot out of us and they already have 2 of the best road wins in the conference @PSU and @OSU. Then a quick turn around with only 2 days of rest/travel to Maryland who will have an extra day off to prepare for us along with the luxury of not having to travel and the advantage of their dumb Under Armor balls. Then we have to travel back and only get 2 days to prepare for Illinois who will have just played at home against MN and only has a short jaunt over to Iowa City. Then with only 2 more days to recover/prepare we again travel to Purdue who completely dismantled Michigan State at home and will be our 4th game in 10 days. The final game in this stretch only only a couple days later against Nebraska will hopefully give us a chance for retribution, but only if we have our legs under us.
Only after all of that do we get a chance to rest for a bit before we travel back to back @Indiana (who also knocked off Michigan State at home) and @Minnesota. If we get off to a rocky start and get too worn down, 1-4 is a real possibility and the season could look like it's crumbling by the end of the first week in February.
Our guys have shown a lot of grit so far, but I'd argue we're entering the teeth of the schedule in the next 5 in large part because of how the games are scheduled.