Forde-Yard Dash: The Big Ten’s Power Structure Flips With Massive Road Wins

The old Big Ten West struck back with a vengeance with signature victories from Iowa and Wisconsin, while USC and Maryland have coaching hot seat questions.

Wisconsin safety Grant Dean (16) and wide receiver Dorsett Stecker celebrate after beating Penn State. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where Texas keeps winning big games and Texas players keep apologizing for being jerks—this time whiz kid Colin Simmons.

First Quarter: The Day the Big Ten Turned Upside Down

It happened in Ann Arbor. And East Lansing. And Los Angeles. And College Park. And State College. And it happened late at night in Seattle, too, with vampire overtones. When P.J. Fleck (1) got totally weird and wiped the blood of linebacker Maverick Baranowski on his face, history was in the books: Six Big Ten teams won road games on the same Saturday, and all eight road teams on the weekend covered the spread.

Iowa won at Michigan as a 5.5-point underdog. Nebraska dominated at Michigan State, nearly tripling a 6.5-point spread. Oregon won at USC by two touchdowns as a field-goal favorite. UCLA destroyed Maryland by 51 points. Wisconsin won at Penn State as a nine-point underdog. Minnesota won at Washington as a 12.5-point dog. The only home teams that won league games: kingpins Ohio State and Indiana, but visitors Illinois and Northwestern both covered big numbers.

In its first two seasons as an 18-team conference, road teams won 42.6% of the time. It’s early this season, but the road success rate stands at 70% heading into October. Currently SEC road teams are 6–7 in league games (46.2%), ACC teams are 7–6 (53.9%) and Big 12 teams are 2–5 (28.6%).

This wasn’t just a notable road uprising, though. The stat within the stat: Saturday was a Big Ten West Revenge Tour (2), with four former members of that downtrodden division claiming huge victories all over the map. A group of schools historically squashed by the league’s glamour teams, playing caveman games against one another (who among us could forget Illinois 9, Iowa 6, in 2022), had one of their finest collective Saturdays. Even if they’re no longer an actual division.

In the 10 seasons when the champions of the league’s East and West divisions met for the league title, it was a clean sweep: East 10, West 0. Average margin of defeat for the West in those meetings: 20.7 points. Ohio State and Michigan picked their teeth with the splintered bones of the Big Ten West.

Yet on Saturday, there was Iowa and Kirk Ferentz (3), spiritual embodiment of the division, winning a thriller at Michigan with something his recent teams have flailed at—the forward pass. Of course there was a massive special teams play as well, because Iowa. But the game was won when Hawkeyes quarterback Hank Brown threw a perfect spiral to Reece Vander Zee on the final play for a touchdown, ending a drive of fortuitously tipped balls that tipped the scales of karmic justice back to even in the Big House. (As the overwrought Iowa student radio call went, “Western Michigan, and all of college football, Iowa has your back!”)

And there was Wisconsin dragging Luke Fickell (4) off the hot seat—for a week at least—with a staggering comeback win at Penn State. The Badgers were down 17–0 in the second quarter and the home fans were already congratulating themselves on how much better their lives were with Matt Campbell than James Franklin. Then it all turned. The biggest win of Fickell’s tenure was built on sturdy Wisconsin stuff: an interception by a 333-pound defensive lineman and a 72-yard touchdown by a 265-pound tight end.

And there was Nebraska (5) winning authoritatively at Michigan State, the 18-point margin matching its largest in a Big Ten road game since 2019. For good measure, former Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola heroically filled in for injured Dante Moore to lead Oregon past USC, showing that the Ducks have the rarest of all luxuries in modern college football—a really good backup QB.

And there was Minnesota, extending the West Division vibe deep into the night, jumping on Washington immediately and persevering to end a road losing streak that dates back to 2024. That sent Fleck into “Lord of the Flies” mode postgame, smearing Baranowski’s blood like war paint on his cheeks. He somehow kept his white quarter zip immaculate.

But in the zero-sum world of conference play, one team’s triumph is another team’s debacle. And there were a few of those in the Big Ten.

Michigan is flailing offensively under first-year coach Kyle Whittingham. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Michigan (6) continues to flail offensively in Year 1 under Kyle Whittingham. The Wolverines have failed to score 20 points in three out of four games, something they last did in 1967. The Iowa defense is very good, but outside of deep shots to 6'4" receiver JJ Buchanan, Michigan is generally lacking in explosiveness. It is last in the Big Ten in scrimmage plays of 10 yards or longer (43) and 17th out of 18 in plays of 20 yards or longer (13). Bryce Underwood has been pretty good so far, but Michigan isn’t paying him all that money to be pretty good.

Three Big Ten teams that chose to schedule nothing but nonconference cadavers were exposed Saturday: Penn State (7) did not react well when the opponent actually punched back; Washington (8) is averaging just 21.3 points per game against FBS competition despite being a +5 turnover margin in those contests; and then there is USC (9).

After five seasons of failing to earn his massive salary, Lincoln Riley spent much of the offseason saying that everything was finally aligned. The NIL war chest, the coaching staff, the recruiting, the opulent new football facility—it’s time for the Trojans to step up. But just to make sure the road back to glory was paved smoothly, they also ended their annual series with rival Notre Dame.

They started 3–0 by walloping San José State, Fresno State and Louisiana—but even then, the annual misgivings about the USC defense arose when the Spartans scored 26 points and the Ragin’ Cajuns scored 35. The concerns escalated when winless Rutgers gouged the Trojans for 35. And then the Ducks supplied the final defrocking, putting 41 on the board in the first big prove-it game of the season for USC.

It would be hugely expensive to fire Riley, but as of today he surpasses Fickell for No. 3 on the Big Ten hot seat rankings behind Greg Schiano at Rutgers and Maryland’s Mike Locksley (10), who should honestly have awakened Sunday surprised to find he still has a job.

Maryland coach Mike Locksley is on the hot seat after another dismal outing in a loss to UCLA. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

If the Terrapins had fired Locksley last year, after a second straight 4–8 campaign, they might have been able to get into the mix to hire the guy from James Madison who emasculated Maryland on Saturday, Bob Chesney. Instead, Chesney is a phenom at UCLA and Maryland is trying to decide when (not if) it will send Locksley out the door. Losing 54–3, being outrushed 266–34 and committing five turnovers is no way to salvage any shred of job security. The Oct. 17 game between Schiano and Locksley looms as a potential matchup of dead men walking.

Maryland should probably try to pry one of the coordinators off Indiana’s staff. Both OC Mike Shanahan and DC Bryant Haines were on Cignetti’s staff from 2019 to ’23 at James Madison, where they dramatically outrecruited everyone in the DMV area when it came to identifying underrated prospects. When trying to lift up a losing program in the Big Ten, Cignetti stands as the beacon of hope and imitation.

Dash Playoff Bracket

Every week, The Dash fills out the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket as if today were Selection Sunday. The current bracket:

1. Texas 
2. Ohio State
3. Florida 
4. Notre Dame
5. Georgia
6. Miami
7. Alabama
8. Mississippi State
9. Mississippi
10. LSU
11. BYU
12. Boise State

Also considered: UCLA, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Oregon, USC, Texas Tech, Utah, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin.

First Round

• No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Georgia
• No. 11 BYU at No. 6 Miami 
• No. 10 LSU at No. 7 Alabama
• No. 9 Mississippi at No. 8 Mississippi State 

Quarterfinals 

• Fiesta Bowl: No. 4 Notre Dame vs. winner of No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Georgia
• Peach Bowl: No. 3 Florida vs. winner of No. 11 BYU at No. 6 Miami 
• Rose Bowl: No. 2 Ohio State vs. winner of No. 10 LSU at No. 7 Alabama
• Cotton Bowl: No. 1 Texas vs. winner of No. 9 Mississippi at No. 8 Mississippi State

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