The Big Ten West is Going to be Tough in 2020

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
Wisconsin - Coming off of a Rose Bowl season; you know they will be very good again.
Minnesota - Just beat Auburn and had 11 wins; they will be tough in 2020.
Iowa - 10-3 with a lot of starters back; should be salty again.
Northwestern - hard to believe they won't be better; Fitz is a good coach.
Purdue - they will be a tough out.
Illinois - ditto.

that leaves the Sand People. Of course, with another sparkling recruiting class, their fans are expecting a lot. Their last five games: At Ohio State; Penn State; At Iowa; At Wisconsin; Minnesota. Nebraska also will be At Northwestern and they play Cincinnati and South Dakota State early in the season.

Nebraska could be appreciably better and still finish 5h, 6th or 7th in the Big 10 West. I'm serious about that.
 
Minnesota loses a ton of players. Fleck has the program on the right course, but next season will likely be a big drop off.
 
If Iowa has a decent QB and we see o-line play on par with what we saw against USC, Wisconsin is the only team in the division that even has a chance to beat us, but they will lose. Minnesota loses a ton of guys and there ain't no way Fleck is gonna pull that miracle season again. I think Iowa, Wisconsin and Purdue will be 1-2-3 next year.

Now if Iowa has a bad QB or the line stays bad, we'll be like 6-6, maybe worse.
 
Wisconsin likely loses Taylor and Biadacz to the draft, and a combined 24 sacks from Baun and Orr. Waiting to hear NFL stuff on Cephus, Van Lanen (LT), and Ferguson. Cephus would be a huge loss for them. Nonetheless their defense looks like it will be very good again. Could their running game take a step back, it should but you never know what stud they’ll plug in next. Their schedule is tough (play ND), but their B1G schedule is manageable. They have to come to Kinnick to end the year, let’s hope that game is for the west title.

Minny is starting to worry me. They return their entire Oline who dominated Auburn. They lose Johnson but still return two good WRs. Winfield’s NFL decision will be huge, as he’s their best defensive player.

Purdue isn’t going to compete for the championship but how scary is it going to be to try and defend Rondale Moore and David Bell?

Nebby and NW will be better. Illinois likely the same with maybe worse results.

It’s still a 3 horse race with UW, Iowa, and Minny. Until proven otherwise Wisconsin is the favorite.
 
Minnesota will be tough as will the usual suspects. The X Factor is and always will be injuries. Look at Purdue for instance. I think it is pretty safe to say that if they were able to avoid some of their injuries the outcome of the West would have been much, much different and some of the records of the big10 teams would have been knocked down. I think it is a good chance we lose to them if they are fully healthy.. They are always a tough out for us, same can be said to an extent about Northwestern. The margin of error is going to be small
 
I think Minnesota will be the team to beat next year, I wish someone would hire away PJ Fleck. Wisconsin will be tough as always and I do see Purdue improving. I think Illinois got lucky this year, especially against Wisconsin, I think they sink back to the bottom. Northwestern has a favorable schedule next year, I think they return to bowl eligibility. Nebraska might return to bowl eligibility but they will have to win 6 of their first 7 games to get there. They finish the season at OSU, PSU, at Iowa, at Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They could end the season on a 5 game losing streak.

I expect Iowa to be in the middle of the pack, again. Starting a new QB will be tough on the offense and Iowa will be replacing some key players on defense.
 
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NikeHawk21 said:
Wisconsin likely loses Taylor and Biadacz to the draft, and a combined 24 sacks from Baun and Orr. Waiting to hear NFL stuff on Cephus, Van Lanen (LT), and Ferguson. Cephus would be a huge loss for them. Nonetheless their defense looks like it will be very good again. Could their running game take a step back, it should but you never know what stud they’ll plug in next. Their schedule is tough (play ND), but their B1G schedule is manageable. They have to come to Kinnick to end the year, let’s hope that game is for the west title.

Minny is starting to worry me. They return their entire Oline who dominated Auburn. They lose Johnson but still return two good WRs. Winfield’s NFL decision will be huge, as he’s their best defensive player.

Purdue isn’t going to compete for the championship but how scary is it going to be to try and defend Rondale Moore and David Bell?

Nebby and NW will be better. Illinois likely the same with maybe worse results.

It’s still a 3 horse race with UW, Iowa, and Minny. Until proven otherwise Wisconsin is the favorite.
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That is true about the Minnesota offensive line. They do lose Johnson, 2/3 of their running back trio, and several key defensive players, but the return of the o-line and Morgan could keep them near the top. They run that RPO to near perfection.
 
NikeHawk21 said:
Minny is starting to worry me. They return their entire Oline who dominated Auburn.
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People keep saying this, but they ran three downs inside Auburn’s one yard-line and got stuffed on all three. Obviously not representative of the whole game, but they’re not otherworldly by any means.
 
Iowa's first 7 games include Minnesota, Iowa State, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State. Iowa starts the year with one tune up game followed by two tough games. This is going to be tough with a new quarterback. The skill players should be better than 2019, but the offensive line isn't going to have 5 games to figure out what their roles are.

Purdue is going to be tough. In 2019 they had some bad injuries and discovered some talented underclassmen. They will have at least two outstanding receivers and an experienced quarterback.

On paper it looks like Nebraska should be better than they were last year. They really didn't look like a happy team when they played Iowa. Looked like some issues going on behind the scenes. We could see some defections in the off season.

Illinois got out of the cellar but while they might be getting better no one is expecting them to contend for the West.

Northwestern really took some lumps last year but they could be a spoiler if they can find pulse.

Wisconsin looks to have a decent schedule and a nice route to the West championship. They get Michigan and Notre Dame after a 3 game warmup. They do open against Indiana but it's at Camp Randall so they should be able to handle it.
 
ChosenChildren said:
that leaves the Sand People. Of course, with another sparkling recruiting class, their fans are expecting a lot. Their last five games: At Ohio State; Penn State; At Iowa; At Wisconsin; Minnesota. Nebraska also will be At Northwestern and they play Cincinnati and South Dakota State early in the season.

Nebraska could be appreciably better and still finish 5h, 6th or 7th in the Big 10 West. I'm serious about that.
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They could falter against Purdue, or Cincinatti, or both....and the Frost will thaw again.

I'm interested in seeing how many early draft entries are lost by our divisional foes. So far it seems like we lose our best guys and everyone else keeps theirs.
 
All we can do is assume everyone is going to be better than they were this year. So we must be better than that.
 
The two best teams in the West this yr will be there again. WI and IA. Purdue intrigues me. Sorry, bald peanus.
 
No matter who the quarterback will be and how good he is, we cannot depend on him to be ready for the road early in the season. So our success will lie completely with our running game, so we better get it figured out.

The good news is, that with those three tough road games against Minnesota, OSU and PSU, all of them will be massively depleted on defense as a whole but especially in their front 7. OSU loses pretty much their entire defense, Minnesota their front 7 and if Winfield turns pro their best player, and PSU a lot on that front 7 too. That will difficult for those teams to replace, and thus one would think in all 3 games there is a very good chance our opponents defense is the weakest unit from both teams.

I have confidence our defense will be ready, so while these games will be tight, we have a chance in each if them.
 
Also, with respect to Wisconsin, even though we all know Taylor is great, I dont think we fully understand how truly great he has been. If you go back and watch the highlights of Wisconsins games, so many of their scores were just him being elite, reacting to holes that weren't there, breaking tackles and the amazing speed. He will be impossible to replace. He has to go pro. I would also bet cephus declares too especially with everything he has had to deal with.

I like that we have them at home late in the year.
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
Iowa's first 7 games include Minnesota, Iowa State, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State. Iowa starts the year with one tune up game followed by two tough games. This is going to be tough with a new quarterback. The skill players should be better than 2019, but the offensive line isn't going to have 5 games to figure out what their roles are.

Purdue is going to be tough. In 2019 they had some bad injuries and discovered some talented underclassmen. They will have at least two outstanding receivers and an experienced quarterback.

On paper it looks like Nebraska should be better than they were last year. They really didn't look like a happy team when they played Iowa. Looked like some issues going on behind the scenes. We could see some defections in the off season.

Illinois got out of the cellar but while they might be getting better no one is expecting them to contend for the West.

Northwestern really took some lumps last year but they could be a spoiler if they can find pulse.

Wisconsin looks to have a decent schedule and a nice route to the West championship. They get Michigan and Notre Dame after a 3 game warmup. They do open against Indiana but it's at Camp Randall so they should be able to handle it.
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Meanwhile in Lincoln plans are underway to resurface the field with paper.
 
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